Get Ready!

Spring Break is here!
I am officially done with school for a week (with the exception of some minor paperwork/school work to do).


We have a busy weekend ahead but when I get back look for these posts.
* 52 Weeks to a More Organized Home - Week 12 & 13
* Gifts I made for a wedding
* A Pinterest project or two


Until then.. have a great weekend! 

OH: Week Eleven

Organize Your Home: Week 11

Create a Personal Tax Organizer System and Organize Receipts

I joined this challenge hoping it would help me work through some areas of the house I normally have ignored. And for the most part this challenge has been helpful. At the same time my need to organize and clean everything in my home have resulted in some of these challenges already being complete. In those situations I try to take the organizing one step further but in this challenge I was at a loss. My paperwork is organized and was tested when we did our taxes this year. Ben did them with his dad at his parents home. He called me frequently asking me to look up information and I found everything quickly!


But for anyone who has been following along I will add the steps that should be taking for anyone wanting to complete this challenge. 


1. Understand the Broad Categories of Receipts so You Can Organize Them More Easily
    * minor purchases
    * major purchases
    * ones that will back up deductibles 
2. Make a Habit of Dealing with Receipts and Tax Documents Weekly
3. Create a Filing System for Minor Receipts (ours just sit in our mail basket until they are put into our budget and filed if necessary)
4. Create a Home Filing System for Tax Documents that May be Used In Later Years 
5. Create a System to Purge Documents Periodically


Again, not an exciting post, especially with no pictures, but it is what it is! 

Spring

We went from snow and wind to sun and heat within a few days of each other. This Spring Summer weather has continued for a few weeks. Ben and I have celebrated this shift from Winter to Spring by being outside as much as possible. 

We have taken multiple walks, rode our bikes, cleaned up the yard, ate dinner outside, read on the porch and I even took my work outside to sit and get some fresh air. 

Spring has filled our home as well!

Ben and I out enjoying the nice weather.

(And me practicing being "naked" - no makeup! Trying to get away from it a bit!)

Apartment Tour (FINALLY!)

So it has been almost 9 months to the date that we moved in.. I feel that we are finally calling our apartment home! 
I haven't unpacked a box in months but I feel like we have finally settled in enough to put up pictures! So here goes!
Click here to see the before. And here to see what the apartment looked like after a day of unpacking. It is funny to see the difference from those first pictures to now! If you want to compare our current place to our last place click here. 
Here we go - our place is no where near finished but this is a great start! 

Living Room

View from the door. 

Closer view of the left of the couch. 

Closer view of the other side of the couch. 

Our front window (and one of Ben's projects)

The door to the left leads to the stairwell the one on the right leads to..

Our storage room 

Moving from the living room into the dining room. 

This room has lots of fun items on the wall, most were gifts.

We have some big plans for this room! 

I love the flowers! We are moving to the season where flowers are constantly on our table!

Turning around to view the kitchen. 

We still love our little window that connects the two rooms. 

We never get sick of all this counter space and cabinets!

Our guests love our letter magnets! (especially our littlest guests)

I love all our big windows! 

Displaying some new additions - drying rack and hanging rack above the sink from IKEA and a mixer from Ben's birthday.

One last glance of our kitchen including our trash, recycling and potato bucket.

Taking a step out of the kitchen back into the dining room and taking a sharp turn. 

Hallway leading to the rest of the apartment. 

Bathroom!

Ben put our wedding initials above our towels.

Riley hangs out in our bathroom. 

Now back into the hallway and taking a left into our bedroom. 

To the right is the office. 

Our bedroom  - we eventually want to redo this whole room! Someday.. 

Wedding memorabilia fills this room! 

Our tiny little dresser (belonged to Ben's father as a child)

Heading out!

Now the office - the last room!

Where I spend most of my day - working at my desk (Ben made it!)

To the left! 

Bookshelf and more wedding goodies. 

(All the binders on the bottom is for work.. and more on the desk!)

A closer look at the top of the bookshelf. 

My desk! 

THE END! 

Thanks for "visiting" our humble home! 

OH: Week Nine and Ten

With the gorgeous weather we have been having I am a bit behind in my organizing. I have been spending more time outside then inside lately but finally got myself moving on these challenges. 

Organize Your Home: Week 9

Create A Home Mail Organizer

1. Choose a Central Location in Your Home to Gather and Process Mail
     I picked a spot where I can work on paperwork and near my files. 
2. Gather the Right Equipment and Supplies in the Home Mail Center
     The paper shredder, pens, Post-it notes, stapler, cards, address books, stamps, etc. are 
3. Create a Habit of Sorting and Purging Mail Daily
    Before I go to bed I go through the mail and recycle what I can. The rest now goes in the mail organizer. 
4. Designate a Weekly Appointment for Dealing with Paperwork
    Every weekend I go through the remaining paperwork. 

Organize Your Home: Week 10

How to Organize Bills 

1. Gather all the Bills in One Area
    All of our bills are found in our mail area. 
2. Set a Weekly Schedule to Focus on the Household Finances and Pay Bills
    I typically sit down a few times a week to keep caught up on our finances and I pay bills on the weekend at the same time as I do the above challenge. 
3. Organize Bills After Payment for Quick Access When Needed
     After the bill has been paid the bill is put in a specific file - Electric, Gas, Loans, etc. They are put in by date oldest to most recent. 
4. Create an Annual Routine for Getting Rid of Old Paper Bills and Cleaning Out the Filing System
     I do this every summer/fall. 

Now here are the pictures!

Before:

 I went through the Bulletin Board and organized that too! 

I had quite the little pile of paperwork and other random things sitting on the desk. 

I've been working on all the paperwork and trying to get to the end of this pile!

After:

 Organized and cleaned up. 

Our Mail and Bill Organizer! 

I have tried to avoid spending money on these challenges but for $8, this was a great option to get these things off the desk! 

The top shelf is for outgoing mail, birthday cards that need to be sent out throughout the month.

The bottom shelf is for the paperwork/bills I need to go through. 

Now to get started on this current week's challenge!

Pallets, Pallets, Pallets!

Ben has been really itching to start woodworking again. It was a hobby he really enjoyed in High School and recently has been wanting to take up once more. A big motivator for this is our apartment. We moved in to our apartment in July and finally after almost a year have really settled in and feel like this is our HOME! But there are some empty spaces that could use some furniture, updates to furniture that can be done and creating more functional pieces in our home. 


We love to reuse, reduce and recycle in our home so we took that idea into designing new furniture for our place. In comes the idea of using pallets. Ben's idea at first and after sketching out some plans he got to work. 

Project #1

Pallet Headboard

Step 1: Get Pallets

Step 2: Take wood off pallet.

Step 3: Cut wood into usable pieces. 

Step 4: Assemble pieces on a piece of plywood. 

Step 5: Cut of the random protruding edges.

Step 6: Sand down everything! 

Step 7: Stain the wood.

Step 8: Enjoy

The problem was the stain wasn't the color we were hoping for so instead Ben sold it for a good chunk of change of Craigslist! 

Project #2

Pallet Mirror

Step 1: Buy an IKEA mirror

Step 2: Find some old pallets and take off the wood.

Step 3: Cut wood to size.

Step 4: Use wood glue to glue the wood to the mirror and place clamps in various locations around the mirror over night. This will ensure the boards glue nicely to the mirror.

Step 5 (optional): For extra support screw the boards in. *Recommended!*

Step 6: Hang your mirror!

Our dining room - in progress! 

Project #3

Pallet Coffee table

Step 1: Find a cool pallet in good shape.

Ie: no missing boards, boards close together, no stains, or water damage.

Step 2: Using a board from another pallet that matches close in color, make legs!

Step 3: Enjoy! 

This is another "to sell" item! 

This table is too big for our living room and does not go well with our current furnishings but Ben had fun building it! I will be sad when he sells it. 

Pinterest Challenge: Part 2

Yesterday I shared the fun challenge that I found on Young House Love is doing. Over 500 people added their projects and recipes to that blog. Today I am sharing the little project that I did and this weekend I will share the project that Ben completed this week.

With Easter around the corner I wanted to make a quick and simple Easter project. 

I got my pinspiration from Curbly's Make It: Paint Chip Easter Egg Garland. 

I didn't have enough paint chips but used some cardstock, hole punch, white yarn and tape. 

Here is what I made!

I did it! Stopped pinning and started doing! 

Pinterest Challenge: Winter Edition

My favorite blog, Young House Love, and few of their friends came up with a Pinterest Challenge. The goal is to stop pining and start doing! Check out their blog to see what Sherry and John came up with. 

Life is busy so I didn't have a ton of time to do a big project like I would have wanted but I did come up with one little project and made one of the recipes I have pinned. Today I will share the recipe and tomorrow the project I made. 

So here goes!
A few weeks back I pinned this Crockpot Chicken Taco Recipe from Chocolate Therapy. 

I also pinned the Best Taco Seasoning Recipe Ever from What's That Smell.

The recipe calls for Taco Seasonings so I mixed that up first. 

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 tbsp of taco seasoning for 1lb of meat

(double or triple the recipe so you have it the next time you need it!)

Done!! It is delicious with a bit of a kick to it!

Now unto making the Crockpot Chicken Tacos Over Rice

(for the original recipe click the link at the top of the post)

Three Chicken Breasts

Put enough salsa to cover the chicken then a little extra on top. On this container I used 2/3 of the salsa. I then put on about 2 tablespoons of taco seasoning. 

Should look like this, then let sit on low 6-8 hours or high 3-5 hours.

Should look like this when you are done. Then shred the chicken using two forks. If the chicken is done the chicken will fall apart. 

The first meal we made rice and put the chicken over rice! YUM! So flavorful!

Now what to do with the leftovers? 

We loved the meal so much that we wanted it again for dinner the next night. By lunchtime we were craving the chicken again so I made quesadillas. I used white cheddar cheese, mild cheddar cheese, the chicken leftovers, tortilla shells and some fresh salsa. 

The quesadillas were just as much of a hit as the chicken was over rice! 

We highly recommend this meal!!