What to do...what to do...

The DVD Dilemma...SOLVED!

It seems that every year after Christmas I am itching to organize every aspect of my life.  Could it be due to the stacks and stacks of new "things" that we seem to accrue over the holiday?  Perhaps.  Could it be a bit of my obsessive compulsive nature coming out?  I can neither confirm, nor deny that THAT has anything to do with it (snort). 

Several months ago when I decided it would be a good idea to refinish our, then, media cabinet and move it to the Dining Room, I was left with these lovely boxes filled with DVDs. 

It wasn't the most efficient way to store our DVDs...nor was it easy to locate a movie to watch.  More often than not, we would end up with a HUGE pile of DVDs strewn all over the floor in an effort to locate the last Mission Impossible movie or Monsters, Inc...or whatever else was stored at the BOTTOM of the box (never the ones on top...no, no, no, THAT would be to easy). 

Mr. AKM must have got tired of watching me twitch anytime someone would want to watch a movie (I'm sure I've mentioned before that I am an obsessive a bit of a neat freak) so he put a little something special under the tree for me this year...

For those of us with Major OCD issues when it comes to organization, these are like crack!  I squealed with delight when I found these wrapped up for me.  Each sleeve holds TWO DVDs!  Sa-wooon!  I. AM. IN. LOVE!  After working on these for two days...a total of maybe 3 hours tops, this is what I am left with.

ROCK ON!  Is that not awesome?  Seriously people look at how cool that is!  I went from two boxes overflowing with DVDs to one little basket...and I STILL have room left over to add more!  AWESOME-SAUCE! 

I used a total of 3 1/2 boxes of DVD sleeves to finish the job.  Holy Crap that is a lot of DVDs!  I had some issues deciding on how I wanted to divide the DVDs up.  Do I do it by kids/adult/family/drama...blah blah blah or alphabetically?  In the end, I decided that alphabetically would be the easiest route when it comes to looking for a movie to watch.  Sooo...I pulled out some envelopes that I had and stuck a label on top with the corresponding alphabet.  Totally simple!  You can even use some cardstock or old file folders to make dividers.  Whatever works for you!

Take a look at how neat and tidy this basket looks sitting on the shelves in my living room now...

Just looking at it makes me happy all over again!  Now I need to figure out what I can store in that other basket...

So what projects do you like to tackle after Christmas?  Are you all into getting organized or are you the type to stuff it all in a box and wait until next Christmas to get motivated?

Linking up to the following parties...go check them out

The Girl Creative

Skip to My Lou

Craft O Maniac

Lisa's Craft Blog

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Savvy Southern Style

Blue Cricket Design

Michele Raven Designs

Finding Fabulous

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Shabby Nest

Whipperberry

Lets get crafty...

This year for Christmas I we decided that all gifts given would be of the homemade persuasion.  We were only allowed to use items that we had on hand.  Period...no ifs, ands or buts!!  Mama was SERIOUS!  Do you know how creative one has to be when coming up with things to make for people out of ONLY things that we have in our possession WITHOUT spending any money?  Seriously people...this was crazy...like crazy-town kinda crazy!  There was some running around...some digging through old boxes...the attic got involved...some hairs got pulled out...a few bottles of wine disappeared...some things even crawled out from under beds to get all caught up in the excitement. 

In the end, I realized that I needed to enlist some help.  The first project on my list was for my youngest nieces.  They wear these cutesy little hair ribbons all the time.  You know the ones.  They look like all different colored corkscrews and are attached to little hair clips or barrettes.  SO CUTE!  I tried putting them in my own hair a time or two but I just got strange looks...stares even.  Apparently it is not "cute" when a thirty-something year old wears hair bows.  Who knew? 

Anyway...back to the project.  Since they have so many hair ribbons, I decided they needed some place equally as cute as they are to display them on.  I'm such and Awesome Aunt aren't I?  I had practically everything I needed...I only lacked a "few" items...fabric...batting...ribbon...I know what your thinking...what did I have, right?  Don't judge me!  I had the frame, wood, paint, staples and hot glue sticks, wait, scratch that, I had to snag some of those from my mom too.  Well, at least I HAD the idea!  Gosh people...don't be so judgemental :)   Besides, I wanted it to match their bedroom!  So after I appropriated the items that I needed...the project was off and running! 

(Disclaimer:  Please excuse the bad lighting in the following photos as the light dissappears from my world around 4:30 these days and most of my projects happen well after that time).

Isn't it cute!  It doesn't have to be used for hair ribbons....it can be used to put notes or pictures on.  Anything really!  I wish I had some hair ribbons to put on it to show case my AWESOME idea...but since I was laughed at for wearing mine, I have since gotten rid of them :)

So how did I do it you ask?  Well, let me just show you!  I had the frame.  I found some fire engine red spray paint from (I don't know what project).  I primed the frame in Krylon Primer Gray spray paint. Only one coat was needed...then I lightly sprayed on about 3 coats of the red...then I,

So totally EASY!  Anyone can do this!  From start to finish this project took all of about an hour!  I say that is pretty dad-gum awesome myself! 

What do you think?  Think my nieces will love it as much as I do?

Linking this up to the following places:

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Shabby Nest

Whipperberry

The Girl Creative

Skip to My Lou

Craft O Maniac

The DIY Show Off

Savvy Southern Style

Blue Cricket Design

Seven Thirty-Three

Someday Crafts

Michele Raven Designs

Organization...

Central Station

We all share the same problem of trying to keep our life, our kids, husbands, dogs, neighbors, fish, school, work, etc. organized and scheduled out to some degree.  Ok, that is a bit excessive, but you all know what I mean!  And if you don’t struggle with this, please come to my house and show me how to overcome this!  I need you like yesterday!  As a mom and wife we are always expected to be the Mom Extraordinaire…aka SUPER MOM!  We are expected to know when, where and how everything is projected to happen.  I can pretty much tell you exactly how everyone else’s life is planned to the second but I have no clue what I am doing from one moment to the next.  LOL!  My day changes based on everyone else’s needs/wants!  With that in mind, I have come up with my own “Central Station”. 

This is the keeper of all things related to our daily life’s…calendars, kids’ progress reports, school projects, dr. appointments, reminders, etc.  If it can have a push pin or a laundry clip attached to it…it can go on the Central Station board!

Each person has their own square to post in.  How cool is that!  Now I don’t have to worry about losing someone’s papers.  Woohoo!  Easy breezy stuff! 

So how did I do it you ask?  Well, it started with this.

The people that owned our house prior to us put these little frames into the kitchen window to hide the cross beams.  They looked really cool in there; however, I like to open my windows and I could not with these in place, so out they came.  Then that sat in my attic for 3 years just waiting to be used again.  I knew at some point I would find a use for them…and now I have!  While I LOVED the turquoise color, it did not go well in my kitchen so I decided to change it up a bit.

In came Annie Sloan’s Old White.  At first it was a bit to “white” for my liking so I sanded it to bring out some of the turquoise color and the wood grain.  Still to bright for me…so I rubbed on some of my favorite stain – Minwax Dark Walnut. 

Squeal!  LOVE IT!   I love that I still get to enjoy some of the turquoise color peeking through don't you?!

Then came adding the cork board to the back...but WAIT!  That just wasn't going to do it enough justice.  It needed MORE!  I had some chicken wire leftover from my jewelry display that I made.  You can find that here if you haven't already read about it :)  So I had Mr. AKM staple that to the back for me like so...

I'm swooning here!  Then came the cork board...I only added one sheet but I wish I would've double layered it for extra thickness. (Note to self...next time double layer cork board). Got that?  CHECK!

Once the chicken wire and cork board were added, it was time to put some sort of backing on it to support it all.  I was thinking of a 1/4" sheet of plywood but all we had was 3/4".  Since I was trying to avoid spending any extra money on this...the 3/4" went on! 

It ain't pretty and it's thicker that I wanted it to be but hey, its going up against the wall and NO ONE will ever see it!  So there!  Dont' judge me it on its looks...but on its functionality instead.  On a score of 1 - 10...I give it a 9.5 :)  Not bad if you ask me!

So after all our efforts...here is the end result

 I love it!  It is exactly what I was going for.  And to make sure that each of us knows whose block is whose...I painted letters to correspond to the 1st letter of our names. 

This area isn't quite finished yet, but it's off to a good start! 

So what do you think?  Think you could do this?  Is this something you would want for your "Central Station"? 

You'll find this partying at the following places...go join the funt!
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
The DIY Showoff
Skip to My Lou
The Girl Creative
Savvy Southern Style
Blue Cricket Design
Seven Thirty Three