Birthday Fun

My birthday was two weeks ago. My sweet husband, Shawn-the-wonder-guy, always wants to do something spectacular and surprising for my birthday, but I am much more simple than that. I always have a long wish list of things I would like for him to do or make around here and I am more than willing to take them as birthday gifts. And anniversary. And Christmas.

So for this year's birthday, I requested new shelving for my fabrics in my studio. As you may recall from my earlier studio tour, it looked like this:

It was functional, but getting difficult to gain access to the rolls of fabric when I needed them. It never failed: the fabric I would need would be on the top shelf, under about four other rolls. Now mind you, these are not small rolls. They are anywhere from 15 - 50 yards of fabric. They can get heavy!

So, after hours on Pinterest and perusing websites such as Ikea, I thought I had the perfect solution.

Only problem was that it involved a trip to Ikea.

Shawn the-wonder-guy detests Ikea. With a passion. Would be willing to do anything to avoid going there.

So, having mercy upon him, plus not being completely sold on the piece that I had chosen from there, we did some other shopping.

I ended up getting two tall bookcases from Wal-Mart. They are very inexpensive and the shelves were the exact measurements that I was wanting to work with. Shawn added some nice molding trim to the top and down the middle where the two pieces meet and suddenly it looked like a wonderful built-in piece.

But I wasn't finished! All those hours on Pinterest were spinning in my head and I decided that the back of the shelves needed something to jazz them up. I found some wrapping paper that I really liked at Target and purchased a couple rolls. Using double-sided sticky tape, they went up in a flash. The shelves were added and then the fabric and suddenly I had this:

I still had to deal with all those huge bolts of fabric, but I had a plan for those also. A quick trip to Lowe's to purchase two large round Brute rubber garbage cans solved the problem. I placed one on each side of the new bookcase and loaded them up. Getting the bolt that I need is now so much easier!!

Now it all kind of looks like something from Project Runway, don't you think?

And I kept room for the dog beds!

But, here is where you all come in. I need to decide something to make the garbage cans look, well, less like giant garbage cans. This seems to be a unique dilemna as nothing comes up when I do a search on Pinterest. You know you have hit a new plateau when a search comes up empty!

So, what would your suggestion be???

Organizing Collars

We have lots of collars, all from Crazy for Collars. They are the best!

I had them all in a drawer, but I could never seem to remember exactly which ones I had and wouldn't get inspired to have the dogs wear them.

Today, Shawn the Wonder Guy, helped me out by putting up this great rack to display them on. I bought a very inexpensive wooden towel bar at Lowes ($5). Shawn had a four foot piece of dowel that fit perfectly in the holes of the brace pieces, and POOF! Instant organization.

I love it.

Cooper is feeling very sad that he doesn't have as many collars as the girls, though.

I tried to explain it by saying that I have to buy everything in triplicate for them, so it just LOOKS like they have alot.

I don't think he's buying it.

Don't worry, Cooper, I have a nice wish list of new collars for you that I am sending to Suzanne this week!

We Are On an Organizing Craze

I get into an organizing buzz every once in a while and I just HAVE to come up with new ways of doing things. Especially in my sewing room. I spend a lot of time in there and I like it to run like a finely tuned motor.

Shawn has been making me some new ribbon holders. I like these because they let me see just how much I have and what I need to get for projects.

Only problem is, I need LOTS more. Shawn is aware that he needs to make more, and is willingly working on them and has more coming. I just haven't informed him yet just how many more.....shhhh.

I am also happy with my vinyl lettering saying on the wall. It helps to inspire me each and every day.

I am trying not to get too fanatical in my organizing.

I have yet to color coordinate the toys in the girl's toy baskets.

Or separate their treats, based on size, into new jars.

Or turned my sewing pins so the heads are all lined up in the same direction.

Breathe a sigh of relief girls, Mom's not headed to the T.V. show 'The OCD Project' quite yet!!

Where To Put It All...

If you have ever had a baby, you know that the amount of stuff that you need for that baby far exceeds the size of the child. You wonder, 'how can such a tiny little human need so much?'

Have you ever noticed that the same is true for our dogs? All total, my three little dogs don't even have a combined weight of 15 pounds, yet the amount of supplies, clothes, toys, food, etc. (I know...it's the etc. that gets us every time!) that they have is taking over the house. And we have a large house.

I have recently been trying to come up with a way to rein it all into one spot as much as possible and have come up with a perfect plan.

We have this really cool dresser that belonged to Shawn's grandmother. It has served many purposes throughout the years. It started out as the dresser for her 6 children's clothes (much less 'stuff' back then). After her children grew and left home, the dresser became home for her quilting fabrics and supplies. This is when I became acquainted with the dresser and fell in love with it. I love the tiny little drawer on top and how each drawer gets bigger as it goes down. It has been painted many different colors over the years, with chocolate brown being it's current hue. I am debating on whether it needs a new paint job, or if I should leave it as Grandma had it.

It is now in our home and I have tried to use it for various purposes. None of my kids appreciate the quaintness of it and never wanted to use it for their rooms. I started out keeping my fabrics in the funny drawers, but my inventory quickly outgrew it.

The dresser has been sitting in a corner, needing a job. I decided it was the perfect location to keep the girls' clothes, collars, harness vests, extra toys (they have so many, we rotate them out and they always think they have new toys!), and blankets.

It is quickly filling up.

The dresser doesn't wrangle all the items that are needed to keep my girls happy. We are still looking for the perfect storage place for our awesome new stroller, and their food still has it's own drawer in the kitchen, but all in all, I am quite happy with the new life I have given to this quaint piece of Giles' history.

Not so sure what Grandma Giles would think, but I am hoping she is smiling.