Secure Curtain Rods

This tip is pretty simple but my husband convinced me that other people might be able to use it so here it is! We have decorative curtain rods that look nice but don't want to stay put. After opening and closing them a few times, the rod slides out and the decorative end twists around like this: I thought about asking my husband to drill holes in the hooks and rods so that I could put a screw in place but that would be a lot of work and it would be difficult to get them lined up correctly. Then it hit me...

My New Craft Room

I think you have all seen my old craft closet by now. About six months ago I mentioned that my crafting area had moved to another room and I am just now getting around to showing you the full reveal. It was often in a state of chaos and I kept hoping that I would find time to get it all organized and decorated. Well, it still needs some fun, colorful decor but at least it is organized! So here we go.... As you can see, this was originally the storage area. We went through everything, got rid of a bunch of stuff and moved the remaining items to another area.

CSN Stores Review

As you may remember, CSN Stores recently contacted me about doing a review. There were a bunch of really cool items that would look great in our next house. I really wanted the Kit Cat Clock but since we are working hard to save money, I decided to go with something closer to the amount of the promotional code they gave me. I ended up choosing this adorable kitchen timer:

Lemon Cookies

Once again I am pretending there aren't piles of snow outside my window. This time with some delicious Lemon Cookies that remind me of Spring. :)

I found this recipe in a magazine awhile back. They are super easy and so yummy!

Spirograph Art

I'm going old school today. Do any of you remember the Spirograph? I LOVED mine when I was a kid! The other day my husband found this knockoff Spiral Art Set at Walgreens in the clearance section!

Seven Layer Dip

I've seen many variations of the Seven Layer Taco Dip but this recipe that I got from my Grandma is by far my favorite!

Cookies and Cream Bark

If you like Hershey's Cookies N Cream candy bars you will love this recipe!

Coming Soon: CSN Stores Review

I was just contacted by CSN Stores and asked to do a review! They have over 200 online stores to shop from and I'm so excited that I can't decide what to pick!

I checked out their Modern Duvet Covers like this beautiful gray and white one:

But I'm also considering getting something that will fit in at our next house - which by the way will be going back to our retro roots. It's going to be fun, funky and blindingly colorful! :)

Toy Organization

Alright, I know I haven't been keeping up with the organizing challenge the last few days. It's just that my home doesn't have some of the areas suggested and the ones I do have are already pretty organized. Since I don't have shocking before pictures or creative storage ideas, I decided not to participate in those challenges. So I'm not a organization challenge dropout, I just ditched class for a few days. :)

Today's challenge though - toy organization - is an area that I worked on just last week. I don't have any before pictures because only intended to help Jeremy find places to put his new toys that he received for Christmas. Then it turned into a 3 1/2 hour toy purge. The best "before" picture I have is one of everything that was removed from his room:

Two bags of trash (mainly broken toys and clothes with holes or stains), three bags of out grown clothes, and ten bags of toys that either: he no longer plays with or are out of season.

Living Room Makeover

In this post I told you that I didn't want to show you a full shot of our living room because it was so bad. Well the time has finally come.

This is what I was hiding from you:

As you can see, nothing matched. The photo actually makes it look better than it really was. Trust me, the colors were off. I had plans to reupholster the furniture and make pillows that coordinated. Yesterday I wrote about my failed attempt at upholstering the sofa.

Homemade Playdough

This is an old project that I am copying over from my kid's craft blog. I don't have the time to keep up with both blogs so I am considering deleting the other one and wanted to copy this post over before doing so.

Organizing Power Cords

While cleaning our messy junk drawer, I found several chargers for various electronics and decided that it was time to get them organized. Now we can find the exact one that we are looking for when we need it instead of trying to guess which one it is.