Making Habits Easy!

I'm almost finished with this book I'm reading and I have to say it's been one of the most beneficial books I've read in a long time in terms of applicability. 

I'm going to write a more detailed review about it when I'm completely finished. But one of the things that struck a cord is, in order to make a habit work, make it easy. So I'm going to show you one thing I did in order to make a habit easier to start. 

 

Below I have a picture of my study area. I leave my planner and my bible open to make it easier to just sit and read and then look at my planner. It skips a couple of steps of having to go get them and then open them to the proper page. It's a time saver and having them out keeps them in my view so I won't forget to check them. I love that!

After I read the book I'll have more thoughts on how I'm applying the methods and how they are working out for me. Let me know if you've read the book and what you thought about it.

Have a lovely day friends.

Kim

 

The Galvanized Stand

I’m about to open your eyes to a whole new world. A world where 3 tier stands reign supreme. A world where organizing, pretty and decor’ unite. Okay enough of the dramatic but seriously, I’m kinda in love with my stand. But first a backstory.

About 4 months ago I saw an ad for Hobby Lobby where they had a 3 tier galvanized stand advertised for $20.00. I quickly (and by quickly I mean I didn’t get to the store till a week later) went to the store to buy it and they were already sold out. Here’s a little fun fact, if you show them the ad, they will give you a rain check and call you when it comes in and you still get it at the sale price. Yes! The bummer is, it took like a month and a half for them to get it back in. But good things are worth waiting for right?!

So I finally got my stand. I had so many entertaining ideas to use it for but I wasn’t going to be entertaining any time soon. So what do I do with it until I “need” it. Well when it’s not strutting it’s stuff in the entertaining circles I use it on my coffee bar. I love it there and it can easily be emptied when I want to use it for a party or something.

Here’s a looksy:

Now if you’re still not convinced you “need” one, go check out my Galvanized Tray Pinterest board with tons of ideas of what you can do with this baby. It’s so much fun. And if you already have one and use it regularly, come visit me on my Homesteader’s Heart FB page and show me or send me a link in the comments section.

Have a lovely day my friends.

Kim

 

Make Your Own Recipe Cards

I don’t know about you but I have a lot of cookbooks. I mean way too many. But there are usually a few favorite recipes in each one to merit keeping them.  So what I started doing was putting my own recipes and my favorite recipes from my cookbooks in one recipe binder.

My hubby bought me this cute one quite a while ago and I’ve been slowly putting my recipes in there. It would be awesome to have them all in one place.

The downside to this is that it takes a long time to hand write each recipe and half the time there isn’t enough space for everything so I have to write it smaller and then I can barely read my own writing, blah blah blah. So needless to say I had started and stopped many a times.

But recently I’ve discovered that I can use Picmonkey to make my own cute recipe cards. And because I’m typing them, it’s neater and I can see them better. I’m in my mid 40’s people and when I have to hold a cookbook 2 inches from my face in order to see it, that’s bad. Yes, I have a cookbook where the writing is so small I have to hold it close to my face just to read the recipe and unless you have the recipe memorized you end up doing that countless times for each ingredient. I’m sure it’s pretty entertaining for those watching me though. Ha!

Anyhoo, let me show you an example.

Here’s a couple of my hand written recipes.

And here’s a couple that I used Picmonkey for.

The first one I made before I bought some really cute clip art off of Etsy.

It really doesn’t take all that long to do and it’s kinda fun being all creative and stuff. The hardest part is getting used to all the tools on the site but once you have that mastered (and it doesn’t take long) you’ll be making them in about 5 minutes.

My recipe binder takes 5 x 7 cards and I printed them out on cardstock to make them sturdy.

I use the free Picmonkey stuff and everything is there that I need for these. No need to upgrade.

So what do you think? You gonna give it a shot?

HUGS!
Kim

Quick and Easy Necklace Holder

When it comes to projects I don’t have a lot of time. I like to start and finish things rather quickly (I think I have ADHD) because if I don’t then it just ends up sitting there, gathering dust, pushed in a corner to be forgotten about. Sad but true, I know.
So when I decided to make my new necklace holder it was perfect because it didn’t take any time at all. In fact it probably took about 20 minutes total.
Before my new necklace holder was conceived I was hanging my necklaces on a clock in my bathroom. Cause who doesn’t want necklaces hanging awkwardly from their clock? One does what one has to do. You know what I’m saying? But the fact that I kept it like this for way longer than I want to admit is just proof that I must not have cared that much. *smile*

With that said. Here’s my new necklace holder.


I wanted something bright and fun to match my flower garden theme in my bathroom. Keeping it simple was what made this project easy. I didn’t want to over think it. Because I tend to over think things and then end up walking away frustrated. Nobody likes me frustrated, including me. So simple was key in this.
I started out with a plain piece of wood that I think my hubby cut out for me a long time ago for another project that never got done and since I couldn’t even remember what project it was, I moved on and used it for this one.
I then painted it a nice black to contrast the bright colors I would be using.
Then I simply painted a cute flower with coordinating colors from my bathroom.
My hubby predrilled holes for my hooks and then I simply screwed the hooks in. Voila’. Done!
What do you think?
And if you missed the cute earring holders I made a while back, click HERE to see them. So easy to make.
OXOX,
Kim
I'm participating in Mady By You Monday at Skip to My Lou.

Simple Flip Flop Storage

I had seen this idea on Pinterest a LONG time ago and why it’s taken me this long to do is beyond me. I guess I liked tripping over my flops and not being able to find its mate and stuff like that. I guess it’s what fueled my day. Or not.

Anyhoo. I took that idea and improved upon it because for some reason you can’t find wire hangers in the store and then they had you cutting and twisting. Yuck. Too much work. So instead I bought a pack of kids hangers for just over a dollar and did it this way.

I took a tension rod and put it across my space and then hung each pair on a hanger and hung them up. Soooo incredibly easy.

And now they aren’t strewed all over my floor getting kicked around and taking up valuable floor space.

This would work with any shoe that you could hook onto something in order for it to hang. Such a space saver.

Feel free to

Have a lovely day my friends.

OXOX,

Kim

How to Fold a T-shirt Like Mom

 You know when I first thought about writing this post I was like “No one needs to know how to fold a shirt.” But then the more I thought about it, even the simplest of tasks can be improved upon.

I watched my mom fold my dads t-shirts like this my whole growing up life. There is even a perk to folding this way. If you happen to leave clothes in the dryer a little longer than anticipated and you have wrinkled shirts, (Not that that has EVER happened to me.) this folding method will actually help eliminate some of those wrinkles. Bonus!

So here is my simple tutorial on how I fold my hubby’s shirts like my most excellent mother.

Step 1: Grab your shirt. (You have to start somewhere.)

 

Step 2: Fold the shirt in half and line up the shoulders. Lay the shirt with the neck end toward you.

 

Step 3: Fold the sleeves in toward the shirt.

 

Step 4: Fold the shirt in half away from you.

 

Step 5: Flip the shirt over and fold in half again.

 

I then flip it over so that the print of the shirt (if there is one) is showing so it makes it easy for my hubby to determine what shirt is what.

 

See how neat and tidy that is?

My hubby has A LOT of t-shirts and I’m able to store them more neatly when folded this way.

Well what do you think? You gonna give it a shot?

Have a lovely day my friends.

OXOX,

Kim

Tackling the Shoe and Hat Problem!

We have a lot of shoes. It seems we have shoes for everything.

• We have rain boots for gardening and chicken patrol.
• We have shoes for the boat.
• Good sneakers for out and about.
• Dirty sneakers for running around the back yard.
• Work boots for, well, work and the list goes on.

I am also going to admit that 99% of the shoes by the back door belong to the 3 men (hubby and 2 boys) of the house. Crazy right? ( I have one pair of rain boots by the back door and that’s it, and my daughter keeps her shoes in her room.)

Now don’t get me wrong, I totally understand the need to have these particular shoes handy. They use them at varies times throughout the day and I’d rather have them by the door then tracked through the house to put somewhere else.

With that said, that particular area was REALLY starting to get to me. It was becoming a dump all for hats, gloves, shoes etc. So for months I have been looking on Craigslist for a cabinet of some sort to house most of the boots. While I was at it I was also looking for a hat rack.

Well this past weekend it all finally came together. I found an antique cabinet for $45.00 on Craigslist (which my hubby quickly painted white for me) and I found a hat rack for $5.00 at a garage sale. YAY!!!

But what is a good tackling story without a before and after picture? So here you go.

The Before:

Wouldn’t that drive you just about nuts? Oy!

And now the after:

Don’t you just love it? So neat, so organized.

I put the rainboots and such in the white cabinet and the extra, not worn every day shoes went in the wicker chest.  The gloves went in the cute little suitcase thingy on the cabinet and you can see where the hats went.

What do you think? Better?

Have a lovely day!

OXOX,

Kim

I’m linking up with:

5+5+5 Day 4 and 5 Living Room and Office.

I didn’t get on here much yesterday due to a birthday in the family so I’ll combine both days today. I’m sure it’s more for my benefit than yours that I’m doing it but I thank you for putting up with me. *smile* I’ve got some Summer Fun stuff coming up in the near future.

Let’s get right to it shall we? My family is waiting on me to make dinner. LOL!

Here’s the purge from the office that I did a couple of months ago. I didn’t get rid of it all but I cleaned it out and put it in the attic until further notice so I could concentrate more on the homeschool aspect of my life. It was a lot of stuff.

In the living room I got rid of some extra things that really didn’t have a place.

Well that concludes this years purgefest.

So how about you? Did you get rid of anything this week. I know a few of you were going to get rid of some stuff. How did you do?

Have a lovely weekend!

OXOX,

Kim

5+5+5 Day 3: The Kids Room

Half way through the week already and the purgefest is going full speed.

For this purge I decided to give my boys the option of letting Mom go in and purge alone or letting them have complete control over what gets purged by doing it themselves. They chose to do it themselves (wise choice) and I have to say that they did a pretty good job.

That box is FULL of stuff and my oldest son even helped his little brother go through his dresser and sort out all the clothes that were too small.

So very proud of them.

If you just can’t get enough of my junk you can go back to The Kitchen Purge and the Closet Purge to see more. It’s mind blowing stuff I tell ya.

And you can still join in if you’d like. Here’s the post with all the days on it. It’s only 5 days. Come on, you can do it.

On another note. We are gearing up for Summer Fun. I’ll have a good time showing you what’s going on and maybe give you some good ideas for your own Summer O’ Fun!

Have a lovely day my friends.

OXOX,

Kim

 

5+5+5 Day 2: The Closet!

I finally came to grips that there are just some shoes that aren’t worth wearing. I can’t stand to be uncomfortable and some of these shoes are just that, uncomfortable. Some are to big and one pair is just down right ugly. So saying good by was not difficult at all.

As far as the clothes, I really don’t have a whole lot to start with (I hate clothes shopping). In fact I think I actually keep clothes that I know I won’t wear just to make it look like I have more to choose from. Yeah, I’m all about rational thinking here.

So here’s my purge for today. Definitely over 5 items and it felt good to rid myself of more things.

Feel free to jump in whenever you like. You can always come back and leave your link in the comment section if you blog about your purge or you could simply tell me what you’ve chucked thus far.

Here’s the link to yesterday’s post for the Kitchen Purge.

Tomorrow is the Kids Room. Boy have they been busy. I’m so proud of them.

Have a lovely day my friends and thanks for stopping by each day.

OXOX,

Kim

5+5+5 Day1: The Kitchen

Purging has been so freeing. I love getting rid of stuff I no longer need or use. It frees up so much space and I’m able to better organize what I do need and use.

I mainly purged out of my hutch but I was also able to FINALLY part with some of my Christmas mugs. *GASP* I’ve been collecting Christmas mugs for a very long time and my original intent was to use them at our Christmas parties, which I did, twice, out of almost 17 years of Christmas parties. *sigh* I did keep a few to hang on my cup holder at Christmas time, because you still have to have pretty mugs to have your coffee in.

Here’s a few of pictures of my purge.

The infamous Christmas mugs. Goodbye old friends. *sniff* Just kidding, I’ll be fine in a year or two.

 

All of this came out of my hutch. I had WAY to many candles that I haven’t burned for one reason or another and a sign that no longer matches my decor, a hugs vase that only looks good when when it’s got a couple of dozen roses in it (which it hasn’t had in many a moons) and then just some random tea light holders. Now I have lots more room in my hutch to spread out the stuff I do use. Yay, me!

I love aprons but I never use these because one is WAY to hot and the other I made WAY to big.  The rest is just stuff that was shoved in the back of a cupboard. 

As you can see, I definitely purged more than 5 items. I knew I would but I didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on myself, cause I’d cave and not do anything, because I’m good like that.

So I know a few of you wanted to join in so I thought it would be easy for you just to leave your link in a comment. I’ll be sure to check out your progress as well.

Up Tomorrow: The Closet! Dun dun dun!!

Click Here to see the whole line up this week.

OXOX,

Kim

The 5+5+5 Challenge!

Yes, I realize there are about 5 million and 2 challenges going on in blog world right now but none of them seemed to suit my needs right here, right now. So what does one do? She creates her own challenge in hopes that there is at least one person out there that hasn’t already done all the other 5 million and 2. Either way, I’m doing it and I’m going to blog about it to hold myself accountable.

Okay, here are the deets (that’s cool talk for details).

5 Days (because any more than that and I’m not gonna do it. I’ve already proven that).

5 Rooms (because most of us have at least 5 rooms right?)

5 Things (and by things I mean anything you don’t need or want anymore.)

Every year I go through a phase where I feel the urge to purge. I’m feeling the urge right now and I wanted to go for it before it passes. (That sentence just gets weirder and weirder the more you say it.) Anyhoo, if you’ve been wanting to go through your home and get rid of a “few” things (that’s why I picked 5 and not 10), then feel free to join in.

Next week, Monday-Friday I’m going to pick 5 rooms. (You pick whatever rooms you want)

These Rooms:

Monday: Kitchen

Tuesday: Closet

Wednesday: Kids room

Thursday: Office

Friday: Living Room

Then I’m going to gather my 5 (or more if I feel so led) things, take a picture (for justification) and then blog about my surreal experience of my purgefest.

If I have enough takers I’ll produce a linky at the bottom of my post for you to link up. If I don’t that’s okay too. I’m still gonna do it.

So what do you say? You in? If you don’t have a blog you can always just tell me in the comment section what you got rid of each day. That way you have some accountability.

Here’s the really sad button I made for it. Can you tell I was rushed or have no idea what I’m doing? Either way, here it is.

Hopefully I’ll see you next week.

Have a wonderful day my friends.

OXOX,

Kim

Spring Cleaning Made Easy!

I’m really hoping that the title is true. (Of course easy to me would mean someone else actually doing the work for me.)

I don’t look forward to Spring Cleaning (I’m not sure who does) but I know it’s a necessary evil.  With that said I’ve decided to join in with Home Your Way and their Spring Cleaning Made Easy series. It starts today. Please join me so I know I’m not alone. *smile*

Have a lovely day!

OXOX,

Kim

Project Simplify~Week 2~ The Kitchen!

Well we are at the end of week 2 of Project Simplify. I feel like I’m exposing my dirty laundry every time I do this sort of thing. You’re welcome!

This week our focus was the kitchen. I knew exactly what I needed to focus on in this area. My drawers were out of control, you know the ones. In fact I had 4 that were out of control, but decided to only show you 2 here today because it’s kind of embarrassing, and I’m all about my dignity, on a good day. Today’s a good day.

And don’t get me started on my pantry.

But why not let the pictures speak for themselves.

I moved things around, put things together, constantly asked myself why I had some things. Yeah, there was a lot of self evaluation going on that day. You should have been there. Really.

  

 

 

I KNOW you want to see my pantry. I mean who in their right mind wouldn’t want to see MY pantry and since I’m all about spreading the love, here you go. My pantry!

I have a love/hate relationship with this pantry. On one hand it’s big and that’s great but it’s deep and things get lost WAY back there. Do you have this problem?

Here’s the bottom part of my pantry before.

And the after. Hmm….it just doesn’t look much better in pictures but take my word for it, it is.

 

Here’s the top part of my pantry before.

 

Okay I can see a clear after here. Much better.

I went to the dollar store and got a couple of bins and such to help me out. I highly recommend going there first if you need those types of things.

Head on over to Simple Mom to see what this Project Simplify is all about.

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY MY FRIENDS!

Molly’s Money Saving Digest!

You know when I like something I have to spread the word and Molly’s Digest is something I’ve been enjoying for a few years now. She recently took a few months break but is now back better than ever and is offering a great deal on their membership.

For just $3.95 a month you’ll get access to 3 years worth of back copies. And let me tell you these digests are great. Like you, I’m careful about what I spend our hard earned money on but these books are worth every penny, I think.

But don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself. Just click on the picture above to go to the membership page to see just exactly what you’ll find between the covers.

Oh and don’t forget, it’s time to organize and de-clutter the kitchen this week for Project Simplify. I know, I couldn’t wait either! *said with the greatest of sarcasm*  But seriously, this area does seem to get unorganized the quickest because we are in there the most. So let’s give it a little attention this week, shall we? And by little I mean a lot. *sigh*

Have a BLESSED day my friends!