Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Works For Me Wednesday-Keep Those Mayo Jar Lids!



I love using Mason jars for storing dry goods, leftovers and MYO mixes. But I had trouble with using the lids(top and ring) and keeping things fresh.

My solution- keep the lids off the plastic mayo jars. They fit the regular mouth jars perfectly! And they can be used again and again!

For more great Works For Me ideas, please visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Christmas Wrapping Inventory

*Blogger wouldn't let me post pictures of my organizing venture on this post for whatever reason, so you can view them below in the following post!

I tackled and organized my gift wrap box on Wednesday.It was actually a great time to do this with Christmas right around the corner. I could take inventory of my stock while I was already going through everything!

I had been keeping everything together in one gigantic Rubbermaid box, leftover from moving 2 years ago. I probably used it because it was long enough for rolls of gift wrap to lay flat. It was also big enough to keep my all-occasion and Christmas wrapping supplies together, resulting in a constant huge mess as it was very hard to keep organized. This box also takes up a lot of space!

In easy steps, here is how I went about organizing all of this.

1)Took everything out of box. This is especially fun if you have a toddler close by to help!

2)Sorted Christmas stuff into one pile and all-occasion wrappings into another.

3)One pile at a time, I sorted things by category. Such as ribbons and bows, tissue paper, gift bags, gift boxes, wrapping paper.

4) Determined I had way too much all-occasion supplies, so took a moment to declutter. I came up with a big gift bag full of gift bags and a gallon ziploc bag full of misc. bows and ribbons that I never use. What helped me to decide what I didn't need here was to think back to the types of gifts I normally give through-out the year. I realized that I mostly give container gifts, so that minimizes the use of gift wrap and gift bags.

5)Re-organized my all-occasion supplies. Wow! They all fit in one small box. What a concept!

6)Next, I tackled the Christmas pile. I know I will use most of this stuff, so I didn't declutter. I just organized! I have plenty of gift wrap, gift boxes and bags and ribbon to easily get me through this holiday season as well as the next, probably!

7)Put items I needed on my shopping list. All I need to buy is scotch tape and white tissue paper.

8)Put organized groups into containers for storage. Found a tall and narrow box for rolls of gift wrap to stand in and used a small square box for gift bags and boxes, as well as folded gift wrap and sheets of sticky tags. I took out an old Christmas bag to use for storing tissue paper and ribbons and bows. I'm going for functionality here and not aesthetics! This will work well to have out during the Christmas season.

9)Write reminder on shopping list to look at Rubbermaid gift wrap storage boxes. I've seen some tall ones that may work better than what I had been using. It would be nice at some point to have it all in containers with lids. Readers-feel free to let me know in the comments what works for you!

10)Sit back and enjoy! By doing this, I am putting myself in the mood to start wrapping my gifts. But of course, that will mess everything back up...:-)

Christmas Wrappings Organizing Pics

*Blogger wouldn't let me load these pics onto the above post, so here they are in a separate post!
Here is how I had it all "organized" before!


My big pile of stuff to sort out!


All-occasion gift wrappings all in one small box!


Christmas gift wrap supplies all organized!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

The Farmer And Adele




We dressed up as the Farmer and Adele(say it fast and see if you can figure it out!)for our church's fall costume party last weekend.

We were forced into creativity with our costumes as I refuse to spend big bucks on dress-up outfits. I had everything I needed for my farmer's wife costume- a denim skirt, white vintage-type blouse, vintage apron and straw hat which I decorated with a couple fall silk flowers I had around the house. I bought my husband the cowboy hat(I could not find a regular farmer's straw hat anywhere!)on clearance for $3.24 at Target. It wasn't a bad deal; it would come in handy should he decide to take up ranching.

I made a blue ribbon out of cardstock and markers that read "#1 Farmer- Outstanding in My Field" for him to wear. He came up with the whole Farmer and Adele idea. There is no end to the puns and wisecracks around this house!

I also carried a basket lined with a cloth napkin as part of my outfit. It also doubled as candy basket for the kids who played my game.

For my game, I cleaned out a pumpkin and made a couple of bean bags for a Pumpkin Bean Bag Toss. Other games and activities included decorating a bag, cookie decorating, a cake walk, What's In The Box?(a mystery sensory activity), and Eating Donuts on a String, a variation of Bobbing for Apples. We also had some fun fall treats for refreshments.

We all enjoyed the evening so much, even though it had to be moved inside because of pouring down rain. We were thankful that the host family had a very large home for the event!