My Kingdom for the Right Chair

This is one of my favorite spots in the house. It is quiet, bright and relaxing.  Best of all, I couldn't ask for nicer view.

The chair in this picture is from my dining room.   Which means when 6 people came over for dinner I had to go get the chair.  Very tiring.  However, I didn't want to get any chair for my haven, it had to be the right chair, and more important that it had to be the right price.

I wanted a Parsons chair like this one except I didn't want the $210 price tag.  So I looked high and low and waited.  And I mean waited, like a year waited. I knew eventually my chair would find me.

And so it did, in Ikea!!!

 

It is the HENRIKSDAL chair with cover and it was $99.95.  Come to me baby.  

That is the good news, great chair, great price: bad news, wrong color.  We thought we ( by we I mean my husband who went to get the chair without me) bought the one with the dark legs but it turned out to be light legs.  Our Ikea is an hour and half away so we are keeping, it is just to far to return it.  When I have time I will sand the legs down and stain them a darker color, but for now I love my pale chair.  I'll give it tan over the summer.   

   

Responsibilty Chart

This post is an extension to a previous  Getting Organized post. 

Thank you to Leisel for asking to see more about our Responsibility chart. She wrote:

Leisel

I'm interested in your responsibility chart. I'd love to see a post on that.

In the previous post I showed how I try to keep my family organized everyday. With four people living in one house heading in all directions, we need to know who has to be where and doing what.  We are lucky because we have two children, one boy one girl; so we have man to man to defense in our house :)

So here it is. This is what our fridge looks like:

We don't have a fancy stainless steel fridge so I don't mind putting stuff on it.

Our responsibility chart is the most important chart in the house. I found the chart at Target .  I chose this chart because I love that the first column is for things we do everyday, and I don't have to write it over and over again.

The everyday chores are written in wet wipe marker, so that I don't have to rewrite it every week.

On this chart I put everything that is going on for the week, ie, school, sports, classes, etc.  

It's a slow week.
 I write the weekly things in dry erase marker so that it is easier to erase and change.

This is a usually a jumping off point for the family.  We keep track of four main things on this chart:

1. School-  My children's school has a website where I can see there homework, test dates and projects.  I go there on Mondays a fill out the chart so the kids know what subjects they have to study for during the week. 

2. Sports- My children play basketball and my hubby coaches both teams so this where we keep track of games and practices.

3. Work- We put any meetings or classes on this list too.  This helps me know when hubby will be late from work.  I teach stamping/scrapbooking classes from my home, so this gives my husband warning what days the house will be full of women scrapbooking.

4. Family-  This is also where I post any plans we have for the weekend.

The chart is great because it keeps everyone in the know.

Flowers: One bouquet, Three ways

My darling hubby buys me flowers every other Friday.  Up until a couple of months ago I took the bouquet out of the paper on placed it in a large vase.  I really didn't do much with it.  Then I saw on Mini Manor Blog that her husband also brought her flowers BUT she separated the bouquet in smaller ones and placed them around house.  Well, I have a bunch of little vases that I never knew what to do with, until now. 

Here is the original bouquet.  I put it in water while I gathered my supplies.

This one found a home in the living room.

This one will make its way to the bedroom.  I love the big white bloom.

This one is next to the cookies.  Cookies and flowers, does it get any better?

Now I have flowers around the house, not just the kitchen. I have to admit it was fun putting the little bouquets together.


I linked to Tuesday Treasures

Paper Chaos: To bin or not to bin

Well, we had another no big project weekend, unless you count bake sale, basketball, family and friends. 

I try to keep our mail, dates and events organized but lately its been a little hectic. I had a little time Sunday afternoon (last weekend) and decided to tackle the paper bin. I have a bin in near the kitchen that I use to put all the mail, and school papers.  My idea was that once a week I would go through the papers and sort them into piles.  Well that did not happen.  The bin became a catch all for everything  paper and non paper.  I think the biggest problem with the bin is that it is big and deep. 

 I did not take a picture of the bin before I cleared it, but here it is empty:

I started with emptying bin's contents on the dinning room table.

Yes, the basketball was in the bin.

By Sunday night the table was an overwhelming mess. We ended up eating dinner in the living room for a couple of days. I must admit that this mess was a little to much for me and sat on the table until I could muster up the courage to sort it out.

Finally, by Wednesday the kids were tired of eating at the coffee table and I had to figure this out. I knew I wanted to put everything in separate file folders but I was having a hard time trying to figure out how to put the folders back into the bin without them falling over or creating a big pile of folders. I also knew I wanted to keep the bin.  It is nice a nice fuax leather bin I picked up at Target.  I really like that it isn't plastic, which means I don't mind having it where people can see it.

 A trip to Staples and 11 dollars later. 

I found a frame that will convert my bin into a file cabinet. Brilliant, I tell you.

Now my bin looks like this:

 You can't even tell there is metal insert in there.

A couple of labels and . .  .

Voila.  My new paper storage.

 I still have to add the school calendar to the front and find it a permanent home 

but I love the way it turned out. 

I linked to what-we-accomplished-wednesday-6.html

Coffee Chaos: Moving the Coffee May Cause Distress

Last week I moved the coffee pot.  I really didn't really think anything of it until my sister in law almost had a heart attack when she went to make herself a cup of coffee and Keurig wasn't there.  The look on her face was priceless.  The relief when I told her that I moved the machine, I did not get rid of it was hysterical.  Turns out we are a VERY coffee dependent family :)

So she asked me why after all this time did I move it.  So here it is folks. . .

This is where the coffee pot lived for many years.

What a mess the cabinet is!

What is the problem you may ask?  Well it is next to the stove, which I have been using more and more.(I will make a meal plan post soon )   What has been happening is while I am trying to make dinner my hubby wants a cup of coffee.  For some reason he tends to stand there and watch as the coffee pours out of the machine.  My hubby is not a small man, standing at 6'1" and many pounds :)  SO, the bottom line is he has been getting in my way when I am trying to make dinner.  My choices were: 1. move the pot or 2. get rid of Jack.  Since I have grown rather fond of Jack ;)  I decided to move the pot.

Here is the coffee pot in it's new home:

Notice the marker hanging on the side of the fridge those are my daily chore/laundry lists.  I like to read it as I make my morning cup.

It is now located on the other side of the kitchen away from where I cook.  It fit perfectly in the space. I think it was fate.  Not really, I put the mixer that was there in the baking cabinet and it freed up the space on the counter.

 I put the items we use all the time near the coffee machine.

and I had plenty of space in the upper cabinet to organize the left over supplies.

 I can say that this was one of the best moves I have made.  My little girl loves that she can  reach the hot chocolate and doesn't need my help.  The best part I am not watching my meal burn while Jack makes a cup of coffee.


Linked to: http://myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/tuesdays-treasures-122/