100 Scraps in 100 Days Challenge

I have a confession to make. My name is Christina aka The Scrappy Housewife and I am a Scrapbook Supplies Hoarder. If you've been here since January, you probably remember my Office Decrapification. During that clean up I showed you this little area here:

All of what you see there is scrapbook supplies. See the smaller white containers on the bottom left and mid-right? That's paper. Scrapbook paper. There's more on top of the mid-right bin and middle set of drawers. And I just bought two new stacks two days ago. Yes, really. Wanna know the sad part of all this? I don't scrapbook. 

Well, that's not entirely true. I do scrapbook. I have lots of pictures organized and ready to go in archival bins, labeled, cataloged, scanned, etc, etc. Heck I even have scrapbooks started. You can kinda see my scrapbook shelf on the bookcase in the top right. I do scrapbook. I am a scrapbooker. I. Just. Never. Do.

So here's the deal. I need help. Accountability. A good kick in the pants to finally get a few of these projects done. I am The "Scrappy" Housewife for heaven's sake. I need you.

For those of you who aren't aware, May is National Scrapbooking Month. So I'm issuing the start of a challenge. One scrapbook page a day for 100 days. Oh yes. I could've just done the month, but that would be dare I say, beneath us? We can do 100 pages. How long does one page a day take? 

Don't worry though. I know many of you are probably not scrappers (well, you're -my- scrappers - sounds better than followers, eh? Thanks Jeneane!), and I don't want to spam your feeds with a bunch of stuff you aren't overly interested in. So I created a sister blog. The Scrappy Housewife Scrapbooking Challenge. You can find a link to it at the 100 Scraps in 100 Days tab at the top of The Scrappy Housewife page. 

I really hope you'll join me, if for nothing but to cheer me on as I try to stop spending on scrap stuff and start -using- what I already have (thousands of sheets, people, thousands)! My husband will thank you. My wallet will thank you. My office full of scrap stuff will thank you. 

I'll post the details of the challenge over there later today. And don't worry. I'll still be organizing, sewing, crafting and housewifing over here. Nothing will change. Well, hopefully we'll get bigger and better, but I'll still be sharing my journey as I learn to housewife with the best of them.

Right now, I'm out to work on a few craft projects to share here (yes, really! I finally have a day to myself.) and pick up the last of a really awesome (hopefully...) baby shower project I'm working on. :) 

Happy Friday!

Quick Survey Pretty Please?

Edited: In case it isn't clear: Google Reader is Google Friend Connect. So if you read via Google Reader, please choose Google Friend Connect. Using another reader? Choose RSS feed. Thanks! New to this survey thing, sorry!

I'm trying to plan my first giveaway and was going to wait until I hit 50 followers, but then realized that I only see Google Friends and not those of you who subscribe in other ways. If you would, please take two seconds and reply to my survey below. I would really appreciate it! (Prizes depend on your response! Don't let them down! :) )

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We Got Featured!

Hey guys!


The Borrowed Abode and I got featured over at Hyphen Interiors for our reality link up parties! 


Kristy said, "What unique link parties!  Here’s to keeping it real!  Good work ladies!  You put a smile on my face."


That's just what I was going for. Thanks Kristy!


Let's return some blog love and run over to her place and check it out, OK?


And you can still enter the Reality Check link up. Don't forget. :) 

Redneck Balcony 101

Since Jane over at The Borrowed Abode announced her Redneck Yard of the Year contest, I've been dare I say excited to get outside and spruce up our balcony area. My dream is that it would be like an outdoor room, but at the moment it is definitely not.

I've loved seeing all of the outdoor spaces people have linked up (and really, I'd kill for a yard, but we don't have one yet). One involving a Shanghai sign no less. You really need to check it out. But before you head over there let me show you my less than stellar out door space.

Let's start by showing you the bird poo on the railing of our third floor apartment. Let's just say I'll never hang a bird feeder there again.

Then, let's take a look at the cool Ikea outdoor furniture we bought last year. We actually really like this furniture. The table folds down and tucks away as you can see here, which is awesome. But let's take a closer look shall we? 

Here's the pretty underside of the cushion:

 And the faded, not so pretty upper:

My favorite part though has to be the stuck on mold on the table top. Last year we made jack-o-lanterns at Halloween and they turned into a science project really quickly. Since they were facing away from us we didn't quite catch it in time. It's cleanable, just really gross. Basically I'm going to have to sand it off and then reseal the table. Joy.

Next is the opposite side of the balcony where I "stored" everything for winter. The white rocker (which is orange in spots thanks to another Halloween craft) was my mother's. The giant black trunk is my husband's. At one point it was his TV stand. Bachelor much? Now it smells like smoke from an apartment fire and thus remains outside. (I really want to get rid of it, but it holds so dang much! Right now it's holding my gardening supplies.)

The next stop on our tour of Balcony de Scrappy is the funniest part. As I walked outside to snap the pictures, the screen door fell off! I'm not kidding. You can even see how I propped it up against the wall to keep our chihuahua from escaping in the picture above. Too funny.

Here is said chihuahua now, trying to figure out why mommy has the broken door propped precariously against the wall. It's nice to know our apartment cooperates with the blog though. ;)

OK so maybe "redneck" isn't the right term for our little space, but it's certainly dysfunctional at the moment. Which is why I would love to win that $25 Home Depot gift card from Jane. It is also partly the reason I'm going to start a special series following my journey to learn to garden (and grow veggies!) on my balcony. I've even started a page especially for it! Stay tuned! 

And don't forget to enter your Reality to my link up party, and your Redneck Yard over at The Borrowed Abode! She's giving away a gift card people! (Sadly, I am not...but I do have a giveaway planned soon. Stay tuned for more details!)

It's Reality Check Party Time!

4/27/2011 Hello! If you've found your way over from Hyphen Interiors thanks to Kristy, I really hope you like what you read and will consider following me via Google Friend Connect, RSS Feed, Email, Feedburner etc. You can find the links on the right side bar. Welcome! :) And yep, you can still enter your reality.


Edited: Anne @ Confessions and Scrap is so awesome! She created a button for me! You can snag one on the left sidebar! Please visit her blog. You will die of envy when you see her rubber stamp collection!

Got a Redneck Yard? Pop over to The Borrowed Abode and link up your post about your Redneck Yard and you could win a $25 Home Depot Gift Card! I'm posting my balcony!

Hey girls!

I'm sorry I've been MIA for a few days. After being on vaca with The Hubs a couple of weeks ago I got off of my routine and have finally finished digging myself out. I really, really thrive on routine and it takes me FOR-EV-A to get back on track.

So as promised here we are. My first ever link up party! I gotta admit I'm really intimidated and a little afraid no one will participate. Hold me.


Remember, this is all about your reality. I know it's super fun to check out hot before and afters; I'm a B&A junkie too, but sometimes they get me down you know? "Why can't -my- house look like that?" Sound familiar? Please tell me I'm not alone.

So here are the rules of our first After & Before Reality Check Link Party:

1. Please link directly to your post, not your blog's main page. Your post can be new or old - doesn't matter.
2. You must show us what your life really looks like before you stage tidy up show off your beautiful "After" photos. (Honestly though, if you have a kick butt post about how your reality is and it -doesn't- contain pictures...please link up anyway. This is all about supporting each other through times when the "before" takes over.)
3. Your post must include you keepin' it reals (sorry hehe).
4. You can link up as many times as you want.
5. I don't have a button but I would appreciate it forever if you would link to me in your post or somewhere on your blog page (not a blog roll).
6. Bonus points for you if you decide to promote my little linky party, but it's not required (just really, really encouraging!)
7. Encourage someone else who linked up. Remind them that when life gets in the way and things look like a tornado ripped through that they are most definitely not alone.

And without further adieu, my "real" Before:

Sometimes when you enter our apartment, this is what you see:

To the left is a giant pile for Goodwill that hasn't made it there yet. To the right you can sort of see my teeny tiny kitchen. To quote Peggy Lee, "That's All There Is". Told ya it was small.

This is what greets you on those days. Unorganized organizer? Check. Half eaten box of candy? Check check. HUGE box of K-cups we don't have room for in aforementioned tiny kitchen? Triple check.

This is what usually greets me on Monday morning. I personally like the two or three fast food cups on the side table and the two dog blankets rumpled in the middle of the sofa. Here's the deal - I don't like to spend my weekend cleaning. Hubs works long hours and I literally see him 3 or 4 hours a night on weeknights. Weekends are sacred, so come Monday morning I do a lot of tidying. But it's worth it.

Ah the dining room table - covered in crap from my purse, a few plastic shopping bags and some dry cleaning. Awesome.

Here's where I'm *ahem* creative. Anyone else have a pile of unfinished projects?

And last, but certainly not least...I'm ratting out The Hubs. 

That is Hub's shirt. In it's usual spot - the floor beside our bed. He swears is a "guy thing" and that he's going to wear it again (um...ew?) Does anyone else have that reality to deal with?

So there you go. My reality. It's not always that way. I do work hard to clean daily and keep things neat and tidy. Sometimes it actually does look like my "After" pictures. But sometimes life gets in the way and things don't go as planned (like say, when you go out of town for 5 days)...and that's OK. 

I really do hope you'll link up. I'd like this to be a time of commiseration for all of us; something we can giggle at and move on ready for more Afters.

After and Before Party

Edited to say that the rules have been updated at the actual party post. I started thinking about it and liked the second set better. Bloggers prerogative? haha

Hey ladies!

Last Friday I shared with you about "Reality"; how it often gets lost in our quest to look like we have it all together. So, I decided to do a little experiment to see how many of you would be willing to share your reality for a day. To show us what's really there before the camera snaps the gorgeous After. So here's what you can do...if you're up to the challenge (be brave girls!).

Next Friday, we'll have our first "After & Before Party". Yep, you read that correctly. After and Before. Here are the rules:

1. Compose a blog post about what your rooms look like before you start decrapifying or what they look like on any given day before you kick the crap out of the way and make your kids or husband move. ;)

2. Show us your After picture BEFORE your actual post.

3. Commiserate with at least two people around you. Get a good laugh at the fact that you aren't alone in your mess (We know it's not like that all the time. Life just has a habit of getting in the way sometimes - and that's O.K.).

This is an opportunity to show what life is really like at your house; to let friends in even though there's a mess sometimes; to let go of being self-conscious about it.

I'd really like a button for our After and Before party. Anyone know how to make one or can point me in the direction of a tutorial?

I'm really excited about this guys. I've been working on this idea all week and have already taken pictures of my pre-cleaning messy house. ;)  Get your blogs ready!

Cheap Laundry Trash Can Craft

Yesterday I wrote my post about how I dug in and dug out of my laundry room clutter and chaos. At the end of that post, I showed you this cute little trash bin that I made to go atop my dryer to catch lint, dryer sheets, etc:

I promised that today I'd tell you what it began life as, how much it cost me to make, and how I made it. So here goes:

Did you guess what it was? Here's an up close shot:

Well? Any ideas? 

If you guessed it was a $1.00 kid's beach pail from Walmart you were absolutely correct! After dragging my poor Hubs around Walmart for over an hour searching for the perfect little trash can to sit on top of the dryer and finding nothing, he suggested we check the kids section and we found this! 

I figured hey, it's a dollar. If I hate it, I'm not out much. And let me tell you, it's really working for me. It originally started out with a plastic handle and small shovel attached (but removable) so off those went. (I still have the shovel...pooper scooper anyone? Oh yes, I went there.)

I raided my craft supplies when I got home and found some ribbon from the Target dollar section (Can you even use Target dollar ribbon on a Walmart dollar pail? Are there laws on this? Someone let me know...) and used my favorite clear Tacky glue to adhere it to the edge of the pail.

Then I grabbed some coordinating ribbon and made the little bow. I also used a printable name badge to create the fun label. It says "Gifts for the Laundry Lady" mainly because lint and dryer sheets are about all I ever find when doing laundry. You'd think The Hubs would leave a twenty in a pocket just once. ;)

Here's a better shot of it on the dryer:

I am so stinkin' proud of this little thing. Who knew a dollar and a beach toy could make a grown woman so happy?

Linking this to (See sidebar for links):

20 Below Thursday @ Christina's Adventures

Hookin' Up with House of Hepworths

Laundry Area Spruce Up

Edited: As promised, you can check out how I made my cute trash bin here.

Before we left for our trip to Florida, I mentioned that I had made an insane list of things for myself to do, most of which had no bearing on our trip at all. One of those things was our laundry area. It's not a room by a long shot as our apartment seems to be shorted on functional workspace, but it seems to serve the purpose. The only problem was that recently, when I'd go in to throw a load in, I'd see this:

There's a dryer in there I promise. You just can't see it for all of the crap on top. Then I'd open the cabinet I designated for laundry supplies and see this:

I realize it could've been worse, but I was getting annoyed by how much stuff was in there. Some of which was garbage.

So I took an evening after The Hubs went to bed and did a purge of the cabinet. Here's what it looks like now:

I mentioned once before that my husband had splurged and bought me some nice Smith and Hawkin baskets from Target. They sit on top of the cabinetry in the laundry/pantry area and one holds our Food Saver and supplies and the other holds holiday cookie tins and our extra lunch boxes. I loved the little faux chalkboards on the sides. I used my Chalk Ink pens to label them. They look so cute up there!

Lastly, I gave the washer and dryer a good wipe down with some Clorox wipes and got caught up on our kitchen linen laundry. 

The basket (which was buried deep in the "before" picture) was an idea from our friends Chris and Jeneane. We were at their house once when I noticed they had a pretty basket casually set aside in their kitchen to catch dirty towels and cloth napkins. We'd been trying to cut back on paper products and I hated seeing a pile of dirty linens on top of the dryer so during my next craft store run, I snagged one 50% off. Now the napkins and dishtowels are corralled in a tidy, decorative way. This time out, I added the little DIY trash bin. Can you guess what it's made of? How about how much it cost? It was super cheap and it's great for catching dryer lint and fabric softener sheets. I just empty it when I'm done. 

I'll be back tomorrow with a run down on how I made the little trash can. 

What do you guys think of the new layout? Is the pink too shocking? I'm still experimenting. Let me know if you like it or hate it. ;) Cookies if you like it though.

Linked up to (You can find their links on my sidebar):

Blue Cricket Design Show and Tell Wednesdays

Handy Man, Crafty Woman - Wicked Awesome Wednesday

Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts

Workin', Workin'

I'm working on the blog layout and design. If it looks wonky that's why. Bear with me! :)

Christina

I have not forgotten you...

Hi all!

I swear I haven't forgotten about you or stopped blogging. Life has intervened and things around the Scrappy house need to get done. I was going to show you a picture of my To Do list, but felt a little self-conscious about how long it is...

Anyway, I will be back this week with more things (the blog is one of the things on the list!). I'm working hard, but not making much headway at the moment.

Christina aka The Scrappy Housewife

Coming Up: A Reality Check Link Party

You can find information about this link up party here.

In a phone conversation with a friend today, I realized that women are hyper-conscious about looking good to each other. By looking good, I don't mean appearance. I just mean we want things to look a certain way, to be put together either on ourselves or in our homes.

Think about this. The last time your friends came over for game night, movie night, cocktails, etc did you just relax all day and then welcome them with open arms or did you spend all day (or week?) cleaning and prepping so that everything would be perfect? Your kids would be bathed and well dressed, your husband would be too, your house would look it's best - clean, organized, the decor well thought out.

In blogland we post pictures of how our projects turned out, how the house looks when we kick the crap out of the way clean diligently for our "After" pictures, how the project turned out perfectly. But how often does that really happen?

As I spoke with my friend the words came out of her mouth, "I wouldn't want to subject you to this" as her house is mid-pre-baby remodeling. She was concerned that the dust and mess of all that remodeling in progress would look bad. And look, I get it. After being gone for five days my house is a wreck. We still haven't finished unpacking, laundry is sitting in the washer wet because I haven't gotten back to it and there are boxes that need to be hauled to the dumpster from two weeks ago. I wouldn't want anyone to see that either. It would make me look lazy, like I didn't know how to keep house or take care of my husband. And I clean, really, I do. I even have a daily job chart that I need to share with you all. And it -does- work for me.

But the truth is, life often gets in the way. Be it work, kids, family obligations or something else - sometimes things just don't get done. And there's nothing wrong with that. Only, we as women often fall into the trap of having to look perfectly put together; to continue the perfect image of Super Woman. I think in some ways it might be more difficult for us bloggers. We see gorgeous "afters" all the time and that little green monster creeps in and suddenly we have to hide the truth, our dirty little secret - sometimes "After" doesn't last that long. Sometimes we have to say, "I really don't want you to have to see this."

So here's what I'm thinking. We spend a lot of time on link parties showing off our best. Why not have a link party showing off our reality? Just once, let's show off what our lives are -really- like when the camera is turned off. Let's be proud of it; that our life isn't always put together and "After"-worthy because we actually
-live- our lives.

Next week I'm hosting my first link party. And I want you to share your reality. It's time we stopped feeling like crap just because things don't look perfect all the time. It's time to stop feeling bad about ourselves because our normal doesn't look like someone's after picture. It's time to let go of the blogland jealousy we sometimes feel because we don't have the same number of followers or because our projects don't look as professional as someone else's. It's time to get real.

Kitchen Organization - Part 2 - The Pantry

The weather is BEA.u.ti.ful here in sunny Florida. It was a needed change from the chilly, snowy "spring" we've had in Maryland this year. I'm not looking forward to going back to the weather. 

As I mentioned before I left for vacation, I wanted to show you what I was up to while I should have been packing. In the past, I've bragged about how *ahem* opulent our kitchen is. I knew that if I showed you just how awesome our kitchen was, you'd be forever jealous of me and stop reading the blog entirely...and then I woke up from my dream world. ;) Let me show you.

Here is my pantry:

Yep. That closet is my pantry. Please, don't envy me. ;) OK, really though, that's it. It's a pre-fab Rubbermaid or Closetmaid cabinet made of MDF. It's about as spectacular as you'd imagine. It's serviceable, but it has definite drawbacks, but since it's a rental we can't change, it's what we've got.

Here's the before picture of the top portion:

It's easy to see the the main problem. It's a black hole. What goes in, doesn't stay where it should and usually crashes down on you. The spaces are at least an arm-length deep. Once something ends up way in the back, it's stuck. 

Problem number two above: you can't see what's in there. There's a small overhead light in the pantry/laundry area, but it's not great and certainly not enough to illuminate the interior of the cabinet. That's not a dark picture, that's a dark pantry.

Problem number three (Below):

Supporting all of the shelves are these little plastic clips that are supposed to, in theory, hold them in place, only the ones in our pantry are all different and very, very brittle. When we first moved in there just weren't enough clips to hold up all the shelving and on top of that the ones we did have were breaking right and left. 

Needless to say, I'd had my fill and by last week I was ready to fix what I could. So I ran to Home Depot and bought these little beauties:

These little things are metal shelf clips from Rubbermaid. I chose metal because I thought they'd be more sturdy and not break in 6 months under the weight of my stockpile. I was on a mission to replace the horrible plastic ones even though I don't own this apartment. I have to live here and if that meant spending $12.00 on 4 packs of metal shelf clips, so be it. 

Next I bought two sliding basket organizers from Bed, Bath and Beyond. They were $20.00 each, which was a splurge, but they don't have to be installed and we can take them with us when we go.

I emptied everything out of the pantry and wiped down the shelves. Then I created labels using some printable sticky name badges and scrapbook paper. (I'm not the "Scrappy" Housewife for no reason. ;) ) The blue goo in the box below is sticky tack I used as a teacher. It's great for mounting things non-permanently.

I purged quite a bit and then started replacing the items we planned to keep. Here are the labels stuck t the shelves with the goo:

Here's the after of the bottom segment. I used one of  the baskets to store my baking supplies and hung my cooling racks on the insides of the doors using (of course) Command Hooks. They fit perfectly in the space between the door and the shelves.

Here's an after of the top shelves. I used the other basket unit to store our non-perishables/dry goods stockpile and stored our pancake supplies next to it. All of our thermal food carriers are on the top shelf. And did you see what I did with the labels for the top section? Since I'm short and wouldn't be able to see the labels from the top down, I stuck them on the top! Now I can see what should go where at a glance. 

There is only one section I haven't really gotten to yet, but I only plan on swapping the placement of these items because we use the casseroles all the time, but not so much on the pizza stone or soup crocks.

Confession time: Do you ever just get so excited when organizing that you lose sight of what you're doing and overlook something? Yeah. I purged so much and was feeling so proud of myself that I started hurrying to get to the "After" and uh, forgot to finish changing out all of the shelf clips. So guess what I'll be doing when we get home? ;)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and I'll be back with more on Monday!