Organizing- The Bedroom Closet

When we built our house a few years ago, at the top of my short list of requests was my very own closet, I didn't want to share a bedroom closet with my husband. Our house plan showed a walk-in closet but I knew that would never work! I wanted my own space for my clothes and so did my husband. For some reason I can remain organized in all rooms of our house except for my closet. I have no idea what the problem is, but if you ask my mom, she would tell you I've always been that way. Well mom, I have finally conquered my messy closet syndrome! It's been 5 days - all is clean and tidy in the closet area!
For the past 4 years, I have wasted my money on purchased several organizing bins, space bags, shelves, totes, baskets, hanging bins, shoe organizers, etc., and still nothing worked, nothing was organized the way I envisioned it in my head. But over the weekend I had a revelation and decided that maybe I had too much stuff! So I revisited my Peter Walsh organizing book and started with 3 piles - keep, give away, and throw. And then the 3 important questions for each item, 1. does it fit me? 2. does it look good on me? 3. do I love it?  And you know how this goes, the answer has to be "yes" to  all 3 questions, then you can keep the item.
At the end of this I could lie and say 3 grueling 5 hour process I had 2 huge, somewhat overflowing, garbage bags of shoes and clothes for donating, 1 small bag for the trash, and I kept only the items (shoes, clothes, and jewelry) that I currently wear, hopefully look good on me, and that I love.
I removed 2 entire shelves from my closet, a hanging shoe bin, and 40 clothes hangers! And guess what? It felt great! I attached a hook behind the door for my robe, (yes I did say 1 robe no longer 3 robes). I kept my fabric bins and labeled them with recipe cards attached with a plastic clothes pin - thanks for that idea Angie, this is so I can switch the labels without ruining the fabric on the bins. Now I don't have to keep dragging out a stool to take the bins off the top shelf to see what's in them. They are still on the top shelf because they are seasonal items or things I don't use on a regular basis. I decided to limit my number of shoes to 1 basket, this was not easy because I love love love shoes! I chose my favorite shoes to place in the basket first and decided that any shoes left over were off to the donate pile. I tucked my huge glass change jar (fun money) in the corner so it's out of the way and moved my standing mirror to the other corner (rather than in our bedroom). As I stood in the doorway of my "new" closet I took a deep breath and finally felt free from all of that "stuff".

 

Happy organizing!
Love and peace,
~ Simply Tammi

Updating A Mirror With Paint

I have had this framed mirror hanging around my house in different rooms for years. Most recently it's been in the Dining Room. I really like the size of it, but I wanted to give it a new look. I used Black Acrylic paint with just a little water added, a brush, taped off the mirror. I put paper on the wall around the edges and painted it-right on the wall!  It took less than 30 minutes! Now my mirror...and my room, have a whole new look! 

~ Angie

Cooking Ahead for the Week

Wow - what a crazy busy week! I'm not sure if it's just me but it seems that the summer days are flying by! Busy schedules means projects are piling up! So I have decided I needed to get back on track. I started with a suggestion from my husband, food! I guess in retrospect I can't really remember what we ate for supper last week, but I'm sure we ate! During the summer, I'm sure I could live on yogurt, granola, veggies, and fruit, but it seems that my husband is asking for a little more than that - haha!!
Here are a few of my tips:

• For the grill: I always grill a few types of meat, fish or poultry at the same time. My usual routine includes 3-4 chicken breasts (enough for 3-5 meals), 2 buffalo burgers (enough for 1 meal), and a pound of cod wrapped in foil (enough for 2-3 meals). 
• My favorite side grilled dish: Wrap in foil: baby potatoes, zucchini cut in 1 inch chunks, red onions cut in 1/2 inch chunks, 2 garlic cloves diced, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary, oregano, basil, and fresh ground pepper. 
• I freeze the items that I won't be using within a few days. We love pasta meals so I slice my extra chicken breasts and freeze them after I grill them. Then when I am ready to make pasta, I take them out of the freezer and add them my pasta.
• In the kitchen cooking: Yesterday I made yummy goulash, roast chicken with vegetables, and penne pasta with goat cheese and vegetables. (Recipes coming later). We had chicken and vegetables for supper, the leftovers went to the freezer with the goulash and pasta dishes.
• Make a quick snack item such as the Healthy Energy Bites while your other food is cooking. These don't involve any cooking and are easy to put together. The kids love them too! 
• Leftover coffee? Remember to pour it into a quart jar (or container) and store it in the refrigerator. I continue to add leftover coffee for the week and use it for iced coffee or an iced vanilla latte.

Healthy Energy Bites

If you have some good ideas to share, we'd love to hear from you! Angie and I hope you are all enjoying your summer and making some great memories!
Love and peace,
~ Simply Tammi

Refrigerator Dill Pickles

The other day the Farmer's Market had pickling cucumbers and fresh dill available and I just couldn't resist, I ended up buying 4 pounds of cucumbers and a couple bunches of dill.  I found several recipes that I had used in the past and adapted a little from all of them to make these refrigerator dills. They were ready to eat about 2-3 days later. This recipe made 6 quarts of crunchy, delicious pickles!

What you need:

• Jars, I used Quart size
• 4 pounds pickling cucumbers or you can use regular cucumbers if that's what you have
• fresh dill, I used about 3 heads per jar(2 on bottom and 1 on top)
• fresh garlic, I used one clove in each jar
• one large onion sliced
• 1 Tablespoon of sugar per quart jar

For the brine:

• 12 cups water
• 5 cups white vinegar
• 1 cup salt, I used sea salt but you can use pickling salt also

Bring brine to a boil.

In each quart jar:
add 1 slice of onion, 1 clove of garlic and 2 sprigs of dill on the bottom, then put in the sliced cucumbers(I cut the ends off then sliced them the long way) and added another sprig of dill on top. Add 1 Tablespoon of sugar on top before pouring the hot brine over. (I used a funnel, be careful it is very hot) Put on lids and bands, let cool and then refrigerate (unless you are canning them, then they will keep longer).  If you aren't canning, they can be kept in the fridge up to 3 months. Once opened use within about 7 days.  I made 6 quarts but I packed my cucumbers pretty loosely in the jars and I did have some brine left over.

Enjoy!
~Simply Angie