Purging and Clarity

simplify via homegrown hospitality

With all the losing photos, morning sickness, fatigue and all, I got way behind blogging. And now, I can't get my camera too load pics or work half the time, it's always one thing after another, isn't it? But people, I am due with my little baby girl in 3 WEEKS! And we still don't have a name for her. Hubs is stuck on one, and one day I love it and the next day it gives me a sour face just thinking about it. So... for anyone who asks about a name, I'm sure you will all be just as surprised as I will be on what it is.

free simplify printable, marjorie pay hinckly quote via it works for bobbi

Right now, I'm in a major purging mood. I feel like clutter and junk, and my dog's smelly skin particles, and the smelly rotting wood from the bathroom cabinets (dang rental) are just like sticking to me and I can't breathe. Pretty major clutter anxiety meltdown here. (And no, it's not totally nesting, I've been feeling this way for a looong time!) If I could just dump about 75% of my belongings and furniture in a box and haul it off and gets lots of money, I would be thrilled, and would in all honesty, probably not miss a single thing. But when I get down into the organizing, I have a hard, HARD time figuring out what to do with it all.

 how to yard sale, for buyers and sellers via nester

We could use the cash a garage sale, or craigslist/ebay whatever would merit, but with a barely working camera and the major headache of a garage sale and a husband who works most Saturdays lately and a broken down truck in the driveway.... I don't know if it's even worth it. I did sale some furniture already, (though I deeply regret selling this chair)... but I really need new couches (and to repair that dang truck) and so the money, even if not much sounds great. So, I know it will either be a garage sale, or I am calling up a charity to come and haul off tons and tons of boxes and can only hope that we could get a decent tax write off.

  declutter list via little lucy lu

Since I'm clearly not in the right frame of mind for decision making, I'm off to see what I can part with and throw them all in boxes! These helpful and simple declutter tactics and this awesome post on 99 ways to simplify life with kids are giving me some strength! I want to live more simply, a "tiny life", in a organized and refreshing atmosphere that doesn't stress me out every time I open a cabinet door looking for a cake pan, and tons of old pots and such fall on my toe.

Inspired Room: My House of Giggle's Dreamy Striped Bedroom

 Tracey of My House of Giggles featured her lovely gray and white striped bedroom so I am finally getting around to showing you some of it. Be sure to visit her best of 2010 projects, they are all so beautiful and full of inspiration. I love her use of gray, blues and white, and the careful additions of stripes. I tried my own striped little cake pedestal stand, and though I love it, I simply could not get the lines to be as straight as I would have liked.

 Her chandelier work is enchanting, and so inspiring. See how she did another one here.

  I would never have thought of using two, thin, ornate contrasting colored mirrors like this. Love it.

 As a jewelry designer, I am in desperate need of cute and creative ways to store jewelry, I adore these.

 I did ballet as a toddler, does that count if I want to add some ballet slippers in my room?!

 Aren't her flower paintings lovely? She also has an etsy shop, which is currently closed, 

but hopefully she will add more items soon!

A Tisket A Tasket...

I found a room with a wire tiered basket and became obsessed so here are my ideas for you...

When I saw this photo of a gorgeous eclectic farmhouse style kitchen taken by photographer James Merrell (his website here), I fell in love. There were so many other great photos of this room, but alas I can't remember where I saw them, so this will have to suffice.

Ebay, looks a lot like the one in the above photo!

So many wonderful treasures can be stored within those perfectly rusted and delicately entwined metal weavery bliss. (I do realize that sentence made no "technical" sense, but considering the subject matter, does it really need to I ask?)

This idea is originally for an Easter setting by Better Homes and Gardens, but really, it can be adjusted for any season. Follow this link for more Easter setting ideas.

Here you can see how useful a tiered basket can be as a craft organizer (I wonder if it would make toy cars look more appealing?!) I found this photo at Pajama Mama in her post entitled Creatively Frugal Craft Space Organization... follow the link for some great ideas!

Pat Sloan's sewing room can be seen on Stitchin' Heaven. She has TWO metal baskets for thread and crafts storage. Brilliant!

Country Living graces our eyes with this patriotic table setting, using a what? A tiered metal basket, of course! Here are the rest of the photos for this setting.

Gypsy Mermaid's lovely craft space is full of treasures, and two metal tiered baskets!

These are not tiered baskets, but metal none the less and Mish Mash has an excellent vintage styled craft room that will make your heart melt, take a peek here!

Pretty Tasty Cakes has a buttercream springtime cake on an adorable metal bird stand. See here for more images and an extremely well made baking how to.

Bonne Fete has this lovely creame wire stand, look how lovely it is as a centerpiece with ornaments, gifts, flowers, and even popcorn!

Once again, Country Living provides us with this charming outdoor setting, with a glass tiered centerpiece. I would love to see some cupcakes and flowers on that! Image found here at this interesting little site.

Michelle of Mish Mas has done it again with this display, Gorgeous use of a bell jar, birds nest, moss, flowers, hanging baskets... perfection!

Here's Pottery Barn's take, use it for silverware, napkins and lemons!

Another Country Living craft room, great ideas here!

So, as you can see all of you non fruit eaters (tsk tsk), that wire baskets need not be only for healthy and yummy fleshy pieces of food, but for flowers, plants, eggs, crafts storage, centerpiece ideas... I found several on Etsy, Ebay, as well as looking through a Google image search, but I am sure you can also find some thrifting around! Happy hunting!