Homemade Potpourri

A year ago, I got rid of all my Bath and Body Works Wallflowers that I was pretty much addicted to for years.  I went cold turkey. One day unplugged them all, and haven't used them since.  I also don't hardly ever burn candles unless we just really have something going on in here.  I made that choice for the health and true cleanliness of our home.  When I was introduced to Norwex, I started researching about lots of products in the common home and was determined to rid our house of all the chemicals I could.  I like to say our house is mostly a chemical free home but  there are still a few areas that needs some work.

Now that we don't use any air fresheners there are still those times when I just want our house to have a smell.  I have been seeing some Homemade Potpourri recipes and just had to try some for myself.

I decided to do oranges and vanilla.  I love the clean citrus smell of oranges and absolutely love everything vanilla so they should be great together right?

Here's what I did:
-I cut up 2 little cuties with the rind still on, put them in a saucepan.
-Then added 3 tsp vanilla.
-Brought to a boil, then let it simmer for the morning.

 It smelled wonderful and did fill the house with the scent.   I could really smell the vanilla.  I think I would even be just fine with boiling a little vanilla because that scent alone is like heaven to me.

What about you, have you ever made any homemade potpourri or something similar?

Jewelry Organization

Jewelry is hard to organize, especially necklaces.  I have bought multiple different organizers over the years and none of them worked well for necklaces.  Then one day I was browsing Pinterest and saw the greatest idea to hold them, a TOWEL BAR.   Our master bath had a random towel bar (excuse the ugly gold, we haven't switched over our bathroom fixtures yet)  over the garden tub and it just held a decorative towel we never used so it was the perfect place for this.  All I had to do was take the towel off, and put on some shower hooks and viola, add the necklaces and I was done.  I have been using this for about a year now and love it.  I can easily see and get to all of my necklaces and they are never tangled!  

Have you ever blogged about jewelry organization, if so, comment with your posts, I'd love to see how you all organize! 

Happy Wednesday!

inking up with Semi Homemade Mom for Show and Share Wednesdays!

Spring Wreath

It's show and share Wednesday.  Linking up today Semi Homemade Mom

Last week I posted some pictures of some wreaths I liked in this post here and wanted to make but needed help on deciding which one.

 I thought I finally had decided, went to Hobby Lobby turned undecided and spent an hour in there walking around aimlessly.  The flowers weren't on sale.  I'm pretty sure they are always on sale except for when I want them.  I didn't want to have to buy full price flowers, especially not $8 hydrangeas, a $70 wreath was not in my budget.

I knew I had a bunch of pink flowers I liked at home leftover from my sisters bridal shower so I decided not to buy any flowers and ended up leaving Hobby Lobby with a wreath form and a letter J.  (both of which I could of gotten at home and not at Hobby Lobby 75 minutes away from home)

Regardless of wasting some time and being frustrated for an hour trying to make a decision I did get home and get a wreath made.  It worked with what I had, was cheap, quick and easy and turned out great!

Here she is, my new spring wreath......

My last one sure had a long run.  I made it last spring, planned on making a new fall/winter/ Christmas/ Easter one and never did so it has been hanging there for the majority of the last year!  I love looking at wreaths on Pinterest for some reason.  It's a weird obsession.  We will see how long this one lasts.  It's definetly a spring/ summer one so will have to replace this one sooner than the last.

Here's the rundown of how simple this wreath was.
Supplies-  Straw wreath form, Burlap wired ribbon (found mine at Wal-mart), wooden letter, white paint, flowers, push pins and hot glue gun.

First I wrapped the wreath in the burplap ribbon and used push pins at the start and ending spots.  Then I pinned the flowers on the one side.  Painted the letter J white, then once it dried put it on with some hot glue and lastly pinned a few flowers around the letter and viola!  Quick and Easy, my kind of diy project since I have the patience and attention span of my 3 year old.


Are  there any Spring crafting projects on your list?  Would love to hear about them!

Kids Closet Oranization

This is my real-life boys closet.   My two boys share a room and that means they also have to share a closet.  The thing can get full, we always only have room for one season so it's about to get tricky come warmer weather.  I have a tendency to probably buy a few too many clothes for my kids.

Here is a look at the whole closet

On the very top shelf you can hardly see, I store baby blankets and the bins are for items outgrown and items that I have purchased for the next season that don't need to be hung up yet.  

Then the top row is all tops for my youngest and I try to keep them in order from everyday shirts to polos, to button ups that way everything is always easy to find.  

The middle bins are for supplies (we keep wipes in there since I buy a massive bulk box from Amazon every few wipes), hangers, and outgrown clothing.

The next row of hanging is for my 3 year old and I organize his the same way.  

At the bottom we have shoe shelves for their extra shoes.  The ones they normally wear are in the garage.  

Then on the left side, I have two hanging sweater organizers.  I love these and they worked so well in here I ended up getting one to add to my walk in closet hanging section because I liked putting stuff that I would normally put in drawers in it instead.  The far left one I use right now for an abundance of sweatshirts and bulky items so it doesn't take up the hanging space.  Then the right one, is all pants.  Each boy has 3 shelves 1 for dress pants, jeans, and sweatpants.  

The bins on the floor are for out of season shoes, extra blankets and sheets.  

Then we are lucky with Noah's current bed because we have some massive drawers in the bottom.  We use the left one for pajamas, socks and underwear and the right one to store extra diapers, swim diapers and swim stuff.  I love how big these drawers are.  I order diapers the same way through Amazon and we get a huge amount of once.  

Closets are one of my favorites things to organize.  I love the custom cabinetry stuff, but found these items for cheap when we moved in and they work great for us!  

Linking up with Semi Homemade Mom for Show and Share Wednesday!