Spring Cleaning List

Good morning!!!

One of my goals for the month of April was to complete my Spring Cleaning... to-date not much has been crossed off my list but on the bright side... at least I made a list!

Holding off on cleaning until Emma has her big birthday sleepover... I'm sure that there will be a few messes to clean after this Saturday night!

Spare Bedroom: Blinds

I'm so happy to report that we have fixed one large issue with our spare bedroom! We have added blinds!

I think that this is a huge plus because now our guests will not feel exposed when changing!! AND no more early morning sun rays waking up guests.

We went with the AWESOME Honeycomb Shades from Select Blinds that we also have installed in the other bedrooms in our house. The ones in this room are both light filtering and cordless.

These blinds have been sitting down in our spare bedroom for about two months now.  Nothing like putting off a 5 minute project for two months. I mean these blinds are SUPER easy to put in... In reality it took Matt more time to get a few tools together... and the best part is that you do not even need to measure anything!

Here is my cute hubby getting all of the hardware together that came with the blinds. You can just tell that he is loving this camera in his face!

This is Matt's FAVORITE utility knife... every time he uses it he asks if he has told me how much he likes it...

It is a Milwaukee Fastback Flip Utility knife

Now for the easy part... Instillation!

If you have a right angle on your window you are able to even cut out these first two steps... but it you have caulking (like we do) between out windows and molding you will need to cut out a notch to make a space for the brackets to sit flush on the window...

Matt simply help up the bracket approximately 2 inches from the outside of the window and used his razor to cut on each side of the bracket. and cut the caulking out.

He repeated this step on the other side of the window as well so that we had two notches in the top caulking.

Next, Matt made sure that the hardware fit in and was flush.

Here are our two notches...

Now to pull out the big guns... or more accurately, the electric drill.

Matt swears by this little guard thing that goes over your screw... he said that it holds the screw in place so that the drill does not slip and bang out the molding... I'm not able to provide a very technical explanation but it makes sense to me.

Now place two screws into the wall.

and one screw into the top.

Repeat on other side and grab your shade because you're ready to install!

Clip the shade into the front of the brackets and snap into the back! DONE!!!!

BAM... it was that easy!!!

I love that you are able to move the shade up and down easily WITHOUT a cord! All about baby safety in the Park Household

Select Blinds typically has a buy 3 get 1 free sale and today they even have 30% off your order. A very good deal!

Spare Bedroom Mood Board

Yesterday I shared my VERY sad Spare Bedroom which is BADLY in need of some updates!

Since we do not have visitors very frequently I would like for this room to serve multiple purposes...

• Guest Room
• Storage room
• Julie's Shoe Closet
• Sewing Room

Here is what I have in mind for room layout...

and here is what I have in mind for room design.

Rug, chandelier, Large Basket, Burlap Message Board, Leather Side Chair, Styled Expedit Bookcase, DIY Sunburst Mirror, Console Table, Bedding, Painted Dresser

So much to do!!! Better get busy!

Spare bedroom: Before

Our spare bedroom has acted as a catch all for random furniture and storage but that is all about to change because I have a new motivation... Matt's mom will be coming to stay with us for a few days mid-month!

Time to get our act together and mark off a few DIY projects that we have been putting off!

Here are some before photos of the room that we are working with.

This is at time of purchase... an empty little room:

And here is the sad room in its current state... The room really is a catch all with all of my summer clothes under the bed, ill fitting linens, and a closet full of Emma's baby doll toys and my shoes... so random.

Look at this eye sore.. the panel has been off the wall since Christmas because one of the fuses was starting to go bad and it now makes a humming noise. Matt purchased the new fuse a while ago but just has never completed the project.

Look at these EMPTY windows... this room gets a lot of light especially first thing in the morning. A HUGE to-do is to get some blinds in here and curtains.

Another Empty Window... and a BIG empty wall. we will need to get our DIY on to personalize this space and make it seem warmer.

A majority of the randomness in this room is actually Emma's... While we were redoing her room this was her "temporary" space. As a result I had moved ALL of her toys and personal items down here and not all were moved back upstairs when she moved back into her real room. Maybe this is an indication that these items can be donated??? I'm sure that if I were to ask her she would protest that they were her very favorite toys that she could NEVER live without... Well of course except for the three months that they have been in the basement unused...

This book case could use some better styling and we need to figure our what to do with the random toys. 

A lot to take on in this room... but at least we have a good foundation! I'm going to keep the walls light green. I love this color it is Spring Melt from Martha Stewart and just is so fresh, airy, and crisp.

Time to get my mood board on!

Quick Easter Peeps Project!

I know that Easter is over but I had to share this EASY peeps project with all of you because it turned out so well!

 I used all item purchased from the Dollar Tree:

- Peeps
- Cellophane bags
- Ribbon
- Chocolate Chips
- Sprinkles

Step 1: Get all of your materials together... I lined a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and a cooling rack on top. I didn't want for my chocolate to stick to the pan!

Step 2: Place chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and cook in 30 second increments removing to stir in between cooking times. Repeat until chocolate chips are fully melted

Step 3: Dip your peep bunnies (or any other animal) into the melted chocolate

Step 4: while the chocolate is still melted... add sprinkles

Step 5: Package in cellophane bag and tie with ribbon.

and ENJOY! We had some special deliveries to our neighbors on Saturday night!

April Checklist

I've truly enjoyed using the Simplify 101 Monthly Checklists! Even though I'm guilty of not always checking the boxes... it gives me something to work towards and it helps me prioritize.

Here is what I hope to check off for the month of April...

Get your April Checklist here!

Recap of the March Checklist... Fail

What a slacker two days without a post! I've been a busy bee however!

Between work, getting ready for the kiddos Easter, Easter brunch at my house for 12, Emma's NINTH birthday next week, and 9 Girls over at our house for a sleep over in the next two weeks... there is just A LOT going on!

On top of ALL of the above.. if that were not enough to have on my pate... I will also start traveling in April with my boss AND Matt's amazing mom will be coming for a visit!

Generally JUST A LOT TO DO AND GET DONE!

I'm going to be sharing my April check list soon but first needed to close out the month of March... I have to admit that I don't think that I did too well. There were no huge projects this month due to our family ski trip to Colorado... so I'm not coming out of the month with a feeling of accomplishment... even though I did get a few lingering projects done.

Here is my March Checklist:

Case and point... didn't do too hot...

Here is a breakdown:

Set goals for the Month: Completed I set some goals... maybe didn't follow through as well as I had hoped

Check Monthly Tickler folder: I think that the most helpful part about the folder is that I have pre-purchased some Birthday cards and I place them in the folder with a post-it on who they belong to and I already have the address on the envelope! Makes it so easy to stay on top of birthdays!

Create a Spring Cleaning Checklist: Made a checklist... Cannot say that I've done much to cross things off of it however.

De clutter & Organize Clothes / Make a spring Shopping list: Gap Friends and Family helped me out with this one. I got some great stuff for Emma and Hunter.

Inventory Easter Baskets / Spring Home Decor: So Easter is Sunday and I still have to put up one thing and take my photos... but I'm going to consider this one to be complete... I also had a lot of Easter decorations that were not really my style anymore so those items were donated.

File Taxes: SOOOO not done. I did create a "tax station" to allow for us to keep all tax documents together as they come in through the mail.

Get Ready for Storm Season: Also not something that I have even thought about. I really feel like we need to generally be better prepared... not talking prepper status here... but just a happy medium. One of my main concerns is with the fact that Emma is with her dad two nights a week and say something happened while she was not with me and communication was down... how do we contact each other and were would be a good place to meet up. She is my amazing little girl and I know that my first thought would be to get to her as soon as possible.

Spring clock forward: Yeah if I didn't already do this I would be one late girl!

Wash light fixtures / Cleaning mini zone / Smoke Detectors / Carbon monoxide detector: All things that are on my spring cleaning list that I have not done... Dude, I'm having a hard enough time keeping my kitchen counter clean and dishes done... let alone a deep clean of the house.

Fix Something Broken: I fixed a one handled basket!!!

Colorado Ski Trip:  Went and had a great time! The trip was not without its ups and downs but all and all it was a great time and I look forward to going again next year.

Organize Photos.... Not even going to go there... Yes this item has been on my list since January!