How we will NOT spend $100 everytime we go to Target

Ok.... so when you all go to Target you walk out with around $100 worth of stuff too , right?  I know I can't be the only one. Right? And only 1 out of every 10 times did we  actually intend on spending that much money. 

Their store designers/ marketing/ shelf putter-uppers are geniuses.

To quote the movie,  "Twilight"..."Everything about us invites you in...our look, our smell, the way we stock our shelves".  Ok, well maybe that last part wasn't from the movie but that's how it feels to me.  I'm powerless to stop it.

If we do walk out of there under $100, my husband and I almost give each other a high five. I know I'm all kinds of giddy on the inside.

I started thinking the other day... what I can do to stop the madness? Only get what we NEED, then get out and....wait for it.....only go once a month!!! What??!!!  That's crazy talk.

We are in Target every week.  I'm not kidding. We are always forgetting that we are out of something and then going back which means there goes another hundred dollars. Bye bye.

All I can think is spreadsheet here we come. I know I'm not the first blogger to make a spreadsheet to go shopping but I haven't seen one about Target yet.   I'm going to make a list of things we regularly buy at Target and then we have to stick to the list.  We will be able to put some specialty items on the list when before we go that are regular items  but  again. I know this isn't rocket science but it actually took some thought to come up with this list and I want to share it with you.

 If it ain't on the list,  me no buy.  ( I love to let go of the English language every once and a while) I'll give you an update soon and let you know how it's going.

Here is the list. I did one in Excel and a blank one as a PDF that way you can change all of the items in the list to what you and your family need if you would like. If you want to make your own and like the font, I used a free font called Wisdom Script. To download the font, you have to type in 0 for the cost and just hit download.

And the tiny red boxes are the font Wingdings, the  upper case letter Q.

( It doesn't seem that either version I uploaded  kept the fonts visually. I'll keep trying to figure that out. Until, then you can download the font above or substitute any old font you like.)

The List (Google Excel Version)

The List (PDF Blank version)


Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -DIY Show Off
-I should be mopping the Floor


Tuesday
 My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime -The Winthrop Chronicles

Wednesday
 Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
 -SNAP

Thursday
Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
- The Shabby Cottage The Taylor House- House of Hepworths  Bloom Designs

Friday
Naptime Crafters - Young and Crafty -  My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now

Saturday

Six Sister's Stuff

Cheerios and Lattes

Linky Party Organizer ( Printable and Downloadable)

Long Long ago..... you know, March or April of this year, I started really participating in linky parties.  I had linked up to some before attending Bloggy Boot Camp-Saint Louis.  After being there and meeting some great ladies and hearing all of the advice,  I really ramped up my involvement.  So involved that I didn't know which projects had been shared with which linky parties. Oops!

I decided to make a Excel spreadsheet with the days of the week, linky parties I participated in, and  which projects I shared.  I've been using this form ever since.  It didn't dawn on me until talking to a friend, that not everybody knows how to use Excel or make spreadsheets. So I thought I would share mine with you. I'm by no means an expert. But I can be quite dangerous looking up how to do things on Google.

                                                       Click  here to download

It's not super fancy or cute but it works and helps me remember ( you know that mommy brain) what I linked up and who I linked up with. I type in the name of  the post I am linking up in the column with the date on it.  If for some reason I didn't link up that week, people don't have the party that week, it's not up  in the morning, or I'm sick... I will type an x in the space. See in the green circle,vacation.

I've already set up the dates for you on  the top to be every seven days depending on the day of the week. And the far right column that has the linky party names is frozen so you can move the dates over and not have to scroll off the page. Try it. It's fun. (1) To unfreeze it go up to View, Freeze Panes, Un Freeze Panes. (2) Easy as that.

 Your tabs will be on the bottom for the different days. (3) I left  the linky parties that I  like and link up to in there. You should check them out. They are all great ladies who throw great parties. If you don't need any more parties, then you can  start fresh and type in your own over mine.(1) I don't have any on Sundays right now. It's just too busy for me.

I've also made a more user friendly option for those that want to print something out and put it in a binder, which I may do myself...someday. You know, when I start on that to-do list.

 There is a vertical list and a horizontal list. I will say that the horizontal list gives you way more space for linky parties and columns to type in.  These were all done in Excel. I can always figure out how to make them into blank forms if people want. Or PDFs.  I'm still learning this printable thing.

                                                              Vertical - Horizontal

I couldn't figure out how to make the border go all the way around. So if you know, let me know, and  I'll fix it for everyone else.   I hope this can help someone else stay as organized as it has helped me.

On a side note- it took all day ( in between mommy stuff)  to figure out how to get this to you guys.  I normally use Google Docs for my downloadable stuff but it took my Excel file and did wonky things with them. So this time I am using Drop Box.  You get 2.5 GB free. That's a pretty good amount.

Again, if something isn't working , let me know. I want help you, not confuse or frustrate you. :)

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY Show Off
DIY Shop - Lines Across My Face -I should be mopping the Floor
Great Fun 4 Kids

Tuesday
How to Nest For Less - Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime - Debbie Does Creations - Funky Polka Dot Giraffe
The Winthrop Chronicles

Wednesday
 Thrifty Home - Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
- Junk in Their Trunk  - Southern Lovely  -SNAP

Thursday
 Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
Loving this Crazy Life - The Shabby Cottage
The Taylor House- House of Hepworths 
Two In Diapers-Mommy Brain Mixer


Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty -  My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now
Here Comes the Sun

Saturday

Six Sister's Stuff
Cheerios and Lattes
Natasha in Oz -Say G'Day

Magazine Organization ( for those of us with a problem)

I LOVE MAGAZINES!!!!

I read them so fast that people (mainly my family) make fun of me. I currently get seven subscriptions to my house:

- Family Fun
- Better Homes and Gardens
- Redbook
- Family Circle
- Parenting
- Family Handyman ( hubby's)
- Money (hubby got it but I read it too)

And my mom gets "O" magazine too, which she shares.

So I only had 20 pages from 14 magazines. Pretty good for me.

So after I read them in lighting fast time, There are always some articles that I want to keep or remember something from. I just can't seem to get rid of them. And in the age before e-books and me having no apps for this.... I started my binder system.

First, I figured out my categories:

-Self Help
-Money Stuff
-Mom/Kid stuff
-Beauty(Makeup/Hair/Clothes)
-Inspiration
-Organization

I found these dividers.....

Isn't that a cool tree in that ad?

and these tabs.

Then I take my really old hole punch, punch some holes, and start adding my articles. They make new ones with levers that are much more hard core. I really need to invest in one.

Now whenever I find articles that I can't live without, I have a place to putt hem without taking up valuable bookshelf space. I also go through the binder once every few months to weed out any articles that I haven't looked at or don't apply anymore. I always tell myself  that if I can't fit anymore in the binder, then I can't keep anymore.

After I have gone through my magazines, I then share with my sister and my mom and they when they are done with them we recycle them. We have a great little system so that we know which magazines from each other we have and haven't looked at.  I write an EM, my sister writes an L, and mom writes an S in marker at the top of the magazines.  I even take my old magazines with kids themes to my daughter's preschool. The teacher says they like to use them for cutting practice and just making stuff. It's a nice way to recycle.

I know....that cook book has seen better days.  It's well loved.

What's in my purse?

S was going through my purse today as she does any time it gets near her tiny hands and I thought ..hmm... I wonder if everyone else has such random stuff in their purses.

So here is what is in my purse today:

-Sunglasses
-Carmex Vanilla lip balm (smells good)
-pen ( stolen from somewhere)
-pictures of my kids in plastic sleeves and some that should be
-Bath and Body  sanitizer, Sagittarius. It was from back last year.
-Car keys with school door pass attached. It's high level security over there. it's a good thing.
-Receipts from Trader Joes, Well Body,  and Target
-Gift cards from : Bath and Body, Toys r Us, Crate and Barrel, and Kohls
-Cell Phone ( I wish it was an IPhone)
-Small point and shoot Canon in it's case for those quick shots
-a scratch off ticket...... that didn't win.
-a Powerball ticket...... that didn't win
-STL ZOO membership card... a lifesaver
-STL county Library card and mini card ( why do I have both in there?)
-SAMS club card
-WellBody Business cards
-Victoria Secret measuring tape ( it comes in really handy everywhere. You'd be surprised)
-Two free passes to the Museum of Transportation
- How to plant a raised bed garden brochure from Home Depot.( It's a goal of mine this summer)
- Change
- two barrettes
-pieces of gum and goldfish crackers ( eewww)

I challenge my other bloggy friends to do the same and share what's in your bag?

Organize the South Side : Clothes

Sorry it's blurry but you get the idea. Those are bags and boxes of extra clothes/

My sister L wanted me to help her organize.... and she has stuff. Alot of stuff. And she does have a house but she wants to reduce the amount of stuff in that house and in her life. Ah... the whole metaphor for our houses representing our lives. Deep.

She has many categories we will be tackling:
-Clothes
-Shoes
-Bags
-Magazines
-Books
-Paper Stuff
-Kitchen Stuff
-Memorabilia
-Dog Stuff

Stack of t-shirts with logos

So she decided she wanted to start with her clothes. She has alot of clothes that are seasonal and she doesn't need in her closet all the time. First we went through all of the closets she has and put everything on the bed. We also lined up some plastic bins she bought from Target against the wall in her dining room.

The bins ended up being:
-Give away
-Maybe
-T-Shirts
-Memory clothes ( you know stuff you don't need or don't want or can't fit into but don't want to give away)
-Skinny Clothes(2x) ( clothes she wants to wear when she looses some weight)
-Winter Accessories ( hats, gloves, scarves)
-Kid Stuff ( like a hope chest)

We went through everything. She tried on almost everything. She used these very handy gray slimline hangers to make putting things back in her closet alot easier.   In her bedroom closet,  we put her work clothes: short sleeve on top and long on the bottom. In the front entryway closet, we put all jackets, hoodies, and coats.  Any long dresses or pants she didn't want to crease, we put in a hanging closet downstairs.


When we were all done that room you saw earlier looked like this..

I was a great first project and I can't wait to help her with the next  one which I think she said will be the kitchen.

What do you do with all those tickets?

So I had the key chains and  my husband , J, has the ticket stub collection.  Twenty plus years of tickets stubs shoved in an over sized  mug  first on his dresser, then on a self in our closet. There are tons of concerts and tons of sporting events. Some I was around for and a bunch I wasn't.

Close Up....Cardinal Games, Concerts, Blues Games

Again, why have a collection if you aren't going to look at it and enjoy it?

So last year for Father's day I had the brilliant idea of making a poster size collage out of all of them. I started out by very loosely laying them all out on the floor in as much of a rectangular shape as I could and measuring them. Then I went to Michaels armed with my 40% off coupon, as they have every week, and found a frame that was about the size I needed. Then I went to the framing counter and got a black mat to fit my frame. They have in stock and will cut for your plain old mat board. They don't have a ton of  choices but usually a clack, gray , off white  or white. Now if you want anything fancy, that'll cost you.

I wanted to have them in as close of chronological order as I could without looking all matchy-matchy. I wanted the colors, sizes, and shapes to all  blend together in a non-perfect way. Now I'm not going to lie, I had to sacrifice a few to get them into a already in stock frame. But when you have 30+ Cardinals game stubs, I let a couple of them go. I used photo square stickies to attach them in a non- permanent way at first but then they started to fall off so I had to reenforce them.  Now this hangs in the hallway of our finished basement and every time any of his friends comes over they look at it to see if they remember one of the concerts that they went to in high school.  Ahh...memory lane.

Here it is hanging downstairs in the hallway... sorry about the lights.

My giant pile of neverending stuff

Everyone has it. That oooonnnnneeeee spot in your house that you dump your stuff at when you get home. And no matter how much you try to keep it clean  it only lasts a day or two at the most. Why is that? Why can't we keep it clean?


Our spot is our dining room table.  It just collects everything. The mail gets put there, any bags of stuff we buy gets put there, Library books go there, stuff that needs attention (ironically) goes there, stuff K doesn't want S to get  goes there, my camera stays there, stuff that doesn't necessarily have a home goes there until we figure out where it goes or we can't see the top of the table at all.

I consider myself to be very organized. The rest of my house always is but that one.....stubborn....place.

ARGGHH!!(channeling Charlie Brown there)

It's just so annoying. It sits there mocking me as I pass by....." You're never going to get rid of me. Stop trying . I'm just going to keep growing and growing until I fall off the table!"

Sometimes if people are coming over and I need to clean ASAP, the stuff goes into bags and shoved somewhere until they leave.


But life just happens and I can't keep up with it. I just don't think you can get by without some spot in your house where you can dump stuff.  I know some people have a bin or a basket or a box but that's still a dumping spot. If any of you can do it... please.... tell me how to make it stop.

Why can't I find those black undewear?

There a good reason why I can't find anything in my lingerie drawer....

Look at it.....

No really... it's ok. You can. It's just underwear. We all have them and we all have underwear drawers that look like this or I'm hoping you do.

We were at the Container Store the other day picking up stuff for the preservation of the baptismal gowns and the tiny toy art gallery.When I spotted this and it was on sale. (eeeee, the joy)

 32  clear compartment drawer 0rganizer {Container Store}

I was tired of looking at this so now I had something to combat the madness. I'm a simple underwear kinda gal and a stay at home mom so usually it's all about comfort. I just want to find the comfortable ones and occasionally I want a certain color depending on my mood.

I got the dividers out of the box , put them together and then placed it the drawer.

And above us is the pile. What a mess!

So I started by  separating them by color as much as I could. Then I got rid of the ones that are special occasion or special need, you know...the pantyhose, the fancy lacy ones, and spanx-like things. I have a basket in my closet for those. I got rid of the seasonal. Yes, I have some Christmas-ey ones with snowflakes.  I like to celebrate that season everywhere.

Then I started to fold them.

First in half,

then in thirds

And then they fit nicely into the little diamond shaped spaces. I sort of placed them by like color and then by which I wore more often towards the front. I did also fold some of my bras in half and stick them in there.  I'm sure most people would say not to but they really aren't good ones so...does it matter?

Then I started placing them by color,bikini, boyshort, hipster, etc. And then the ones that I  tend to use more often in the front. And Volia!  I can find things again. Yeah!  How long will it stay like this? eh... hopefully a while but we'll see.

All the pretty gowns

I've had the Christening gown(made by my mother) and the Christening gown my girls both wore( made by my mother) hanging up in their closets now for a few years now. It's not that I don't like looking at them but:

1. I don't want anything to happen to them.
2. They are long and are constantly in the way.
3. They are taking up valuable handing space.

My Christening Gown that my mom made

Close up of my Christening gown. So pretty! And look at the cute 1977 pink hanger.

The Christening gown the girls wore ( Grandma made)

Close up of front of girls' dress. Beautiful and Simple.

Close of the back of the dress. I love the little pearl buttons.

The girls were not able to wear my gown because I took too long getting them christened,  they were both about 1 or so.  I  was only about three months old. So you can imagine the difference in the cut of the gowns.  I went to Container Store and got the  medium archival safe garment box. I bought the size up from this box when I packed away my wedding gown a three years ago.  I loved my dress and on the off chance that either of my girls would want to wear it , I wanted it to be ready. But I digress...

Medium Archival Box from Container Store

I decided to put them both in the same box. I know it's not optimal to fold anything you are wanting to preserve but I don't have the space or the cash, to buy the under the bed box that my wedding dress is in for two Christening gowns. I think they'll be fine.

You have to fold the box together so it ends up looking like this with a lid.

My dress on the huge tissue paper

I started with my gown. I laid it flat on a piece of archival safe tissue paper that came with the box. It actually came with 6 huge pieces which is very nice.  Then I took another piece of  tissue paper and placed it over the gown.  I knew I needed to fold it in thirds, so I grabbed the gown with the tissue paper in my hands and folded it so the top of the gown would be on top of the folds.

My dress folded nicely in thirds

Then I got the Christening onesie, lace headband, the cute little shoes that the girls wore, and began to wrap them. I took a piece of the tissue paper,tore it in half, and wrapped each shoe separately so that the tissue paper would be stuffed in the shoe and cause it to  remain puffy and cute. Then I took the rest of that huge pieces of tissue paper and wrapped the onesie and headband together. I placed them on the bottom of the other side.

Christening onesie, shoes and headband for the girls

Everything but the girls' dress ready to go.

I then repeated the process for the gown that my girls wore. It's kinda sad wrapping that one up. My little babies already aren't little babies any more. I laid the gown down  on a piece of tissue paper and then laid another piece on top . Then very carefully folded the gown in thirds with the lacy, pretty top  resting on top of all of the folds.

It's hard to see( sorry) but the dress is in between two sheets of tissue paper and folded up one third at this point

All of the dresses and accessories are in.

It was placed next to my gown and then I stuffed the remaining tissue all around the two gowns and on top so they wouldn't be crushed. I think I'm going to put it either under my bed with my wedding gown or at the the top of one of their closets. I can't put it downstairs in the storage room. I just can't . And I hope some day someone will wear one of those gowns again.

See you later.