Pretty Storage Solutions

I'm a rather big fan of pretty storage. I mean, I love for everything to have a place, but sometimes space restriction requires that the "place" is in plain sight. I figure if I'm going to be stuck looking at something, it may as well be pretty! With that in mind, I'll share a few of my favorite "pretty storage" solutions...

Since some of our bathroom storage space is visible and open, I found some pretty boxes from Hobby Lobby to hold all my miscellaneous stuff, and rolled the towels to make them look nicer on the shelf...

The Organic Bug Killer

Today's post is the result of my finding a scorpion... In my closet! 

And then two more in the hall, one in our school room closet, one in the kitchen, one more on the front door, and another in the garage. NOT. COOL. And did I mention that we had multiple run-ins with brown recluse and black widow spiders as well? NO MORE! 

Day ONE after finding the first scorpion I did some online research and concluded that I needed two things: diatomaceous earth (which I'd never heard of before) and lavender (which apparently spiders and scorpions hate). 

Day two I had no less than 14 new lavender plants in my garden, 10 lbs of DE (diatomaceous earth) on its way, along with this book telling me how to use it. 

Fast forward ONE YEAR...  We are scorpion free! *knock on wood* And we've only seen a few house spiders when we're long over-due for a re-application outside.

A Peek into Our Home School Room

Want to see where some of our magic takes place? This is our school room...

I found the desks on Amazon, and think they're just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. Well, except for the boys that use them. :) The legs will extend up to make them into full-size desks in the future.

Here is a closer look at our art lines...

I made them using cute red drawer knobs and picture-hanging wire from Hobby Lobby. That's also where I found the little red wall baskets.

Work it, work boxes!

If you know what these are... chances are you're a home schooler!

Another little tadpole!

Do you remember when I made frog and tadpole costumes for my boys?

I'm pretty sure that my little tadpole was the first baby in google image search history to be dressed as a tadpole. Well, you should be glad to know that now there's been a second little tadpole baby! Lauren M. used my tutorial to make this tadpole costume for her daughter's first Halloween. What's sweet is they always called her daughter "tadpole," even before she was born, so this was a perfect fit!

She says she isn't an experienced sewer but was able to follow along just fine. I think it turned out great, don't you?

Thanks Lauren!

Ear Flap Hats for Warm Trick-or-Treaters!

Do you remember when I shared my pattern for ear flap hats?

There are many variations you can make to this pattern, and it's great for Halloween because you can add eyes or ears to it for a number of different costumes. 

One of my lovely readers, Chelsea K, used my ear flap hat pattern as part of her son's Halloween costumes for the last two years. Here's the hat used in the Pocoyo costume she made him...

And here's the hat as part of a dog costume she made him the next year...

They live in Maine so she was glad to find an easy pattern to keep her son warm while trick-or-treating!

Thanks for sharing Chelsea!

To see lots of other cute ways my readers have used this hat pattern, visit my original post!

Easiest DIY Shelves Ever

In the process of organizing our garage, I came across the easiest shelving option ever. I just stacked up some Sterilite crates from WalMart, zip tied them together through the holes, and VOILA! A cute little shelving unit!