Label Addict

Ok i have to admit i went a little label crazy. pretty sure my husband thinks im nuts. So ive been working on our Vintage Trunk/coffee table/ filing cabinet and did a file overhaul. We just had so many papers everywhere, there was no organization to the chaos. But finally… ahhh… a breath of fresh air and organization. PLUS ITS PRETTY. Yes, i think my files are pretty. I’m actually excited to file away bills. I know, super weird. But come on… this is some organizational eye candy:

For those of you that  have a silhouette, i tend to print out 12 projects at a time and smush them all together… ok so this is only two projects but i added maybe 20 more words later on. The Recipes label is for my fancy new DIY Recipe box over here. Oh and incase you like the font i used for this project, its called ChunkFive and you can download it for free over here. When printing out text, i tend to get really chunky fonts especially if its smaller than three inches wide. After typing out the word, i turn down character spacing so that the letters are overlapping slightly and then i hit “weld” to make them one solid word. Makes it easier and  i like the look of it. So win win!

Then i went to Target and picked up some clear filing bins and these oh so cute filing folders. Initially I wanted to take the Vintage Trunk makeover and throw in some hanging file bars in there but when i saw these ins i thought it would be easier. Instead of hovering over a trunk all the time, if we need to organize or sort through personal stuff, we just grab the “personal” bin. Wham, bam, thank you organization.

Here you can see some of the categories. We have three main bins seperated into “Personal” “$$$” and “Other”. We basically threw everything onto the floor and started making piles. I should have taken a picture, it was pretty crazy. There were piles and sticky notes all over the place. Some things i didnt know what category it should have so i just started piling like items and thats how we came up with some random categories like “Non – profits” and “Church”. Those are items that usually arent in a filing cabinet but we had so much paperwork that it just made sense to make its own folder. So heres all the folders we have so far:

Personal:

• Kenny Personal (includes passport, IDs, birth cert, etc)
• Rachel Personal (same)
• Health – Kenny (medical bills, insurance info)
• Health – Rachel
• Pet info  (Shots, medical bills, etc)
• Sponsorships (info on our sponsor kids, organizations, etc)
• Non-profits (info on the multiple non profits we adore)

$$$:

• Utilities (electric bills, water bills, etc)
• Employment Kenny (Resumes, transcripts, invoices)
• Employment Rachel
• $$$ (Bank info, student loans, credit cards)
• Other Bills
• Taxes (W2s, tax info)

Other:

• Home (Rental info, insurance,etc)
• Auto – BMW (maintenance, titles, insurance)
• Auto – TC
• Church (bible studies, classes, membership info)
• Receipts (random receipts we might need)
• Wedding (Receipts, vendor info, $ info)

Here they are all tucked into their new home.

The other great thing about the trunk is that it had a large shelf on top of the files. This is great to throw new mail, things to be sorted, remotes, etc. As far as the plan for the interior, if it was in better shape, I’d love to keep it as is – it has a great texture and a vintage feel to it, but it has sections missing, stains, etc. We could definitely throw a cork board in the lid which would cover up most of the stains, but I’ll definitely let you know when we decide!

Well there you go! Definitely “pretty” files, right? I definitely think so. And really, who can tell that this is a filing cabinet?!

-Rachel

DIY Recipe Box

So i cant cook. Not by a long shot. Every time i try to without a recipe, its pretty awful to be honest. So i desperately need some delish recipes to make me some delish food. So a while back i got this sucker… a basic mini notecard holder. Pretty lame, i know but it did the trick.

For the wedding, Kenny’s oh so sweet Aunt gave us this guy full of family recipes! Its the perfect size, lots of space and pre loaded with yummy ideas. Only problem… not super easy on the eyes. What can i say? I’m picky…. so how do you fix it? Cover it in some pretty paper!

Voila!

And then whip out the ol Silhouette…

Much better! This will fit nicely in my kitchen.

Next throw on a few layers of mod podge to make the paper a little pasta sauce-proof. Check out how perfectly this guy fits into my kitchen! Stupid plugs… so convenient for cooking but not at all for epic pictures.

I just like that it brings more color and pattern into the kitchen.

Heres all the different categories. Wish i could tell you how to make these, by my Aunt included these in the box! They are printed on photo paper though so im sure youve just gotta get the measurements right. Heres all the categories:

• Appetizers
• Main Courses
• Soups
• Sides
• Desserts
• Cookies
• Breads
• MISC
• Drinks

Oh and the font i got for the lid is a handwritten font that i grabbed for free over here. Over at Fonts for Peas they have tons of handwritten fonts that are all adorbs and all free so go check em out and download a few (or 20 like me)!

By the way, how cute is this guy? I needed a timer so why not get one thats flippin adorbs. Hes also got lil owl measuring cup friends to one side and another birdie to the other. That guy opens beer with his butt. For serious. It definitely makes cooking more fun when you have little friends everywhere. So cute!

Pantry Organization

So i am super unorganized and messy. I just let my closet pile up, and my office always gets cluttered… so i am attempting to make some changes round here! Starting with the pantry. I got these sweet little corked bottles from goodwill like… maybe 6 months ago. I always thought they were perfect for spices but i just never got around to labeling them.

So yesterday i went on a labeling frenzy. I labeled ALL my spices and my flour/sugars! So here is what my spices looked like when i started… another problem i had, i dont know if you can tell, but i have three different containers of cinnamon! I would check and see if i had a spice, not find it anywhere so i’d go buy a second (or third) bottle of something i already owned…

So i made all the labels on my Silhouette. I’ll be honest, it was pretty difficult to transfer them without transfer paper – pretty tedious so im definitely going to have to do that next time! I have a few pieces missing like the middle of the “a” in Cinnamon and part of the “m” in Nutmeg. But overall I am really happy with how they turned out.

So first off, i cleaned the crap out of these guys. Literally. They were mostly clean but some of them had some old leftover spices (remember i got these from Goodwill). I dried the outsides to apply the labels. The insides took a while longer to dry so I left them out for a few hours.

Heres the labels up close. You can see why a few pieces would have gone missing – see inside the “e” in Thyme and the “a” in Garlic? I had to individually find and stick those little suckers. Definitely took longer than it should have so i’d highly suggest using transfer paper like i will in the future!

And here is the after! I am super excited about them and it makes cooking sooo much easier to find them all. Theres a few more bottles in the back i didnt make labels for but maybe if i find more bottles next time i go to goodwill i can make some more!

When Kenny looked in the pantry he goes “Did we have all these spices before you labeled them?” Ha! Yes i did. They were just hard to see… NOT ANY MORE! Its soooo nice to open up my pantry and actually know where stuff is.

I also made labels for my sugars and flour – though i might get black or grey adhesive vinyl for the flour label since its more difficult to see.

I’ve also been organizing my office like crazy – its been a constant clutter since we moved in so its about time to get some organization to the chaos! Hopefully I’ll post about that soon!

-Rachel