Kitchen Clutter

Sometimes I am slow. I mean that often I am late in finding wonderful resources. After all I am still kind of new at the blogging world, but I have finally found my new favorite place, The Nest. It is kin to The Knot which helped me find the greatest photographers in the world for my wedding. So I have been visiting the The Nest and found a wonderful article on the best organization helpers for the Kitchen.

{ courtesy of thenest.com, Ikea's Grundtal Wall Organizer Collection }

Here The Nest gives you its 10 Kitchen Storage Solutions for under $25. It can only get better from here.

© The Simple Wife

Weekend Warriors

Saturday morning started nicely with a yummy breakfast at one of our favorite spots on the square. Chocolate filled croissants and fresh fruit, delicious. We then headed to Home Depot for a few things to help us with our To Do list for the day. We were working on staining our basement doors and building a gate for our front porch. I used some of the stain left over from the porch project and worked on the basement doors.

{ The Before }

{ The After }

Erik built a gate for the end of our front porch. Our porch is raised above the ground so you can see underneath it and it isn't pretty so Erik built a lattice screen for the front, so he was just finishing the job with the gate for the end. He put brackets on it so if we needed to get under the porch we could lift the gate and go. After he built it, I stained it. 

{ The Before }

{ The After  }

Not bad for a couple hours. Our next weekend project is to paint our retaining wall that is my nightmare and Erik has a plan for finishing the top of it. Here it is in its current state. Shocking, I know.

© The Simple Wife

Owl Love, Pt. 2

{ Plein Air Painting }

My previous mention of my love for owls became inspiration. Erik is kindly letting me mix up our living room with a few, minor changes. When we first moved into our home we wanted a nice, warm space, but that feeling of 'nice' has since washed away and we are looking for some funk, people. We have removed matchy from our style and moved to the fun. We like the look of thrown-together madness. So I am changing the art arrangement above our sofa. Currently there is one of my original paintings, but it is lonely, so we are adding some more goodies. I have a drawing or two to add, maybe a sculpture, and this little guy that I painted Friday night.

It is a watercolor that I have lovingly titled Scrappy. He looks a little rugged doesn't he? At least he has his caterpillar friend to keep him company. Erik will be adding one of his own to the wall as well. I'll post pics after all is complete!

©  The Simple Wife

Changing and Rearranging

{ New sprouts everywhere! }

Because of the on-slot of beautiful weather here, Erik and I have been spending a lot of time outside. From eating, to playing in the dirt, we are soaking up as much of the sun as we can. Yesterday I spent some time doing some 'green' gardening- dividing and moving existing plants. My goal was to not buy any new plants this year. You can spend an arm and leg at the nurseries, so I wanted to make the most of what I had already. 

First I cleaned up some shrubs with a little pruning. One of my dwarf boxwoods was dying off so I trimmed both -that are in large planters on the front porch- into small trees. 

Next I dug up and divided two bunches of Lamb's Ear. These things multiply like crazy for me! I started with 2 small plants and have ended up with almost 8 bunches almost 2' wide. I replanted some of it in the front of the house by the steps. I usually plant annual flowers here, but I decided to keep it 'green' and low maintenance with the Lamb's Ear that requires almost no watering.

The planters that greet you at our back door were also filled with some of the soft stuff- annuals are usually purchased for these too.

My 'ponytail grass' or Mexican Feather Grass was getting big so I divided it and filled my whiskey barrel with some along with a couple sprouts of Phlox that popped up from last year (I thought it was dead!). 

I also grabbed some ivy from a tree in the backyard and put some in the planter to trail up my trellis.  

So for absolutely no money and a little sweat I was able to add some nice new pieces to our landscaping. I even had left overs for a neighbor! Before you head to your garden center, shop in your own yard, or swap with a neighbor!

© The Simple Wife

Save & Spend: Graphic Print Chairs

Decor is what makes your home, home. The gems you put in your home can hit the wallet pretty hard, so here is a new installment for this little blog titled: Save & Spend. It will feature items for the home that are affordable and their counter parts that are a bit cheese.

Today's feature: Graphic print chairs. They are a fun way to add a funky and bold accent to any room. Fabrics can include geometric and nature inspired prints. Here are two chairs from two of my favorite places:

The SAVE: 

Target's Bird & Floral Print Armless chair in Brown

{ $299, available in more colors }

**********************

The Spend:

Anthropologie's Astrid Chair in Naive Chocolate

{ $1,298, available in other patterns and colors }

These chairs are adorable and will work best with neutral, solid furniture pieces. Pattern fabrics are a great way to punch up your decor, but they make the biggest impact when paired with complementary patterns that share a color scheme. So if you go with one of these graphic prints I would pair a more simple stripe pattern with them. Go bold in your home!

© The Simple Wife

Resolution Update

Step 1 of the 'Big Goal of '09' was to get more organized. So I began with our filing system. I went through old bills and statements and purged the old and out-dated and re-filed them in folders with printed labels. Much neater and more efficient. 

Check out this site to help you determine when to discard different types of paperwork.

Also, I found this awesome book on Amazon that has been a wonderful help with ideas for getting the house in order. It has tips on everything from how to fold a fitted sheet, to Green alternative cleaners, to a whole list of the treatments for different laundry stains. A must read for any housewife, or OCD organizer!

{ by Cynthia Towney, around $12 new on Amazon }

Product Description
America's leading housekeeping expert shows you how to de-clutter, organize, and clean your home, with easy-to-remember tips for every job, from keeping your bathroom clean and doing the laundry to sorting out paperwork and organizing the family photo album. Where there is hope, there is help. You can win the chore wars!

• Author, founder, and editor of the top-ranked website OrganizedHome.com
• Introduces easy-to-remember tips for organizing the home
• Step-by-step photographs throughout show how easy it is to reach your goal

© The Simple Wife

Office Additions

I have added a few extra and new touches to our office over the past two days. First I had to get a new desk light- our previous one was victim to a Mr. Grubbs v. Doc ball war- the ball won. I also decided to hang up my beautiful calendar that I ordered from Etsy a while back. It is from Kris, whose daily paint swatches I adore. I also added a cork board for notes. I covered it with this awesome artichoke print fabric I found in my classroom. Both lovely additions to my home within my home.

© The Simple Wife

Must Have: For Cleaning

As I realize more and more that my little furry darling Doc is a child, I also realize that I really need a steam cleaner. While I like to think that he is the cutest AND cleanest dog- he is not. So I need some back-up and so does our lightly-colored microfiber sofa. I spied this ditty in Target's Sunday circular and I must have it.

{ $89.99 }

House cleaning is my life. Lots will be done VERY soon...

© The Simple Wife

Stain- I hate you.

Day 5 on the porch. 

Bad news: may have to get another can of stain to finish. 

Bad news: still not done. 

Bad news: my back and legs are KILLING.

Good news: it looks awesome so far!!

Status: Porch

My projects have been pretty dormant for the past week. While I was in Pittsburgh Mr. Grubbs was AMAZINGLY wonderful and tried to work on staining the deck for me. I only had the front section of the railing done and he got another section done for me before he couldn't take it anymore. Disclaimer: he is NOT a painter. In our first house, we repainted almost everything, even though it was a rental. We were painting our bedroom a fresh coat of white when Mr. Grubbs kicked the whole bucket of paint over onto the hardwood floors! It was awful so he hasn't had a brush since. Needless to say, I still have lots to do to get it done. I'll be working on it today for as long as I can before Sunday dinner at Mom's.

Here is what the stain looks like. It is a deep rich brown, I adore it!

Lots Going On...

It seems like busy is the norm round here lately. There is always something to do, paint, clean, organize, etc. I guess it is all in stride when you are OCD about cleaning, and organizing everything. Step 1- I have a problem! Just to let you in on a few happenings:

1. The master bath is painted and I am finishing up on some accessories. I have painted some mirrors that will go in a grouping over the toliet. And I have a painting to do to go next to our towel hooks. 

2. Front porch staining is in progress. Yesterday I pressure washed the whole porch for a good clean slate. I started the staining today and got the front of half the railing done. I couldn't have imagined it would be as hard as it is. Here is a before shot of our porch from the front of the house:

{Yes, Doc is guarding the porch, Keep Out!}

That's it so far. I hope that after these projects are done, I can take a vacation for a bit, but I'm sure that I'll come up with something to do! Stay tuned...

Busy Bees

It was a VERY busy day at our home on Saturday. Lots o work going down. First my mother-in-law came to fulfill my brithday, painted bathroom present bright and early at 8am. Then Mr. Grubbs hung his handmade gate to keep our little Doc on the porch. All while I was planting fresh pansies in planters for winter color. Much was happening, but I managed to catch Mr. Grubbs in the act:

{Putting in the brackets}

{The Finished Product!}

{Doc isn't as happy as I am about the new gate...}

Pictures of the new bathroom still to come!

Updating the Nest

I hear that when a woman becomes pregnant she feels an overwhelming urge to "nest". Well I'm not pregnant but I have this feeling constantly. It may be the design instinct I have, but I am always looking for new and exciting things to accessorize my home with. Whether it's new annual flowers, changing out pictures in frames or just getting new pieces, I always want change. I'm a visual person and am in constant need for something interesting to look at. Mr. Grubbs is slowly beginning to understand this OCD part of my being, and he is a good sport about it.

So here are the latest additions to the Grubbs' house:

A new rug for the living room. Our previous one was soft and fuzzy on your feet but it caught tons of crumbs. So we have added this gorgeous brown rug with orange and gold vintage inspired designs. P.S.- Orange is my new favorite color!

I have also added a new arrangment to the floating shelf above our TV. I found these fun, coral frames at Pier 1 (a place that isn't always my favorite, but I find some funky stuff every now and then). Again, Mr. Grubbs has a great sense of style himself, but I think I scare him sometimes with the items and ideas I come up with. Compromise, compromise, and more compromise. Along with the frames I added 2 vases of colorful fruit since our walls are a dark bronze they needed a pop of color. Then my father-in-law's flag is fittingly paired with a gold sailboat- he was a Naval Seal.

Your home should be another expression of you, and we are always evolving, so your home should too! I feel a renewed love for my home and I can't wait to add more stuff, sorry Mr. Grubbs!