A few more projects...

Well just one week until I have to go back to school :(
It is always so sad when summer ends and it is back to schedules and routines.  During the last two weeks of August, I always feel torn between how I should best spend the remainder of my holiday.  Time is so precious and of course, once gone, you can never get it back.  Anyways, I feel like I walk this tight rope and am trying so hard to find the right balance.  On the one hand I am thinking "I better get out and enjoy the weather and try to relax because school will soon be here and September is always a marathon" and " Oh no!  I only have two weeks left to get everything finished on my  'to do list' (ha! ha! - like that would EVER happen".   In order to help keep me sane, I decided to do one of those lists that is prioritized - you know deciding what is important vs. those things that I want to do, but really aren't that important.  It did help me to sort my lists a bit and get a better handle on what really needed to get done and what might get done someday (I am terrible at waiting for someday!)

Anyways, here are a few pics of some little projects of done in the last couple of days.
I had wanted to try to make my own form of subway art for a long time.  I saw a great tutorial for a quick and easy version at http://thewinthropchronicles.blogspot.ca/2012/03/baby-stats-subway-art.html

I decided to make mine a sign outlining the chores I expected the kids to do in their bathroom.  It basically serves two purposes - art and chore list!

Bathroom Chores for the Kids' bathroom

Here is the art in the bathroom.  Still need a little something above it though.

I am bound and determined to some how get my family (including me!!) organized to the point where there are no longer any (and I mean ZERO) piles of junk on my kitchen counters.  I have been doing several projects to get my kitchen organized including the menu and weekly schedule I posted previously.  I also painted an old cabinet that sits by the stove and holds the fruit bowl.  We are now using the top drawer for wallets, keys, etc.  (I hope to install some wire drawers in the bottom for our onions and potatoes, but haven't got that done yet.  (It is on the someday list!)  I found some of those old wooden building blocks at a garage sale and used the blocks and some doweling to make a key rack for our kitchen.  

I really like these little cell phone charger caddies and just had to make one.  I used some fabric scraps and a little Mod Podge to cover an old hair conditioner bottle.  I was pretty excited with the way it covered and came out so smooth.  However, when I went to actually put the cell phone in, there was not enough clearance between the cord and the whole.  Of course, I never thought of this prior to finishing the project.  The tutorial I found suggested a Johnson's Baby Lotion bottle, which is quite a bit larger than this, but I didn't have one and was not nearly patient enough to actually purchase the product and wait the year it took to use the product (I am also very frugal so I wouldn't dream of wasting it).  Oh well, another lesson learned!  The good news is that in the process of messing this up, I actually accomplished something on my "someday list".  I find our family uses lots of AA and AAA batteries and unfortunately, I have never ever recycled a battery (Yikes!  Yes, I just admitted that to all.)  I do take a moment to pause and think about what a horrible person I am, each time I throw them directly in the garbage, but unfortunately "recycling batteries" has not yet made my "important/urgent" list.  However, since this little caddy won't work for the intended purpose, the cell phone caddy will now have to wait and my family will begin to be kinder to the earth and recycle batteries.  Although my little pouch won't hold more than a handful, I can easily take the collection into work and add them to our battery recycling tub there.  Yay me!!