Just a Dash

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

April 4, 2012April 26, 2012by SymoneFLeave a Comment

Two days ago I wrote about Clean Freak on HGTV, and instead of just letting the days go by and considering ways to improve my overall organisation, I decided to start with some small stuff that would be very impactful for me in trying to create a more organized and clean environment. Today I went to The Container Store (my favourite store) to get lipstick holders ~~originally~~. I ended up getting a few more things but they turned out to be major in my closet re-organization. I’m going to jump right into it! 🙂 (the first picture is what I bought).

Lipstick

I’m going to start with this because it’s what I went there for in the first place lol. I was eyeing a lipstick holder on Amazon but it was for 60 pieces. I thought no way! I don’t need that many and I went and started counting every single one of my lipsticks/lip glosses/lip balms and sure enough I had over 30 but I still didn’t want to buy the one for 60. So I checked online and The Container Store had one to hold 24 so I bought two after a friend suggested I do that with the possibility of stacking them. I can’t stack now because of the type I bought and the different heights of the products but at least now they’re neatly stored!

Belts/Scarves

As I said before I wanted to move my scarves to the accessory belt and get proper belt hanger for my belts. I bought two belt hangers today – one for my belts and one for my necklaces. I sorted my belts first as there are a few to get rid of that I never wore or liked. I also have a few belts that do not have anything for me to hook them with so I closed them up and put them on one of the rings with the scarves.

Jewellery

The lipstick holders were practically next to the jewellery stuff, and since I’ve been saying for years I need something to store my jewellery properly, I decided to have a little look at what was available. I bought a spinning bracelet holder, an earring rack and as I said before, a hanger for the necklaces. I haven’t transferred all of my necklaces as yet because I have a few that I no longer wear and I really want to sort through them. I still need to find something for my bangles but I just may end up getting one of these considering their shape. I wanted to go to Michaels to see if I could get creative and make up something on my own but laziness may get the better part of me. Below you will see a round mason jar with earrings on it and stuff on the inside. As I was taking pics today, I realised that before Pinterest, I was coming up with my own uses for mason jars outside of the kitchen! (This is what gave me the idea for the title of this post :)) Anyway I needed something else for the earrings as I had more than when i first started doing this and obviously all couldn’t fit. I cleaned out most of my kitchen cupboards Saturday and that’s when I’d placed this lovely vase on the dinning table with some other stuff to go somewhere else. I decided to use it because the earring holder I bought wasn’t able to accommodate all of my long earrings and store all of my costume rings on the inside (2 for 1 ;)). I was about to return it when I realised I still needed something for my studs so I decided to keep it (I know it looks scanty but I prefer long earrings and don’t want my studs laying around anymore).

These strips here are another piece of what this title is all about. I had bought a piece of this plastic (I never remember the name of it) to hook my long earrings on just to keep them together. What I also did was cut smaller pieces to attach all of my earrings to when travelling. This way I know they’re all together and I don’t have to worry about the being scattered all over a bag.

I hope you enjoyed this little post as much as I enjoyed putting it together. 🙂

Home, Uncategorized

Clean Freak

April 1, 2012April 26, 2012by SymoneFLeave a Comment

Yesterday I was watching HGTV and Clean Freak came on with Sabrina Soto. Before seeing this, I only knew of Sabrina from the ads on t.v. for her Target collection. This show was amazing to me because I love everything to do with organization… my husbands and friends used to tease me a lot about it. Anyway, the reason I’m writing this post is because a few things were brought up to help with storage/organization that I am definitely going to try.

1. Using a belt hanger to hang necklaces. I am currently using small command hooks on the side of my dresser to hang them but I like this more. My belts are on this right now which is a bit much to unhook and open when you have quite a few belts on one ring. So I think I’ll be getting two or three hangers to accommodate both the necklaces and the belts.

2. Towel bar for scarves. I currently have mine folded in a drawer but this is definitely one to consider. I’m probably going to use the other belt hanger I said I’m currently using for my belts but I think I’ll really like to have this one set up eventually.

3. Paper towel holder for bangles. I like this idea but the only problem for me is I have more bracelets than bangles so I’d probably have to mount it horizontally.

I need to start looking for proper jewellery storage but I have to consider practicality more than “cuteness” because I don’t want to just throw costume rings in the same bowl as my silver and white gold rings and then stuff starts turning colour etc lol. These are the suggestions that really stood out for me and if the show comes on again with different people I’ll try to make note of more storage/organization options and post them here. 🙂

Food, Home, Uncategorized

Thank you for dining with us!

March 28, 2012April 26, 2012by SymoneF1 Comment

For the last two weeks I’ve been creating a weekly menu (Monday-Thursday, Sunday I just cook whatever I put my hands on). I got the idea here my first week on Pinterest. I’ve found this to be very cost effective as it helps me to prepare a better shopping list as I know what I will be cooking. It also encourages me to cook! I can take out the meat the night before and put it in the fridge or the same day early in the morning because I know what I will be cooking. That way I don’t get frustrated trying to figure out what to cook and end up taking out meat too late and then dinner is also late and rushed.

This menu also makes me get creative with what I’ll be cooking as you don’t want to repeat meals too often. I’d say I spend a good half an hour or more just trying to think of meals for 4 days! Also I try not to cook too much wheat as it’s one of the foods that I’m sensitive too but I just try not to indulge too often. That means I’m left with potatoes, rice or rice pasta.

Last week’s menu looked like this:

Monday: Lamb stew with rice and peas (in Barbados, rice and peas are cooked together so in the future this is what I mean when I say rice and peas)

Tuesday: baked pork chops, macaroni pie (basically baked mac & cheese) and potato salad

Wednesday: Sautéed chicken strips and rice

Thursday: Home-made fried chicken and chips (we were travelling the next day)

This week:

Monday: “Shepherd’s Pie” (made with idaho and sweet potatoes and turkey not beef)

Tuesday: Chicken chow mein

Wednesday: Beef stew and rice and peas

Thursday: Spaghetti and ground beef (mixed together)

I try to think of meals that will be easy to pull together as I don’t always have a lot of time to prep and prepare meals. When I went to the supermarket on Monday, I found fresh diced onions. I jumped for joy (on the inside) and grabbed the white and red onions. This was amazing as I hate cutting onions, and I use them in every meal so this has made me hop into the kitchen faster. I hope to keep this up and not drop it within the next two weeks. As it is, my husband and I check each other’s schedules on Sunday to know how the week will go so I’ve added this menu planning to that. It’s so much easier to have a general idea of the week ahead instead of diving head first into it and just scrambling for the rest of the week. Hope I helped you with your planning this week :).