Monday, March 22, 2010

Spring Forth




Photo Credit : Martha Stewart


She's here!

She finally made her arrival this weekend! Beautiful, glorious Spring! In celebration of this special occasion my wonderful friend Kellie of This Blessed Nest is hosting a Spring Fling Party today! You HAVE to stop by and take a peek into her craft room! Oh my happy spring goodness! It is one impressive makeover! Make sure you link up with your own spring post!

I wanted to create this beautiful egg shaped piece of spring heaven, complete with pearl pins for Kellie's party today and sit with a cup of my favorite tea and blog hop and look at all of your inspirational spring ideas!  

But when I thought about what I needed to do it was screaming for a makeover and I have just been putting it off for about as long as one can.

It's the place in our home where everyone just puts their stuff. There is so much stuff sitting in and on this space that it is hard to tell what this space is really meant to be! And to know me is to know that I do not like clutter. I like things clean and streamlined and very organized. I can't think when everything is a mess! 

So you can imagine how I must be feeling to look at this everyday................






As we say in the south when we are just not sure what to say.........Have you ever in your life?







Is that a lamp shade you ask?.....why yes it is. I'm sure your wondering what it is doing in the kitchen and the answer to that is that someone decided to wear it as a hat and dance around the kitchen while I was trying to cook dinner last week.  I love Motherhood. :)

Here is another shot with a wider view so that you can really grasp the full level of chaos!
I didn't bother opening the drawers for a picture, mainly because I could barely get them open!  But here is a picture of what was inside a few of the drawers.





Are you overwhelmed yet? Me too. 

That's why I decided to call in for reinforcements and asked Southern Butter to hightail it over to my house this weekend.  I sent Mr. P and G out for an entire day of birthday man stuff. Like a facial and a massage.







Here she is hard at work with the cutest baby in the world ~ Mr. Wiggles! I told her to put that baby down and help me sort, clean and organize! I was on mission Spring Fling and I did not have time to sit around and hold adorable babies!  Isn't he delicious though?





She did put him down for about two minutes. 
Long enough to pick up a hot cup of coffee and her cell phone. Ahem.

Meanwhile back at the ranch......one of us broke a sweat and brought some order in the house.  I am pleased to show you the results of our hard work.




Here it is! All I can say is that I can breathe. Finally. 

I took every single thing out of all of the cabinets and drawers and threw most of it away. 
I cleaned house! I kept only what I absolutely needed and loved. I did not buy anything new at all except for the fresh flowers!  

I wanted to use the left side of the cabinets for all of my cookbooks , recipes and cooking magazines and the right side for all of the kids craft stuff. 

I did not want anything on the desk top except white legal pads , pencils and my calendars.
Again. Clean and simple. Less is more for me.




I also love to drink hot tea and coffee and thought that this would inspire me to sit down during the day and gather my thoughts~ instead of writing my kids Doctors appointments down on the back of a gum wrapper.



Here is my file drawer. I filled each drawer with color coded files and folders and used one of my favorite inventions of all time to label each folder. I then took hundreds of pieces of paper and filed every single one in it's proper place. It was not easy, in fact it took me the entire weekend but now when the school needs a shot record, it will take me all of 5 seconds to locate it! This is a wonderful feeling!!






Here is a closer look at the desk and a few of my favorite things. 
Fresh flowers. My calendars. A teapot and my favorite tea. A black and white glossy of my babies. A candle, blank legal pads and a bouquet of pencils. 

The linen carry-all is what I take with me in the car to hold mail, bills, magazines, etc and I do my best to organize and sort while I am sitting in the car pool line every day. 




I also did a little floor move this weekend and created this spring reading nook for the children. I love to encourage reading and creating special places for them. You may remember the comfort closet post I wrote a year ago. I have yet to recreate that here in our new place but this will have to do for now! 



I would much rather them reach for a book about why we celebrate Easter than to sit in front of the television any day.  I put this little cabinet right behind the sofa in our family room hoping to encourage a lot more reading!





I bought some wheat grass to use to decorate with around the house and a little wheat grass seed so that the kiddies could also plant their own and watch it grow. They are learning about sowing good seeds, planting the love of Jesus and Springing Forth this Easter season! 


How are you spending the first week of Spring?







22 comments:

Jennifer said...

hahahahaha...


It looks so good! Sorry I wasn't much help! Your so good though I would just clutter!

As for the sweetest reading nook I have ever seen... Mr. Wiggles and I are coming over for some Peter Rabbit..Put that coffee back on!

Its beautiful. I would sit and pay bills there anytime!

love in pretty Spring pastels and a chocolate bunny,
Jen

Jennifer said...

P.S...

I'm going to show Mr. Southern how embarrassing my 1980's phone is in a picture.

I think I am going to start referring to it as an antique because I like that word better then the 80's!

Nancy said...

I'm in love with you all over again. Thank you for "keeping it real" and showing us that even our dear Pearl has chaos sometimes... How sweet of Mrs. Southern Butter to drop by with Mr. Wiggles and help out! He is such a cutie. I love the after, I'm sure you feel like a load has been lifted. I can't tell you how excited I was to see a "Pearl Event" folder... Counting the days!

Ok, next that Spring Reading Nook, seriously you are too good. I love it. I know I say that almost every post but it's the truth. I can just see the babes sitting around reading and soaking in His love for them. This idea is going in my "Mom" book.

If you get a chance I would love for you to stop by, I posted a little Spring Fling dinner tablescape. My home and table will always have a spot for you.

Love to you and those Precious Pearls.

Xoxo
Nancy

Sherrie said...

OMG that baby is the cutest! Sorry I would not have set him down. :)

Great job on the kitchen!

Charity said...

I love you more now! I have to many places in my house that look like that, seems like while I am cleaning one another one explodes, maybe it is just life and I should get used to it? I love your reading nook, being a homeschooling momma we are over run with books but I need to find a special place to keep seasonal books, instead of mixed in with the other books. Thanks for the idea and the kick in the rear to get started cleaning, have you ever. Hope you are having a great day.

Cha Cha

Britney said...

What an awesome transformation! It looks terrific! Very zen!
Love your Easter nook for the kids. It inspires me to put together my Easter books for my boys. Thanks for your ideas and inspiration to get to organized! :)

LoveFeast Table said...

I'm thinking Jennifer was good moral support! Sometimes we just need a good friend to come over and inspire us to git er done! Nice transformation!
~kristin

Amanda said...

I love the rwading spot - I try and seasonally put those special books out too! Your desk looks amazing - can you and Jennifer come here and we'll drink coffee and sort and laugh and de-clutter and get me all set-up?! Happy easrly Easter friend!

nest of posies said...

omg! omg! omg!

you did post the before! i am so proud! see, we are in this together! i will say, you are hands down the best organizational diva friend i have! you can take a mess & turn it into a sweet calm location. i have witnessed it first hand time & time - again!
love what you did with the kitchen office. only you would have a bouquet of #2 pencils!;)

how precious is the shabby reading cabinet & all the furry friends. love it. such a sweet idea, that only you would do.

so glad you came to the party! it wouldn't of been the same without you. i appreciate you, your words, & your friendship more then you know!
i think jennifer said it best...
love in pretty spring pastels & chocolate bunnies! {love that}
kellie

Elizabeth said...

this looks great! i've been doing some spring cleaning too...it seems to be the thing on blogs and i got inspired. i got rid of several things on craiglist this weekend, threw some stuff away and decluttered. i still have a way to go though. my new motto is less stuff = less clutter. the less clutter i have the less "cluttered" my brain feels. i can think better and feel more relaxed.

love the reading nook! so sweet!

Southern Aspirations said...

WOW! You did a great job!! It looks fantastic. Isn't throwing things away one of the best feelings?

lizziefitz said...

Happy Spring! Sibi , you never cease to amaze me. The book nook is such a great idea! I am so going to copy that for every season and holiday, I could just eat Mr. Wiggles, how did you and Jennifer get anything done . You must have some serious will power. Loved our talk the other day:)

Preppy Mama said...

Wow I am impressed! I think you may have inspired me to start my Spring cleaning!! BTW, I got the cookies in "Stop & Shop" up near me, not sure if that helps you out. Hope all is well.

Becky said...

Ooh, I love reorganization projects! I'm in the middle of a spring-clean (still processing a move, too) myself. And it's not going anywhere near fast enough for me.
Hey, I started a new blog, come check me out!
Hugs to you Sibi!
Becky

The 5 Bickies said...

Wow...it's great to see the "real" before and the gorgeous after. You did a great job and I am sure you are working a little easier and more efficiently now that you are all cleaned out.

Want to come over and help me...no babies but good ocffee!

Jess Roy said...

Don't you love the splendid feeling you get when things finally get organized? Thanks to you, I'll probably spend the rest of the week doing just that - getting organized! :) Your "before" pictures look all-to-familiar...

Anonymous said...

I like the beautiful egg you started out with but I adore you 'keeping it real!" Thank you for that. Oh how you have inspired me. Your reorg looks wonderful.

I am new to your lovely blog via The Blessed Nest and will be returning.

Deborah

http://fairfieldhousenj.com/2010/03/06/premature-pollination/

Frances Vineyard said...

It looks awesome! Happy Spring! Paper and mail everywhere is my downfall....

Lisa said...

Looks so fresh and organized! I've started my spring cleaning. I have a photo project underway (organizing all 20 years of hubby + me + kids photos- phew). Yesterday I deep-cleaned my laundry area. I love to clean- much more than I like doing the regular maintenance!

3 Peanuts said...

I am so on the same page as you honey! I have a counter that looks EXACTLY like that right now. I spent the last two days purging from other areas in the house (arts/crafts cabinet and files!) I am slowly working my way through the whole house doing this exact same thing.

It all looks so pretty!!!! I wish I could have come to help and hang out. I LOVE to organize...there is just never enough time:)

Susan R said...

Wow! That's just about all I can say, Wow! I need your email address, my blog is private now (long story)I want to add you to my list. You can email me at fivegreatkiddos@yahoo.com

paige said...

this is too funny!!
i love the before & after
i love the keeping it real
i love that jennifer says she has an 80's fun , cuz SO DO I!
in fact, you should feel loved when you get a wordy text from moi now that you know this

how did i miss this post?
:)