DIY "Outfit Hangers" For Closet Organizing

In my three year old daughter's closet, I use plastic rings to connect two hangers to make an "outfit hanger". These "outfit hangers" keep matching tops and bottoms together. When my daughter picks out her clothes in the morning all by herSELF, (yes, she is a preschooler) she can select a whole "outfit" from the closet (she also helps assemble the outfits when we're putting away her clean laundry). Parenting books call this strategy offering a child "limited choices". I call it dramatically increasing the odds that my kid will leave the house wearing something other than her Curious George footie pajamas.

I got the idea from the hangers that clothing manufacturers use for their toddler outfits, in which the pants/skirt hanger is topped by a large ring which slides over the shirt hanger. One day I was wishing that I had more of those hangers to organize my daughter's closet, and it occurred to me that I could just create my own. The plastic rings that I used are called "split rings", and they are actually drapery hardware designed for use on the back of balloon shades. I pulled mine off of some cotton shades that were slated for conversion to tablecloths. (You'll recall from my earlier posts that fabric items in my house rarely serve the same function for long!) I think that regular plastic roman shade rings without a split (found in fabric stores in multi-packs) would work even better, assuming that the diameter was large enough to accommodate two hangers. Of course, I also save hangers from new kids' clothes, such as the Carter's hangers, for the same purpose.

Happy Organizing!

One Organizing Category That You Need--Now!

Sometime within the next week or so, most folks will start un-hanging the stockings by the chimney with care, un-trimming the tree, and un-stringing all of those wonderful, twinkling lights. Yes, it's time for Christmas un-decorating. But this post is not about color-coordinated Rubbermaid ornament storage boxes, air-cushioned wreath storage bags, or 50 creative places to store your hoarded rolls of Rudolph wrapping paper. This post is not even about Christmas un-decorating. This post is about Christmas Stragglers and what to do with them.
What are Christmas Stragglers? They are stealth Santas, rogue reindeer, and scalawag snowmen. They appear after all of the Christmas boxes and totes have been hauled up to the attic via the rickety drop-down ladder or dragged down three dark flights of steps to the basement. They appear after you thought that you had collected and stored every last Christmas decoration and ornament.
Christmas Stragglers can appear one day later--that snowman tea towel that you forgot was in the dryer--or weeks or months later when you move the sofa cushions to vacuum and you find one of the Three Wise Men wedged there, still solemnly offering his frankincense.

Christmas Stragglers can also be Christmas items acquired at non-Christmas times of year--those cute sand dollar ornaments that you pick up at the gift shop on your summer vacation, for example, or a classic Christmas picture book snagged for a nickel at a rummage sale in spring. Or how about toddler boots, outgrown in February, which can become next year's adorable Christmas decor?The problem with Christmas Stragglers is that--due to the difficulty of putting them away with all of the other Christmas things in their hard-to-access storage spot--the Stragglers tend to become "homeless"; they loiter in piles where they become Holly Jolly Clutter...year round. And as sweet and generous as old Santa may be, no one wants to see him in June.

The solution? Create a Christmas Stragglers storage box as a designated year-round "home" for the Stragglers, and store the box in an easy-to-access location. Add to the box throughout the year as you find or acquire Christmas items. When Christmas time rolls around again, pull out the Stragglers box along with your other Christmas items, and start decorating and making merry!To make a Stragglers storage box, purchase a cardboard banker's box at an office supply store. (I prefer the simple, inexpensive white economy weight boxes from Staples, as discussed in this post.) Print the jpeg image above (or create your own on your computer), and affix it to the front of the box. Done! In my house, we keep most of the Christmas stuff in the hard-to-access "big attic", but the Christmas Stragglers box lives in the "little attic", a smaller storage area off of our master bedroom which is easier to access.

What are your experiences with Christmas Stragglers? Any funny stories to share?

Halloween Mantel and DIY Candle Holders

This will be a "Frankenstein" post: a few different fall ideas from my home cobbled together just in time for Halloween!

The photo above features last year's Halloween mantel. I was pleased with how it turned out--a nice balance of heights, shapes, and colors. At $6, the large (real) pumpkin was by far the most expensive item. The spider web bowl was more interesting propped on a plate stand than it would have been lying on a table. I didn't replicate this vignette this year because our pumpkin is roughly the size and shape of a beanbag chair!

Here's the other half of last year's mantel. I framed a collage that my daughter made and flanked it with framed scrapbook cutouts. As you may recall from this post and this post, I'll frame just about anything and pass it off as "art"!

One of my favorite tricks is to use nested jars to create a "customizable"candle holder. This idea can be adapted to almost any season, theme, or occasion. To create a striking fall candle holder, use leaves as filler. Start with two jars of equal height, one narrow enough to fit completely inside the other. Place one jar inside the other, and then slide some fall leaves into the space between the two nested jars. Add a tea light candle inside the central jar. Light it. Voila!

Here's an "aerial view" of the nested jars and candle. Probably overkill for instructional purposes, but I loved the contrast of the rough stem and smooth glass:

Pages from an old book are a great alternative "filler" (yes, this is a page from the book that I used to make this old book photo frame). For impact, imagine grouping a bunch of these guys of different heights. To make this more "Halloweeny", add a silhouette of a black cat, hat...or bat!

If you don't have long matches or a wand style lighter to light the candle in the jar, you can use an uncooked spaghetti noodle. Light the end of the noodle with a match, and then use the noodle to light the candle. The noodle may be slow to light, but this is a good thing if you value your eyebrows!

Happy Halloween!

This post has been linked to Primp Your Pumpkin at Fox Hollow Cottage, Fall Festival Friday at The DIY Showoff and Halloween Show and Share Day at Just a Girl.

Vintage Linen Tea Towel Pillow

A few months ago, I found a vintage linen tea towel at my favorite local thrift shop for 50 cents. I liked the simple brown and cream toile-esque images,and I thought it had kind of a Ballard Designs feel. It's a travel souvenir towel from a place in Kansas called Lindsborg, also known as "Little Sweden". It sits on a bench in my foyer, awaiting the day when a Swede will walk through the door, point to the pillow, and exclaim, "Ah herregud! Lindsborg!" Which I think is Swedish for, "Oh my goodness, Lindsborg!" but which might really mean, "What kind of fool makes a Lindsborg pillow?"

Turning the towel into a pillow was a snap--if you've got a sewing machine and can sew a straight line, you can make one too. Experiment a bit to find the optimal square for the pillow face, (I chose to leave off the "Lindsborg" logo) and use a complementary fabric as backing. A recent cruise on Ebay using the search terms "vintage linen souvenir tea towel" revealed lots of neat tea-towel-to-pillow conversion possibilities, including a Savannah towel in navy and white, some cool London railway maps, and a map of Paris.

Just another little reminder that "decorator fabric" doesn't have to be purchased on a bolt from the fabric shop!

This post has been linked to Wow us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style.

Almost-Free Gardening--5 Great Tips

I have always loved gardens and gardening, but I'm an intermittent gardener. Like a chronic dieter who's an expert on nutrition and exercise and yet fails to lose weight, I have an uncanny ability to retain everything that I have ever read or heard about gardening--yet in the summer, when the mosquitoes start buzzing, the snakes start slithering, and the heat index tops 100 degrees, I wimp out, rush inside, and leave my garden to fend for itself.

Here are five tips I have learned in recent years that have made my laissez-faire gardening approach a bit more affordable:
1. Basil Will Root in Water
Did you know that basil will root if you place it in a glass of water on a windowsill? I learned this tip from The Tidy Brown Wren a few summers ago. This is a great way to keep fresh basil at hand through the winter (and through the summer too, if you don't want to schlep out to the garden for a few leaves). I have even successfully transitioned these plants to potting soil indoors. Just be careful when it's time to transplant these little plants outdoors--they require a very gradual transition.

2. Green Onions Will Grow From Grocery Store Roots
Here's another tip that even my seasoned gardener friends didn't know: The white portion and roots of store-bought green onions can be planted in soil and will continue to grow and regenerate green, edible shoots. (When you plant them, be sure to leave a little green above ground for photosynthesis.) I was thrilled to learn about this, as I have a bad habit of buying green onions, using one or two, and letting the rest rot in the fridge. This way, I can just snip a few green shoots with scissors whenever a recipe calls for them. They grow quickly, ensuring a long summer of pasta salad...and onion breath!

3. Tomatoes Can Be Frozen Whole
This tip may or may not save you money, but it will definitely save your sanity...and your hands. If you grow tomatoes, you have probably had the experience of cooking all day (and burning your fingers with tomato juice) only to produce 3 lousy jars of tomato sauce. Take heart! There is a much easier way to save surplus tomatoes. Gently wash and dry the tomatoes, cut off the stem end, and put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Once they are frozen, transfer them to a Ziploc freezer bag. The best part? For use in recipes, just rinse a frozen tomato under hot water and the skin will slide right off in your hand! Revolutionary, I tell you!

As a side note, the watermelon in the photo above was also grown in our garden. Watermelons are easy to grow from last year's seeds...if you live in North Carolina!

4.Marigolds Are Ridiculously Easy to Grow From Last Year's Seeds
[Edited fall 2012 to link to my new how-to post]
Seed saving sounds like something that only die-hard plant propagators do, but I'm here to tell you that it is absurdly easy.  You can find instructions on my other post here.  Or, if you're even lazier than this, wait for last year's dropped seeds to pop up on their own as seedlings and transplant those microscopic marigolds to optimal locations.

5. Hydrangeas Can Be Propagated Without Rooting Hormone
The hydrangeas above are from my garden, though this picture is from last year--this year we have lush leaves and no blossoms, thanks to a frost. I learned how to propagate them from Manuela at A Cultivated Nest. If you have never visited her blog, you're in for a treat!

Happy (Cheap) Gardening!

Reverse Psychology--A Fun Fabric Tip

Here's a quick and easy way to think outside of the box when you're working with fabric in your home: check to see whether your fabric is "reversible". The dragonflies in the frames above were made from two squares cut from the same piece of fabric. The first is the front side of the fabric, and the second is the reverse (or back) side of the same fabric.

I was introduced to this concept years ago when I read Rachel Ashwell's books. Ashwell, founder of "Shabby Chic" style, advocated using the back side of cotton fabrics (chintzes, for example) for projects such as pillows to create a soft, worn, vintage look. Here is an example of this concept in action. This photo shows the front of a bold Ralph Lauren fabric (this is a sheet)--the second photo is the back side of the same fabric:


Not all fabrics are limber enough to accomplish these acrobatic feats, but this is a good tip to keep in mind when you are refreshing a room on a budget and trying to work with what you already have. Remember also to think like a Martian. Whether you're looking at curtains, sheets, or a tablecloth, it's all just fabric in the end--fabric that can potentially be transformed into something else!

"My Really Favorite Room"--The Importance of Empty Space

This morning, I decided to move the glider chair out of my two and a half year old daughter's room. With the recent addition of her first dollhouse, the room was starting to feel crowded, and I wanted to give her more space to play. Lately we've been reading bedtime stories on her "big girl" bed, so we haven't needed the chair as much as we used to.

I wasn't sure how my daughter might react to this change--after all, that glider was the site of lots of snuggles, songs, and stories, not to mention the 3 am (and 4 am, and 5 am) nursing sessions from her baby days. I felt a little wistful as I heaved the glider through the door, and I mentally prepared to comfort her if she expressed any sadness.

So I was more than a little surprised--though maybe I shouldn't have been-- when I returned to her room after carrying out the chair and found her twirling in the middle of the carpet, her little pink purse full of LEGO people practically flying off of her arm as she spun. She was belting out a song that she made up as she went along:

"It my favorite room! It my lovely room! My really favorite room! I like my roooom!"

She has never offered any opinion about her bedroom before (in spite of all of the pretty, color-coordinated touches that resulted from my overzealous nesting phase during my pregnancy), so I asked her about her song. She explained that she was happy because she had more space to play.

I looked at the corner by the window where the chair had been and where the dollhouse now stood. The dollhouse, a pastel, plastic, 3 story structure made by Fisher Price, is not attractive in and of itself--particularly since we lost the toilet and now use a hinged spice jar lid in its place-- but sitting in front of the window on its little fabric-draped decorator table, with lots of sunlight and empty space around it, it looked pretty. Or maybe more accurately, the space around it looked pretty; the absence-of-chair looked pretty. The potential-for-play looked pretty. Lovely even.
My daughter's reaction to this change reminded me of two things:

1. How sensitive human beings are to changes in our environments (children in particular), and how a simple change can truly shift the "energy" of a space. Forgive me if my California roots are showing, but it's the truth.

2. The power of "subtraction" in redesign. Sometimes removing one element from a room can make such a positive difference. As Lauri Ward says, we need to give the eye a place to "rest" in each room. Subtraction is one of the easiest--and most affordable--ways to change a space. After all, even in the worst economic times when many can't afford to buy something new, anyone can afford to remove something! And, as my daughter pointed out, it's not about losing "stuff" as much as it's about gaining space...for living!

Have you subtracted anything in your home lately? Do tell!

Our Light Fixture Fruit Bowl, or, How To Think Like a Martian

We've recently completed some kitchen upgrades in our home. One old element that I was thrilled to vote off of the island was this dated, mammary-esque light fixture. (The popcorn ceilings are gone now too. Hooray!)

As my husband teetered on a ladder in our kitchen disassembling the old light fixture, I was itching to toss it out. But when he handed me the glass shade, I couldn't help but notice a few endearing qualities about it that I had missed when it had hung above my head in the kitchen, taunting me with its sheer 1987ness:

1. It was made of thick, heavy, frosted glass.

2. The edge along the top rim was smooth and finished.

3. It was deeper than any of the mixing bowls in my kitchen cupboards.

4. It had a flat spot near the hole in the bottom, which suggested that it wouldn't roll to one side or the other if I were to place it on a flat surface.

5. It appeared to be capable of corralling fruit, and, as fate would have it, I needed a fruit bowl.

I rinsed it out, filled it with fruit, stuck it on the counter, shrugged, and murmured, “Cool.” And that is how I came to own a light fixture fruit bowl.

I share this story because it illustrates a special kind of thinking that I use often in my interior redesign work. (For those of you who are not addicted to HGTV, interior redesign is a fancy term for redecorating using what you already have.) You might call it “creative thinking” or “divergent thinking”, but I like to call it, “thinking like a Martian”. If you can learn to think like a Martian, you will end up with a much more unique home.

So, how do you think like a Martian? You examine your possessions with fresh, Martian eyes. A Martian wouldn't use the term “end table” to describe an end table. A Martian would call it, “A 26 inch high object with a flat surface on top capable of balancing snorks and zeenies” (books and drinks). If you don't limit yourself to the label “end table”, you open up the possibility of using a stack of picnic baskets, a pile of suitcases, a dresser, or a bar stool to serve as an end table. Or you may, as one of my clients did, use an enormous flowerpot as an end table by fitting it with a round top!

With Martian thinking, you don't see shower curtains, pillowcases, tablecloths, sheets, cloth napkins, and blankets. Instead, you just see: fabric! Thanks to my tendency toward Martian thinking, I live in a house where pillowcases are made into curtains and curtains are made into pillowcases, coat hooks serve as curtain rod brackets, rusty metal burners from an old tobacco barn fill in as candle holders, costume jewelry dangles from the bathroom chandelier, and my most-beloved vases might be referred to by non-Martians as “juice glasses”.

What are some examples of Martian thinking in your home? Do tell!

This post has been linked to Tidy Mom.