Why archery caused me to change my living room.

If you aren't friends w/ B-rad on Facebook - you don't know this - but he's obsessed w/ archery.  Like-he's got it bad.  If his bow was alcohol we'd be at Betty Ford right now.

Now-we all know that B-rad has always had lots of hobbies in the past, but this is like nothing I've ever seen in all our years.  NOTHING.  He loves it (more than this truck which also means more than me) & he's pretty darn good at it.  If you don't know what I mean by 'archery' - I don't really know either... My best explanation is he shoots a fancy pants bow w/ fancy pants arrows at fake animals made of foam. They have like a 'target' on them & the smaller area you hit - the more points that area is worth.  Last year when he traveled for tournaments he started out in the 'novice' class & had to earn a certain amount of money (which meant he had to perform WELL) to advance to the next class.  He did earn enough money to move up to the next class.  Now-I don't know what that means but he was really excited about it.  

So this year he's all about traveling to tournaments again & the first one is in Florida this weekend.  His mom inherited his grandma's house in Florida after she passed last year (but you will hear me refer to it as 'grandma's house for forever more) so he thought it would be good for us to go down on the Sunday before & spend a few days w/ his parents & then he could travel to his shoot.  (So like - I should be in Florida RIGHT NOW.) I would stay w/ his parents & they would take me to him on Saturday when he was done (about 3 hours away) & we would head home.  (If this sounds weird to you that I would spend 3 days my in-laws w/out him - it's not.  They're pretty fun to hang out w/ & his mom loves to cook so I would be SET.)  It was also discussed that if his parents weren't there, we would both travel to the shoot together & I could stay at the hotel (Please God let there be Wi-fi...) or actually GO to the shoot with him.  I tried to explain to him that this was a bad idea because:

A) There is NO part of me that wants to walk around woods, bugs (& it's Florida for God's sake - there could be ALLIGATORS!) while he shoots arrows at foam animals.

B) I ask a LOT of questions & I would totally get on his nerves.  He says I wouldn't get on his nerves but we've been through this song & dance before!

It was decided I should stay at the hotel....

None of the other guys he knows that shoot were going to attend the Florida shoot, but I always maintained that if one of them decided to go, I would give up my spot in the hotel so they could have a room to stay in & be able to shoot.  I'm a giver like that...

So this has been planned for like, ever & suddenly last week it all got changed.  B-rad said some of the other guys decided to go & that if I didn't go to the shoot w/ him (we still weren't sure if his parents would even BE in Florida - they're on the road trucking w/ a houseboat to boat shows right now) I could just stay at Grandma's house & he would come back to get me when he was done - it would be out of the way but he would do it.

MY reply to that was, "Ok-I'm fine w/ whatever, but don't you think I'm too chicken to stay at Grandma's house by MYSELF?"  He laughed & responded with, "it's not haunted - Grandma's not there..." but he knew what I meant.  I tried to talk some reason into him because ultimately we would be spending THREE days at Grandma's house, then leaving early Thursday morning for his shoot.  AND if his parent's weren't going to be there I didn't want to stay at Grandma's ALONE.  That is just scary & no fun for me to be in Florida all by myself.    

He called his parents & come to find out - they were NOT going to be in Florida this week so the worst case scenario was happening.  We talked about it & decided NOT to go down for the week, but he will still go to the shoot this weekend.  He will leave Thursday afternoon after work & will be home late late Sunday night.  He will only have to take 2 days off work (Friday & Monday) & I won't have to burn a whole weeks vacation right off the bat (I only get 2 weeks a year.)  The BEST part of this plan is that I won't have to fix supper for FOUR whole nights.  Oh, happy day....

Ok-so B-rad & his bows... He has gone w/ a green & purple theme & really - who can fault him for THAT?   He just got a purple bow the other day (I don't understand why, but you need different bows for different things apparently...)

 He spends most his free time on the weekends practicing at a local shop in Corydon.  This is his green bow... Don't ask me the difference between that one & the purple one.  He told me, but I don't remember.  For now we'll go w/ the difference is "one is green, one is purple..."

(See the purple & green binocular thingie around his neck?)

 The local shop has the fake animals set up & as you can tell - a LOT of guys go there for their entertainment.

 Ya'll know I'm used to being alone because the farm takes so much of his time, so him being gone to shoots doesn't bother me.  However I do get bored sometimes & that usually doesn't work out for him because I start thinking of all the things I want to do around the house & unfortunately for him usually that requires his assistance.  

One Saturday night I was so bored I rearranged the living room.  Yes, really.  I don't really like the couch in front of the window, but one of the reasons I liked this floor plan was because of the openness & the couch being between the living room & kitchen closed the house off.  I moved it all - by MYSELF.  I couldn't hardly use my arms the next day - but whatever...

I told ya'll I'm obsessed w/ lattice lately & I found this rug on Walmart.com.  It mimics the lattice in the curtains in the kitchen (& the curtains in the living room) & it's PURPLE.  I'm no interior designer, but I've decided to try & pull the 3 rooms together to create a cohesive space.  That's why the curtains in the living room are grey (the drapes in the dining room are grey & eventually I will paint this room grey.  I know the brown couch totally ruins it all...) The purple of the rug matches the purple on the walls of the kitchen & dining room...

(Notice the "M" on the wall on the left?  Rhonda made that for me for Christmas last year (it's purple...)...more on the initial craze in a moment...)

(Update!) 

Ok-so the living room has been like that for about, oh - a month... & last night when I was bored (notice a trend, here?) I decided to change it - again. I didn't like how the recliner was out there by itself w/ all that other space, but Princess has requirements of his seating in relation to the tv so I am a bit limited... The purple rug was $222 freaking dollars & I was too cheap to buy the bigger sizes, plus I didn't think I needed them when I measured.  WELL-I recently saw on Pinterest that you should use larger rugs instead of smaller ones... DAMN THEM.  After moving things around - I decided that I DID in fact, need a bigger rug.  I hate it when Pinterest is right... So I got out my trusty tape measure & laid it out on the floor for scale.  Instead of a 5x8 rug like I have - I need an 8x10.  Luckily it's only $70 more than the other rug.  I've had the rug for 2 weeks, so for my next trick - I will be going to Walmart to see if I can exchange it.  

I really miss my purple rug...

You may remember all my colored glass from the kitchen & dining room?  (Notice that lattice on the drapes??? See - told ya!)  I love these bottles on the dining room table.  My friend, Rose, made the runner for me from scraps from the fabric wall.

So I had the colored glass to go w/ the colors of the fabric wall... 

(Oh yea, B-rad put up a new dining room light for me too..)

 So I wanted to pull some color into the living room & decided to do more colored glass on the coffee table.  Like I said - I'm no designer - so this may be breaking all kinds of rules, but I really like it.  I LOVE the colored glass.  (Also please notice who is laying on MY quilt when there's a WHOLE couch to lay on...)  I was very careful to use the same colors of glass from the dining room, but I was also VERY careful not to do them in the same order or same shape.  Like see how above the blue one is the biggest - the red one is the biggest below.  I keep telling ya'll I'm insane - now do you believe me?

I have added some other elements to the entertainment center as well.  I am currently obsessed w/ all things 'initial' so I bought this "M" for inside the shelves. Remember I also have an "M" on the wall in our bedroom... (can I over do it?  Like too many "M"s & too much colored glass?  Say it ain't so...)  This is a work in progress so I will be adding more things as I find them & taking out some pictures to make room.  (There's another tiny "M" in there too..I got that from the other McAfee's Christmas dinner.  OK-maybe I have over-done it.)

(The following was written BEFORE I got bored last night & re-arranged the living room...)
B-rad says Pinterest is from the devil & he is correct - but I got the idea from there of hiding remotes inside a 'fake' book & this is the one I picked.  I know it's not 'cute' or 'pretty', but I think we all know why I picked it... (HELLO-my obsession w/ Prince William & dreaming one day I will be queen...)

Debbie & Rose made helped me make these pillow covers - again, to pull in color from the fabric wall - but I'm too lazy to put them on the couch & then take them off everyday.  For now I have them stuffed in a basket attempting to hide the hideous wires that go from the wall over to B-rad's table for the lamp, stereo speaker, etc.  If anyone has ideas on how to hide them better - let me know!  I haven't seen that on Pinterest yet... but try to make sure it's simple enough that I won't require B-rad's help... 
(Footnote...) Since I moved everything around, the couch hides the hideous cords - and it only took me being in pain whenever I moved for 12 hours... (one day I will learn I am unable to do shit like this by myself...)  

Organizing makes me happy

Hey everyone, it's me - Jaime Mac!  Remember?????  I know I've been away too long (AGAIN...) & there's no excuse for it.  Lets just say I've been doing 'stuff', but this gloomy weather we've had has had me DOWN in the dumps, people.  It used to not affect me like this - I guess that's just another joy of getting older.  UGH.

Despite my hubby's disdain for it - I've been in organizing & cleaning mode!  I get in those kinds of moods sometimes & let me tell ya - B-rad just LOVES it...

 I L-O-V-E to organize.  LOVE.  And I love to tell help other people organize.  

(Did I say I love it yet?)

It first started when I needed a way to keep our protein bars & other snackish type bars organized.  We had them in their respective boxes in the cabinet & they were a mess.  I bought some stacking organizers at Wal-mart & found them all a home.  (The boxes stacked on the side on the right are the extra we had because I never knew what we had when I went to the grocery & would always buy more!)

I also cleaned out all the cleaning supplies that I keep under the kitchen sink & bought them a little basket as well.

I also cleaned out what I had shoved into stored in the spare bathroom.  I had all my different make-up bags (& I had a TON) & I had what I called the 'medical drawer' that had band-aids & other various gauzes & related items because my hubby went through a 'I have a goal to cut every finger I possess' stage & we were always using gauze & tape & neosporin.  Most of it was expired & he has done better w/ taking care of his digits so I threw it all out. I bought 2 new containers & one houses my make-up & travel bags & the other has extra toilet paper & cleaning supplies for that bathroom.  

Ok-so our closet... when I get into cleaning/organizing mode I'm like a girl on a mission & I just get started & forget to take pictures - so you need to imagine our closet has that white wire looking shelving stuff... It had one layer of shelving & room to hang clothes underneath.  I also had put another shelving system in there for B-rad's work clothes.  That's what he wears 98% of the time to work & to the farm so he had lots of it.  I couldn't have his silly work clothes taking up perfectly good space on my closet shelves.  

SO-B-rad has a LOT of hats.  I can't fault the boy for that - I have a LOT of purses & his hats are way less expensive than they are & they (the hats) were all over the closet.  I decided (you guessed it) that I wanted to ORGANIZE them.  I noticed that there was a lot of dead space on the top of our closet.  It's toward the middle of the house & the ceiling goes really high (yea, that's my technical description of it) so I asked B-rad to put another shelf up above the existing one so I could store his hats & other various items there.  WELL-I sent B-rad to Home Depot & he found an updated closet system w/ tracks & all kinds of trickery.  You could set it up however you wanted & adjust shelves & that just sounded like heaven.

NOW-ya'll know I can't lie to you, so just know that this process caused much arguing between B-rad & I... I got on his nerves, he got on mine - you know - WEDDED BLISS.

You know how when you make major changes it looks WAY worse before it gets better?  Yea - that was this.  I had clothes ALL over our house but I took no pictures of it because that was when B-rad & I were in the throngs of arguing peacefully trying to figure out how we wanted to lay out the closet.  I had shoes in containers & even hampers...

I bought a large fabric box (I am obsessed w/ these now - just wait - you haven't seen anything yet..) & I stacked all his hats in nice & neat.  Duh.  One side is a farming theme, the other is archery themed... (Think he even noticed that?)

This is the way we chose to set it up.  I know it looks a bit messy - don't judge me.  I'm still figuring out where I want everything.  The grayish lattice (I'm also obsessed w/ lattice lately...) fabric boxes were like $6 at Walmart & they house B-rad's work socks & underwear.  (TMI?)  The tealish lattice fabric boxes house my sweaters.  The little snippet of polka dot you see on the left is a smaller fabric box.  I have one for my socks & one for B-rad's good socks.  (Yes, the boy has 'good' & 'work' of EVERYTHING...except underwear...)  I tried for about 5 min to have a bigger fabric box share our good socks, but that just felt wrong...  The blue fabric box at the tippy top has my summer shoes in it & the original culprit of the whole thing - the fabric boxes of hats-is there on the top left.  The hats you see waaay up top are the hats that B-rad currently wears on a daily basis.

I chose to put all our hanging clothes on the bottom.  It just wastes so much space (for us) when we tried to put it up higher & it would block the shelves.  My section is on the left & B-rad's tiny section is on the right.   There is a rounded piece in the middle connecting them & that is where I have my TWO hanger of scarves.  Really-who needs TWO scarve organizers packed full?  THIS GIRL.

The other thing I love about having more shelf space is that I don't have to switch between summer & winter clothes.  I can't tell you how much I LOATHE doing that.  Between our dressers & the closet I have all clothes out at all times.  It does come in handy when during the winter we had a 60 degree day!

On the right side of the closet is where the extra shelving unit we bought had B-rad's work clothes so he hung real shelves there.  His 'good' hoodies are on the tippy top (because he doesn't wear them that often.  But when he does & I wash them I have to get out a step stool to reach up that high.)  The rest of the shelves are for his work clothes.  T-shirt, long sleeve t-shirts, hoodies & jeans.  I tried to keep all of his stuff contained to this area, but it wouldn't work.  He said, 'You know - this is my closet too...I can have more than just this section.'  

My most favorite part of the closet is something I found on Pinterest that actually worked!  I hung up (yes, I did it...{I won't tell you how the first night it all fell & crashed to the floor - whatever...}) tension rods & bought shower hooks to hang up my jewelry.  Even tho I'm allergic I still wear it from time to time.  I'm still working on how to organize my earrings...

If you look closely, I have all the jewelry organized by color.  Like all silver together, all gold & all 'colorful' jewelry.  Yes, I'm insane...

Last week was the cleaning of my office.  I haven't touched it since I retired from the jewelry biz a year & a half ago.  I don't have a problem throwing stuff away, but I need to wait an appropriate amount of time out of respect to said items.  My rule is 'if I haven't worn it, looked at it, touched it or remembered it existed' for a year it's gone.  I had 7 large bags of 'stuff'.   A lot of it was little trinkets I had for jewelry & other supplies.  I cleaned out the shelving system in the closet & it now holds actual office supplies.  I still have some little things left, but they fit nicely on these shelves now rather than strewn about in the office.

I also organized & threw away some tote bags.  Listen to this nonsense - I put my favorite tote bags inside a larger Vera Bradley tote bag & it's placed beside the shelving system in the office closet.  The polka dot thingie on top is a neck pillow I bought for a road trip we were taking to Florida next week.  It got cancelled (more on that in the next post - or previous depending on how you are reading...) so it's waiting for me when I need it next.  I did keep all the jewelry I didn't sell...it's in the clear square totes on the left...

B-rad & I have flip flips & house slippers we wear in the basement & around the house that never had a home.  They were just sitting on the floor.  Nope, can't have that anymore.  Poor Sonny's food dish got moved over & I bought a shelving unit for the shoes.  It's right by the front door, but I don't really care.  It looks better there than flips flops & other shoes laying around.

I also bought organizers for the laundry room.   I have white storage containers for my laundry room related items.  YES I have two containers of detergent - the blue one is chocked full of smelly goodness for B-rad's work clothes & the stupid white one is for anything that comes in contact w/ ME (towels, bedding & good clothes).  Oh goody... 

I figured B-rad shouldn't have to suffer the fate of no good smelling laundry when he's at work.  One time I washed his 'bed' clothes in the smelly stuff & we were in bed & the smell nearly knocked me over.  I'm SO not used to that anymore...

The blue fabric box has extra towels we use to put down in front of the shower.  I don't like to get the rug wet because it will stink.  I can wash the towels easier than the rugs.  

There you have it - my recent flurry of organization   See-this is what happens when ya'll harass me about not posting - you get ORGANIZING overload...