My Totally Organized, Hectic, Chaotic Life

We recently changed this dollar store shoe organizer into a recipe card holder, restaurant menu holder, and back to school organizer! I love that it fits right behind the door between the laundry room and kitchen, way out of my sight! I was so tired of little things piled up everywhere, I just had to do something! I like to be organized. It helps to keep my brain from spilling out when there is a place for everything, A nice place. So, we collected all of the loose pencils, pens, erasers, tissue packs, lip balms, Box Tops, made some hand sanitizers, filled with the kid's favorite mints, sugar free gum, anti bacterial wipes, and eye glass cleaner. Each has their own little pocket and the kids like to call this their, "back to school station". It's a busy place some mornings! Our youngest isn't in school just yet but he has a backpack that he likes to also fill with tiny things.


I think I must spend about 10 hours a week, just trying to figure out exactly how to organize some new pile of clutter, a stack of artwork the kids made that day, a new box of extra beauty products that I received that month from my favorite subscription boxes, and even bags of heirloom potatoes! I wake up, have my coffee and sit here trying to figure out, "How can I make this new pile of stuff, look nicer by putting it into something?" At least that's what my husband says I do. He thinks I prance around and try to buy more things to paint more mason jars or to glue some glitter and gems onto some subscription boxes, just so I can fill them up with stuff. Do I? I don't know sometimes! But, either way, I do love to organize and I can't get enough of the cute mason jar fad that has been all the rage! Maybe?

Well, to be fair, I have 4 children. One is grown and on her own but between the 3 who still live here? They have enough school work, papers, arts, crafts, supplies, books, clothes, and for some reason, a lot of this ends up in my kitchen! I have bags that I date and tie up each month of that month's coloring pages, paper towels with love notes that they make for me, handmade cards, A+ papers. funny sentences they wrote at school. I keep almost everything they make, ok, everything they make. School pages? I've learned to only keep the important things. But, these are all nicely kept in bags and then placed in bins up in my office.

Who doesn't love these adorable little totes? I like these for separating candles, wax tarts, cleansing grains, lip balms, anything that I make in my secret hideaway, my other kitchen! 

If you subscribe to any beauty subscription boxes or any subscription boxes for that matter, I am sure you try to find something to do with those pretty boxes that all of our goodies come in! I know I do! My 8 year old tries to take all of the plain colored boxes so she can make doll beds and closets for them. She does a great job too! She decorates and matches them to each doll. The problem is, now she has so many of these box beds and box closets! (I do have a problem with telling any kid they can't make, build, draw, color, paint, cut and glue, something. I do say no sometimes if we are getting ready to leave on an errand run or something. But, for the most part, it is always craft day at our house!) 

I make scented oils and I found that these red boxes from my Allure Beauty Box, are probably the strongest ones yet! They are also perfect to fit a few rows of oils in and I can label the scents with these fancy chalkboard paint markers I found! Some of the other boxes are used for leftover candle wicks, labels, ribbons, and any other odds and ends I accumulate. Waste not, want not, right? We try to upcycle as often as we can. Yes, even the trimmed wicks from candles I make. Do you know what else these beauty boxes are good for? 

LEFTOVER CRAFT SUPPLIES! 

Along with the beauty boxes that fill our mailbox each month, we subscribe to a few craft subscription boxes. If you have little ones, you just have to check these dandy little subscription services out! The kids just love them and lucky for me, we seem to always have scraps and buttons leftover. Of course we can't throw these little gems away! We have a few boxes where we store the leftovers for a rainy (or a snowy) day! 

Besides the perfect size of these boxes, they stack nice, they have lids, they are usually either plain so we can design them however our little hearts desire, or they come in a gorgeous shade of red and are beautiful just the way they are! (Yes, the picture above is really a picture of some of these smaller boxes, inside a bigger box!) Because, after acquiring so many of these boxes, it is time to organize those boxes. 

What we need are labels! Maybe more boxes to fit them in would be nice? I don't know. I am kinda going towards labeling the boxes so the kids know exactly what they are looking for and we can arrange them by type. 

How do you organize a busy home with children? Especially all of their art supplies and tiny Lego guys? 

When Thou Art At Home, Do As They Do At Home

Ever since I found a pin on Pinterest that another blogger shared, of a mason jar craft that was simply gluing some pretty doilies onto the jar and placing an LED tea light inside, I have been buying mason jars and paints by the case. I even have my youngest daughter coming up with ideas on a daily basis for what to do with all of our jars and how to make them pretty!

We went on a shopping spree for art supplies mainly paints, brushes, sponges,, and oh yeah, LOTS of glitter! Genevive had a few spools of glitter ribbon left from another project so, we made a totally posh night light for her bedroom. (The total girly jar on the far right with the sparkly ribbon!) 

We are still testing out different kinds of paints, in search of doilies at a reasonable price, and are currently in the market for different types of LED tea lights, frosted spray paint, glow in the dark spray paint, and anything else that will help us make tons of one of a kind jars! (Please leave comments or find me on Twitter or Instagram, where I most often spend my time if you have any ideas!!)

We try to teach our children how to be self sufficient and sustainable and we enjoy doing activities that don't require a screen of any kind. The kids enjoy craft nights, we have DIY sleepover parties, invite neighborhood kids over to learn to make anything from cheese to granola to bubble gum to their very own and very chic, bedroom decorations. I'm a sucker for saving money and learning and that time consuming social media network, Pinterest! So, I have lists upon lists of projects I am anxious to try with the little ones and on my own. I hope to get to a point where we make at least 50% of our own snack foods, convenience foods, beauty, bath, and body products, home decor, and even flashlights. (Yes, we are just a tad bit away from our goal but I must admit, even though we have such a fun time making our ow cheese, I will buy some cheese at the store. But, cheddar and mozzarella are almost all homemade.) 

Genevive helped to make this adorable butter jar that we painted with chalkboard paint and she used chalkboard markers to make these fancy letters. It was fairly easy to get the chalkboard paint to look even after a few coats and a sponge brush and the markers worked quite well! (We even made some cute, chalkboard planters that we baked in the oven for about 30 minutes.) But... after our first butter churning, (ok, we don't churn it, we shake it very vigorously.), the chalkboard marker started to rub off and ended up more on us then the jar. I am guessing maybe this was due to a combination of not waiting long enough for this to dry, condensation, temperature, and repeated rubbing on the jar. While I wish so much that there was a way to erase the chalkboard markers sometimes, it was a fun project and we learned from it. The chalkboard markers did last and are still as fresh looking as the day we did the planters, and chalkboard markers are just way to addicting to just trade in for chalk!! (So, yeah we'll stick with these babies!) 

We would be delighted to hear from you! We need suggestions for good paints, the best nail files or sandpaper to file the jars down before and after paint, erasable chalk markers?? Maybe an eraser designed just for chalkboard markers!? If you have a blog post, a pin, anything you would like to share about your own projects or ideas for some mason jar projects, please leave your links! 

CK Bakery Shop

I had the pleasure of staying up late one night a few weeks ago, and luckily being on Facebook to update my page, when I noticed a real cool page, CK Bakery Shop.
You have got to check this business out! WOW!
This business, started out by the owner, baking cakes for her husband and son who were fighting overseas in the war, and sending a little bit of sadly missed home, right to them. Cakes baked in mason jars, and shipped right in a box through the USPS!
This idea and business absolutely fascinated me, and I was overwhelmed with joy, knowing that there are so many amazing people out there in the world.
What a brilliant idea I thought, and I noticed she was offering deals and specials, and I knew i had to try these cakes out right away!!
You have to see the amazing list of flavors and varieties she has available! I just think this is the sweetest idea!
CK Bakery Shop's cakes in a jar, would be an excellent gift for college students, soldiers, elderly friends or family, disabled family members, and friends, anybody who could use a good pick me up and a reminder that someone is thinking about them!
CK Bakery Shop runs a very active and fun Facebook page, head on over and tell them Busymommylist sent you!!
When you get there, you can check her list of flavors, and prices, and the prices are very reasonable, not to mention she runs extra awesome deals and promotions!
She offers a Cake of the Month Club, and minicake samplers, (which is what I received to share with my kids;p)
We received, Chocolate "Cav" Cake, Red Velvet, Chocolate Brownie, Double Chocolate, Blue Star Banner Blueberry, and Stars and Stripes. My favorite was the Chocolate "Cav" Cake, lol. ( chocolate with peanut butter, yum!!)
All of the cakes were just like homemade, and were adorable in the little mini mason jars!
the package we received, was a $15 mini cake sampler, which includes 6 flavors of your choice, and includes shipping costs!!!
Please check out CK Bakery Shop's Facebook page, and place an order asap!!