Do you have mineral deposits you need to get rid of? I want to start by saying this works on Corian counters, I don’t know how well it works on other surfaces. Be cautious when using a razor blade because it could scratch some surfaces.

We’ve lived in this house about 5 months and if you remember, about 2 months ago we put in a new kitchen faucet. The base isn’t the same size or shape as the previous one and it left mineral deposits showing where the base of the faucet would be. I tried using a few natural methods to remove it, but nothing worked.

So I bought a package of razor blades with a holder for less than $2. Test a small area you want to scrape before completing this project.

Gently scrape the mineral deposits using a light touch. Wipe the area frequently so you can see where you have missed and take special care around you new faucet. Ideally, remove the mineral build-up before you install the new faucet but if that is not an option always scrape away from your new faucet to prevent scratching.

Good as new! Doesn’t that look incredible?

If you didn’t already know, I love printables! They are perfect for any holiday, party or special occasion. And I’ve really enjoyed making them lately. It’s just another way to be creative and I’m loving this new creative outlet.

The I Heart U Printable I’m sharing with you today is super simple but perfect for Valentine’s Day. Frame it and display it in your home for the holiday or frame it and give it to the one you “heart”.

If you would like to use this printable for yourself, just click the link below. Printables are for personal use ONLY and are available to subscribers of Organize & Decorate Everything. SUBSCRIBE NOW to get full access to all printables.

I Heart U Printable

Are you ready for a Craft Room tour? I thought it was time. As you can already tell from this picture it’s also a decorating storage room. Besides holding all my crafting supplies it also holds things I use to decorate the rest of my house, when they’re not being used. That’s a lot to cram into a 12’x10′ space so I’ll show you how I did it over time and on a tight budget.

My room is small and I only have one lens for my fancy schmancy camera at this time, so I’ll show you the room by areas. The craft table is against the left wall and about 3 feet from the door, just far enough back for the door to open. I’ll share more on the table later.

You can see more of the room here. Since we don’t have a guest room in this house I had to leave enough space in my craft room for a blow-up queen size mattress. There’s also enough room behind the craft table for a porta-crib. Pretty good for a 12’x10′ space, don’t you think? Putting this room together was somewhat like putting a puzzle together. I had all the storage pieces, I just needed to make them fit.

Here’s a collage of the wall on the right, opposite the craft table. I have 2 tall bookcases, 2 shoe storage cabinets, and a cubbie storage cabinet that cover the whole wall. The bookcase against the back wall holds home decor and one shelf holds party supplies. The cubbie cabinet holds mason jars, bottles, and candles, with ribbon storage on top and a basket of bakers twine above the cabinet. The shoe storage cabinet holds rolls of vinyl, decorative tape, cut wood blocks, and small containers used for gift giving and storage, with a magnetic board that holds buttons on top. The end bookcase holds mostly small craft supplies in jars and other containers. I had all these units before we moved here but some were being used in other rooms. I like free-standing organizing pieces for that reason. Don’t get me wrong, I love build-ins but with being in a rental now I love the option of moving things where needed.

The back wall holds my cubbies with drawers. These hold most of my craft supplies. I bought these years ago, 1 or 2 at a time using a 40% off coupon. I have them stacked 2 high but I’ve had them stacked as high as 4 in other places. I love that I can rearrange them when needed. I labeled the front of each drawer with the contents inside and because I have limited space it helps me edit my supplies on a regular basis. The 3 closet shelves on the end hold more home decor. I store more home decor pieces on top of the cubbies on the back wall. I actually love having all the beautiful colored glass out even when I’m not decorating with it. Since this room doesn’t have a closet everything is out in the open.

I get asked a lot of questions about my craft table since I first made it in March of 2012 (you can also get a look at one of my craft rooms when I had more space). One of the questions I get asked is why I didn’t make the table top permanent. I have 2 answers: 1 is that is was way easier to move since I could take it completely apart into 3 separate pieces and 2 I needed to re-configure it for this room. In the first craft room it was in the center of the room so I had both of the book cases facing out, in this room it’s again the wall so I have one bookcase facing out and one facing in. It takes up the same amount of space either way, but this way I can have it right against the wall and still have the same amount of storage space.

I don’t have a lot of decor on the walls because there’s a huge window, a double door, and tall bookcases taking up a lot of space in this little room. I had 2 areas where I could do something on the walls though so I made a fun little gallery wall using things I already had next to the craft table and I put my large picture frame on the wall the door is on.

I didn’t want this post to be forever long so I will be sharing more of my small storage ideas with you in a post next week. I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my craft room and it gave you some ideas on how you can best use a small space. Thank you for stopping by! Happy Organizing!

We had guests over for dinner last night and I made this Tropical Coconut cake for dessert. It’s quick and easy because it starts with a box cake mix and by choosing a gluten-free cake mix I was able to enjoy it too.

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
1/3 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup powdered sugar
8 oz soft cream cheese
8 oz cool whip
8 oz crushed pineapple – drained

Prepare and bake cake mix according to directions and add coconut flakes. Let cool. Mix powdered sugar and cream cheese until smooth. Stir in cool whip, then stir in pineapple. Spread the mixture over the cake and sprinkle with coconut.

The “frosting” also makes a delicious fruit dip.

Enjoy!

Gift giving (money giving) for a teen, especially a boy, can be hard to make fun. I wanted to do something more than just give my 14 year old cash in a birthday card. Why not put a little effort into it and make it fun? Last year I hung balloons from my younger sons bedroom door (below) for him to wake up to the morning of his birthday. I thought it would be fun to do the same thing for Zach but stash money in each balloon for a fun surprise.

This was Ammon’s door last birthday and my inspiration for Zach’s door.

After Zach went to bed the hanging began. I used fishing line tied to the balloons to hang them from the door frame. I secured them using scotch tape to the top of the door frame so they would just hang in front of the door. I was hoping he wouldn’t get up in the middle of the night.

I rolled 5’s and 1’s, secured them with washi tape, stuck them in the balloons, then blew them up.

When his alarm clock went off in the morning (hence the bed head) we gathered around his door. In the first picture he’s looking to see what’s inside. He thought money was only in a few of the balloons so he was excited when he realized there was something in every balloon. He got his knife then went to town popping them all. This was way more fun than getting money in a card.

We had so much fun watching him pop the balloons then count his money. Now what should I do for next year?

I pretty much love everything chalkboard. I’m on my way to having at least one chalkboard item in each room of my house. My favorite thing about it is that it can be changed on a whim. This Happy Birthday banner can easily be changed to say something else for any kind of celebration.

What you’ll need:
–DecoArt Americana Chalkboard Paint
-Wood Tags
-Twine
-Clothespins
-Chalk

Paint the tags with the chalkboard paint. Paint in one direction, wait one hour, then paint in the other direction. I like to paint horizontal first, then vertical. Let paint dry 24 hours then season by rubbing a piece of chalk on it’s side over the tags.

Use a damp lint-free cloth to wipe the chalk off the tags. Mine have a slight chalk residue left over, but I like them that way. If you don’t want a residue then wipe again with the cloth.

I used colored chalk to make the Happy Birthday more fun and youthful. The lettering is simple but since it’s for a teen boy, I think it’s perfect.

Here’s a little trick to make your chalkboard art look great: Sharpen you chalk multiple times as you use it. I prefer using real chalk compared to chalk pens since I can get a sharp line by sharpening the chalk. I like the imperfection of it also.

I used clothespins to hang the banner from the baker’s twine. You could tie the tags on the twine, but I wanted to be able to change the number of tags for the next occasion. I also painted on the back side so if the banner is hanging in  door way you can write a sentiment on each side.

Zach’s birthday is today so I’ll have a post about another fun thing I made to surprise him on the blog tomorrow.

How do you decorate your home between Christmas and Valentine’s Day? Wintery decorating is my answer. Even though I live in Las Vegas and we don’t have much Winter weather I still like to decorate my home with Winter in mind. I don’t really go overboard but I like touches of it here and there. This seed snowman has been one of my favorite decorations for years. Isn’t he the cutest?!

Of course my bookcase needed a Wintery update.

Here’s a closer look at some of my favorite Wintery decorations on the shelves. It’s easy to carry over some of your Christmas decor into Winter. Just think Winter white, snowmen, pine cones, and snowflakes. I love the snowman my friend stitched and framed for me.

My Winter decorating is simple like white feathers in a glass jar. I need a little visual break after Christmas.

I like to add a little blue, like these large glass ornaments

And this candlestick. I love the faux bois stamped candle.

I hung dollar store glitter snowflakes from the old windows in the living room.

And some blue snowflakes in the empty frames in the family room/dining area.

I rarely add holiday or seasonal decor to my bedroom but I framed this glitter snowflake and backed it with scrapbook paper. I love it sitting on my night stand.

The tray in the kitchen got a little Winter update with snow people and a couple pine cones.

I love this little flocked tree especially since we don’t get snow here.

I stacked a cupcake stand on a plate charger, added pine cones and glitter ornaments with a glitter snowflake on top for the dining table centerpiece. I like putting random pieces together and coming up with something I love.

Winter will be up for a few weeks and then it will be time for Valentine’s Day decorations. I wonder what I can recycle and use for Valentine’s Day?

I made this chalkboard fabric banner for our New Years celebration but it could easily be made for any event or holiday.

I had a 12×12″ piece of chalkboard fabric in my craft stash. I don’t even know if that’s what it’s called but it’s fabric and can be written on with chalk so that’s what we’ll call it. I measured my pieces 4 1/2″x6″ using chalk to mark where I needed to cut.

The paper cutter worked well to cut the notch out of the bottom.

I measured up 2″ from the bottom and 2 1/4″ to the center of each piece to cut the notch.

I thought they looked fine but would look even better outlined in glitter so I used some leftover glitter glue from Christmas.

The glitter glue takes a few hours to dry. Once it was dry I wrote 2014 on the pieces. The trick to getting nice chalk lines is to sharpen the chalk piece often.

I brushed the small clothespins with mod podge then sprinkled gold glitter on. Tap off the excess and seal with a coat of clear acrylic spray to help the glitter stay put.

Then hang the banner using the pretty glitter clips. I have another chalkboard banner I will be sharing later this week using different mediums. I might have an addiction to chalkboard surfaces.

Let’s talk about storing Christmas decorations. Probably 85% of you have already packed your decorations away but due to sickness and traveling I wasn’t able to finally take mine down until Friday. I thought I’d share with you how I store mine away for the next year. I store for easy retrieval. Nothing drives me more crazy than digging to the bottom of a stack of totes to find what I need.

I start by having clear labels on the totes. The label should include all the contents inside. Store like with like whenever possible. You can  store by room, by items, or by color. Storing by room doesn’t work for me because I like to move things around too much and I like to use different colors from year to year too, so storing by items work best for me.

Since we buy special ornaments for the kids every year they have a lot of random ones. I label large zip lock baggies with their name, to hold their ornaments.

To keep track of who’s ornaments are who’s, I write their name and date on the bottom or back of each one before I store it away.

Since I change my Christmas colors from year to year I have a lot of ornaments, especially round ball filler ornaments. Apparently I have a lot of red ones too. I store them in clear zip lock bags so I can quickly and easily see what I want.

I take extra care with my vintage ornaments. I store them wrapped in tissue paper and placed in plastic cups inside a small tote. The small vintage ornaments are packed away inside egg cartons and also placed in a small tote, then I place it in one of the larger totes.

I buy Christmas gift wrap at the after Christmas sales and that determines our Christmas colors for the next Christmas. Emilee helped me choose the gift wrap this year so here’s a sneak peek at our colors for next Christmas.

Then I go through our ornaments and pull out all the ones I will be using next Christmas, that’s easy to do since I already have all the ornaments and totes out. I store them in a box labeled “next year ornaments”. Next Christmas I don’t have to go through the totes and bags deciding what ornaments I’ll be using, since they’re already separated and bagged. All of this makes decorating for Christmas so much easier and less time consuming.

We recently moved and I don’t have a basement anymore which takes away a big chunk of storage space. The holiday totes are stored in an area of the garage and I store all the wreaths hanging from a wire shelf in another area of the garage. The shelf was already there and works perfectly to hang the wreaths from.

I have my storage totes separated by holiday. There are Christmas decorations in red and green totes. I also have totes for Thanksgiving, Halloweens, one labeled “pumpkins” since I use them for Thanksgiving and Halloween, Easter, Valentines, 4th of July, Winter, and Spring. When we moved I downsized my decorations quite a bit and got rid of things I hadn’t used for a couple years. Most of my holidays are 1-2 totes with the exception of Christmas.

I hoped this helped you with storing your Christmas decorations. Less than 11 months till we get them out again!