Singing About My Closet!

Has anyone ever wanted a beautiful, streamlined closet?
Where you can find something nice to wear no matter what kind of day you're having?
I've always dreamed of having a beautiful closet thinking I'll get to it when the kids are all older, when I'm not so busy, etc, etc.
Ahh! Wouldn't it be wonderful to feel HAPPY when you opened your closet?
Thankful, even, and so excited that you felt like SINGING? 
Well, let me tell YOU 
I'm SINGING!
My closet is ORGANIZED!
AND BEAUTIFUL!
AND I THINK IT'S A MIRACLE!
It IS a MIRACLE!
I'm so EXCITED!
I CAN'T STOP SINGING ABOUT IT!
I told you my New Year's resolution was to have more fun 
and I AM HAVING A BALL!
I have a clean, beautiful and organized closet!
And it has stayed clean, beautiful and organized for over a month already!
Believe me, there is nothing special about me!
I have never been the most organized person know matter how hard I try!
I plan on keeping the house neat and then before I know it, POOF! 
Back to a mess!
Constant cleaning and maintaining.
You all know what I'm talking about!
So, Here's the SECRET!

This little book is all the rage, you know.
It really is life-changing!
The author, Marie Kondo, is a tidying expert!
Her philosophy is to gather all your things by likeness, clothing, for example, and deal with it all in one go.
For example, she has you start with clothing, so I gathered all of my clothing from all around the house from winter coats that were hanging in various closets and in the basement to summer sandals stored in a bucket on a basement shelf~
All hats, scarves, shoes and dump them all on your bed or bedroom floor.
Then she advises handling each piece individually and asking yourself if it sparks joy!
I LOVE IT!
If it doesn't spark joy then OUT it goes!
I got rid of bags and bags of stuff that didn't spark joy:
shabby looking t shirts, shoes that really weren't that comfortable, hats, scarves and coats I never wore anymore because I had too many and they were just taking up space!
It felt SO GOOD to get rid of stuff I could hardly believe it!
I threw a bunch of shabby things straight in the garbage and bagged up everything else and brought it to the local thrift store.
I figured someone else could find real joy in the things that no longer sparked joy for me!

Another thing that the author suggests is keeping everything you wear in one place!
So no more storing things in the basement or downstairs closet!
EVERYTHING I own as far as clothing goes, FITS IN MY CLOSET!
All my shoes, boots, hats, scarves, purses, workout wear, swimsuits and cover ups, camping shorts and flannel shirt, socks, underwear, hoodies, jackets, fur collared coat, fancy hats, gloves, winter ski pants.
EVERYTHING!
Isn't that MAGICAL?
Here is my closet!

One hanging bar with shelf on top, a set of four wire drawers, and 4 shelves tucked into the side where I keep all of my shoes, purses and a few hats- right side of photo.
Hanging are all the dresses I chose to keep, jackets, shirts, blouses, pants and skirts.
The drawers hold all my pj's, underwear, socks, nylons, tights/leggings, 2 hooded sweatshirts, 2 swimsuits with cover ups, 2 pair shorts, t shirts, tank tops, camis,
 workout clothing, even my painting clothes!
The TRICK in getting all this stuff into the drawers is Marie Kondo's magic folding method!
Basically, you fold everything into a narrow rectangle then fold in thirds. Then she has you file them standing on end rather than stacking on top of each other.
Check it out here: http://goop.com/the-illustrated-guide-to-the-kondo-mari-method/

She suggests you use little boxes that you have hanging around the house to hold accessories and as dividers for socks, underwear, etc, as seen in the photo above. 

I keep extra hats, accessories, and off season clothing in these pretty boxes I bought from TJ Maxx for $8-$10!
I love them!
You can see them in action in the first photo above.

Here is one box with a few fancy winter accessories that I keep on the shelf!!

Can you see why i'm singing?

After you tackle your clothing, Marie suggests tidying your books.
And being a homeschooling mom, I LOVE MY BOOKS!
But somehow she has you happily going through all of your books and asking yourself if each one is still bringing you joy!
I got rid of over 400 BOOKS!
I'M NOT KIDDING!
PHOTO PROOF!
These all went to our beloved local public library who were more than happy to receive them!
It's going to help fund their summer program!

All of a sudden our home has so much SPACE!
After implementing Marie Kondo's Life-changing magic to your home, you will find your home is so much bigger than you realized!
You don't need a huge walk in closet, but if you have one. you'll soon be able to use it as a valuable space for so much more!
You don't need more square footage!
You just need to start TIDYING!

Life just got more FUN!
Get the book from your local library and start right away!
Your whole life will change just like mine did!
Pretty soon you will be singing about YOUR closet!

I hope you have a wonderful and blessed day!

"O sing unto the LORD a new song.." Psalms 96:1

Talk About Laughing Out Loud

I'm telling you, if you want to laugh out loud,

You HAVE to take a Zumba class.

I laugh the whole time!

At myself, of course!

It's the most fun I've had exercising in a long time!

First of all, I'm still chubby from having my baby

and watching myself in the mirror doing these CRAZY moves is

downright HILARIOUS!

I felt a little sheepish at first, because I am NOT a dancer!

But that's what's so funny!

I am laughing the whole time!

One time, the door to the fitness room was open and this man was walking by.

I thought it was someone from church and I almost gasped of embarrassment!

I mean, here I am acting like I want to be in a Lady Ga Ga video!

How embarrassing!

All was okay, though, it wasn't anyone I knew!

Phew!

Laughing is great medicine and if you haven't had that many laughs lately,

borrow a video from the library

or sign up for a class

and lose a little chub while laughing your 'booty' off!

Check out a sample of a class with this youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BILiNvLA-lo&feature=related

Have Fun!

The Little Shepherdess

My very longest and dearest friend, Sarah, and I spent Saturday morning together celebrating her birthday. We met at the Antique Mall and enjoyed the next 2 hours roaming in and out of antique booths. We had so much fun! I found an antique book called "The King's Daughters" for one of my teenage daughters for Christmas. It has a red embossed cloth cover and was only $2.00. I have learned to love books from my Mom who has passed that love down to me!

I was happy as a little lark and would have walked around that day as if on a cloud just from that little 'book' find. But.....

I happened to spy a real blue fox fur stole in one booth. Of course, I had to try it on! And of course, the color was perfect for me! And the price was perfect, too! I bought it! I was having so much fun that it felt like MY birthday!

Sarah found a little boy's leather belt with a brass 'bull' buckle. She was happy to find that for one of her boys for Christmas.

I wanted to find some vintage buttons for my sewing and Linda was so very helpful. She showed me 2 booths with fun, pretty buttons and I so enjoyed sifting through all of the packages. I ended up going home with 3 nice little packages of pretty buttons.

It really was feeling like my birthday! I hope Sarah was having as much fun as I was! She said she was. I think she was happy just to see me having so much fun!

So then Sarah and I spotted a vintage feather boa wreath that we thought was so sweet. I said "I shoud just make that myself," which is what I usually say but have learned that I do not always get the darn thing made! So as we are wandering, Sarah spies a white vintage feather boa in another booth. So I add that to my growing pile. (I could get 2 wreaths made out of that 1 boa!)

We turn the corner and we spy this gorgeous oil painting in a gorgeaus antique frame and I absolutely fell in love with it! I would love to hang this beautiful painting above my fireplace!
Of course, it is priced way beyond my budget at this time, but I could not stop thinking about this painting! It reminds me of one of my favorite poems that I posted earlier, 'The Lamb."

It is called "The Little Shepherdess" and the original painting was done by Johann Baptist Hofner in 1866. (I went home and did a little research!) At one time it was auctioned at Christie's of London, so I had to check out their site, too!

I have learned to appreciate art as a homeschooling mom and expose it to my children through books and art calendars, but now I really want some on my wall!
Sarah is actually quite knowledgeable about oil paintings. She knew right away that the painting in the antique mall was not the original but was a copy of the original painted by someone else. I was so impressed!

So now, I am enjoying educating myself on fine art! I don't really need the original as it is just but a dream. I would be very happy with a fake that looked real!
This is so far my favorite painting:

This is a picture of the original painting that I found on the internet.

The reason I love it is because, to me, it reflects God's love for His children and I love children and I love lambs and I love nature and I LOVE this painting!

Sarah and I had a good day! It really felt like MY birthday!