I am just dying for spring to come! So I thought I would post some pictures of my yard since I am dying to get out there! This is a picture of an arbor my husband & I built. My neighbor gave me the side pieces from his junk pile. He was going to throw them away, but new that I appreciate other people's junk & would probably love them & I did! I sanded them down, added the top pieces to keep them together, cemented them into the ground and the picture doesn't show, but I painted them dark brown to match my house. I since added climbing roses to the side and still have to add plants to the west side of the arbor which I will do this spring! I also layed pavers to make a path to the yard! I will post some more pictures of it hopefully soon when the weather is nicer. It looks better than these pictures show! P.S Ignore the ugly kennel on our playground! It is temporary!

Plants added to the East side of the arbor!

Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is coming soon! I took some pictures of my kids

for my husband (shhhh! It's a secret) and I thought that

I would show you some fun ways to display pictures!

Fun Ideas!

I have been using my wonderful craft room lately for our new business AveryLily and I thought it would be fun to show some of my inspiration ideas that I got from some home shows that I have gone to! Hope you enjoy!

The semi-finished product! I have a closet and these cabinets, which provides plenty of storage space. And the table under the shelf folds down against the wall, great space saver! It has been a lot of fun! The vinyl above the window says " To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong!"

Closet Renovation's

Ok, so I am posting my dirty little secrets on here for all to see! Please still love me and don't judge me based on my messiness! I know some of you thought my house was always nice and clean, but here is where I was hiding it; in the closets! It was a fun project to do, although I still have three more to go. Here is what I have started with so far. I added these simple wire shelves to utilize the space better. There was too much on the floor before.

There are before and after pictures on some. This particular closet didn't need a before. It was pretty good, but I am warning you now, it gets pretty bad!

The important thing to remember here, especially with closets that have all this little stuff (army men, guns, cars, balls, light sabers etc., is that everything needs a home. Seperate toys into categories. I did little men, cars(big &little), bats & light sabers, balls, hats, castle, legos. You get the point. And make sure that you have a big bin for each catergory. I tried bins in the past but they were the kind with lids. They did not work well for 2 reasons, 1. The kids were always using them as step stools and breaking them 2. They couldn't always get the lids of and by the time they did they were so frustrated that the whole bin would be dumped out on the floor! I went and got these new bins at Wal-mart without lids and I am hoping that they work a little better!

This is the coat closet that didn't really need any organizing,

but to get some coats out of the way a little bit to make room for

the vacum and what ever else could be stored in here, I put hooks

all along the wood holding up the shelf above. It actually does take

away a little space, but I was just using it for coats

that we do not wear daily.

This is the second closet I did, our Master Closet! What a disaster! You would think a tornado went through this place! Besides having some Christmas presents stored in here and decorations on the floor, the space was just not utilized how it should have been. And I was also hanging on to clothes that I hadn't worn in FOREVER! My husband is just glad not to trip all over my things on his way to his side of the closet!

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFOREAFTER

BEFORE
AFTER

So before my pants were haging on hangers. It didn't work that well because I couldn't see them that well and also because they were somethimes bending the hangers. I cleared out my PJ's and painting/work clothes and folded my pants and put them on these shelves. It totally works better. And now since I cleared my pants out, I have more space to hang up my shirts!

This is one of my favorite parts. I got this idea from Sid. I bought these hooks and screwed them into the wood, then hung my jewelry on them. Before I just had them in my jewelry box. This way I can totally see everything!

BEFORE

AFTER
I took all my shoes and put them

in these $1 bins from Walmart! I took pictures of them and will be putting it on the front of the bin so that you know shoe is in what bin.

This is the first closet I did in my daughters room. Now we did get rid of a lot of stuff that obviously she did not need! I do need to note that this inspiration came from my sis-in-law's friend Sid and also on of my favorite mags BH&G.

Thank you!

BEFORE

AFTER

I can now breath a little better! It is also easier for her not to make such a big mess because she is not digging for things. Her bins still have the lids, but I just don't have the room in her closet to do the bins without the lids. She also doesn't seem to break them like the boys do! Since this picture I have put the stuffed animals on the shelf in a bin.