May’s Completed “Nesting” Projects

May is Project “Projects” at I Heart Organizing.  I didn’t really have any large projects on the list, but there are a couple of things that I wanted to finish before the baby arrives next month.  I happened to get to all three of them last week!

First, I have been wanting to re-do my recipe book for a while now.  I “scheduled” it as my February project, but still never got it done.  I discovered that recipe cards don’t work great for me, and they’re hard to keep track of.  I liked my binder with page protectors, but it was in poor shape.  The page protectors make it easy to wipe off if I splatter on the recipe when cooking.  I print a lot of recipes online, and so I had lots of full size sheets of paper floating around.

First I designed some divider sheets and a cover page.  I found page protectors with tab dividers at Office Max – perfect for what I needed!  I divided my recipes into 8 categories, then started organizing.

  

I typed in the recipes that I use a lot, but which had been floating around on scratch paper.  I re-formatted my already typed recipes from 4x6 cards to full sheets of paper, and combined recipes to fill a page when possible. 

I added a couple of pockets in the front for “Recipes to Try” and “Take-Out Menus” (in case something flops).  It is so much better, and I’m glad to have it done!

My second project was labeling the under-bed and under-crib storage bins where we keep seasonal clothing.  It all started when I decided to pull out the newborn clothes.  My boxes needed organization badly, especially since I would throw things in the boxes and close them up as quickly as possible to keep Elaine from playing with the contents! 

(And just so you know…I chose to lay out the boy newborn clothing.  We’ll see if I’m right in about six and a half weeks!)

Here are the finished baby labels.  I used a Beatrix Potter background to keep the theme in the nursery.  I didn’t take pictures of the other labels, but they are soooo much better than my handwritten notes in Sharpie marker.

The third project also involved the baby’s room – a splash of color on the walls.  Elaine and the baby will share the teeny tiny second bedroom, which also houses much of our cloth diaper inventory for Doable Diapers.  I never painted Elaine’s nursery in Virginia Beach because I knew we were moving.  I really wanted to paint one wall in the nursery a pale green.  I already had permission from the landlord, so now I just needed to do it! 

On Mother’s Day we made a trip to Lowe’s and picked out paint and supplies, and Ben went at it.  I finished the second coat the next day.  Dad should be proud of me – I didn’t spill the paint or get any in the carpet!  Considering it was the first paint project for both Ben and I, I am very pleased with the results!  I have some Peter Rabbit Wallies to stick up as a border at the halfway mark on the wall.  I just need to finish putting them up!

The finished wall – awaiting a border about halfway up the wall.  I’ll take more pictures when the room is finished.  It’s in disarray right now, because everything is crammed in there.  The cradle will be in the master bedroom (at least for the first couple of months) and that will alleviate some of the traffic jam.  Then we can better decide how to arrange everything!