Saturday, April 27, 2019

Shutting Down The Ol' Blog...

Hi everyone! Just wanted to pop in and let you know I'm pretty much done with blogging. I'm now sharing all my pics and projects over on Instagram. The name of my Instagram account is:

@southerndaysdecor

I hope you'll follow along. I've been completing a lot of projects lately and shared them all on Instagram...a complete pantry makeover, lots and lots of drawer organization, newly recovered barstools, a new ginger jar obsession, gardening pics, a cat doorbell (lol), several new pillows and as soon as they're all delivered...my new rugs. 

Blogging has been fun, but my comments have really slowed down lately and it just doesn't seem worth it to go to all the trouble of composing a blog post when it's so much easier and quicker to post on IG. Plus, it was like I was double posting...first on IG, then on the blog. I get WAY more interaction on IG, so that's the platform I'm going with. :) 

Thanks for following along all these years and I hope to see you on Instagram!


~Lisa 



Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Valentine's Day Decor 2019

Just a quick post to share some Valentine decor...


 Little pops of red in the living room...



A Valentine welcome...




 Love how my new floral lamp looks with the Valentine decorations...






Cute little heart pillow...







If you look closely, you'll see Finn napping...




I still love that framed print to the left of the stove...




Here's a close up...


It looks kinda Valentine-ish with the frosted cake and red and pink flowers. :)




My new Williams Sonoma dish towels arrived just in time for Valentine's Day...



I know I've talked about these WS striped dish towels before, but they are seriously the best ones! They come in a 4 pack for $20. So at $5 each, that's Target prices, y'all! Lol! I got free shipping too. I don't know if it was just a special that day or what, but I didn't question it. :) 



HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

~Lisa 





Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Dylan's New Apartment and a Glass Nail File

We had such a fun time when we took a little trip to visit Dylan last weekend. I thought I'd share this pic of his kitchen...

I was so impressed with how clean his place is! I love the dark cabinets, granite counters and grey wood floors. 


He ordered these cool coasters. Each one has the shape of a different race track on it! 

gifts for racing fans

We tried a new Mexican restaurant for lunch and loved it! Those quesadillas were huge! I got 3 meals out of them. :) 



My HEB didn't have these new cookies in stock, but thankfully we pass a million HEB stores on the way to Dylan's and I finally got my hands on the new cherry almond cookies...



And no mini road trip is complete without a stop at Buc-ee's for kolaches and chewy pralines...

kolaches


 I had to share this glass nail file I got. It's amazing and they are supposed to last forever. Glass nail files are a new thing for me and I'm so impressed with how well they work. I love this brand because they have cute little sayings on them. I picked "books and coffee" because that is my life, lol! 

glass nail file review

I'll be stuck at the house today, awaiting a couple of deliveries. Lip Smackers and a new cookware set, if you're interested, lol! Have you tried to buy new pots and pans lately? It's so confusing with all the different choices out there. 

Thanks for stopping by!

~Lisa 

Saturday, February 2, 2019

Inexpensive Earring Storage

So here's my DIY earring storage idea...

You take one 3 drawer box from Walmart ($13)...



Add a couple of $2 ice cube trays to each drawer...



And presto! You have a custom-ish storage area for your jewelry! 


 Each drawer holds 2 ice cube trays and each tray has 16 compartments...

A view from the top with all 3 drawers open. 


Perfect, right? And so much cheaper than those selling for $75 or more at "organizing stores." :) AND...the $75 ones only had about a dozen compartments. 

I organized them by color... all my gold and pink earrings.



 My silver, blue and white earrings.



 And every other color, along with some bracelets. 


They did have cheaper ice cube trays, but they were an aqua blue color and I really wanted the all white look, so I splurged on the $2 ones. :) 

They had all different size ice cube trays too. They had really large ones that would hold big pieces of jewelry. And oblong ones that would be great for bracelets. And of course you could store other things too. The possibilities are endless! 


You might remember when I bought these...


I still use them to store my necklaces. There are pockets on the back for earrings, but I ran out of pockets because of my earring addiction, hence the need for a new storage idea. :) 

 I love that the ice cube trays keep all my earrings separated so they won't get tangled and you could use them to store/organize so many other things too. Thanks for stopping by!


~Lisa 




Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Cleaning, Purging and Organizing the Entire House

So it all started with me watching Marie Kondo on Netflix. But then...I watched some of Khloe Kardashian's organizing videos and BAM! That was it...I was hooked and there was no stopping me. Have y'all watched Khloe's videos? Or at least the infamous Oreo stacking one? They're gold! She's the organizing queen! 

I went through every single cabinet, closet and drawer in the entire house. I filled my car to the brim FOUR times with donations! I cleaned, purged, donated and organized. 

But first, let me say a little something about organizing. Everyone is different and everyone has different needs/wants when it comes to their own home. For example, I LOVE seeing those perfectly organized pantries with all the labeled baskets, bins and jars. It looks so pretty, but...I personally need to SEE what's in my pantry. My pantry is a place for "browsing" if you know what I mean. I'll stand in front of the pantry and look around at all my choices before making my selection. And to do that, I need to see what all is in there. I don't want to have to pull out baskets and peek inside to see what's available to eat, know what I mean? 

So for now, I don't use baskets in my pantry. I just try my best to line things up and organize them by category. 

I know I could use clear bins (like Khloe does) and that would solve that problem, but everything is still "contained" and it would take longer to retrieve stuff, with having to remove lids, etc. And not to mention it would also take longer to unload everything from a trip to the grocery store, with having to remove lids, stock everything properly, put lids back, etc. Of course you could always leave the lids off, but then they don't look as pretty. And you'd also have to wash all those jars periodically. 

So in my pantry, I want to see what's in there. But in my bathroom linen closet for example, I don't "browse" in there, so I don't necessarily need to see the contents. I don't ever stand in front of the linen closet, trying to decide what I need. So for me, it's perfectly acceptable to use solid bins or baskets to store things like toothpaste and nail polish. You just have to decide where your priorities are and do what works best for you and your family. 

So, here are some ways I got organized...


The kitchen cabinets...



Inside the buffet in the kitchen...


The linen closet in my master bath...


See the bins? I'm totally okay with having them in here because they store things like extra soap and toothpaste, and that's not something I need to see several times a day. 


And Logan's linen closet in his bathroom. He doesn't like having his stuff in bins, so I let this one slide as long as it's still neat.


The silverware drawer. I've had that green caddy for probably 20 years or more. I just can't bring myself to update it with a new color... 



The buffet drawers in the dining room...




This is mostly seasonal stuff that's only used once a year, so it should be easy to keep organized. 



This little kidney table used to also store picture easels. What?! I don't know why I had them in there, lol. 



Ah...the bombay chest. It's still not perfect, but it's cleared out a little more than it was. I store a lot of extra home decor items and candles in here.



And my Kondo-ed pajama drawer! I'm telling you...if nothing else, at least google Marie Kondo's video on folding clothes (and Khloe's Oreo video) Life changing, y'all! These p.j.s used to take up THREE drawers! But then I folded them using Marie's special technique and it saved so much space! 



The infamous kitchen junk drawer. We all have one (or two) right? I have to keep the rubber bands in a ziplock to make sure they don't fall into the paws of a kitty. 


Definitely not Pinterest worthy, but it works for us. 


I literally went through my entire house and organized everything. I donated all kinds of stuff...a crockpot (I got a new one years ago and still had the old one...guess I thought I might need two for a really big meal?) a foot massager, juicer, tons and tons of clothing and shoes, books (an entire Harry Potter collection, as well as all the Twilight books) and my Baby Blues comic strip books! That's my favorite comic and I purchased about 20 of those books throughout the years. They're filled with a collection of daily comic strips. I used to love browsing through them during nap time, but I haven't cracked them open in over a decade. Plus they're all available online now, so there was no need to keep them.

Just for laughs, this is my all time favorite from Baby Blues...



 Ha ha! Love it!

I'll just say one more thing about organizing. I run a tight ship at this house and I know it. But you have to stay on top of things so they don't get out of control. My kids have never been allowed to leave their dishes on the table and walk off. They've been trained from day one to rinse their dishes and put them in the dishwasher immediately.

But my point is, you have to have order and consistency to live an organized life. And your people have to be on board with it. If things are already a mess, it's much easier to just add to it by tossing stray mail, etc. onto the messy counter and forgetting about it. What's one more random item up there, right? Or not knowing what to do with something, so you just stuff it into the corner of a closet. But...if things are already organized, it's much harder (psychologically) to mess it back up. It makes you not want to throw junk mail onto a perfectly clean counter. You want to keep it clean, so you immediately recycle said junk mail. I know once I got my closet organized, there was no way I was going to mess it back up by storing random things in there that I really didn't need. 

A place for everything and everything in its place. Words to live by, my friends. 

I hope I inspired you to get organized too! Thanks for stopping by!

~Lisa 



Monday, January 28, 2019

Warm Coats and Kitty Slippers

Thought I'd share some new (inexpensive) sweater coats I bought the other day. 

It's not very often that we Texans need heavier coats, much less gloves and hats, but I like to be prepared for those odd really cold days. 

What started my whole quest was a set of pink gloves my mom gave me years ago. I kept thinking how cute it would be to have a matching coat, hat and gloves, all in the same shade of pink. And watching all those winter Hallmark movies didn't help either. They all seem to have the cutest matching coat, hat, gloves and scarf. :) 

So I went on a mission to find a heavier pink coat or cardigan. I have a pink cardigan, but it's lightweight material. And since we don't ever get too cold here, a heavier version would work just fine for our "cold" days. 

Here's what I found at Walmart for about $16... 


pink coat


And here are the gloves that started it all...



I bought that hat at Walmart too, for less than $5. You can see the arm of the new pink coat on the right. I think the pinks match well enough. The hat is reversible too. 

They also had this green sweater coat that I couldn't resist...






Here's how I stay warm on our cold mornings. Coffee, sweats and kitty slippers. And Cinnamon Toast Crunch. ;) 



While at Walmart, I found these cuties too... 



I LOVE this necklace! 



The tassel necklace was less than $5 and the earrings were all $2.88. 


I had to share this moon and stars necklace I got at Griffith Observatory too. I love it and it reminds me of my fun trip to L.A. 



That's all the deals for now. Thanks for stopping by!

~Lisa 

Friday, January 25, 2019

Before and After...New Lamps!

I'm back with a full before and after of the new lamps! 

I'll be short and sweet with these descriptions. 


This is the "after" with the new blue and white chinoiserie lamps in the bedroom...






chinoiserie lamp

My nightstands are different heights, so I had to add some books under the lamp on the left to bring it up to the same height of the lamp on the right. 



blue and white chinoiserie








I love how the bigger, matching lamps look in the bedroom! I think it makes a substantial difference in the overall look in here. 

And now on to the living room lamps. A quick "before"...


And after with the new ginger jar lamp! 


ginger jar chinoiserie lamp

Once again, I think the bigger size is key. 


ginger jar



I love the scalloped edges on the shade...




And the matching finial...




And of course, I already painted the cord so it doesn't stand out. :) 



And last but not least, the other new lamp in the living room. Here's a "before"...




And after...



I can't tell you how much I love this floral one! I'm so happy it made the cut as it's even prettier in person.




I adore the crackly look it has...




And of course I painted this cord too. :) Can you see it in the pic below? I painted it to match the carpet. Ha ha!



And that's it for the new lamps! I had fun picking them out and I'm so happy with my choices. Buying online can be scary, but thankfully everything turned out great. Hope you all are having a wonderful day! 

~Lisa 



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