Angry Julie Monday

Project: Simplify: Angry Kid’s Toys and Clothes

March 25, 2011

We’ve reached the end of Week 3 of Project: Simplify with Simple Mom. Project: Simplify will be five weeks in total. I’ve organized our master bedroom closet, paper clutter, and now Angry Kid’s room. My husband thinks I’m nuts as usual. I have a bad habit of going on late night cleaning sprees when I’m pissed off about something. But really, it is hard to declutter this much when the family is awake, so I have to clean late at night. I used to move around my furniture when I was little at like 11pm. So this is nothing new.

Angry Kid tends to get a bit chaotic with his toys and clothes. I’ve learned that about him over the past five years and ten months that he has been alive. He tends to get some of his habits from his father….the apple doesn’t fall far, let’s just say that. I’m constantly picking up clothes and shoes from the floor of his room. I’ve created stations and places for everything in his room. His closet has toy storage area, and his clothes going in dresser drawers, the drawers under his bed, or the closet.

Here are BEFORE photos of his room, before I attacked it:

This is the view of Angry Kid’s room when you walk in the door. The Legos are taking over the top of the bookcase and the books are falling out.

Yes, we have a problem with Legos in our house. They are taking over the top of Angry Kid’s dresser too. The dresser seems to be the catch-all for random stuff that we find throughout the house. I had to go through Angry Kid’s clothes too. I yanked all of the too-small shirts and faded stuff to donate.

Angry Kid has a clothing hamper and he knows how to use it, well most of the time. And the Nerf darts, well they are throughout our house. We tend to have Nerf wars daily.

The closet is not too bad. I went through some of the bins in the closet and put things in the donate bag. I also had to put stuff that was on the floor and dresser into the right spots.

Here are the AFTER photos:

I put all of the excess Legos in their spot and re-arranged the books.

It is shocking but you can actually see the top of the dresser. I have seen the top of the dresser for at least a month. Several things went into the trash.

The bed is made and the floor is all picked up. Not toys scattered, and no Nerf darts.

Everything is put away in the closet. I put all of the Lego City buildings and vehicles on the top of the shelves. We’ve had a few accidents with these sets. The fire station fell off the dresser once. It was a tragedy. I’m not sure who shed more tears, my son or my husband. Do you know how many pieces those Lego kits have? Let’s just say a lot.

I have about three bags full of stuff to donate in the garage. I’ve donated at least 2-3 bags every week for the past month. I’m excelling at this delcuttering thing.

And I’m sure I will get some questions about the decorating of Angry Kid’s Room. I did a post in October of 2010 with pictures from the room makeover, and how everything was done, including the closet.

Filed Under: Just Julie, Parenting 15 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Angry Kid, Then and Now

March 23, 2011

Angry Husband recently had me take a photo of him holding Angry Kid up in the air. I reminded him that I had take a similar picture a few years before. I thought I would show both photos so that you can see how Angry Kid has grown.

The first photo was taken in the Spring of 2007. Angry Kid was two years old.

The second photo was taken at the beginning of this month, Angry Kid is five years old.

Welcome to “Angry Julie Monday’s Wordless Wednesday Linky”!

If this your first time here, HELLO! I do a link-up every Wednesday! Post a picture(s) and link back to it here. Wordless Wednesday is a great day to post an awesome picture that “speaks” for itself, no words needed. I may be a little wordy today….

Be sure to check out Wordless Wednesday Link-Ups at these other sites also:

A Beautiful Mess, Better in Bulk, Five Minutes For Mom, Live and Love…Out Loud,Parenting By Dummies, Seven Clown Circus, Supermom

(P.S. if you do a Wordless Wednesday or similar link-up, let me know. I will add you to my list above.)

Also, Lindsey from The Pleated Poppy does “What I Wore Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up

and

Krystina from Lollipops does “What I Love Wednesday” every week with a great big link-up.

Be sure to check out their posts too. I wish I had the extra time to do all of these fabulous link-ups.

Filed Under: Parenting, Photography, Wordless Wednesday 17 Comments

Once upon a time, Angry Kid and I were in a wedding

March 22, 2011

Last Saturday, one of my lifelong friends finally got hitched. Angry Kid and I were in the wedding as a ring bearer and a bridesmaid. Obviously, I was the bridesmaid. Angry Kid doesn’t like to wear dresses.

On Friday, we drove up to Malibu for the wedding rehearsal. It was an almost two hour drive. Angry Kid wasn’t too impressed with the idea, but his friend, Jacob (bride’s nephew) was there. Angry Kid impressed Jacob with his iPad and Zombie Farm skills.

The wedding was at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu and we had a beautiful day for the rehearsal. While walking to the area where the wedding was going to be, we enjoyed some beautiful scenery.

We practiced for the wedding, and Angry Kid was fine. He had a simple task of walking down the aisle, approaching the groom, and then sitting in a chair. He seemed a bit more relaxed after the rehearsal. We then headed back onto the freeway towards Orange County. Angry Kid seemed to be sneezing and coughing a lot. He had a cold a few days before, and it got worse, like really fast. I ended up getting an appointment with his doctor, and of course, he was diagnosed with an ear infection.

We missed our Friday afternoon baseball practice because of the ear infection, and his baseball game was canceled on Saturday due to wet baseball fields. So we headed towards Malibu again to get ready for the wedding.

I think Angry Kid finally got excited to wear his suit for the wedding. He got dressed super fast.

My friend, Kelly had two Junior Bridesmaids in the wedding. One of them was her niece, Madison, and the other was a friend’s daughter. I captured Madison putting on some lip gloss, and you can faintly see Kelly in the background.

We had to get there extra early to take pictures before the wedding. We had some extra time so we wandered around. Angry Kid was checking everything out, and well Angry Husband was making use of the iPad. He was showing Jacob a few things. Angry Husband wasn’t in the wedding but I accessorized his outfit to match Angry Kid and me. It was totally intentional, and I wanted a family picture.

After taking a few hundred photos with the photographer, and FREEZING our butts off, it was time for the wedding. We had a 70% chance of rain on Saturday. We got lucky and it didn’t rain until right when we were leaving later that night.

I clean up well, don’t I? The dress was sleeveless and I felt naked!! I ended up wearing a cropped sweater/cardigan from Target over my dress. I am sooo glad that I brought the sweater, because it was quite cold. Of course, I had a headband on. It was an animal print style with jewels on it. I was wearing silver flats with the dress, courtesy of my closet. Angry Husband managed to get this picture. He had never used my camera so I’m glad that he was able to get some decent clear shots.

Angry Kid was quite confident when walking down the aisle. We were soo proud of him. Angry Husband got an almost perfect shot with a little blur. I had my 50mm lens on and it takes some time to get used to the lens. My friend, Erin is quite the seamstress and made Angry Kid’s tie. She used a tutorial to turn an adult tie into a child’s tie. It was perfect because it had elastic to go around my son’s neck.

It was time for the bride to walk down the aisle. Kelly was escorted by her nephew, Jacob. Jacob is Angry Kid’s mentor I think. They are hilarious together. He’s 12.

It was a beautiful and hilarious ceremony. The officiant made references to The Princess Bride, and Facebook. We had lots of laughs. Of course, we took a few more photographs after the ceremony. I managed to get my family photo taken. Angry Husband finally understood my intentions of the matching shirt and tie.

When we arrived at the reception, which was at the same facility, Angry Kid disappeared. He found a new love, the “photo booth”. They had a real photo booth set-up with props and everything. When I get some time, I’m going to scan in all of Angry Kid’s photo booth pictures. We have at least fifteen or so. I was able to capture this photo of Angry Kid as he was prepped for a photo booth picture session.

While he was taking a break from the photo booth, I caught Angry Kid running around on the dance floor. I can’t believe that he suit was still on and intact after several hours. Pretty impressive.

It started getting late and Angry Kid was asking about the cake. I was able to get some pictures before it was cut. The table underneath had a metal butterfly woman. The metal kept reflecting in the glass.

Angry Kid advised Kelly that he wanted a really big piece of cake and that he was sitting at table #8. He also told the waiters to make sure to bring the big piece to table #8. He was one of the first people served cake.

This was a VERY photo heavy post but I wanted to share some of the best photos that Angry Husband and I took. I can’t wait to see the photographs from the real wedding photographer. I took my camera along to have some photographs of Angry Kid and the setting.

Filed Under: Just Julie, Parenting, Photography 17 Comments

Arts and Crafts Caddy

March 21, 2011

As a kindergartener, Angry Kid is acquiring a ton of craft supplies. He loves using his crayons, markers, and colored pencils. But, it seemed like the craft supplies were taking over our house. I wanted to find something to store all of his things in. Angry Husband and I put our minds together and came up with this project, an arts and crafts caddy. I’ve seen some other blogs use this same IKEA lazy susan, but we used some different items in the construction of our project. I posted a picture of our craft caddy in my Project: Simplify: Paper Clutter Post last week.

My husband, yes, I said my husband, has made three of these now. I think they would be a great birthday present. The tutorial that I am showing is for the craft caddy that Angry Husband made for my neighbor Brandy aka Simply Fit Mama.

Photo by Simply Fit Mama

Here are the simple steps to creating this caddy:

1. Use a lazy susan. We used IKEA’s version, which is under $8 and a large size. It is a basic wood.

2. Sand the lazy susan. We always paint our lazy susan so we give it a little sanding first. We used 180 grit, just enough to scuff the surface.

3. Lay out the buckets or bins that will go on the lazy susan. Space them out evenly. Angry Husband marks a center point on the lazy susan and then draws out a pie chart for bucket placement so that everything is even. He then pre-drills holes on each of the lines of the pie chart and the center point. This is for bucket placement after the lazy susan is painted. You can also use a glue gun to secure the buckets, but we have found the short screws hold everything in place tighter.

4. Mask off the area to be painted on the lazy susan.

This photograph below depicts Steps 1-4.

5. Paint lazy susan. We use whatever paint is available in our garage. We used black paint for this particular caddy because Angry Husband was also painting our nightstands for our master bedroom. Angry Kid’s caddy is gray. The gray paint was from his leftover bedroom paint.

This photograph below depicts Step 5. Notice the pre-drilled holes showing through the black paint.

6. Select your buckets. We used the “Socker” buckets from IKEA, which are for plants. We used six of the smaller size for the outside area of the caddy, and a large one for the middle.

This photograph below depicts Step 6.

7. Drill a hole in the bottom of the bucket. We use anything less than 1/2″ screws. My husband said that he used 3/8″ this time.

This photograph below depicts Step 7.

8. Place screw, which is less than 1/2″ into hole on bucket. (Not shown)

9. Align buckets and screws inside with pre-drilled holes on lazy susan. (Not shown)

10. Use a drill or screwdriver, and screw buckets to lazy susan. (Not shown).

11. You are finished.

This Photograph below depicts Step 11. Angry Husband did not photograph steps 8-10.

Here are Angry Kid’s and Stella’s craft caddies as other examples. Stella is Angry Kid’s friend.

P.S. Angry Husband took most of his pictures with his iPhone. But I’m happy that he actually took pictures for a tutorial. He is learning.

Get Your Craft On Tuesday

Filed Under: In The Home, Parenting 50 Comments

Project 365: Week 11

March 19, 2011

Last Saturday, we went to t-ball, and then Angry Kid went to the birthday party of a friend that he has known since birth. We had another t-ball game during the week, the school jogathon, St. Patrick’s Day, and a wedding rehearsal on Friday. It was a busy week. I’m still trying to catch up.

Day 71/365: At a 6 yr old’s science birthday party. BFF’s daughter is getting ready to make slime. My son had a great time at Stella’s birthday party. He is still talking about it, a week later.

Day 72/365: I love Daylight Savings! I get pictures like this at 6:30pm. It always takes some time to adjust but it is well worth it.

Day 73/365: Teeny tiny plane soaring over the wires….I was trying to capture the plane above, but I couldn’t get my iPhone out fast enough. The plane looks so small in the photo.

Day 74/365: A scary sight….I need gas again. I’ve gotten gas two times since I took this photo.

Day 75/365: You look up the definition of an addict. His picture should be right there. He was playing Zombie Farm.

Day 76/365: Lunch at Chili’s and the iPad, of course. More Zombie Farm playing.

Day 77/365: I found my husband’s jelly bean stash this morning. He loves these jelly beans.

Filed Under: Photography, Project 365 1 Comment

Project: Simplify: Paper Clutter

March 18, 2011

I was on vacation from work for two weeks during Christmastime. I used that time of to de-clutter and organize my house. My husband and I went through tons of plastic tubs in our garage, and tossed a ton of stuff. On one of the last days of my vacation, I organized our file cabinet. I had a ton of paperwork that I no longer needed. Let’s just say that the shredder was my friend.

I’m usually pretty good about tossing things, but I have a pile problem. I like to leave little piles of paperwork, mail, and magazines throughout my tiny house. It drives my husband crazy, but he does the same thing.

I’m participating in Week 2 of Simple Mom’s Project: Simplify. This weeks challenge is paper clutter. I noticed that there were several little piles of paperwork scattered throughout our house this week. Of course, I was totally lazy and waited to clean up the piles. I’ve been busy this week, so I worked on this task today. I ran around and took these pictures tonight, so it was quite dark inside. Forgive me for my poorly lit photographs.

This is what our kitchen counter looks like most days. My husband checks the mail and places it here on the counter. It is my task to go through all of it. I’ve been walking past it since 10am. Really, do I want to check out more bills?

Our dining room table is also the catch-all for many random things. I see kindergarten homework, art projects, Legos, old clothes belonging to Angry Kid, iPhone chargers, a camera, and my camera bag. It tends to stack up. This is probably two days worth of stuff.

Angry Kid has his own art/craft table in our office. It is a lovely table from Pottery Barn Kids. Kids are rough on furniture and we got it discounted because it was scratched and dented. It was an excellent deal. I think the chairs are in the garage. Angry Husband’s computer is out there, and Angry Kid tends to play on that computer. But all of the paperwork, well it is not crafts and most of it belongs to the adults in this household.

Our desk is pretty clean and free of paper clutter. Because all of the clutter is on Angry Kid’s table. I found a random Nerf Gun printout and Down East catalog on the desk. Angry Husband’s and my laptops are also on the desk. There is also a desktop computer. We have “computer” issues.

TIME TO CLEAN, and ORGANIZE THIS PAPER CLUTTER!

Paper clutter is pretty easy to organize. There are only a few things that you can do with it.

1. Toss the paper into the trash or recycle bin.

2. Shred the paper.

3. File the paper.

Almost all of the mail in the pile was useless. I placed the Netflix video on Angry Husband’s desk, and the MacLife magazine went on my nightstand. I’m a Mac addict. Look how shiny and pretty the counter is now.

I put everything away in the cabinets, closets, and dressers that they belong in. I went through all of the kindergarten artwork and homework. The artwork ended up on the bulletin board in our office, and the homework needs to be turned in. This actually looks like a table that you can eat on now.

Angry Kid really loves paint. Can’t you tell? I think he went on an unsupervised painting spree while daddy was on duty. The paper clutter is all gone. I just need to remove all of the paint that is everywhere (rug on floor included). My awesome Lazy Susan Craft Caddy is on this table. I need to do a tutorial for this. It is EASY.

The bin that is on this desk was full of random paperwork on Angry Kid’s craft table previously. This is actually the spot where it goes. I organized the random computer cables also.

I feel so much better that I tamed all of this paper clutter. I’ve really cut down on the excess paper. I get most of our bills electronically, and rarely print those out. I only save a few of Angry Kid’s art projects and leave them up on the bulletin board for about a month.

Like I said before, the shredder is my friend. We have a good long lasting relationship. Just don’t ask me about all of those baby pictures that I shredded a few years ago.

Filed Under: In The Home 13 Comments

St. Patrick’s Day

March 17, 2011

Today is St. Patrick’s Day. I got my lucky green shirt from that fancy store with the red and white logo, you know where, Tar-jay. Angry Kid has a green shirt with a peace sign on it that my mom got him. Hopefully, I can get a cute picture of him later today.

I have all of these awesome friends whom are making green food, and setting leprechaun traps. I’m all out of gold coins and rainbows this year. We’ve been swamped these past few weeks. Seriously, having an elementary school aged child is HARD. All these events and sports to attend. I don’t understand how people with multiple children do it?

Last weekend, Angry Kid and I attended Stella’s birthday party. Stella is my BFF’s daughter. Her aunt and uncle brought these cookies…The green ones were quite tasty.

Maybe if I wake up early, I can whip up some rainbow pancakes like my crafty friend, Erin. I have all of the ingredients. I just need to muster up the energy. I’m trying to move up on the supermom list.

And today is our Elementary School Jogathon. Angry Husband is leaving to set-up at 6:45am, and I’m going to help out and photograph it. YES, we are nuts!

Oh and I forgot to mention, Angry Kid and I are both in a wedding this weekend also…just add in t-ball too.

Calgon take me away………………

Filed Under: Holidays, Just Julie 8 Comments

Wordless Wednesday: Water Play

March 16, 2011

It was quite warm outside last week. After school, Angry Kid and I headed to a local park with some friends. I also brought along my new lover, my Nikon D700. I haven’t had much time to play with my new camera, as I have been swamped with life. So I brought along my camera. I didn’t plan on getting excellent shots that day. But who knew? They had the awesome water feature turned on.

You might not be able to tell from the photo, but Angry Kid was soaking wet at this point. He was wearing all black and it camouflages the water.