Bonus - glass jar storage

I might have a slight addiction to Bath and Body Works candles... I get excited when they are 2 for $20 and I also have a coupon.  Before Christmas I bought four, brought them home, and that's when T saw me putting them away in the closet to find my stash.  (Hi, my name is M, and I'm addicted to candles).  It was that moment that I was banned from buying anymore until I used what I have... well... I don't know how many I have to use before I'm "allowed" to buy more... but I imagine that I have to use enough to have room for the new ones.  (Speaking of their candles I haven't purchased ANY of their new summer scents and I'm itching to get at least one)

Stash

Let me tell you an advantage about BBW candles that I have learned... you can burn the candle and then use the glass container with a lid for plenty of things.  It's like a bonus of buying the candles!  I thought that the candle would burn down low enough for me to just pop the residual candle out and then clean - wrong.  Pinterest comes in handy so much people, I really don't know what I did before it came around?!  I searched on there to find how to "reuse Bath and Body Works candle jars" and sure enough there were a few tutorials.  I used this one, here, and found it very helpful.

I put the candle in the freezer overnight.  I expected the candle to "shrink" up in the jar but it didn't exactly do that, it just made it hard and easier to separate from the glass jar (which I'm okay with!).

before

after (no real difference, sorry)

The cleaning process is pretty self explanatory so I'll skip that part.  What I will say is I need to burn my candles faster because it is such a clean, neat, and easy way to organize things.  This first jar I used to keep cotton balls in the coffee table drawer since I'm always painting/repainting my nails, applying treatments to my nails and cuticles, or just plain need a cotton ball to accomplish something (like cleaning things out).

See the cotton balls?  I took he lid off so you can see why I wanted a cotton ball holder

 As you can see the coffee table is pretty much where I store everything that I would "need" in the LR. If you ask T what annoys him the most it would probably be that when we sit down to watch a show I will begin to think about things I want to do... hop up and go get something, measure something, find something... ya get the point?  I pretty much can't sit still (this might explain why we rarely go to movies).  This is why I try to keep as many things in the drawer as possible.  Yes... I notice that it needs to be organized and cleaned out - but I show you how it looks everyday, not cleaned up for the picture. 

The clear glass and shiny top combo make me happy. 

Confession:  I'm sad that I haven't been reusing my candle jars in the past because I probably could have an arsenal of these glass jars.  My next couple of jars that I have are going to go in the SR to hold random bits of craft supplies that will be stored on a shelf (at least that's the plan as of today).

What else have you stored in jars?

Our Weekend

We were bad this past weekend and went out both Friday and Saturday nights.  I'm sure the boys were mad at us.  

I was so excited to see Chocolate Chess Pie on the Menu at Alivia's ....but it just tasted like a glorified brownie.  Bummer. 

What I managed to accomplish this weekend:

Straightening up the Spare Room.  This has been the junk room and I couldn't take it any longer, there isn't any excuse on why it had became the junk room except for the fact that this is where all the boxes landed when we moved in over a year ago.  

Before

Before

Before

 I spent a good hour going through stuff, straightening, tossing, organizing.  There are still some things that need to find homes but I am hoping that we can built another shelf or two int he closet to allow us to better use the closet.  And speaking of the closet, we have a problem.  The rug that is in the room was from my first apartment, it's a nice thick 5x8 from Pier1.  In our apartment and our townhouse it was in the "man" cave so it hasn't been abused and still looks new with the exception of one sharpie stain (that is very small).  I haven't decided if I want to save it to switch out rooms sometimes or if I want to sell it for another improvement?  The issue is that you cannot open the closet door because the rug is so thick so any time we need to get into the closet we have to do this...

Closet/Rug problm

Ain't clearing that rug

In case you are wondering why we don't pull it down.... there is an air vent that we don't' want to cover up.

This brings me to our adventures on Sunday.  We went to Homegoods and it just so happened that they had a great selection of printed rugs that were very affordable.  Check out that guy below.... only cost $30.  It is so nice since now we can open the closet without having to pull the rug back and it adds some color to the room.  Now I will just have to run with these colors and tie in some of the yellow, orange, teal, and grey from the rest of the house.  

Look.... there is a floor and it is cleared out! 

Door opens!!  Yay!  This makes me happy (yes, it's the little things)

 While the floor/rug/closet situation is taken care of we still need to address some things that aren't working.  We need two narrow side tables (I'm thinking about 8-15" wide) with some sort of storage (maybe a shelf or cabinet) to go in this room.  Right now we have a bin that stores all the dog toys and bones (we rotate them out every few weeks so they don't get tired of the same ones).  There is also the issue of pictures and paintings - I need to decide where I want them.  I don't want to put anything in the kitchen yet until we get that wallpaper down which is where 2-3 will go (yes, it's on the list, just not priority now).

Problem one now. 

 There is also the desk wall of the room.  There are a few things that I could put away int he closet or possibly craigslist.  I would like some kind of wall organization here to put smaller pieces on and even frames.... T will tell you he wants another tv on the wall.

So what else did we do this weekend?

Grilled BBQ Chicken

T's actual Sample size of his June June Birchbox arrived and it is a good size.  He actually decided to try it for another month.  I think he likes getting stuff in the mail just like I do! 

Watched the season premiere of True Blood.  I even had both dogs on the couch with me.  And yes, I have piles of magazines, pages ripped out, and mail on the coffee table right now... it's real life. 

Oddly enough, I didn't dread Monday morning as much as I usually do!  Have a great Monday!

It's the little things in life

I mean it.... the littlest things mean the most. 

This $4 tension rod makes me happy (VERY happy). 

Our spray bottles no longer fall out from underneath the sink when we open the doors now!  

Amen.