Fashion on Friday

In lieu of our Flowers on Friday, I thought we'd do a little fashion this Friday! Since I spent most of the week showing you our newly organized closets I thought I'd share some of my fashion picks for this summer.
Here's a sunny day out, lunch with a friend, shopping at the mall, that kind of thing:

Grocery Shopping by maillardville manor featuring striped shorts

Here's A weekend day downtown, or casual weekend evening with friends:

Shopping day by maillardville manor featuring structured handbags

Date night, or a night of dancing with the girls:

Date Night by maillardville manor featuring gold jewelry

Weekday at home: (in the Kitchen)
btw . . . I LOVE Gwyneth Paltrow's  my father's daughter cookbook! and Vegenaise is awesome!!haha

Day @ Home by maillardville manor featuring H&M

Here's a board that represents Lee and the way he dresses perfectly (maybe not for summer?)

Lee's outfit by maillardville manor on Polyvore.com

and we couldn't leave out Max!! Here's his board too :)

Doggy by maillardville manor on Polyvore.com

I Hope you enjoyed our Fashion this Friday! I had a GREAT time putting together these boards!! If you want to know where any of these items are shoot me an email and I can look it up!!

Anybody have any Summer wardrobe must have's???

Personalizing Ikea Wardrobe!

Since me and my shoes kicked Lee out of the Walk-in, he needed a wardrobe! Something large enough to hold his entire (XXL) wardrobe but something that didn't stick out like a sore thumb!

We picked the Ikea BOTNE wardrobe because it was large enough, because it was simple and because we could personalize it.
It started it's life with us looking like this:

Then we added some rub-on numbers. I picked them up from Home Depot they were around $2 each and they were intended as Address Numbers!

Then we added some door handles also from Home Depot.

**The baskets on top are our laundry baskets. They are from JYSK.

Lee's Organized Closet

So, Lee was organizing his closet while I was organizing mine . . . . pfffff . . . yeah right! I organized Lee's closet after I finished with mine! He's great at building the wardrobe but has no interest in organizing it :)

His closet was significantly easier to organize then mine was! I think it was probably because he has less clothing and way fewer shoes, and not nearly as many purses (hehe).

The Right side of the wardrobe is where we keep his In season, use everyday clothes. It's where we store his jeans, shorts, sweat pants, t-shirts, socks and underwear!! Oh, and the little wood box is his watch box . . . that man loves his watches!

The left side is where we store his, dress shirts, dress pants, suits and fancy coat (or as he calls it his wedding and funeral coat).

So right now, at this moment . . . our closets are in complete, and perfect order! YAY! I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts!

Organized Closet LOVE

Finally, after 8 months of living in "The NEW Manor" I've organized my walk in. I blame . . . I have no one to blame :( 

I'm so glad it's finally done, it's so nice to have an organized closet again!

Reasons to organize your closet:
1) Easier to find things (because we could all use an easier morning routine)
2) Saves you money, if you already know what's in your closet you'll be less likely to buy doubles (just ignore the 45 pairs of black stilettos I have)
3) If all of your accessories are easy to find you'll wear them more! Making that cost per wear ratio go way down!
4) It'll look Nice and you'll feel Great every time you walk in!

You Might Need to organize your closet if, your like me and all these things happen to you too:
1) You have an over stuffed closet and have nothing to wear!
2) If you find yourself buying doubles because you don't know what's in your closet
3) If you store things in your closet that aren't suppose to be there . . . like camping gear, Christmas decorations . . . or your 35 year old husband's high school football gear . . . seriously!
4)If you're closet is so stuffed you can't pull out one item without pulling out other stuff with it!
5)Half of what you have in your closet doesn't fit.
6) Finding something to wear in the morning is stressful!!

In the middle of our closet is where I store my purses, my boots, and inside the drawers is where I store my bras and undies. Underneath I keep out of season clothes in the two fabric bins.

Shoes . . . oh man I LOVES my Shoes! As much as I wanted beautiful built in shelves for my babies shoes it simply wasn't in the budget so I went with expandable metal racks. They work great! We picked these ones out from Amazon.

I have a space for LONG hanging:

On the right I have sweaters and other winter clothing on the top.

Pants and skirts on the bottom.

On the left I have my in season tops, so right now it's tank tops and pretty cardigans.

and below is my summer outerwear. Light jackets and thin sweatshirts!!

It's so nice to have my closet in order. It's nice to know that everything in there fits and is in good repair and generally it's just nice to be in there!

The Hangers every organized closet needs:

Every organized closet needs a selection of hangers:

First you need a big strong hanger for your winter coats:

A hanger with a bar across so you can hang your pants without getting creases.

A hanger with clips for your skirts.

A multi hooked hanger for your belts,

A hanger with notches for you spaghetti straps,

and if your man wears ties, a tie hanger is also a necessity!

** Not a hanger, but if you have tall boots you could probably use some boot shapers, it makes them easier to store and helps them keep their shape!!

Any other Closet must haves I've missed??? Anything you couldn't organize without????

Lia Sophia GIVEAWAY!!!!!

I am a HUGE Lia Sophia Fan!!! And as it turns out I'm not the only one, OPRAH, yes the big O herself has been spotted wearing Lia Sophia jewelry. Celebs from Denise Richards to my favorite Zoey Deschanel also wear Lia Sophia!

I think people have found Lia Sophia so appealing because it's perfect "BRIDGE" jewelry, a half way point between costume jewelry and way out of our price range jewelry. :) The gold is 14-22 kt. gold and the silver is rhodium and those fine metals are electronically bonded to jewelers' brass to keep it affordable. And just to ice the cake, all of their jewelry comes with  a lifetime replacement guarantee.


So last week when Kerstin from Lia Sophia contacted us about a giveaway I jumped on the chance to share their fabulous jewelry with you!

My personal favorite collection, I LOVE the long necklace on the left, very cougar town!

Lia Sophia is giving away any piece of Lia Sophia Jewelry from their Spring/Summer, or Fall/ Winter catalogs up to $100!!!!
Kerstin is also offering what might be the BEST deal I've seen in a long time, right now until the end of July she's offering Buy 1 get 2 50% off, but that's not even the best part . . . the full priced item you purchase is the cheapest item of the three.
for example:

You can buy one $19 pair of earrings and you can get a $50 bracelet for $25 and a $65

 necklace for $32.50.

The Details:
Prize: An piece of jewelry from Lia Sophia up to $100
To Enter: Comment  "LIA SOPHIA ME" in the comment section.
Bonus Entry:  Peek through their Catalog and pick out your favorite piece  of jewelry    and let us know what it is!!!!
Prize ships: US residents only.
Contest Closes: Friday July 29th, 2011

Good Luck! And don't forget if you want to place an order contact Kerstin our Lia Sophia Rep!!!

***THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. APRIL IN CT NOW CA WON!!! CONGRATULATIONS APRIL!!!! LUCKY NUMBER 126 ****

Chalkboard Paper

Today just felt like a two post kinda day!! So here's our quick second post!
Since it's Meal Plan Monday I thought I'd share our grocery list and my new favorite product, Chalkboard Paper.

The Best place to keep your grocery list is inside the pantry cabinet, as soon as you run out of something it's a right there for you to jot down!
I lined the inside of our pantry cabinet with $1 chalkboard paper from the Dollar Store. It works just as well as using the paint but if you ever change your mind it's as easy as removing the paper!

I hope you liked our little grocery list idea, and I hope you'll  give chalkboard paper a try in your pantry cabinet!!

A Peck of Pickled Peppers

Peter Piper isn't the only one who can pick a peck of pickled peppers!
This isn't one of our quick recipes but it is one of our BEST recipes. We make it in huge batches and they never last longer then a week or two in the fridge.
We eat them straight out of the jar, or with a little cheese on a cracker. But our favorite way is topping a burger!

Ingredients:
2 red peppers
1 green pepper
2 yellow peppers
2 orange peppers
3 jalapeno peppers
1 very large onion
1/4 cup kosher salt
12 ice cubes
2 cups sugar
1 cup vinegar
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp celery seeds (optional)

1) thinly slice peppers and onions using a food processor, it's the fastest and most effective way to slice that many peppers.

2) In a large bowl combine peppers, onions and salt. Toss. Top with ice cubes. Let sit on the counter for 2 hours.

3) After 2 hours, rinse in water. Use a salad spinner to dry the peppers off or blot with a clean kitchen towel.

4) in a saucepan combine sugar, vinegar, and mustard seeds. Heat on stove while stirring until the sugar dissolves into the vinegar. Once it comes to a boil, remove it from heat,

5) Fill jars with the sliced peppers and onions.

6) Pour the warm vinegar into the jars over the pepper mixture.

7) Leave the lids off while the filled jars cool on the counter (about 30 min). Screw lids on and store in the fridge for up to 3 months.

I don't bother canning them as they rarely last an entire month in the fridge, they're Lee's favorite so making sure they get eaten before they go bad has never been a problem!

I hope you'll try them! In the words of Tony the Tiger "They're . . . . . . .GREAT!"

Flowers on Friday!

Just a little pink bouquet for today!!
 We'll be spending the weekend organizing our closets and hopefully organizing a fabulous giveaway for everyone next week!!!
Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend!!!

p.s. The book is "Chick Days" by Jenna Woginrich, it's a great book about raising chicks!! Not that we have chickens . . . maybe one day :)

Cutlery Tray for Jewelry!

I LOVE Jewelry, real jewelry, costume jewelry, all of it . . . almost as much as I love shoes!

I have a small jewelry box for my "real" jewelry. As much as I'd love to fill a wall with gold and diamond jewelry, we can't afford that :( so as far as my real items go, I only own the classics. A small pair of diamond studs, a pair of peal earrings, a pearl necklace, a cocktail ring, a couple of white gold bands, and of coarse my wedding band and engagement ring!!

But it wasn't my "good" jewelry I was having a hard time storing, it was my costume jewelry I couldn't make room for! There's nothing I love more than a great long necklace to complete a look but, what I had was a tangled mess of chains and beads.

So while at walmart, I found some bamboo cutlery trays for $10 each! I grabbed 3!! Along with a pack of rubber coated hooks, and a can of white spray paint!
First:
My dad sprayed each of the trays white for me, while Lee worked on his car, kind of a work share program those two have going on :). It took 2 coats each, adding up to almost 2 cans of spray paint!

Second:
I decided on what jewelry I wanted where and Lee started screwing in the hooks, which immediately cracked the back panel. Bamboo is a very hard wood so it won't expand to accommodate the size of the hook's screw. So he had to drill pilot holes before screwing the hooks in . . . a bit more trouble but it worked!

Last:
We screwed the tray to the wall using an anchor and a screw (super simple).

I organized my jewelry by color, and style. I seem to have a lot of black jewelry so it all got grouped together.

Then I stored my brighter more colorful jewelry together,

and then my earth tone jewelry together.

I also have a few LONG necklaces so we installed some hooks off the bottom to hang them!!!

Total Cost:

$10 each for cutlery trays  $30

1 can of spray paint (I had a leftover can in the garage already) $5

2 boxes of rubber coated hooks $3 each       $6

_______________________________________

$41

p.s. Sorry I could snap a better far away shot . . . it was very cramped in my little walk-in :)

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