It's a remote in a box!

Due to popular demand ;) I am working on a post about our favorite books, thank you for letting me know what you'd like to see more of.  

Now on to today's topic: 
No one likes TV remotes . . . I don't think men even like them. Don't get me wrong I am very grateful for the invention of TV remotes but they aren't the most attractive things to look at.  Luckily Lee also doesn't like having multiple remotes so we have a universal remote to consolidate all of the media remotes into one. But I wanted to take it one step further and I found a cute, kind of sassy, wood box that fit the remote perfectly. It has a little chrome bulldog head on it . . . my love of uncommon weird things took over and I had to have it, $12 later our remote is out of sight. (found at Homesense)

Bonus: We found that when the remote is out of sight, it is also out of mind and we are less likely to just turn the TV on unless we have something specific to watch!

p.s. I am still loving the orange pillow, orange flower combination!!

Cord Labels!

Our "home entertainment corner" has one very overwhelmed power outlet! So we Lee decided we needed to get all those cords in order, and we I knew just what to do.

I picked up these little cord labels for $0.99 (we bought ours from an outlet store, but the container store carries them too). Since we have so many wires and they're all black we wanted to make sure we grabbed the right cord at the right time.

Each little plastic cases has a little cardboard picture inside. We've got, the TV, DVD, Reciever, Computer, and internet modem.

Lee bought the special Surge Protector Power Bar, this is important because:
"it will filter out any power spikes that could damage your equipment" ~says Lee
It costs around $40 but could save you hundreds on your replacement costs. . .  safety first! (I'm a dork)

This is one of those Bonus Points projects from around the house, not a must do, but a nice to have done sort of project :)
I'm outside in the yard today, and Lee will join me after work, pop back tomorrow for the worlds smallest backyard update! hehe

Full Disclosure: CD and DVD storage

Here's another installment of Full Disclosure, they are the photos from around The Manor that aren't particularly pretty, and I'd rather not share but  in the interest of full disclosure I do  :)
It would be too easy to make each room perfect take a photo and show you, but real life isn't always magazine ready so I wanted to share the parts of our house that, while they function really well, won't be making it on to the pages of a magazine anytime soon.
Behind our living room chair is where we keep all of the ugly parts of having a T.V and entertainment system. Behind the chair hides a multitude of sins.

However we are lucky that our fireplace has a spot built into it for such equipment.

The round containers hold our discs. The Bottom one holds our CD's, not super useful with MP3s now but we wanted to keep them. Where else can you find dance mix '97? oh, grade 7 memories!
The middle container holds our Video games, or should I say Lee's video games. And the top container holds our DVD's. I found that while all the DVD boxes looked organized when stacked together they took up a lot of space!

These containers are super handy and they flip down with the push of a button for easy access.

I use the bottom shelf for video game consoles and some of the recent games Lees purchased, apparently some of the games need instructions (he never reads instructions for anything but video games).
Then the usual suspects DVD player, receiver etc. . . .

One of my favorite additions to our living room was the in wall speakers Lee put in! There is nothing I hate more then big black speakers in a room! Lee insisted on have a "sound system" and the in wall system was a perfect compromise, we'll definitely be installing some in our new home! You may  have already noticed them in our living room photos but here they are again. There is four in total, two behind the couch and one on either side of the T.V. We bought them just over 3 years ago but I believe they were under $150.

So there's my full disclosure! I never thought I'd show that but there it is! Besides nothing could be worse then the mattress vacuuming post :) haha
Thanks checking out today's full disclosure and pop back tomorrow for Flowers on Friday and hopefully some exciting news :)

Full Disclosure: Photo Storage

I thought I would share how and where we keep our Pictures, you know those images on paper we printed out, before digital cameras :) I still insist on printing out some of my favorites every year.
One because I'm a skeptic and somewhere deep down I truly believe that some big computer virus is going to wipe out the worlds computers and all of their contents.
Two, my grandm refuses to look at anything on a computer screen. Seriously you could tell her the secret to life is on the computer screen and she wouldn't even turn her head.
Three, there is just something about a photograph. Maybe because I have photos of family from a very long time ago, or maybe it's because I feel like someone will be holding that exact photo in the future and think of me.
But anyway it makes me feel nice to print a favorite 30-40 a year (this way I can guarantee if someone in the future is holding a photo of me, it's one I hand selected, not some half fuzzy picture of me trying to fit an over sized piece of  birthday cake into my mouth)~We all have that picture of ourselves, I however have multiple.

Here's one way we store our pictures. I bought this little box from Walmart. It was under $5 and fits all of our 4X6 photos (although it is almost full). I took recipe card dividers and wrote the year on each one, and separated each years photos. I prefer to keep them organized by year, then you never have to guess what year that photo was taken in :)

I also make a scrapbook for each year. Once a month I make a page for that month and it goes into the scrapbook, each scrapbook has twelve spots for twelve pages. I would love to scrapbook more but finding the time is difficult, and it can be expensive, so I limit myself to one page a month and then I don't worry about scraping every single photo.

I also have scrapbooks for special occasions, like our wedding.

So that's how we organize our photos. I would love to know how others organize theirs! Let me know if you've got your own special system, or if you still print them out at all, most of our friends don't even bother printing them anymore.

Getting Ready for Fall: Blanket Storage

Fall to me, means hot chocolate, roaring fires (not that our gas fireplace roars :) blankets and books. I'm not a huge fan of throws draped all over furniture. I don't mind a well placed blanket on a leather chair, but in general I prefer them folded neatly and tucked away, to be brought out on movie nights and sick days at home on the couch.
During the summer months we store most of our throws, except for one.
In the interest of full disclosure, this is how our couch looks normally. It's a lethal combination, having a dog, a husband and a light beige couch, lethal for the couch that is. So we protect it with a throw that can easily be thrown in the wash.
Max thought he would demonstrate how it works. 

But, when fall comes we need a few more, one for me, a big one for Lee and a small one for Max.

If you read the Living Room Side Table post you might remember the empty basket we had under the table, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it then, turns out, it was the perfect for fall blankets.
Most of the time the blankets live in their basket under the side table, but sometimes, on really cold days, we can turn on the fireplace and preheat them before we use them.

We also removed our summer lobster pillow for a simpler beige pillow, for now. I plan on making a halloween pillow for october :).

Organizing and Storing Dog Toys

On a recent trip to Homesense I picked up a set of 3 stuffed building block dog toys for Max. They are made by Planet Dog and retail for about $20 at most pet stores. I once grabbed a set for $20 and carried them around the store with me, but alas could not shell out the dough and put them down before checking out. So I was over the moon to find the same set on sale for $3.99 at good old homesense, because we all know Max needs more toys, sure let's go with that.

I realize the idea of dog toy storage is kind of crazy, most people don't have enough dog toys to worry about storing them. We on the other hand are crazy and do. Thanks to some very generous friends and family, a dog that hasn't once destroyed a toy in his 8 years and a puppy mommy (me) who loves the reaction a new toy gets, we are overloaded with dog toys. Even after a recent donation of toys to my sister and her new fur baby, we are still left with the issue of where to store all these toys.

There is a method to my madness, Max has seasonal toys, that are stored with the seasonal decorations (christmas toys are stored with christmas decorations and the same for halloween) and the rest are stored downstairs in the living room and are switched out when they need washing (Max is missing teeth and as a result ends up gumming his toys until they are gooey and smell horrible), therefore they need washing frequently and need to be kept close at hand, or paw.
 So if you ever wondered what all the baskets are for, now you know, they are for Max.
The two baskets in the bookshelf on the fireplace are for less frequently used toys.

Then for the toys that get dragged all around the house there is a basket on the stairs to trow the toys into, usually after you step on one releasing a very loud squeak. I'm in love with this basket though, it's got a cutout for the step, it's really handy and kinda cute sitting on a step.

For the rest ,we keep his little favorites in a small basket under our coffee table, that way he can pull them out when he wants a new one.

If you are interested in Max's favorite toys I have a list of them on our Amazon Store, under the Pets section. He likes all of his toys but he has some very specific favorites.

And the last picture is just a slightly fuzzy photo of a very happy little puppy.