Home Decor, Organization, & Schmoops Birthday

Hi there.
It's been a while.
Have you missed me?
I missed you.

I have also missed having a keyboard.
But not anymore.
The new one came yesterday.
Yahoo!
I can edit pictures again!
I can blog comment again.
We do have a laptop, but I prefer our desktop.
Don't know why.

Anywhoo,
I've got to get to work this morning but I thought I'd try to crank out a super speedy post, so here goes...

One day a couple of weeks ago I couldn't stand how messy the closet under our stairs was getting.

So I told the Mr., grab your wallet, we're going to Target!!!

heehee.

The day before Claire and I had been at my friend's house and she had a great toy bin in their playroom for the kids.

So naturally, I said where'd you get that?

And then I ran to the nearest Target with Mr. H and his wallet close behind.

I took everything out of the closet.

Began organizing the toy bins like a crazy person.

And now...

 We have a very organized and nice to look at play area in the living room.

Originally I was going to put  the cubby under the stairs, but I decided I liked it better out on that empty wall in my living room.

So now the closet looks like this...

Not perfectly organized looking I know,

but it is organized to me.  And that's what matters. :)

 In other news, Hannah told Mr. Hass one day:
"Dad, I want to go to France.  But first I have to learn French, because the only word I know is bonjour."
That girl. 

And Claire,

well,

she's almost as tall as me.

haha.  not really.

but seriously, these girls are getting so big.

somebody stop them.

Yesterday we celebrated my brother Drew's birthday.  He turned 23 on Thursday.

 Here the men are trying to open up a very fancy beer from Stone.
It was good.
I had a sip of Mr. Hass'.
And he said "where'd all my beer go! you drank 2/3 of it!"
No I didn't.
But I told you it was good.

 Matching Stone Brewery shirts.  Ahh, how cute.

Me and baby bro.
Did you know I call him Schmoops?  Or Schmoopie?
He hates it.
It's because when he was little he couldn't say my name and he would call me "Schinny" instead of Genny.
So I started calling him Schrew instead of Drew.  And then it just transformed into Schmoops and Schmoopie.  And it is stickin'.

Happy Birthday Schmoops!

Gotta run friends!

Whatcha doin' for Super Bowl Sunday?
hmmmmmmmm???

SO Random.

Hi there.
How was your weekend?
Mine was not bad.
Even though Mr. H had to work, I had a good weekend.
I know you can't wait to hear all about it, so I will tell ya.
But first, for those who asked me about the recipe for the dutch baby ...

It varies according to the size of pan you use.

I used my 2-3 quart Le Crueset pan.

First, turn oven to 425, put 1/4 cup of butter in pan and stick it in oven to melt.

Then in bowl, beat eggs (the recipe says in blender, I just used a bowl and my whisk), add flour and milk until mixed, and once butter is melted pour into pan and back in the oven for about 20 minutes.

It will bubble up and then goes down when you take out of oven.

Serve with lemon and powdered sugar.

It's so easy and so good.

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I had the itch to organize again.
So I went out and bought this at Bed Bath & Beyond.

 Let me tell ya now, the package on the left by Real Simple, I loved and a great buy for only $9.  The one on the right, piece of crap!  I spent $15 on those adjustable drawer dividers thinking I would use them in my sock drawer, and they broke the second I took them out of the box.

I thought the Real Simple organizers would be perfect to help me rediscover what was in my underwear drawer.

And yes, I am going to show you my underwear drawer.

because we are friends.

And that is what friends do.

They let you into their home, and they open up their underwear drawer, and they say look...

 so then you look, and then they open it again, and say, okay now look...

and then you hear The Little Mermaid singing "aaaaaaa aaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa".

Look how pretty that is.  Makes you want to go organize your underwear drawer doesn't it?  ;)

Saturday our summery January weather seemd to take off.
We had clouds and cooler temps this weekend.  And even 5 drops of rain on Sunday.  Saturday morning we went to my friend Kelly's house for her twins third birthday.  My girls had a blast eating candy and cake and jumping in the bounce house.  That afternoon it was looking kind of stormy and I wanted to try one of the recipes I pinned on pinterest.
Coconut Banana Bread...

 Hannah helped quite a bit.  She mashed the bananas and did all the pouring and most of the mixing.

 And it was DE-licious!!!!!  The recipe uses only 1 cup of coconut but also 1 cup of coconut milk which made it so moist and sweet with the coconuty after taste.  I don't know how to link my picture from pinterest to the recipe but if you go to my pin boards it is on my "recipes to try" board.  Click on the right side of my blog where it says follow me on pinterest to get there. 

 Dinner Saturday night was my Grandma Mac's spaghetti.
And some cab.

Dessert was coconut banana bread.  Three plates in one hand, did ya'll know I have mad server skills?  That's right I do.  I worked at Mimi's Cafe for three years.  Started as a hostess, then moved up to cashier and To Go orders, and then I was a server for a long while.  I actually thought it was a fun job.  I did that all through cosmetology school. 

I bought the girls new jammies at Target.

On Friday I text Mr. Hass to tell him how much I had spent at Target,

and my neighbor text me back and said, "Hun I think you sent this to the wrong person."

Oh.

Woops.

She said that's okay, Target gets to all of us.

Hahaha.

I love being able to lounge in our pj's on the weekend and not rush off to school.

Do you know that this fall both my girls will be in two different schools?  Mornings are gonna be cuhhh-razy.

I dusted this weekend.

Then I saw my blog books from years past and remembered that I need to get on it and work on my book for 2011 before 2012 is over.

On Sunday my Mom called to see if we wanted to come over for donuts.  I said sure.  Then I texted her and said, how bout I drop the girls off for donuts and I come back to get them after I do yoga?  She said yes.  Woo hoo!!!

 I did my Jillian Michael's dvd.
I love her yoga dvd. 
That move I am doing up there, although it isn't anything crazy, but I used to not be able to hold that position and now I can and it feels so good.
And although I will still work on building up my running, my shins really bother me when I run and I think that I notice results the quickest when I am working on my practice a lot.
My yoga practice that is.
Yoga always makes me feel lean, and I think it is so good for the soul.  Plus I always feel so nice and stretched out afterwards too.

My after yoga snack.

Chobani mango greek yogurt (omg so good!) with some agave and chocolate granola.  Yummm.

 My girls were happy little clams hanging out in the bed with Grandma when I got there.

Our date night on Friday fell through because our babysitter was sick, so I asked my brother if he would come over on Sunday and he said he would.  We just went to the movies and saw...

The Iron Lady.

And it was good.

Interesting to learn about her life.

And sad at the same time.

And Meryl Streep's performance was amazing!

Obviously because didn't she win a Golden Globe for it? 

I have recorded the awards but haven't had a chance to watch em yet.  But I think I heard she won.

Friday we watched Moneyball at home.  Another good one.  I always enjoy a true story.

Speaking of, have you seen the previews for the one with Tom Hanks???  Tear jerker.  I cried during the previews last night for that one!

Oh guess what? 

I think I found the piece I have been looking for on craigslist today.

It's a buffet for my living room.  Stay tuned for the details!

How was your weekend?

Anybody still there?

I swear I always say I will make this short and sweet, and it never happens.

So wordy I am.

Our Weekend Haps.

Hiyeeee.
Before I fill you all in on my weekend haps, I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of the nice comments regarding my very first vlog.
I don't know why I was so nervous to do that.
But I'm glad you liked it, and maybe even learned a thing or two from it.
I will try to do one again soon.
Are there any requests for what I should do next time?  Do you want to see me style my hair down?  Or style half up? Or a video of me styling my girls hair?  You tell me.
It was also really fun to hear from some of you who I had no idea read my blog!! Thanks so much for letting me know and for the encouragement to continue vlogging.  ;) I just love my blog buds.

I did a bit more spray painting on Saturday.

A couple people asked me what kind of spray paint I use so here's a few pics of that.

 Krylon is usually about $3.47 a can at Wal-Mart which is a little pricier than some of the other spray paints, but I have really liked it so far and I don't like to mess with a good thing.  Plus I always say you get what you pay for.

We've had that little stand forever and it was looking a little sad.  So I sanded it down and decided to paint it ivory.  Mainly because I had two cans of ivory in my garage so ivory it was.

This is where that stand belongs for now.  This little nook is always getting re-decorated.  Before we had the playroom it used to house the girls play kitchen, and then when we moved them into the same room, the kitchen went into the playroom and we figured this was a sort of good spot to put the rocking chair.  That chair is the comfiest place to sit.  (the ocd in me is wanting to go rearrange that lamp cord so that you can't see it and retake this picture) 

Welcome to our entryway.  A blank wall by the front door.  Inviting no?

Well, I'm workin' on it.

I have finally figured out what I want to do with this space so now it is just a matter of finding it.

I would like to find a steal of a deal for a hutch (dual purpose so that I can store my china and fine silver and fancy things in it) and maybe a pretty lamp on top of it, and maybe a pretty chair next to the hutch.

For now, it is where we keep our basket (which I recently spray painted dark brown) full of slippers.  Which is kinda convenient I must say.

This weekend I created a little wall collage to go above my future hutch.  But of course I did not hang anything without consulting with my personal decorating assistant first (my mom-thanks mom!)

And one more view of the wall.  I took this while standing inside the half bath on the opposite wall.

What do you think?

I like it.

The pictures make me happy.

Now I need your help with something bloggy buds...

See this piece of furniture here?

 It was Claire's.  It matched her crib and changing table which are now gone.

I almost got rid of this piece, but when we converted the room to a playroom,

I sort of discovered what a useful piece of furniture this could be for storing things. 

 It holds a lot of stuff and makes for easy clean up to just throw things back in the drawers.

My problem is, I hate the look of it.

I hate the wood color.

I thought about sanding it and painting it but that seems like a really big job.

Right now I am kinda thinking about putting up a fun leopard print paper on the inside back part on the top half with mod podge or something like that and getting some fun knobs for the drawers.

What would you do to jazz that baby up a bit????

 I hung these two bulletin boards in the playroom to display the girls artwork and schoolwork. 

And just so you know, the playroom is not always picked up. ;)

I hung this bulletin board over the weekend too.  It's right by the garage door and I am going to start keeping my current favorite happy pictures on there.  Makes me smile every time I see it.

 This is my new jewelry organizer that came this weekend!

I was SO excited to get this.

My friend Jenny had ordered a couple and shared about it on her blog.  When I saw it I knew it was the exact thing that I needed to organize my jewelry.

It is from Spirit Ranch Creations Etsy shop.

 As soon as Mr. Hass hung it up for me I got right to organizing my jewelry boxes and putting my favorites out on display.

I was especially excited that this had a spot for bracelets because I have just had my bangles sitting out on my dresser and they've been driving me crazy. They needed a home.

Ahhhh.  Isn't it pretty?  I think it looks like my own little jewelry store.  :)

A productive weekend wouldn't you say?
And last night Mr. Hass and I were even able to get out of the house alone for a movie date.  I thought Moneyball was at 8:20 but turns out I goofed on the movie times.  Woops.  So we wound up seeing Midnight In Paris and had time to get a latte from Starbucks first!  We sat in the car overlooking the lake at dos lagos and chit chatted 20 minutes away while we sipped our drinks.  The movie wound up working out well.  Neither of us knew a thing about it, and we both really really enjoyed it.  And now I am dying to go to Paris.

I'm linking up with carissa at lowercase letters today!

Blog Sugar High meets Reality...

This is what Claire did today during nap time...

 How I did not hear this, I don't know.

I know it's not horrific.
But still.
It was enough to make me almost want to cry at the end of my long day.
And do you want to know the irony of it?

 I went through every single item in those drawers this morning.
Folded them.
Organized them.
Set aside some to donate.
And that stinker pulled every. single. thing. out of them and tossed them about her room.
Oh, and she decided to remove one of the dresser knobs too.


It's a good thing I bought this creamer this morning.

 Now if you will excuse me,
I need to go clean THAT mess,
 hook myself up to a caffeine iv,
and I might make these just to make myself feel better...

And one more random picture just cause I like the colors.

Take home lesson of the day:
what's the point of organizing your kids rooms?
they don't care you did.
Sigh.