As anyone who lives in a snowy climate knows, mud rooms are essential. If your house doesn’t have a mudroom here’s a great idea. Ingenuity to the rescue! Try converting a coat closet into a mini mud room. This doesn’t eliminate any storage, and may actually make the space more usable.

Steps to create a coat-closet mini mud room:

• To add charm, try lining the space with bead board.
• Add hooks for coats and bags.
• Add a bench, but leave a cubby at the bottom for a basket to hold shoes.
• Don’t have the perfect basket? Use a laundry basket – they’re easy to clean!
• This particular cushion was made with an old crib mattress – cut it in half using an electric carving knife and cover in fabric. (What? You don’t have an old crib mattress laying around? Foam pads can be purchased at most fabric stores.)
• For a family with children, try adding fun tags to clarify whose space is whose.
• Throw in a basket for mittens and hats and you’re finished!

Wendy Hyde blogs about decorating for real life at the Shabby Nest!

After planting tomatoes in the spring, every gardener waits with anticipation for the first little yellow flower. The first small green globe appears and slowly transitions from a glorious green tomato to a red ripe glorious garden tomato. With visions of tomato sandwiches dancing in my head, I watch and wait.

However, by late August and early September, I am overwhelmed with tomatoes, thankfully. Overwhelmed is an understatement. So what to do? How to save the summer goodness for the rest of the year?

I stew the tomatoes, lots and lots of tomatoes. The reason I stew the tomatoes is that you can really do anything with the tomatoes at that point, chili, tomato sauce, ketchup, and tomato paste or spaghetti sauce.

The process is very easy.

• Harvest your beauties.

• Clean and quarter your tomatoes removing the center.
• Some people seed their tomatoes at this point; I don’t mind the seeds so I don’t.

• Put in pot over very low heat and stir occasionally. You can season the tomatoes but I do not as I want a blank slate to start with when I use the tomatoes.

• Once the tomatoes have broken down, turn off the heat and allow to cool.
  

• At this point, I look for tomato skins but again, they don’t bother me so I do not look hard.

• Once cooled, ladle into freezer bags and freeze.

You will have a bounty of summer goodness when the winter rolls in. Enjoy!

Cynthia

http://www.accomplishedwoman.blogspot.com/

I know I seem organised, I probably look it, but I have a little secret. I cannot get myself together when it comes to grocery shopping. I just ‘wing’ it, go with the flow, duck in and out of the supermarket every couple of days and never write lists.

I had had enough of this! I was getting fed up with not knowing what we were eating from day to day. I had no idea of how much money we were spending (I am not rich by any means and knew I had to be over-spending), I was frustrated at the thought of going shopping and I HATED taking the kids with me.

What made me start thinking about this is the British television show Perfect Housewife. I felt so inadequate watching this show! She is perfect in every way. I beat myself up about it and thought about my ridiculous shopping habits for days. I enlisted the advice of one of my best friends. I asked her what she thought about the whole thing (because she has always been a master at food shopping). After about an hour discussion (yes I really have no life!) I decided it was time to get my butt into gear and sort this frustration out. The task ahead was daunting, but not out of my reach…

My friend suggested I write a ‘STAPLE’ list of all the things I would buy weekly like fruit, bread, and milk. This took me a few days to get sorted because I would think of things randomly. My friend even text me a message late one night to remind me not to forget to write how many of each item I would need weekly – like 12 kids yogurts, 6 bananas etc. I thought this was hilarious but I did it anyway because this idea was better than what I had been doing. As Dr Phil would say “..and how’s that workin’ for you?”

Then I wrote a separate list containing the things I would buy every couple of weeks like garbage bags, soap, and toothpaste. I had scribbled bits of paper everywhere. My husband thought I was losing it (and I probably was!). I even wrote the prices next to each item. Gee, wouldn’t people laugh if they saw my perfect little list? Talk about neurotic.

Then came my biggest task – meal planning. Whoa this was scary. I know you probably all do this already, but to me it was foreign. I hate cooking at the best of times, but I know I needed to write a list of all the meals I could confidently make.

So at the end of all this I had 3 lists – staple list, things I buy every so often and a meals list.

Finally I wrote my list for the week and headed off to the shops and bought only the things I needed and now I won’t need to go back for days! Boy that feels good. I told the kids that if they chose to eat everything in the house in 2 days, then they will have to starve cos Mummy ain’t going back near the supermarket! The shop will not be getting any more money out of me this week.

I announced my new found confidence to my girlfriend who threw a spanner in the works by suggesting that when I write my weekly list I should categorise items according to frozen, cold, toiletries etc., and have little headings for them. A smile came over my face (and secretly I rolled my eyes). One step at a time girlfriend… one step at a time…

Maybe I should invest in one of these?

Photo
from: www.adaptivetechnology.co.za

Katrina Chambers writes from “down under” at www.katrinachambers.blogspot.com

Do you ever watch those decorating shows on tv and just wish that the next house they visit would be your house?  Yeah, me, too!

And there is one show in particular, you know the one, where the homeowners want to sell their home and they have $2,000 to get it ready for an Open House?  It always amazes me the amount of changes they can do on a limited budget.  But then again, the labor is free and I would bet that most of the furniture that they buy is the ready to assemble sort of furniture.

So, I decided to give this build it myself furniture a try.  In the past couple of years I have purchased and (helped my husband) build:

• 3 section ladder bookshelf with laptop desk from Walmart.com
• Kid’s dresser and bookshelf from Target (brick and mortar)
• Storage Bench for entryway and shelf from JCPenney.com
• (Another) Storage bench from HomeDecorators.com
• Laundry hamper from HomeDecorators.com

Phew!  Yes, it takes a little work and even more patience!  But you can really save yourself a whole lot of money, too.

Here are just a few things that caught my eye today that I wanted to share with you:

Photo from Walmart.com

This bookshelf is part of the Fun To Assemble furniture line at Walmart.com.  You need no tools to build it and it can be assembled in minutes.  It is 52 inches tall and costs $99.88.  The shipping is free if you have it shipped to a store near you and pick it up yourself, which is a great savings!

Photo from Kmart.com

Here is the Martha Stewart Everyday Country Home 5 piece Dining Set at Kmart.com.  This darling table is 52 x 36.  The cost is $279.99 + shipping, however, you can save 15% if you use your Sears credit card.  And like Martha always says, “That’s a good thing!”

Photo from HomeDecorators.com

And last, I found this chic laundry hamper.  It’s called the Dexter Tilt-Out Double Hamper and it is from HomeDecorators.com.  It is 26″ wide and the cost is $219 + shipping charges.  HomeDecorators.com accepts the Home Depot credit card and sometimes you can get items for 3 months same as cash, which is great for those on a budget.

I own a similar hamper from HomeDecorators.com.  It was fairly easy to assemble.  Our hamper is visible to anyone who visits our house so it was really a happy day when I traded in my tired wicker basket for this lovely piece of furniture instead.  I highly recommend this hamper and HomeDecorators.com in general, although if you plan to visit the site, make sure to make yourself a nice cup of tea because you will be there for awhile!

So, are you ready to take the Assemble It Yourself plunge?  Go ahead, give it a try!

Bella Djordjevski is a contributing writer for Blissfully Domestic. She blogs about decorating on a budget at Bella Casa .

Do you have piles of papers on your desk, or worse, your kitchen counter or dining room table?  Have any stray, ugly cords?

Here are are a few clever tricks that will get that clutter out of sight, and what I love best is that they are as attractive as they are functional:

• Use decorative boxes to keep mail, receipts and coupons in.

• Store items underneath a table and add a tablecloth that reaches the floor to conceal your storage.

• Display a pretty book in a stand, to hide outlets and cords on kitchen counters.

• Hang your window treatments wider & taller than the window and all the way to the floor, too.  Not only does it had height and drama, but it will hide those pesky outlets and cords, too.

Photo by Posh Living, LLC

• And finally, create a charging station for your electronic items by drilling a hole in the back of a drawer of a table for the electric cords.  Place the table near the entrance of your home.  Open the drawer and hook up all of your items and then when you close the drawer you will not have to look at them until the next time you head out the door.

Red Side Table Photo: Reginia Boling/Charging Table Drawer Photo: strabes

Do you hide clutter around your home? Please share your tricks & tips with us!

Bella Djordjevski is a contributing writer for Blissfully Domestic. She blogs about decorating on a budget at Bella Casa .