Organization: 10 Tips to Declutter your bathroom with guest blogger CaitsCozyCorner

              Hey guys! Happy Tuesday! Today, I am teaming up with a lovely lady named Caitlin   who is known for her blog CaitsCozyCorner www.caitscozycorner.blogspot.com I am excited to share with you her "10 Tips to Declutter your Bathroom." We have talked about organizing and ways to organize your home before but I love Cait's tips and ways she organizes her own bathroom and home. Thank you Cait for sharing with us and for collaborating together for this post. 

Bathrooms tend to be the messy and disorganized of rooms in my house. I’m not sure why with so many towels, toothbrushes for the kids, bath soaps and sponges and more it’s just a disaster all the time! Since having our newborn a few weeks ago, I became insistent on getting everything cleaned and organized during my time at home. I also thought of some great tips to help you declutter your bathroom if you seem to be in the same rut as myself. So let’s share 10 tips to declutter your bathroom (or even your kids, guest or powder room)!

1. Baskets Under The Sink - If you don’t have a extra room, baskets are a nice way to neatly store shoes, dog leashes, and packs. When they are tucked under a pretty console it doesn’t turn into a blemish. I think this idea is excellent.

2. Hanging Shelves Above The Toilet - I always want to put some extra storage above our toilet but could never find anything I liked that would fit such a small and cramped spot. Adding some hanging shelves above is perfect to place extra towels, soap or anything else you may need to grab quickly.

3. Baskets In Drawers- Don’t you hate opening a drawer and everything rolls into one another? I use small baskets from the dollar store to help keep lipsticks together, toothpaste and toothbrush parts and other little things in one central location.
4. Use Jars - Mason jars are my favorite way to add some fun flair plus they fit everything! Cotton balls, toothbrushes, makeup brushes and more! I love mounting them to the mall, especially in my powder room where space is limited. Having this extra storage makes all the difference!

5. Hand Soap Bottles - Do you ever have too many shampoo or conditioner bottles under your sink or in your shower? They can take up a lot of room, especially when you buy in bulk like I do. Make it easier on yourself and put them in soap bottles! They give you the same pump feeling and you save so much room by having the smaller bottle.
6. Clear Vases- I used to always try and figure out the best way to store toilet paper. They can be bulky and trying to make them accessible to your guests can be daunting. I add big vases and put some toilet paper in it for a more decorative, tasteful way to store your toilet paper.

7. Toy Baskets - Are you a parent? If you are, you understand and maybe even cringe over all the bath toys you may have for your little one. An easy way to tackle that project? Grab some cute pins and add a bar to place over the tub. This is an easy way for your child to grab what they need and learn placement value for each toy in the tub. Be creative with how you store your items too and have your child even help if needed to feel apart of the process.
8. Tension Rods- Lots of jewelry but nowhere to put them? Add a tension rod that you can purchase at the dollar store, as well as some s hooks. These s hooks are perfect for hanging your necklaces or even hanging old clips for your hair! Tension rods are easy to install in your own bathroom or even your child's bathroom to help store extra towels, wash clothes and robes. The possibilities are endless adding tension rods to any bathroom in your home!
9. Repurpose - Turn containers from jam, candles, and anything else you can find into chic supply jars! They make your powder room a bit more festive adding some cotton swabs, tissues, or even soap for your guests to use!
10. Add A Wall - Of course you can only do this if you have the space but who doesn’t hate going into a bathroom and having the toilet just out in the open. Add a privacy wall to the side as well as extra storage space for yourself! It’s the perfect solution.

Image: Premier Surfaces

Because bathrooms have now become our sanctuary we want it to be an escape from the bustle of our everyday lives and keeping it clean and declutter free is key. You want to enjoy your me time in your bathroom and to help you look and feel your best, the people at Premier Surfaces can help you achieve that look with their natural stone countertops. They have an en

enormous collection of granite, marble, soapstone, and quartz  at every showroom – whatever you can dream up, they can help you find it. They offer design consultants to help you choose the perfect material for your bathroom countertops, as well as anything else you may need for your remodeling project, including designer tiles, sinks and faucets. Whatever your bathroom dreams, you can achieve it with Premier Surfaces, located in the Atlanta area.

How would you declutter your bathroom?

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Summer Favorites

Happy Tuesday! I hope you all enjoyed the weekend!  I literally can't believe it is already mid June,  the summer is already flying by. As you already know, my heart lies in fall and winter but I do enjoy a few things about the  summer season. Here are a few of my summer favorites:

-Farmers Market time: There is something about good produce from the Farmers Market on a Saturday in the summer. I load up on fresh veggies, watermelon & cantaloupe, and find the best set of  fresh flowers to take home. I love a good summer Farmers Market!

-Ice cream dates: I mean this one is pretty much a given for everyone I'm sure!? Who doesn't love going out to dinner for date night & ending on a good note with ice cream. Whether it's Dairy Queen or a local ice cream shop such as Hattie James or Bobbys Dairy Dip- either way it's a good time!

-Flats & Sandals: As much as I hate making sure my toes are always painted and looking halfway decent (ha) I do love wearing cute sandals. My ultimate favorite shoe is a good flat! I love pointed toe flats, patterned flats, cut out flats... the list goes on! Summer is good for good shoes.

-Summer Travels: Traveling anytime of the year is fabulous but a summer trip always seems to be a great time! I am not much of a beach person but when visiting new places during the summer months there is always something new to do and more activities going on. Even heading to the mountains is great during the summer because of the views and scenery and the weather isn't as hot and humid near the mountains.

-Family cookouts: Again, family cookouts are great year round but there is something about a fun summer cookout filled with BBQ, burgers on the grill, fresh veggies and bowls of watermelon and fresh fruit that just make summer cookouts awesome during the warmer months. More importantly getting to spend time with loved ones is the best part of all.

I thought it would be fun to share my summer favorites and I would love to learn about yours! Have a great week!

recipe: summer avocado salsa

Happy Wednesday ya'll! I hope you are all having a great week so far. Last weekend I hosted Reed's family over for dinner and made this summer avocado salsa as an appetizer. Everyone enjoyed it and it was my first time making this and thought it would be great for a summer bbq, cookout, or any type of get-together this summer and wanted to share. As you can see this is super easy, and that's what makes it so great. Here is the recipe for you:

Ingredients:

-1 can of black beans, low sodium and i used organic

-6tbsp of fresh cilantro (I didn't add this but it would be great to add)

-1/2 cup of green bell pepper

-1 or 2 limes

-1/2 cup of red bell pepper

-1 can of sweet corn i used organic on this as well

-1/2 cup of red onion

-3 roma tomatoes

-2 avocados

-pinch of salt & pepper to taste

-1/2 cup of olive or avocado oil (I used olive)

Details:

-cut and mince all of your vegetables above (peppers, avocados, onions, tomatoes, cilantro)

-add all of these minced veggies to a large bowl

-drain and add your can of black beans to the mixture

-drain and add your can of corn to the mixture 

-add your salt & pepper and your olive oil

-squeeze your lime to add juice to the mixture 

-thats it! simple, easy, and delicious :)

Serve this with tortilla chips and this will be an easy and quick crowd pleaser all summer long!

home decor: how to add your travel photos to your everyday decor

          Hi everyone! Happy Sunday! This weekend has been wonderful. I returned from a work trip to Boston on late Friday evening and was greeted by my husband and parents in town for dinner! We had a great family weekend of shopping at a local craft festival, dinning in & out, and of course cheering on the Preds to an amazing win on Saturday. My brother came over and we all got to relax and hang out together all weekend, it was great!

            As I am printing and gathering our photos from our last vacation several weeks ago in Alaska, I can't help but think that our travel photos are becoming one of my favorite pieces of our house. As you know, we love to get away and see new places and being able to capture those special travel moments are so wonderful. Not only is it great actually being there and living in the moment to take these photos but it is also nice to experience them and think about those memories all over again around your home.

I thought I would share a few tips on how I have made our travel photos a apart of our everyday decor in our home. These are rather simple tips but I wanted to share how to mix in everyday pieces and how you can make your photos do the talking.  Here are a few of the travel photos we have started with and how I made them cohesive with our house and style. I hope you enjoy! :)

TIP #1

-Convert  your photos to black & white or sepia tone

Changing your color photos to black & white or sepia tone really give the images a sleeker look and a vintage feel. Also, depending on the color of your walls using black frames with a white thick border inside will really make your photos pop. I almost went all white here with white frames, borders, and black & white pictures but chose the black thick frame to stand out on a bright white wall. If you have a colorful wall or more of a neutral wall, using a white frame with a white border will really stand out as well. It all depends on the color of your wall.

TIP #2

-Choose photos of your best scenery shots

Of course it would be fun to throw a couple selfies in the mix of us at the mountains or a neat background but keeping it simple with beautiful scenery will really make for a great conversation starter in your home. This also leads to the idea that "less is more." What I mean by that is, not captioning your photos on the white border or not using photos with words will be a great way to engage your guests in your home when they come to visit. A good conversation starter or will give you something to talk about when they ask questions about where you visited or where this picture is taken. 

TIP #3

Keep it simple 

-Even if you have multiple travel photos you want to add to your wall to start a gallery, keeping it simple will really bring the look together. Using the same color of frame in different sizes would be neat or keeping them all uniform in straight lines. Whatever you decide to do, keep it simple with your layout and your choice of frame. The idea here is not to lose the photos in the wall but to have the photos stand out on the wall.

TIP #4

-Keep it in the color scheme

What I mean by this is, keep your frame and border choice in the same color family as your everyday decor. What I did below was bring out the white details in my decor by adding a white frame to a neutral wall. By doing this, my frame is cohesive with my decor. If I had off white details only and didn't have any pieces of white in this display, I would have chose an off white frame or an antique finish to tie it altogether. 

In the above, I used black frames to stand out on my white wall because in the sunroom area of our house I have hints of black. Again, tying it all together is key.

TIP#5

-Keep exploring!

In order for you to add more travel photos to your walls, keep traveling and keeping exploring! There is an entire world out there. These are the best "things" we can have are pictures. Not materialistic things that we don't always "need" but photos and memories that are shared with loved ones.