Randee's Organized Chaos

Do you remember when you first started blogging???  It is a SCARY place!!!  I remember feeling so ALONE and worried about every move I made!!  I didn't want to do anything WRONG!!!  I mean, HEAVEN FORBID that I did not place a button where it went or not link up to a party correctly!!!  OHHHHH...THE PRESSURE, THE PRESSURE!!!  I am pretty sure that I consumed WAY more than my allotted wine when I first started!!! ;o

On the BRIGHT side, I have met some AMAZING people!!  You know, the kind that you INSTANTLY click with????  WELL....my guest today is one of "THOSE" ladies!!!  When we first met through our blogs, it was INSTANT friends!!! She and I have a lot of the same tastes and we BOTH have a love for our husbands and kiddos that is beyond words!! So stop by and take a LOOK at her AWESOME ideas!!!!  I am secretly praying that SOMEHOW I can acquire "ABBY!!!!!"

Thank you so much Randee, for having me today!

Hi everyone!! My name is Leanne, and I blog at Because (I think) I Can. I've only found Randee's blog a short time ago, but I fell in love with her instantly! :) I love how I can hear her Texan voice (I assume she has a Texan accent?!) in the way she writes! And I am so excited and honored that she has invited me here to be introduced to you!

I am a stay-at-home mom to 3 beautiful and exasperating children, and we live in a house that I do not love... but I'm insistent on trying to make this house into a home we can all love. Living on a single income though, means it's all done on a very tight budget! Researching ideas is when I was introduced to the "blogosphere", and I became addicted to this new world! I've been blogging since September 2011, and appropriately named my blog "Because (I Think) I Can", because really, most of the time I don't have a clue what I'm doing! But I'm stubborn and obsessive, and need to complete a project once I've thought of it! I blog about my trials, errors and successes in life, parenting, crafts, and diy projects. I'd love for you to come visit me at my blog;, and come visit my very new Facebook page!!!

Here are a few examples of projects I just finished recently to give you a taste of what I'm all about...

A few months ago, I refurnished a table I purchased off of Craigslist for only $15. I bought it, thinking I would use it for a craft table for the kids... I turned it from this:

To this:

I fell passionately in love with it, and named it Abby (you can read more about Abby here;) and put her up for sale (at a hefty price I might add, because I loved her so much), because I felt she was too good to be a craft table.

Over the Christmas holidays, we used Abby a lot. She was the kids table for every large dinner we hosted, and she became a part of our family. One day recently I casually mentioned to the kids they needed to be careful with Abby, as we would be selling her soon. My 7-year-old son cried. Without my knowing it, he had fallen in love. With Abby. I could not bear to tear them apart, so she is now a part of his favorite time of the day... craft time!

We had an awkward open corner in the livingroom where Abby happened to fit perfectly, plus we have a 7 month old baby who is now crawling and will soon be pulling things off the coffee table where the kids currently do crafts, so our new set up made sense. But to maintain Abby's beauty, I wanted to create a beautiful area for her to stay.

Living on a budget has taught me a lot about reusing, recycling and upcycling, and I have also found a new passion for ModgePodge! So with some recycled canned vegetable tins, outdated magazine holders, awesome craft paper, my labeler, and ModgePodge, I created this organization area:

It works so awesome to help keep the space tidy and controlled.

But another issue we always have is that my children create masterpieces, but I have no place to display them. So inspired by a memory of something I saw while window shopping once, and with the help of Picnik.com (to find a great tutorial on how to use picnik.com, visit my Facebook page where I mention it), paint and hardware, I created this little jewel:

With hubby's help, we put in 3 nails, hung clips on them, and added it to our craftcorner,

I love how this little corner has become the kids favorite place to sit. Abby is more than a craft table, she is a place where brother and sister get along! (because they seriously fight every other minute of the day!)

The last project I want to show you is something very dear to my heart. I love this Bible verse, it speaks a lot to me on how we need courage to get through our lives and circumstances, and we need to put our faith in God. Inspirational quote boards has been a bit of an obsession for me lately, so I was thrilled to finish off this board.

I haven't blogged about any of these projects yet on my own blog;, so come for a visit to see the how-to's coming soon!! I'd love to have you over! :)

Thanks again to Randee for having me today!

xo,

Leanne

OHHHHH.....and YES, I have a VERY southern accent!!!  Texas BORN and RAISED!!!  ;)