Car Organization and Shopping with {MY FAVORITE} Thirty-One Bags

I wanted to share how I use Thirty-One Bags to organize my car. I have these bags for everything these days, and will show other ways I use them soon. Today is all about my car, and grocery shopping. Take a look!


Here is my shopping cart loaded into one "Fresh Market Thermal" bag.


This is the trunk of my small SUV with the third row up (notice its not a very large space). I have a Large Utility Tote to catch my smaller bags and items I take in the house after my errands. I keep this and the Fresh Market Thermal together in the trunk and use them daily. This keeps my car from having junk thrown about, and from spilling groceries (the Large Utility Tote holds paper bags upright or can be used to catch plastic bags and unbagged items as I have done today). Both fit even in a small trunk space!


Here is the 2nd row of seats, where my 2 children usually sit. They each have a Thirty One Beauty Bag being used to store their car fun items, and the diaper caddy (which just stays in the car until I need to refill it) sits between them.


My 8 year olds bag has books, puzzle books, colored pencils, a clip board, and her trinkets.


My 2 year olds bag has coloring books, touch and feel books, a doodle pad, a wooden magnetic puzzle, crayons and a clipboard. They don't strap down at the bottom so they can reach for their bag and pull it towards them to reach everything inside of it.


This Keep it Caddy by Thirty-One is the perfect diaper caddy! Inside I have a Thirty-One large thermal pouch where I keep snacks. Even when its fairly hot the chocolate z-bars don't melt! So its perfect to keep snacks the right temperature while in the car right there in my diaper caddy for easy access. Below are a couple photos of items I keep in my caddy.



Lets look back at the trunk space again. Here it is without any bags. It opens up and there you will find... MORE BAGS!


Another Large Utility Tote JUST IN CASE I NEED A HUGE BAG!! Maybe for a costco trip or muddy kids stuff. Did I mention these wash very easily and are thick and durable material?! Well, they are!


Under that flattened bag I keep another utility bag with emergency supplies (jumper cables, bungee cords, towels, and water).


This picture is to prove that my weak muscles and my 5'2" body can in fact carry these HEAVY, fully loaded bags when I need to take the items from the car to the house. The people at the registers can never believe I WANT them to pack that thermal FULL because of how HEAVY it gets. But I am the kind of person who will carry 10 plastic bags dangling off each finger just to avoid the dreaded second trip in the house. I prefer the one easy to carry heavy bag over the 10 very hard to carry heavy bags that break.


Fully loaded, ready to unload! And after 1 hour, the items are ICE COLD. No signs of melting or moisture on the milk containers at all!


Here's what I bought today. It all fit nice and neat, and there was room to spare!

I hope this helps some of you out there see that you CAN organize your car when you have kids and a busy on the go life. I don't sell these bags if you want to shop from my wonderful consultant, just leave a reply below.

Project Life Organization Tips {Ikea's Raskog Cart + SC Boxes}

I wanted to share how I use the Ikea Raskog Cart in my craft space. I wanted to fit the cart under my ikea desk, so I removed the wheels and added foam pads to protect my wood floor, and it glides easily from under my desk when I need to use it.

The top compartment has an Antonius divider and holds my current monthly kit items, which right now include Studio Calico, Gossamer Blue, and Take Ten. I have one spot for alpha and large embellishments, one for 4x6" cards, one for 3x4" cards, one for medium embellishments and one for small embellishments. Eventually, unused items will get stored in my larger storage system when I am done using the monthly kit and just have remnants leftover.

The second compartment holds my Studio Calico monthly kit boxes with additional embellishment storage. I use a small divider system for items where I have a small amount of each embellishment, or I want them separated very neatly by type and material. However items like enamel ephemera bits, labels, and overflow of PL themed cards need larger storage, so I store them in these kit boxes upright. I use washi tape as the box label because its easily removable if I need to change the label later.

Labels

Bits

Enamel (Notice how even though these are stored upright, everything stays how it should when I lay it down and open it. The plastic bags are melted beads, and they stay just like that when stored!)

The very bottom shelf is random right now. Whatever I need to put there I just put there. Maybe in the future I will designate a specific use for it. :)

2014 Project Life {WEEK 21 + Mother's Day}

Week 21 was all about exploring the Pacific Science center, riding bikes, and Mother's Day. THINGS I LOVE: Pacific Science Center membership, Studio Calico's monthly PL kit, and Write Now Journals.

I recently found a great Mother's Day idea that I put to use this year. I bought myself a beautiful journal, and asked my family to write in it each year for all occasions (Mother's Day, Valentines Day, Birthdays, our Anniversary, any holiday!) I wanted to choose my own journal, one because I am picky, and two because there is a particular brand of journals I use which I order from Amazon and my husband is not very big on the whole online ordering thing. I am so glad I started this!! What they wrote in the journal was so much more amazing and deep than the quick writings on some randomly purchased card (not that cards aren't also cute and meaningful). Tory pressed Ashlyn's (who is only 2) hand-prints into the journal as well (until she can write messages herself she can paint and draw etc in my journal). Tory liked this idea so much he asked for a Father's journal! So I picked up this one for him.

{WEEK 21}

Both cards on this page are from Studio Calico's May PL kit.

Stamping with an ombre stamp pad on the title card, sequins, and Thickers.

Alpha outline stamps, shaded in with a "Jade Green" copic marker. Asterisk stickers from Studio Calico's May PL kit. I REALLY like Studio Calico's kits!

Using enamel and brackets.

Took this very amazing shot of a butterfly at Seattle's Pacific Science Center's butterfly exhibit reaching out and sensing Ashlyn's tiny finger. I am quite surprised at some of the clear and beautiful shots I can get out of my $99 Canon 330HS. The white rub-on alphas are perfect and from from Studio Calico's May PL kit.

I decided to make Mother's Day a separate insert. I try to make holidays and special days pop from the weekly layout by adding an insert.

2014 Project Life {Weeks 18-19}

I really wanted to share weeks 18-19 because I used a few fun techniques that I thought my readers would like to know about. First, I started and ended my 2 page spread with one saying that flowed between both pages. Second, I used washi tape between the 4 center photos to pull the spread together. And third, I used photoshop to make just the orange headband on Ashlyn's head pop from the black and white photo (which I love because the orange looks really nice with the colors of this layout).

These two weeks were all about April changing into May, the rain bringing us some nice plush greenery to garden in, spending lots of time in the sun when its out (we are in Seattle so we dont get too many nice days this time of year), and having fun.

The highlight of the week for me, however, was the new family vehicle we finally bought after 2 years of budgeting and saving and carefully deciding what we need as a growing family (well, potentially growing someday if I have my way). Tory and I have been sharing ONE car, one small economy stick shift car, between the two of us, for the last 8 years. It worked ok when we had one child, but with two children and ambitions of travel and play dates and adventure, it just wasn't big enough anymore. Our new vehicle is a 2013 Dodge Journey with seating for 7 and truck and storage space galore. I couldn't be happier!

{WEEKS 18-19}

I used a cool stamp set of outline alpha to make the "showers" and "flowers" and thought this saying was perfect for the april/may split these two weeks and perfect for the outdoor fun that began with our first sun break of the season!

Closeup to show the orange label I put on a black and white photo, and stamped with one of my Foodie stamps. It works nicely with the next photo that also has an orange pop of color!

Super easy photoshop trick, and looks so cute!

2014 Project Life {Birthday & Travel} + Traditional Layouts

Here are some examples of how I mixed pocket scrapbooking with traditional 12x12 layouts. I like to use 12x12 layouts when I have memorabilia I want to incorporate but don't want it to be lost in a pocket.

Ashlyn's 2nd Birthday

Family Trip to Great Wolf Lodge