FREE Malm Dresser

Anyone in need of a dresser?

It's FREE!

Since we recently bought an Expedit shelving unit for our closet,
we are no longer in need of this 4 drawer Malm dresser, originally from Ikea.

We inherited this dresser from a friend of ours about a year ago.
It has been such a blessing to us and we hope to pass the blessing on to someone else.

Email me at jackiedodson24@gmail.com if you're interested.

If you're in Orlando,
John and I would be happy to deliver this dresser straight to your front door.

Please don't be shy! We'd like to find this dresser a new home soon!

Closet Addition

Do you remember last week when I blogged about Google Sketch Up? Well it really worked! During this past Labor Day weekend, John and I made a trip to Ikea to buy an Expedit shelf. Originally, we thought that using multiple shelving units hung together would be a better option for us just in case we wanted to move things around later. But when we started thinking about hanging the shelves on the wall, we realized that it would be much easier if we were only working with one solid piece, instead of separate pieces. To be honest, the thought of getting the shelves to hang exactly level was too overwhelming. So instead we picked out a 2 x 4 shelving unit and hauled it home. This was probably one of the easiest Ikea pieces that we have put together (and by we, I mean John). It only took him about 30 minutes and the whole thing was together and in the closet!

I love white against our gray walls. And I haven't regretted our gray wall color for even a moment since it went up! It's perfect! I also love the substantial-ness of this Expedit shelving unit. It's weighty and strong and has presence. And I love that it's going to live in our closet. Our closet needed a little bit of sass, and this shelf is the perfect amount of sass.

Anyway, as you can see, we haven't hung it yet. Baby steps, people. But I have started using it since before this my clothes were piled up on the floor along with the shoes.

Since I took this picture, John has moved his clothes out of the dresser and into the empty boxes above. We only purchased one Expedit shelf this weekend because that was all we could afford this month. Although, I did manage to pick up a few baskets while we were at Ikea as well. I picked out a set of 4 baskets for $9.99. They were all different sizes but the price was better than the alternatives. The basket in the photo is being used to hold my undies :) No one needs to see those all strewn about. I'll show you what we did with the other 3 baskets over the next few weeks.

I'm really happy that we took some time to think outside of the "box" and found a non-traditional way to make our closet more functional. Using Google Sketch Up was one of the best things we did. We knew that the shelf would fit inside our closet and we knew that we would love the way it looked, all before actually purchasing the unit. Now that's fabulous!

Google Sketch Up

Last week we were hanging out with our friend Damien and he told us about this super neat program called Google Sketch Up. Since John and I are big Google fans, we went right home and started playing around. Let me tell you, this program is pretty dang cool. It's pretty user friendly, although it does take a little getting used to. For our first sketch....our master closet.

For months now, we have been living with half a closet. Our master closet is a pretty substantial walk in. We took down the wire shelves when we moved in so I could paint. Then we hung two of the shelves back up on the left wall and it turned out that all of our hanging clothes fit on those two shelves. But we still have the whole right side with nothing. No place for shoes, no mirror, no hooks, no nothing.

One of the hardest things for John and I is trying to figure out what will be most useful in the closet and then picturing what it's going to look like. That's where Google Sketch Up comes in. We took some quick measurements of the walls on the right side of the closet and started sketching. Then we started brainstorming different options. We don't need any more hanging space, so we started thinking about shelves. I didn't want to use dressers and I really wanted to utilize the vertical space in the closet. That led me to Expedit from Ikea. Now here's the cool part...Google Sketch Up allows you to search for an item and then import in into your sketch. It was so easy! We imported different Expedit shelves into our sketch and started playing around. Since the Expedit shelves were imported to size, we could move them around the space and see what fit and what we liked.

After many different scenarios, we decided upon 4 Expedit shelves with four boxes each. We are going to mount them to the wall so we can utilize the space underneath for our shoes. Some of the shelves will hold baskets and some will hold folded shirts and pants. We are going to hang a mirror on the wall to the left of the shelves and hooks on the small wall to the right. It turned out pretty simple but I think it will be just what we need. We decided to go with 4, 2x2 shelves instead of 2, 2x4 shelves because we think they will be more versatile in the future. If we ever move, we could use them in other rooms for other functions.

Now we just need to go get the shelves, put them together and hang them on the wall :)

Coming Soon to Orlando...

It opens September 10th! Woo Hoo! So exciting!

Anyone want to come check it out with me?

Banana Bread Muffins

This is the perfect solution for those mushy, ripe bananas sitting on the counter. Delicious!

Banana Bread Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 mashed, overripe bananas (5-6 large bananas)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a muffin tin. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into muffin tin. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the muffins comes out clean. Let muffins cool for a few minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack. Yields 12 large muffins.

John and I added a bit of sweetness to the top of the muffins after we took them out of the oven. Mix 1 tablespoon water and 3 tablespoons brown sugar in a small bowl. Brush on top of the muffins for a sweet crunch!