if your closet looks anything like mine...

you need this.

I'm pretty stoked to share a guest post with you today! My very sweet and very supportive friend Lena from Mom2MemphisAndRuby is here to share a little Type A action with us. I so desperately need some help in this department.

I wonder if I can get her to come to Brooklyn...

~*~

Hey lovelies!
Lena here from Mom2MemphisAndRuby!

Jackie and I have become good bloggy buddies over the past few weeks and I ADORE her! I'm extremely tickled to be visiting Perched today!

So, for those that don't know me... I'm a mom of 2 blogging from a small farming community in Quebec, Canada.  The hubs and I are tattooed (he's more heavily tattooed that me), and even though we don't necessarily ''blend'' in around here, we certainly feel like this is where we belong.  I work a pretty boring day job at an insurance company, and he is a chef.  Our son Memphis was recently diagnosed as autistic (very high functioning, I must say, but a new journey we're embarking on as a family)... and our 4 year old daughter Ruby is very much a diva! They keep us on our toes and pretty much rock our world!

Another thing you should know about me is how much I love fashion. I believe a girl can NEVER have enough clothes or shoes... I know, I know. I sound terribly materialistic, but bear with me... I'm cheap!  I LOVE thrifting and NEVER, ever pay full price for ANYTHING!  See, not so bad, right?  But all these clothes need to be put away somewhere... Luckily, I aboslutely LOVE reorganizing my closet, and it just so happens I'm about to pull out my summer clothes (it's finally warm here! yay!).  I thought I could do a simple tutorial on closet organization.  I have LOTS of stuff... very little space!

Ugh. What a mess, right? 

First things first: Always go through and, if you can, put away clothes that are no longer appropriate for the season. 

You don't need 12 sweaters at hand in the summer. Get those out of there.

While you're in there, if you can't remember wearing something for the past 6-12 months... get rid of that too.  Unless it holds some sort of sentimental value, you probably don't need it anymore.  If it's still in good shape {and depending what it is}, why not donate it or sell it on Ebay!?

Now, comes the actually sorting and organization. 

There are a ton of ways you can do this:
Style, Color, Brand, etc.

I've decided to do style & color. 

 Similar tops together, slips, skirts, dresses, pants...

I have a lot of pattern in my closet... so I use the "main" color as my starting point...

It's not going to be perfect!

{dang it!}

This is was the "top" section looks like now...

Next, I made sure to hang all my slips together, and my denim skirts as well. 

 As for dresses, I debated about going simply by style & length... but then decided to to it color too.  As best I could... again, I have a lot of pattern so my closet will never look as color-blocked as I would like 

{yes, I'm sorta geeky that way... BUT I love a good pattern too, so what's a girl to do!?}

I keep my jeans on the top shelf, so I just tidied those up a bit...

If you have a ton of denim, I would suggest going by fit & color too... 

That's it.

Much better than when I started, and ready for me to fill it up even more with my summer stuff!!

~*~

That was pretty impressive. I feel that I must learn from you, wise one.
Thank you so much for visiting with us today, Lena, and teaching us your ways. I'm sure we'll all learn from this. Now there's the issue of my closet, which looks like a bomb went off in there. Lena... how's a free trip to Brooklyn sound??

charm(ing) sunday

Happy Monday, dear ones.

 What's happy about Monday? Absolutely nothing, really. Worst day of the week. BUT, I have an adventure to share. Let's let that try to brighten up our return to corporate America, shall we?

 Remember when I raved about my new favorite etsy shop, Brooklyn Charm Shop? Well, I finally went!!!! It was last Sunday, but it took me a week to find the cable to hook my phone up to my laptop. As usual, I'm a disaster, but I'm so in love with the jewelry that came out of the trip. I guess it all balances out eventually.

The shop is tucked off of busy Bedford Ave in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was easy to spot though, because the front is so bright!! The shop is small and quaint from the outside, but just you wait until you get inside.

It's so beautiful. The minute you step in, you're totally surrounded by metals, stones, and beautiful things. Walls of chains, tray after tray after tray of charms. I was so overwhelmed and in awe of the sheer numbers that I had to do two full laps before I could commit to any single item.

There was a center table full of charms, rings, necklaces, bracelets... anything and everything your heart could desire!

It was crowded when I was in there, at least 20 other women (B was the only male in sight!) picking through trays and creating treasures. Most of the price tags and signs were handwritten, and while I usually don't like that in a retail setting, I loved it here. Reason: It didn't feel like a retail shop at all. It felt like your grandmothers attic - a safe, warm cocoon full of treasures that it would take an entire afternoon to sort through, and you will enjoy every single minute.

The decor was perfect. When isn't a unicorn appropriate? Never. Unicorns are always appropriate.

And they artfully paired bunnies and skulls. This is my favorite place on earth.

Getting ready to check out... my tray with treasures!

They will put your creations together for you, which is an excellent perk. I chose a large floral pendant to start, and quickly added a pearl drop right on top! It took me awhile to finish it out. I first thought that  a small turquoise rose charm would be perfect, but then I found this tiny brass White Rabbit, and I was in love. He's just the touch it needed! Put everything on a 24" chain and voila!

I am obsessed. This perfect little charm necklace matches (practically) everything I own and I've worn it almost every day since I bought it.

My other amazing find was this cameo ring. It's my new signature. An olive green background highlights the cream grecian cameo that I can't get enough of. And it was only $12. Seriously. Ah-Mazing.

(Additonally, please excuse my hilarious and juvenile manicure. I was feeling whimsical last week.)

Also, big props to B for being my photographer, and taking me out to lunch after shopping.

Overall, I absolutely LOVE this shop, and I fully intend to take advantage of the classes that they offer. For $40, you get a 90 minute class, all of your materials, loaner tools, and a skill to take with you. That's an absolute great deal. If you're local, you should check out the class schedule here, and let me know if you want to go to a Sunday class with me sometime. 

Oh, and I took this picture that will be the header for ANY Brooklyn post I ever write. So typical, Williamsburg. So typical. And so damn hipster. 

I love you, Brooklyn.

monday surprise!

Today is a pretty dreary day in the city. It's raining and gross, but on Saturday, I got a slip in the mailbox that I had a package waiting for me! So what did I do? I trudged a million miles (okay, 5 blocks) through the rain to retrieve it! And I was so stoked to see that it was from Krista at Saturated Canary!  I won her giveaway at The Wonder Forest, and look and see what she sent me!

In the mailer! With my keys and adorable elephant keychain

from when my pal KS was in Thailand, covering my address. 

Sorry stalkers.

Everything was packaged so beautifully!

I love the little details.

A handmade card Smashed by Krista! 

CUTEST!

There was a little pocket inside of the card, 

with this sweet little tag inside!

I love that she included, not just the smash books, 

but supplies to get me started.

So generous!

Polka dots, pockets, and a list pad.

Okay, the most on point part of the entire thing is the kitty hole punch.

I mean, there is no one else in the world that would love a 

kitty hole punch more than I do.

And adorable paper, obviously.

Pockets!

Two gorgeous books, two closures

the kitty punch!

What an amazing and totally generous gift.

Thank you Krista!!!!!

I cannot wait to be 'smash'ing like you!

service project or a lesson in glue sticks

This passed Saturday, B dragged me out of bed early - which I totally didn't like, but it was for a good cause. We went to his school, where I lose him every day from 7am to 7pm. So why would he want to go in on the weekend too? That's what I said too, but it was actually really fun. He's a kindergarten teacher at an all girls charter school in urban Brooklyn, and his school is really different. They promote sisterhood, positivity, community, and overall excellence. This is one of the trillion banners hanging in the hallway there.

Anyway, the service project on Saturday was to put together care packages for patients in different areas of  Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn - oncology, pediatrics, general surgery, and rehabilitation. A bunch of girls and their families showed up to put them together. I ended up at a card making station, and being a not-too-artistically inclined person, I did the best I could!

It's not much, but it was fun! I made a few friends, all of whom were under 9 years old, and we made some fun stuff. 

Yes. I made a pop up. With construction paper. You are all infinitely more crafty and artistic than I am. You can make things that I can only dream of. That being said, I might be about to admit something kinda embarrassing...

I was really proud of my pop up!!!

And my new 8 year old best friend, H, was too. She killed it with 5 cards! And I loved helping her with her shapes. She would ask me for a yellow square, or a pink heart, or white, green, and red poofs. (We had been calling the "flowers" that I made on my first card poofs... I'm not sure why.) I'd make them and hand them over to her, and she would create such cute and fun things with them - with my yellow square she made the bottom of a house. She added my pink heart to a drawing of a girl, and wrote, "I hope you get better with my whole heart.". I wish I had remembered to snap some pictures of her cards, but she was done with them so fast and delivering them to packages that I just couldn't keep up!

H and I weren't the only one being creative, B was killing it with construction paper.

It was also nice to connect, even for a short time with a bunch of kids around, with the people that B goes to work with everyday. I secretly hope to make friends with one of his coworkers that I think is pretty darn cool... it's not so much of a secret now, I guess, but I think she's a neat girl, and totally want to be friends with her. Is that a weird thing to say as an adult? As a kid, it's totally acceptable to just ask to be friends with someone but...

hmmm... that feels like a totally different blog post.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this little foray into animal free community service projects! I haven't volunteered for anything that wasn't animal related in so long - I guess that's a side effect of basically running an animal rescue group for 2 years - and it was really fun to see the kids in action toward making others feel important. I loved being able to help them be creative - even in my own limited way. It was really great. I hope I get another chance to do something like it soon.

Do any of you have volunteer projects that really get you excited? What are they? Where can I sign up??

pretty girls and pretty things

As a self titled pretty girl who likes pretty things, I think we have a real find here!

My friend Katrina has an incredible eye for nature, sparkles, and little things that are generally lovely (not a lot of things are genuinely lovely anymore, so that's a big deal in my eyes). These days, she's making hair combs, and she *gasp* asked me to model for her! How fancy!

The Tink - made from dried flowers - $12

The Meadow - made from dried flowers and a faux butterfly - $20

The Butterfly Swarm - faux butterflies - $22

Her etsy shop Flickerbelles (cutest name ever!!!) will be growing in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out! And I will post more of my amazeballs modeling photos as I get them.

But seriously folks, support LOCAL artists!