Decluttering a Jewelry Drawer

When I got back from Europe, I had a ton of empty drawers that I had to refill. So I thought to myself, why not do some organizing? And thats what I did. I re-organized all of my drawers! Mainly, I created a jewelry drawer.

I have absolutely ALWAYS wanted to have one. I've tried other methods such as jewelry hangers, jewelry boxes, and any other method you can possibly think of. None of them really worked out though. I either kept buying the same bracelets and earrings over and over or I would forget I even owned pieces of jewelry. And because of my purge, I now have room in my dresser. I'm so excited! 

The paper was a gift from a family friend of mine when I first moved into an apartment. You could totally use wrapping paper and it would be fine. I picked up the acrylic trays for a $1 at Target (thank you dollar aisles!). I love how bright this is and how I can see everything I own. What do you guys think? 

Have a great day everyone!

Belgium Series: Brugge

Yippee! On to one of my favorite towns in Belgium, and that is Brugge! Brugge is a great little tourist town that is always talked about by travel enthusiasts, including one of my favorites The Blonde Abroad. She talks about all kinds of beers to drink all over Belgium if you want to take a look. But back to the topic at hand...

Welcome to Brugge! Its a tiny town in north west Belgium known for its Fairy-tale look, canals, and everything Belgian you can think of. Here are a couple of the main sites that I would recommend:

The Clock Tower. You can climb all the way to the top and see a great view of Brugge and the Belgian countryside.

A beautiful cathedral with gardens and shops of all kinds all around it. You can buy chocolate, rare beers, and one of the best things ever, Belgian lace.

Brugge is also famous for its many canals throughout the center of the city. You can even take a boat tour that is pretty inexpensive around the city. If I remember correctly, it lasted about 30 minutes tops and I was able to see some great views that I wouldn't have seen, including...

Close-ups of swans! Aren't they gorgeous? I was able to get this close and capture this beautiful love scene.

Oh and did I mention that there is a Kathe Wolfart store here? Have you ever heard of it? Its basically a Bulgarian Christmas store that is only found in South Germany (Bulgaria) and Brugge! I highly recommend going there because I was able to find SO much Christmas items that I never would have found any where else. I'll make sure to show them to you when Christmas rolls around this year.

Don't forget to stop at the De Halve Maan. Its the last remaining family owned brewery in Brugge. They have a brewery tour, but if you don't have time, just order the beer at one of Brugge's many amazing restaurants.

Another thing you should try is mayonnaise on your fries! I know it sounds disgusting, but its actually quite amazing. Their mayo does not taste like our Hellman's or Duke's. It has its own flavoring that I am honestly missing right now. Another thing to try is the Beef Stew. Its kind of like a pot roast, but tastes amazing! Especially with fries...

Well thats Brugge in a nutshell. I highly encourage going their if you need to do some souvenir shopping or just for a lazy weekend! Have a great day everyone!

How to Hang Picture Frames Using Excel

Oh Goodness May! My first real DIY blog post in a long time. Can you feel the excitement in the air? In addition, its a DIY post involving Excel! I finally can fulfill a promise I made to you. So my sister-in-law showed me this awesome thing on how she designed how to hang her frames for her stairs using Microsoft Excel. She wanted to hang them all on a diagonal and by using Excel she was able to get the exact measurements so that nothing was off (it also helped that my brother is pretty handy with a hammer and measuring tape). Anywho, she gave me this idea. I give all credit to her.

If any of my friends are out there reading this, they know that I am average with a hammer and screwdriver. I can get some IKEA instructions backwards every now and then, but really, who hasn't? Okay so how this works. You need to have everything measured beforehand. That means you need to know exactly what frames you are going to hang and where you are going to hang them. Then, you create a worksheet with the same dimensions. How do you do this you ask? Make each square an inch by an inch (or half an inch by half an inch or centimeter by centimeter or however you want to do it). Then, you also draw your frames with their exact measurements. It will look something like this:

So precise right? And you can see the exact measurements of where everything should go. Before you start hanging, please double check all of your measurements. I started hanging and had read centimeters instead of inches when I first measured. I actually had to re-measure and re-do the whole wall. So, the next step is to hang them up! This is the step that I am the worst at and why I am using this method. I'm like Tim Taylor from Home Improvement. I try really hard and somehow miss the mark entirely, as seen from my mistakes mentioned above.

Well there you have it! I somehow did it. Yes I pulled like twenty Tim Taylor's to get it there, and if you look closely, you can see all of the spackle that is lined around the frames. However, they are all up now! I am unfortunately not savvy enough to use nails, so I tried using command strips. Sometimes you have to use what you are good at, and that is command strips for me. BUT then around 2 AM two of the frames fell and one shattered. Hence there are two gaps on my wall. When I took these pictures, I was re-constructing one frame and cleaning up the mess of the other one. But basically this is how it works and now I have a gallery wall. YAY! Its a dream come true. So what do you think?

Belgium Series: Dinant

For this week's Belgium Series, I will be featuring Dinant, Belgium. Its a small town on a river and is famous for being the birthplace of the saxophone. It has many different shops and a citadel that sits on top of the hill above the cathedral as seen in the picture above. Here are a couple of places I recommend visiting in this town:

Maison Du Tourisme
This is basically a visitor center. They will give you a map of where to go and what to see. I highly recommend stopping here first. Its located on the directly opposite the citadel on the other side of the river.



Citadel of Dinant (La Citadelle de Dinant)
This place is actually pretty cool. We were really lucky and got a beautiful day for photos. You can learn about how this citadel has withstood the test of time even World War II. They are even holding the DisneyLand Paris sand castles in the basement. Here is what the view looks like from that far up:



You can either take a lift found behind the cathedral or do what my friend did, and climb all of the stairs all of the way up. Its a really long climb, heads up.



Church of Our Lady (Collegiale Notre-Dame)
A gorgeous church that sits below the Citadel. Its quite a magnificent building to look at.



Charles-de-Gaulle Bridge
On this bridge, you will find saxophones representing the various countries from all over the European Union. You can see me standing next to Ireland's saxophone.



Adolphe Sax Statue
And of course you have to visit the founder of the saxophone, Adolphe Sax. He has a small museum with various different quotes about music and the development of the saxophone.

Well, thats Dinant in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed this post! Have a great day everyone!