Winding Down "Welcome to Crest Avenue"

As many of you know, Crest Avenue will soon be welcoming new owners.  Our intent is to list it on or about June 1, 2015.  I have already spoken to my friend Susan, who is a realtor (and my neighbor) and she has agreed to take the listing when we are ready.  "Where will you go?" you ask.  To the house on Dewey Street.  Our circumstances have changed over the years, as they do for everyone.  It is no longer practical to have two houses.  The time has come to sell Crest Avenue and to focus our efforts on Dewey Street.

Believe me, there are plenty of projects to keep us busy at Dewey Street, and I intend to continue blogging about those projects.  You can still follow me on a daily basis, but on a different site.  The new blog is called "Around the House, by John Newman."  It will have its own page on my new website, BoxShoppe.org (www.boxshoppe.org).  Just click on the "BLOG" button on the top menu and it will take you directly to the new blog.

It did not make sense to continue blogging under the "Welcome to Crest Avenue" banner when we no longer own Crest Avenue.  I didn't want to just replace "Crest Avenue" in the title with "Dewey Street and call it "Welcome to Dewey Street."  That seemed rather boring.  So I went with "Around the House." I like that.  And it is an accurate description of what the blog is all about.  That is, covering all the things we do, "around the house", and hopefully giving you some new ideas for how to get those things done.  We will still be in the garden and in the kitchen too.  So it will be the same blog, basically, with a different name and at a different location.

The next four months will be busy.  We will need to first empty Crest Avenue and then set about getting small and some not-so-small projects finished before we list it.  We will cover these projects here at Welcome to Crest Avenue.  Once it is listed, we will move over to the "Around the House" blog full-time.  Will there be posts everyday on Welcome to Crest Avenue as in the past.  Likely not. But we will be posting often to let you know how things are going.  We hope you will continue to follow us through this time of transition.  We love having you as loyal readers and we look forward to starting a new venture with you in the coming months.

Organizing the Sock Drawer

It's not too late to get started on your resolutions for 2015.  If you made them and time has gotten away from you, no problem.  Start today.  Or this weekend.  One of the things I resolved to get done in the new year was to bring organization to my sock drawer.  And I have been successful.  Read on to see what I did.

My existing attempt at keeping my socks organized had somehow gotten off-track over the years.  I was down to these two clear trays which were not nearly enough to house all of my socks. 

The overflow socks were folded and placed in another drawer of the dresser.  This drove me to absolute distraction.  Some socks in this drawer.  Some socks in that drawer.  Some organized in trays.  Some not.  Ugh!! So I was off to find some drawer organizers.  They had to be shallow since the top drawer of the dresser is very shallow. 

A few weeks ago, I was in the closet organization section at our local Walmart looking for large storage bins.  I found large gray fabric bins which I loved and they worked perfectly for storage in the basement.  When I went back to that department, I found these matching gray fabric drawer organizers from Better Homes and Gardens.

These three compartment fabric organizers were perfect for the job.

I bought two.  There seemed to be enough space in both of these for my sock collection.  The drawer could easily hold two of them, but not three.  So I set about getting them in place.

The next thing I knew, I had all my socks organized in one place.  Casual, weekend socks on the right top two trays.  Then, ankle socks to wear with sneakers and other casual shoes.    In the top tray on the right are Ike Behar dress socks and sock garters.  I only wear the sock garters if I am going to be at a special affair or a meeting where I will be sitting.  There is nothing worse than having your socks down around your ankles, especially in a formal setting.  Not a good look.  In the middle tray on the right are heavy dark, navy woolen socks for the winter months to be worn with boots.  One pair of brown socks.  (I am not a fan of brown socks.) Next to the brown socks is a pair from Brooks Brothers with marlins embroidered.  And the rest are everyday socks which could be worn in the office or casually.  You can see that I am a fan of Ralph Lauren Polo and Lacoste socks.

I didn't stop with just the two gray fabric organizers for the socks.  In the closet organization department they also had these four compartment drawer organizers.  My mind went to the nightstands on either side of the bed.  So I bought several of these organizers.

And look.  It fit perfectly in the drawer of my nightstand.  I could easily fit all of my essentials to include my DKNY nail kit, a remote, bottles of this and that and the Burt's Bees face cleansing cloths. Off topic for a minute, if you haven't tried the Burt's Bees face cleansing cloths, you don't know what you are missing.  They are not heavily perfumed, so they work for guys or gals.  Yes, guys faces get dirty too.  The cucumber and grapefruit scents are very nice.  And soothing.  Wipe down your face and neck just before getting comfortable in bed.  You will be asleep in no time.  Pick some up today. I bought these at CVS, but I'm certain you could get them at other similar stores.

So there you have it.  My attempt at organizing the sock drawer and the nightstand drawers.  I was successful and you can be too.  And remember, we found these drawer organizers at Walmart.  So you can organize and not spend an enormous amount of money.  Saving money and getting organized.  Does it get any better than that?

It Has Been a Busy Week!

When we last talked, on Monday of last week, we chatted about the Miracle-Gro seed pods.  After that post, things got really busy with BoxShoppe and the remainder of the week was spent working with various entities about the future of that venture.  We decided to go with a branding company called PrestoBox.  I had several conversations with the COO of that company and we are very pleased with how things are progressing.  Our logo has been designed and we are in the process of updating this blog and the website with the new logo.  New product has been photographed and added to the website.  We will soon transition "Welcome to Crest Avenue" to the blog page on the website.  And we will soon be in talks with new photographers for the products we will be selling on BoxShoppe.org.  So, ... our days have been busy.

One of the things we are most proud of is our new logo for BoxShoppe.

I thought this was just perfect.  Clean.  Uncluttered.  Minimal.  It makes a clear statement without being fussy or "in your face."

New business cards have been ordered.

So things are moving along nicely.  This week we will have some interesting posts for you to read. We will have a post on organizing the sock drawer.  We all like to get things organized in the new year and I found some great drawer organizers.  We made homemade chocolate ice cream, so there will be a post about that.  In our effort to minimize our consumption of factory processed foods, we made a delicious avocado-cilantro salad dressing which you will definitely want to make for yourself. And we made banana bread brownies with a beautiful glazed icing.  All of these things are coming up on Welcome to Crest Avenue this week.  So don't miss it!!!!