Key and umbrella hanger

Supplies:
key hooks (ours from Lowes)
wood base (ours from Michaels)
decorative accents (ours from Michaels)
paint and paint brushes
screws long enough to go through the board and into the wall
nail long enough to go through the board and into the wall

Prep the base. We didn't do this right, but this is how it should be done. Tape the key hanger to the base in the place you want it. Place on the wall where you want to hang it, and drill into the holes that will attach the hooks to the base and the base to the wall, making sure the hooks stay in place. Now trace the hooks so you know where to paint. (If you get the plain hooks on the thin piece of wood, tracing isn't exactly necessary unless you want specifics.) We had to redrill the left bird when we went to hang it up because we didn't make sure it was secure when we drilled.
Decorate it. Paint it as you want it to look. We did lovebirds because we're such lovebirds (dork moment), and added our names to the bottom. I thought about adding a sealant, but we can always do that later. We purposely went out of the bird border because I wanted it to get that sloppy, artsy look where you paint and then outline and it looks nice enough. I'm not sure it came out that way, but we like it anyway. :]
Plan the decorative accents. You don't want to hang the accents right away because you want to make sure it's as flush with the wall as possible. Plan it out so you know where it goes once it's hung. We had two attachable doves and the pretty vine.
Hang it. Put it over the holes and screw in the screws. Easy enough, right? We also added a nail, but we added that later so I'm making the step for it later as well.
Decorate again. We attached the vine with a hot glue gun in equalish spots so that it would be secure. We hid the starting point in the bark and under a ridge so it would look kind of natural. We already had the doves in place, but Mark moved them to where he wanted them well after it was done.
Secure it. Now, you could have nailed it when you screwed it in. We didn't because we decided to as I was preparing to put the vine on it. I told Mark to wait so we could hide the nail under where the vine went natually. So we picked that little piece that hangs down in the middle, moved it a bit out of the way, nailed into the wall, then moved it back into place. Now you can't even tell it's there and it's secure!

Cabinet Organization

Supplies:
shoe organizer
hooks (3m for our project)
sticky tac (or other securing device like nails if you live in a house)
staples (because we didn't think to sew or use hot glue)

Cut them. My boyfriend carefully cut up the shoe organizer for me to make sure it looked somewhat nice while in the cabinet. We got one from Target when we were living near our college campus and someone had stolen the hooks. Our makeshift hooks from IKEA were no good, so we decided to repurpose this one from Target instead of the nicer one from Walmart that still holds shoes. It had some pretty nice borders that made cutting easier.
Place them. Figure out where your shoe organizer will fit so that it doesn't keep the cabinet door from closing completely. (We didn't do this step properly) Figure out how far down to make the holes (keep in mind that you want the hole at the bottom of the hook, not the top), and poke the hole with a pair of scissors.
Pretty them up (optional). We did this step last, but if you want it to look nicer, you may want to pause here and prepare your organizer for the size it needs to fit in to. We stapled the edge so that the cups didn't get caught on the lip of extra material on the way out. You can also use hot glue, sew it, or cut the extra material away. Hot glue, cutting, and stapling can happen closer to the end if you forget this step or decide you want it to look nicer when you're done. 
Hang them. We tried this a few ways, and I found the best but possibly hardest way. Open the adjoining cabinet (if you have this) and close the one you intend to attach the organizer to. Hang out of the open one, thread the 3m hooks through the holes, and hang high enough that the entire thing fits inside. This way, you know that it will fit and not stop up the door. You may want to pay attention to centering if that's important to you, and be aware of the hooks flipping when you go to press them down.
Secure them. You have the hooks, but it will bow out in the middle with heavier items and move at the bottom from opening the door. We used sticky tac (not the best idea with opaque material), placed it as best as we could where we wanted it on the organizer, then pressed the organizer hard against the cabinet. We have an apartment, and if you do too, you could probably use hot glue as a clear alternative that could be pulled off. You may want to check that it does. If you have a house, you could use small nails or really whatever you want because they're your cabinets!
Fill them! We ended up with 6 different organizers, so we're using five in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. The ones near the stove have measuring cups and the ones near the sink have cleaning supplies like sponges and plink balls.

A little introduction: starting the list.

I decided to start this list because my life got a little too crazy a little too fast, and now I'm picking up the pieces and putting things back together in a beautiful mosaic.
My boyfriend and I have been having the worst year of our lives, and part of it resulted in moving into our new apartment. We lived in an apartment together before that was close to our campus, but we had to move back to our home town. We feel like this is our new life together because it's the first apartment we got "together," and we're doing a ton of together things, like planning on getting a joint checking account. We love our little home and our little family of us and the three kitties (who may make some appearances). We want to make a new life together, and this is where my list comes in.

The super condensed list:

• get healthy
• get organized
• get smart

We're renovating and upcycling and cooking and cleaning and doing everything we can to cut down, cut back, and live a better, longer, happier life. I hope you find the love and fulfillment I find when I make these posts.