Cleaning, Project 365, Scrapbooking, and Grandmas

Well, I did it. I went into the scrapbook room to clean. Let me just say that a layout I did on Halloween was still sitting on the table covered by a pile of stuff. It got so bad that the girls just started putting things on the floor when I asked them to put something in there.

More than one I have wanted to create something, but I didn't want to do the work necessary to make an empty spot on the table. I even had Christmas presents that I hadn't put away yet. Now the room is not organized completely, but then I honestly don't know if it ever will be.

After putting things away, I actually made a layout.

The journalling says: Why do I go so long without creating something? I love to craft, I have a space, I have lots of supplies, but I don't create. I love how I feel after i create something, but I still don't do it often enough. Why? So hopefully with this new clean space, I will actually go in there and create. Even organizing my pictures would be wonderful.

Project 365 March 1 and March 2 did not occur. I do not know what happened. I thought I had only missed one day, but it actually was two. The way I see it is that this is my project. If I miss a day, I can extend the project that much longer or I can use more than one picture from another day. Less stress that way.

I did take pictures today, but I can't decide which one of these two I would like to be my picture.

I feel blessed to have this quilt. I can remember my grandma telling me about this quilt and seeing it on her bed. All of the patterned fabric was from my grandma and her sister's clothes growing up. I am not sure who actually started the quilt. But I do know that ladies who were in the nursing home with my great-grandma helped finish the quilt. My grandma loved this quilt and wished that she could sew. In fact she wished she could sew beautiful clothes like a girl that she grew up with was able to do.

After my grandma died and my grandfather was going into assisted living, their house was put up for sale. Family members were allowed to take a few things after the auction happened. Different people wanted different things. I didn't plan on taking anything. I went so I could take pictures of my favorite parts of the house. I did get those pictures and I have scrapbooked them. While I was taking pictures, I noticed the quilt on the floor. Different people were either walking right by it or even on it. I don't think they realized what it actually was. At that point, I asked if I could have it. As you can see, I got it.

I do have plans for it. The quilt was made into a bedspread. I want to cut the ruffled sides off and bind the quilt. Now I have to figure out what fabric to use for the binding and actually complete the binding. Then I want my family to use the quilt and know where it came from. I miss my grandparents and this quilt makes me feel just a little bit closer to them.

These stamps are just too cute to pass on sharing. The site is 2 Cute Rubber Stamps.

It think my favorite might be the turtle sundae digi stamp, but that is hard to pick.

The stamps are quite cutesy, but in a good way. Right now the site is offering the first 50 people who follow the site by February 22 through Google Connect a free digi stamp. It has not been posted which stamp will be the free one, but from what I have seen it really won't matter because they are all adorable.

Here are some other favorites:

Owl Miss You ---Oh, I love the glasses on the owl.

Mermaid and Friends---Perfect for those girly girls.

Labor Day Pipe Dreams

I don't know about other teachers. But for me, Labor Day is viewed as a chance to get things done at home and for my classroom that I do not normally have time for. Oh picnics are nice and wonderful, but I dream of whole days getting things done because everyone else has plans and then use Monday as a day to do stuff at home that I enjoy. Now this pipe dream never comes completely into fruition. But I can always hope and dream because that always makes my day better if I keep hope alive.

Here are some example of things I would like to accomplish:

• I would like to go through Brooke's closet and dresser to pull out all of the clothes that she has completely outgrown which is most of them. She has outgrown clothes that were bought at the beginning of summer. GRRRRR stop growing so fast!!!!! (You are supposed to be my baby not my amazon girl.)
• Clean Brooke's room so that she has no excuse as to why she can't keep it clean.
• Go through Melodye's closet and dresser. Give Brooke any clothes that will fit her that Melodye still hasn't worn and has tags on it. Get any skorts that are too short for her out of her room. She thinks if there is still room in the waist they fit. But she is so skinny they never fit in the waist, her butt hangs out instead and no just because there are shorts under there does not make it okay.
• Organize Mel's room so that there is no reason why she can't keep it clean.
• Go through my clothes.
• Transfer all pictures off the cameras (I have to find the little one first). Label and order all of these pictures. Back up the pictures.
• Cut and file coupons. (I am so behind it is not funny.)
• Go through organize and label boxes for school. I had help packing last year and all of the boxes didn't get labeled.

Now that was just home stuff. For school, I would like to:

• Get Tommy to make dividers for my big book rack. The ones I have will not hold up the books.
• The boxes for school also need to be listed here.
• Make homework packets.
• Redo my lesson plan form.
• Set up my grade book.
  
• Update my grade book.
• Get some decorative things for classroom done.
• Make some center for next week. (I need to start looking further ahead to see what I need.)
• Some other stuff in my bag that I can't remember off the top of my head.

Once I get necessary stuff done. I would like to:

• Scrapbook
• Read
• Sew
• Just enjoy myself
• Go to Lopez family picnic on Sunday.
• Watch the first disc of Veronica Mars Season 1.

Of course, I won't get all of this done, but I do like to have those pipe dreams and hope that I can become a super hero and finish all of this. I also would like to start blogging again. I am missing it.

I missed Brooke and Melodye's first two soccer games a couple of weekends ago. These were the first games I have missed since they started playing 6 years ago. The first weekend was because of the Girl Scout Weekend at the Dude Ranch. The second weekend was for a Scrapbooking Event that was a fundraiser for Relay for Life.

This was the first time I had been to a scrapbooking crop in over 9 years. It felt wonderful to go and so nice to accomplish so much in a 12 hour period. For the first time, I made myself little kits for each layout. I wanted to limit myself so that I wouldn't have too many decisions to make. I also decided to scrapbook soccer team photos and school pictures. I normally put off scrapbooking these because they really aren't the first thing I would pick to do. There is always something a little more fun. But I did finish them.

When I took these pictures, I realized that I really have not posted any scrapbook pages. So here they are, even though the pictures aren't the greatest.

This is Brooke's School and Class Photo from last year. I took the class photo which had the photos spread out over the 8X10 and cut them apart to put on one page with her class photo.

 

For every Christmas, I take the cards that we get and punch a square out of each one. The square from each card and the photos we receive go onto one layout. This way I am saving the memories, but not needing to take up a lot of room. This is from 2008.

This is Melodye's current school picture for third grade. She did not like the frame being crooked around her picture. Oh, well!

This is Melodye's soccer pictures from Spring 2008. I really need to make sure that I get the 5x7 team photo and 3 1/2 x 5 individual pictures. They really fit well on a page together.

Melodye's second grade picture. I originally made a mistake and put her first grade picture on here. But it was easily fixed.

Melodye's first grade picture. I love this paper since it was already done, I only added a border sticker to the top and traced words that were in the background. This is also one of my favorite school pictures of Melodye.

Brooke's Spring 2008 soccer pictures. The post it note is there until I can find out a couple of names. This way the names are there to hold a spot until I can find out who is missing.

Brooke and Melodye's Buddy photos. We get a photo at soccer pictures of the two girls together each season.

Melodye's Soccer pictures from Fall 2007.

Brooke's Soccer Pictures from Fall 2008.

 

Brooke's Soccer Pictures from Fall 2007

Miss Cuteness Melodye at 7 years old. I love how this photo just shows her personality so well. The pink background paper is glitter paper.

A layout about my grandparents' house. I think I am going to add something at the top, but I am not sure what. Maybe, journalling?

This is one of very few photos that has my parents with me and all of my siblings. There are very few times when all of my siblings are all together.

I don't know if I am finished with this page about Brooke. I just love this photo since it also shows Brooke's crazy personality.

I also make Mother's Day Cards last night. The color is off because this was taken at 10:00 at night. The paper is from Heidi Grace and is already striped like that. Super easy.

Craftiness

I was feeling particularly crafty Saturday. I actually spent multiple hours in my scrapbook room. It felt absolutely wonderful to take that time. I really need to do that more often. I also remembered to take pictures of my craftiness. I know it is amazing!

The first project I worked on and continued working on it through out the day was my clipboard for Library of Memories. I had to keep coming back in order to let the adhesive dry.   There are errors on the front where some of the pink came off, but I am okay with that. Now Melodye is asking me to make her a clipboard.

I loved the paper I used on the clipboard so much that I used it to make bookmarks. I got the plastic bookmark holders from ClearBags as a free sample. I will definitely be buying more of the holders. The bookmarks were so much fun to make. I wanted to make bookmarks ever since I saw Cynthia's bookmarks. She is very creative and so fun to read her blog entries. I couldn't find a like to the bookmarks (running out of time). Trust me! It will be worth it to just page through her blog. There is so much inspiration there.

My bookmark is on the left, Brooke's is in the middle, and Melodye's is on the right. Melodye really took over the design of her bookmark. She picked out the ribbons and drew on the bookmark. Brooke's bookmark was inspired because she was playing with the orange ribbon and she had just bought the fish paper at one of the scrapbook stores going out of business near us. (Yes, I said one of them. The two that are close are closing. So sad that had to happen.) I have included a close up of the back of my bookmark.

 Melodye had a birthday party to go to on Sunday. I made a card and matching envelope. I can't show the envelope because it had the little girl's name on it and we need to protect other's privacy. I didn't wrap the present this time. I decided to just wrap a bow around it. It was stress reducing to do this and I love how it turned out.

Earlier in the month I finished my Harry Potter socks. The yarn is from Sunshine Yarns. Dani's customer service is wonderful and the shipping is super fast. I have two more sets of sock yarn from her left to knit. I can't wait. I have the Tonks and Every Color Beans colorways. The pictures aren't that great, but you get the idea. I used the Classic Sock Pattern from the book 2-At-A-Time Socks

Update on Pictures

Now as I have said before, I am going to do A Picture a Day for 2009. But I did not start until January 2.

So here are my pictures.

.Day 1: Coupon BinderTrying to get all of the expired coupons out and cutting/filing the new ones. It is a never-ending job, but worth it.

Day 2: Melodye playing drums on Guitar Hero.

When we bought Guitar Here World Tour the Complete Band Set, we thought Brooke would be the one playing the drums. But instead Melodye is the one that seems to be obsessed with the drums and doing quite well with it too.

Day 3: Messy Scrapbook Desk
This is a mess that I still need to deal with. This is a mess that is constantly building up and not because I am working on projects. What happens is that I clean elsewhere in the house and pile things here to deal with later. I really have to stop doing that and start dealing with the mess.

Day 4: Knitted Washcloth
I am so glad that I knit the washclothes from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I get a rush of pleasure each time I pull out a new one to use.

Day 5: Watching Harry Potter
This was the girls first time watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Melodye never thought she was ready to watch it until now. They watched part of it now and finished it and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets over the weekend. It was funny how much they really did enjoy the movies.

Day 6: Walgreens' Haul
I was able to buy all of this with coupons and gift cards and paid nothing out of pocket. If I didn't have a gift card I would have paid about $20 which is still a wonderful deal.

Day 7: No Picture - I don't know what happened.

Day 8: New Dirt Devil
Tommy is so excited about this Dirt Devil Vacuum. He has been wanting one with this particular design and color. He was able to find it for 50% off at Target. He is hoping that this will help the girls with cleaning up their messes. We will see about that.

Day 9: Jalen's Birthday
We went to my parent's house for cousin, Jalen's birthday. Brooke was so excited to give Jalen Caribou (The price in this link is outrageous. It does not sell at stores for anywhere near that price. So do shop around.) for a present. Jalen is helping my dad plow the driveway in this picture.

Day 10: Brooke Sledding
We took the girls sledding. We realized that this was the first time that Brooke had ever been sledding and only the second for Melodye. What bad parents we are !! The girls had a blast. Brooke kept yelling "WooHoo" after each ride down this hill. We definitely will have to take them again.

Day 11: Bibs From Mason-Dixon Knitting
These bibs are for our neighbor's that have a new baby boy. The color is off, but they are green and blue. They are a quick and easy knit. I will definitely make more of these as gifts. Brooke also likes to try these on. LOL

Such Excitement

What a surprise yesterday when I opened my email and found out that I had won Organizing Junkie's monthly round-up prize. Sorry for no graphic. That darn computer is still in the shop!!! I couldn't believe it. I won a spot in Aby Garvey's organizing workshop. I have been wanting to try out her workshops, but worried about the expense and whether it would be worth it. I also have Aby's book The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker., which I absolutely love. Such great ideas and wonderful eye candy to boot.

Library of Memories

Well I finally got into the Library of Memories class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I am extremely excited to take this class. I have looked forward to this and I will finally be starting in February. I have heard nothing but good things about this class. And I am hoping that this will help me to get more scrapbooking done in 2009. Not that it would really take that much more to do that.

Scrapbook Room Organization

Another room organized. I have to say that I am not completely done, but it is functional and I won't have any problems adjusting as I go along.



Once again this organization was inspired by Organizational Junkie and her monthly round up.

Here is the scrapbook room as you enter. Before I go any further, I want to give props out to my dear husband. He is the one who finished this room. This room had studs and that is all when he started and it looks amazing now due to his hard work.

Behind the door are some shelves from Ikea that hold the little bit of stamps that I own, but at least there is some room to grow.

This shelf has my Ipod dock, knitting stuff, knitting books, knitting needles and the drawers at the bottom are empty waiting for me to decide what I will be using it for. Above the shelf is a strip of metal with magnets from Ikea that will hold pages I want to see. The clock is from Target.

This is the corner of my two tables. A little TV. The drawers from Ikea hold my embellishments. I am still trying to figure out how I want to label the drawers. The book that is in the Book holder is left from when I was making an apron. My sewing machine is at the left edge of the left table. I forgot to take a picture of it.

Underneath the left table are my Sterlite drawers that hold my scraps. They are divided into Red Scraps, Red Pattern Scraps, Pink Scraps, Pink Pattern Scraps, Orange Scraps, Orange Pattern Scraps, Yellow Scraps, Yellow Pattern Scraps, Green Scraps, Green Pattern Scraps, Blue Scraps, Blue Pattern Scraps, Purple Scraps, Purple Pattern Scraps, Brown Scraps, Brown Pattern Scraps, Black Scraps, Black Pattern Scraps, White Scraps, White Pattern Scraps, and Specialty Paper Scraps.

This is my main work area. There is usually a pile to the left of the table. This is where I put things that I need to deal with and just have not. The tools are in the Making Memories cauresol.

This is my Ikea Expedit shelf. I love it. Between the work table and this shelf are two cabinets that I got from Costco, but didn't take a picture. I do have pictures later that show some of the drawer insides.

This is the closet. I am so glad that my husband put that light in the closet. It really helps late at night.

• The top shelf has a laminator, a little heater, page protectors, garbage bags, and 12X12 albums.


• The second shelf has some empty boxes that I used at one time and don't want to get rid of because I might use them again. The green boxes have a variety of small albums.


• The third shelf has cards, two Becky Higgins school kits, and fabric.


• The fourth shelf has magazines and books.


• The floor has things for work, like centers that need to be finished and resource books.


• Next to the filing cabinet are two file boxes that hold the previous years tax information.
  
  
  
  
  

Here are the top two shelves of the Epedit shelves. The top has photo albums that are sorted by date. The second shelves have all of the cardstock and patterned paper which I have way more than I can use in my lifetime, but I still would love more.

The third shelves has a variety of things like albums, and Quickutz. The fourth shelf has Revolution, the white basket has rub-ons, and the blue basket has letter stickers. The bootom shelves has jewelry kits, foam stamps, and embellishment folders.

Here is a close up of the embellishment folders. Each folder has sections for die cuts, stickers, titles, etc.

This is the left side of the closet where the iron and ironing board are hung up.

This is the right side of the closet where my sewing tools are hung using Command Hooks. I love those things!

This is the paint materials drawer. The little baskets are from Walmart.

Here are the punches.

Here is the stamping drawer. The Quickutz Sillouhette is on top of the cabinets.

This is my yarn drawer. I need to make changes to this organization, but I haven't decided what yet.

And just so you don't think I am so organized. This is stuff I still have to deal with at some point. This is outside of my scrapbook room and still has been for awhile.