Redoing…

Hello, Everyone and Welcome Back!

We are taking on another remodeling/updating project in our sunroom, (more on that later) so we needed to put a few pieces into new areas! One lucky area that scored some new items was my craft room! So, I spent most of Sunday and Monday rearranging and decluttering my happy place!

I knew we were going to need to put large furniture pieces in new areas, so on Sunday morning I started moving thing around to make room for “new/old” furniture!

First, we moved one of my all time favorite pieces, an old library catalog. It has been in the sun room for the last 7 years and honestly did not serve a purpose except to collect odds and ends.  We have moved it outside the door of my scraproom. I cleaned out all the drawers of “old” stuff and now we are using it for home items such as “inside” hammers and nails, markers and color pencils for the boys, batteries, folders, notebooks and office supplies. In doing so, I could clear out all of those things from my craft room!!dsc_0277

Here’s a view of my room from the door before moving things around. I had our old kitchen table in here, which was a catch all and never used for anything specific. I also would put things under the table!
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As you can seem my craft table is placed under the windows. I love the 9 shelf unit, but honestly, I didn’t use it much because I couldn’t really reach the items that were stored in it! (blame it on my short legs!) All that “stuff” on the wall is actually two bulletin broads. At this time, I sat on the right side and never used the left side. Notice how close the desk is to the wall on the left side? Hate to squeeze through there and not be able to see the TV! Yes, I could have moved the table, but then I would have less space on the right side. This set up also made me a lazy scrapper (none of my own doing!) All my other products and tools are located in the closet behind me, so I all have to do to get something is scoot my chair!! dsc_0279

This is a photo of my room on Monday, after two days of working!! I know it doesn’t seem like it’s cleaned up, because it’s not. This is a 3/4 of the way done picture. At this time, I have thrown away two large black trash bags of junk and have a large box ready for the store garage sale. (My mom will be so proud!)

As you walk into my craft room, you now see my desk, which is up against the windows. When I first decorated this space, my plan was to put the desk here, but at that time I didn’t have the right “second” table to put under the windows. Now I do! I fell in love with this old wood table about a year ago. It’s actually an old door on large spindle legs. (Swoon) Now it is under my windows…perfect piece! I can even reach  the shelving unit and it’s a great little storage area for small buckets of stickles, small ink pads, date stamps and specific planner items.
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I love having my desk right up to the window. during a sunny day, the light is amazing! I also sit on the other side and have used the white table. Three areas to work…Yippie!!  I am wintering a plant for mom and it is HUGE and now sits on my desk, which I love. She may not get it back!
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Next step, continue to organize the closet and get rid of stuff!! Also, I am going to remove all my decorating items, even those on the wall, and start fresh with placement.

Stop back for more detailed pictures and how I am using my new areas for crafting!

Bad Blogger

Hello and Thanks for Coming Back!

I have been a Bad Blogger for sometime. I noticed on my “Blog Calendar” that I have only 9 blog posts for October…not good for my 20 consistent followers! I really enjoy blogging, it’s just that life has gotten in the way for the last few (many) months, trying to balance all my life roles and the blog had gotten the short end of the deal…plus a few other areas in my life I have neglected, too, that deserved some attention.

On that note, I will be blogging three days a week (I hope.) That is my goal at this time and I hope you continue to come back!

So, on to today’s post…
One thing that I have wanted to do for sometime is my own memory keeping! So, I thought I could do some sort of October Daily. Come to find out, I am not the only one! October Daily Albums are pretty popular to create! I don’t know if it’s a warm up exercise to the infamous December Daily album (which completely stresses me out, but try to accomplish one every year and will let you know if that ever happens)

I sat down to start and I had. no. mojo. I could not get into the swing of scrapbooking. I just kept telling myself…who cares, just do it! FINALLY, it started rolling and I must admit, I really enjoyed myself!

Celebrating Memory Bound’s 15 years of business!img_0637

Sam and Friends went to the Pumpkin Patch.

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Jack’s Flag football game.img_0640 img_0641

Jason went to the Vikings vs. Giants Monday night football game. He had to nap on Tuesday…this guy NEVER naps! img_0642

Mom and Dad celebrated 52 years of marriage.img_0644

These pages have the pictures, just need to go back and do the journaling.

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Keeping it real…not everything is up to date what so ever, but I do have the pictures of memorabilia that I will be using for that day. img_0646

Jack and I went to the Pumpkin Patch.img_0647

Sam had a football game and sacked the QB!! (brag moment) A friend told Sam that he had the best tackle of the night, but he needed to work on his form..it looked like a big bear hug! 🙂img_0648

Here you can see I have a picture, a card and a note for my “daily” item. img_0649

Thanks for coming back and enjoying in a different form (obviously not on my blog) what has been going on in the month October!

 

Ouch!

Hello!

While working on kits the other day, I noticed everything (envelopes, paper, trimmer) had bloody marks on them. Where is this coming from?

Then I noticed my finger. Yep and Duh!! I has just replaced the blade on this trimmer. I remember when I was trying to pop the blade out, I drug my finger across the sharp little thing. I guess it was sharp enough to do the damage fast and I didn’t feel it…just saw it…on all my crafting goodness.

And no, I did not pass out, need to put up my feet or call for emergency help. I was very proud of myself!

Cleaning Up…

Welcome Back!

Have you ever done something because someone said something and you didn’t want to be in that “category?”

Let me explain. We had some friends over  and were talking about how the upstairs of our house, specifically the boys’ rooms, were still in the original condition since we bought the house. So, of course, people headed up to check it out.

My craft room is at the end of the hall, so the “tour” continued and they entered my favorite room of the house. I am not going to make any excuses, such as: I have been making kits and planning classes and making samples…but, I had loads of stuff out and about. Inducing on the floor…covered.

There are no crafters in the group and I got the feeling they were a bit aghast. One gal even said,“Oh my word, this room causes me anxiety with all the stuff in here!”

Stab me in the heart! All my wonderful stuff causes anxiety!?!?

So, I have spent some time organizing and cleaning up my room.

(This is a picture while I was in the process of cleaning)
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Here is a picture of my closets. The one on the left holds all my product AKA fun stuff…which i have now labeled. I found that I have some really good stuff! 🙂 The closet on the right is my “cutting” closet. It has my Big Shot, dies, embossing folders, large paper cutter and laminator. The original plan was to have it be Jason’s work closet, but he prefers to be in the basement when working from home. (I don’t blame him!)
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Well, I don’t want anyone to come into my room and have an anxiety attack, so I spent time cleaning and organizing probably never see it again.

Hmmm…what’s wrong with this picture?

School Album

Hello!

Today I want to share with you a fourth grade mini album I created for Jack! I used the Bo Bunny collection Pop Quiz (all pieces available at Memory Bound.) It’s a great line and lends itself easily to a quick school album that highlights the year!

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I believe the best part of completing an album is when give it to the person you made it for and they sit and look at it and soak in all the details. That is exactly what Jack did and to top it off, he looked at me and said, “Thank you, mom!”

Memory Keeping in My Planner

Welcome Back!

I’ve been trying hard (but not too hard) to keep up with my memory keeping in one of my planners and I am proud to report, that I have been pretty successful!

Here is what I have accomplished for the month of July!

Our focus this week was to get ready for our Fourth of July party, Jason going to the Guns and Roses concert and Jack getting his dream drum set for his early birthday gift!  I added a 3×4 pocket page for extra pictures and journaling (which I have not done yet.) Washi tape, ephemera packs and stickers are my best friends! Memory Bound also sells an amazingly huge variety of die cuts. I purchased the Dory die cut before seeing the movie and it worked perfect with the movie ticket!

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Below, I left a large space for journaling about the party. I also need to tell about my adventures creating my new blog!

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The next week was HOT! We went to a movie, hung out at the pool and our town has Summerfest, which is a big carnival. The wristband “Sam’s Amusements” is from the carnival night…fit perfectly into the page.

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Lots going on for Jack’s birthday week! Jack had a Lego camp and lacrosse camp. Sam went water skiing with friends. Included a receipt this week of how much I spent on gas. Thought that would be fun to look back at in the future.  Again, I included an extra refill page for more pictures of Jack’s birthday.

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More pictures and journaling about Jack’s birthday celebration with family. Most of the stickers I use are from 12×12 sticker sheets that I purchase from Memory Bound!

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Currently, I am working on the last week of July and the past few weeks of August. I must say, I really like this method of memory keeping because it is fast and I have control of the sizes of the items I include in my book. No trying to cut or print pictures to the “just right” size!

Finally I am reaching memory keeping peace!
(For this month!)

Oldie but a Goodie?

My First Page!

As I was straightening/organizing/rearranging my piles of wonderful goodies the other day, I came across this Oldie but Goodie: My first scrapbook page!

The first story I scrapped, was when Jason purchased a new bike in 1999.

The product I used to create this beauty included a wonderful orange bike die cut at Memory Bound along with the blue ric-rac strip, which I believe came in a pack. The “FUN” was a die cut from a company that had punch-out die cuts! I was in love!! And check out the use of that bike paper..genius!! Don’t forget the meticulous yellow circle frame that was cut out with my decorative scissors!!
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I must admit, I am pretty impressed that I actually included the journaling and some wonderful mats for photos and writing. At that time, I never completed a story without some sort of spelling error. No exception here! Can you find the spelling error?

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I remember Jason read the story and then made a comment about the spelling error. I told him there was NO WAY I was going to do that over! One: how would I get the paper off without ripping something and two: that page took me a good 15 minutes to create!

Oh…those were the days!