Finishing off 2013 and getting ready for the new year.

Good morning everyone!  I thought I would share with you today what I've been up to in my craft room.  It's finally back to working order, meaning my desk is cleared off and I can walk around the room, but it is not photo ready yet!  Haha!  We still have a ways to go, I think we'll be painting, probably in the spring, so it will be awhile.  I'm grateful to be able to work again though!

I spent last night getting my 2014 Project Life album ready and organizing my cards.

I went with the Kraft Edition for 2014 and so far I LOVE it!  You know I wasn't thrilled with the Cherry Edition last year, but I loved Clementine from 2012.  Well Kraft is my favorite so far!  We'll see if I change my mind once I get into it.  I bought this tub several months back and it's been working pretty good for my needs.  I can definitely fit more cards or other tools in here, but I mostly fit just the kit in here then store it on my bookshelf.

I also spent last night organizing some other things in my room.  Like this awesome Pay it Forward gift from my friend KATIE. 

I love that she sent me that gold ornament because all of the ornaments on our main tree are gold.  How perfect is that?!  Thank you so much Katie!!  In honor of paying it forward, I'll pick a commenter from today's post and pay it forward to them!!  :)

The last thing I wanted to share I was debating on because the picture turned out really crummy.  I need to replace the batteries in my camera so I was snapping photos with my phone and this one ended up blurry.  But I'm going to share it anyway.  Week 51 of Project Life.

Pretty bad, right?  Ha!  I added a couple of inserts to this week, it was the girls last week of school and there was a cute letter to Santa from Landry and an award for Abie.  I was trying to figure out how to work in day 29-31 into the last week since week 52 was the 22nd through the 28.  I ended up just making that spread the 22nd through the 31st.  If I have to add an insert with extra pictures then I will.  I flipped through the album last night with each of the girls and I just loved watching their faces when they remembered certain things we did throughout the year.  Things I wouldn't have scrapbooked typically or taken photos of.  I am, once again, so happy, I've done this project and cannot wait to do it again!  I do it in the simplest of ways, cards, pen and photos, nothing fancy :)  keeping it super simple for myself.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to 2014!  I can't believe it's almost a new year again.  Have a great Monday and I'll be back tomorrow or Wednesday with a new post on my Filofax set up for the new year.  See you then and thanks for stopping by today.

December 23rd. What?

I really cannot believe it's December 23rd! We have a couple of little, and not so little, girls that are so excited for Christmas. It snowed Saturday night into Sunday and they spent almost the entire day playing outside yesterday. That's after they had a sleepover at our house Saturday night.

My craft room is mostly back to normal, but not 100% yet, so I think I'll wait to post pictures, hopefully by the end of break :)

I did get a bit of crafting in, catching up on the last two weeks of Project Life, using my notes. I would be lost without those!!

Here are a few pictures from yesterday that made me smile.  I hope you're enjoying the holiday/winter season with your friends and family. Thanks for stopping by today.

Transitioning and a birthday 3x3

Oh my goodness.  I'm not quite sure where to begin so I guess I'll start with where I left off,  on Monday night Mike and I cleaned the excess lumber and debris from the basement and started prepping the floor for carpet.  On Tuesday Abie had volleyball practice and Landry had her first week of volleyball camp!  Wednesday night we had a surprise birthday party for our neighbor Bryan with a Christmas Vacation theme, so fun!  On Thursday night, Mike and I vacuumed the basement floor up and drew our chalk line out.  Friday night, he started in on the carpet!  He got a little more than a 1/4 of the basement done that night.

On Saturday morning Mike got back at it and within just a few hours he had almost finished the rest of the basement!

We bought carpet tiles for the basement.  We figured that if the kids and their friends are going to be down here there might be some spills and accidents and it would be nice to just pull up a tile and put down a new one!  Mike was really happy with the installation of the tiles and how quickly and easily it was to put in.  (excuse the sheet over there, that's the storage area and we don't have the doors up yet)

Saturday night we took the girls to see Christmas lights and came home and started moving furniture into the basement.  Then Sunday morning we moved the rest of the furniture into the basement, from the craft room.

This was the state of my craft room up until Sunday.

This is from the back corner of my room.  Yikes!

And from the doorway.  Holy moly!  The desk in front there is the girls :)

The worst part about all of this is the top of my desk...

Pretty bad, right? 

I did clear off a small corner Sunday morning and squeak out a small card for a birthday party Landry went to that afternoon.  A very SIMPLE card.

A pre-made 3x3 base with patterned paper trimmed to fit and a pre-made 3 dimensional sticker.  A dream when you're in a hurry or your craft room is a disaster!

So that's what I've been up to and where I've been.  I'm so excited to finally be getting the basement furniture OUT of the craft room and can't wait to get my craft room all organized and put back together.  It just might take me awhile.  So I, more than likely, won't have anymore crafty posts this week, because I don't have anywhere to make anything crafty.  Haha!

I hope you are doing well and I hope to be back to regular posting soon!  Thanks for sticking with me and thanks for the visit today :)  Have a great Monday!

Favorite Christmas/holiday hostess gift.

Hey there friends!  Did you have a nice weekend?  We had a busy Saturday, picked out carpet for the basement, met friends for lunch, went to an ugly sweater/house warming party and then when we came home, I put on comfy clothes, fixed a cappuccino and relaxed on the couch.  It was wonderful!

We usually take the girls to lunch/dinner every year and to a Christmas movie, but this year we asked them if they wanted to do that and they both said they would rather get pizza and watch a movie at home :)  (I have to say I LOVE that they would rather do that than go out)  So we did that Saturday night.  On Sunday, we woke up to softest of snows.  It snowed almost all morning long, into the early afternoon, but didn't amount to much.  It accumulated on the streets, but not on the grass.  What?  Landry kept wanting to go make snow angels in the driveway :)

So today I want to share with you my favorite, and very quick, hostess gift for the holidays.  Wine.  Ha!

This year I picked out a couple of pre-made 3x4 cards and then decorated them up a bit, with my Michael's stamp, of course, and one of my stick pins.  Oh and some baker's twine, can't forget the baker's twine!

I used my trusty "for a gracious hostess" stamp.  I love that sentiment!

Here's a close up of the other tag.

You could also make this for sparkling cider if you have a host/hostess that doesn't partake in wine!!  :)

I love how easy and quick these are.  You could whip one up right before you head out to the party in fact!  Just don't forget it :)

Thanks for stopping by on this Monday.  I hope it's a great one for you.  Only two more weeks until Christmas!  Are you ready?  I'll be back later in the week.  See you then!

Teacher thank yous.

Yeah for Friday!!  So happy it's finally here, how about you?  We have a busy weekend ahead.  Tomorrow we're buying lights and carpet for the basement, meeting some friends for lunch, going to an ugly sweater/house warming party.  Then on Sunday Abie has volleyball practice and Mike is working on the ceiling on the basement.  Oh, and we're expecting our first real snow of the season.  What are your plans for the weekend?

Today I wanted to share with you the thank yous I made for Landry's teacher.  I kept them super simple!

One layer, one stamp, thank yous!

To package them up I put them in a clear box, wrapped it up with some twine and adhered the gift card from the other day.  So simple!!

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!  I'll be back on Monday with my favorite Christmas hostess gift!!  See you then.

Gift card holders.

Hello Wednesday, oh how I wish you were Friday.  I hope your week is going by quickly.  I'm having a  good week, I just have SO much that I'm excited about, the holidays, the basement, our upcoming trip, that I can barely contain myself!  I hate to wish away my time, but I'm so looking forward to the things to come in just the next few weeks.  Do you find yourself doing that?

Today I wanted to share with you my gift card holders for this year.  I use the same template every year, 4x6 and score at 1 1/2 and 4".  I almost always round my edges and then decorate that puppy up!

I'm using the 12x12 Theresa Collins *I think* paper pad and my $1.50 Michaels stamp.

Loving my baker's twine this year.  I would be LOST without it!

I found those stick pins at Michaels.  Recollections *I think* 40% *for sure* I LOVE them!  Could I have made them?  Probably.  Would I have, maybe?  Would these gift cards be finished now?  No way!  I'm all about streamlining this year and being honest with myself :)

Thanks for popping in today for a minute!  I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday and I'll be back on Friday with a new project!! 

Christmasy house warming gift.

We are back to our normal schedule again today after a wonderful break!  Only three more weeks until Christmas break!  Haha!  Mike made so much progress on the basement this weekend, we're getting so excited for that space to be finished and he's thinking it will be usable by Christmas break!

This weekend we have an ugly sweater party/house warming to go too and since it's the holiday season I thought I would Christmas up their gift.

I picked up this little wire basket and filled it with moss.  Then made a simple tag to attach to the side.

I took a large binder clip and adhered patterned paper and some ribbon to hold the gift card.  I attached a bit of scor tape to the back of the gift card to help hold it in place.

I bought candy cane scented soap and turned it into one of my favorite gifts!  I peeled the sticker off and added some rub ons and another piece of ribbon.

Lastly, I picked up some chocolates and wrapped them in more patterned paper.

Do you ever coordinate a holiday with a gift like this?  I don't know if I've ever done it before, but it was kind of fun!!  Another way to use my holiday supplies :)

Thanks for stopping in today.  I hope you have a beautiful Monday.  See you soon!!