Polka dot gift card bags.

Hello there!! How are you doing?? Things are great here, still working on my 14 week deep clean, I'm a couple of weeks ahead because Mike and I will be out of town next week, but that's okay.

A couple of weeks ago, both girls had birthday parties in the same weekend. To make it easy, both recipients got gift cards. Haha! I wrapped them up in my favorite gift bags and decorated the fronts according to recipient age ;)

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you have a beautiful Tuesday!

Valentine's Day coloring.

Morning!! Today I wanted to share with you some coloring I have been working on

Two weeks ago I stamped the Papertrey images out and then ran out of time :)

This past weekend I grabbed my stamped images and some markers and worked on coloring while we caught up on some TV shows :)

Hope you are having a great week! Thanks for stopping by!

Chicago album cover.

Happy Tuesday!! I meant to get this post up yesterday, but I was busy in a fort, having a tea party ;)   You know how it is. Haha!

I'm not sure if I mentioned that I had purchased a Sn@p album to use for our Chicago trip. I picked it up on clearance at Hobby Lobby along with some other goodies for it for a great deal!

Anyway, last weekend I finally got all of the pictures organized and the memorabilia. That was the easy part. Then I whipped out a cover.

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you enjoy your Tuesday!!

Lunchbox notes.

Hello Wednesday, I'm sure happy you're here!  Today I wanted to share some lunchbox notes I made for the girls.  I periodically make a stash of these to throw in Landry's lunch.  Well yesterday I decided to throw one in Abie's binder (since she buys her lunch at school).  She loved it!

These cards started out at 2.5 x 2.5 purple polka dots with flowers.  I quickly covered them with black card stock and then embellished them with post it note flags.  I stamped a few different sentiments and added some fun embellishments on a couple.  So quick and simple, but the girls love them!

That's it for me today.  I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday and I appreciate the visit!!  Thanks for stopping in!

14 Week Deep Clean.

Good morning and happy Monday to you!  I wanted to pop in for a minute and tell you guys what I was working on last week.  It was not craft related :(  It was clean related.  Ha.

Do you remember me mentioning back in the fall that I was doing An Organized Christmas?  It was a six week program aimed at organizing all the Christmas "stuff" so that when December rolls around you are all ready and can completely enjoy the holiday.  Well, it worked and I loved it.

There is also a website called Organized Home which I've been obsessing following and starting this week they have a fourteen week Grand Plan Cleaning Challenge.  Basically, instead of doing all of your spring cleaning in a weekend or two, like I usually do, you work on one room a week and at the end of the fourteen weeks, it's all done.  You get everything done BEFORE spring, so when the weather is nice out, you can go out and enjoy!

This week is entry way week.

I cleaned EVERYTHING!  Blinds, window, curtains, baseboards, front door, walls, wall hangings, floor, etc. 

Then I cleaned out the coat closet and cleaned the baseboards in there too.

I also did the staircase and woodwork, because I don't think it's listed on another week and you can totally see it from the front door :)

Now this week I also did our living room, A) because it's not that big B) because it's right off the entry C) because it's next week challenge and D) because we have a volleyball tournament next weekend.  Hahahaha!

Now we don't come in through our front door.  We come in through our garage door.  We have a hall tree back there and I just recently, within the last two months, cleaned out the baskets and big seat part of it.  So I was confused as to whether or not I should be cleaning that entry as well, because honestly, it's WAY dirtier than the front entry.  Especially with all of the salt and sand we've been tracking in right there.  I think I'll clean it with kitchen day or garage day. 

That's it for me today.  I have more to say about this, but I'm going to save it for another post :)  Thanks for stopping by and I'll check in with you later!  Have an awesome Monday!

Project Life 2014 Week 1

Hey there! Happy Tuesday :)  Today I wanted to share with you my cover page and first week of Project Life for 2014.  That still sounds so weird to me.

I'm using the Kraft Edition this year and I love it so far.  I'm sure I'll grow sick of it after a few months, but for right now I love it :)

Here's my cover page.  I followed the kit's example exactly and love it.  I used simple handwritten journaling, which I've gotten better at becoming okay with over the years.

Here is week one.  I started my week on Wednesday, the first.  I felt like I needed it to being in January rather than waiting until this Sunday.  I added a little sticky flag and some washi to the title card because one thing about the Kraft Edition is that the title cards are VERY plain.  I took the third picture out for this week, it was of Abie's volleyball team :)

I've already started on week two and even have one of my pictures printed.  I find it helps me keep on track if I work ahead a bit.

So that's it for today.  I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday and thank you for stopping by today!  See you soon!!

Grateful mini book.

Happy Friday!  First Friday of 2014.  Big plans for you tonight?  Not here.  Abie's first tournament of the season is tomorrow and we have to be up early for that, so it will be an early night for us tonight :)

Today I wanted to share with you the finished mini book I made from our grateful project in November.  Remember THIS POST?  Well I took after we filled them up, I took the baggies and turned them into this:

A very simple little mini book, filled with a months worth of statements about what each of us is grateful for.  I. love. this.

I punched holes in each of the envelopes, and then measured and cut a cardstock front and back cover.

Look at how much we have to be grateful for!!  Makes me so happy :)

Here's another pic of the cover.

And here's a look at my process.  Whenever I start a project, I go shopping in my stash.  I pull out everything that "might" look good and pile it on my table.  Then I get to work :)  How do you work?

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!  See you soon!

P.S.  my blog header is GONE!  Does anyone know what's up with this?

Happy New Year!

Did you have a good time ringing in 2014?  I almost missed it.  I dozed off on the couch somewhere between 11-11:30 and then woke up just in time :)  My mom and dad came out and we fixed snacks and watched movies.  It was a great  night.  Then Mike fixed biscuits and gravy this morning.  After my parents left, we took down the last tree and got the house right back to normal.  I love putting the decorations up, but I love taking them down.  Feels like a fresh, clean start to the year for me!

Today I wanted to share with you my Filofax layout for this year.  I've been using the lined weekly inserts from Filofax and, at times, I find I don't have a enough room to write.  Especially my to do lists.  So I did some research and I came up with the day per page inserts from Franklin Covey.

On the left page is a timed column and a check list area and on the right is basically a piece of notepaper for lists.  I think it will work great for my Project Life lists, but the pages take up so much room I can only have three months at a time in here.  For those times when I have to make appointments for the future, I also have monthly calendars in here too.  I decorated all the days for this week with washi, which took a bit of time rather than the old pages.  We'll see how I like this and if I get confused with it :)  I love a new calendar for the new year.  What about you?

We're heading over to mom and dad's this afternoon for black eyed peas, they give you good luck you know, right JULIE??  :)  Then I'm headed back to work tomorrow.  It's been a wonderful break for me.  I wish you all the best in the new year and hope you'll stick around with me :)  See you soon and have a great Wednesday!

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!!