Hello everyone...just wanted to update and let you all know that I am not here as much because I just started a new job. And so far so good...well kinda. LOL. But I am hoping to have the chance to upload some photos sometime soon of cards that I have been working on. I am not sure what I will be able to upload, but I wanted to make sure that I let you all know that I am ok and still here.

Until next time!!

Office/Scrap space update

Well I just had to stop in and update the photos of my space while I had a chance to. I have a really busy week and it is Thursday. So far this week, I have been on a couple of job interviews and met with a potential client to make cards for her shop. I am so excited because this is exactly what I need to be doing right now. Trying to establish myself here is different from Minnesota but that is because there I knew so many of the store owners from actually being a customer but here I have none of those connections. But that is ok, it just means that I have to work a little harder.

Well here are the photos of my space, well not right now cause it is a mess...I am cleaning it up but I was crafting a few samples for the shop so I pulled out a little of everything. This is the space behind my chair. By the way, I got the chair from Goodwill for $6.00. It is the exact same color as the wall paint for the room and I have no plans of painting this room so this worked perfectly. And that frame leaning against my cabinet is actually my wall calendar that I am working on for the kitchen. I didn't go with that patterned paper on the top but this is where I am at with this project so far, the frame is painted and distressed, I took a piece of a ruler (that was used in the inside of my cabinet drawers to divide them for my dies) to screw in hooks so that I can hang the calendar part below the scrapbook page. As you can see the frame is a shade off from the cabinet, and that is what I meant when I said my house is a several shades of teal. But not several shades in one room, each room has a shade of it except for the kids rooms. They all got to pick their room colors and they didn't have to match the main room colors/shades. I still have to paint that crate that is on the floor. I am thinking black.

And of course the little one just had to get in the shot so you all could see that she could fit right in her little space. I plan on painting their chairs so that they match the room although they aren't the same chairs. I love the way that these little metal school desks are perfectly distressed to match the space. That was a happy accident. I originally was spraying they black but the Rustoleum paint wasn't working right. It looked like dust and I actually rubbed a lot of it off, so I went back with a wet clothe and it rubbed all off. I don't know why it did that. I shook the paint can, and followed the spray painting directions but the paint didn't work. And at that point I was way too hot (which might have been the issue with the paint) to go to the store and get a different brand so I just wiped off all that I could, sanded it and then painted over the tops with the same paint from the cabinets...and I loved it. It almost looks like chalk paint. I then sanded it some more and wiped them down once again and placed them right where they are now.But other than those things, everything else is just the same as it was in previous photos. I still have several projects that I have planned but those will be getting done little by little.

This week I've been really productive in getting cards done. I really like that I can now craft while cooking, teaching the girl to write her letters and pretty much any other time that I can get a few minutes in my space. I also really like that I have been cleaning up the space now in 15 mins or less. Mostly because I don't pull out lots of things, but also because things are so easy to put back. I really like that...But here are ome photos of the completed cards. I really needed some sympathy cards so thatis what I have been making. It is a hard card to make mostly because it is for a time that is not a celebration for most so I pulled out product that I had that I didn't like that much if at all. So sorry Chatterbox I loved most of your lines but this one wasn't my style or even anything that I liked at all. But they made some really cute cards. I tried not to use too much black but there really wasn't any way around it.

Here is a list of the products that I used. I don't know what company made the stamp though.

Papers-chatterbox

Cardstock- Bazzill/ AC

Dies-Cricut (gypsy), Spellbinders circle die, Fiskars border punch, sizzix branch die

Seam binding-unknown (sprayed with TH distress ink black soot and perfect pearls)

Twine- Walmart

White embosing powder

Well have a great weekend. I am so far. I have been crafting for a few hours today and plan on crafting some more this evening.

Home Sweet Home

Well since my space is set-up and I have been in there; it is now starting to really feel like our home so I felt like I should maybe let everyone else know the address. LOL. Really I sometimes forget that not all my family checks out this site or even has a facebook account. And so sometimes they are the last to get basic information from me which is so sad cause it used to be so opposite of that.

I used to mail cards and photos all the time and keep everyone in the loop about everything and so I pulled out some more supplies to make cards to send to family. Here are two of the cards that I made, and of course I am going to be making a few more to add to my stash mostly because there are 4 newly built homes on my block and I think it's only nice to give each of them a welcome to the neighborhood once they have moved in.

I really like the corrugated looking card the most. Mostly because I finally got to use my crimper on a card design. I have had that tool in my stash forever and I love using it to make banners and stuff for the kids but I never seemed to figure out how to get the design on a card. But it works well for this card because it feels like a cardboard box. Plus I really like the hand stitching more on this card too.

I just can't get a great photo of the cards no matter what. I have gotta figure out what to do to get photos to look good in here. Especially since my room has really only one source of light (which is a large source) but I need to take the photo without the flash. For some reason the flash is really too bright now. Something tells me something is off in my settings or maybe I have dropped my purse one to many times and bumped my camera.

Well I am going to be checking in a little later this week and finally sharing more photos of my space too. I have to say it isn't 100% what I thought I wanted but until I can spend money on it, this space is really nice. And I don't feel embarrassed now to have someone come over cause there isn't a box in sight! And it only took me 4 months to completely unpack every one of them.

Hello everyone. I am so excited to be able to share the start of a layout that I am working on. For the last couple of days I have been working in my space and really getting an idea of the feel of it. And since doing so, I have switched two things around. My stamp tower no longer is sitting directly on the floor but instead I have it sitting on a crate on the floor behind my desk. I changed that because it allows me to actually see my stamps and it also means that I am not bending over to see the stamps. That was a much needed change. And whenever I change the coffee table looking thing out and get some other type of storage, I will make sure that the stamps can still work in that same spot. And the other change is that I got rid of the 3 drawer plastic organizer from under my desk. I don't miss it at all. I think that was one of the things that bothered me the most about my space for now. None of the the storage solutions (well except the cabinets) are my permanent solutions right now. I am using what I have until I can find the perfect solution for my needs.

But here is a photo of my space now. Oh, I do have a new little section for the girls to have their own little student style desks along the wall. And they love them. And of course every time I have been in the room, they have been in there too. But I knew that would happen. But I actually like having them in there with me and seeing the baby (who is 2yrs old) happy that she has her own crayons, and scrapbooking stuff that she doesn't have to share with her sister is just so cute. I am just wondering how I can make sure to hide my nail files because she keeps chewing one them. And I just know that they must be toxic but she keeps getting into them and everything else she can reach.

But I just realized that I completely forgot to take a photo of the space and share it. But I plan on doing that soon. Well back to said layout...

I know its not even close to being done, and nothing is glued down. And besides that the photos aren't printed. Well they were and that is when I found out that there was no printer ink. My son#1 didn't bother to let me know he had been printing tons of stuff and now I can't print pictures. LOL isn't that the way things go sometimes. When you are ready to do something, it just doesn't really work out. But I have a busy week and since my hubby is out of town most of the week there won't be any runs to get printer ink until the weekend. I have to remember to get ink for the Epson printer too. I realized from this print mishap that I really do love my Epson printer printing my pictures instead.

Well I was laying on my bed this morning surfin the web after the boys were off to school. And usually I would be up and moving or doing something but the house is clean, the laundry is done, breakfast doesn't need to be made yet cause the girls are still sleeping. So I took just a moment to look at some scrapbooking blogs. And began to doze off, and just then I dreamed about the perfect use for the desk that I have in the garage. Yeap sometimes I dream about scrapbooking/decorating ideas lol.


But let me be honest about this desk, I don't like it at all for myself (which is why it's still in the garage) its actually perfect for the youngest boys room, and so I was eventually going to get around to painting it and putting it in there...and I say eventually cause it wasn't something that I looked forward to doing at all. See this is the same desk that I painted just a year ago to put into our very very small bedroom in the apartment until we moved into the house. I hated it almost instantly because it was in our room and I knew that I would never be able to craft in there. The lighting was bad, it was away from the kids, it was really cramped and the drawers weren't big enough to hold anything at all.


So I never worked on/at the desk, but instead used it as a self to store some of my supplies. And that's all that I used it for. And since I am being honest I really didn't want to repaint it cause I just didn't want it in the house for some reason. But the boy needs a desk, but at the same time who said he needs that one. So as I was dozing off I was thinking of the drawer handles which are black, and the drawers are a very light baby blue (that surely wasn't the color that I thought it would be at the time I chose it). And I just had painted our old tv stand to go in the room as a temporary/maybe permanent piece in the room. It's current purpose is to hold the stuff that I have been stating that I have no place to put, but even then I had no way to store it. So the drawers...(sorry it took so long, lol) the drawers are perfect. They can come out of the desk and fit right under the self on the tv stand. And I already have both items. I haven't painted them yet or even checked to make sure that they can fit, but I am off to do that right now. I'll be back. And really I can get a before picture of desk so you can see what I am talking about...

Well after taking care of the girls and cooking breakfast and putting up the girl's laundry (which I was waitig to do when they woke up) I finally got to take a photo.

This is the desk (while looking at it again, I think what is wrong with me, it's a perfectly great desk for a kid, but I really don't want it in his room?) and the color isn't so bad, but I would have to paint it either way it goes so why not use it for what I want to instead.

And this is a photo of the drawers sitting on the actual tv stand shelf. It is so small but it is perfect for now. I just have to wait to get better furniture. But now you can see that there is other items that weren't pictured before. That black cd tower thing is used to store my cd cases full of acrylic stamps. Which are still in their boxes and I am really hoping once this part of the room is done that I can pull them out and get them up away. But ontop of the tower is an old cassette tape holder that holds my Colorbox chalk inks. I am thinking that I should hot glue together since both turn and it will be perfect to make sure that they stay put. But I also think that I should spray paint the cd tower an amber color. But I haven't found that color in a spray paint at all. And especially not a spray paint for plastic.

Getting closer to the finish line...or so I hope

Hello bloggers. I am so excited to say that I have completed a huge task. It actually wasn't a huge task but it really did feel like one.

This is what my ribbon looked like on Monday and some of Tuesday..

and this is what my ribbon looks like this morning...

Isn't it just the most beautiful thing!OK maybe its not but I am so excited because there was ribbon all over the great room for a day and a half. And the girls were playing for the last two days with empty spools. But it feels so good to have that mess up and the organized ribbon stash really moves me.

I am so mad at myself for not doing that with all my ribbons before. I got rid of about 150 rolls of American Crafts ribbons before my move last year because I couldn't bring them with me. Sad, if they were only rolled onto the cards like all the rest of my ribbon, I would have had them in my box. And they would be here right now getting put away.

So the lesson in all of this is I can never replace all those AC ribbons so I need to get over it and also not matter the brand, unwrap and add them to my stash. Forget the packaging and labels...they take up too much space.

Well the room isn't done, not even close but here are some pictures of what it actually looks like right now. It isn't perfect (or clean) but it is getting closer to the finish line. And all the stuff on my "table" is what I need storage for. Along with a few more boxes of books that I haven't even made it into the house yet.

I also found some cute little nightstands this weekend which were for the kids rooms.

Here is the boy#2's nightstand...I would do a full view of his room but there are pictures of family and friends in there so I will not do that. I did paint it black. And now he needs a small desk and bookshelf... And I got his table for $3.75.

And here is the girls' nightstand it is so perfect for their room. And of course there is much more that I need to do in their room like paint the walls, a color that we all can live with. LOL and a nice dresser with 8 drawers instead of the chest of drawers that they have. And a nice little bench that they can sit on under their window. But doesn't that lamp shade just scream at you for some kind of flowers and ribbon decorations...it did to me too that will be next. I got their table for $3.oo.

Sorry about the blurred pictures but I took them on my phone, and I don't have a clue how to make phone pics look better. Maybe I will take a better picture of everything once their rooms are done too? I hope to remember that...

Making prgress...

Well it was a long weekend and I had the most relaxing time. I was honestly so excited about doing my scrapbooking space, but after thinking about it, I used that time to enjoy my families company because there was a lot of thinking that I really needed to do before I started unpacking more stuff. There are several issues that I am trying to figure out but there doesn't seem to be anything that I love 100%. So instead of running around to garage sales trying to find anything that I could use, or checking thrift stores for sales, I kinda just want to think it through a little more.

Honestly the more that I think about it, it's clear that there is going to be some plastic in the room, but how much is my concern. I didn't want tons of it but really there is no way that there isn't going to be a lot considering I have a lot of stuff to store and right now my budget doesn't include purchasing new storage containers especially when I am still decorating a whole house.

But I have organized one cabinet. I can't really show a picture of it cause it is just too messy around the cabinet to have on record lol...The cabinet has a ledge/desk folding down compartment which is a perfect place to put my diecutting machines. And because of the size, whenever I get a gift of the new silhoutte or craft robo (these are just wishes lol), I will still have enough room in there to store and use them and that made the cabinet a perfect place to be my diecutting storage too, the drawers are full of dies (none of my wafer thin dies are in there)and here is a photo of one of the drawers...

And here is the other cabinet so far too, it is almost full and I still have 3 boxes to unpack (not including my 2 mini boxes of cd cases filled with stamps). The great part about my previous systems for organizing is that I honestly love them and it was easy to stay organized. I am thinking maybe just maybe I should buy some material and put it over the fronts of the cabinets but now as I type it out it seems like a bad idea. LOL

So there are tons of things on my to-be-done list;

-organize my ribbon (just making all ribbon fit into the system that I like, no more spools of ribbon, or ribbon cards for each individual collection/company, all are getting unwrapped and put onto my 6x12 cards sorted by color)

-re-label all plastic containers (using my computer instead of my label maker)

-find (build/paint) a shelf to go between the cabinets to hold my cd tower, ink pads, tools, all 8.5x11 & 12x12 cardstock that is still sitting in boxes.

-hang license plates of the places that we have lived/traveled to (which I still haven't unpacked/found??)

-create 9x9 layouts of those states to hang on the wall underneath each license plate (using IKEA wire and double hook method)

-touch up wall in areas that have scuffs and marks on it

-create family wall calendar

-purchase a bookshelf/expedite to be shared with the kids books, family games and some scrapbook stuff (mostly scrapbooking decorations that I have made).

-find a way to store other ink pads because my current system is too small

Well that is enough for now. I will try to make sure that I update as I go along, and take photos...smiles, Tracy

Two posts in one week...

Well as any of you have come to know that if I start working on something, I have gotta get it finished. Well I have finished the bookshelves and the desk and table have been painted and I can honestly say that I have no plans on painting anything else just yet. I mean really it has been really hot here I think all the days the last week have been 100 or more. I also know that I can't paint anymore in the garage without some type of fan. Although the door was open, it was sooooo hot in there. But I stuck it out and got it done.

Now I want to share of photo of the work so far, but I don't want anyone judging my messy space lol. I mean really I am still unpacking all my craft stuff and trying to figure out exactly how to merge there spaces into one. What I think is going to happen is that I am no longer going to have the kids bookshelves in the office. I mean they have 5 boxes of books but now that I have typed that, that won't work. I am thinking that we are going to have to have some type of bookshelves in the office and something for each child's room. So that is something that I will have to look for this week. There is no rush to get it but it would be nice to get it soon.

I have a couple of things that I need now in order to organize my space in the office, like more vertical paper storage. I am thinking that I should get a few usps boxes and decorate them. I really like that idea although I love the plastic cropper hopper ones, but these would let me bring more color into my space, but I did recently see where someone cut patterned paper to cover the fronts of their CP paper holders. I am planning to do that first and see if I like it and then I could easily coordinate my papers to match the room and then still use a couple of usps boxes.

So here is my work in progress....

Yes it is a mess but it is just the beginning. I am still painting things, looking through boxes trying to find my license plates that I have from other states that we have lived in and visited together. The theme of the office/scrapbook space is Explore/Travel. And I have a bunch of stuff still in boxes, in my XXXL navigator and rolling totes, which you can't see cause I have most of that tucked under the table, outta site. LOL The chair is actually from my oldest's room desk, we still need several chairs for this space (which I plan to paint 2 the color of the bookshelf and 2 some other color that isn't black)

I want to create a sign with a quote but I have not done vinyl in my cutter before and since I refuse to buy anything new for that machine (because I really want one that will let me use MCC without issues) I am holding out. I am also going to try to find another way to get what I want done without me spending money on those items for the sign.

For the record this is what I have spent so far on the room...

Paint $25 Lowes

Paint $25 Lowes

Bookshelves $10 (for both)

Table $14
Desk-Free

I also have to find my frame stash. I have no idea what box they are in and I don't seem to remember what box I packed them in either. I should take a pic of the mess on the other side of the computer desk area but I would feel too embarrassed by that so never mind. But I am glad to show what I have done so far, I still got a ways to do but it is really starting to feel like it could be an amazing place for all of us to us together. Well until next time...Smiles, Tracy

I wonder all the time how I plan on doing several of the things that I have on my list daily that I just have to get done. I also wonder why does my list seem to grow instead of getting smaller? Well this weekend seemed hotter than ever but really it wasn't and of course painting furniture in a garage in 110 degree weather isn't a good idea no matter who you are. But of course that didn't stop me for doing just that.

I had picked up these to bookshelves from a garage sale last weekend and I had really regretted getting them until I bought paint on Friday. I mean they only cost $10 for both of them, which was an amazing deal since I needed something to hold my scrapbooking supplies and start to work on getting the office set up. And when I pulled up to this garage sale I looked at them but immediately knew that I didn't like or want them. But the lady having the sale really needed to get rid of her stuff because she wasn't able to load them in her moving truck. And of course like so many families here she was moving to the midwest. But I said no, although she really was making the deal sweet because I was getting a lamp, a picture with a bamboo looking frame (which is why I was looking at the frame because it matches the tropical retreat theme of our bedroom), a lamp and these two bookshelves. I kept saying no I don't want or need them, but when she said $10 for both of them, I had to get them. And I even paid the full price she stated for the other things because you can't beat $10 for 2 bookshelves even if I planned to use them in the garage.

But then I was looking in my hallway and decided that I couldn't take it any more, my scrapbooking stuff needed to get out of the entrance hallway. I hate that all my craft stuff was in the office in the sun so I moved it to the hall. And that was supposed to be until the curtains/blinds got put up. Well that was done three weeks ago and nothing had changed because I really had no furniture to use to put stuff in.

So here are the shelves/cabinets now...I hate that once again I didn't get a before photo of them. I love them! I mean really love them! I almost love them enough to put them in our family/great room but I think that I would have to convince the hubby of that.

I still have much more to do to get them where I feel like that are amazing. And also while out garage sale-ing, I got a table (which I am going to use as my desk) and a L shaped desk. Well the L shaped desk is now going to stay in the garage so that I can use if for my own garage sales an painting projects. But my plans are to paint the table this week too. Well the 2 tables/desk I got for $32 which is a lot to be honest but I got a couple of other things too that I can use in the office.

And then I got a call from someone who I had contacted from craigslist for a desk and she said that they had also moved and that I could go to their house and pick up the desk that I was going to get this weekend for free! That was such a blessing. I mean I could have paid the $20 for the desk but getting it free was really nice. I think that sometimes when you are nice and do things for others you get blessing for no reason. I am not saying that God provides you with material things for going good works but it's nice when people are nice for no reason.

I wish that I could share in great detail what I am talking about but I often think that it if you share some things that God tell you to do to bless others it might seem like you are bragging. And so I don't want to do that at all.

But on another note, my oldest has decided to run for student council. I am wondering if he will have too much on his plate this year. I mean it is his first year of highschool and all his classes are AP classes and he wants to do basketball, student council and football. Not to mention several other things that he has going on. I don't want him to be a slacker or anything, but I hate that his school only allows for 1 elective. And that to me makes no sense whatsoever. Kids need more things that are fun in school but I guess.

I have plans on getting more painting done (cabinets, table and desk) and get the painting on the wall of the office so that I can take a photo of the area. Well I am off to bed... Goodnight and have I hope you all have a great night/day! Smiles, Tracy

I am so excited to share on my blog this week, I have so much that I want to share and I have decided that I "need" to post more often because otherwise my post seem to get really long. Well I still haven't really scrapbooked but I have painted some wall paintings for my kids bathroom and I am also working on a frame for our wall calendar. I know I know. The other one that I had was not that old at all and that is ok, especially since the frame was purchased at a thrift store and I can recover it at any time to use it for another project but I will get photos of the one that I got from a garage sale for 68cents.

And here is a photo of the family(great) room and the kitchen now. I am only showing them again because I wanted to show that I picked up 3 very large Copenhagen wall paintings from a garage sale that I stumbled across. I could barely get them in the van cause I had just left Lowes and had 4 blinds in the car for the rooms.

My mom asked me what the green thing for. I have to say its my "buffet" (an old dresser) and it isn't green at all. I don't know if it is the lighting or something but it is a very dark teal. And it is use for extra storage. When we moved in I realized just how small the island was in the room and decided that sitting at it really wouldn't work for our family but putting the "buffet" right next to it would work great for additional storage. Right now I have tools, birthday/party celebration/wrapping paper, newspapers (for paint projects), silverware, and place settings in there. It is perfect. I just hate that the real island isn't the same height and width because it would cover the back (which isn't painted). But I am looking for a solution to that issue and if there isn't one then I will most likely move it to the main hallway and get another something that will be the right width and height so that it looks as though they go together. And of course I will paint it the same color, or will I?

Well there is much more to be done in the rooms. Like removing the old love seat, and selling it this week at our first garage sale,hanging the curtains for the patio door and the wood blinds for the back window today or tomorrow. I want to paint this weekend also but I don't think that I like the paint now that I already bought. So I am still debating on that. I haven't even tested the color because I am sure that it isn't the color that I want. Plus I might wait until we have the leather sectional delivered and the built in wall unit done before I paint. I am going to rethink the paint, I think that I was just so sick of neutral colors that I picked a color that I really didn't love. So I am thinking maybe terracotta color would work better than a bloody red color.

Well I plan on posting more photos of my progress next week. I just have tons of stuff that I am working on since the kids are now in school and the unpacking is almost done, now its time to really get it together. Especially cause my hubby has been going nuts, he wants people to come over to see the house all the time and I have been hoping to have some time to really get things together before that all starts.

But I have a question for you all, can you tell me if you think that contemporary and traditional can be combined to look well together? I am just wondering because I have so many things that are traditional like the wall unit, a sofa table (not pictured its in the office right now) and the wall hangings are all modern/contemporary to me. They aren't my style at all but when I saw them they were perfect, for my spaces. They allow Vele's style and my style to merge. I am just wondering what it will all look like once its put together?

Stopping in really quickly today to post a picture of my "stash/stockpile" of cleaning/personal items. Mostly because I have been couponing for a while and I don't think that I am anywhere close to an extreme couponer but our little stash is so perfect for our big little family of six. Our stockpile has been chipped away at a lot the last couple of weeks because we have been cleaning two places basically. And of course that means that my stash of 16packs of papertowels are now 9 (not including the 3 open packs- 1 in the kitchen,1 in the master bathroom, and 1 for the other two baths).


Well here it is...

This storage is in our very small laundry room. I am not at all complaining but just letting you know that our laundry room is small. Especially compared to the one that we had in MN. But honestly that is just what I need. Smaller space= less room to have dirty laundry collect=laundry being done daily. And with 6 people you basically have to do a couple of loads a day or you will get buried in laundry and be washing all day one day a week. And I prefer a couple of loads a day cause there is very little chance that something stains. Plus I got these two shelves for $20 off Craigslist and they are from IKEA and cost $50 each. I knew that I needed 2 shelves but that they couldn't really take of too much square footage cause I was only working with 48 inches from the washing machine and dryer to the wall.

I wanted this table/kitchen island

but it wouldn't fit and allow me to have storage for my stockpile. So I sort clean clothes and fold on the dryer.


Also this photo doesn't show my massive stockpile of washing powder, stain remover, personal items, deodorant for Vele and I. Those things are really hard to get a good photo of but there is a lot of it. LOL We have over 21 bottles of liquid washing detergent and 4 boxes of powder.


I know I know all this talk about stockpiles such a different topic but its something that I was asked to share from a thread that I read each and everyday on a couponing site. I don't have nearly the amount of some people's stashes but I am just so happy to not have to purchase toilet paper, papertowels or even washing powder. I haven't purchased any since the Staples $3 coupon which was around the second week of June. To me that's an accomplishment cause I usually have to purchase papertowels, toilet paper, and hand soap every week. Which gives me more $$ to spend on groceries! Which is always a plus when you have four kiddos to feed.

So speaking of feeding those little ones I got a recipe from another couponing site that I altered it a little to include pepperoni. And I have made it a couple of times and the family loves it. So here is a photo, sorry I don't have a recipe for it but you could check it out on krazycouponlady.com and get the one that she offers, I just added a couple of other items in mine. YUMMY!

Hello everybody, I just wanted to get on here while I had a moment to update my blog. I am so glad that I can get on the internet. Yesterday I spent four hours working on my internet connection after we got our new services installed. I just don't know if the new service is something that I will love but maybe I can grow to love it. We ended up running to Walmart to pick up a new wireless router and setting that up and getting it all set up with our three family computers. And just as soon as I was so happy about completing that, our wireless printer wouldn't connect to the computer for anything so I had to uninstall and re-install it and then go from there. And honestly that wouldn't have been a bad thing if I had actually been able to locate the printer disc but I didn't. But all is well and its all completed.

I really don't have anything to share just yet, well other than we are doing whatever we can to get the house organized and everyone settled into their own spaces. It truly does feel amazing cause the kids all have their own spaces and it seems as though having their own space has made them a little closer. I love it cause the last couple of days the boys have volunteered to read to the girls at night. I love it cause it gives me a chance to get all the things that I need to get done at night and also a little time to talk to my hubby before he goes to sleep. I just realized that school is coming really soon and that I have to get the kids registered and that is my next set of things to get done. I am considering letting our 4 yr old head off to head start so that I can have some one on one time with the little one. She would love to be able to go to school and since she is learning her letters and writing her name it would be nice to have her in a school environment. But I also think that I want to homeschool her too but I just don't know yet.

But on another note our front yard is finished. I love how it looks but I can't wait to get our backyard started/finished...But here is a photo of the front yard....

Well I called to get the kids enrolled into school and that will be a challenge again. Since DS#1 is heading into his Freshman year of highschool, we just realized that we will most likely have to work to get him into 11th grade math (I am not sure what that is here--pre-cal, maybe) because of the way that schools are set up here.

In MN when you go to an accredited school/public school, you don't have to prove that you are able to handle the work if you have a transcript that reflects that you took the previous class and passed. I mean really an A+ in Geometry on a transcript means that you have to test him to see if you can allow him to have the next level. Oh well, whatever, we will make sure that he gets the testing done. The sad part is that we did the same exact thing last year, but because he is now entering highschool they won't it done again. Never mind is state testing shows he is above the 99%, nope. We still have to prove it. So we will and I won't fuss to much about it and it will all work out or at least that is what I believe.

DS#2 is entering 4th grade and although I am fine with him going to public school I keep missing homeschooling him. It wasn't easy with two other little ones at home, but we loved the one on one and he was able to keep moving on books and all that. Now although he is in the 4th grade, we had testing done for him last year and he was able to have several 4th grade classes so this year he will be in the 4th grade doing 5th grade stuff. I just am going to make sure that he is learning something and being challenged cause for several assignments last yr I felt like really this is 4th grade work, we could so do more than that. I in fact, made he do several other things for a report that the teacher told he had only to write one sheet on. Really one sheet.

But I hope that everyone is

Hello blogger friends, how are all of you doing out there in blogland? Well I am doing ok although I am sitting here debating if I am about to head to the ER cause my finger is cut really bad. But I am ok I guess cause if I weren't then I would have left by now or would I? But I am hoping that it will stop bleeding and then it should be ok.

We are all moved in and for the last couple of days I have been cleaning our old rental. It was really hard work too. But I really think that it just seemed so hard because I was there cleaning without any central air. I had called and had it transfered and never thought about what I would need when it came to cleaning.

I love the summer but it can get really hot here, in fact it was 110 on the day we moved, 112 the day I decided to clean the rental and today it is 100. But I am nice and cool. I have been slowly but consistantly unpacking boxes. I am glad to finally be able to see each room coming to a point where I can say I like how it looks. I just don't know why but clutter, lots of boxes really make me feel as though we are messy so I had to get that started cause it was driving me nuts. There are alot of things that I have written down that I want to do and a lot of window shopping online to see what there is out there to get. But I am not going to put us into debt trying to get them all right away. I am going to take my time and get things slowly.

But here is a photo of the kitchen as it right now. My disclaimer...I have only lived in our new house for a week and I am unpacking and organizing 6 people. LOL. So its not even close to being done or decorated but its coming along.

Our new kitchen table should be delivered tomorrow. Well we hope because if it isn't we will have to wait until next Wednesday. It seats 10 without a leaf ( cause it is a pretty big table) and there isn't a way to add a leaf either. Which I love. I have a few more things to spray paint (mostly frames) to add to the walls and a huge metal sign that sames home cooking.

Here is a picture from a few days ago of our front yard being installed. It is all done now and it is beautiful. I just haven't found my camera cord just yet so I can add the photo yet. But it will be coming shortly.

So in my window shopping I came across an amazing bed that seems to be almost what I want for our master suite retreat. I like it but the posts are alot smaller than I wanted them to be so I have that one bookmarked and I am still searching for the perfect one. Hopefully I can find it.

I hope that everyone stays safe and have an awesome evening! I am so glad that it's almost Friday!!

Hello everyone, I am so glad that I have internet access again! It has been really hard being off the computer for the last two weeks while moving and all that. We have moved! I am so excited to share that news, well actually we aren't really completely done with moving but we plan to be this week since this is the last few days of our lease.

But our new house is amazing! We love love love everything about it. The kids are busy giving more suggestions of what they want their rooms decorated like. But I haven't even thought of starting any of that just yet. But I don't have any decent photos of the inside of the house just yet because we have been so busy shopping for blinds and ceiling fans (which are needed 100% now that we have had well over 100 for the temp that last week), but here is a photo of the view from the hallway (kids' bedrooms hallway) and you can actually see the buffet/dresser that I recently refinished so that it can go in the kitchen underneath the island. I haven't done any real decorating yet but had been putting together the ideas and notes for a while.

This is the before and after (well not a full view but you can see it)...

I love because it actually extends our kitchen island and its not allowing our space to walk around the island to be cut off at all or interfere with any of the entrances. Well hopefully between the packing and setting up the new crafting space/office I will have my chance to get some crafting done, but if not....until next time.

Quick update

How many posts have I started and not finished this last month...lets just say its at least 10. I think that I am going to go through my posts and delete those but every time I start reading them I think that they are perfect for record keeping. So they still are sitting in my post box and not published.

On to other topics...today marks the beginning of the 7 day count down to the day that we actually close on the house. And I am so excited. And I bet you all think that I am packed and ready to move...and you'd be absolutely wrong. LOL. I haven't packed really anything up. Honestly besides my mini stockpile of items that I have gotten for our family since April, I haven't packed too much of anything. Well in my defense I have packed all the extra glass dishes today.

I also spray painted some lamps that I plan on using in our bedroom. I love the paint color that I got although I think that it was too expensive.

But I am sitting here thinking how do you pack 20 packs of papertowels. I know that you will all be like why does she have 20 packs of papertowels...well if you don't know we have 4 children (5 all together) that live with us and they use a ton of papertowels. And since I got a bunch of them from Staples for 1.99 how could I not stock up on them? I mean I only got 20 for the price that I would have gotten 1 pack from Sam's Club. And honestly it is awesome to have something that we use so often for so little.

But I promised myself that I wouldn't start talking about stockpiles and couponing that much on my blog but honestly how could I not when there are so many awesome deals out there. I don't plan on stockpiling tons of things but when you can get All for 1.99 a bottle after coupons why wouldn't I got 10 bottles. And there are other things that we have gotten for cheap or free that we need but I am hoping to master the skill of getting cheap/free pull ups next.

So because I can't just type on this post without adding a photo here is what I got for free last week from Staples using their $3 coupon deal. We actually got much more than what I have pictured but those items were for the kids own personal stashes of school supplies and arts and crafts items.

A few decorating ideas...and an update

Hello everybody. I have been meaning to get on here and post something to the blog but just haven't had any idea what to share. So I decided because my previous post was kinda gloomy that I should at least post that I am feeling much better. I am hoping that this issue can get resolved but honestly I am not the person responsible for "fixing" this issue.

But I decided enough was enough, I need to pick myself up and dust myself off and do whatever I can to move forward. And that is where I have been for the last few weeks or so. Do what I can to move forward.

So what to share well in crafty news for me, I have made some birthday cards for LaTrele and a couple of his classmates. I made Nya's 2nd birthday banner and I also made my very own coupon binder. It is kinda similar to the binding that I used for my Christmas journal but not really. I love my new little coupon binder because it works better than the one that I purchased from the Dollar Tree. That poor thing honestly didn't even last for a month before it started falling apart.

But here is the binder that I made and am using. It is so perfect because it's smaller than 8.5x11 which seems so easier to carry for me. I knew immediately that if I was going to create a binder it couldn't be a regular 3ring binder because I would not want to carry it around. So 8.5x9 is perfect for me.

I plan on adding photos later.

Also I have been working on pages for the kids. It isn't something that has been a priority because I have been debating on actually starting to pack up my supplies. It is hard for me to even really think about it but I do know that I will have to start getting it done now. We are finalizing our loan this month (they have to re verify everything) since the house is done! That's right! Its all done! Every bit of it...We have been there almost every weekend since the beginning of this month except for a week ago because it was LaTrele's birthday party. And honestly I have measured the windows (for window treatments), planned the purchase of some ceiling fans. We are debating on getting maybe one or two because we know that it will cut our cooling costs but each section of the house and 2 or the 3 bedrooms have their own heating/cooling thermostat. I gotta make sure that the big kid doesn't have that bill running all day long.

But I plan to add a video to my FB page. I just haven't edited it yet. But its coming family if you are all wanting to see it. But we almost walked away from our house and went with another deal for one reason only. A water park is available to members at another HOA community and we almost wanted to change our minds. Well that was before we actually saw the home. It was so tiny. Don't get me wrong 2400 square feet is small too compared to some homes here. But this one just seemed much smaller and then we looked over our specs and walked through our house again and it was obvious that we needed to stick with what we have and find a water park option for us somewhere after we move. Plus I have been using an electric cook top for the last year and I am so ready to have my gas range/stove. There were some awesome things that the other house offered too like a walk in pantry. Which would allow me to have an amazing stockpile. Actually all the bedrooms (which there was 5) had amazing walk in closets too but there was a huge lack of actual room space. For instance our bedroom suite is 21.5 x 18.5 (without the bathroom measurements included) but the new house the master bedroom was 14.? x 11.4. And honestly the size didn't bother me as much as having carpet in the "eat-in" part of the kitchen and also in the formal dinning room. And I know that lots of people can do that but I have 4 children and 3 of them are under 10 so it just would not work for us. And then the new house was $9000 more but didn't come with a washer/dryer either! That was nuts. Those things were all included in our current home so we decided that the water park just wasn't enough. And to stick with the beautiful home that we have all watched hatch into an amazing new home. I really am so excited about meeting neighbors, going for walks and all those awesome things. I really am excited!

But here is a photo of the dresser (that I plan to strip, stain/refinish) and use as a buffet in our new kitchen....I love the legs on this one. And I got it for a steal at my local new Goodwill. It was only $17 I was planning on getting it ready in the next couple of weeks but today we got the call that we are closing and signing on the 23rd of this month so it might have to move "As is" and then I will work on it at the house. I also love the arched edges (which you can't see but the top has the same rounded/scalloped design coming out a few inches). I don't like old furniture that much but this piece was perfect because it reminds me of our archway from the kitchen to the great room.

I wanted to show a picture of what I'm talking about but for some reason I can't find one photo of the house completed. So here is one I took while it was being worked on

I also got two wing backed chairs that I am going to try my very very very best to myself. I am a little intimidated by them for some reason but Vele kept reminding me that I have done this sort of thing before with a bench and so on and so on. But it still seems like I would mess them up if I do it myself. But I am going to give them a try and since I got them for $7 each I won't be out much if I do mess them up. I just gotta really decide if I want to use then in the kitchen as our "head" chairs or in our bedroom as seating in the space by the tv/reading space? I am still debating on that one. But I love them to because the legs had a match feeling to our arch way in our bedroom/kitchen too. Plus I am loving the idea of using furniture that can be updated especially if it is a great piece.

I just really can't wait until we close on the house! Also the map painting on the buffet is for the office. I am going to "frame" it to make it nicer.

Hi everyone. How are you all doing out there in blog land? I hope that you are fine and that you are enjoying the wonderful weather where you are. Well there has been alot of things going on here and I wish that I could say that I have been super busy crafting away the hours but that simply isn't the case.



I don't think that my inspiration is gone but instead I think that because I am dealing with some seriously negative things right now it is so hard to focus on some of the better or happier things like scrapbooking. And of course since I have mentioned it I should let the cat out of the bag but really I just can't right now.





But I can say that I am now really dealing with the lose of my Dad. Its sad because it has been 2 yrs since he passed away but now that these recent events have happened I can truly say that it is making me deal with it.





Yesterday was my mom's birthday and although I called her and spoke with her, I really had a hard time being normal. There is seriously a white elephant in the room and nobody is dealing with it and honestly I don't know how I could at this point in my life. This should have been resolved way before I was born or at least a little after that. I swear...but I have to talk about something else so that is why tonight I am going to be crafting. I don't even know what I am going to scrapbook yet but I am going to get to work on my girl's albums. Plus I really need to complete my other projects and get them turned in.





Oh I can say that I have been couponing a lot more this last couple of weeks. I can't say that I am doing anything like they do on Extreme couponing but I have gotten some amazing deals. It is really nice to hear my hubby say that I am really saving a lot of money on the everyday things and food. So just to let you know in the last three weeks I have gotten 6 free deodorants, almost free pull ups and some free food items. I am not a master at all just yet but I am learning from them and trying to do better. Well I hope to be back to posting within the next few days or so. And hopefully I can find my "normal" again.

ooops...just didn't post this

I just realized that I had not actually published any of the posts that I had drafted the last couple of weeks. Mostly because I was hoping to add photos and all that. But I am glad that I did journal the things that I have been doing and what my plans are for these next few weeks.

I have decided that I am going to document the house and all things house related that I am interested in. I went to both the Potato Barn and the Crowded House. I had been to the Potato Barn several times and I loved their tables but most of the ones that I wanted that could seat 10 were extremely long and even more heavy. But I loved several of them...but then I went to their sister store and took along the family. There was one table that just had caught my eye immediately but I had to walk the whole store to make sure that it was the one that I wanted for sure. And sure enough I am going to be having that beautiful table delivered to our new home. And since they have no way to store it for us until then I special ordered one and it should be in a month which would line up to when we are thinking that the house will be finished.

So here is a photo of the table that I have on order, and I love the color! I like the matching buffet but I am not going to get that because I really don't like the matchy matchy look. I am looking for something that is the color of the stain on top of the table. And I can't believe that the table is so heavy. We will be getting it delivered. I just don't know if it will be to our current rental or to the house.

And I have been checking out glass tiles for the back splash. I love several that I have seen and they have to be special ordered and won't be back in time for them to be installed by the builder but I am somewhat glad about that because we can save by doing them ourselves or even hiring someone to do them. My back splash is multi-colored small square glass tiles. Also the pillows on the chairs on top of the table are going to look great in the family room...just in a bigger size.

Well my shopping for the house is limited to the kitchen really right now because we are saving to get the other things that we want after we move in. Which is the best thing to do unless I find a sell that is just a deal that I can't pass up. I love the legs on that table!

And now for updated photos of the house. We have walls...or at least the beginnings of them. We were told once these were up and painted that things would move along much more faster because My sister came to visit and was here for a whole week. I really wish that she would have brought my nephew but she didn't. He will be coming to stay with us for the summer. I really think that he will love being here and since my sister is considering moving here it will be really nice.

Well onto scrappy news, I actually don't have much to share in that area. I have completed or almost completed 4 pages. I have to finish the journaling and get some great photos since it is now bright enough for photos. It rained yesterday and it was cooler than normal. For the first time since being here I saw snow onto of Superstition Mountains. And it was beautiful, and although I say it was cooler than normal it was still warm enough to go outside with a long sleeved shirt and jeans. I know that this isn't the normal for most people here but we are still loving the fact that it isn't that cold to us. I think it was like 40-50 degrees which is a lot different from the day before when it was 80 and today it is already in the 70s and it is almost 8am. It just reminds me that shortly it is will be really hot in just a few weeks.

Dust it off challenge for March

Just wanted to stop in and post my layout that I did for my design team project for scrap our stash. All the details can be found here http://scrapourstash.blogspot.com/2011/03/march-dust-it-off-challenge-by-tracy.html

This one was a happy layout for me because it captured us all together and it brought back funny memories. For instance this was first time that we had been to the park after the birth of our last child and I had just gotten out if the hospital the week before. And like a nut I had decided that I would go down the slide with my daughter, not even thinking about how sore I would be because of the c-section that I had. Well its funny now but it sure wasn't at the time. And even though the photo of my hubby looks like he's mad, the sun was in his eyes and I still love the photo. Well I am off to go and enjoy the sun today. I have to take the girls to the playground and maybe I can get some brainstorming done for next months design team challenge. Or at least that is what I am hoping. Smiles, Tracy

Good morning everyone. I wish that I could say that it looks like a beautiful one but is is all gloomy looking outside right now. It is 76 however and it is supposed to rain. Which is ok since it has been in the 80s since the middle of February.

I am so excited because I have tons of things to share. Well the first is that I completed some pages two weekends ago and I submitted 2 to a challenge so I can't show those but here is the one that I completed for Nya's 5th month.

I used all my stash for this layout. The title was cut using my old reliable Big Shot. I used Cuttlebug alphabets and this one was inspired about using something old that I haven't used in a while...that would be those MM tags. I have a ton of them, and MM epoxy bubbles too. I want to use those on a couple of projects soon I just don't know what yet. I also pulled out my Quickutz photo corner tab die. I had that forever and I never use it although originally I thought that I would love to use it. But I do love how this page turned out. And of course I did journaling about her 4-5th month on page two of this layout. I just can't share that one cause it has a lot of personal information.

And my second bit of news...we are finally moving forward in getting the house built. We originally had another builder, who pulled out on the project because there were issues with zoning and all that craziness. I don't know all the details but it was a mess. So we went to a different builder and signed on the dotted line. We are getting a house that is the perfect size for our family nothing huge, nothing too fancy other than it is going to new. Mostly because we are getting an affordable upgraded house. I love that. The house only has the framing done so far, the tiles are sitting on the roof and are scheduled to be put in soon. This week they are supposed to be doing the whole outside of the house and starting to get the walls up in the inside...I can't wait.

But here is a photo of our little house. It is 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths. A total of 2800 square feet. And a covered back porch with ceiling fan and misters. We went with misters because really unless you are cold blooded you can sit outside in AZ in the summer without misters...cause you would pass out! LOL

But this is it for right now. I don't know when exactly I will get to making pages because I am so excited about decorating and picking colors of stuff that I am going to be super busy with the house for a little while. I made a little well kinda little decorations and new house book log. I have plans to take photos of it and share. Until then stay warm and for those in warmer climates stay cool...I sure am trying to.

Sneak Peak...

Well I just wanted to come and say that I have been busy with layouts for dd#2's scrapbook and I truly do plan on working on these things more the next couple of weeks. But I am so excited because I am also working on the other kiddos scrapbooks too.

But so far so good. I have gotten 3layouts done. 2-two page layouts and 1-one page layout. I can't share everything but I do plan on sharing a couple of them in the next couple of days. But here is also a sneak peak of my design team layout that will be posting on scrapourstash.blogspot.com later this month...

Tomorrow is a really exciting day for me. I am heading off to school tomorrow to find out about a class that I want to take. I am excited because I can't wait to find out the information about the class.

Hi all...I am super busy trying to get a few things finished up around here for some design team submissions and also some of things that I need to check off my stash challenge to-do list. I am so glad that I shared my plans on my blog because I have gotten a couple of emails about the paint sample cards/chips...I have been thinking about it too. It wasn't something that I really thought out before I listed it on my challenge to use this month, but it was surely something that I had in my stash that has been sitting for awhile...so here is one way that I have used them since putting them on my list.... It was fun using my old Quickutz dies and cutting the letters, numbers and the rainbow dies. As you know from previously talking about this wall calendar (you can read the first post here were I turned a thrift store frame into a wall calendar http://scrapalongwithtracy.blogspot.com/2011/01/2011-framed-calendar.html ) All the letters and numbers were cut from paint sample chips/cards and they looked like letter stickers once they were cut out. I am not worried about acid-free because it is a wall hanging. I still have a couple other ways that I plan on using them.

I was also emailed and asked if I preferred cards or scrapbooking and I'd have to say that I love doing both. I like that I can sit down and make a couple of cards and put them in my stash and have one or two to send out too all in about 45minutes. But scrapbooking for me takes a little longer because I can have a layout all complete and then I think that it's missing something or needs something else. The only scrapbooking that I don't seem to redo once it's done is mini albums.

I was also asked what is my favorite mini album that I completed? And my favorite one would be my trip to AZ. It was so much fun but a close second would be one that I made for ebay and then the one that I designed to teach at my local scrapbooking store...

Here they are all listed below
1

2

3

I have done a lot of mini albums and some of them have never been posted on my blog, but these were my favorite because I was able to do whatever I wanted. Which allowed me to do the things that I like to do...which would be stamping, diecutting and a lot of journaling. And even pulling out paints and getting messy.

I was asked a couple more questions and what I have decided after emailing the posters, is that I will add these answers in the next couple of weeks because it requires me to do some digging and pull out some of my old scrapbooks. Well I am off to get the kids in the bed. Good night bloggers.

Hello everyone. I am stopping in to update you all with my to-do list for scrap our stash. This month the challenge was to dust off something that you haven't used or done and use it. Well for me there isn't many supplies that I haven't used from my stash because I have been crafting a lot more. But there is something that has surely been neglected from my to be done list...Nya's baby book. I don't know why I haven't completed it. It's not like it is a huge task because #1 I have all the photos printed and put into sheet protectors in her album (most of them already printed into the layout format that I plan to use no editing needed), #2 I have all the journaling that I want to include on each layout on post it notes and in a small notebook, #3 I have sketches also in the sheet protectors that I plan on using for each 2 pg spread...but for some reason the book isn't done. And so that is my challenge...to work on her album and get current or at least past her birth page.

And so I can't work on one child's album without thinking about the other ones' albums needing to be updated past 2008. So I plan on working on those as well the good part is that most of the photos have been printed too but they aren't all sorted into sheet protectors with the dates but I do have those in my small notebook too. Honestly these projects alone are truly enough to last the next couple of months but I plan on working on them as I go. I am no longer going to keep adding more photos and pages are getting done. And although I feel behind, I truly am current in the other kids books for the most part. I mean 2008 isn't that far back right lol lol!

Also for this months challenge there are tons of things that I have on my to do list that I want to try out. Last month it was making my own wobble thingies. And it was so fun! I didn't make a project with them, but instead made a bunch for the girls to use and play with and they honestly loved them. I got the idea from a youtube video and I have said before that I am all for not spending scrapbooking dollars on something that I can make or do myself. Oh here is that video if you are interested in checking it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2iJRgcEeKI

But corrugated alphas and accents have been on my to do list forever and I plan on making some of these this month. I have had my crimper in my stash for well over a year or two and I haven't made one crimped item with them at all.

And paint card chips have been in my stash for a while too. I collected them years ago when there was all these cards and layouts using them on pages but honestly never really wanted to use them for that exactly. I honestly like the bold colors and how bright they are without the shimmer or glitter on them so I planned on using them as tabs on pages. Which would be awesome or to make little word stickers with. Because they have writing on them, I am kinda limited to size that I can make something out of them with but I plan on doing something with them.

So for a recap this month I plan on

#1 Getting Nya's album current (at least to Christmas 2010)

#2 Getting the kids albums worked on too

#3 Making crimped accents/embellishments/alphas

#4 Using paint color chips/examples to create embellishments/accents....

Sounds like a busy month and it's only the 3rd lol!