As many of you know, I am an avid scrapper and crafter. I spend many nights and weekends working on my projects and it always brings me such joy. Over the last few years, I've done more and more of my scrapbooking away from home. The reasons were twofold: First, I, quite frankly, didn't have a lot of space to work. I had a small L shaped desk that housed my cutting mat, my printer, my computer, and most of my tools. When I worked on a project I had no where to "leave it" so I could finish working on it later. Crafty/Altered Art projects were often done in my garage where I had some elbow room. My so-called craft room doubled as a guest bedroom and the room was overflowing with so much stuff (much of it in boxes) that it became harder and harder to SEE what supplies I had. As a result the room felt cluttered and uninspiring.
Second, I love to "create" with others. I do love attending crops (day, evening, and weekend get-togethers of scrappers) where I can swap ideas with my friends. This was something impossible to do at home. Also, believe it or not, I had more space to work which allowed me to get more layouts done.
Well . . . I may still attend crops but now I have a true Craft Studio to call my own. With my hubby's full support I finally transformed our guest room into my personal paradise! As a scrapper, I feel like this room is my own little Disney World -- the happiest place on earth!
I am still working on decorating the walls and plan on replacing the folding chairs with nicer (and more comfy ones) but at least for now I can invite a couple of friends over for a crop of my own. I really love my new room -- I don't think I've been this excited about something so "material" since I got my Barbie Townhouse . . . back in the day!
my scrapping area has 4ft of space for each person
my clip-it-up organizes all of my stickers
for now I am storing vinyl on the rollers along the side of one desk
each scrapping desk has a project drawer for work in progress and a large 12x12 file drawer
my paper tower organizes my cardstock while my cricut carts are organized on top
5ft of space for computing, digital photography and wide format printing
the wall studio helps ensure that everything can be found
the rolling cart organizes paints, gels, tools and my cricut expression
even the closet finally got organized!
So, what do you think? Can you see why I'm so happy these days?
This week's Ten on Tuesday theme is favorite snacks. I am a true-blue snacker but deciding my top ten favorites wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. At the moment these are my faves:
1. Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream FRESHLY SCOOPED. Now don't get me wrong -- I enjoy the little pints as much as the next person, but there is something extra special about getting PHISH FOOD or NEW YORK SUPER FUDGE CHUNK freshly scooped into a cone! Yum!
2. Carrots with hummus. Seriously. I know it's healthy so what is it doing on this list BUT I love it and can eat it any time of day!
3. Home made chocolate chip cookies. Warm out of the oven. The chocolate still melting as you take a bite. Ahhhhh. . .
4. Potato Chips with Ridges. I like the ridges. I think the salt clings better. Ruffles are my favorites but I'll eat any ridged chip without much thought. Crunch away!
5. Hershey's Miniatures. Original, Krackle, Special Dark, and mr. Goodbar -- the perfect go-to snack for me. I always stash a few away in various spots of my home. Just in case I need a chocolate fix!
6. Popcorn that has just been popped. Movie popcorn is the best but I also love making it at home. I like to add a little extra seasoning to the microwaved variety and then curl up on the sofa for movie time at home!
7. Godiva Truffles. Not an every-day snack but when I have them in my home, nothing quite compares! Sadly they never last very long!
8. Mallomars. Sadly it's a seasonal cookie but its one of my favorite winter snacks. The perfect blend of graham cracker crumbs, chocolate and marshmallow! It's my favorite boxed cookie bar none!
9. Cupcakes. Yes, they are all the rage right now, but I've been enjoying these fabulous snacks for many years. I prefer them home-made but will make an exception for CRUMBS bakeries. They make an incredible cupcake in some really rich, decadent and dizzying flavors!
10. Sushi. Perhaps not what one normally considers a snack food, but I love sushi rolls so much that I do enjoy them for mid-day and late night snacks with my friends. Love, love, love them!
So, what are your favorite snacks? To see other bloggers top snacks, stop by Carole Knits
Why is it that the older we get, the faster it seems that time passes by? When I was a young girl it seemed like the days lasted forever. Certainly when I was sitting in my classes in elementary and junior high school I remember watching the clock on the classroom walls and swearing that the minute hands were always slow. It seemed like the school year was endless and even my summer breaks seemed long.
My high school years were a different beast. I still remember thinking that the first half of the year felt longer than the second half (even though I actually spent more time in school in the 2nd half) and my summer breaks started feeling shorter (even though they weren’t).
Flash forward to today. Every day seems to pass by quicker and quicker. I know I’m a “do-er” and love to keep busy but I never seem to have enough hours in my day. I’m up when my kids are up @ 6:45am. I start my day when my youngest is out the door at 7:35am. There are so many days where all I seem to do is grab a bite to eat, run a few errands, check my e-mail and look up at the clock to see it say 2:40pm (when my high schooler walks in the door.) Almost every afternoon is filled with either kid-related errands or chauffeuring” duties (although I try to sneak in time at the gym when Dylan goes) -- then I blink and it’s time to prepare dinner. I blink again and it’s 8pm and I’m exhausted. From what exactly? I can barely remember! The weekends are playtime: family, friends, movies, travel, scrapping, crafting, etc. You name it and I do it -- I don't remember the last time I had "nothing to do" on a weekend. These dates get filled six months in advance!
Seriously, my days, weeks, sometimes months seem to pass by so quickly. I have two teenagers who are already thinking about college – how the heck did that happen? It’s not like I feel like I just had them, but at the same time I find it hard to believe that I had them SO LONG AGO either!
The reason I’m even writing about this today is that a friend asked me if I was still blogging. I was genuinely surprised by her question since I consider myself a regular blogger and then she pointed out that it had been about two weeks since I posted. Really? Was that possible? I needed to check my calendar and blog. Holy crap! I think about things I want to blog about all the time so why haven’t I been writing? It’s like that friend that you think about and say you’re going to call but then something comes up (it could be anything) so you say you’ll just call later. Then it’s too late and then its tomorrow and then something else pops up. You ALL know what I mean, right?
Perhaps I’ve developed poor time management skills (which wasn’t like me back in BC (before children) or maybe I’m just getting older and then mind is slipping a bit -- who knows. Still, I am truly sorry for those of you who have been looking for updates and I will make more of an effort this month to post more often.
Since my last post (a little over two weeks ago) – this is what’s been going on:
I went to a fabulous Home Show with my husband. We’ve been toying with the idea of tearing down our deck and creating a stone patio and an area for a hot tub. We are still thinking about it but have now taken the first “real step” toward doing it by making appointments for estimates. Of course, this first step may wind up being our last (depending on what these estimates are!) so we shall see.
I also went to a wonderful day crop in late March. Normally I’m ALL WORK but I admit that I was a bit chattier than usual at this one so I didn’t finish too many pages. I did, however, go through the proofs from Dylan’s bar mitzvah (I’ve had them since November but for some reason never picked out the ones I wanted for his album) and met with the photographer a few days later to start designing the album.
The biggest thing that happened in late March was the arrival of my Craft Room Furniture! This is the project that has truly caused most of my time to fly by lately. From March 26-28th I had to remove a bed (and everything under it!) a dresser (and empty it), a bookshelf and two old tables from an overly cluttered craft/guest room. And then I painted the whole thing PINK! My upstairs hallway and bedroom were filled with craft room stuff (it’s amazing how much craft stuff one can hide in an old dresser and under a bed!) On March 29th TWO PALLETS of boxes arrived. And my handyman came over to help me “put together” the craft room. 3 tables with drawers, a paper tower, and a wall studio made the room look incredible! (Of course it's also empty!)
The only problem now is moving all my stuff back into the room. If I want it to look nice (and I do!) I am going to have to drastically thin out my stash of scrapping and crafting goodies. Needless to say this is not a one-day project!
Most people would think that I'd spend that first weekend organizing my craft room but that didn’t happen. Instead I joined my husband and teens on a 4-day trip to Atlanta to attend Wrestlemania XXVII.
Yes, Wrestlemania! It was an entertaining weekend to be sure. I was also lucky enough to spend one night out with some sorority sisters who live in Atlanta. Now I hadn't seen two of them since the late 80s and yet we all picked up where we left off. Time is funny that way isn't it? It sounded like a lot of time had passed and yet, once we were together we couldn't believe it had been "that long" - crazy! It was really awesome to see them all and it was the boost of estrogen I needed desperately!
So, this past week I planned on organizing the craft room but, as most of you know, there are MANY errands to be run and chores to do after the family has been away for four days so . . .
THIS WEEKEND I pledged I was finally going to “get it done!” I woke up EARLY Saturday morning, grabbed a banana and a cup of coffee and headed straight for the room. Next thing I know it’s almost 5pm, I’m no where close to finishing and my family wants to discuss dinner and a movie. I couldn’t believe that EIGHT HOURS had gone by and I wasn’t even close to finishing! I decided to take a break, grabbed a bite, saw the movie LIMITLESS, and got home a little after 9pm. This was a really good movie and definitely worth taking time out to go see!
Tried to organize for two more hours when I got home and then fell asleep. Yesterday I put in another SEVEN HOURS in the craft room and I’m happy to report that I found part of the floor again!
As I’m sitting here this morning sipping my morning coffee, I can’t help but wonder whether my days would really feel slower if I did less? What if I stayed in bed all day? Would the hours really tick by any slower? I doubt it. The last time I stayed in bed I slept the entire day away.
I remember waking up after 4 hours and feeling like I had just closed my eyes. What if I didn’t run any errands or chores? What would I do instead? Perhaps catch up on my reading? Well the last time I did that I read for the entire day and, once again, couldn’t believe the numbers on the clock. I didn’t know I had the attention span to read for 6 hours straight but, if you get caught up in a good book, you truly can get LOST in it!
No, I have a feeling that time is going to fly by whether I like it or not. My plan of attack is to try to do everything NOW: continue to squeeze in as much as I possibly can into each day, do what I love, see the world, seize the day, take photos along the way, share my thoughts with my friends, hug those I love, and always remember that Life is Good!
(. . . but if I ever figure out how to get 25 hours out of every day, life would be PERFECT!
