Cards 4 Kids

Pat from The Rubber Maid blog is taking donations of Valentine's Day kid cards to give to the Children's Hospital in Michigan. She is trying to collect 1,000 cards. Tonight I made 20 to send to her. It's been a while since I made cards and wanted to put some of my Stampin' Up supplies to some use. Here are the ones I'm sending. If you would like to participate please go to her blog above for more details.

Jan 09 - Brag Book Challenge.

I am hosting the Brag Book Challenge at Deco-Pages. A brag book is 4 x 6 in size. They can be printed like a regular photograph and are so much cheaper to have printed up. They can easily be carried around in your purse. I have done a 2007 brag book but have not started my 2008 brag book so I will be working on those.

Each month I will have a particular theme to follow.

The theme for January will be BIRTHDAY.

Each participant is required to create 4 x 6 pages in a birthday theme.

If you create TWO 4 x 6 you will receive 2 (12 x 12 quick pages) below:



For an Added bonus: If you create FOUR Brag Book pages in the birthday theme you will receive this Brag Book Quick Page as well:




Please post your completed brag book pages to the new Brag Book Gallery here and link back to this thread.

Here are 7 pages I made in a birthday theme to show you. They are quick and easy to make. Credits are all in the Brag Book Gallery and made with all Deco-pages kits.

My nephew

my niece

my niece

my triplets

My Son

My Daughter

My Daughter


Can't wait to see your pages. Have fun.

Organizing

Blog Prompt: This month is Get Organized Month. Name 3 things you need to organize and your strategy for doing this.

1. My craft room. It's a major disaster area. I have so much stuff from when I was paper scrapbooking. I have iris carts stacked up to the ceiling with stuff. I have stuff piled all over my floor and counter tops. I just dread going into that room but little by little I've been throwing stuff out, pulling stuff out for the kids to use and yes, selling things on ebay. I don't feel like I have made any progress though. It's such an overwhelming task. My main problem is I can't part with anything. I have this hoarding problem where everything I pick up I say, "oh, the kids could use this for their crafts or Eventually the kids will use it." I can't let it all go. I would so like a craft room that was pleasant looking to go into. One day.

2. My son's closet. It's cluttered with all my quilting items. Fabrics and quilting supplies. Let's see? When was the last time I quilted? It has to be about 10 years now. I have lots of unfinished projects. Will I eventually get to these projects? I just don't know. I did at holiday time pull out my box of holiday fabric and cut some pieces into squares for the kids to use for arts and crafts. I also gave some stuff away to my friend who still quilts.

3. Bathroom closet on first floor. This is where I store the games for the kids and other bathroom stuff like toilet paper, tissues, air fresheners. The whole closet needs to be pulled apart and decluttered. Some of the games are missing pieces so they need to be thrown away. It's just very hard to do this while the kids are awake because they like to get into everything and open up all the boxes which doesn't help me at all since then the games get all mixed up. So it's a project that has to be done when the kids are asleep.

Goals 2009

Credits

Fridays Fave 5

I can't believe how fast 2008 just flew by me. I know I'm posting this late but last night I had to do my work that I didn't do on Tues due to a technical problem. Here are my favorites from the past week.

1. Quite Christmas Eve. My parents took my kids for a sleep over so they'd experience the excitement of Santa coming and leaving them presents under their tree. Since we don't celebrate Christmas in our house it was a big thing for the kids to get presents from Santa (aka my parents). Anyway, it was very quite in our house and we were able to sleep late Christmas morning without being woken up by screeching little ones. Unfortunately, we weren't able to make love due to Aunt Flo visiting. Oh well, maybe next time.


2. New Thirty One Tote Bag. I got my new Cindy Tote bag for Christmas which replaces my old tote which was falling apart from Target or was it Walmart can't remember where I purchased it originally. Anyway, I got my new tote for half price for hosting a catalog party from Thirty One. I even got my initial on the bag so now you can call me Laverne just kidding. I got the insert for free. Now everything has a place. It's a bit larger and taller than my older tote so can't fit into the draw in my laundry room where the older tote went so need to make another home for it. But now when I open up my tote I can immediately find anything. This is especially important when I'm driving and need to get my phone, a piece of gum or whatever I need at the moment. I even have room for a book, a magazine and my new planner.


3. Baby Albums. The excitement of the kids looking at their baby scrapbooks were pricely during New Years Eve. The noise level was loud as they kept asking questions. Remember they were in the NICU and had lots of wires on them so there were many questions of why they looked like that. This was the first time they saw all the work I put into the pages I made for them. Each child has 2 books with photos of themselves in them. One book is their first year and the 2nd book is their 2nd year. They were done the old fashion way with paper scrapping and are 12 x 12 in size. Their 3rd and 4th year were done digitally and I moved to an 8 x 8 size instead.

4. New Filing System. I am determined to get organized to relieve some stress in 2009. There are some things that just aggravate me and filing is one of them. I hate to file. My old way was to file by account. I hated doing this so the paper would pile up until I got fed up and finally filed everything. As I was reading my many blogs that I subscribe to I came across an idea of making monthly files. So as I pay the bill for the month I just plop everything in the January folder instead of piling the stuff on top of the filing cabinet. I think this may work better for me. The yellow folders are my monthly folders. Then behind that I have Account (listing of all my accounts, phone number and balances), Classes (dance/gymnastics), Coupons, Photos, Library, School, Auto, Home, Medical, Bank, Taxes. In the very font red folder is for pending stuff. All of 2008 has been pulled out and filed away. This box is under my desk.

5. Pantry Makeover. I reorganized my pantry. I took everything out of the bottom with the help of the children and rearranged everything with like items together. Cleaning supplies to the left and Food to the right. I also sorted items with like items on the above shelves. This is the before photo. It was quite messy.


After I organized:
Thanks to Susanne for hosting, please visit her site to see more fun Friday Fave Fives!

Resolve to Spend 5 Minutes a Day

How many times have you looked around and thought, “I wish I had the time to organize my (you fill in the blank here)…”?

Well, this year I’ve resolved myself to start small – with 5 minutes a day. If those tasks can add up to mountains in 5 minutes a day, then mountains can be tackled 5 minutes a day, too.

I am going to work on my craft room. Now, just need to pick me up a new timer since mine broke but in the meantime I will use my kitchen microwave timer.

If you would like to join me please leave a comment at Clutter Control Freak Blog

New Year Fun - 2008

Kelli at "There's is no place like home" is doing this really cute feature. Here's what she said:

With the New Year right around the corner, this is the perfect time for a peek through the past year of blogging. I would love for you to join in with me!

Post the first sentence of your first blog post of each month. You can also add a favorite picture from each month.

January

A Photo a Day.

February

Well, on Monday the triplets had their 2nd Wacky Gym class.

March

Wow this month went fast.

April

Will this Spring be any different?

May

There appear to be many clouds; but they quickly pass.

June

I'm having a hard time trying to keep up with my every day stuff like menu planning.

July

Snap and Scrap is having a journaling challenge.

August

10 Happy Things

September

Here is a quick page I made using Groovy Gardening by Burkhart Scrapzone Designs

You can download it here.

October

My kids just love watching Hanna Montana.

November

I’ll tell you 7 things about me that have NOTHING to do with scrapbooking, just for fun…

7 things you don’t really need to know about me, but sadly, now will…

December

There is a brand new Club Deco kit over at Deco Pages for December and it is awesome so far.

2009 Book Club



In 2009, I decided to join an online book club. There will be 6 books for the year. Hopefully I will be able to keep up. Right now my book is on hold at the library so will start it as soon as I get it. I am trying to read Twilight as I'd love to see the movie but want to finish the book first.



Book 1:

Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

(Scroll down to read more info about our current selection…)

• reading dates: January 1 - March 5, 2009
• topic: money management
• pages: 400

Schedule for Book 1

January 1 - Preface to the New Edition and Prologue

January 8 - Chapter 1: The Money Trap: The Old Road Map for Money

January 15 - Chapter 2: Money Ain’t What It Used To Be - And Never Was

January 22 - Chapter 3: Where Is It All Going?

January 29 - Chapter 4: How Much Is Enough? The Nature of Fulfillment

February 5 - Chapter 5: Seeing Progress

February 12 - Chapter 6: The American Dream - On a Shoestring

February 19 - Chapter 7: For Love or Money: Valuing Life Energy - Work and Income

February 26 - Chapter 8: The Crossover Point: The Pot of Gold at the End of the Wall Chart

March 5 - Epilogue and Chapter 9: Now That You’ve Got It, What Are You Going To Do With It?

For more information go to Simple Mom.

Menu Plan Monday

I don't know what it is but menu planning to me is a lot of work and time. I just get so aggravated every time I try. It maybe the fact that every time I make a meal my family doesn't like it and I feel like I wasted my time. Anyway, I'm trying out a new system. I am using springpad to type in all my recipes and make a menu plan. It is great as it does make a shopping list easier. The only problem I am facing right now is that I can't figure out how to print up the recipes as it's only printing one page and not my entire list.

Sunday - Stir Fry (favorite)
Monday - BBQ Chicken Casserole (Crockpot) (new)
5 cup fruit salad (play date) (new)
Tuesday - Santa Fe Chicken (Crockpot) (favorite)
Wednesday NEW YEARS EVE- Potato Casserole (new)
London Broil (new)
Buffalo Chicken Dip (Crockpot) (All Time Favorite)
Thursday - BBQ Meatloaf (Crockpot) (new)
Friday - Cornbread or Regular Stuffing (new)
Chicken in Oven (new)
Saturday - Chuckwagon Chili (Crockpot) (new)

All About Me Album 2008

Check out the All About Me 8 x 8 album I made. I got the book for free and just had to pay for shipping.

If you sign up here you too can earn a free book too.

2 Days Left on my Ebay Sale

I am sick to my stomach. I can't believe there is only 2 days left for all my scrapbooking stuff and they are selling for way too low for what I actually paid for these things. Not to mention I have to pay a listing fee of 20% to the ebay store who listed these for me. Was it worth it? Okay, maybe I should calm down as there is still 2 days left so I could still have some hope. If the Bid links don't work below try searching for auctionmojo012 in the ebay store.

Alphabet punch set (Bidding price now is $9.95) I paid $100 or so for this brand new. It has hardly ever been used. So far no bids. Bid Here.


Creative Memories Albums and Tote (Bidding price now is $29.00) It is a 16 piece lot. 4 brand new scrapbooks size 8 1/2 by 11. They sell for $33 a book if you were going to purchase them from a CM consultant. 5 new page refills that sell for $15 each from CM consultant and 6 page protectors that retail for $7 each from CM consultant. Not to mention the Generations tote I think they are about $30-40. So you see why I am so upset about this. It's selling for less than one actual scrapbook. If you bought these items new it would retail for over $279. I just want to cry! Bid here.

30 sets of Close to My Heart Stamps (Bidding price now is at 26.56) What! That's less than $1 a set. If you purchased these sets from a CTMH consulant you would pay $12 or more per set). I paid $360 plus and it's right now selling at a little over $26? This is heartbreaking! Bid here.



Can you see my heart is breaking over my prized possessions. Why did I have to declutter my office? I should have kept everything for my children to enjoy for the prices that they are selling at.

Digital Printing

I found another website to print digital photo books in 8 x 8 size. It is called Arts Cow.

Right now they are offering 8 x 8 (39 page books) for 11.99 with coupon with free shipping when using my referral codes below.

Here are my coupon codes Expiration date

ZQCYFXT		Feb/09/2009
ZLQF5VH		Feb/09/2009
ZVB9W6U		Feb/09/2009
ZHUF5EG		Feb/09/2009
ZXCT8S4		Feb/09/2009
ZUTQ7DB		Feb/09/2009
ZM5GWRZ		Feb/09/2009
Z1RBGRF		Feb/09/2009
ZWBTC9U		Feb/09/2009
ZBXVBK2		Feb/09/2009

If the code is already used by a friend try using the next code as each code can only be used once. After the 10 codes are used I am able to get more codes.

Happy shopping.

Ebay Sale

I'm cleaning and decluttering my craft room. So far this is what I have for sale on ebay

Alphabet punch set
http://cgi.ebay.com/Family-Treasures-Full-40-pc-Alphabet-Punch-Kit-lc-MINT_W0QQitemZ350143842131QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item350143842131&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

Creative Memories Albums and Tote
http://cgi.ebay.com/16-Pc-Scrapbook-Lot-Creative-Memories-New-Sealed-Tote_W0QQitemZ350143842183QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item350143842183&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

30 sets of Close to My Heart Stamps
http://cgi.ebay.com/Lot-30-Close-to-My-Heart-Stamps-by-MY-ACRYLIX-Mint-MIP_W0QQitemZ350143842268QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item350143842268&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

So far the bids are at $9.97 but there are still 6 days left. Go check them out and good luck if you decide to bid.

Husband MEME

1. He’s sitting in front of the TV: what is on the screen? Hanna Montanna as he watches it every night with the children.

2. You’re out to eat. What kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Thousand Island or Russian

3. What is one food he doesn’t like? Seafood

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? Diet Sprite

5. Where did he go to high school? Port Richmond

6. What size shoe does he wear? 11.5

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Computers or any type of gadget

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Corned Beef

9. What would the Husband eat every day if he could? Popcorn

10. What is his favorite cereal? Captain Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch

11. What would he never wear? Bright colors

12. What is his favorite sports team? He doesn't watch sports

13. Who is his best friend? Me

14. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do? Be on the internet instead of cleaning up the house

15. How many states has he lived in? 2 states

16. What is his heritage? American

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind? Ice Cream Cake (he loves carvel)

18. Did he play sports in high school? Not in high school

19. What could he spend hours doing? working

Fridays Fave 5

Hello and welcome to Friday's Fave Five. Thank you for coming by. I'm so sorry I am late with this. I've been working on the MOMS Club Newsletter for January and did manage to get 2 scrapbook pages done for my CT. If you're new, welcome. Join in. You can find details here.

Now on with my five!

1. Date Night With My Son. My girls had a dance party to attend where it was drop off no adults for 2 1/2 hours. I have never left them before and was a little hesitant about doing so. My children are now 4 years old so most places allow them to stay unsupervised. My son was a bit upset that he wasn't invited to the dance party but I told him that he'd spend some time with Mommy along like a DATE. So we went out for dinner. We went to Lobster Shanty. He was such a good boy too. He did tell me that he missed his sisters though. After dinner we still had an hour and 15 minutes to spare so we went to the mall. Even with the economy crisis the mall was extremely crowded. At the mall we went to the pet shop to look at the animals and then he rode on some rides. All in all, I think he had a great time. It's not very often we get to spend one on one time together.

2. Santa. I helped the kids write letters to Santa. We brought the letters to the library where they were able to sit on Santa's lap and give them their letter. I managed to get photos of 2 of them (Naomi and Justin). Victoria was deathly afraid of Santa and refused to sit on his lap or get near him. So I didn't get any photo of her with Santa.

3. Dropped Off Stuff to Ebay Store. I finally had the chance to get to the Ebay Store to drop off some of my scrapbooking things. I just don't have the time to upload everything I had and figured I might as well have someone do it for me. I am selling 2 alphabet punch sets, Creative Memory albums, 30 sets of my Close to My Heart stamp sets and a Generations Scrapbooking tote. I just don't use them and might as well get some money back for them. Here's hoping I make something back for everything. Everything will be listed on Sunday. Ebay seller name is Auction Mojo 012 if you are interested in looking at my stuff.

4. Rummage Sale. I went to the rummage sale at our local high school with the children. I promised them they could get something as they love yard sales. I spent $3. Naomi got a little pocketbook with a little dog that looks like this one. Of course, hers is stuffed.
Justin got 3 games. Monopoly Junior, yatzi Junior and Scrabble Junior. Victoria got a barbie doll. Not bad for only $3. Already we have played Monopoly and Yatzi a few times.

5. Excitement of the Lights. Now that it gets dark at 5 pm the kids get so excited while I drive around. They oooh and ahhh over all the lights on all the houses. This year they are even rating them saying I like this one better than the other one.

Blog Candy

If you love scrapbooking and card making check out Irina's blog Everything Paper Crafts! She is giving away blog candy this week. The drawing will be on Monday Dec 15th. For more details go here.

Grocery Savings and Donations

Take a look at what I got for $9.24 out of pocket. I literally sat down with the flyer and pulled out all my coupons for items that were on sale that I normally purchase. I had coupons for Chex cereal, Colgate toothpaste, Blistex, Jif peanut butter, Store coupon for lettuce plus a $25 gift card that I earned for free from last week's shopping. I saved $11.18 from price plus and $21.68 in coupons. I got 25 items see below.



I am in the process of decluttering my house. I got rid of 14 bags of clothing and toys. The triplet stroller, single stroller and children's desk they didn't take today but I called them again and they will be coming back to take them too. Trying to make room in the garage to get my husband's car in there. I have tried to sell my stroller with no luck so I am just going to donate it.

Gift Wrapping

I purchased the score-it mini a couple months ago and never took it out of the box. I recently saw some tutorials on splitcoaststampers and wound up making some boxes with my Stampin' Up paper. This first box was the first one I made the other night. Tonight I put the ribbon and button on it.

Tomorrow I have to bring a gift from home to a MOPS meeting. Well, this box I made by just looking at the gift. The fan was done by using my scor-it then glued down with glue dots. Also put a button in the middle. The ribbon is more of a brown shimmer but the photo doesn't show it correctly. It was fun making these boxes and I hope to make more in the month.

Crock Pot - Rice Krispies

Is it possible? I'm making Rice Krispy Treats in my crockpot. Can this really be done? Just dump and put on high for 1 hour. Hoping it works. Got the idea from A Year of CrockPotting. Beats waiting around on the stove for it to melt. I'm always looking for easier ways to make snacks and meals.

This is what it looks like after the kids got to it.


VERDICT: This is fast and easy. Definitely will be making this again. The kids loved it.

Fridays Fave 5

It is going to be difficult finding 5 things this week that made me happy because it's been a very emotional week with the unexpected passing of my niece. Every Friday Living to Tell the Story runs Friday's Fave 5. It's a list of 5 things that made you happy during the week. Details are here and don't forget to sign in on Mr. Linky so that we can drop by your place.

1. The calls, e-mails, visits and cards received this week both from family and friends that brought me comfort during my grieving.

2. Decluttered laundry room. In order to keep busy I joined in on I'm an Organizing Junkie's monthly round up the laundry room. I managed to clean out my laundry room. Get rid of some clutter and make it more functioning.

3. Finished my holiday shopping. With the help of ebates.com which was recommended to me by my friend Sam I managed to get all my shopping done for the holidays. The benefit is I will be getting money back in February for using their service.

I wanted to tell you about Ebates, a shopping site that gives you up to 26% Cash Back every time you shop online. You can shop at over 1000 stores including Barnes & Noble.com, Gap, Target, Buy.com and Expedia. Plus you get additional savings with exclusive coupons, free shipping offers, and limited-time sales!

Sign up with Ebates today and we'll each get a $5 bonus when you make your first purchase!

Click here to sign up:
http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=dUYN%2BVTcREgZSf9RzdBU1Q%3D%3D

Happy shopping!

4. Saved $ using coupons. I again saved almost $100 in groceries. I got some things for free too like coffee mate creamer for my coffee they were 99 cents this week and I had 50 cent coupons which doubled. I also got croutons for 19 cents and cereal for a dollar a box using coupons for both. Not only that I received a $25 gift certificate to shop again next week.

5. I ordered my planner for next year. This year I got my planner from CVS and the size was 8 1/2 by 11 which I did carry around and I tried to write in it often which I did. So this year I decided to go a bit smaller. I think I chose the 5 x 6 size so I can move it from tote to purse as needed. I also found a sight where I could customize my own pages where I was able to add photos to each tab and even have printed some of my appointments already. I ordered it from Franklin Covey. I found the website through ebates.com while searching for calendars.

What are your favorite things from the past week?

A Mother's Prayer

Dear Lord,

It's such a hectic day, with little time to stop and pray. For life's been anything but calm since you called me to be a mom. Running errands, matching socks, building dreams with building blocks, cooking, cleaning and finding shoes and other stuff that children lose. Fitting lids on bottled jugs, wiping tears and giving hugs, a stack of last weeks mail to read, so where is the quite time I need? But yet when I steal a minute, Lord, just at the sink or ironing board to ask the blessings of your grace. I see then in my small ones face that you have blessed me all the while and stopped to kiss that precious smile.