Happy New Year!

Where to begin? This may be a little long :)
I enjoyed having a pretty nice blog break. I'm always a little tired of blogging by the end of the year.
But I'm back and ready to talk...scrapbooking, organization, simplifying, house renovation, family life, healthy living and more in no particular order!

So here is one thing that happened from each area just to get started.

1. Scrapbooking and Organization - Not too much actual creating went on except a few cards for family and teachers. Otherwise, a big no. But I did find a fun and simple way to organize and store all those little bulky packs for ephemera that come with a lot of collections.

I found these Avery Elle stamp & die storage envelopes and they are perfect for this...

I put one or two packages in there and cut off the back of the package to use as a reference. Usually they list all of the contents on the back. Then I store them in this basket...

on my counter. They are so much flatter this way so I have tons more room now.

2. Simplifying - four large bags filled with stuff we no longer need went to the Salvation Army last week. It feels good to let go of things we don't use that take up space. But I still have a ways to go really.

3. House Renovation - we have lived in this old house thirteen years and it feels as if the projects never end, but they are worth it! I've shared photos of the family room we created in the basement and now Mike is working on the bathroom. He put in a lot of man hours over the break when he could to work on the shower. Here is a before photo the weekend before the holiday...

and here it is as of tonight when I snapped a few quick photos with my phone camera to give you an idea how much work he did...

It is pretty much completely tiled except a few pieces on floor need to be added and some more trim. All the plumbing is in, electrical done, shelves and bench added. In fact, there is also a recessed tiled shelf on the inside of that little wall.

We are really going for a spa feel and I don't feel the pictures do it justice. It's hard to take good phone photos at night. :)

Another little shelf there. It will also have a rain head shower which will be nice.
And for now I am leaning toward a paint color like this for the walls that won't have the stone accents like the wall in our family room.

It's hard to tell but that coppery green color is similar to a color in the accent border piece in the shower and the stone for the wall. You can see the color a little better on Pinterest *here* I think. I am so looking forward to this bathroom being done. We have been working on this basement since 2010! Or I should say Mike has. :)

4. Family Life - As far as the holiday, Christmas was great!

The kids were happy with their presents. And we were able to spend lots of time with family and friends!
One of the highlights of our time with family was a little tradition I started with my niece and goddaughter. She comes to spend the night with us and then the girls (her, Erin and I) go shopping together. This year I took them to Build a Bear...

for her belated birthday gift and a "reward" for Erin.

We kept New Year's Eve low key. Had a play date during the day with good friends and then a movie night with some other good friends later that evening. The kids were in bed by 10:30 but Mike and I managed to stay up until midnight just barely to wish each other a happy 2015. :)

Today was the last day of our holiday break and we spent part of it ice skating at Steinberg ice skating rink in Forest Park. It was sooooo cold, but fun.

Mike snapped a photo of the two of us quickly and managed to not get the crowd in the background. I couldn't believe how many people were out there skating around in the 20 degree weather like us! :)
And now tomorrow, back to routine ;)

5. Healthy Living - well that is going to be a whole other post probably sometime this week. I have a bit to say on this one as I do my "One Little Word" for the year. Ali Edwards basically introduced the concept of focusing on a word for the year, and I always try to pick one. I was leaning towards "healthy" for my word, but that is something I have been working on the past two years anyway. And then another word occurred to me, but I will be doing a post on that as well coming up soon.

So there you have it! A little recap of what I have been up to and what is to come. I'm looking forward to catching up on my blog reading and hope to do that soon!
Happy New Year!

Feeling excited and rejuvenated blog wise.
I have a list of blog topics that will be ready to go once the Christmas break
is over and the kids are back in school next Monday the 5th.
Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season
and wishing you a very Happy New Year!
See you soon! :)

Merry Christmas!

from our home to yours! :)

Pinterest

Do you ever pin things on Pinterest and then actually use the pins?
I hear people say, "I pin things but never use them." all.the.time.
Lately, instead of collecting them, I really like using my pins. Whether it's for scrapbooking, decorating, or cooking.
I have definitely used sketches and layout ideas from my scrapbook boards.
In fact, this layout which I have shared before...

was created because of a layout I pinned by Jill Sprott. And it was featured on the Paper Issues blog for Fan Feature Friday just this past Friday. So weird still not to be on the DT there, but a good choice for me. Like I said, in an earlier post, I haven't scrapbooked a single layout since October. Just other things going on.

Anyway, I also pinned this...

on my Laundry Room board and guess what color my laundry room is? Yep. I love that color! But alas, no chandelier. Hoping to have some white cabinets and counter space one of these days though.

And this paint color...

we did something similar in our basement. I love the gray and white combo.

Our gray is not quite as dark though.
And yesterday, I made these cupcakes...

(yes, that is my photo and a cupcake I made) from *this pin* off my Sweet Treats board. They turned out pretty well. :)
Mike loves Andes mints and when I found an andes mint cupcake recipe I knew I had to try it for him!

So I am actually not "all talk" when it comes to Pinterest. I do like to use my pins ;)
That said, I have 1,361 pins on my boards as of today. So ok, I may have only used 1% of those pins, but I love that they are there for when I am ready!

Are you a pin user, pin collector, or a little of both? For me, I think it's a little bit of both!

Winners!

Sorry! Almost forgot to post winners today.
Mike was pretty sick Sunday and a little Monday.
And then today I found out Erin has strep throat, so I have been caring for her.
Keeping my fingers crossed, plus hoping and praying Evan and I miss this round!

Anyway, I have never had this happen with random number generator, but I got number two and one.
So Barb and Carla looks like you are my winners!
Just email me at mmrhoda@sbcglobal.net so I can mail your packages. Probably won't get to  the  post office this week having Erin at home. But I promise it will be before Christmas. ;)

Music and Giveaways!

Can I just tell you how absolutely, totally excited we are about this...

Finally, the tour has been announced! More details *Here*. For this part of the tour, the closest they are getting to us is Chicago. So that is a must for us. Hoping to go one other place as well. :)

In other music news, we went to the Alt J concert last night here in town. Concerts on school nights are a little rough and I definitely felt it this morning. But Alt-J were amazing and I am so glad Mike and I went! We love their music and they are one of those bands that sound just as good if not better live.

Anyway, scrapbook news next! I have two flat rate boxes stuffed full of as much scrapbook product that I can fit inside to give away to blog and facebook friends.
Contents include but are not limited to patterned paper, rub ons, washi tape, alphabets, stickers, a stamp set or two, Project life and journal cards, die cuts and tags.

If you are interested in possibly receiving one of these boxes, just leave a comment here or on my facebook post and I will pick two winners on Monday night (12/8) and announce Tuesday.
See you then!

Published...

in the new issue of Jot magazine!
It's been a while since I submitted anything for publication, or even scrapbooked! But when I saw the call for projects for issue 8, I decided to give it a try.
Jot is an on-line scrapbook magazine, so it was as simple as sending an email and a picture of my scrapbook layout. I had actually tried for the gold foil call, but she felt my page would fit better with the Christmas story gallery. I agree!

You can find my layout on page 75 in the magazine *Here*!
It was definitely something to get excited about scrapbook wise. :)

The scrapbook purge is still going on here.

Those bags on the right are going in boxes to sell (Basic Grey, October Afternoon and Scenic Route.) I also have a KI Memories brand box. So those are organized and ready to go as soon as I get some photos.
That green and pink paper storage box is now empty. I am trying to fit all of the patterned paper I want to keep in that two door cabinet behind the boxes. Although it's not just patterned paper in there...

there is also cardstock, vellum, transparencies, and large 12x12 sheets of letter stickers. That is actually an older photo though. There is a lot less cardstock these days.  A lot less cardstock. Most of my cardstock fits in one holder and is mostly neutral colors.

This on the other hand is my staging area of product that I am organizing for a few giveaway boxes. I've temporarily taken over a corner of Erin's room but she is ok with it. She is actually hoping some of the items come her way. I will just say that I have given her a lot already! She has her own small stash of scrap supplies now, and really not a lot of room for more :)
That stack in the back right corner in front of the Frozen bag is going to be saved for functions where I teach such as an upcoming Girl Scout activity in the Spring.
I just need to sort through those three baskets on the left and then start separating things into three boxes. I hope to have the giveaway Friday, so be looking for that!

Making progress though, and feeling a lot better about scrapbooking again! :)

As for the Thanksgiving holiday, it was nice.
Unfortunately, Mike had to go back out of town for work the day after Thanksgiving. :(
Not fun! But his brother and wife were in town and it's the first time we have seen them in two years. So we were able to still have a good weekend despite not having Mike with us.

Mike and I on Thanksgiving night.

Friday night we went to the Garden Glow at the Missouri Botanical Gardens with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Lots of fun!
The kids and I did a little bit of shopping on Saturday in the afternoon, but then took it easy the rest of the night.

On Sunday, we went to brunch with some of Mike's family and then his brother and wife came over to hang out with us a little longer before catching their plane back home. Really great to have them in town!
It was pretty warm yesterday. Near 70 degrees. Then this morning, we woke up to this...

Yep, ice on my windshield. A little crazy. But I was able to get the kids to school just fine.
Thanksgiving is over, December is here and so is winter as far as I'm concerned! :)
Hope you had a great weekend!

Checking In

I just felt I should post quickly and say thanks to those checking in on us plus give a little update.
We are about 15 -20 minutes south of Ferguson, Missouri by highway.
It is a community right next to where I graduated from college, so I spent a lot of time there.
My grandmother lived right next to Ferguson in Berkley for a long time so we went shopping there a lot.
On Tuesday night, there was a lot of destruction and chaos due to rioting. Cars burned. Businesses looted and burned. Hard for me to understand.

Not too long after what happened with Michael Brown, a young man was shot in our community. He had a gun and shot at the police officer. So there have been protests but mostly peaceful ones.
I believe as a result though of that shooting, on Tuesday, the night the little shopping district in walking distance from our house was targeted with vandalism. Broken windows and looting. No fires thank goodness, but it was bad enough.

I loved our communities response. People came out to help clean up, shop in the stores to show support, and help board windows. And the best, local artists went to work painting all the boarded up windows.

Erin and I went up there for a little bit to get some Bread Company (Panera) for dinner. She was taking it all in for sure. She doesn't understand really only being seven, but we have had some talks about good and not so good choices. How to express ourselves when angry. We talked about Martin Luther King and how most of the protests in our neighborhood were peaceful marches. How a few people make not good choices and that is why we see the broken windows and other damage to property.
Protesting can bring about peaceful change. I truly believe that.
What happened in Ferguson and on Grand has the opposite affect. People are not open to change when they see that type of destruction. It just sadly reinforces misguided beliefs.

When I showed the photos to Evan of the artists, he immediately wanted to go up and help! As it was getting dark, I told him not such a great idea since we had no idea what last night would bring.
Thankfully, nothing happened on Grand except artists working long and hard and community coming together to talk.

We have not had any issues personally in our neighborhood thankfully and we are fine.
I am not sure what is next for St. Louis.
There are many wonderful things about this city we call home.
Ferguson is one small community close by. But it is still a part of our city.
And it's obvious that some changes need to be made.
I support officer Wilson.
I am sad for a family that lost their son as well.
I am learning more about the issues and why change needs to happen.
But I cannot support violence and chaos.
And I do not believe (as the media tried to portray) that Ferguson was a community destroying itself. Many of those people rioting were not from Ferguson.

For those celebrating, I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.
I know we have a lot to be thankful for and I am counting my blessings every day for sure!