Whooo Hooo, the Entertainment Center is complete!

As I had to cancel all of my planned festivities for Friday and Saturday (I had pink eye of the bacterial nature), I decided to make good use of the time at home, not only did I read 51 of the 88 chapters in Lee Child's book "The Affair", Emily and I finished the entertainment center project!  We did this Saturday night while Sean was out at a birthday party for a friend and VOILA, here it is: (the pic seems a bit distorted-pay no never mind to that!)

Em and I even brought the games out and put those over on the left side and now they are out in the open, no more pulling out the step ladder to get them out of the top of Em's closet!  We even played 2 games of Littlest Pet Shop Hideaway Haven when we finished!  The blankets now have a nice home over there on the right side too!  I'm doing a little happy dance now that this is complete!!


Sunday night we decided to try our hand at making melted crayon hearts and by golly they turned out AWESOME!! I found the idea on Pinterest ( but I forgot to repin or like it and now I cannot find it so here is another very similar recipe: http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/crayon-hearts-671639/

Here is our project (using a silicone heart muffin tray from the dollar bin at Target:

 Sean and Em peeled the papers off the crayons...

 I put about 2 Tbsp in each cup and baked at 230 degrees for 15 minutes...

Let cool...I got impatient and stuck them in the freezer for about 30 minutes, popped them out and they are so stinkin' cool!!  Em cannot wait for her Valentine's party at school to give them to everyone!  We'll be peeling and cutting more crayons tonight, Em pulled out her gazillion used crayons so we'll have plenty now!

Em's first school dance!!

and did she have a fantastic time?  Why yes she did!  She started dancing the minute we got there, barely took a couple breaks and even let me out on the dancefloor with her for the ChaCha Slide and the Cupid Shuffle!!  I am so glad she loves dancing as much as I do and that she isn't embarrassed by me just yet!

Here she is...please note the sparkly dancing shoes with the toe glitter rubbed off (that she says she won't wear again because her feet were killing her!)

 Doing the worm!

She cannot wait for the next dance now!!

Entertainment Center update!!

Emily and I got the left side of the entertainment center purged and sorted Tuesday night.  We went through her books and what she took out, I brought to work and set out in our Team Room, books always go quick at work.  I think we all have kids that LOVE to read!  The scrapbook albums have been moved to the basement for organizing into new albums (this may take a while!) and then they will all go in the sofa table...I do not have this yet but when I do it will be awesome (since I didn't ask for Camp-Crop-A-Lot, maybe I will ask for an Ikea gift card for my birthday from Sean!):

So here is the BEFORE of the left side:

and the AFTER!!  We have 4 open cubes now and these will be perfect for games (instead of in the top of Em's closet).

The center section is next on the list and I aim to do that on Sunday before we head out to Penn Theatre in Plymouth to see The Muppets!!  Emily has her first school dance tonight (EEEEEEEKKKKK!!) and she mentioned this morning that she would like to wear a dress!  I hope to have pictures to share tonight or tomorrow!!

Organizing 101 (an online class from Aby Garvey)

There is no doubt in my mind that I am an organized individual; color coded closet and sock drawer, alphabetized stamp pads, categorized books...you get the picture.  My problem is the amount of "stuff" I have managed to accumulate over the years and my inability to let things go.  I am pretty sure I have jumped that hurdle now and am clearing things out!  I've realized that it is not the "things" in my life that make it important or give it value, it is the people, the feelings, the way I feel about myself.  If I choose to keep an item for sentimental reasons, it will be showcased to represent how important it is, otherwise I will take a photo of said item and it goes into an album that I am creating!  OK, so with all that out there, I am continuing my de-cluttering process!  I began back in December before this class began and it is going very well, I had most of what I wanted to deal with tackled prior to the first class!  We had to pick a project for the duration of the class and I chose our entertainment center and enlisted the help of Sean and Em (since it is a collection of all our things!):

Here is the entire entertainment center and looking at it, it doesn't seem bad at all...until I looked at each shelf and all of the movies (some we've never watched), the magazines that I've saved for 7 years because I love one article or story they contain...and the dust (I claim to be organized...not clean!!):

 I started on the right side with movies and my magazines, here is before:

 and here is after!  The movies were pretty easy to sort through and what we chose not to keep we took to the library.  My magazines took a bit longer to go through but I cleared out 4 magazine files!

I have been hanging on to all of these issues of Diabetes Forecast since 2005...for one simple thing, each issue has on the last page a story, "Reflections" from a diabetic's perspective or their parent, their child, their spouse, or their friend and most often when I read them I am crying in the end.  No matter how much my family or friends tries to understand or support me, as a Type 1 diabetic, I often feel alone with my disease. It feels so good to read these stories and know that other people are going through the same or very similar things.  So I pulled each story out, 3 hole punched them and stuck them in a cute little folder:

 Then the magazines went into the Recycle bin and man did it feel good to do that!  I stopped my subscription a few years ago and have missed reading those stories but I just found that I can get them online for FREE!!!  I'm very excited about that!

I emptied 4 magazine files, donated about 20 DVD's and actually have empty shelves now!  I dusted and am ready to move on to the next section!  It will be the left side where Emily's books, some toys and her albums reside!  Stay tuned!!

Diabetes and a retail environment

Every visit to Target brings us to low prices and low blood sugars!

My closet is complete!

I suppose it won't look much different to most, but to me the changes are grand!  I got rid of a lot of shirts that no longer fit, this allows what's left to not be so scrunched up in there.  Other than that I just moved some things around and tidied them up and I LOVED putting my laundry away today!

BEFORE

 AFTER


Here's a snapshot of the other side...the shoe side!!

Project "CLUTTER CLEAN UP" is nearly complete!

I made some progress yesterday and oddly not much is getting thrown out or donated...I'm simply putting my stuff back where it belongs...all day yesterday I could hear my dad, "a place for everything and everything in its place"...by golly, now everything is spic and span (at least in my craft area that is!)

CRAFT AREA BEFORE

CRAFT AREA AFTER

Each area up close and personal:

WHITE SHELVES TO RIGHT OF TABLE

Top shelf: gesso, mod-podge, cleaning supplies and Melody Ross Chip Art tools.

2nd shelf: markers, scissors, buttons, Smash book goodies, clips, clamps, pushpins and a clock!

 

3rd shelf:  stamps in (2) canvas bins, scraps are in the accordian file and items for future scrapping are in the plastic bin.

Bottom shelf: Canvas bin on left houses page and project kits and bin on right houses an illegal amount of cardboard, chipboard, etc (mainly for use in my mixed media projects).

TABLE/SHELVES ON BACK WALL ON RIGHT

 This station houses my Cricut (table top), Cuttlebug and sewing stuff (bottom) 

and paper above that!

TABLE/SHELVES ON BACK WALL ON LEFT

This table holds a bunch of goodies on the top: cutting stuff and tools, adhesives and soft embellishments (flowers, ribbon, etc).  The black bags underneath are used when I go somewhere and crop.

CORNER BAKER'S RACK

Top shelf of baskets holds fabric, miscellaneous cords, a travel DVD player and some old computer stuff.

2nd shelf: old dictionary, old patterns and my acrylic paints

3rd shelf: all the material and projects from Soul Restoration 1 and 2 (online classes through

Brave Girls Club )

Bottom shelf: unfilled albums, albums in progress and blank canvases

TABLE TO LEFT OF BAKER'S RACK

I try to keep this table open for the most part, it's a good palce to spread stuff out when I am working.  Currently my basket of sorted, organized and labeled bags embellishments is there...I'm still in search of something with handles for these items but it works for now!

My " I'M LOSING MY MIND WITH ALL MY CLUTTER" clean up!

So this really isn't an annual thing, some years it happens several times, other years it never seems to occur.  I am in a constant state of re-organizing it seems but I LOVE doing it!  I feel better and re-energized once I've gone through everything from my shoes to my crafting goodies to my diabetic supplies.  I started on this venture prior to Christmas and my goal is to be "done" on Friday, January 6th!

I really should have thought about getting a before shot of the things already complete; 4-drawer bin in the laundry room, my office, my diabetic supplies, my gift wrapping goodies, my shoes and the Christmas decorations but no such thing exists so you get to check out my after shots instead!   Once I start in the craft area tomorrow I will get some before shots!

4 drawer bin in the laundry area that we keep miscellaneous

toiletry/health items that won't fit in the bathroom.

In my office; the cabinet on the left houses my diabetic supplies on the top

and candles, soaps and lotions.

Aaaah, nothing says Happy New Year like shelves of organized

diabetic supplies!

Smell good products for body and home!

This is my Project Life station in my office, the main supplies and albums

are kept here.

This is an ongoing project to store and preserve Emily's school paperwork.

I keep everything by grade and month and then scan everything.  My goal is to not keep

so much of the paper and of course to scan more frequently (she's in Grade 2 and thus far I've scanned the first 5 months of Grade 1), ideally at the end of each month once the papers are sorted.  I then put the scanned papers into a plastic file box until I can really let them go!  I hope to not amass more than 2 boxes can hold!

This is my beloved gift wrapping supply cabinet!  The canvas bin on top holds gifts bags for almost any occassion!  Inside the cabinet:

• Top shelf: ribbons, bows and small gift bags
• 2nd shelf: Tissue paper and Christmas bows
• 3rd shelf: gift boxes
• Bottom shelf: miscellaneous wrapping paper and party banners

My shoes, I've finally got EVERY shoe off the ground and in to boxes.   Boots are still on the ground but are standing with pride and no crinkles in them now!

Christmas decorations are sorted and put away and what didn't get put up this year has been donated.