Bristol

So my father asked me why no blog updates.. and again I really don't have an answer except I have nothing to say.

Well I probably have alot of things to say but I have learned over the years if you have nothing nice to say you probably should say nothing at all.... take that any way you choose.... happiness is not always front and center when the work day is long and coming home means a routine that doesn't have alot of fun in it... the weather is changing and hopefully the fun quotient will go up too.

I did just return home from a long weekend in Bristol TN.. Thunder Valley as it is known--now that was fun... I entertained myself on the long car ride by taking pictures of myself and reading all the magazines that have piled up around the house

We met up with Christopher and a few guys that Mike knows and spent the weekend watching fast cars bump and grind around a half mile track. My driver ol Casey Mears finally qualified for a race... started in the back and ended in the back.... I finally decided it was time to pick a new driver-- I have been waffling all season on picking someone new.. well I finally decided that Carl Edwards #99 would be my driver... he generally places well in the races.. seems to be a realitivly nice guy and drives a green car... what more could you ask for in a driver?

We got lucky and had beautiful weather on Saturday! Short sleeve kinda weather and then on Sunday old man winter came back...
So neither day did either of drivers win... or come even close-- but my driver(s) did better than Christopher and Mikes... Seems Clint Bowyer blew an engine... hahaha only 35 laps in to the race... so that can laugh at my choices but in the end I got the last laugh...

oh happy day

Its finally FRIDAY-- I can't remember a worse two weeks at work in a very long time. But finally the weekend is here... no snow in sight and no work for a full two days... just wonderful if you ask me! and today my Boots finally arrived!!! Yes new winter boots...might just be the jinx we need to hold off any more snow until next winter!!

The snow has finally stopped

This is my view-- my winter wonderland view!! I have kept myself amused by watching the icicle outside the scraproom window-- I keep wondering how long it will get before it breaks off.

Maizy has assimilated very well to the new Arctic tundra..

And this is why I am home from work *again* the snow plow got stuck late last night in the driveway...can't go up ...can't go down...

What you want more???

What you want more??? Todays photos are limited.. but these first ones are from early this morning.. a beautiful sight-- the sun!!

And this photo-- Miss Maizy-- You see we have shoveled a walk way to no where on the deck-- it literally stops at the stairs (see above)-- Somehow in her little brain its ok to potty on the deck when its covered in snow.. but since the walkway was shoveled and the sun melted the rements her little walkway was now deck.... horrors-- she panicked running back and forth and literally jumped into the deep snow!! Lucky for her most of it was crusted over and she didn't sink with every step... I laughed so hard I almost didn't get a picture of her up there!

and for those who just have to know--- she completed the job and my carpets are safe for a few more hours!

Sidelined by no power

So sorry for the delay in bringing you my time lapsed photography!! haha-- We lost power yesterday at 11am--apparently so did everyone off of Aden and all the way down Hoadly--Lots of tree down on the lines... any this is yesterday at 12:00 and yes still snowing!!

Of course shoving was an all day event-- I pretty much shoveled every other hour to stay on top of it-- One shovel width on the deck and One shovel width on the front walk-- Mike and Maizy felt sorry for me and came out to help!!

Maizy doing her shake-- not sure if it was the snow or the sweater!

This was at 5:45pm--stopped snowing *finally* I took this picture without flash.. But still did not capture what my eyes saw.. the sun had just about set and the sky was navy blue and the snow was sooo bright it almost glowed... I tried taking shots with and without the flash but just couldn't capture it.. I guess I need to read up on that.. see below-- with flash it looks like daytime..
And here it is at 9:30-- ohh so dark no more outside photos-- this is how I spent my night! me, Mr. Wiggles and Maizy by candlelight.. I read three magazines that way (caught up on a backlog!) and labeled some pages I printed out about my Cricut carts (die cutting machine) and then sorted through some magazine pages that I had ripped out and had stacked (waiting for me to do something with)
And of course waited by the phone...in hopes of hearing some news about when the power would come back... which by the way it didn't until this morning...23 hours later...

9AM

Its 9AM and its still snowing... they say another 5-9 inches today with the snow stopping tonight... its coming down pretty heavy right now and its been hard to see at times... Right now it's like a fine mist.... Everything has been closed including Rt 66!! We have been flirting with the power issues again... the lights have gone on and off but as of right now we still have lights and more importantly heat! Mike tells me there are trees down everywhere- which does not surprise me (remember last nights photos?) and the snow is so heavy that it is bringing power lines down everywhere.
Today I will venture out with my handy measuring tape to see what kind of accumulation we really have.

Because I know you are wondering

Because I know you are wondering what the weathers doing... its kinda crazy but here is a little time line

About 6:30pm

This is about 9:30

And then about 11:30

off to shovel alittle before bed!! Tomorrow should be interesting!

At least its a pretty snow

This was last night before bed...

And this is what I woke up to-- Mother Nature just doesn't understand how much all this snow confuses my Maizy Girl...

more snow

And here we go again.. more snow... 3-6 inches tonight and then the weather man says a"significant" amount is coming for Friday.... oy vey! And do you think there is a store in town that has snow boots?? heavens no they are showcasing cute little sandals...not that I have anything against sandals but really-- we haven't seen grass in months...and my snow boots could use some replacing... Do you want to guess how old they are??? go ahead and guess... I'll wait....


Lets just say that my grandmother wore them to Capitals games... when I was in High school---- oh yea... these are some old boots..... but they are warm and they fit and they keep my feet dry... but I do think we have gotten our moneys worth out of them.

now in the interest of full disclosure I do own another pair... but they have no fur on the inside and they just aren't that cute to wear day after day....

Creative Space

So its time to unveil my totally reorganized scrap space.. As a side note- this room is actually a multi-purpose space crammed into a 9.5 x 12 foot room. It serves as our home office, my craft room, my hubby’s computer building space and my dressing room. This little room does it all!! And with the help of Wookiemouses challenge it now is totally functional. Yes there is still a to-do list of things to accomplish.. But I feel I am in control of the space now.

I hemmed and hawed in the first few weeks of the challenge—buy new furniture or not? In a perfect world I would have bitten the bullet—but I embraced the fact of repurposing what I already have. The layout of the furniture did not change. (I spent a lot time with a tape measure in hand thinking I could at the very least move the furniture around. JoEllen and I traded emails throwing ideas around but in the end... This “galley” style worked the best.) I still use a dining room buffet with the glass taken out of it as shelving and storage, my Dad’s old (huge) desk is still home to the computer, my old dresser top is still my workspace with an old TV stand holding up one end and paper storage cubes that my husband built for me holding up the other side. And above that is the hutch from my daughter’s college dorm room.

Here is an overview – This is what you see when you walk in... And truthfully it’s the whole room hahaha. and the back of the room --- ahhh clean!! Like I said this is a multifunctional room—so the storage in the desk is for primarily for home office stuff—bill paying, files etc. But in this drawer I have secretly stored the scanner—you can see in the above photo the empty floor space to the left of the desk is really unusable… so hubby stashes his extra monitors over there and I have the printer conveniently perched on the safe. Moving around the room—the workspace!! This is the repurposed dresser top and the space where all play happens. You can see my trimmer sits on a cropping companion 2 drawer set. One side holds pictures sorted via the LOM system and the other drawer has dividers in it to hold left over chipboard letters. And on the work surface I have to fiskars mats to contain the glue and paint.

This is what sits in front of me… it may look alittle chaotic but in reality it is perfectly organized for my brain. Working left to right- Ikea drawers (painted and paper drawer fronts- the exterior waiting for sunshine to paint the box) that hold 1) adhesive 2) stars 3) hearts, 4)dymo labeler and tape,5) playing cards 6) EMPTY on top of that is a cute metal container that holds MM rubon letters, journaling spots and label holders.

To the right is another Ikea holder—its got larger journaling spots, chalks, scissors and other random stuff I grab daily. Then next to that in a metal tin are packs of mats and where the ATG sits. And than farther to the right next to the trimmer is my makeshift little shelves held up with wood blocks... it’s a temporary solution but very effective. I have cigar boxes (repurposed!!) that hold little word stickers and little letter stickers on one shelf. And other go to items on the other shelves.

Above this space are my new shelves—Totally love the repurposed items from Amanda’s wedding! A silver bowl holds regular inks and the cute blue mason jars holding buttons, bling, stamps…
The other end of the work space is an odd corner space both above and below the counter. I did my best to make it a workable space.
Sterlite drawers hold chipboard shapes- Baskets hold clear stamps and more ink- shoebox holds foam stamps (divided in old checkboxes) Stamping up containers hold stamping up stamps sorted by themes….

Below the counterspace are the cubes that my husband built me!! They hold not only all my papers but also my storage boxes... new items, ongoing projects, memorabilia, pages in progress.

And the odd corner space (underside) ?? It looks scary but in reality it is finally functional! Its an old distressed wooden TV Stand. The two shelves hold all the stuff I don’t use often but needed a home. Top shelf- Full size chipboard sheets, Page protectors, Canvas’s and then Ziploc bags with pages from classes that need photos.. (each of those are in the Get it done jar) Bottom shelf- new albums- in shoe boxes new mini-albums and new mini album papers and protectors (still need to decorate or replace the shoeboxes) Next to that TV stand is my new basket with my generations envelopes—Sorted by theme all those flat embellishments, stickers etc. Some of theme envelopes also hold papers... ie the travel and pets, holidays. Those actually rotate in and out of the basket depending on what I am using. Its genius I tell you! And I love love love it!!

Next to that is a standard 4 drawer sterlite container… eyelets, brads and two drawers of misc stuff—nicely sorted though!!

On the other side of the room is the repurposed china buffet... like I mentioned earlier I took out the glass doors to make the upper part storage shelves. The bottom storage area is mainly computer parts and office papers etc… With the exception of one drawer of photo papers…

I have embellishments sorted by color here... I really would like to upgrade to larger drawers but haven’t found them yet.
A basket of punches—Containers of paints, tags, metal embellishments, embossing powders and some tools.

I also have a bookshelf—that holds albums in progress- idea books and binders... above it I have new chipboard sets... once they are opened they get stored in my drawers and one of my stamp shelves.. This book case is also home to my camera chargers, heat tool and rulers. So that’s pretty much my room—I can’t thank Wookiemouse enough for pushing me for 29 weeks and all my online buddies who I forced me to stay with it—good friends were made and organization was achieved.

I am back

HI DAD!!

So its been almost a month since I have updated my poor neglected blog.. And I am not sure why... I have completed the revamping of my scrapbook room.. pictures to come! :) I have spent alot of my free time working on a online class I am taking. Design your Life-- its a design class for scrapbooking.. Lots of fun working on balancing pages, asymmetry and repetition so far.. 4 weeks down and 8 to go... The best thing is I am getting about 3 layouts a week done.. catching up--

So the president spoke to us tonight.... I must say this is the first time in a long time that I actually tuned in to the State of the Union. Let me say I am not a fan of democrates dressing alike... seriously they had nothing better to do then call each other with the color of the day? I guess Obama isn't one of the cool kids?? no one called him??? and purple really???
While I find our president a good public speaker --I can't buy in to his "answers" I just don't want my government that big--and a I certainly don't want to pay for all the fixes... no matter what he says --we will pay...

DAY 1

Happy New Year!-- Wow 2009 went by fast!! Hard to believe we start a new year and a new decade.
We started the new year off over at Collen and Johns... stayed close to home as the weather was alittle iffy yesterday and then woke up today to help Kim and Ken move into their new house. Wow so I started the new year spending the day in total jealously.. Their new house is totally amazing... it sit on about 4 acres, has a pond/lake and a pool... She has closets and bathrooms that are totally bigger than bedrooms in my house... and the kitchen???? don't even get me started.... and did I mention she has her own lake??? Yes jealous all day long... probably not the best way to start out the new year... but I just couldn't help myself.. I tried to reflect on the goodness in my own life... but she has closets and double sinks and a fireplace and a two different wet bars and a sink in her laundry room and in her garage.... heck she has a sitting room between her masterbedroom and the closets... A SITTING ROOM!!! wow... tomorrow I will try to shake off the jealousy and get back to reality.
Laundry, shampooing carpets, and taking down the tree....