A layout and E-bay!

My goal this year is to get a calendar page done every month so I can print out 2009 calendars at Christmas for the grandparents. I'm already running behind but if I can squeeze in my Feb page before the end of the week, I'll be right on schedule. I really never got a decent picture of the boys this month so it may be difficult. They're both in desperate need for a haircut and my 5YO goes into "goofy face" mode whenever I get the camera out.
Credits: Template by Andrea Niehaus: Kit -Win'tree Weather by Linda Walton: Font-Larger Mime
On a non-scrapbooking note, I put my very first auction up on E-bay this week! I found my box of maternity clothes in the basement and thought I would give E-bay a shot. If it doesn't work out, they will go into the donation box :) Until next time...Happy Scrappin'

The "stuff" has found homes

Thanks you all for the wonderful suggestions for donating my quilting, scrapbooking stuff. I've managed to sort through all my quilting stuff and I contacted a lady at Firehouse Quilts that is kind enough to come pick up all 9 boxes this week! This group of ladies make quilts for women and children in crisis. I would also like to thank a blog reader, Julie that lives locally for coming this week to pick up my scrapbooking stuff (at least all but the stuff my boys wanted to keep for art projects). She's going to donate it to her Creative Memory consultant that visits the cancer ward at children's hospital and lets them make cards and have fun with the stuff! I'm going to donate all my books (and there's a lot of them) to the library today. Now onto the baby stuff....that's going to go to the consignment shop :)

Back to the subject of clutter...

A few posts back I mentioned my basement and the fact that we are getting ready to remodel so the clutter needs to be de-cluttered. I decided to take pictures and scrap the way it looks at this moment in time. I can almost hear you saying..."Ack, what a mess!" It has actually looked worse than this before we de-cluttered a couple of years ago. Quite a bit of this mess is leftover quilting supplies from when I had my quilting business. I have boxes and boxes of fabric, and half-started projects, etc that use to fill a room now just fill boxes and space. Another good chunk of this chaos is all my unused paper scrapping and rubber stamping supplies. Then there's all the boxes of outgrown clothes from the boys not to mention carseats, cribs, etc. Finally, a big chunk is also DH's RC hobby stuff that went by the wayside, temporarily after the boys were born. After careful consideration, I have decided to get rid of all my quilting and my paper scrapping supplies. I just figured I haven't felt like making a quilt for about 5 years now so I'm not going to hold onto that stuff anymore. I know for sure I will never go back to paper scrapping again so I may as well let someone have it that's going to use it. The only thing that's stopping me from getting rid of the baby clothes is I wanted to go through them and keep a few sentimental items then they're outta there! Stay tuned...this is not the last time you will see pictures of this basement! BTW if you hav any ideas on good places to donate quilting and scrapbooking supplies other than large donation centers, I'd love to hear them. I want them to go where they will be loved and appreciated!
Credits: April template by Tracyb; Kit-Terre d'Argile by Scrap-shop.fr; Stick-em-up Songbird alpha by Linda Rechtin; Blue chipboard alpha by Tracy King; Frames by me; Font: really bad typewriter

Happy Valentine's Day

Did you have a nice V-day? Mine was wonderful! I had set up little V-day goodybags for the boys last night so they were thrilled with the sweet treats and such this morning! DH and I exchanged cards before he left for work so I was pleasantly surprised when these beautiful 24 long stem roses were delivered from him mid morning! Aren't they beautiful??? I also got a Starbucks gift card from my MIL who loves to feed my addiction! I hope you enjoyed your day of love!!!!

Remembering Dakota.....

My brother and SIL had to say goodbye to their sweet Dakota Rose yesterday :( Dakota was a sweet, spunky, spoiled, mischievous girl that loved bananas and ice cream. They got Dakota when my Candy was about 2 1/2. A few years later, we each got another dog (Kayla and Bailey). All four dogs have grown up together and have had many playdates, hiking trips and camping trips together. Dakota was 12 years old and her health was failing so it was time to let her go. She lived a very full and happy doggy life. She will be missed!!! I just know Candy and Dakota are romping around at the Rainbow Bridge, happy to be together again :)

Credits: Spring Fling Template by Traci Sims; Kit-Down to Earth by Kimberly Stewart; Font-Sweetheart Script.

I'm drowning in clutter....

...and I must do something about it! It must be the time of year with a hint of spring just around the corner. Spring cleaning and especially de-cluttering needs to be done. I haven't posted, designed or even scrapped anything since my last post because I decided to take a stand against 2 cluttered areas of my life. First, the boys and I started tackling the playroom. I think I've managed to hold on to every toy and every item of clothing since my first son was born (5 years ago). Second, I also decided to face the daunting task of organizing my digital scrapbooking supplies. I've been using Picasa up until this point and although it's a wonderful program for the price(free!) I needed something new, something a little better. I decided to download the trial version of ACDSee Photo Manager. I'm sure I will end up buying it because so far I really like it! I've managed to categorize my previews together, then I further categorized them into themes and then into color schemes. I've also deleted a lot of stuff I know I'll never use. A little at a time, I'd like to go further into tagging everything eventually but for now, I have a good idea of what I own and can easily see it, find it and hopefully use it. As for the playroom, well it's a work in progress. It looked good until I opened the closet, not to mention I still have to bring up all the toys they got for Christmas that are still in the living room, ack...it never ends! I donated 4 boxes of toys with the boys permission of course, since they are keeping watchful eyes on the donation boxes at all times (I would've donated so much more). I've added 4 more boxes of clothes to the basement to donate at a later time. Ah, that brings us to the basement...the cold, unfinished, very full and cluttered catch all of a basement. We will be tackling that soon and will have no choice since we are having someone come next week to give us an estimate to finish the basement and hope to have it complete before summer arrives. I see a lot of donating and E-baying in my future and of course a yard sale!!!! Goodbye clutter! Oh, we also decided to decorate the boys' bedroom into an outer space theme since it's a mishmash of themes right now. I'll post some pictures when it's done. I have to order most of the stuff online so hopefully most of it will get here this next week. Thanks for listening to me babble!!!!!!