well, winter is definitely here! wish it wouldn't have been so warm lately - now it feels REALLY cold! i'm going to miss wearing sandals.... i'm sure i won't get any more chances until spring again. oh well, it was fun while it lasted, can't remember the last time i was able to wear sandals in november : )
guy put up the christmas tree on thursday since he was home with the kids and i decorated most of the day friday and saturday morning.... always feels good having the house ready for christmas! i did good time this year, it sometimes takes me a few days. guy is so anxious to put everything up every year - it seems it's never soon enough for him! it's kind of plain looking outside... have the lights up on the house and the icicle lights in the windows in front... just waiting for some fresh wreaths, that will help. still have to put the pine garland and lights on the little side deck - yeah, wasn't that smart putting it off til it was really COLD outside!!! then i can concentrate on the shopping part! i can't believe how many people have said they're done their christmas shopping already! that's awesome - more room in the stores for me! actually, i don't mind either way since i do a lot of shopping online! especially toys. i find it so much easier than hauling three kids in and out of the cold to go from store to store. and it makes it a lot easier to hide their gifts them! you guys ready for christmas? less than a month away!
for someone who usually doesn't win anything (at least anything more than what i paid for my scratch ticket) my luck has been changing! started this afternoon when i finally got around to scratching some of those big scratch tickets guy got me for my birthday (yeah, i've had them for a while...) out of those four scratch tickets three of them were winners - totalling $43. woo hoo! then i had one texas hold'em scratch ticket where i won on each hand - total winnings on that ticket $40. !!! i was kidding when i was talking to lisa and said i'd have to check my grey cup tickets since today was so lucky - so i was so surprised when i checked them after half time and i had 3 east 19 west!!! into my scrapbooking fund it goes : )
woo hoo! i'm so happy! i finally got this done this morning... managed to get it all to fit in the closet - that is except for two rolling cases (so i brought one that i don't use as often downstairs) and a big bag. the living room looks so empty now : ) of course, there are still three other cabinets; one holds the finished albums and albums in progress, one for idea books and magazines and one cabinet has cardstock, adhesives, cards, memory boxes for each of us.
i think it looks good! and it will be so easy to find stuff now! everything has a place. i couldn't get a picture of the whole closet - you can't see the top shelf. when you look at it from inside, the albums that are on it go all the way to the ceiling. now that's making use of available space!
i just love sitting here, even if i'm not actually scrapbooking . it's a perfect spot to do other stuff, i was sitting there with the laptop yesterday when i was making new labels for my hanging folders. i plan on spending a lot more time here now with this new setup.
i keep checking out ideas on 2peas for organizing my "scrapcloset", i don't usually find a lot of ideas that i can use for my space because they all have ROOMS and i just have a closet! i probably have the same amount of sb stuff to try and fit in my closet (and a few cabinets) that they show in their rooms : ) what an awesome place to scrapbook in, i wouldn't mind living in some of those rooms - guy and the kids might not enjoy it as much, eh?
even though, i may not be able to use them now, i still keep all the ideas i like in a folder and one day when we finish the basement, i'll have a great resource on how to set up my office/scraproom. so in the mean time, i have my awesome scrapcloset! guy helped me build it a few years ago. it's by the front door in our living room, we used it mostly for storage, and it was pretty obvious soon after i started scrapbooking that i had overgrown my satchel and case mom got me. i painted the walls with some paint i had planned on using on another project and guy put in a laminate countertop, a good light fixture and an extra shelf. the closet is a fair size, and i have it organized enough, but it seems like i keep reorganizing, always looking for a better system. which is weird, because i like the way i have it set up now. although there are still a few things that are waiting for a home. i guess that's more what the problem is - making room for sb supplies i acquire. solution for that is to scrapbook more to use up my supplies and purge more of what i probably won't use. pass it down to the kids to use in their scrapbooks!
i started "reorganzing" again this weekend and i'm still working on it as you can see from the picture above... this time i'm determined to get it done right. guy even added another shelf in my scrapbook closet, so maybe now i can get rid of that extra table. i think i've averaged about 4 hours of sleep a night since friday night in an effort to get all my stuff to fit : ) a few more nights and i should be done! guy's really anxious to get some of the living room back - it's only been a year that i started expanding my "space"! i don't know what the big deal is! : ) i'll be sure to post an "after" picture.... i guess that'll be my incentive to get this closet done and to show you that i can actually get it ALL to fit IN the closet! okay... how about that i can get MOST of it to fit IN the closet?!
hope everyone enjoyed their night of trick or treat?! it was a little chilly for me - what was it? like 26F/-3C or something? the wind made it feel colder than that. don't worry about the kids, they were nice and toasty with their layers and layers of clothing under their costumes. matthieu was a ninja, we ordered his costume online and it came late last week (nothing like waiting til the last minute!) his ninja blade arrived a little busted up but good old duct tape fixed it up like new.
we met up with the bedard's and the schmechel's so the kids went as a group. they seemed to have a blast together. guy and mike had the priviledge of escorting emily and amanda, brooke, matthieu, danielle and chantale. terry, lesa and i followed behind them in the van.
some of the (older) kids were too chicken to check out the haunted house at tim erickson's house. we discovered it last year and thought it was AWESOME!!! i'm sure it was just as great this year! danielle seemed to think she was big enough to handle it so she went on in... she said she didn't remember going last year and after seeing it last night she said, "i'm not going back to that place ever again! it's too scary!" just watch... she'll be going to see it again next hallowe'en : )
this is what trick or treating in northern minnesota looks like:
