This has been such a fantastic Christmas season!
John and I had so much happening that it was a little crazy, and a little tiring at times, but was a lot of fun!
We got to see a lot of our friends and spend quality time with them, which I am thinking more now-a-days is the best Christmas gift ever!
We had Nic and Jen over to help decorate our tree and our home. I so like that new tradition we've started. Then a week later we went to their house and returned the favor.
We went to Roger's Gardens in Newport and walked around with my good friend Edana and we took our holiday pictures in some very gorgeous areas!
I got to scrapbook at Theresa's House and Pinecone this month, I always enjoy myself at each place.
We went to the Newport Harbor Boat Parade with the Geekitude group as well as hosted a Christmas Cookie Exchange with them at out house. (I'm thinking we need to have a family version of that next year too!)
And we also attended a Geekitude Festivus activity too!
Christmas eve was a lot of fun with the family at John's Aunt Dawn's house and then later at Nic's house.
And of course Christmas day with John's family here at home and calling friends and family who are away. It has been such a pleasant and enjoyable season this year.
I am just so thankful for my family and friends!!
Merry Christmas to everyone and sincere wishes for a safe and happy New Year!!
~Ren
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Let the Scrappin' Commence!!
I had the week before Thanksgiving off and I planned to work on a long list of things around the house. We also had an activity planned for the Sunday following Thanksgiving with our friends, Nic and Jen, to come over and spend the afternoon hanging out and help us decorate our home for the holidays. It’s a new tradition we’re starting so I wanted to have the house cleaned and ready for the fun day.
Other projects that I had planned for the week:
Get our garage organized so we could get to a few things, including the Christmas decorations.
Rework our extra room to make a designated crafting place.
And a bunch of other “smaller” projects, I had hoped to accomplish.
Monday morning I started working on my list then got completely overwhelmed.
The hardest part of big projects is figuring out where to start.
John and I had tried to make conscious efforts to keep from just throwing stuff into the garage – we had it organized at one time but over the past twelve months the plan just crumbled… so the task of cleaning it up and reorganizing it again seems daunting.
So after discussing it with John I turned my sights towards only one big task in my list of intentions. Make the designated craft space in the room upstairs.
This project would actually accomplish two things on our long-term desires, I would have a place that I could call an actual “craft area” and our dining room area would be restored to – well, a dining room area. A place where we could sit and eat without having to figure out where to put the layouts I was in the middle of, and so on. So after reassessing the battle plan I started working on it Monday night.
At first it didn’t seem too difficult. Pick things up and take it upstairs.
But then I thought, once I get it up there where is it going? So the plan of attack was to pull things out of the room to make a space to put the “new” items. So shelves got reorganized to clear off places for the boxes and baskets of accessories, embellishments, tools, etc. of my scrapbooking addiction.
Then there was the parting of things that I eliminated from the mass collection – duplicate beanie babies (how did I manage to get a duplicate dog? What am I doing with a toucan? How come I have three of the same Winnie-the-Pooh bean bag?) And other strange questions arose as I culled the herd. (The strangest things pop into my head when I’m working and distract me.)
Once that step was completed then the job of bringing things upstairs started. I lost count of how many times I went up and down our stairs. Its only 12 steps for crying out loud! After two days of moving things around and hauling stuff up to the room I felt like I had trekked up Notre Dame again – which made me smile when I thought of the happy memories of the trip…again, with the stuff popping in my head!
And if moving items to the upper level weren’t enough of a task, I then needed to organize and figure out workable storage for all the items. I had no idea how long it would take to sift through a bunch of little things. WOW, it was unbelievably time consuming! I don’t remember how many tiny pieces of approximately 1 x 2 inch scraps of paper I parted with, why was I holding on to ones that small anyway??
By Wednesday the front room and dining room were cleaned, spruced, and restored to a living space. The upstairs room now had organization and I couldn’t wait to get started scrapping in my new space. All I lacked was a table, chair, and more lighting. No worries, we planned to head out during the weekend and find them and at the same time possibly take advantage of the huge sales.
Part of my in-laws Thanksgiving Day traditions is that once the feasting is done the newspaper ads for the weekend sales come out and everyone sifts through them looking for the deals they’re willing to go early for. John and I looked through the ads for a table and chair, all the while enjoying the laughter and oohs and ahhs with everyone else. When asked by his Mom what we were looking for we told her about the previous couple days’ activities and that we needed the table and chair to complete my space. She said that it sounded like the items would be good Christmas gift ideas, but we explained that I didn’t really want to wait that long to get them. I have a goal of trying to finish the Paris project before the end of the year after all… so even though we didn’t see anything in the papers that was what I had in mind we decided that sometime that weekend we might get out and looky-loo.
We had only planned to relax and enjoy the weekend, shopping wasn’t really a top priority so we spent the couple of days after Thanksgiving prepping our home for our day with Nic and Jen to come over to help decorate. So on Saturday night when my Mom-in-law called to discuss some covert topic with John I went upstairs to work more on organizing the tiny elements in my appointed creativity area. Then John came to me needing advice about a dilemma he and his Mom couldn’t decide on. A Christmas present had been purchased for me, but she knew that I wanted it and needed it before the holiday…so what did I want more, the gift now – or then? Would I be disappointed to know early what I was getting for Christmas? Would I be upset that I didn’t have anything to open on Christmas day? These questions were posed to me and after thinking it through I decided to accept the gift early. I am more than happy to recall on Christmas morning what I’d already been gifted with. Yes, I like surprises but since I had determined what the gift was, after recalling the conversation on Thursday and John’s attempt at being cryptic but not completely covert, I was very happy to have the table brought over on Saturday night.
The table is the perfect height, and the chair is comfy! I have a foot stool that belonged to my grandmother underneath the table for when I need to elevate my legs, so there is another comfy bonus to my little sanctuary. So now my craft area is set and I have spent many happy hours there already. The space is still a little creatively messy – but it will all be put right in a while. As soon as I get another lamp I will be complete! I am so delighted with how all our hard work of getting things rearranged worked out.
Sunday was so much fun decorating the house and putting ornaments on the tree. I like the new tradition we’ve started with Nic and Jen, I hope it is one we can continue for years to come!!
Now…if we can just get the garage done…
Other projects that I had planned for the week:
Get our garage organized so we could get to a few things, including the Christmas decorations.
Rework our extra room to make a designated crafting place.
And a bunch of other “smaller” projects, I had hoped to accomplish.
Monday morning I started working on my list then got completely overwhelmed.
The hardest part of big projects is figuring out where to start.
John and I had tried to make conscious efforts to keep from just throwing stuff into the garage – we had it organized at one time but over the past twelve months the plan just crumbled… so the task of cleaning it up and reorganizing it again seems daunting.
So after discussing it with John I turned my sights towards only one big task in my list of intentions. Make the designated craft space in the room upstairs.
This project would actually accomplish two things on our long-term desires, I would have a place that I could call an actual “craft area” and our dining room area would be restored to – well, a dining room area. A place where we could sit and eat without having to figure out where to put the layouts I was in the middle of, and so on. So after reassessing the battle plan I started working on it Monday night.
At first it didn’t seem too difficult. Pick things up and take it upstairs.
But then I thought, once I get it up there where is it going? So the plan of attack was to pull things out of the room to make a space to put the “new” items. So shelves got reorganized to clear off places for the boxes and baskets of accessories, embellishments, tools, etc. of my scrapbooking addiction.
Then there was the parting of things that I eliminated from the mass collection – duplicate beanie babies (how did I manage to get a duplicate dog? What am I doing with a toucan? How come I have three of the same Winnie-the-Pooh bean bag?) And other strange questions arose as I culled the herd. (The strangest things pop into my head when I’m working and distract me.)
Once that step was completed then the job of bringing things upstairs started. I lost count of how many times I went up and down our stairs. Its only 12 steps for crying out loud! After two days of moving things around and hauling stuff up to the room I felt like I had trekked up Notre Dame again – which made me smile when I thought of the happy memories of the trip…again, with the stuff popping in my head!
And if moving items to the upper level weren’t enough of a task, I then needed to organize and figure out workable storage for all the items. I had no idea how long it would take to sift through a bunch of little things. WOW, it was unbelievably time consuming! I don’t remember how many tiny pieces of approximately 1 x 2 inch scraps of paper I parted with, why was I holding on to ones that small anyway??
By Wednesday the front room and dining room were cleaned, spruced, and restored to a living space. The upstairs room now had organization and I couldn’t wait to get started scrapping in my new space. All I lacked was a table, chair, and more lighting. No worries, we planned to head out during the weekend and find them and at the same time possibly take advantage of the huge sales.
Part of my in-laws Thanksgiving Day traditions is that once the feasting is done the newspaper ads for the weekend sales come out and everyone sifts through them looking for the deals they’re willing to go early for. John and I looked through the ads for a table and chair, all the while enjoying the laughter and oohs and ahhs with everyone else. When asked by his Mom what we were looking for we told her about the previous couple days’ activities and that we needed the table and chair to complete my space. She said that it sounded like the items would be good Christmas gift ideas, but we explained that I didn’t really want to wait that long to get them. I have a goal of trying to finish the Paris project before the end of the year after all… so even though we didn’t see anything in the papers that was what I had in mind we decided that sometime that weekend we might get out and looky-loo.
We had only planned to relax and enjoy the weekend, shopping wasn’t really a top priority so we spent the couple of days after Thanksgiving prepping our home for our day with Nic and Jen to come over to help decorate. So on Saturday night when my Mom-in-law called to discuss some covert topic with John I went upstairs to work more on organizing the tiny elements in my appointed creativity area. Then John came to me needing advice about a dilemma he and his Mom couldn’t decide on. A Christmas present had been purchased for me, but she knew that I wanted it and needed it before the holiday…so what did I want more, the gift now – or then? Would I be disappointed to know early what I was getting for Christmas? Would I be upset that I didn’t have anything to open on Christmas day? These questions were posed to me and after thinking it through I decided to accept the gift early. I am more than happy to recall on Christmas morning what I’d already been gifted with. Yes, I like surprises but since I had determined what the gift was, after recalling the conversation on Thursday and John’s attempt at being cryptic but not completely covert, I was very happy to have the table brought over on Saturday night.
The table is the perfect height, and the chair is comfy! I have a foot stool that belonged to my grandmother underneath the table for when I need to elevate my legs, so there is another comfy bonus to my little sanctuary. So now my craft area is set and I have spent many happy hours there already. The space is still a little creatively messy – but it will all be put right in a while. As soon as I get another lamp I will be complete! I am so delighted with how all our hard work of getting things rearranged worked out.
Sunday was so much fun decorating the house and putting ornaments on the tree. I like the new tradition we’ve started with Nic and Jen, I hope it is one we can continue for years to come!!
Now…if we can just get the garage done…
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