I was featured....

One of my favorite BLOGS to read is The DIY Show Off. I love looking at before and after projects. I inspires me to do more.....I'm always thinking of projects I would love to do.
I submitted my blog post about the scrapbook re-do to The DIY Show Off and I am featured today.

Here is the link: http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/ . Still trying to download the button to show that I was featured.

Hope everyone had a good week.

Staycation

I think the past week and 1/2 defines the true meaning of STAYCATION. Here is the run down of our Staycation, in no particular order:

* 2 Blizzards
* roughly 50 inches of snow in 5 days
* Schools & work closed an entire week
* counting weekends, President's Day and the Friday before the storm that I had off, we were
off for a total of 11 days
* I baked brownies, chocolate chip cookies and monkey bread cake.
* We played many games of bowling on the Wii, we played board games and did puzzles.
* Cleaned the house really good 2x and did laundry just about everyday.
* Ran the dishwasher just about everyday (usually it is every other day).
* Had two cups of coffee everyday (usually only have one in the morning).
* Shoveled the snow, played in the snow and went sledding in the snow.
* Scrapbooked with a rengence:
* sorted all the pages I had already scrapped and organized them into books.
* started my 365 Project - the idea is to take a picture everyday of the year and keep them
in this cool scrapbook with lots of cool embellishments - I on the other hand decided to
document our lives a week at a time. I think I will be able to maintain this better.
* I completed 18 scrapbook pages and looked at lots of old pictures of the girls.
* made Valentines for friends and teachers.
* made Valentines for Daddy.
* Ate a ton of comfy food....turkey chili, grilled cheese, french toast....might be comfy but not too
healthy!!!
* read a book - "Precious". Even tough the circumstances that surround this young girl's life are
horrific, it is a very inspiring book. I loved it and it is a easy read.
* Went to the grocery store 2 times (to stock up for the blizzards).
* stayed home without leaving in the car for 6 of the 11 days.
* went to the movies and ice skating(doing this today).
* Looked at WBAL, WJZ and Foot's Forecast more than I am willing to admit.
* Blog surfed at least every other day.
* Blogged 5 times.
* Watched lots of the Olympics this weekend (love the moguls).
* Picked up after my kids CONSTANTLY.
* Spent lots of time snuggling with my hubby and the girls.
***MOST of all I truly enjoyed my unexpected time off and quality time with my family...without the hustle and bustle of normal daily life. I have also confirmed that WE as a family are "homebodies".

One of my goals for the year was to try and live a simpler/slower lifestyle....thanks to the snow I was able to fulfill this goal for a short period of time.

Hope all my other Maryland friends and those who also we affected by the snow enjoyed their slower pace of life without going too stir crazy.

My Valentine

I consider myself a very LUCKY girl. Almost 13 years ago I married to most wonderful person....my best friend and love of my life. Sean is funny, passionate, loving and caring. He is an amazing father and husband. He is my HERO.

Happy Valentine's Day

I love you!

Scrapbooking Room

This post is a little overdue. Some of my readers have visited my house and have seen this room, others have asked to see pictures. When we moved into our 4 bedroom house several years ago we quickly realized that the spare bedroom became a dumping ground for lots of miscellaneous items. To me is seemed like wasted space. Only one time in 3 years did someone spend the night and use it as a spare bedroom. So my bright idea was to make it into a scrapbooking room for me and the girls. As always Sean was a little skeptical of my idea. So September 2009 we got to work.

Here is BEFORE:

The walls were a Navy Blue. The room is small to begin with and the dark walls definitely made it seem smaller. There isn't a closet because the previous owner closed it off and opened the wall in the other bedroom to make a closet.

So after several layers of primer and a few layers of much brighter paint, here is the new room:

Of course I had lots of scrapbooking supplies and arts and craft supplies to fill the room.

When my scrapbooking stuff was in the basement I already had the drawer cabinets. Sean made a countertop to put on top and extended it around the wall so the girls had their own work space. We added wall cabinets and shelves. Now everything has a place.

The girls love the room and all the fun stuff they have to use to create. I love that we can all be in the room at the same time and all have our own space.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my room. I love that I can find everything and it is all organized. The room gets quite messy sometimes but that is ok....proof we are enjoying and creating in our wonderful space.

Crocheting 101

On my long list of things I want to learn or do was crocheting. I have very vivid and fond memories of my mom crocheting when I was little. I remember pulling out the yarn for her and spreading it all over the floor. I never really had an interest until I got older and unfortunately I didn't have my mom here to teach me. But I am lucky to work with an amazingly crafty gal... Elisa. She scrapbooks, crochets, knits, plays multiple instruments and is a genius on the computer. Elisa was kind enough to have a lunchtime lesson. It took a while to get comfortable holding the needle and yarn all at the same time. I also figured out I am very stressed and it reflects in my crocheting!!! I tend to crochet very tight. I had to really pay attention to loosen up my stitches. My first project was a hat. It was suppose to be "one size fits all" however because I crochet SOOOO tight it ended up being SOOOO small I don't think it would fit on a newborn's head.
So I moved onto a new project: a scarf. It was a one skein scarf. It took about a week and I pulled out several rows before I was happy. Here is the finished scarf:

Valentine's for friends and teachers

With Valentine's Day quickly approaching and since we were snowed in, the girls and I worked on homemade gifts for friends and teachers. I didn't get to the store to purchase Valentine cards before the snow so I gathered some supplies and this is what we made.

For their school friends:

And for their teachers:

Nothing better than homemade gifts from supplies you already have on hand. The girls had a ball and they look cute.

Blizzard 2010 in pictures

This is HILARIOUS. It is a bit shaky...I couldn't stop laughing.

SNOWED IN

I feel like I am stuck in a snowglobe and it won't stop shaking. We have about 2 feet if not more and it is still coming down hard. It is not suppose to stop until later this evening.

So here is what it looked like around 9:30 this morning. Don't think we will be going anywhere for several days.








And here is what it looks like inside:

Sean's playing the Wii, the girls were doing school worksheets (already done one pack and they are beggin for more), brownies were baked last night, turkey chilli in the crockpot for tonight and TOYS everywhere. LOVE spending time with my family. If there is one good thing about the snow it slows us down and gives us time to do things we may not do as often as we would like...play games, read books, put together puzzels, do arts and crafts, watch movies and just cuddle with the ones we love.