Friday, November 30, 2012

Fun Facts :)


Kristy started this on our family message board.
But I don't think this is the direction she wanted the concept to go, lol.
She thought it would be fun to come up with some fun facts. Kristy did the first one.
Well I just happen to be cleaning the kitchen and got a little testy, lol.
The last one was from Wayne, he is a bit more blunt than I am, lol.















Onto My Day:
Went to the dentist (not my regular dentist as he was away on holidays). She said she didn't see a crack in the tooth, but it could be inside the tooth. This tooth has been filled about 3 times.
It is dying and may need a root canal, and later it may need to be pulled.
She didn't like that I told her that I would just get it pulled if its going to have to be done anyway.
But then she thought it was maybe from my sinuses. She did a few tests, and said it sounded like my sinuses.
So I should wait a few days, and to take a decongestant. She thought that the one side of my face was a bit puffy. Plus the pain is also in my face. She told me that the tooth that is bothering me...the nerve goes to the sinuses.
So if I notice my face getting puffy to take the decongestant...screw that, I started taking them as soon as I got home, lol.

I thought this was odd, as I am not plugged up. I could smell the coffee drinker, the smoker and the garlic eater in line at the bank..gross.
But then again, my ear seems to be a bit tender tonight...but plant the seed and it will grow in my mind, lol.

Tonight was Friday Night Scrapbooking :)
I made 12 simple Christmas cards.....I am so close to finishing them.
See I am keeping them simple and no stress of getting them completed in time :)

I hope you all have had a creative Friday :)

Tracy :)

Thursday, November 29, 2012

iPhone for all


Look what I got today :)
I know what your thinking...well that's wasted technology on her, lol.
And you know what, you may be right ;)















Here is my cell phone.
When people see this phone they kind of chuckle..even the guys at the store couldn't believe I had a phone like this.
As simple and old as this phone is...I still don't know how to use all the features, lol.
Can you see my name on the phone...My girls put it on when I got the phone "Mamma Bear". I love that they did that, and even if I didn't, I don't know how to change it, lol.





















You want to know what is really funny. I put an Apple sticker on the back of my phone and my laptop...some have asked me if it was an iPhone, lol
Poor guys knew less then me, lol.





















Here it is out of the package.
It won't be activated until tomorrow afternoon. But I can go on the internet.
The best thing is the phone was free :)
Kristy wanted a new phone (she pays for it herself) so I figured I would help her out by getting one myself and then we could go on the family plan. Turns out they had another great deal on that as well. Then when we went to pay for the phones (which were suppose to be $75.00 each) they wouldn't ring up, so we got them for free!!!
I like free.
 Wayne's plan was up so he upgraded his phone as well...to a iPhone5. He just had to one up us, along with Ashley.





















 Onto My Day:

No migraine today, Yeah!!!
But woke up to my tooth really aching. So I phoned the dentist early this morning.
They asked me which tooth it was. I told them which one I thought it was and they informed me that I had a hairline crack in that tooth ever since 2009. And if that is why my tooth hurts, there really is nothing that could  be done about that...ummmm yes... pull that sucker out.
When I told Kristy that, she was not happy. She doesn't want me to get it pulled.
Even when I told her it was a back tooth and no one would know the difference, lol
Well I will know more tomorrow at 9:10 am.

Thankful Thursday:)
1. Getting a new phone :)
2. Living in a place that I can go to the dentist when I need to.
3. Picking Wayne up from work this afternoon and spending it with him :)

I hope you all had a creative Thursday :)

Tracy :)

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Password Journal


I got to create today :)
Well actually I create everyday. It may not be a full project, but this mind of mine does not stop coming up with ideas.
Today I have made a Password Journal.
I have used Graphic 45 papers and a gorgeous flower from Theresa of my Design Team, Enchantments Scrapbooking & More.
I have also used this pretty brad that I attached like a paper clip.














I had seen this idea about a year ago on Robyn's channel Injoystampin. I was planning on making one then, but it got pushed aside. Then when I went to visit my friend Schell's blog and she had done one. So I figured there is no better time then now.
That and when Ashley helps me with stuff on the computer she asks me what my password is and I can never remember, lol.
Not only did I make this for myself, but this is also a Design Team project for Enchantments Scrapbooking & More.

I had to come up with a template so I could get all the pages the same.
After trial and error and not getting what I wanted. I checked out the Internet for a template on a page design...I found one :)  Wish I would have tried that first ;)
Here is the layout of the page, but you have to print up the words 















Here is a Video I did on this project.

Onto My Day:
Another migraine hit me this morning...it didn't last that long so that was good.
I have been suffering from a toothache the last week or so. At first I just thought maybe my tooth is sensitive....denial, lol.
I had bought some Sensodyne toothpaste to see if it would help, nope.
Then today it seemed to go away...but then I remembered Wayne phoned me to make sure I took something for my migraine, so I think the Ibuprofen helped it.
But I have to say that it feels like the many times I have had to get a root canal. For some reason I am pron to them :(
I guess I am phoning the dentist tomorrow to see when I can get in.

I hope you all had a creative Wednesday :)
I did :)

Tracy :)

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Low day with a High sign.


I had bought this cute magnet for my dad years ago when I was away on a trip.
I plays Scotland the Brave. The reason I bought it for him was because he was from Scotland.
Now when I say it plays, I should correct myself and say that it doesn't play anymore.
It stopped playing completely after my dad had passed away.





















Funny thing is, sometimes it starts to play on its own.
Usually when I am missing my dad.
Well today it played.
I was in the living room and Heather was in her bedroom, the house was silent (as it usually is during the day as I don't watch TV or even listen to the radio during the day).
Then I hear some music..Heather calls out "Mom, what is that?"
My response "My dad came to say hello" :)

If you know me then you know I don't follow any type of religion.
I know many don't believe in these types of things, I'm not even sure if Wayne believes in these types of things...but he knows it gives me comfort and makes me smile so he embraces my belief :)

Onto My Day:
Today was pretty unproductive.
I had a migraine. Lots of times when I get one, I lose parts of my vision.
Today was one of those days. I had no perifial vision in my right eye. I never drive when I am like this. So I stayed home and did laundry.
Kristy texted me on her lunch. I had trouble reading her texts and told her why.
She told me to drink some water, grab her baby blanket and take a nap....what a sweetie this girl is, she is so sweet.
Then when she got home from school came to make sure I was okay :)
 I felt better after the nap, I usually do.
I do feel a bit dippy, but I feel like that on a good day, lol.

Hope you all had a creative Tuesday :)

Tracy :)

Monday, November 26, 2012

Defunkifying my Life Mission 11...My Embossing Folders

Here it is, my organized embossing folders :)
Don't they look all nice...this makes me smile :)
As you know I wanted all my dies and embossing folders to fit into these drawers.
My Cuttlebug area is so close to being camera ready ;)





















Here is the packaging from these folders. I even used some of them to help identify each die.















The embossing folder on the left has the packaging inserted in the CD/DVD envelope so I can see more easily which one is inside.
The embossing folder on the right, I didn't have the packaging for it, so I got the image from the internet and printed it out.
















What another video....yup ;)
Onto My Day:
I coloured 2 images for some cards.
I was going to make a video response for my friends give away..but I didn't get the card completed :(
We will see if I get it done tomorrow...I really hope so.

Did you notice something a bit different about my blog....I am so brave, lol.
I am scared that if I do anything different to my blog I am going to screw it up and delete it, lol.
Thank you Katie for helping me out :)

I hope you all had a creative Monday :)

Tracy :)

Sunday, November 25, 2012

How to re-fill your Copic markers....or not ;)


Today I finally filled up two of my Copics that were empty.
Funny thing was I had the refills for them back in the summer, but just didn't fill them...I'm such a procrastinator.
If you see the markings on the refills, its because I used my staz-on ink to mark them better as they were clear and hard to see.
















I made a video on how I refilled them...I am not sure if this is more of a how to...or a how not to video, lol.
Onto My Day:
Wayne drove Kristy to work for 7:00 am again as he headed off to the cottage to plow the roads.
I stayed in bed and slept in ;)
I caught up on my book work.
I started to colour an image, but am far from finished it. Hopefully tomorrow.

I hope you all had a creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Whats next Thanksgiving in a Box!!

Its our Fakesgiving :)
To check out my older Fakesgiving posts:
Fakesgiving 2011
Fakesgiving 2010

What's Next Thanksgiving in a Box!
Do you remember that commercial?
I was checking out YouTube, but I can't find it. But then again, I don't remember what the commercial was about. I just remember the ol' lady stating "Whats Next Thanksgiving in a Box" lol.
With the joys I have of cooking, yup that's what we had for our Fakesgiving :)















Actually we had two ;) Even though this year it was just Wayne, our girls, Blake (Kristy's boyfriend) and me. Small group this year, but that's how I wanted it this year...sorry family.
The reason we had these is because I hate to throw food away. I don't mind spending money on food, even overspending, but if I have to throw it in the trash because it went bad before anyone ate it, that really gets under my skin.
The last few turkey's we had, I ended up throwing the rest of the turkey out because no one ate it, and I wasn't in the mood to make broth or turkey soup. So I figured I would try this out.
It wasn't that bad actually. The sad thing was... I didn't get any skin. I love my crunchy turkey skin. I know, I know, its not good for me. But as I am carving the turkey I am peeling the skin off and eating it, lol. My family gives me heck for this all the time.





















We had a few different desserts.
I bought Wayne a pumpkin pie. He love pumpkin pie, and no one else does. So I thought I would give him a treat.
Kristy made her famous apple crisp.
And I made my blueberry cheese cake, with my hand picked blueberries from our cottage, yummy :)















Onto My Day:
I got to sleep in. Thankfully Wayne drove Kristy to work for 7:00 am.
I picked her up at 1:00.
I caught up on my emails and coloured for a bit today :)
Wayne is watching the Notre Dame game.
A pretty low key day. Just how I like it :)

I hope you all have had a creative Saturday :)

Tracy

Friday, November 23, 2012

Its a Snow Day


I figured it out!!!!!
Okay, you know that's a lie. Moriah (Fuzzy slippers) helped me with my blog problem.
Even though it said I didn't have any more room in my picasa account (even though I didn't even know I had one) I found a way to still down load photos :)
Seriously this kept me awake last night. Yes I love my blog that much ;)

So I am sure you are wondering what I did.
I opened my photo in "paint" on my computer.
Hit "resize". Changed it to "Pixels".
Whatever the bigger number was, I changed it to 799 and then it automatically changed the lower number. Saved it and then downloaded that photo.

I am not sure if this is a cure for this problem, or I am just adding a bit of time until I am full again. But for now this makes me happy :)

Look what I woke up to...snow and lots of it.
I was a bit surprised because when I went to bed last night we had freezing rain. You could hear the pellets of rain hitting the window.




















I kind of found this funny when I went out today.
Help, Santa has fallen and he can't get up, lol. His poor arm was waving in the wind like he was trying to get Mr. Penguin to help him up....told you its the little things that amuse me.
Or it could look like Mr. Penguin is having his way with Santa...but that's a whole other type of humor, lol.














It was a snow day today.
As in the school buses didn't run. We have a lot of country kids, so they got to stay home, which means the city kids figure they can stay home as well....and usually do.
Except my Kristy. She does not like to miss school. So I drove her.
It was pretty slippery out, glad I have a 4x4.















Onto My Day:
After driving Kristy to school I came home and finished shoveling the driveway. Wayne had plowed a bit before getting picked up for work. He cleaned the snow from the back of the vehicles so Ashley and I could get our vehicles out.
At about 10:30 am the door bell rings continuously (that's how Wayne rings the bell). He decided he didn't want to be at work anymore..plus he couldn't get to his machine so came to the conclusion he would have more fun at home plowing out everyone"s drive way.
Wish I would have known that before I shoveled, lol.

Tonight is Friday Night Scrapbooking. Because of the weather, its just Sharon and I tonight.

I hope you all had a warm and creative Friday :)

Tracy :)

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Copic Storage and Ran out of room :(

I just found out that I ran out of space to upload photos
This is how little I know about blogging and computers, after almost 3 years of blogging. I didn't know that Picasa stored my photos that I put on my blog. Because I just took them off my computer, I thought they had nothing to do with it.
Until tonight, when I tried to upload a photo and Picasa stated I didn't have any more room. Unless I want to switch to Google+ or pay for more space.
I love my blog so much I would pay the extra money for more space...as much as I hate to as I thought Blogger was suppose to be free.
I also find it odd that the same thing just happened to Scrappymo and  I have had my blog about 2 years longer and I also post at least one photo every day.

So I got to upload this photo because it was already in my Picasa album.
















Lets see if I can download or upload this video I did of my marker storage.
Well that seemed to work.
Now I just have to figure out what to do with my blog.
Will I lose my older blog posts if I switch to Google+ ?
I have noticed I can't get on some blogs...and for some reason I think they are blogs hosted on Google+.
I have no idea...I may just have to bite the bullet and pay for it :(
Any one have any ideas let me know...but just remember to keep the technical jargon to a minimun as I am a dunce in this area ;)

I thought today I would post one of my Thankful Thursdays,
But I am pretty bummed about the blog photos.
1. Working from home.
2. The nice weather we have been having..but we are getting freezing rain right now.
3. My hubby for not being to picky on what we had for supper tonight, teehee.

I hope you all have had a creative Thursday.  What are you thankful for today?
Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends :)

Tracy :)

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Vintage mini album...another oldie, but goodie ;)


Today I am going to share with you another older mini album I had made.
I was in a swap and made this for a lady named Katie.
I made it back in April of 2010.
I posted it on my Youtube channel.
I don't normally pay attention to the numbers, such as how many subscribers, how many looks or how many comments I get on a project, I am just happy to receive them.
But this album got viewed 105,566 times, 565 likes and 5 dislikes.
I have also had quite a few other ladies recreate one similar to mine after asking me how I did it, or asking me to make a videos on how I made certain parts of this mini.















Here is the video I had done.
I am not sure why the video is so big. If you want to watch it on YouTube just click on the name of the video in the top bar.
Onto My Day:
I spent most of my day out of the house.
Kristy has a double lunch as she has a spare after her lunch. So I picked her up from school and we went to pick up some tickets for a band that her and her boyfriend want to go to in Dec.
Then I had a few errands I had to do....like pick up my turkey breasts for our Fakesgiving we are going to have on Saturday :)

Spent the rest of the evening vegging on the couch watching Duck Dynasty (Ya, I'll watch anything, lol) and Survivor. Lastly Wayne and I are watching Red Dawn.
I started colouring an image. I got as far as the skin and hair....I hope to finish it tomorrow.

I hope you all had a creative Wednesday :)

Tracy :)

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Copic Papers and how I store them


I have been asked a few times what is my favourite type of paper to use when I colour with my Copics.
Simple answer is X-Press It paper.
But I thought I would share how I organize my different types of papers.
I bought this portable file folder from a stamp yard sale last year. It works perfectly for my papers.
As you know I love to take my colouring with me, so I need to bring my paper with me as well.
This way no matter if I am using my Copic markers or my water based markers, I have the paper for it in this container.  The very front of this is my water paper.















 Here is the portable file folder all closed up. See so easy to take along with me :)















Here is a video of how I store my papers in more detail.
I hope this helped :)

Onto My Day:
It was another beautiful day today. I love this weather, but I know its not going to last forever though.
There was actually a mosquito outside when I brought out the garbage.
Nothing else exciting for me today, besides putting together 2 videos.
I have a few more videos to do. I was planning on doing them earlier last month, but such is life ;)

I hope you all had a creative Tuesday :)

Tracy :)

Monday, November 19, 2012

Defunkifying my Life..Mission 10..the bathroom cabinet.

I thought I would share with you the completed defunking of the bathroom.
You can check these posts for the other bathroom missions. The Medicine CabinetsThe bathroom drawers.
Here is the finished organized cabinet.
Yes we have lots of toilet paper, lol. A family of 5 and 4 of us are females, yup we go through this stuff, lol.
Seriously....do you see that upside down roll of TP!!! I knew I should have unwrapped them before I took the photo. Why does this drive me crazy?!















Here is the cabinet before I started.
As you can see we ran out to pick up some TP tonight. I get a little nervous we were are down to only 4 rolls.
My cabinets through out my home are like big black holes. They didn't come with cool organizing systems in them. I have had to come up with things on my own.
I have always had plastic containers in the middle to hold my cleaners and such, but everything just kept getting pushed back and it was hard to find things. I think it was because the edges were really low on the containers I had in there.
I like to re-purpose things and I had used the containers that my step mom sent us some baking in. You can't even see them in here, as they got pushed back.
The cabinet on the right, I had a two tier shelf in there that I bought. But this thing keep collapsing. I hated it, but I liked the idea of it.















So lets take a closer look at what I did.
The left section of the cabinet holds toilet paper.
I put my cleaners in this red tool caddy. My hubby bought a new tool box and the first thing he does is get rid of the top tool caddy that is inside it. I of course take it, because you never know when you will need it ;)
I like this because I can take the whole caddy out and take it with me around the house when I need to clean.  Actually I only use two main cleaners in my home...Windex and a Lysol, that's it. The other cleaner is just left over from when the store didn't have my usual cleaner.
I have liquid hand soap as I have a dispenser beside the sink.
I put the rollers and such on the thin shelf at the very back, as they are never used. Actually I could probably donate them....but I'm just not ready to part with them yet.















Here are those bins. I hope I fixed them. What I did was put a sticky dot on the pegs that fit into the holes. I am hoping that this keeps them from slipping out of the holes. Here is where I keep our hair blower and older curling irons. Again I could probably donate the curling irons as we use flat irons to both straighten and curl our hair. But again not ready to get rid of them....maybe tomorrow ;)
I put a hook on the door to hang a couple of hair bands, this can be seen better in the after photo.





















Again here is the completed cabinet. Oops my licorice got in the way, teehee.
The layers of TP behind these first 2 are in one of those thin edged plastic containers. I like to keep them from touching the bottom of the cabinet just in case there is a leak in the pipes that run under the sink.















Tips to Defunkifying your bathroom cabinet:

1. Remove-Take everything out of your cabinets. To make it less stressful (or if you have limited time) so one section at a time. I went all out and removed everything...you couldn't even walk in there as the floor was covered.

2. Clean- Wipe down all the shelves the the sides and tops. I actually did the outside of the cabinets as well.

3. Purge- Throw away anything that is expired.
Get rid of sample products, and products that you will never use. That hair product you spent so much money on, but you didn't like it...chuck it out.
If you are worried about all these containers going in the landfill, empty them and recycle the bottles.
Be ruthless, you want to make as much room in here as you can.

4. Sort- Put like things together. It is easier to find something when you need it, plus hopefully your family won't keep bugging you as they will be able to find things as well ;)

5- Organize- Put away and organize the remaining items.

I hope you are following along with me on defunkifying your life :)  If you are I would love to hear what you are working on :)

Onto My Day:
I had to make a few business calls. That was too much for me, so I had to take a nap later in the afternoon, lol.
Then tonight, Ashley had to boil the deer racks that she wants to clean the yucks off of them....oh the things she finds on Pinterest, lol.

I hope you all had a creative Monday :)
I will promise to share something creative with you tomorrow :)

Tracy :)

Sunday, November 18, 2012

I Skyped today!!!


I am no longer a Skype virgin ;)
I got to skype with a blog/Youtube friend this afternoon.
Can you imagine what we did.....create of course ;)
I made 7 Christmas cards :)
I didn't know what to expect from skyping, but I would do it again in a heartbeat, it was so cool.

But before I did that, I went through my embossing folders and organized them. I will share the finished organization with you all on a later post. But I will tell you, there sure is a lot of packaging to those suckers. Evidence in and around the garbage ;)















Onto My Day:
I got to sleep in again...oh I love to sleep in :)
Then Wayne and I went grocery shopping. Later Ashley and I went to get her a garment rack. I will tell you that girl has a lot of clothes. When she buys her own home she needs a room just for her clothes and maybe another one for her shoes, lol.

Then of course tonight was the Walking Dead....I have a love affair with this show....its okay, Wayne doesn't mind, he does too ;)

Hope you all had a creative Sunday :)

Tracy :)

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Half Down, Half to Go ;) And I am Not a Scrooge


Today was a great day..I got to sleep in...late :)
Wayne made sure he was home from work in time to watch college football. His favourite team is Notre Dame. I don't care to watch it, but its funny how when I see them running with the ball, I yell..Run, run, run. LOL.
But then I ask...was that your team?

We ran out to get some treats and kitty litter...oh what a great combination, lol.
So I picked up this cheesecake sampler. Not sure if it can be considered a sampler as the servings are full size.
Can you tell my family loves cheesecake, as we ate half of it. We are like scavengers, we all sit around it with forks and just dig in, lol.
It was funny as when I went into Kristy's room to tell her I picked up some cheese cake, she sat up straight, yelled and ran out of her room, teehee.















Lets take a closer look, I know you want to ;)
There is Brownie Swirl, New York Style, Caramel Pecan and lastly Strawberry Sensation.
My fav's are New York Style, Strawberry Sensation and then Caramel Pecan..oh ya, and if those are gone then Brownie Swirl ;)















Onto My Day:
I slept in...just thought I would share that again, teehee.

Then I decided to put up our outdoor Christmas decor.
This was a tough decision for me. If you know me, then you know nothing Christmasy goes up until December and our Christmas tree never goes up until 12 days before Christmas.
No its not because I am a scrooge as some of my friends may think. Its because I don't want to loose the magic or anticipation of the season.
Do your remember when you were a child and would watch the toy commercials, or go to the stores and see the Christmas displays?
Well I don't want to lose that. I love to see what everyone else is making and how they are decorating, but I don't want to see it in our home until it is closer to the day.
Does that make sense?

But I did put up some of the outside decorations as the weather was really nice today.
When I usually put it out, it is freezing cold, and I am almost in tears from my fingers being so cold from wrapping the garland around the hooks. The older I get the more my hands can't function in the cold.
 But before I put the decor out, I had to tweak it a bit. I added some more colour to my pine garland by adding some Christmas balls to it. I also put together a simple, inexpensive wreath. I will share these on December 1st   ;)

I hope you all had a Creative Saturday :)

Tracy :)

Friday, November 16, 2012

Friday Night Scrapbooking


Tonight was Friday Night Scrapbooking and I actually made a card :)
I have been colouring images for my Christmas cards the last few Fridays, but tonight I actually made a card.
I think she turned out pretty cute.















 She is a Pure Innocence Design and I coloured her up with my Copic markers and paper pieced her dress.
I popped the cloud up with some dimensionals.
Drew in the grass and did a bit of outlining with my black marker to mimic the grass drawings on the stamp to extent the grass.





















Added some more pattern paper to the inside..and of course recipe/index cards for my message.















Onto My Day:
Today was a PD day for Kristy, so no school. Which means I got to sleep in ;)
I took Kristy out for lunch, just her and I. That doesn't happen very often, it was nice just the two of us going out.
Then we went to pick up her boyfriend Blake, as they had planned to do some baking (I am sure Kristy was doing the baking and Blake was the tester).
On our drive there, I got a text and asked Kristy to read it. It was from Wayne informing me that my girlfriends brothers funeral was today.
My girlfriend and her brother lived with us as I was growing up. Her dad and my dad worked the same job out of town, so they lived with us when our dad's went out of town.  Then later her dad bought a place close to us.
We consider ourselves more like sisters then friends.
I had 45 minutes to get ready and go.
I have sadly been to a lot of funerals, but this one was just so touching to me.
He was only a year older then Wayne.

If your wondering why I didn't know about the funeral earlier, I don't read the newspaper. The last time I had read the paper, a baby was found in the trash bin, 2 teen boys were microwaving cats...so why the heck to I want to read that kind of stuff.
I know many are surprised that I am not up on the news.
I don't want to read or hear about these things. I know they happen, I'm not naive. But seriously, why do they have to focus on the negative things that happen in the world.
If there is a big catastrophe, my SIL lets me know ;)
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the news would just focus on the positives in the world...that would be news I would be willing to read or watch :)

I hope you all had a creative Friday :)

Tracy :)

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Mini, mini paperbag album. An oldie but a goodie.


Today I have an old project to share with you.
I had made this paper bag mini, mini album a couple of years ago.
I have many new subscribers that haven't seen it that I thought I would share it again.

Plus I haven't been to crafty lately, still not feeling up to par...but tomorrow, I will be right as rain.
Why is that even a saying "Right as rain" that doesn't even make sense to me. It should be "Right as the correct answer on a math test", now that would make more sense to me ;) 















All of the flowers I made by my own wee hands ;)
I embossed both the large butterfly on the cover and also the punched out one in the cluster of flowers.





















Here is the original blog post I had done of this project "Mini, mini paperbag album".
And here is the video I had made of it. I think this was my 3rd video I had ever done.

This is one of my few projects that I still like. Do you ever look at something you made years ago and can't figure out why you liked it so much?  So many times I look at my older projects and find ways that I could improve them.

I hope you had a very Creative Thursday :)

Tracy :)

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Whatcha Doin'


I got to do some baking tonight.
We had 4 over-ripe bananas, 2 more so then the others ;)
So I decided to make banana bread. The girls love chocolate chips in theirs and I like nuts in mine, tonight I used sliced almonds, yummy. Wayne..he's not picky ;)















This is about 3 minutes after I called down to the girls that I had warm banana bread upstairs, lol.
Looks like a bunch of animals went at the chocolate chip one ;)















Onto My Day:
Today was a pretty laid back day for me, I wasn't feeling up to par. Plus I had to make a few business calls.

So I thought I would leave you with some Whatcha Doin' questions ;)

Listening - Wayne complaining that he can't get the needle threaded...he is mending his work pants.
Eating -  Just finished a piece of banana bread ;)
Drinking - water
Wearing - jammies and my robe
Weather -pretty chilly
Wanting -  to go to sleep
Needing - a warm tub
Thinking -about all the projects I want to make and if I should start a new YouTube channel for my organizing missions
Enjoying - just knowing my family is all in our home safe and sound.....well maybe not sound, I hear the girls laughing downstairs.

I hope you all had a creative Wednesday :)

Tracy :)

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Defunkifying My Life-Mission 9..The bathroom drawers


Who would have thought I could take this many photos of my drawers...not me, teehee.
 These are the after photos...aren't they so pretty and organized :)
















  Here it is before I cleaned it up...see it needed some help.

One thing I do like that I had done years ago was put in these smaller white containers that I bought from the dollar store.
What I also did was put a couple of pieces of Velcro on the bottoms of the containers so they don't move around when the drawers are opened.
I put the soft part of the Velcro on the actual drawer bottoms, so when I want to clean the drawers the soft part of the Velcro won't rip your rag or paper towel.

  So lets dig the dirt on this drawer shall we ;)

As you can see it has a mish mash of everything. Nail polish, new tooth brush, nail polish, hotel soaps, nail polish, emery boards...umm nail polish.
The sad thing is, this isn't even close to all of our nail polishes. And Ashley and I are the only ones that wear it :0





















You know the drill...take everything out, wipe out the drawer and purge, purge, purge.
No nail polishes were hurt during the purging of this drawer ;)

The smaller container holds things for my bath times. I am big on taking relaxing tubs. I light a candle (see the pink lighter), run a hot bath and read a book, magazine and even have a little nap in the tub :)





















This drawer doesn't look as bad..but it was gross. I hate hair. I like the hair that I have on my head, but I hate loose hair or wet hair, just don't like to touch it or have it wrap around my fingers... Blech. Funny that at one time I wanted to be a hair dresser, lol.





















See told you...Gross.

This photo doesn't even show the amount of hair that was in this drawer.
You know how people with more then one pet complain about the hair they have to sweep up. I think I have them beat...4 females live in this house and we all have long hair.
By the time I had finished wiping out this drawer my face was sore from the disgusted face I was making.
See those white squares? Those are the Velcro pads.





















I threw away all the elastics that were shot..as in no more elasticity. And the ones the girls don't like, such as the real thin ones or the ones with sparkle in them.
I put the pins...or bobby pins as my mom called them, in a small container that has a lid.
I put the elastics on a clamp. So they are nice and contained.
I washed the combs and the brushes, that was a chore in itself.





















Here they are all nice and neat and organized.















Tips to organizing your Bathroom Drawers:

1. Remove-Take everything out of your drawers. I did one drawer at a time.

2. Clean: Wipe down the the insides and outsides of your drawers.

3. Purge- Throw away anything that is expired.
Get rid of sample products, and products that you will never use, or anything that is broken, or unusable to you. There were some hair ties that my girls would never wear now as they are older. So I got rid of them.
Also get rid of items that you have to many of. We had way to many hair ties, I had room to store them all in here, but decided we really didn't need that many.
Nail polish is an exception to this rule ;)

4. Sort- Put like things together. All the hair ties are all in one space, not all over. The bobby pins are in their own container. The things I use for my baths have their own spot. I don't have to go searching for a lighter for my candle.
It is easier to find something when you need it, plus hopefully your family won't keep bugging you as they will be able to find things as well ;)

5- Organize- Put away and organize the remaining items.

  Are your other areas still looking organized?
How did you do with the last mission Medicine Cabinet ?

I will share the bottom cupboard on another day :)
Not go and clean your drawers ;)

I hope you all had a creative Tuesday :)

Tracy :)


Monday, November 12, 2012

Defunkifying My Life-Mission 8..The Medicine Cabinet

Here is another Defunkifying your Life mission :)

Today I worked on Defunkifying my Bathroom cabinets. After painting this room last weekend, I wanted to go deep and give it a good deep cleaning.
Don't they look all nice and organized :)
















Here is the before photo.
They are not that bad, but the top shelves were dangerous. Being as short as I am, I had to jump up on the counter to get anything out of those shelves.
And they were so packed with product that things would fall off the shelves, sometimes even when I just opened them...timber...duck for cover, lol.















Here is a close up of the messy cabinet. I really got rid of a lot of expired and some empty containers....why oh why is everyone in my family scared to throw anything away, lol.





















Here it is all nice and organized.
I bought a basket to contain everything on the top shelf. This way I can take the whole basket down instead of jumping on the counter.
On the second and third shelves I have these pull out drawer storage containers and have them labeled.

The labels are:
*Shaving-this holds Waynes razor and electric shaver
*After shave- self explanatory.
*Test strips and lancets- Wayne doesn't have diabetes, but he did have high sugar levels years ago, so the doctor suggested that he test his blood every once in awhile as diabetes runs in his family.

Next container labels are:
*Nails- holds nail files, nail clippers and special brushes for when Ashley and I do our nails.
*Travel- tooth brush caps, travel floss, disposable razors
*Conditioners-hair conditioners that we get in a box of hair dye. There is just something with this conditioner that makes our hair so soft.





















Here is the messy right hand side of our medicine cupboards.
Lots of crap on the first 2 shelves.
I am a bit anal about things matching. So I ran out last night to get another one of these drawer container...I couldn't find one anywhere.
My friend Debbie to the rescue.  I was telling her about my dilemma and she knowing my obsessive tendencies, told me she had one and I could have it.  I can't tell you how much happiness that gave me :)





















Top shelf is another container to keep everything contained. I had to go to 2 different dollar stores to find two of the same containers...yup obsessive ;)
Is it odd that the nail polish in the box bothers me because the bottle is backwards, lol.

Okay onto the contents in the pull out drawers
*Cotton Balls-cotton balls ;)
*Q-Tips-q tips ;)
*Band-aids- band aids ;)

Next container labels :
*Dental Hygiene- floss, floss picks
*First Aid- polysporin, vitamin E, gauze, gauze tape, finger splinter, oral thermometer
*Cold Medicine- Vicks vapor rub, vicks nose spray, cough candies





















Lets look and the completed, organized cabinets shall we :)
Another reason why I like these containers is that it is so easy to take them all out to wipe down the inside of the cabinets. Anything to make cleaning easier is a good thing :)
I will show you the lower cabinets on a later day, as I think I have over whelmed you enough today, lol.















Tips to organizing your Medicine Cabinets:
1. Remove-Take everything out of your cabinets. To make it less stressful (or if you have limited time) do one shelf at a time.

2. Clean- Wipe down all the shelves the the sides and tops. I actually did the outside of the cabinets as well.

3. Purge- Throw away anything that is expired. If you keep meds in here and they are expired, bring them to a pharmacy as they will dispose of them properly. We personally don't keep meds in our bathroom due to the moisture.
Get rid of sample products, and products that you will never use. That hair product you spent so much money on, but you didn't like it...chuck it out.
If you are worried about all these containers going in the landfill, empty them and recycle the bottles.
Be ruthless, you want to make as much room in here as you can.

4. Sort- Put like things together. It is easier to find something when you need it, plus hopefully your family won't keep bugging you as they will be able to find things as well ;)

5- Organize- Put away and organize the remaining items.

  Are your other areas still looking organized?
How did you do with the last mission Your Dresser top?

I hope your aren't overwhelmed. You have a whole week to work on the medicine cabinet/cupboards...so get to work ;)

I hope you all have a creative Monday :)

Tracy :)