That Darn Cat

I'm sitting at my desk, just staring at the mess, and I looked to see what time it is. Looked at that really cute clock I made with pictures of my girls, the one that makes me smile every time I look at it. Except now! Why IS the secondhand bent straight out at a weird angle? Why WOULD the secondhand be bent straight out at a weird angle? HOW would the secondhand be bent straight out at a weird angle? MMMMMM maybe if a cat saw it moving and jumped up on my desk, onto my laptop which is always open and always on, and then proceeded to jump up to try to catch the moving secondhand???? YA THINK?

Ok, I'm complaining a lot and doing nothing. This waiting for the room to be cleaned out is killing me! I've picked my colors, my floor, my furniture. Designed the layout, thought about a desk, a chair, etc! I know, all this I've kept to myself, figured why share it if it doesn't seem to be happening.

I think the first thing I'm going to do is take an ad out on Craigs List and get rid of the snake. Yep, I said snake. He's 15 years old and lives in a 55 gallon fish tank, on the furniture in this empty room. He used to be in my room, till the cats went crazy, before that he was in #1's room, since he was hers, but she ran out of room in there. I need him out of #2's room so I can have people come look at her furniture.

Anyone want a cute 15year old Florida King Snake?

Bad Mother

My daughter will be home in about 3 weeks to visit, and I know she will not finish in her room. I'm wondering if it is wrong to actually sell her furniture and put her stuff in boxes till she can get to it? Is that like packing her up and pushing her out? Is it wrong to want her room this badly? I don't want her to feel I'm more interested in having my own space than having a place for her to stay. I love my girls, and of course they are welcome to stay here as long as they need. BUT REALLY!

I'm so ready to move on! Girl cat snuck past the screens somehow and once again stole a flower off my desk. My husband wants to know why I can't clean up, why do I leave everything out. He does not understand that once I take the layout apart, I'm never going to remember what I was thinking with it. I think I may actually order myself some of those boxes with the magnets. You know, the ones that keep your layouts together when you are not finished with them?

I'm really not happy scrapping here any longer, I guess I could clean it up a little better, that might help, but her room has been sitting empty for a year now. She has been home twice to visit. By next month she will have her wedding date picked, does that mean I can pack up her room?

Will doing this make me a bad mother?

ARRRRGH

I was having such a nice peaceful weekend, the weather is beautiful and I got some quality outdoor time with my husband and the dog. I was even scrapping! Even though my desk was a mess, I was able to work on a few different layouts at the same time, printing, looking for papers, finding embellishments. I am trying to prepack stuff in case I go on any crops in the near future.


I had bought these very pretty flowers at the Expo, took just one of them out to use on this layout, the color was absolutely PERFECT!




This is what the flower looked like....

and this is what I found left of it on my desk, my desk that had stuff ALL OVER IT and had screens up blocking the entrance to it!

Anyone want a cat, or two??

Why I Have to Move!

Well, I'm kind of back on track here. Figured out the Kobo, really not too hard once you understand what you are doing. Spent some quality time with #1 last night shopping. Gotta grab those rare moments while I still can, and now I'm back in my corner. I'm supposed to be cleaning up so I can prepackage some layouts. My girlfriend and I are thinking of doing a weekend crop next weekend, if there is still room available, but this desk is such a mess, I am procrastinating! So here I am....

As I already mentioned, I love how my corner is put together, everything within reach, BUT I've run out of room! It's gotten so crowded here, and I have to keep the Cricut Expression in #2's room, bring it in here, and clear off room when I want to use it. Which, as you can imagine, means I hardly ever use it at all! It's too much work!

When I sit at my desk now, I'm actually reaching at a weird angle, because I can't fit with all the stuff on the floor!

I have upgraded my printer, something I wasn't going to do till I had room, but mine went and I couldn't see not getting the larger one now, except it doesn't fit!

Worse than running out of room I discovered something else that put me over the edge! For some time, I was losing things, finding things on the floor, out in the hallway, on the stairs, I just kept saying, I'm too cluttered, it's a mess! Then one day I came upstairs and found DD#1's girl cat (we call her "girl") sitting in the middle of my papers, when she saw me, she jumped and ran, and everything on my desk went flying in all directions!

For awhile, I kept moving things off, chasing her, but it didn't work, so I devised a way to put screens up blocking her. No good! It deters her most of the time, but she has found her way past them a few times.




Just this last week, I found DD#1's "boy" cat sitting inside the screens! (yes, we call him boy, both have real names, just this is what stuck).

Now understand, I've been here for years and my two well mannered felines do not come on my desk! Paige is too sweet and old, she just comes around my feet,






and Skylar, well, no better way to say it than he's just too fat! At just under 30lbs he's not jumping on anything!

So now, along with the clutter, I have cats getting in here, and these large screens right behind me. Most days now I turn around fast in my chair and crash into the screens, which sends them flying into the banister, or down the stairs.

Coming to my "Happy Place" just isn't making me happy anymore!

Something New

Well, instead of scrapping, or working on getting rid of DD's furniture so I can have her room, I went out and bought an EReader. I purchased the Kobo from Borders. Too bad I have no idea what I'm doing and am ready to throw the darn thing out the window!

I'm thinking maybe I should let it charge completely before I try anything else, or really get totally frustrated with it. I should learn my lesson from my IPod which is sitting in my desk drawer with only 100 songs on it, for the last 4 years since I can't ever remember how to add songs to the darn thing! Or, for that matter, now that my computer was fixed and the Tech deleted everything from it, how to get ITunes back on my computer!

I need a kid in the house! It's times like these that I really miss the girls being here, not that they would help me, but there was always a boyfriend around that could answer any questions I had.

Well, #1 will be home tomorrow night and hopefully she can help me out with this new toy, might as well get her to get my IPod working also!

have a good night all...

Is Something Wrong With Me?

Ok, I admit it, I need help! Really! Do you think there is something wrong with me, when I'm laying in Yoga, during deep relaxation, and the music is soft and no one is talking and instead of making my mind blank....

I'm decorating my scraproom in my head?

It's been a busy weekend for me, along with normal life, I tried to spend as much time as I could on ACOT's Online Summer Crop. For those that have never done it, it's so much fun! Games, challenges, loads of nice people and great ideas.

I was only able to get 5 challenges done, not bad out of 10. Did not have time to play any games, nor do any of the fastscraps.

Challenge #1 was to scraplift Creative Team member's layout...

This was the layout I scraplifted from FairyMouseMom's gallery....



and I came up with this based on her layout...

Challenge #2 was to get your inspiration from the following ad....



this was the layout I came up with....



Challenge #3 was to use the 6, 7 and 8, meaning 6 of something, 7 of something and 8 of something. I used 6 flowers, 7 lines of journaling and 8 pictures...



Challenge #4 was to take any piece of ugly paper...



and use it in a different capacity. I used my cuddlebug to make flowers and buttons. I cut out a journaling circle, and used a punch for little butterflies.




Challenge # 5 was easy, just scrap an old picture. Since I am still working on pictures as far back as 2004, this was not a problem for me!



and finally, what was probably my favorite challenge, #9, scraplift an old layout of your own!

I picked one I did a few years back of the girls on christmas day...



and did this with it....


Hope your weekend was just as productive!

My Happy Place

Now, finally, to where I'm at now. I call it my Happy Place, and honestly, I love it! DH did an amazing job giving me exactly what I wanted, and for the most part, it worked. I say "worked" because, alas, I have outgrown it. Or, better said, my supplies have outgrown it!

When the girls outgrew their playroom in the attic, DH asked if I wanted to move up there. I thought about it briefly, but decided it was too far away from the hub of the family, and since the girls were now young adults, I did not want them thinking back and remembering that their mom was always locked away in the attic scrapping! I loved being close to them and all that was happening, so I decided to stay outside their rooms.

We got rid of everything that was in my corner to begin with and started fresh and new. Thank goodness for Michaels and their storage sales! Everything purchased at 40% and some things even with that special 50% coupon!

Here is a picture of the finished product:







Although the space looks big, it's the same 6ft wide by 5ft deep space I always had right at the top of our stairs.



The first wall on my left has 8 units (stacked two together) in various stages of 4 drawers, 3 drawers, and paper holders (under the desk)





On top of that DH cut plywood to be my "desk" all around in a U-shape. He put one shelf about 8 inches up, and on that I stacked plastic drawers which I labeled for easy identification.





My main work area has two Iris carts under it with tools and files in it, and two Making Memories Embellishment centers on the wall.




When I turn my chair to the right, I have two more drawer units another Making Memories Embellishment Center, and my printer.






To finish everything off, DH put shelves along the top, which hold more paper, scrapbooks finished and unfinished, boxes holding finished layouts not yet put in a book, and idea books and magazines.








I truly love my area, everything labeled and right at my fingertips!

coming next: Why I have to move!

Winging her way home!

I got some great news yesterday! DD#2 is heading home for a quick visit! Basically she is coming home to book her wedding venue, BUT she told me she will clean out her room some more also! Not sure which is most exciting for me, the fact that I will see her soon, we will book a wedding date, OR that I can start my room!

First Scrap Corner

Hello Fellow Scrappers! Been awhile! A few things going on here, first DD#2 has me calling around looking for wedding venues, and second I have been searching my computer for pictures of my first official scrap corner! Only found one, yet I know I just saw a few of them!

Anyway, I moved upstairs to the little alcove outside the girls bedrooms. The desk was already there, I added one of those nut and bolt holders with the tiny drawers to the wall, it held the few little things I owned at the time. I had researched online and found that people were buying the metal cube sets at Target or Walmart and assembling them differently to make a paper holder, so I did that.

I then purchased a canned goods rack, the kind you put on the back of the pantry door, put that on the wall, and underneath that I had a drop down shelf. This gave me a place to actually do my scrapping since the desk had the desktop comuter, printer, and the racks with the paper on it, left me very little scrapping room. I was able to drop down the shelf when I was done, and that gave me in and out access to the area.

I also purchased baby wipes in clear plastic containers, used the wipes for work and used the containers as holders for all kinds of things.



I now had an official place to scrap!


coming next.... My Happy Place!