First Project

OK so week one is complete and I did do a project :-) My earrings were in a little dish and all tangled up. I've been reading Pioneer Woman's blog and she is on a jewelry organizing kick also so it got me motivated. I have little room so I decided to go for something that would take advantage of my wall space (though there isn't much of that either). So taking these items -

a frame from Goodwill .99 cents, netting .49 cents, glue sticks .08 cents, hooks I had.

I took the innards out of the frame and glued the netting in its place. My original idea was to use the hooks for hoop earrings but that didn't work. Instead I used some twine and made a "swag" type thing on the bottom to hang my hoops from. I had a bunch of the same hoops, go figure. So I did a little sorting at the same time :-)

Now I have this -

I still need to do something with the post type earrings I have but this works for now. What do you think?

2011 Ideas

It's now into the first month of 2011 and I'm settling down and getting focused. In 2009 I focused on getting healthy and losing weight. In 2010 I focused on getting the kidlets settled and shifting my attention back to Manly and developing hobbies together. In 2011 my focus is going to be the HOME!

We live in a 1860's farm house and it's taken a beating with the kids. We have made this place a paradise for the boys and their friends. We have a great outdoor area with a fire pit and a basketball court. We also had a home gym with the decor themed around the local high school. The boys all had bedrooms upstairs and ours was downstairs. I have never liked the bedrooms, they are small and the lay out leaves no room for creativity. I let the boys do what they wanted with their rooms but since they are gone; I've turned one into a guest room, one into the beginnings of a guest room and one I haven't touched. That needs to change.

And you all know how it is. When kids are home you don't worry too much about "nice" things or "grown up" things, you have things that can withstand a family. I'm ready for "grown up" things LOL. The library was the catalyst. I love that room and am ready to now love my other rooms. Manly is starting to slow down now too, he's quit one of his jobs and would like to retire from all of them within 5 years. My goal then is to get this house feeling/looking like a place that can be a sanctuary for him and I but to do so on a smaller budget. We are still paying for one college after all :-)

So I'm going to make a "resolution" to tackle one project a week. Think that's ambitious? By saying projects I'm being generous. Some projects may be as simple as a craft, or the cleaning/purging of something. It could also mean the organizing of some area/job. I know I need to take my Health Coaching to the next level, I love doing it. I also will keep the other things we've started going, the traveling and hobbies.

OK, there it is. Hold me accountable and I'll post "before" and "after" pictures of those things that call for it. Ready.....Set.....Go!!!

When it's busy, it's BUSY!!!!

So my goal of being better on this blog keeps getting side tracked LOL It seems that when things get busy, it's gets busy in spades!

We didn't get to have Middle boy for Thanksgiving because of all the traveling he has done and the amount of work he would have to miss :-( We had the nephew and his family though so that was fabulous! We started a new tradition where the day after Thanksgiving, the boys all get to go to the Duck game together while us girls and kids stayed home and played. Little princess started feeling sick so our plan of seeing a movie went south. Instead, the Little Prince and I went and saw Mega-Mind, it was cute and we had fun.

Over Christmas we were to miss Eaglet and his wife because they were to go to her parent's. I was so sad but trying to be understanding ;-) Unknown to me, the ticket prices were crazy so they decided to come here instead. They were trying to keep it a secret from me but I was so sad, Manly couldn't stand it, he caved and made them tell me LOL. It was a week long celebration with all the kids and my parents staying here. We had so much fun and Eaglet's wife had her first Family Tradition Experience.

Then we had Middle son for the week after and crammed in all the activities and foods he's been missing :-). He flew home for New Years Eve and we crashed at home alone, no annual Bunko party for us, we were so wiped we were almost sick.

The week after Middle son flew home, we flew south for the BCS Championship Game! We are big Oregon Duck fans and season ticket holders. We were able to get 4 tickets so we met up with Manly's brother and his wife, also HUGE fans. We flew into Las Vegas and get a car. We swung by In 'n Out Burger then hit the freeway and drove to Arizona. We did it that way because of a couple reasons. We had a conference that we were going to in Vegas starting the day after the game and flights to the game were nuts. We had so much fun even thought the Ducks lost :-( We really had a shot, they just didn't look like our normal team. Our kids were so jealous we went, but it's just another perk of being an emtpy nester LOL

Then we drove back to Vegas, stopping to see the Hoover Dam along the way as well as the new bridge. It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive. We turned in our car and then went to the hotel to meet up with our friends. We spent 4 days there and then flew home. When we got home we were babysitting puppies while eaglet and his wife flew to visit her family.

We have now taken the puppies back to their parents and crashed again LOL. You are now all caught up on our lives. In the next post I'll get back to business, if you can call it that :-)