Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

hee hee...I LOVE Dori! ;)

October is always the craziest month of all for us and this year is no different. Lots of busy bees buzzing around here and my calendar looks ridunkulous if I say so myself! But it'll all get done, or it won't, but it's all good either way. :)

Scrappy news...

I had some messy fun last night, inking and distressing my paper till it cried for mercy! Take that! ;) Check it out...

You might notice some little "stitchy" dots around the edges. Yeah, I cheated a little. Okay, okay...a lot! I want to sew so badly but time hasn't magically multiplied enough for me to actually have some time to learn. My pretty little sewing machine sits here, lonely and begging for love. But I want the sewn look, so I pulled out my trusty Cutter Bee Bug to do the holes. It's really great to pre-poke holes to hand-stitch, but I'm going with the "doesn't it look like there's clear thread there?" (say yes) That's my story and I'm sticking to it! ;)

In Mom Identity Crisis news, I've been nudged again to try something a bit left of my comfort zone...teaching Zumba. I'm totally Zumba obsessed, taking around 4 classes a week and have loads of the choreography memorized already (thank you high school drill team!). But the idea of getting up on stage, with a mic to blare my admittedly twangy voice, and leading the way with my shigglin' is +more+ than a little scary! But I figure that I have a chance to try just about anything right now, so I might as well go with something that I know I'll enjoy (once I get over my nausea-inducing nerves!) So, I'm registering for training and then I'll have to market myself to local gyms (this might be where my Marla-directed PR dept comes in! LOL)

House-wise...spent all.day Saturday hitting garage sale after garage sale. Lots of goodies for crazy cheap...including a cute little set of steps for Van's bed ($2), an already-black distressed kid chair ($2), a gothic iron & wood mini-screen ($2), a huge red bead necklace ($1), several kids books, a Justice outfit for Lilli ($1), a huge sterling silver serving platter with a tree on it (.50!), and more! The steps are going to be an upcoming project for Van's room. Oh, and my piece de resistance (don't check my spelling on that, just go with it) was the craigslist bedroom suite I got for $75! For a headboard, dresser, mattress, box spring, and frame! Woo Hoo!!! I'm going to resell the headboard and dresser I think b/c I've suddenly found myself dresser-full! LOL :) I can't wait to get going on Van's room...especially now that I've got most of the stuff and can really make a difference in the cute-ness of her space! :)

Got to get ready to shiggle tonight. I'm thinking its going to be a grilled cheese for dinner kinda night. Shhhh! ;)

XOXO...Stac :)

Pantry Pics and a Return to Scrapping...

As promised, I've got pics of our Pantry Makeover Extravaganza!

First off, I have to explain the uselessness of our builder grade pantry.

Its under the stairs, so super narrow (just 36in wide) and had a whopping one built-in shelving unit. Granted, the unit had 5 shelves, but they were super wide-spaced, so I had resorted to a combination of wire stacking units and baskets to make the space work a bit. Oh, and had to add in some random Sterilite drawer units for kid snacks and such.

Unfortunately, I don't have a full-on "before" pic. That man of mine decided it was time to start demo before I could get in there with the camera. But I wasn't about to stop his momentum to get this project rolling! LOL :) So here's a semi-before shot, so you can see the yucky floor & useless shelves.

After one day of super-man work, Bob had made awesome progress! He'd managed to demolish the cabinet, paint the walls & ceiling, replace the floor, and (unseen) install a new light fixture.

Next up was an admittedly expensive trip to Container Store. Between my organizer-extradinaire friend Amy and the fab lady at TCS, we got a great system set-up. I've got shelves galore now...literally have EMPTY spots! Whooo Hoooo! :) Love my new baskets and airtight bins too! :)

On the scrapping front, I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to scrap at all in weeks. But that all changed this weekend! Sooo happy to be back in the saddle, but its always hard to get the mojo flowing at first. Here's one of the layouts I did with bits of goodies I found on my recent desk clean-up...

Off to bed! Got a busy day tomorrow...kids at school, I've a knee doc appt, hair appt, hit the JCPenny sale, assembly at the kiddo's school, gymnastics, costume shopping, dance class, and picking up the truck at mechanic. Yeah, that sounds do-able, right? Right??? ;)

XOXO...Stac :)