Organize your Stuff: Week 9(round 5): Embellishments

The POW apologizes for being a day late with this post.  We woke this morning on Samoa and found that we missed Friday all together! LOL!  Actually, she finally found a few spare minutes in her hectic sans Fabulous Spouse life to get this up, and Blogger was down. Sad Face. :(

The POW also has a warning that this is another picture intensive post. …so, consider yourself warned.

Now that we are in Round 5, most of our embellishments have been corralled. Zen Master Wookiemouse did a fabulous job on her blog (here) of listing all the different ways and means of storing embellishments.

She stores hers by color, but Creatve Me still thinks in terms of brads, buttons or flowers. So, that is how we have organized. OCD is proud that once organized, we have kept the system up. However, it must be noted, that this did not all happen in one week… or even one round. PA Me has made sure of it. However, that may also be why we have been able to stick with it (unlike our annual New Year’s resolutions!)

Here is our eyelets and beads (organized in round 2).

Our brads (round 3)

Our buttons (round 4)

So, what is left? you ask. Flowers. Yes, they grow like faux dandelions in the garden of your embellishments. And yet, Inner Hoarder has such a hard time walking by and not picking them up! Even now that we have a flower making Cricut cartridge, they seem to just bloom upon our shelf! We are still contemplating how to store them in the end game. Any ideas?

As promised on Wednesday, here we are with our many military layouts (promise that these will be the last ones for a while) from Christmas Break.  Fabulous Spouse has sucessfully finished his training in California, and landed a short while ago in South Carolina to finish his stateside training.  We wish him luck!

Welcome to MNFI

The Palace where Fabulous Spouse worked

Embassy rooftop pictures

Charlie's Angels photo op

5K Fun Run... in the desert

Hope you have a Happy New Years Eve!

Organize your Stuff: Week 9(round 5): WOYWW 134

Whirlwind Wednesday is upon us! Time to whip up a picture of your desk/ crafting space and post it for What’s On Your Work desk Wednesday (WOYWW) hosted by the always Awesome Julia over at the Stamping Ground!

Here is our desk this week.

With the return from Las Vegas, Christmas preparations, and the impending departure of Fabulous Spouse for all parts sandy, it has definitely slumped in the organization department.

Lucky for us, Fabulous Crisann is giving those of us at the Two Peas in a Bucket Organize your Stuff Challenge until January 1st to complete week 9 embellishments. *Phew*.

Also, here is our Week 8: Projects and Kits…still a work in progress, but as organized as it is going to get this year! It took us until today to figure out how to turn off the cloaking device that PA Me had employed… after all, We are an elf/ baker/ crafter/ taxi/ Mommy God…not an Engineer! (Ok, maybe that last one was going just a bit too far. LOL… maybe).

As for layouts, here are a few that Creative Me pumped out in an effort to complete Fabulous Spouse’s Iraq album. Not Chritmas-y, but done... We will put them up on Friday with the Week 9 pictures.

Speaking of whirlwinds… here are some pictures from this past week. (please skip to the end if you do not want the family pics and info).

Fabulous Spouse took us out to the Purple Cafe & Wine Bar for our last date.  We got a great table by the window, ate some fabulous faire and had two great flights of red.  If you ever go, the salted caramels are to DIE for! (We even brought some home to share with the kids.

We finished the Christmas Cookies. Here is Girl Friday making Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies with Fabulous Spouse. (There is nothing sexier than a man in the kitchen making yummy desserts).

Then the kids had the annual Christmas Pagent for the Children's Mass. Oldest Child was an Alter Server, and the other two were in the Choir of Angels.

Then we went home to decorate the tree for Santa, hang the stockings, eat some pizza, and track Santa online at NORAD (and nothing says Santa is real like the US Military tracing him with its spy satellites).

Then of course, there was Christmas Day. It may have only taken 13 minutes to undo hundreds of elf hours of labor.  Fortunately, they all seemed happy at what self elves found.  Oldest Child even got some obsucre game that has not been made for several years (acording to him, Santa has an e-bay elf who tracks down that sort of stuff).  They claim that they were super extra good, as they got more than their three gifts that they requested from Santa.

Then, the next day, we had to take Fabulous Spouse to the airport to send him off to Afghanistan on Virgin Airlines (insert terribly inapropriate joke about flying a virgin to prevent the terrorists from meeting their fourty in heaven).

Tuesday, we sat on the couch and did nothing. :)

Today, we blog hop! Happy WOYWW!

Organize your Stuff: Week 8/9(round 5): WOYWW 133

Welcome all to another wonderful Wednesday! Woe was the day when we only had our own desks to stare at us! We now have the WOYWW (What’s on your work desk Wednesday) world where we wander wistfully amongst the desks of our cyber craft pals, thanks in no small part to the Absolutely Awesome Julia, masterful mistress of the Stamping Ground.

Also, Happy Hanakkah to all those Jewish readers around the globe! Keep those driedels spinning and the gelt flowing! (my kids love Hanakkah gelt!)

Well here is a bird’s eye view of our desk today. WARNING: long post. Just skip to the end if you just want to see the desk!

Creative Me worked on the card below on our Las Vegas vacation (finished up about $170 for the week at the craps table…not bad for my $40 a day budget), but had problems uploading. BTW- Super thanks to the fine Pit crew at the Las Vegas Hilton (soon to be Las Vegas Hotel) for letting me take a couple pictures at the table! You guys rock!

Therefore, when we got back, Creative Me was able to break out the buttons to make it more like the inspiration photo for her Design Team entry for Tuesday Trio’s Sketch #98: Inspiration Photo. Such a cool room with all the bubbles and circles.

The POW is interrupting at this point for an infomercial for Snickerdoodle Cookies (as promised) from two weeks ago.

Snickerdoodles: a Crinkle Cookie (Betty Crocker Recipe)
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup stick butter, softened
½ cup shortening
2 large eggs
2 ¾ cups (or 1 lb by weight) flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
Cinnamon sugar (1/4 cup sugar & 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (204.45 C).
2. Cream together sugar, butter, shortening and eggs in a large bowl.
3. In small bowl, mix flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
4. Add dry ingredients from small bowl to creamed ingredients in large.
5. Shape dough into 1 ¼ inch balls (approximately).
6. Roll balls in cinnamon sugar mix, and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet (they WILL spread)
7. Bake 8-10 minutes or until set (they will not brown).
8. Cool at least 1 minute on cookie sheet, then move to wire rack.
9. Eat. :)

Commercial Over. Now, on to the family segment!

We have been super busy, and probably will be until Fabulous Spouse leaves for Afghanistan after Christmas! We started with Las Vegas for Fabulous Spouse’s conference. Thanks FS’s company for an awesome last week of work trip!

While we were gone, Grammy was in charge. She had lots of places to go and children to ferry about. Our thanks to her is beyond words! Here we are at the American Girl Store with Girl Friday the day before she left.

Grammy’s last day was a wrestling tournament for the Illusive Middle Child. He lost three, but won the fourth match by a pin in the second period, snatching 3rd place in his paring group. (We love these tournaments, because it is SO cute to see Illusive Middle Child wear his medal to school all week afterwards).

Then we took Grammy to the airport after quickly changing into holiday attire for the Company Christmas Party (ironically…Las Vegas themed!). After spending two hours in park on the highway due to an accident, we finally made it home.

However, next day, we finally needed to track down a tree. Got a beauty at a cut your own (according to the kids this one is a 15 year old…from checking the rings). Gotta love the adjustable tree mount! It only took seconds to set up at home, just swivel and lower the latch when the tree is standing the way you like it. (For any single folk out there, definitely worth the $20-$40 investment, as it has saved our sanity may a time… especially the year that we did Christmas with a 2 month old, 2 year old, and 6 year old and no Fabulous Spouse…as he was out to sea).

The kids were especially happy to find out that there were two baby calves on premises that needed fed. The Christmas tree farm owner gave them carrots and let them get some quality cow time! LOL!

Tired yet?! Next day was split between Oldest Child’s solo at the Middle School Christmas Concert….

… and Illusive Middle Child crafting his pinewood derby car for the races in January.

Is it time for Christmas yet? Have fun running about for your holidays! Hope that you have time to sit back and enjoy it! Happy WOYWW!

Organize your Stuff: Week 8:(round 5): WOYWW 132 Vegas Edition

Today is Wednesday, and that means WOYWW (What’s On Your Work desk Wednesday). Today we come to you from the fabulous Las Vegas! Fabulous Spouse is on travel, and we are here with him…thank you Grammy!... and thus our work desk for this week was supplied by the Las Vegas Hilton!

We turned the whole room into a giant workshop, and went a little crazy. Good news is, December daily is half done (which is good news as so is the month!). Sorry, this is a heap of pictures. For other desks (with hopefully less pictures) visit Julia at the Stamping Ground!

Also, this week, we had to use a technique that we had not used in a long time for Technique Tuesday’s Sketch #97. This was a tough one for Creative Me, as we use most of our techniques rather regularly. However, if truth be told, we could not remember the last time we broke out our embossing powders (because they are just so darned messy! LOL!). and Voila! Technique found!

On the home front, we are preparing for the Holidays in earnest. We have seen Santa… (Fabulous Spouse’s Christmas party) and made gingerbread houses (more went into the tummies than onto the houses. Of that, we can assure you.

This week is kits. We will try to tackle them when we get back. Remember, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! *Wink!*

PS-next week we will have the recipe for snickerdoodles as so many have asked about them!

Organize your Stuff: Week 7(round 5): Ideas part 2

Here is one of our Christmas Cards.  Creative Me was using paper from Theresa Collins when it needed just a little something more. What a great Idea! She ended up using the cuff from our Starbucks Peppermint Mocha.

Ok. This is our fourth time visiting Idea Week. The first time (round 2), the Inner Hoarder used her Jedi mind tricks and convinced us that these were not the magazines we were looking for. Move along…

However, with repeated visits, we have made progress. The second time (round 3) we momentarily subdued the Inner Hoarder, and started thinning the stash by cutting out the ideas that we liked, and discarding the rest of the magazine. A few magazines in, OCD Me was horrified at the mess, started contemplating filing systems… and then PA Me got us distracted.

Last round, we had a small breakthrough with the POW’s realization that most of what we used for ideas and inspiration were inside us or on the internet. However, since PA Me and the Inner Hoarder had been passing notes when nobody was looking, nothing got done…again.

This time, OCD Me was having none of it. We were going to make a dent in this pile of paper and finally allow some trees to complete their circle of life and be recycled. Now, you must realize, that we have magazines going back to 2000 or so… So, there is A LOT of paper to purge.

It may or may not have taken a little liquid courage to bypass the Inner Hoarder… and a lot of duct tape! But we did it! By the way, Our Girl Friday is 4 feet tall!

As for the family, we have been doing things other than being human measuring tape. We have been in full Santa preparation mode. Santa visited Girl Friday at Girl Scouts, where they were collecting toys for terminally ill children.

Santa also came to the Carols and Cocoa at the Elementary school where Illusive Middle Child was singing.  Living up to his name, Illusive Middle Child stood in the back row, and was rather hard to photograph in his reindeer antlers.

Next Santa sighting…the Company kids Christmas Party this weekend. Boy, the big guy gets around!

Organize your Stuff: Week 7(round 5): WOYWW 131 & Ideas

Time make your list and check it twice!

It is Wednesday, which means we’ve got to check and see desks both naughty and nice! Ok, We have Winter Brain Freeze, but it IS WOYWW (What’s On your Work Desk Wednesday).

Here is our neglected…and therefore naughty desk…

To see the rest of the list please check out the always nice Julia and the Stamping Ground!

This week, Creative Me was challenged to make a monochromatic color card for Tuesday Trio’s Sketch #96. We toyed with purple for Hanukkah, and red or green for Christmas… then settled on blue because the kids were complaining that we had not gotten any snow yet this year… and they NEEDED a snow day.

Part of the slowness in our creativity has been caused by family overload, and PA Me and the Inner Hoarder putting up one last stand for the decade old magazines that really really needs to be purged for this week’s part of the Organize your Stuff challenge. We are on round 5, and it still has not been tackled. The POW says we need some liquid courage and to duct tape the Inner Hoarder and PA Me in a chair.

Maybe.

Also, this weekend, we had double duty birthdays. First, Illusive Middle Child turned 9.

Then, Oldest Child hit the big one and turned 13. We are not old enough to have a teenager. Fabulous Spouse went on his drill weekend. Oh, and the plague struck. The boys were nice and mature enough to at least get sick in the bathroom. Girl Friday caused us to discover horrible new smells in the car. We hate stomach bugs.

Kids are recovering finally. Lots of extra laundry done. Better birthdays than Christmas! Oh and we have been baking! White Chocolate Macadamia Nut, Oatmeal Candy Cane Pecan, Dark Chocolate Orange, Snickerdoodles and Chocolate Chip cookies down…only like a dozen kinds to go!

Time to start hopping!

Organize your Stuff: Week 6 (round 5):One Little Word

Can you believe that it is December 1st already? How time does fly! It seems like yesterday that we were choosing the word to represent our year. Now the year is waning, and we are sure that it was an apt choice.

It is that time again for those who are participating in Ali Edwards’ One Little Word to sahare your word and your homework. Our word for this year is: EMBRACE… and that we have! Ali’s prompts have indeed been a point of reflection, as we share our November homework, and latest 9 Patch…

We think that the greatest lesson that we have learned over the last 10 months is this… that EMBRACING is more than a hug, It takes two to EMBRACE. We hope that your word has been meaningful to you… and look forward to the last prompt of the year!

If you were blog hopping for this OLW, you came from Debra and are headed to Sam.  It goes live at 8AM PST.  For the whole list, visit…

Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com/
Julie Ann http://julieannshahin2.blogspot.com/
Jill http://jillconyers.typepad.com/
Monica B http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/
Nikki http://www.inkyart.com.au/
Debra http://blakleyhomeplace.blogspot.com/
Amanda http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com/ <---you are here
Sam http://learncreatedo.wordpress.com/
Lynn http://crafty-creativity.blogspot.com/
Cynthia http://paperpapereverywhere.blogspot.com/
Jan http://mysimplelittlelife.typepad.com/
Jenn http://studiojenn.blogspot.com/
Cindy http://seriousplay.typepad.com/
Lisa http://backtoallen.com/writers_blog

Organize your Stuff: Week 6 (round 5): WOYWW #130

Wow! What a whirl wind week! We are here again at WOYWW (What’s On Your Work desk Wednesday), where we wander willfully throughout that world and oohh and aahhh at others desks. To see others, visit Julia and the rest at the Stamping Ground!

This is our work desk at the moment. Here is OCD Me’s tight shot.

…and the slightly more realistic wide angle by the POW.

Since this is the Pacific Northwest, and it is after November 1st, we are officially in the rainy season. No, seriously!! Last week we had traffic diverted because salmon were LITERALLY crossing the road …to get to the other side! …when the rivers began to overflow.

So, when Creative Me went to create her design team card for Tuesday Trio’s Sketch#95: Anything Goes, she could not resist this digital image of Flopsy in the Rain by Crafty Sentiments Designs.

Since last Wednesday, we have celebrated Thanksgiving (a major turkey dinner and tryptophan coma inducing feast here in the United States), demonstrated our black belt in Black Friday no holds barred freestyle shopping (Inner Hoarder scored well in the electronics, clothing, AND major furniture catagories), gave blood, and spent the day supporting Illusive Middle Child at wrestling. …and that just takes us to Saturday afternoon (and last post *here*).

If that were not enough, we had TSO (Trans Siberian Orchestra) that night! If you ever get a chance, this is a MUST GO. The POW (and all of our children) say, “Put it on your bucket list!” We have gone every year since 2008, and every year the kids cannot wait to go back as this is our one present to the family…an experience rather than a gift. We dress up in full Christmas best. This year Girl Friday chose red sequins. Illusive Middle Child requested a “real” tie. Oldest Child requested a clip on tie that “will not choke me”.

Sunday, we started moving Girl Friday into the room left vacant by Awesome Auntie. Monday, we watched the Original Grinch who stole Christmas on TV. Tuesday, we put up the outside Christmas lights. The POW is overwhelmed, and it has not even hit December 1st yet!

However, we always have time for you! Wednesday is WOYWW on the couch, and a cup of coffee! Thank you Julia!