Organize your Stuff (round 6): Week 4: Paper

Congratulations, All! We have made it to Paper week. Noooooo…. Yes! Actually, as painful as it is, having a firm control of your paper will make the creative process SO much easier… and therefore Creative Me SO MUCH happier. Just work in 5 to 10 minute chunks. Anything more will overwhelm you, and PA Me will take over and lock OCD Me in a closet…and really, we need her to do this.

There is digi paper and real paper for scrapbooking. This layout uses digi paper (reusable and takes up only a thumb drive of space).

…but today, it is all about the real paper!

There are three different things to consider when sorting paper.

First, horizontal or vertical storage. There are different schools of thought on the subject. Most Local Scrapbook Stores (LSS) use horizontal storage to show off all those awesome patterned papers that the Inner Hoarder wants to invite home. Plus side- great visuals. Down side, if you are not doing a lot of turnover, there is dusting and light exposure to consider…and that this storage method uses a lot of real estate. However, if it works for you…awesome!

solid color cardstock

At our house, after some negotiation, the POW vetoed Creative Me and the vertical storage in favor of horizontal storage. PA Me gets out of dusting, the Inner Hoarder gets more paper, and OCD Me gets to use the label maker. The label maker makes all the difference!



by event/subject



Second, sorting method. If you get this one correct the first time around, let us know, because OCD Me and Creative Me are constantly tweaking this. For the most part, we are happy with the solid cardstock which is sorted by color. Then we sorted our patterned paper. The paper that we sorted by stripes or spots, we rarely use. Instead, we have evolved into a hybrid of manufacturer vs. activity files. Now all of the sports paper is together, and the Valentine’s Day paper is together…except if Creative Me thinks it is generic enough to live by manufacturer.

by manufacturer

Creative Me sometimes says to herself… “I just want something with that Graphics 45 feel…” or “this just needs something from Simple Stories…” or whatever manufacturer with whom she is currently in love. The cool thing is, that over time, many of the manufacturer colors will coordinate. Sometimes that “Side B” that you never thought you would use from two seasons ago will work perfect as an accent with that one piece from this season that you HAD to have (OK, Inner Hoarder got two pieces each from the whole line…shhhh….)

This leads us to number three, Purging. It is time to distract your Inner Hoarder. This is where the Jedi Mind Tricks, those blackmail pictures from High School, and the disclosure of your secret stash of snacks are all used against you. The Inner Hoarder guards her paper almost as much as her memorabilia. (This is not the memorabilia you are looking for…move along). If you have been scrapbooking for more than 5 years, this applies to you. We admit, the Inner Hoarder still has paper from 1998 that she is sure that we will use…someday. The POW and OCD Me knows that Creative Me never will…but try telling that to the Inner Hoarder. If leggings and bell bottoms can come back into style, so can this paper (no, it will not).

We challenge you to purge or “donate” 10 pieces of paper…or tell that Inner Hoarder that she can only buy 1 piece for every 3 that you use…purging the 10 pieces will probably be easier. It will hurt. But in the end it will make you happier. (Schools, Girl Scout units, Women’s shelters and Children’s Hospitals are great places to donate).

As usual, here is the Mr Linky if you want to share your blog or your picture of your paper storage...

Organize your Stuff (round 6): Week 2&3: Brainstorming & Cleaning

Wow, it looks like we survived Week 1 of Round 6 of the Organize your Stuff Challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket pretty well. The POW is so happy that so many of you have decided to take this journey with us! Creative Me is on the equivalent of a sugar high, as she did more creating in the last 8 days, than she has done in the last 6 weeks! So, space audit complete!

Housekeeping: We are going to try and post a layout and a card every week to keep you motivated, and challenge you to create something…anything… as well. Here is our layout for this week:

Well, it is time for the first tweak to the patented Zen Master Wookiemouse 29 Step Program. In the first 5 Rounds, the POW has noticed a few trends. First, that before Week 1, there are 40-60 people who will post their need to Organize. About half will show up for Week 1…figure out your problem areas, and Week 2…brainstorming. But, when it came time to actually start cleaning, suddenly the thread was dead. Everyone’s Inner Hoarder and PA Me suddenly found hall closets in need of cleaning and errands that needed running.

By virtue of your making it to Week 2, your inner cleaner (OCD Me in our case) has at least some control at this point. Before our Inner Hoarder and PA Me get too organized themselves and realize that we are going to put them to work, it is time to distract them with thinking up their dream space while The POW and OCD Me start straitening up.

Say what?! Week 2 is traditionally called Brainstorming week. In the past, that has meant that now we have our list of what works and what doesn’t, we now picture our perfect place and savor it so that we have direction to move forward. Channel your inner Martha Stewart, and plan your scrap space just like you plan the way that you are going to spend that winning Power Ball ticket… oh and take a picture of your space.

The picture is for you to realize how far you have come…when you are frustrated because you have realized that you have been Jedi mind tricked for 3 of the last 5 weeks and you are not sure that you have made ANY progress, and it might be just easier to give up. Do not give up! Pop in your copy of The Princess Bride (and if you don’t have it, you really need to rent it) and remember that you can be mostly dead all day, and still come back and save the day. Break out that picture and rejoice. At least one pile is missing.

Our Scrap Space:

Now, we told you that we were going to show you the good, the bad, and the UGLY. Here is our UGLY. Now, OCD Me really, really, really wanted to pick up before we shot this, but as we tell our kids… we will never lie to you (intentionally).

In our defense, PA Me LOVES the TLC show “Hoarders: Buried Alive” and this is her attempt to get a professional to come in and clean it for her. Really though, it is the downward spiral of having Fabulous Spouse activate and leave for Afghanistan the day after Christmas and then having very well trained children “saving” everything for their Dad. Lesson Learned: Do not let your Inner Hoarder in charge of the kids…. OCD Me is not blameless. When we cleaned any other part of the house, what we had no place for came in here… Since the POW was too busy keeping the house going, Creative Me barely had time to slip inside, except to make a card for The Front to send to Fabulous Spouse. Literally, it has been 9 months since we did a layout!

Week 3 is time to start cleaning. There is two versions of cleaning in the School of Wookiemouse Organization: Start Small/ Spot Clean and Go for Broke/ Clean Sweep. In Round 2 (our first round) we Went for Broke. If you can do that, it really does make the process easier. Your OCD Me will feel like she has conquered our Flat-surface-it is (thank you Barbara for that term!), and your PA Me will be able to ignore the boxes , and the Inner Hoarder will not get too upset because nothing has been purged yet.

We are Spot cleaning this time around…This is harder, because PA Me and the Inner Hoarder keep reminding OCD Me that there are SO many piles, and so much more to do, that she might as well give up now. Again, do not give up. That is why we are doing this as a group. If nobody else does, we have your back! The only consolation with the clean as you go method is that Creative Me knows where everything is, and with the Clean Sweep method she tends to get more frustrated.

Review:
1.Think of your perfect Scrap Space (ours has a full service bar, a maid, and a nanny on staff)
2.Take a picture (you can link it in below)
3.Decide if you are going small or going big (and start to box up if going big)
4.Create something…always remember to keep Creative Me happy…she has the immunity idol and is essential to not getting OCD Me voted off the island!

Link in for anything Week 2/3 you want to share :)

Organize your Stuff (round 6): Week 1: Make Something/ Space Audit

Welcome! Today starts the 6th round of the ever popular Organize your Stuff Challenge at the Two Peas in a Bucket website. The original challenge was hostessed by the ever venerable Zen Master Wookiemouse in May of 2009 (We’re not worthy!). She was followed by the Always Awesome Crisann for rounds 2-5. Now it is time for us to step up to the plate, open up our own crafty dojo and see if we pass on some of their organization mojo!

For those who are new to our blog, when we first started organizing, we found out that it was/is a LOT harder than we had planned. That was when I realized that when it came to scrapbooking…and the mess… it was not really I, but we. The different parts of myself were at war over everything, and so rather than dealing with the growing mess, we just agreed to disagree and the mess grew.

The personalities that we seemed to recognize within ourselves are on the sidebar and are as follows: The POW (Plays with Others Well)… chief negotiator and moderator (the sane part) and ironically hostage to the rest, OCD Me…the reason we are organizing, PA Me (Procrastinator Anonymous)… the reason we have not gotten to organizing yet *squirrel*, the Inner Hoarder…the reason that everyone drops out when we hit memorabilia week and have that paper from 1987, and Creative Me…whose fault this whole crafting thing is in the first place. Theoretically, there is a Budget Me, but we think that she got walled up some years ago a la Tell Tale Heart and we get a niggling thump from time to time that $$ is something that should matter but then we remember why we ditched her in the first place!

Enough about us…

This week we are channeling our Creative Me and OCD Me. We know, we know. These two do not often work together well. Just think of it at a ying and yang zen kind of thing. We want you to Create this week! If you are a scrapbooker, create a layout…card makers, make a card… art journal-ers, journal. Whatever it is that you love to do right now…do it. If it turns out that you cannot finish, that is ok. In the immortal words of Nike: Just Do It!

While you are creating, have your OCD Me take notes. Really? Yes. We want to find out what works and what does not. …and the three foot pile of un-put away prior projects is a legitimate entry in the does not work category. The thing is, 89.7% might be perfect…tool caddy, lighting, brad storage…etc. List those. We will be looking to you for suggestions on those weeks, and you can slack off and *gasp* work on that memorabilia (that is not the memorabilia you are looking for, move along…)… or not! LOL!

We are looking for your week spots. If you ignore everything else, you want to tune in to the Does Not Work weeks… and remember- Some of these will not get fixed. That was a really hard thing for OCD Me to handle. When the universe goes tilt…or you get suckered into that Walking Dead Marathon before the start of Season 3 (you know who you are)…or PA Me and the Inner Hoarder Jedi mind trick you into avoiding it because they are just not ready to deal (memorabilia). Just let it go…we are pretty sure that there will be a round 7.  :)

Oh, and one last thing. If you do not have a blog, they are super easy to create, and an easy way to post progress. NOT required, but The POW found that it kept us on track when we posted something every week…even if it was just a picture. It kept that pesky duo of PA Me and the Inner Hoarder from derailing us too much! The POW is going to try and figure out the linked in thing, so you can share every week. So, if it is not here on Monday, check back. Note: there is no Technology Me. Good Luck!

Review:
Create something! Feed your inner Creative Me.

Document at least your top 3 Works for Me/ Does Not Work areas (or more). Empower your OCD Me.

Extra Credit-Share what you have created/ are creating (if I can figure out the Mr. Linky thing). Wednesday is a good day to do that as there is a large WOYWW (What’s on your workdesk Wednesday) group that will visit your site and give you the encouragement you may need…

Here is ours:

Likes: Paper storage, inks/copics,stamps, tools
Doesn't work: Kits (we have no Idea what is in them), memorabelia piling up (cannot find my fine point scissors), work space too far from embellishments  

Link in to share what your Creative Me did!  

Organize your Stuff (round 5): WOYWW161 & Independence Day 236!

Happy WOYWW! …and to those of us in the United States… Happy 4th of July a.k.a. Independence Day! So, you know about the 4th, but what is this WOYWW of which we speak? It is What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday. The day hen crafters (and those of us who like to snoop) hop around the blogosphere to see a world of workspaces and projects! (and make a friend or two along the way). As always, we are hostessed by the Fabulous Lady Julia of the Stamping Ground.

Our desk…again is but our laptop and hard drive and digi bits…

While the POW is uber happy to still be on holiday, Creative Me cannot wait to get home to her more tactile papers, paints and inks. That is not to say that Creative Me cannot whip up digi magic when the need arises. Here is a layout Creative Me snapped together from an event that happened just yesterday…over in Afghanistan!

Photoshop Elements and the internet are a wonderful thing! Who’d a thunk that pictures taken 24-hours ago, half a world away could already be scrapbooked!

(**The POW Warning: family stuff from here down. Scroll to the end if you are here just for the desk**)

For a treat, we have a picture of Fabulous Spouse’s desk. This was taken on his birthday last week (note that the cupcake has no frosting…stupid mail monkeys lost the frosting-mailed at the same time as the cupcakes-…until 2 days after his birthday). Big changes in the works for Fabulous Spouse on the Front as his boss is headed back to the United States… which means a new Major General. (Ok, Creative Me cannot help but breaking out into the Pirates of Penzance’s “I am the very model of a modern Major General” every time we see Major General, just because it makes milk come out of OCD Me’s nose. You cannot take us anywhere).

Oldest Child is learning to drive… the riding lawnmower. He actually got most of the grass…ok 75% the first go round. He is settling into teenager-dom in style, preferring to hang out in the house on his Kindle then with his family. Ok, unless food is involved or said Kindle is threatened to accompany us, he will opt out. I guess it does not help that it is between 90-100 degrees F (32.2-37.7 degrees C) here.

Illusive Middle Child is taking to sailing like…well the son of a Sailor! (and grandson of a Harbor Pilot). He is mastering the one man Opti, and he and Oldest Child took out Grampy’s two man sailboat. He has managed to not capsize yet (we were pretty darned sure that the two man boat was going down several times during her maiden voyage).

Girl Friday was amazed by the thunder and lightning storm that came through and the 85 mph winds that accompanied it (we do not have thunder storms in Washington). However, the Beach is her favorite (that and trying to convince us that a hermit crab needs to come home with us). We are convinced that half the North Carolina seashells will make their way back home.

Finally, seafood! We went to the Crab Claw for the bucket of seafood (crab, mussels, clams, shrimp)…and Girl Friday opted for dinosaur chicken nuggets. We are pretty sure that it is the first time in recent memory that the adults finished dinner before the kids!

Have a happy 4th of July! Thank you Fabulous Spouse and all the soldiers, sailors, and marines that sacrifice to keep our Freedom! Happy Blog hopping!

Organize your Stuff (round 5): WOYWW 160

Wow! It is Wednesday again! We know, we know. Wednesday happens the same time every week, and yet it always seems to catch us by surprise! Today is WOYWW (what’s on your work desk Wednesday). It is our chance to share our desk and peek at those (who are way more crafty) around the world. The always Awesome Julia at the Stamping Ground is our hostess with the mostess (and the POW envies her organization to pull this off every week)!

Here is our desk this week…

Ooops, that is not a desk, it is a laptop! Well that is because we are at my parents for the 4th of July/ Independence Day holiday with the tribe. Rather than taking a bunch of stuff on the plane, the POW decided that a laptop and our digi files was all we needed.

Here is the layout so far… it still needs some input from Fabulous Spouse, but we are working our way through the disc of photos we received in the beginning of the month.

The POW also wants to apologize on behalf of all of us for missing the last two weeks. The kids’ last two weeks of school were insane! So, we have been in hyper overdrive overcommittedness (ODC Me wants to let you know that our spell check does not recognize that as a real word). Real words or not, there has been very little crafty time, bloggy time, or down time.

Creative Me has been stuck in the car with the rest of us going from point A to point B to point C and then back to A with the rest of us. Therefore, the only craftiness that we have is a digi page that we did in Photoshop for our 31 Days class with Ali Edwards at Big Picture Classes (the focus is the journaling prompts not necessarily the layout), and now this. We have a laptop, will travel!

The POW and OCD me have been also in discussions. We have come to the realization that round 5 of the Organization Challenge is derailed beyond repair in our lives. So, we are going to regroup, enjoy our vacation at Grammy’s house, and perform an intervention with PA Me and the Inner Hoarder when we return. If that does not work, Creative Me knows where we keep the colored duct tape…. Hmmmm..

(***The POW warns that there is family stuff from this part out. Scroll to the end if you are just here for the desk***)

Fabulous Spouse is still working 18 hour days for the General on the Front. As a birthday present, he got to go on a field trip for 36 hours (no pictures from that yet). Our mail monkeys (the same ones that fixed the airplane in Madagascar 2) delivered the box of cupcakes, the box of REI socks, but not the box with the frosting, candles and other snacks. We guess that is the price for living in a war zone! However, he did get a picture of his P90X workout team. (sing with us: one of these things is not like the others...ours is the one in yellow) :)

It is hard to believe that Oldest Child is finally moving up to High School! He spent the last two weeks getting a bunch of awards (requiring being driven to extra events).

This was made interesting by the addition of the character/ female girl, "She-who-must-not-be-named".  Oldest Child ditched us at the Track banquet to spend time eating with She-who-must-not-be-named, then She came to his concert to watch him recieve the Most Improved award. Oldest Child even dressed up for the last Thursday of school, where the 8th grade semi formal...and She-who-must-not-be-named was in attendance.

He even missed the last day of Freshman Football week for this! He is the boy in the middle with the bright green top!

As for the others...the little guys have been afoot making mishief.  We celebrated their 1/2 birthdays on Father's Day, and had a wild time at the local pool!  With winter birthdays, there is nothing like celebrating when your kids CAN come, in the spring!

Next we were off to brave the air travel from Pacific Northwest to the Outer Banks of NC (with only a 4.5 hour layover).  That was ok. We were on a mission to track down some Chic fil A chicken (not served in Washington...ok there is one in Bellingham, but that is practically Canada).

Tummies full, we arrived, and the fun began! Family time at the pool when the seas were too rough to take the boat out.

Mongolian BBQ with real East Coast Wonton Soup (mmmm) a quart got sent home by the Inner Hoarder and she ate it for lunch.

Finally, it was Monday, and the boys were off for two weeks of sailing camp! We wish them well and very few capsizes.  We love them!

We will be here to blog hop and chat back, so please drop us a line!

Organize your Stuff (round 5): One Little Word- May

Today is June 1st, which meant that it is time for us to share our May Homework or the One Little Word (OLW) Class by Ali Edwards at Big Picture Classes, where we pick a word for the Year, and live it…and document it.  Margie at Nihao Cupcake organizes us and has the master list of homework hoppers!

Our word for this Year is Journey. May’s homework was to create a task list for your word in your life. There are ongoing tasks, and more concrete ones.

Here is our list (ok, the first 5…)

For those who may not know, we chose Journey for our word because Fabulous Spouse left for a year in Afghanistan the day after Christmas. 2012 was definitely going to be a Journey. This month we reflected on that and what we wanted out of this Journey. We definitely did not want it to be a trip to some deserted island of isolation, so what were we doing, or did we need to do to thrive… and make this Journey a great Adventure!

So, #1: Enjoy the Journey. If you cannot embrace (our word from last year) your situation, you cannot thrive. We are thrivers! (is that a word? OCD Me says no.)

#2: Engage your friends. Life is an island when your only support person is the cat. (Although, we do love her dearly). The POW cautions that this does not mean that we become that stalker chick friend that causes people to change phone numbers and block calls. Rather, it means that at least once a week we need to get our Creative Me heads out of the scrap room and off the computer, and have lunch or do something with another live person. Live people are good for us. (but not in the creepy zombie eat brains kind of way! LOL!)

#3: Faith. This one we were kind of doing before January, but the POW wanted to step it up a notch. Right about the time that Fabulous Spouse was deploying, we were invited to be a part of the Long Range Planning Team for our church. This was a big, time intensive project. We almost said no. However, we went to the first meeting, explained our situation, and they asked us to stay and give what we could. 6 Months in, and we have only missed 2 meetings due to conflict with kid schedules. Faith is more than showing up in prayer once a week, and we have learned a lot about our church in the process. We need to work that. (downside, we have been really bad about showing up for that once a week prayer…babysteps… LOL!)

#4: Have Fun with your Kids! This has been ongoing and hopefully will be. The POW has to remind us sometimes that we are not the only ones affected by this Journey. Our new “normal” impacts the kids as well. When they look back on this experience, we want them to remember it with pride and fondness, not that it was something that they endured.

#5: (My only specific task) Walk a 5K. Oldest child is training for football…and the football team 10K, the others are active as well. What kind of an example are we if sit on our bottom while we expect them to sweat and play? Writing it down really helped to motivate. May 17th, we did it. 50.42 minutes…and our knees have not forgiven us, but that is OK.

Here is the Hop List:

Amanda http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com/ 

Cheri http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com/
Veronica http://www.veronicanorris.typepad.com/

Kelly http://mindingmynest.com/

Carolina http://www.micinnamons.blogspot.com/

Naomi http://poeticaperture.com/

Missus Wookie http://www.mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com/

Brighton http://www.simplebrighton.com/

Jill http://jillconyers.com/

Cindy http://seriousplay.typepad.com/
Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com/ 
Monica http://scrapinspired.com/tag/one-little-word/
Jenn http://www.studiojenn.blogspot.com/
Lisa http://backtoallen.com/category/challenges/one-little-word/
Kimberlee http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com/
Donna http://holimess.blogspot.com/
Monica B http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/
Ruth http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com/
Kara http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com/
Nikki http://www.inkyart.com.au/

Organize your Stuff (round 5): WOYWW 155

Well, Wednesday is here again, and that means that that we are one week away from the WOYWW’s bloggiversary! What is WOYWW? It is What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday… when the crafty bloggers from around the globe get together and link up to show their spaces and (if we are lucky) some of the crafts. Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground to see the whole list!

Here is a peek at our desk…

Creative Me is busy at work on our WOYWW Anniversary ATC…so, no peeking!

If you want to swap outside of the link up next week, contact us at scrappnbee@yahoo.com

Creative Me has also been busy at work stretching her journaling skills by starting the 31 Days class by Ali Edwards (who also teaches the One Little Word Class) over at Big Picture Classes.

The POW likes this class, because we can feel like we are multi-tasking…being on the computer (as we seem to spend much of our days these days) and digitally scrapbooking our pages for the daily prompts. Creative Me likes the journaling challenge. OCD Me likes the fact that everything looks so neat and crisp, and the Inner Hoarder is just hoping for the chance to go digi scrap shopping.

(**The POW’s Warning: Family stuff here on out. Skip to the end if you were just here for the desk**)

Over on the Front, Fabulous Spouse’s Tour Guide Barbie days are over as he has been scooped up to be a member of a General’s staff. He found out on Thursday, and had to pack out by Sunday, and is now in the process of checking in to the American Base and his new (read longer hour with less atta boys) job, and is back to being the new man in the room and on the top bunk. So, I have another layout from the Joint Visitors Bureau instead of pictures...

This was our birthday week, and so The POW let it be all about us for a change. The little guys took their birthday mom out for dinner at The Ram (mom still had to pay though) and a slice of birthday ice cream pie.

Oldest Child was out of the house on a backpacking overnighter with the Boy Scouts, but we made up for it by going out for birthday dinner #2 (actually on our birthday) at the local Japanese Steakhouse… a once or twice a year treat for the kids.

Girl Friday and Illusive Middle Child started summer prep swim lessons. Girl Friday just happens to be the only girl in her class this year, but that does not make her any less girly or pink.

Illusive Middle Child had his last cub scout meeting as a Bear Scout. To celebrate, we made smores (roasted marshmallows in a graham cracker sandwich with chocolate. A week from Thursday he becomes a Weblo Scout (aka- junior Boy Scout). The Patrol that they chose…Atomic Squirrels (the patch glows in the dark).


SO that is our week.  Off to check out the desks! Leave me a message and I will do my darndest get back to you!

Organize your Stuff (round 5): WOYWW…back from hiatus

Well it is that time of the week again…Wednesday. And although we have been missing in action the last two weeks (blame PA Me and the failure of the cloning process), all the other crafty folk around the globe have been showing off their work spaces and the cool goodies that they have been creating. The always awesome Mistress Julia of the Stamping Ground runs the WOYWW. Pop on over to see other places or join in!

Here is our desk today…

We are definitely in need of some spring cleaning in here, but as it is Spring, and we have three kids… that means that we are never home, and usually ping ponging between three separate places and wondering when the teleportation app will come out or when the cat will finally stop being a slacker and actually go out for her driver’s license.

Stamps: CTMH, Avocado Arts, Ink: Momento, Copic
Washi Tape: Queen & Co, Ric Rac& buttons: unknown
Glitter: Stickles, Paper: Bazzill

Creative Me threw together this card for Mother’s Day. Happy Mother's Day (celebrated this Sunday here in the US)! Since several have asked, the pointy thing holding up the card is a floral frog. We got ours in the gardening center of our Fred Meyers grocery store (a Kroger company), but I am sure they are available everywhere by power of the internet.

***The POW warns the rest is family stuff. Scroll to the end if you are just here for the desk***

For any who may have worried, all truly is quiet on the Front. Our hiatus was truly PA Me’s inability to find time to post (totally lame excuse, we know). Since we last posted, Fabulous Spouse has met lots of cool people, like the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and a Navy SEAL Admiral (which was more impressive to Illusive Middle Child aka the future SEAL) …without a camera…and celebrated a few holidays, like May the 4th aka Star Wars Day, and Cinco de Mayo (but no pictures again, as this time he was behind the camera).

However, Creative Me did put together this digital layout from April, when he got to have lunch with a Medal of Honor Recipient from the Vietnam War.

As for the rest of the tribe, Oldest Child is finishing his last quarter before going to High School. Our baby is growing up! *sigh* He is currently shot putting for Track & Field… after a brief brush with the 100 meter dash. Boy Scout hiking season is also in full swing, and he actually lead the one last weekend…a mere 8 miles and 2300 foot gain (approx. 460 meters). To think, two years ago, he was bringing up the rear!

Illusive Middle Child has finished soccer season. So now we have just Cub Scouts on the official docket, but he is usually patrolling the neighborhood with his nerf gun (remember, future SEAL). As a matter of fact, we had to get his hair cut because he felt it had gotten too long.

Girl Friday has been a real helper. She is on dish duty most of the time. This is both good news and bad news. Good news- dishes getting done, bad news- the water bill has doubled, as she is running the dishwasher whenever at least three or more hapless dishes meander into the sink. Recently, she went to the Girl Scout Alice in Wonderland dance (in her version of an Alice Dress). She also was the star helper at Girl Scout spring encampment this past weekend… reportedly being the first to get ready and picked up.

So while the Pod People may have come in the middle of the night and replaced them with the Stepford versions of really good, helper children, I am not about to trade them back.  Not for anything!

Off to hop and visit your blogs!  Thanks for popping by!

Organize your Stuff (round 5): One Little Word Blog Hop

 
Sorry that we have been away. The POW has been overwhelmed with family duties, and had to rally all of us just to keep up with who’s on first and what’s on second! However, it is now the first of the month…Happy May Day! On the first of every month, a bunch of us who have chosen a word to follow or embrace for the year (ours is Journey) as a part of Ali Edwards’ One Little Word project at Big Pictures Classes post our homework results from the previous month.

The always awesome Margie at Nihao Cupcake organizes us every month, so contact her to get on the list if you want to share too!

This Month, Ali asked us to write a letter to ourselves that we can revisit next year. It is interesting to see how spot on, or off that we are, in the message that we leave our future selves.

As you can see, Creative me put a little tab on my right now you are… page. That is because Creative Me could not resist jazzing up the page…and the POW has some of the message (the more personal stuff) on the back.
The one thing that we are realizing is that JOURNEY is truly an appropriate word for this year. We continue to be thankful for the super amazing kids, the Fabulous Spouse and the strength that our Faith provides. The POW had truly forgotten how different every deployment can be. It is hard to remember sometimes that while the path remains basically the same, that so much of the Journey cannot be measured strictly by time and distance. What happens inside our heads makes all the difference. …and we somehow misplaced the Clone who was supposed to help with making sure that we all got where we needed to go and the house got cleaned. Hmmmm. Well, we are all here, mostly… and, yes, the cat does somehow manage to get fed twice a day. So, at this point in the Journey, it is a win/ win all around! …now if the Cat could learn how to drive…
If you are hopping, you probably came from Nikki at Inky Art...

Amanda http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com/ <--you are here :)
Rebekah http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/
Tere http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/
Kimberlee http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com/
Brighton http://www.dearbrighton.com/
Kristina http://hrinspirationfromthe403.blogspot.ca/
Missus Wookie http://mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com/
Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog/one-little-word <--Start of Hop
Monica http://scrapinspired.com/
Jamie http://www.jmpgirl.blogspot.com/
Lisa http://backtoallen.com/category/challenges/one-little-word/
Jenn http://www.studiojenn.blogspot.com/
Jill http://jillconyers.com/
Veronica http://www.veronicanorris.typepad.com/
Cheri http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com/
Monica B http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/
Ruth http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com/
Kaylea http://www.myscrappylife.com/
Cindy http://www.cynthiacrysdale.com/
Donna http://holimess.blogspot.com/
Kelly http://mindingmynest.com/
Carolina http://www.micinnamons-en.blogspot.com/
Cindy http://seriousplay.typepad.com/
Naomi http://poeticaperture.com/
Nikki http://www.inkyart.com.au/

Organize your Stuff Week 20 (round 5): One Little Word March Homework

It may be April 1st, but this is no April Fool’s joke! We are here today to share our March One Little Word (OLW) Homework . What is OLW? It is the class at Big Picture Classes where we have all picked a word to represent our year (our one little word). The always awesome Ali Edwards gives us a monthly prompt to capture that word.  It is also a blog Hop, so you might have reached us from Orange Gearle.

Our word for 2012 is JOURNEY. This week, the homework was to do something concrete with our word. So, my magnificent mother-in-law flew out and watched the tribe, while I took three days of ME time at CKC Portland…a whole state (and what felt like an entire world) away!

Stamps:Tim Holtz, Avocado Arts,title: Thickers

Our text for this month reads:

This month I will actually take a JOURNEY. Not in any sort of metaphorical or spiritual way, but a get the heck out of dodge, on the road again, for real JOURNEY! My batteries need a recharge, and I am going SOLO!

This is the reverse side with the details of our trip.  Creative Me was so excited to use her Photoshop (one of the main reasons for the trip was to take photoshop classes) to put the pictures in...and to write on one during the journaling process!

OCD Me has reminded us to keep it short, but is was an AMAZING journey! We always are amazed at the wonderful people that we meet when our heart is open for any kind of a Journey!

Some of the previous posts about our trip are here and here.

Below is the rest of the blog hop list.  Jen is next if you are hopping. Thank you Margie as always for hosting!

Amanda http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com/ <---YOU ARE HERE***

Jen http://www.jenritchie.com/                    <---NEXT***
Melissa S http://blog.mshanhun.com/
Kaylea http://www.myscrappylife.com/
Missus Wookie http://www.mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.co.uk/
Cindy http://seriousplay.typepad.com/
Beth http://www.thesingularlyordinary.blogspot.com/
Tere http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/
Kelly http://mindingmynest.com/
Heidi http://mommy.heidimdavis.com/
Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog/one-little-word *Start of HOP
Monica http://scrapinspired.com/
Jill http://jillconyers.com/
Jenn http://www.studiojenn.blogspot.com/
Kara http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com/
Cheri http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com/
Catherine http://myview-catherine.blogspot.com/
Nikki http://www.inkyart.com.au/
Cindy http://www.cynthiacrysdale.com/
Lisa http://backtoallen.com/category/one-little-word/
Donna http://holimess.blogspot.com/
Coley http://www.coleybelle.blogspot.com/
Naomi http://poeticaperture.com/
Stephanie http://playinghouseinmaryland.blogspot.com/
Ruth http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com/
Eydie http://www.whatwecreate.net/
Janet http://lifeinsideascrapbookroom.blogspot.com/
Orange Gearle http://orangegearle.blogspot.com/

Organize your Stuff Week 18 (round 5): WOYWW 145 & tools

Welcome Wednesday! It seems like you come quicker and quicker these days! If it is Wednesday, then it must be WOYWW time…AKA…What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday. It is the time that we share our creative spaces in all their messy glory (ok there are a few not so messy ones too) as well as what they are crafting. The always Fabulous Julia at the Stamping Ground has the links to over 100 desks throughout the world for us to sneak a peek.

Here is our desk (in the Mariott Courtyard Hotel) from this weekend at the Creating Keepsakes Convention (CKC Portland). It was a wonderful weekend with fabulous new friends and lots to learn!

Most of our learning was done on our new favorite tool- Photoshop Elements. Here OCD Me and Creative Me took copious notes and WOW! …after six hours of classes over the weekend, this is the last of the three one page layouts that we created…

Now, all of the credit goes to Patty Debowski (of http://thedigitalscrapbookteacher.com/). She took us from zero to hero (the POW is eternally thankful for Patty’s patience with all of OCD Me’s questions). Total infomercial: We recommend her to anyone wanting to learn about Photoshop elements! …and she was totally fabulous about it too. (Even posing for a photo!)

*Warning: The POW is letting you know that the rest of this post is family stuff. Scroll to the comments if not interested*

Well, as for news from the Front, Fabulous Spouse is “off the grid” this week on an off base field trip. However, he did send this “Stop” sign posted along the way. It is quite humorous in the English translation. We do not really care where he is, as long as he is safe, and brings home souvenirs!

Oldest Child might as well be of the grid, but he had two more wrestling matches. He lost the one while we were in Portland and then had a forfeit yesterday (making him 2-3 as of now). He has also discovered Xbox live…and his friends who are also on it… *sigh* The POW feels that the upside is that it is one more thing that we can take away when the grades slip….

Illusive Middle Child started soccer…in the freezing rain! ...and has his first game this weekend. We also wrapped up the basketball season at Round Table Pizza with the obligatory awards (and a pull aside by the coach that if we needed a good coach for next year to let him know because our boy has POTENTIAL!)…that makes a mom feel good…except that means more basketball games LOL!

Girl Friday missed her last basketball game this week. She did have one more Girl Scout Cookie sale down town…in the cold with her Girl Scout BFF…

Did we mention that we got Voodoo Donuts from Portland? Awesome!

Now only if we could convince Mother Nature to stop snowing… (picture from today)