Quick Clean-Out

Just dropping by to share a quick clean-out project from last night!  It seems like I have great plans to go home after work and clean-out different areas that have gotten out of hand but then when I actually make it home cleaning out is the last thing I want to do!  I'm planning to have a yard sale in two weeks so I'm trying to slowly make my way through the areas of our house!  Last night I tackled 3 areas - coat closet, cabinets in the keeping room and under my bathroom sink.  

Here's the awful/messy before:

 And the after! 

That whole top shelf on the right is hair products that have been accumulating!  Anyone else have one of those baskets?!  The space in front of the hair products holds a basket with all my "daily" items (deodorant, make up remover, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc) and I pop it back in after I get done using it each day.  The bottom drawer has clear containers that hold nail polishes, extra make-up remover products and travel size removers and in the front are all the samples I get from Sephora, etc.  I LOVE clear containers.  I'm on a mission to slowly replace all my baskets and bins with the clear ones from Bed Bath and Beyond and the Container Store. 

Hope you're all having a great week!

My little organizing buddy is always a huge help!

March Progress Toward Goals

How can it possibly be April already?!  I blinked and the first 3 months of 2014 are gone!  I do love April though, it's my favorite month.  Such a pleasant time of year - things are blooming, the smell of fresh grass and my birthday!  What's not to love?!

I'm still trekking right along on my personal goal challenge from New Years! 

    

 

 

 

1.  Only buy the absolute necessary toiletries/cosmetics/etc
Didn't use up quite as many products in March but alas, there were a few.  

1. TreSemme Conditioner - good riddance!  Bought this huge bottle at Sam's eons ago and am so glad to have this out of the shower and out of my way!
2. Bath & Body Works Brown Sugar & Fig Body Scrub - love this!  You can only get this scent at fall and this year I could only find it online - stores weren't carrying it.  I have noticed that the scent changes the longer you have the bottle, def. smells more plastic like the older it is.  
3. A new favorite lip product!  I will probably purchase lots more of the Tarte Lip Surgence products once I make a dent in the collection at my house.  This was the color "glitzy" and it was amazing!  So smooth, long lasting, not sticky, perfection!

 

2.  No more magazine subscriptions (unless they are free).  My goal is to finish reading the backlog  of magazines in the living room and then start on my actual book collection!  My goal is 1-2 books per month.  

Still loving the Mary Higgins Clark books! They have so many twists and turns.  I read "Deck the Halls" and "On the Street Where you Live" by her as well as "Summer Light" by Luanne Rice.  All 3 were good books that I would recommend.  I also caught up on 4 weeks of People.  Slowly making my way through the stack! 

 3.  At least one blog entry a week.  
Yeah.. didn't too hot on this one again for March.  We've just had so much company + my giant organization project that I still need to share!

4.  Use the elliptical that's literally just  accumulating spider webs in the basement -- get in 20-30 minutes a day on the elliptical and walk Henderson 1-2 times  a week.

January - 56.53 miles 

February - 64.57 miles 

March - 62.27 miles

 

I can't believe I didn't beat my February goal in March!  I've even been walking several days a week at work during lunch!   

5.  Less eating out at work.  My goal is to only eat out 2-3 times a week.  

  I am doing a lot better with this - I do eat out maybe once a week but smaller portions at least.  I've been planning my lunches ahead of time too so that helps with having something ready to go in the morning.  Loving walking during lunch on days when it's not too cold/too hot! 

 

 6.  Since I beat my scrapbook page goal for 2013, I think I am going to go with ... 300 pages for 2014. 
I completed 64 pages in March!  I'm all the way to September 2010.  This weekend I'll be working on the Labor Day Cruise Adam and I took. 

How are your New Year Resolutions/Goals going?!

Recipe Share - Crock Pot Beef Tips

My obsession with our Crock Pot continues!  Where has this been all my life?!  I swear I should have kept all THREE that we received as wedding gifts!  We have been sticking with just chicken but the last few weeks we ventured out and tried ham, pork and now beef tips.  I looked at about 50 different beef tip recipes and then sent Adam to the store.  He came home with 2-3 options, per ingredient.  So, we picked out a few, threw them in the Crock Pot and 8.5 hour later, dinner was served!

We will definitely be having this again.. and again!  Here's all you do:

• 2 lbs Beef Tips (we actually used beef "chunks" because that's all Publix had)
• 1 Can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup
• 3/4 can water (only use 1/2 can of water if you want less gravy)
• 1 packet Lipton Dry Beef Onion Soup Mix

Throw in crockpot.  Cook on low 8-10 hours.  Enjoy!

February Progress Toward Goals

So yeah, it's been a while since I've blogged!  We have had SO much going on this month.  Adam's sister, brother-in-law and baby nephew were in town, my mom visited for 9 days and his parents have all been here as well!  My free time has been spent changing sheets, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping and squeezing in laundry!  While my mom was here, we did undertake completely re-organizing my scrapbook room and I can't wait to share the final results!!! I have plenty of "before" pics I will share too that are just plain scary!!  

I am trying to stay on track with my "2014 personal goals" and keep them in the forefront of my thoughts!  Here's how I did for February (I'm lame, it's time for a March update!!  )-:

1.  Only buy the absolute necessary toiletries/cosmetics/etc
Still on track for this goal!  I used up quite a few products in February!  

• Purity facewash by Philosophy - I had already re-purchased this item on Black Friday - Sephora offers it for $10!  It lasts me forever too - this bottle lasted well over a year.  
• Quiver Layers bodywash by Scentsy - def. a favorite of mine.  Well, I did fall off the wagon and re-order this product in February for 2 reasons - 1) I thought it was being discontinued and 2) I got a good deal on it since I sell these products.
• Herbal Essences Shampoo - So long shampoo!! Will NOT be repurchasing.  Ever.
• Pantene Shampoo - I really like their products and feel like for the price it's a great deal.  I rotate this brand and would repurchase in the future.  Love the scent. 
• 2 Bamboo Pink Clinique Lip Sticks - love this but the color doesn't last long so you have to reapply 100 times a day.  
• Black Eyeliner by Stila - really like their eyeliner.  Twists up vs sharpening and doesn't smudge.  I do think it could "wear" longer though.     

2.  No more magazine subscriptions (unless they are free).  My goal is to finish reading the backlog  of magazines in the living room and then start on my actual book collection!  My goal is 1-2 books per month.  

No books this month due to limited time from all the company but I did crush 7 magazines!  I think these were my last "Cosmos" and "Real Simples".  I'll continue to receive/read People.  

 3.  At least one blog entry a week.  
Totally fell off the wagon on this one

4.  Use the elliptical that's literally just  accumulating spider webs in the basement -- get in 20-30 minutes a day on the elliptical and walk Henderson 1-2 times  a week.

So, for January, I walked 56.53 miles and for February I got 64.57 miles in!  Progress! 

5.  Less eating out at work.  My goal is to only eat out 2-3 times a week.  

I think I am doing a lot better with this - I do eat out 1-2 times a week but smaller portions at least.  I've been planning my lunches ahead of time too so that helps with having something ready to go in the morning.  

 6.  Since I beat my scrapbook page goal for 2013, I think I am going to go with ... 300 pages for 2014. 
I don't have an exact page count for February but I know it was a ton because I did ALL of my wedding pictures!!! It took 1.5 12x12 albums and I LOVE the way it turned out.  I'll share pics in a later post.  See why I didn't have reading/blogging time this month??? :-)

How are your New Year Resolutions/Goals going?!
 

Honeymoon Scrapbook Pages

Since I'm stuck at home with the flu and TN was slammed with it's 3rd snow storm in 3 weeks, I passed some time this afternoon snapping pics from our honeymoon scrapbooks.  I am so glad I went ahead and got these books made right away (there's 3 12x12 albums total) - I know I will enjoy looking at these books for years to come!  I incorporated several of the Project Life page protector designs with my traditional 12x12 layouts and LOVE the finished products!

I wish the stickers were more prominent and this isn't my favorite title page ever but I thought these Jolees stickers were too cute to not use.

I carried the "Day X" theme throughout the book

These envelopes from Becky Higgins products are one of my favorite finds ever!  I used this 12x12 one to hold our travel plans and other related documents that I wanted to keep.

This is design B in the Project Life (PL) brand of protectors.  The 2 journaling cards are from the Blush core kit.

This was right after we landed in Tahiti after traveling for almost 24 hours!  I collaged the middle pic at the top to fit 3 pics into one 4x6.  Again, this is Design B.

This is an 8x10 protector and I had the pic developed at 5x7.  I added white thickers for the letters and some little flowers with brads for embellishments.

I find Design P to be one of the trickiest for me to use -- I don't Instagram and haven't figured out how to print my picstitch pics as a square so I just found pics that could be cut down to match the squares on the front and back.

Design B again.  I collaged most of these pics, printed them as 4x6s and then cut them apart to fit into the 3x4 slots.  To decorate the journaling cards, I made the boats with my Cricut.  These jounaling cards are also from the Blush core kit.

The looks of this layout make it one of my favs.  I love that I was able to incorporate the magazine article with info about Moorea and also the map into 2 of the slots. 

Design H with thickers for a little sparkle.

I printed my journaling onto vellum and pinned it down with some brads. 

"Fantasy Island" was cut with the Life Is a Beach Cricut Cartridge.

"Summer of Love" was cut with the Life is a Beach Cricut cartridge.  The handprint pic is printed as a 5x7 to make it stand out a little more -- Love this picture!

Another 8x10 page -- these work great when there's only 1 picture to highlight.  I ordered the pic as a 5x7 and then decorated with cuts from the "Life is a Beach" cartridge.  I decorated the pineapple drink with stickles.

Design G is one of my favorites to use.  Mainly because it's one of the only PL protectors that incorporates both vertical and horizontal 4x6 picture sizes. 

Quite a few of our fav pics were panoramics.  After playing with the options in Shutterfly, I figured out how to print them as either 2 or 3 4x6 pics and then lined them back up as one long picture on my pages. 

"All Dolled Up" and all of the bows were cut from the Once Upon a Princess Cricut cartridge.

Design F -- Love how this front/back turned out!  I was able to use a lot of the pics from the Soiree without taking up multiple pages.  I cut the little hula girls from the Life is a Beach Cricut cartridge

Design I is 3 4x4 squares.

The back of Design I

Design J with journaling cards from the Amber Core Kit.  The colors in the Amber Core Kit worked out great with our pics! 

The back of Design J - this sentiment card is from one of the Recollections products at Michaels.

So I know this layout isn't that fancy/special but can I just say I'm in LOVE with the yellow thickers?!  Something about these exact ones just makes me smile!  What a fabulous pop of yellow.

Yep... more of my yellow thickers.  In love!  How cute are these little bananas I made with the Cricut too?!  I thought this background paper was perfect -- looks very bamboo-ish which is what is in the middle pic at the top.

The back of a 5x7 vertical page protector.  Adventure cut is from the Life is a Beach Cricut cartridge.

Front of the 5x7 vertical page - pic is printed at the same size.

Design G - Accent/Journaling cards are from the Amber Core Kit.

This is the back of Design H -- I used one of the cards from the Cat theme pack in the Project Life cards for my journaling.

The snorkeling girl is something I purchased YEARS ago and one of those that you glue the pieces together (pre-Cricut!).  "Little Mermaid" was cut from the Life is a Beach Cartridge

How fun is this 6x6 envelope to hold their local currency?!  I'm undecided about adding a journaling card because I think it will block the coins. 

The back of Design H with cards from the Honey Core Kit

Design H - Card from the Honey Core Kit and pink thickers

The back of Design H and a sentiment card from the Recollections brand products at Michaels

A traditional 12x12 page with an 8x10 photo.  The palm trees were made into the paper but I used a blade to cut the leaves loose to make it appear 3D.  The stickers are a MAMBI product from Michael's/Hobby Lobby

These stickers are Jolees

By far, one of my favorite pictures.  It just captures the Honeymoon perfectly. 

Then it was off to Bora Bora!  This is Design A and probably the most popular PL layout. 

LOVE this 2-page spread using Design A!  I had an "ah-ha" moment when I realized Bora Bora was 8 letters I knew I had to make this work!  The journaling cards are from the Amber Core Kit.  The white chipboard letters are from Hobby Lobby. 

The back of Design A

Design B with a twist on the pic -- I ordered one horizontal 4x6 as 2 vertical 6x4s to fit into 2 of the 3 vertical slots.  The journaling card is from the Blush Core Kit and I added the fish stickers.

The back of Design B with the same concept applied to two of the pictures in this layout as the one before.  I added some stickers to journaling cards from the Honey core kit. 

Design D

The back of Design D

These little scuba embellishments are from one of those scrapbook-page-a-day calendar things.  I use to always buy 1-2 per year but just have so much to use up I haven't bought lately -- they've been a great investment though and I love that there are things to use for practically every event/holiday!

I can't remember what brand these little embellishments are that I used - probably Recollections or Jolees.  The letters down the sides are fabric covered thickers.

This is another page from the scrapbook calendar

You can see several sizes of protectors peeking out here -- I like the layered look

Another Design G -- I used the Cricut to make the little water guy - He's from the Create a Friend Cartridge.  The cards are one from the Blush Core Kit and one from the Honey Core Kit

Phrases cut from the Cricut Phrases cartridge

Design C always feels like a cheater page to me but it's sooo simple!  Sometimes there's just not much you can do with pics and this is a great layout to use to get a lot on a page

These military pages were in the scrapbook calendar too and it's funny because I didn't think I'd ever have a use for them!  They worked perfect with the cannons on Bora Bora

A fun and simple 2-page spread with a panoramic photo from the iPhone.  The little sailboats were cut with the Cricut

...and the last page!

I hope you enjoyed!  I know this post was picture overload but I wanted to share how I incorporated the Project Life pages and Core Kits into traditional scrapbooking.