* * * ChRistMas has aRRivEd* * *

[ A most wonderful THANKS-giving ]

We had a wonderful day and it just got better as the day went on. Dinner at Aaron & Aimee's was elegantly beautiful (Aimee has the "flair" - notice the flower arrangement she created) from the perfectly-set table to the little turkeys and thankful hands that Aimee and Brookelyn created. It was fun to be with Aimee's family too. That night Suzie and Winston arrived and then when Becky finished her nursing shift, she and Pitt came. We were all together and I was certainly full of thanks-giving.

November Beginner Basics on the Adornit Scrapbooking Blog
Debbie writes: My Beginner Basics layout for the month of November is titled “Grateful for My Girls.” When I count my blessings, I think of my two daughters and feel overwhelmed with gratitude. They are shining lights in my life. I am very proud of them; they are hard working, unselfish, happy and generous. One daughter is a teacher and the other a nurse. Each has excelled in her education and profession. I’m so proud of their integrity, earnestness, and joie de vivre (zest for life – joy of living). They also gave me two very cute sons-in-law.

I used Adornit’s 2008 Thanksgiving paper and cardstock stickers for my layouts. I love the fall colors and pretty graphics of this line. The patterned paper that I used on both layouts is called Autumn Breeze. The variety of designs on this one sheet makes it possible to cut the paper apart and use it on several coordinating layouts. Or, as you can see, you could just add a couple of photos, a title, and some journaling, and you have a cute fall layout.

I like to follow trends in scrapbooking by going to scrapbook blogs (like the Aussie Scrap Source blog) and galleries of websites like scrapbook.com. Lately I’ve noticed that “clusters” are in. These are little bunches of embellishments stacked and clustered next to photos, or in the corners of layouts. So this month I experimented with making a cluster. It’s a great way to use up little bits and pieces of stuff. You just gather a bunch of embellishments and start arranging them. It’s fun!

* this week (what's left of it) we are in zone 3 *

I know that we're a little behind on our cleaning zones from Flylady - I was supposed to post this week's zone a few days ago. But we needed that extra time in our kitchens. I took the kitchen cleaning to heart and tried to focus on getting the job done. I got my cupboards wiped out, my oven cleaned, the front and inside edges (yuk) of my dishwasher cleaned, and all the little corners of my countertops.

I want to show you the greatest little cupboard organizer shelves - above - they are corner shelves. I like them because they efficienty use the corner space and they have two shelves so I can store stuff three-high in my cupboard. I got mine at Walmart. Below is my key to getting things cleaned quickly - little wipes that make the job easy. If I found myself on the phone I'd grab a wipe and clean while I talked. I know I know, they're not environmentally efficient nor cheap, but during this month before Christmas I just had to hustle, and they helped.

Here is FlyLady's Detailed Cleaning List - Zone 3: The Bathroom(s)
This is FlyLady's Detailed Cleaning List for Zone 3. If your home is still cluttered, you are not supposed to do detailed cleaning yet, just declutter for 15 minutes a day in this zone. Remember, it did not get dirty overnight and it is not going to get clean in a day!

Bathroom Detailed Cleaning List

1. WASH AREA RUGS

2. SCRUB/WAX FLOOR

3. STRAIGHTEN DRAWERS/ CABINETS

4. CLEAN SHOWER STALL/ WAX (not the floor!)

5. WASH SHOWER DOOR

6. CLEAN MEDICINE CABINET

7. CLEAN SCALE

8. THROW AWAY EMPTY BOTTLES

Thanksgiving planning everywhere!

You can count on Family Fun Magazine (one of my favorite websites) to supply lots of ideas for lots of Thanksgiving projects. Click here to find a lists and lists of printables for place cards, kids coloring pages, games, napkin holders, recipe cards, and even how-to videos. Fun stuff.

Click here to download the one-week calendar shown above, print it out, and fill in all the info. that is specific to your Thanksgiving to-do list. My calendar is delightfully simple since we are having Thanksgiving at our son's house. And I can tell you, with Aimee at the helm, it will sparkle! I'm really really excited because we'll all be together sometime during the Thanksgiving weekend.

The Hyper Homemaker blog is full of lists and guides. If you start today, you can follow her one-week list of things to do to get ready for hosting Thanksgiving at your house.

AND FINALLY, of course, Martha Stewart. Here is a link to a Martha's Thanksgiving planner - a one-page PDF download that has everything you need to do listed on a single page.

mY 100th PoSt!

Can't think of a better way to celebrate one hundred posts on my blog than to display a photo collage of my favorite people at my favorite time of year. I'm so lucky to be surrounded by a neat family. Aren't they just so cute!

Man-a-palooza

My nephew Derek knows how to make a work day a fun day. Derek's cute wife Nikki is out of town for a girl's weekend with friends and Derek decided he'd have fun too. He came over and announced Man-a-palooza. Then he rattled off all the man-ly things that he, Scott and Mike could do. "Work first, then play," said Scott as he raked up eight huge piles of leaves. Derek vacuumed his car and mine too. Mike bagged and bagged bags of leaves. Then they went golfing.

After hamburgers and Apple Beer they headed for the TV room to watch Indiana Jones - with the volume turned way up. Then more friends came and they got out the Nintendo.

Derek loves the warm chocolate chip cookies I contributed to the event.

* This week we are in ZONE 2 *

Maybe you thought I had forgetten about my little plan to let Flylady help me get the house clean in five short weeks. Nope, didn't forget, in fact I was pretty excited to start Zone 2...
THE KITCHEN. Remember what Flylady tell us:

"Set your timer and work for 15 minutes. That's all. It did not get junked up in one day and it won't get clean in one day either. Patience and baby steps. You can do this."

She also reminds us to first concentrate on the clutter. Then when you have the area decluttered you can start to clean. For a link to Flylady's list of specific tasks to clean the kitchen, click here. Basically, it's a list telling you to clean every single surface in the kitchen.

{ a little Christmas inspiration }

I just spent a half hour making a post for our Cut the Crazy out of Christmas blog - and I don't have time to recreate it here (gotta get a book review ready for Book Club tomorrow). But here is a little sneak peak...go to our blog (by our blog, I mean me, Aimee, Suzie and Becky) and check out this cute project by our friend Lacie Bergeson. Follow the links too, because she has about six wonderful projects on the Adornit blog. Bye.

Work Hard - Play Hard

Saturday, Nov. 8 turned warm outside in the afternoon and invitingly beautiful. Scott coaxed me into going golfing "one more time." Mike joined us to show us how it's really done! We had a good time and Scott & Mike had some excellente drives. My best drive was back to the car on the 7th hole - it was warm but not nine holes warm!

Lately our motivating theme is 'work hard play hard.' The work hard part was raking leaves in the yard. We have some awesome 'not uploaded' photos of Mike and Scott raking and jumping into big piles of leaves. Maybe tomorrow.

happy fall decor

I was in the hospital gift shop the other day my eyes were drawn to a bright happy shelf filled with beautiful handmade pillows. They were cutest thing in the gift shop ! (and it's pretty cute as hospital gift shops go). I knew immediately that the pillows were handmade by my friend Teresa. I already had the pumpkin pillow, and was delighted to find a friend for it. Aren't they cute together. Every pillow is adorned with lots of buttons which makes them extra special. I don't know how she has the patience to sew on all those buttons. Teresa is also a computer whiz and has a cute blog. Whenever I spend time on the phone talking with Teresa, I hang up the phone with a big smile on my face.

Recruited me some help...

I'm seriously working on the step-by-step cleaning (see previous post). I even got me some great help. (He was more enthusiastic about the photos than the sweeping.)

{ time to get back to FLYLADY }

http://flylady.org/pages/FlightPlan.asp

Above is the web address of a website that has influenced me through the years. But as with all "motivators," I am hot and cold about doing what they suggest. There are times when I tune in to Flylady and really go with it and times I lose focus and forget. (FLY is an acronym for FINALLY LOVING YOURSELF.)
--BUT THIS MONTH I NEED HER! I'm trying to work on Christmas, but I also need to get my house back in order. Many things are still out of place from our basement remodel and I just can't seem to get a handle on any of it.
--I don't know whether it was serendipity, pure coincidence, or an angel nudge, but last night, for the first time in months, I went to visit my old (virtual) friend Marla Cilley aka Flylady. And there on the front page of her website was the help I need. She divides the home into five "cleaning zones" and if I stick to her zones, by Dec. 8, I'll have a clean house, just in time for the holidays. THIS WEEK WE ARE IN ZONE ONE - ENTRANCE, FRONT PORCH and DINING ROOM.
--Just what I need. I'm going to follow Flylady through the zones this month - all she asks is 15 minutes a day focusing on these parts of your house. When I was giving candy to the trick or treaters I was noticing that my front porch is covered with dead bugs. OK for a Halloween effect, but definitely gotta go now. And I'm sure my doorbell is black from dozens of sticky little hands ringing it the other night. So no more internet until I get my work done!

READ THIS FROM FLYLADY if you need more INFO:

"You are never behind. Jump in where you are." - FlyLady

FlyLady has divided the home up into 5 different zones. Don't worry if you think you have more than 5 zones in your own home (we all do LOL), follow FlyLady's Zones. Her zones will hit on all the major living areas of your home. Each week, we work in a different zone. Each month, we repeat all the zones. In a few months, you will notice that the main parts of your home will look great. Then you will be ready to tackle some of the "other" areas of your home!
These are the zones for November - mark your calendars:
Zone 1: The Entrance, Front Porch and Dining Room (November 3 - 7)
Zone 2: The Kitchen (November 10 - 14)
Zone 3: The Bathroom and One Extra Room (November 17 - 21)
Zone 4: The Master Bedroom (November 24 - 28)Zone 5: The Living Room (November 26 - 30)

Starting Zone Work
When you first start zone work, you are encouraged to spend 15 minutes per day decluttering in the current zone. That's it! Baby steps! Set your timer for 15 minutes and clear out those things that you don't use or love. Flybabies, don't forget to keep working on your Morning and Before Bed Routines - do them everyday! (see the FLYing Lessons for more information about this). Once you have a good start on your routines, it is much easier to do the zone work.
Before you start, review the rules of zone cleaning:
Be fully dressed to shoes before you start.
Your daily cleaning chores should be finished and preferably weekly vacuuming done.
The room has to be fairly straight.
Do not pull out more than you can put back in 1 hour.
Clean one drawer or one pile at a time.
If you do not know how to declutter, go to How to Declutter
Be consistent. Do a little every day. Don't try to accomplish this in one day. You will burn out and will hate this system. BabySteps!
Set your timer and work for 15 minutes. That's all. It did not get junked up in one day and it won't get clean in one day either. Patience and BabySteps. You can do this.

[ morning sky ]

It was a few mornings ago, but i just had to post these pictures. The sun was rising and the sky had taken on the strangest color of orange - the time was about 7:20 a.m. Our backyard is already ablaze in yellow, orange and red - but the color of the sky painted an orange haze over everything, magifying the colors and sending us for the camera. The moment was quickly gone, but we stood at the window for a little while in awe of the wonders of this beautiful place we live in. It was "otherworldly."

Happy Halloween! & scrapbook pages

October Beginner Basics...for Adornit Scrapbook Company

If you have 45 minutes and a stash of great Adornit product, you can start AND FINISH scrapping your October memories – right now. What a great month for scrapbooking! You could spend hours working on fun layouts of costumes, decorations, and all the creepy treats you make. Then there’s pumpkin carving, trick or treating, the corn maze, spook alley, and the school festival! That’s a lot of scrapping. Adornit has fabulous Halloween and autumn papers and embellishments to help you out.
Here's a big tip for the quickest and easiest way to finish your October layouts: Adornit FOAM ALPHABET STICKERS - uppercase and lowercase. These little wonders pack a big punch on your layouts. They're so inexpensive and easy to use - you’ll want to stash a package in every color. I loved using foam stickers on my October layouts. They turned out pretty cute, but even better, they didn’t take me long because I used the stickers for quick titles. You can even fancy-up the letters with fine-point pens, paints or stamps.

Here’s the whole point of this post. Why do I want you to save time on your Halloween scrapping?? Two words. CHRISTMAS PLANNING. Yes, you gotta get going on your Christmas lists and handmade gifts so you’ll be less stressed in December. I promise...it really helps.

I'm a bag lady

I just bought a new little LUG backpack - now I want to go on a hike. When we were hiking in Jackson Hole this past summer I began to realize that fanny packs are just OUT. If you want to be branded "over the hill" use a fanny pack. So I've been on the lookout for a new backpack to carry my water and m&m's when we go hiking.

Well lucky me, I found a really cute backpack. It's lime green which makes me happy happy. It's the perfect size - not big and bulky, but streamlined and very comfortable. The brand is LUG - you can see their bags all over the internet, but this page shows almost every product. When I found the backpack I kept searching the Lug display for a little cosmetic bag to put little things in like chapstick and spare contacts, but could find nothing. Later when I took out the stuffing paper, there in the bottom of my new backpack was a perfect little cosmetic bag. It came with it and I didn't even know! What a bonus.

I'm also in love with the brown bag - it looks like a perfect size to carry on an airplane. I always take my rolling carry-on suitcase and a bigger bag for magazines, m&m's and a few essentials. But I also have to have my purse because I get disorganized if I don't have everything just where I can find it. (Once I threw my boarding pass in the garbage and had to dig through the trash can to find it when I realized.) So I have to have everything just so. I stuff my purse inside my bigger travel bag because they're getting so picky about only carrying on two items. Now that purses are getting bigger, I need a bigger travel bag. Anyway I might have to open my Christmas planner and add that bag to my gift list - in the section that says hints for Scott to give me. Might as well get something I want. I'm blabbing I know. Bye.

Today is a big day for me!

Today is the day our Cut the Crazy out of Christmas class starts on Big Picture Scrapbooking. I'm thrilled that the day has finally arrived and the class has started - Georgana (my boss) and I have been anticipating this for over six months! You can still sign up for the class too - we're going to spend the whole month of November planning and preparing for Christmas.

I created a Cut the Crazy blog as a place to post "extra" stuff to supplement our Cut the Crazy out of Christmas class. Anyone is invited to come on over and get in on lots of ideas and "advice." My wonderful daughter-in-law Aimee helped me make it look cute.

I just visited Stacy Julian's blog - she's the Big Picture Scrapbooking 'big-wig' as you know. I thought her words were so important. Stacy is referring to scrapbooks in the following paragraph. Please go to her blog to get the full context of her heartfelt post. She writes:

"If I was able to leave one message this weekend with those wonderful ladies, (at a scrapbook store in Montana) this is it:
"Let go. Stop making this so hard. Stop worrying about whether you are doing it right or whether you are good enough or whether you have the right stuff you need or whether you can keep up or whatEVER. If your pictures and stuff aren't organized, do something about it. Stop procrastinating and JUST START telling your stories. Long stories, short stories, stories from this past summer and stories from when you were little. Stop leaving blanks on your pages where you will go back and add journaling. STOP that right now. Start using your own imperfect handwriting and stop thinking it will ruin your page. My goodness girls there is so much good that happens in and through this amazing hobby. Let's just decided to let go and let it happen."

As I begin my Cut the Crazy out of Christmas process which includes making a few scrapbook pages and using my own handwriting in my planners, I hope I can remember the Stacy's advice and just get in and get the job done so I can get to the real business of celebrating a holiday that I love with people I love.

{ blog to check out }

Here's a fun blog for you - especially if you're into quilting or cooking. potsandpins.com is the blog name. You can enter her first-anniversary-of-her-blog contest right now. Incredibly, this blogger made a beautiful Halloween quilt to give away. I tried to lift a photo of the quilt over here, but couldn't make it work. Anyway it's just a click away.

IT'S NEXT WEEK!!

In less than one week (October 30 to be exact) lots and lots of women - I mean hundreds - will join me and Georgana in our Big Picture Scrapbooking class called Cut the Crazy out of Christmas. I have been working on this for so long - fifteen years of 'real-time' classes with my friend Norma Olsen - and now it's going to be online to help women all over the world. I'm excited and proud of everything we put together. Great downloadable handouts, fun projects and a planner that will help get us all organized. Here are a couple of the email ads (that I wrote) that went out to thousands of BPS customers:

Christmas is a time of great excitement and activity - and sometimes chaos. It's also a time when we want to feel moments of peace and joy.

The things we long for at Christmas:
--opportunities to sit by the fire with family and friends
--time to create handmade gifts
--activities with children that include service & creativity -
these simply won't happen if we don't PLAN ahead and then leave space for them on our December calendars.

Christmas gets crazy because we try to cram everything into four short weeks. At some point, we must accept that it is unrealistic to have it all, do it all, and be it all.

The Cut the Crazy out of Christmas approach helps you so that:

{Love and joy can really be yours this holiday season.}

The 'cut the crazy' ladies, Georgana and Debbie, teamed with Big Picture Scrapbooking, can help bring a new perspective on how you approach Christmas this year. The workshop includes a downloadable planner that will change the way you plan for the holidays…plus projects and lots of ideas. We invite you to join us!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cut the Crazy out of Christmas
Have yourself a merry and organized Christmas! Georgana Hall and Debbie Raymond are here to show you how in a holiday class called Cut the Crazy out of Christmas.

The interesting thing about Christmas is that it can be challenging in different ways depending on your circumstances. Christmas has the power to magnify our emotions, positive or negative. Well, Georgana and Debbie want to help! They believe that with some reflection and planning (and good old positive attitude), the holidays can be a time of joy, no matter what your situation.

The goal of this workshop is to help you look ahead and prepare in a way that will make the holiday season more positive and meaningful. Georgana and Debbie have lots of ideas for traditions, decorating, and parties. You'll love the downloadable Christmas planner to get help you get organized. Together you'll compare notes with other BPS students about their holiday stresses and successes. Sign up now: peace and organization are just around the corner!

muSic in the bAckgrouNd

I’m sitting at the computer proofreading my son-in-law’s master’s thesis. It could be kind of boring – no offense Winston : ) I mean it’s a thesis on teaching math. Actually I'm very engaged and interested, because I’m on the hunt to find mistakes and fix them, one of my favorite things to do. But what’s making the morning really pleasant is the music coming out of my computer. Here, I’ll let Becky tell you about it...

Post from Becky's blog titled Sick of My Ipod: "The shuffle gods have not been good to me for a very long time. My music is old and outdated. Today I discovered Pandora. Go check it out! Jason Myles Goss is playing right now and I like it!"

So I checked out Pandora and it's great. It has tons of cool features to experiment with later. You enter one song or artist you like and it automatically gives you a whole playlist of similar music.

Now, you have to give my ‘radio station’ a try. I typed in Steve Tyrell and up came the best music playlist. Song after song by Steve Tyrell, Michael Buble, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra (be sure to find this song somewhere and listen to it - "I've Got You Under My Skin - duet with Frank and Bono). Well, gotta get back to 'summative assessment' and other math teaching tools.

I'll thank Becky for you for the Pandora recommendation. btw - who's Jason Myles Goss???

It's beginning to look a lot like...Christmas catalogs!

(Photos from Ballard Designs)

Yippee - Christmas catalogs are filling my mailbox. Today the new Ballard Design catalog arrived - filled with traditional decorations that work perfectly in my house. The "Della Robia" Wreath and Topiary made me want to line up the crafty girls at work and do a little "craft-lifting." Surely between Carolee, Tammy, Georgana and Alison, we could figure out how to make these. Girls?...

My top number one favorite catalog for Christmas inspiration is the Pottery Barn catalog, followed closely by Crate and Barrel. Pottery Barn is more elegant, more elaborate, and completely beautiful. I just spent a minute on their website and they have one heck of a web design staff. The website has EVERYTHING - from video tours of people's beautifully decorated homes to instructions on how to put together the classic Pottery Barn 'arrangements.' Crate and Barrel, which is more casual, just makes me smile when I look through it - especially their Christmas dancing reindeer decorating everything from dishes to doormats. Cute.

Here's the description from the catalog - I thought it was interesting:

Della Robbia Wreath & Topiary from Ballard Designs
In the 18th century, holiday greenery was decorated with fruit in the della robbia style as a promise of the bountiful greeting guests could expect inside. The lush fabric pine, magnolia and oak leaves of our Della Robbia Wreath & Topiary are packed with realistic figs, oranges, apples, pears, pomegranates and berries, adding a splash of bright, festive color to your holiday setting.

tribute to moms everywhere

And tonight I’d like to give a big shout out to all you moms out there – especially moms of kids under eight. You are wonderful, awesome, amazing, and I’m sure, exhausted. You probably don’t even appreciate what an accomplishment it is to even get dressed in the morning. And dinner in the crockpot….what were we thinking.

I have been tending my grandbabies. Not even all at the same time (we had the girls for a couple of days, then the little five-month-old boy for a couple of days) but still, it’s wearing me out. I consider myself an energetic healthy person, but I’m beat. I’ve come to fully appreciate what I did as a mom of young ones, and what you’re doing. Give yourselves a pat on the back.

Tonight when I changed the baby's diaper I learned the process is easier if you use four diapers. 1. the diaper you take off. 2. the new diaper you're putting on. 3. a diaper to cover the waterworks (since he soaked his shirt and face earlier) and 4. a diaper for him to grab and put in his mouth to keep him distracted. Once I got that figured out, things went much smoother.

Now listen to me when I tell you young moms something I learned a long time ago: DON’T BE SO HARD ON YOUR KIDS and DON’T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF. I learned this from someone older and wiser when my kids were teenagers and it was almost too late. I wish someone had told me 15 years earlier. She said she wished she hadn’t been so hard on her sons. I took that to heart and tried to be kinder – to myself too. I think it’s very important. Believe me, they grow so fast.

I just love this new little grandson – he’s a joy. He’s a most pleasant little baby – patient, tolerant and with the cutest smiles I’ve ever seen. And I can't wait to tend him again - honest!

saVed by the coRn mAze

We're tending our cute grandkids this week - the girls for a couple of days, then baby Carter for a couple more. We are thrilled to help out Aaron and Aimee who are away celebrating their tenth anniversary. It has been an action-packed day with these two girls. So far Brookelyn, seven, has made about ten craft projects, including a Halloween banner and lollipop ghosts. When Scott got home, I said, "We have GOT to get out of this house." Thank goodness for nice weather and the local corn maze. The corn maze was awesome. After about ten minutes of wandering through the tall corn, Bailee, four, said in a very loud, upset voice, "We have been walking for hours."

The girls had a blast. Scott too. Here Brookie is jumping off the Haystack Jump - or I should say Scott is 'kicking her off.' There was also a straw bale fort, tire swings and Halloween lights everywhere. It was really well done. Both girls ran and ran for three solid hours - raising my hopes for an early bedtime tonight.