1st day of school

Wow! I'm on a blogging roll today! 4 posts in one day?!

Well...the first day of school has come and gone...tomorrow marks day one of week 2 for my girls. Middle school has gone pretty well so far I think, and grade 2 seems pretty great also. Oh - and the "peace" sign is actually a 2 for grade 2! lol

Oh and appearantly the graveyard in the background is "appropriate"?? LOL

I'm suprised by how few notes we've gotten home so far...but I suppose that I should be careful what I wish for!

Having the summer off was nice, but getting back into a routine is good too. Now if I could only figure out what to wear on them!! What's up with this weather??

Oh well...that's it for now - gotta get kiddo in bed!

Labour of Love!

When I was growing up, Gram had a black step stool chair in her kitchen. I loved that thing! It was just such a great memory for me - I don't know exactly why I liked it so much, but I've always wanted one! I have asked Gram about it a couple of times and she really didn't think much of the chair and couldn't remember where it went to. Bummer! :(

Well...One afternoon, I decided to post on my fave of forums about my love for this crazy chair...

http://www.skrapnchat.com/forum/index.php?topic=3967.0

Never in a million years would I have guessed the outcome!! A perfect stranger (Emily) tells me that she has an old one in her basement that I can have!! OMG!! Are you SERIOUS?? So off to Sussex I go!! YAY! I picked it up and it was AMAZING!! (Although I did get the feeling that Emily didn't see the potential that I did! lol)

I brought it home and didn't waste any time!! It was perfect and exactly what I was looking for! I took the back and the seat off right away...then took off the steps...all the red paint came of pretty easily too! I used a sanding sponge to get it all off and a dremil for the really tough spots! I gave it new rubber feet and covered the back and the seat and voila!! It took me about 2 days...but totally worth every single second! I LOVE my new chair!!

The Scrap Room Chronicles Part II

So there I was, the proud new owner of a brand new room that was all mine!! AND it had its very own door!!! The first obstacle was cleaning the room out! UGH! Hubby had trashed it! The walls were a disaster and in bad need of repair...and a clean coat of paint! There was no flooring, just concrete and no trim...Plus a family of moldy spiders had moved into the window that hadn't been cleaned in years because you couldn't get to it for the mess! Not even the clean sweep team would have taken on this space!! but I did! :)

The first step was cleaning out the room - ugh!! I probably should have had a tetanus shot after that but I survived just the same. Then I patched and painted the walls...When I was done, I had a clean slate! I still had to move the kiln to lay the ceramic tile, but I managed it...all by myself!! I am Woman!! Hear me ROAR!!!

So this is the point where I'm kicking myself for not taking more "before" pics!! cuz after I finished the tile, I didn't rally waste much time moving in!! lol

Overall, the entire process took maybe a week! I was off all summer, so not having to work everyday did have its advantages...but I did manage to throw my back out in the process! lol I've made a couple small changes to it since this picture was taken...I've had to move all the rest of my stuff in and hung my peg board and put up a curtain...which I hung creatively with fold back clips!! lol

Trying to take a picture into a bright window never works out so well for me...so here is the end result...bad pic and all but it's finally done and it's alllll mine!!!

I'm nuts over my room! All I have left to finish is grouting the floor...and sort out my computer which takes up half the space with my scanner and printer but it's a small price to pay to have such a great space!!

Ok - I'm off to scrap now!! TFL :)

The Scrap Room Chronicles...

I don't remember exactly where I started scrapping, but it had to be somewhere!! lol I know that at some point I evicted the kids toys out form under the television and had rubbermaid containers storing my stuff...wow! That was a long time ago!

My first official scrap space was a closet that DH built! I remember saying one day that our bedroom closet was a disaster and if we were smart we would build a full wall closet at the other end of our bedroom (which is now our TV room btw) anyway, one afternoon while I was at work he built me my closet! What a dream boat!! The end result was that I got my very first scrap space and it was wonderful!!! Everything had a place and I got a ton of use out of it...until...I had to move. :( My next space was much less wonderful! I moved into DH's computer room...and it was definately a downgrade and I was miserable! Especially since he had my old scrap space brimming over with his computer mess!!

Then he had the idea that I could share a space with the girls! A scrap room / play room combo!! What a terrific idea!! That would mean that our bedroom would become our Play Room/ Scrap Room combo! It was huge and huge and huge and beautiful! The stuff that dreams are made of!!! and it was alll mine!! Until he took it away :(

So there I was...spaceless! Out of desperation, I took the upstairs room in the "addition". It was a small room, only 9x11 with no door. It was an open concept space off of our stairway / back door...but nobody else wanted it so it was mine. It was also a huge traffic zone and a dumping space for anything that didn't have a home or people were too lazy to put back! grrr!

I'm pretty sure this room was never clean! Like...ever!! Eventually, 2 guinea pigs moved into the space and I hated it even more!! It was always in my face and I couldn't escape anyone in it! And so...I devised a plan! lol For the first time ever, I decided to take a space away from hubby!!! I convinced him that the girls needed a place to do homework etc. and that he could build a closet for his computer which would give me back his computer room to fix up as I saw fit! Guess what! HE TOTALLY BOUGHT IT!! And that's where the ne next part of my Scrap Room Chronicles begins!!

Trouble is...it began like this! :(