Break

One of the biggest highlights of the day for the girls is when their daddy comes home from work. That's no secret- you've seen me post layouts in the past covering this very subject. To say the girls love their daddy is an understatement. I think they adore him!

The inspiration behind this layout came from a card. My first thought, upon seeing it, was whether it would convert well into a layout. Well, I think it did. I love the simplicity of it, and I love the clustering of elements off to the side. And, did you know--everything on this layout is scraps? Every.single.piece.of.paper. Yep, you bet. What have you made with your scraps lately?

(You can find the original here or saved to my Pinterest, under "To Scraplift").

We have been incredibly busy over here the last few days. The girls are out at their grandparents, having a good old time hanging out with grandma and their little cousin. I mentioned before (I think???) that I had big plans for while they were gone- sorting through toys and donating them, a few home improvement projects, etc. And, we've made good on that promise, so far.

Some of the improvements I've done/made: buying a tension rod and putting it in the cupboard beneath my kitchen sink, to help un-clutter the clutter down there. Its made a bit of difference, but not much. I need to find a new place to store my cutting boards (I've got a TON of them) and cookie sheets/pans. They don't all fit underneath my stove, and my cupboards are pretty well full already. I bought shoe storage units that hang from the tension rod inside your closet to de-clutter my front closet- which has made a HUGE difference! All my extra shoes where thrown haphazardly into a basket that I had wanted to use to store hats/toques/mittens/etc. Now, my dress shoes are stored in my closet in our bedroom, and my every day shoes are stored in the front closet. My basket is now for all those other miscellaneous items (including my umbrella), and I bought a shoe mat to put the winter boots on (when they aren't going to be stored on the other shoe mat I bought that's just inside the front door). I needed to buy a new plastic shoe mat because it was all cracked and falling apart. I also bought two shelving units to help clean up my laundry room- non perishable food, blankets, comforters, etc. will be stored in them...

Still left on the list: re-painting the fence and deck, sanding and making over Kyle's grandpa's book shelf, and hopefully pulling out the flowers from my flower bed, and the weeds from the bush at the foot of our front lawn. And, come next week, we'll be the proud owners of a brand new shed!

(I'm saving the biggest surprise of all for Friday. A few things need to be completed yet before I can tell you about that. Lets just say, something like this doesn't happen to too many people- or very often- and we are so incredibly blessed that we were able to do it!!)