Happy Halloween House Tour!

As far as holiday decorating goes, Halloween is my 2nd favorite holiday and if you saw the number of black & orange totes I have in my basement, you would definitely agree with me.

I actually did a huge purge a couple of years ago because I had inherited a bunch of my mother's decorations and I really need to downsize what I had.

I have both indoor and outdoor decor and some years I mixed it up differently than I did the year before.

This is my outdoor fairy garden.....earlier in the summer I found the cutest Halloween piece at our local farmer's market and I had to buy a few pieces for it.  I couldn't wait to add them to the garden.

I also was excited about turning our purple front door into Frankenstein.  I found the giant googly eyes at the Target Dollar Spot and the rest is made from cheap poster board.  I love the way it turned out and for a whole $3 dollars.

Inside, I like to decorate our den/library and the family room/kitchen area.  I have Halloweeen decorations that I've had for decades.......this is one of them and one of my favorites...

I don't really have set places for my decorations.  I'm constantly changing things up and using our stuff in different rooms and different places....it's whatever "trips my trigger" when I unpack things.

Another favorite piece -

Above is one of two IKEA Expedit bookcases that I've recently turned on their sides and put them against our far wall.  My reasoning is if I don't, I tend to push our furniture against that wall and I don't want it there anymore.  Those bookcases are important as they hold every scrapbook I've done over the last 19 years.  I  also like that they provided me with a whole lot of space that I can play with seasonally yet it's out of direct traffic but you can still see and enjoy the decor.

Below are are couple more of my favorite pieces....the ghost, pumpkin and cat piece in the back is one of the first things I bought after Fred and I were married ad the small front cat piece is by artist Jim Shore, who I adore.

I also decorate the ladder shelf I have on another wall in our family room with some of our other Halloween things that we've collected over the years.

On the bottom shelf is this ceramic piece I made 21 years ago.  Of course my love of all things cat was prevalent then also....I've had to replace the light bulb in it several things over the years, but it's still another favorite hand made piece.

Another Halloween cat decoration we have is a fiber optic cat & pumpkin that I have in our den/library.

 

We have a small bar in our eat-in area of the kitchen and I like to deck it out during the holidays also.

 

I have a fun Doodlebug house on the shelf that I did in Halloween paper and a few other ghost and haunted house things.  I also thought it was the perfect place for something new I bought this year.

It's also the perfect place to put the "Good Witch/Bad Witch" sign I have so that my husband can switch it out whenever he feels the need......  :)

Another new decoration I bought this year is this darling cloche covering a spider over a stack of books.  As soon as I saw the books, I knew I had to have it......

Thanks for joining me on a tour of our Halloween House.   Have fun trick or treating!

The Great Pantry/Chest Freezer Purge

We are fortunate to own a small chest freezer that we keep out in our garage.  It's the perfect size for the size of our family and great to have when things go on sale.   I've been known to buy butter, bread, creamer, cheese when prices are super low and freeze it all in our chest freezer.  I also keep our meat and larger items (such as tubs of ice cream....not mine.....it's the men I live with...lol).

The problem is without an inventory sheet, I would forget what I have in there, so I use a freezer inventory sheet I found on the internet.  Just google "Freezer Inventory Template" and you'll find a gazillion of them.   It's been a lifesaver in regards to knowing what you have in your freezer.

Lately I've been on a purging and organizing mission, starting with my pantry which you can read about HERE, so I've decided to dedicate the next month before the holiday season starts to USE WHAT WE HAVE in both our pantry, refrigerator freezer and chest freezer.  Unless the sale is really too good to pass up, I'm not buying meat or any pantry items until we make a big dent in what we already have.

This is also the week before we leave for Seattle.  It's a work trip for my husband and I'm tagging along because neither of us have been there.....so, even though our son will still be around, I think this is a perfect week to use up some of what we have.  When I did the grocery shopping on Friday morning, I only spent $40 and that was mostly for fresh produce and dairy.


Here's what our menu looks like this week to make the most of what we have and it's a little more convenient because of our schedules -

Sunday

Stuffed Peppers (Pepper bought on sale, ground beef from the freezer)
Garlic Bread (Bread from freezer)
Tossed Salad (Iceberg lettuce bought on sale for 99 cents a head, an English cucumber I picked up from Trader Joe's and tomatoes from our garden)

Monday

Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches (using up the luncheon ham, cheese and garlic bread)
Oven Baked French Fries (Ore-Ida - what can I say?....my family loves them)

Tuesday

Pork Stir-fry (Using boneless pork chops in our freezer, broccoli, onions, cabbage and anything else I find in our crisper)
Brown Rice


Wednesday

(This has to be an easy night for my husband as I'm in class that night)
Turkey Cheddar Sausages
Jalapeno Cheddar Potatoes
French Style Green Beans with Dill

Thursday

Trader Joe's Fish Nuggets
Veggie Quinoa and Rice Dish (my husband may opt for a baked potato....we shall see...)


Friday

BBQ Ribs (from our freezer)
Potato Casserole
Salad (using up as much vegies in the crisper as I can)

Saturday

Saturday, I'm going to be at the Get Inspired 14 scrapbook crop at the Fairgrounds for most of the day and evening, so my family is on what we call a "Fend For Yourself Night" or "FFYN" as it's know around here.  I won't be able to stay at the crop as long as the rest of my friends because we have to be up at 4:00am the next morning to head to the airport, so I'll be heading out after dinner.

We'll be there a full week and once we are back home, I think we'll be eating out of our freezer and panty at least up until Thanksgiving and the money saved will help pay for holiday food.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Den/Library Re-Do

When we found this house ten years ago, the first thing we said when we saw the front dining room space was "that will be our den/library".  We don't formally entertain so a formal dining room didn't suit our needs.  We have a big eat in area in our large kitchen and most of time when we do entertain family and/or friends, it's either buffet style, out on our deck or we are eating in front of the television while watching some sporting event....Go Hawkeyes!  :)

This was the first room that I painted and at the time I wanted it warm and cozy so I went with a Sherwin Williams paint in their Soft Suede line of paints in the color Chianti.  The finished walls look like suede and the application wasn't hard at all.  I had it done in a weekend.  It's had to be touched up over the years and I finally ran out of the paint and then Sherwin Williams discontinued the line, so I knew I was eventually going to have to re-paint it something else.

See that small slipper chair in the room?.....it serves as a cat scratching post.......

These picture were taken not long before I re-painted.  The suede paint was finally looking pretty tired and it was time for a change.  Since painting it with the suede paint, we had purchased the black bookcases and computer station,  re-carpeted and moved Connor's computer desk to his room.  I also refinished an antique dresser that I found on Craigslist to use as a printer stand/storage in the room.

This is what the room looks like now painted in "Beach House" by Sherwin Williams.....I think it brightened up the room quite a bit.   I also sprung for some new cellular shades for the bay window as the old ones had seen better days.

The room also is where we hang some of our art and where part of our permanent book collection resides.  There are P. Buckley Moss and Charles Wysocki on the walls and even a Terry Redlin that was my mother's that brings back memories every time I look at it.

Slipper chair/cat post is still there. :)

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and seeing how I spend some of my time.......

Stay tuned for more.

I'm a Boomer

The reason I changed up my blog to say "A Boomer's Guide to the Retirement Galaxy" is because I think there is an audience out there of younger retirees that are healthy, active and finally made the decision to leave the rat race behind.

I'm a baby boomer....that generation that's been alive since before the Kennedy assassination yet were post WWII and there is a WHOLE LOT of us coming up on our retirement years.

I was fortunate to have a job that afforded me after 27 years to leave a few years earlier than I thought I would.  I also have a husband who is an excellent provider with no desire to retire right now.  He's in a second career that he loves and wants to continue to do what he does and that's alright by me.   I really thinks he likes having me home because there is a whole bunch of house cleaning he no longer has to do.....lol

It does take some sacrifice.....but I'm also finding that with not working,  you need need as much money.  I'm only having to fill my car up every 10 days rather than every week, my grocery trips last longer and there isn't any need to buy clothes or expensive purses....I have plenty of those.  I also have to budget now.....I'm fortunate that money isn't tight, but I can't spend willy-nilly and I don't really want to, the trade-off is better and that's being able to do my own thing.

I'm hoping to find an audience for my retirement ramblings and promise to try and keep you entertained with what I post.

For those that don't know....I've been married to my spouse for 27 years, we have an almost 19 year old son who lives with us while attending our local community college and working part time at a local restaurant.  He's also an amateur film-maker and you can find his production company's You Tube channel HERE.

If you do know me, you'll know I'm extremely organized, bordering on OCD, creative, an idea gal and my passions are scrapbooking, crafts, home decorating, gardening, books and movies in no particular order.....most of which I will be sharing at one time or another with you.

I'm going into my fifth week of not working and it's going swimmingly.......my days go by fast.  I either have projects around the house, that may or may not include house cleaning, homework for the business class I'm taking at our local community college (yes, I'm going to the same school as our son, but not the same class and not at the same time.....he'd die), working out at the gym, getting together with friends for outings and right now, working on getting the yard ready for winter.

Here's a photo of me and two of my dearest friends.  I've known these ladies since I was 20 years old....that's 37 years of friendship and I'm so glad that we were able to get together for lunch at a favorite local restaurant when one of them was in town for a visit.

Last week my goal was to work in my craft room, but the only thing I got done was put together supplies for a crop I was going to Friday night....and now, that stuff is on the floor of the room ready to be put away....oy vey.......I

This week I have to get our family room ready for the new sofa and oversized chair and ottoman that is coming in a couple of weeks......so.....can't sit still Sally that I am....I started Sunday evening at 8:00pm....within an hour, I had ran my husband out of the room to our bedroom to watch his football game and I was deep into re-arranging.

I've been wanting to do something completely different with the two IKEA Expedit bookshelves I use in the room AND I'm tired of having the sofa pushed up against the wall, so I'm trying something different.  I've turned them on their long side an placed them next to each other on the wall that will be behind the sofa.

As you can see, I've done a lot of scrapbooks.

This brown sectional is leaving.....YAY!  We've had it four years and within six months I hated it, but we had just bought it so I had to live with it.  I knew it was time when we were having to put plywood boards under the cushions because sitting on it was hurting my back.  It will be perfect in my sister's finished basement for my niece and her friends to hang out on.  I had my son and one of his friends take the chaise lounge piece of the sectional out to the garage so that I could move the rest of the sectional forward so I would have enough room for the IKEA shelves.   THAT was a lot of work....and of course, since I was moving them, I got the cleaning supplies out and cleaned them too.....

One last thing to share......is this pillow stinking adorable or what?  It was a retirement gift from my Aunt who has such great taste in things.  It's needlepoint and I love it.

Have a great week!

My Life Craft

I thought this might be a good time to talk about something that really truly changed my life.

Eighteen and a half years ago, my mother brought me over a memory photo kit that she had purchased at Michael's.  Our son was only about six months old and I had just gone back to work.  I had always been an artsy-fartsy, crafty type my whole life, even as a child and it certainly continued into adulthood.  I was always working with some type of medium, whether it be sewing, drawing, calligraphy, stained glass, ceramics and cross-stitch AND I had always had scrapbooks, so my mom thought I'd have fun with it.

Little did she know that she awakening a sleeping giant.....LOL

I fell head over heels in love with the craft of scrapbooking.  I liked that I was actually doing something with the photos I was taking and it was satisfying the creative side of me also.

I started at a table in our attic, then I took over the dormer in our attic and here I am almost 19 years later with a small craft room to call my own.  I don't even want to try and estimate the amount of supplies I've had over the years, but I think that comes with the territory of having a hobby...hoarding supplies.  :)

I've never stuck with a hobby other than reading longer than I have scrapbooking.....going on 19 years and in that time I've done 30 scrapbooks, 26 mini albums, 12 specialty albums and countless gifts for friends and family......I would have to say an estimate of scrapbook pages would be around 1500!

As everyone else, the way I scrapbooked changed over the years also.........I laugh and laugh when I look back to those first years of pages, but I wouldn't change them for the world.  

Here's a page from the early days of Connor's 1st birthday and the cake we let him "explore"....so much fun!

When Connor was little, he loved snakes and had lots of stuffed snakes he liked to sleep with.  Here's a page a did with a favorite photo commemorating the memory.

That was during the time I was still doing an 8.5 x 11 format....I think I changed over to 12 x 12 a few years later.....I needed more paper real estate to work with...lol

Here's a page I did of Connor's first six birthday cakes.  Back then I matted EVERY STINKING PHOTO of my pages, some more than one layer....do you know how long that takes?  I finally got over that obsession with matting photos and now I rarely do it....

I've been organizing some of my photo CDs and DVD's and I came across a bunch of things I forgot I had.  Here's some photos of my first craft space.  This is in the finished attic of our first home.  It was cozy and in the winter time I loved looking at that window at the snow falling.  Connor had a play area on the other side of the attic and Fred's computer desk was up there too.....lots of evenings with the three of us, up there playing.

It was located in the dormer of our finished attic and it's fun to see what I was using a decade ago.  My craft space has certainly morphed over the years and once I get it back in shape, I'll share my space as it is currently.

Another thing about this craft that makes it more special and important than previous hobbies and crafts and that is the friends that I have made through scrapbooking, both in real life and even online friends.  My scrapbook friends are amazing, smart women and my life has been enriched by knowing all of them.  Even if I was to ever choose to not do this hobby any more, the friendships I've made would still continue and for that I'll always be grateful to the craft.

More to come.........

Operation Craft Room Week

This week (my 5th week of retirement.....I'll stop doing that at some point) it's "Operation Craft Room Week with side jobs of homework and a stack of magazine reading" week.

I've been a bit remiss in my blogging but that's because I was entertaining a longtime friend who came back to Iowa to help me celebrate my birthday/retirement.   We had such a good time and I was sorry to see her leave so soon, wish she could have stayed longer.  My father also made a surprise visit to celebrate with me, so I was also distracted with his visit too!

On top of the celebrating and house guests, I had my first college class test in 21 years, so I had to fit in studying five chapters during that time also.   I think I did pretty well, but I won't find out for a few days.

This week, I'm going to FINALLY get into my craft room!  I've been putting it off because there have been other things that were more of a priority, but I have a crop to attend this Friday at my friend Judy's office (her boss lets us use the conference room....really comfy chairs...lol), so I need to put some things together to work on.  It's quite a mess in there and since I need to get my stuff ready for Friday, I'm going to clean up too.

The table in the foreground is usually clear of stuff and as you can see, I have piles on it.

My work table has also been a mess for a couple of months.  I've been working on Christmas pages throughout the summer and the one on the table has been there forever.  I AM GOING TO FINISH IT THIS WEEK.....I'm just yelling to reaffirm my intention.  :)

I started an 8 x 8 album for my oldest long time friend Dianne in honor of our 50 years of friendship and I'm still not done with it so I'm going to take that with me on Friday to see if I can get it finished up.  It has some pretty important pictures in it.....from when we were growing up to milestones in both of our lives.  She knows I'm doing it and has provided some of the pictures, but she hasn't seen what I'm doing yet.  I can't wait to give it to her!

In between cleaning up my craft room, I going to tackle the stack of magazines that has collected on one of my reading tables......I don't subscribe to a lot of magazines, but I have multiple issues of the ones I do I haven't read yet.  I let them stack up this summer......PLUS more homework and I have a feeling that my class is going to be ramping up with the homework as we will be starting to put together our 25-35 page business plans....yikes!

Here's a couple of scrapbook pages I've done recently and I thought I'd start sharing some of the things I'm working on here.

My husband and son caught me napping Christmas Day with my sock monkey that the son gave me that day.

This page was done to tell the story of a very important piece of cross stitch that my mother did for me not long after I left home.

Have a great week!  It's a great time of year!

It was a PARTY!

I've been having such a wonderful time with my long time friend Kim that I really haven't had time to do any blog posts.  It figures that my first big test is this Wednesday night in the business class I'm taking at our local community college, so I'm juggling studying with spending time with Kim and my dad who flew in from Las Vegas to surprise me at my retirement/birthday party, so time management is in full force. 

Speaking of the party........it was a blast!  I only have a few pictures because of course, I was too busy talking to all of my guests and those didn't even turn out very well and I didn't task anyone else to do it.....so shame on me!

I over bought on beer and wine, but my food estimate was perfect!  I had tortilla pinwheels, little smokies in BBQ sauce, homemade popcorn with real butter, tortilla chips with my homemade salsa, pretzels with a french onion dip, smore candycorn, peanut m & m's and my dad brought me a cake which was gobbled right down.

One thing I learned....this house has a maximum entertainment capacity of about 40 people.   :)

The Finished Task - Pantry edition

Since I obviously did a poor job of communicating that the photos I showed in my last post are from my pantry BEFORE I did a purge and reorganization, I thought I'd post the AFTER photos......but thank you to all of you that thought my pantry looked good before......LOL

Since none of us bake a lot, mostly just at holiday time or the occasional craving, I needed to move all of our baking supplies to the hard to reach top shelf.  We had been storing paper goods, light bulbs and some baking supplies up there but I had more taking up valuable real estate.

I used a Longeberger serving tray to hold all of our nuts, chocolate chips, raisins, cocoa powder, etc. and then I can just grab the tray to bring the stuff down for use.

We had our pasta, beans and rice not very accessible either and we use those items a lot so they needed to be somewhere for easy access so I moved them to a different part of the pantry.

I also have one of the turntables in the corner of those shelves.  One holds small containers of Splenda, brown sugar, a flour shaker, a cinnamon/sugar shaker and other assorted mixes.

I did get a lot of use out of my Dymo labeler during the re-do.  Some of my previous labels were so old they were peeling off, so I replaced all of the labels with the Dymo labels.

I've got all of our boxes and packages of quinoa, couscous, rice & pasta side dishes in plastic storage containers that can be pulled out.  Dressing mixes and dip mixes go in the hanging container.

I found those cute little mini bushel baskets at the dollar spot at Target and our kitty cat cookie jar came from Sur La Table when we were in the Twin Cities a couple years ago.

I keep fruits and vegetables in various Longaberger baskets and keep our canned vegies, tomato sauce, canned olives, jarred foods and tuna fish together and have those risers for cans they sit on.

On this shelf I've got our canned soups, ramen noodles, canned pasta for the kid in the house and condiments.  The turntable on this shelf holds vinegars, oils and cooking wines.
 

The lowest shelf in our pantry is where we store our bread (in a Longaberger gatherng basket), breakfast foods, toaster, grilled cheese sandwich maker, breakfast sandwich maker and more baskets of vegies and fruits.

Below the shelf is where I have plastic carts had hold potato chips (out of sight, out of mind), some of our paper goods, potatoes, onions and our soda can and bottle recycling bin (those bottles and cans are worth 5 cents a piece when returned).

I'm really hoping that this reorganization will work better for my family and I and hopefully I won't have to do it again any time soon.

But for right now.....our panty is a thing of beauty.  :)