I finished the (final) bathroom tonight. I finally got to cross something off my list! That makes me so happy. I didn’t start either blankets though, I was distracted when I wasn’t painting. I looked up housing money for our possible new place we will live and walked around picking up random things, but not one full room. Tomorrow will be better.

I told my Mom and best friend which is a sign I can say it here now - we are moving. Probably next month, dh’s maybe new job should start in January, though the kids and I will be visiting family for awhile which I am so excited about. We get to live next door to my Grandma again, something I so treasured even if when it was happening it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. We get to live with my Dad in his big house and the kids can ride horse and play in his huge yard with their cousins - yay we will be around family again! Then we get to stay with my Mom enjoying her company before moving on to our final place.

All the while hopefully carting at least one large suitcase full of crafty goodness because our travels will last quite a while and how could I go that long with nothing crafty to do! I’m not nervous yet but I know I will be. I have barely started looking into moving because while the kids and I are off traveling, our stuff will have to be in storage at our new home.

Oh and in other news Alice’s learning is growing in leaps and bounds. I know kids are sponges and I’m so glad we started homeschooling early this year. After George’s death I just stopped doing anything teaching wise for at least a month. She still did a worksheet here or there but it was on her own and not of my teaching. We’ve been back to it for a bit and she is reading entire books (the learn to read book series we have), loves math (I’m debating if she is my child because of this love! LOL), wants to learn more “science stuff,” and is excited we are going to travel because she can “do homeschool” in the car. I’m debating having her start a blog - she loves the computer and is familiar with the keyboard though not a typer yet. I’m sure she would love it though.

So we are moving. But I don’t know when. And honestly, I don’t know where. There are two different scenarios at this point though we should know what is going on by the end of next week.

I spent my day painting the bathroom (it needs a second coat) and pretending knowing where we are going and doing research on that area. So basically what I took from the day is the paint.

I am going to start both blankets I mentioned earlier, tomorrow. One is a crochet blanket and one is a fleece tie blanket. I have two to make for gifts this year but need one more piece of fleece. And I still haven’t double checked my list! Shopping always makes me feel better (such a bad thing!) and I am so looking forward to the craft fair. Chris might go with us too so that will be fun. We need to do some touristy things while we are still here and have ‘free’ time.

I feel like I could type a lot and not really say anything so now is probably a good time to go to bed!

Did the time change today throw you off?

I woke up startled because I somehow realized the alarm was still set to go off. Of course after getting up and walking across the room to turn it off, I knew I couldn’t go back to sleep. I figured fine it’s 8:30, I guess that’s late enough - nope, it was 7:30! And I thought weekends were for sleeping in…

I am making decent progress on the craft room! I cleared up the pile of things that do not go in here and I’m sure I’ll find more. I found more scrapbooking items I need to get rid of and started wondering what, if anything, I will be able to take with me when we move. I know I haven’t said anything about the move yet - I will, soon. I was kind of in denial up until this weekend anyway.

Tomorrow I think we are going to work on some gifts and holiday crafts so I doubt there will be much cleaning. The kids both bought a wooden ornament at the craft store and they need to be painted! I need to check my Christmas list one more time - the craft fair is this weekend and I want to make sure I know what I am looking for, or rather who I am looking for. I just have nephews to buy for and two of them I have no idea what to get. I am determined to buy handmade!

Do you have a Christmas list made and have you started your shopping? What are you waiting for!

It is time to announce the winners! I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into since I asked you all to pick which of the three items you were most interested in - that meant I had to separate the comments into three categories. Whew, that took much longer then I thought.

And drum roll please - the winners are . . .

Stickers ~ Nature Mama from  Nature Notes From Above

Paper ~ Sarah and here is her myspace page

Accessories ~ Sarah from Sassy Frazz

(Nature Mama, is your name Sarah too? )

I’ve emailed and am just waiting to hear back and I will get the items out this week. The giveaway was too fun! I still have scrapbooking items left so I’ll probably be doing this again. I think that’s the only craft I haven’t been able to really get into, otherwise I stamp, make cards, sew, quilt, make jewelry, play with clay, and the list could go on and on.

Head on over to the winners pages and give them a shout out of congratulations!

I was reminded of the blankets that can fold into a pillow after reading this post at Mommies Magazine about stuffed animals that are the stuffed animal, a pillow and a blanket. That is too cool! But in keeping with my buying handmade this year, I went to etsy to search for the blanket/pillow combo. Alice and Jake both have blankets like it and they love them. Maybe I can get one for a nephew - having such a large family always leaves me wondering what to get them for Christmas!

Alice’s pattern is Finding Nemo and Jake’s is a football material. I still need ideas for one nephew that is six and another that is three. Maybe the blanket would work for the three year old because the one year old is getting a blanket I’m going to crochet. I have a lot of fleece material though and I bet I could make a quillow (what the combo is usually called). If you are interested in buying one, check out the listings on etsy.

Halloween was fairly uneventful for us. Alice and Jake didn’t get that it was Halloween until I told them late in the afternoon. I should have waited - from the moment I said something they asked every three minutes if it was time to leave yet. It was hard to distract them after that and I know they put their costumes on and took them off at least three times before it was really time for us to go. Alice was upset because the purple hair spray did nothing to her hair! And I sprayed the entire can on her too.

We left before it was totally dark outside, a handful of our neighbors were also out. I love passing out candy and seeing the costumes but there just weren’t a lot of people around. It was odd because last year it seemed that at every house people were home and the same amount was out and about. And we ran out of candy but this year even after we came inside and left the candy on a chair, we still had probably two bags left. Chris took it to work the next day and gave it to his students. The kids still ended up with a lot ~

I don’t think you can tell but they were in the middle of separating all the candy. Of course once that was done, they just put it all back into their bags! They had a great time and were sad that we had to stop when we did. I really wonder where the rest of my neighborhood was?

Did your kids have fun on Halloween? Did you post pictures? Share the link so we can all see!

My craft room is in a constant state of needing to be organized. I try to keep the like with the like - the sewing together and by the sewing machine, the bookcase shelves well kept, the kids craft items on the same shelf in the closet. But it is still a mess.

I will say this is the messiest room in my house. It seems to be the catch all room - see the stacks of books? That is from the bookcase in the loft. We cleaned it off so it would be easier to move when we painted…two weeks ago. The loft is put back together but the books haven’t been. It’s been easy to work around them, they’ve actually been restacked twice, but of course they should be back on the bookcase.

The dresser was meant to hold homeschool items but they were shifted to the bookcase in the craft room. I’m honestly not sure what is in there now. And the chair was my Grandpa’s years and years ago, the arm (we think) is at my brother’s or my Mom’s house - Mom said I should throw it away but I don’t want to. Of course it should be used if I’m not going to get rid of it!

Since getting the laptop, no one sits at the desk longer then to print something. We really want a wireless printer, that would eliminate the need to even sit at the desk. But it is a nice desk.

I want to have different sections in the room - a sewing section, homeschool section, etc. I’ve thought about taking the top of the desk off and using the desk as a cutting station or a work station, but haven’t done so. I definitely need to get organized as we may be moving in the next few months. I know it’s smart to start now rather then to rush at the end!

Today starts the 30 Day Organizational Challenge and I signed up for this room. Thirty days is plenty of time to put like with the like, find basket and bins if necessary, purge and get the room put together in a good way. I don’t mind if I end up getting done and moving a couple of months later, I can always use the same ideas later.

PS You entered the giveaway right? I’ll be drawing names the same time as the rest of the participants, which I think is Saturday.