Tales From the Minivan

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So you just saw my (not so small) dirty little secret!  I’m not sure just how things can get this out of control in the house, but it happens WAY TOO OFTEN!!  The first step they say is admitting you have a problem.  My problem, I hate cleaning, but I hate even more having a mess!  This is not a good combination, because as soon as I see the mess I want to tackle I get frustrated and overwhelmed.  I start the job, but it never gets completed the way I want it to.  Yes, I will admit I have a few distractions in the house (well four of them ) and that doesn’t help, but it doesn’t take long for things to get out of control like that. This needs to stop, I need to start good habits of taking 5 minutes after a meal rather than dealing with the crisis that ensues when I “leave it for later”.  Upbeat music really helps me, and I tackled the kitchen mess to one of my all time favourites, Bob Marley’s- Legend.  This music is truly timeless and I never get sick of these songs, even the kids love them!

One thing I’ve decided to do is to reward myself.   After watching the Kitchen Inspiration Slideshow it has really given me some motivation. I have hated these kitchen counters since we moved into our house almost 6 years ago.  They are an awful dark shade of dusty rose (just like the awful carpet on the entire second floor), I’ve decided I want to reward myself with a mini-kitchen makeover if I can maintain the kitchen until my birthday in June (the 23rd).  I want to replace the countertops and stain the cabinets and island a darker colour.   Wish me luck, and I’ll be sure to post photos, if I reach my goal!

I have been crisis cleaning! When you take a look at my Before & After Smileboxes you will see this crisis, that has been surrounding us.

I will admit, I have let the housework slip lately, but when everyone got sick last week, then I got sick everything went downhill from there. I had started to clear out the closets to put away all of the winter jackets, boots, hats and mitts, then everything got left then scattered all over the entry way! So I will swallow my pride and show you my mess! I even added a suiting song!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Tomorrow! You get to see the horrific Kitchen shots! It’s bad…really bad! Thank goodness for the Clutter Control Club, it arrived just in time for me!

I’m was very happy to see some great new St Patty’s Day Smileboxes added! Here’s one that I created in less than 5 minutes from last years’ celebrations!

Make a free ecard - it’s easy!

have been having so much fun with Smilebox ! I have had very little time to do one of my favorite hobbies of scrapbooking lately, so this has been a great alternative (although not a replacement). I like that with my premium account that you can save the jpgs individually and have them printed out, or just save them to create your own slide shows, this is what I did for one of the gifts for my dad. I got him a digital photo frame, and made Smilebox pages to display on it!

Here’s a few from the kids playing in the backyard after our first snowday! We’ve actually had 2 snowdays already this month!

Click here to see the Smilebox I created:

Here are what the jpgs look like when you save them!

I’m hoping to do a year in review scrapbook so watch for that soon!