40 Bags in 40 Days

The Christian season of Lent begins today, on Ash Wednesday. While we Presbyterians don't focus heavily on giving up things for Lent, this challenge really spoke to me. In short, the challenge is to purge your home of 40 bags (size of your choosing) of whatever-you-need-to-get-rid-of during Lent. In recent years Christians have often been encouraged to add something spiritually beneficial to their lives rather than making a token sacrifice that really doesn't have much to do with our faith lives. My giving up french fries a couple of years ago (40 days of torture) probably benefited my arteries, but didn't do much in the way of bringing me closer to the savior.

My 2011 word of the year, a la Ali Edwards, is simplify. Less stuff in my life means more space and time for the people and the Lord that I love. Our house is small and we're not packrats (except for Annamarie, bless her heart), so forty bags sounds like a lot. But I'd bet I can get a quarter of that from our craft/computer room, and I'll enjoy this room a lot more when it's less cluttered.

My first bag is actually a box. I've been reorganizing my scrapbook supplies and some purging is overdue. Anyone want this box?



I'm excited about this challenge, and I'm going to keep track of my progress, including how I dispose of the stuff. I am a big fan of Freecycle, which keeps useful items out of the landfill and ideally gets things to people who really want or need them, rather than into the giant pile of stuff at the Salvation Army store. (I do take donations there as well, but usually only if I want it gone immediately.) By Easter, I hope to be 40 bags lighter in my home and my soul.

So who wants to join me?

Let's just pretend like I've been here all along, shall we?

I've had this cool Crafter's Workshop template for a while, but no photos to go with the peace sign theme. When Annamarie started flashing a peace sign in every picture (What's up with that? Judging from the pics I see on Facebook, it's a middle school girl epidemic.) I knew I had my photos. I used about six colors of Glimmer Mist with the template and then decided it didn't "pop" quite as much as I wanted, so I stitched (badly) around the shape in black. I love the look and I also love the new Maya Road bingo pieces-- so fun! Here's another layout using a Crafter's Warehouse template: The Proposal

A Stash Busting Weekend

Recently I've done a lot more gallery surfing and shopping than actual scrapping, but I'm on a roll this weekend. Shimelle's class has me in "use it or lose it" mode, and I feel a big purge coming on.

I am a big fan of Doodlebug Design, and notoriously unable to part with any of their products, no matter how old. See the tokens on the layout below? 2003. And that's one of my last remaining Heidi Swapp bling circles. I love them and they are very hard to find these days. The rub-ons are Making Memories, also from 2003, and they are still the best quality rub-ons around...they go on like buttah.





I am a sucker for the paper pads Michaels sells, especially the glitter and spot-embossed ones, but I wish they were about a third of the size. Who needs 54 sheets of paper from the same line? The background on the layout below is from one of those pads, and I never thought I'd use it, but I kind of like it here.


Annamarie and I are off to get haircuts and have some lunch, and the boys are shopping for new sneakers. Thomas has clearly hit that growth spurt we've all been waiting for. It's nice to see him actually eating for a change but he is, in true teenage boy fashion, eating us out of house and home.

Wishing everyone a blessed Easter. He is risen!

A Little Lift

I ran across an adorable layout on Two Peas, and I knew it would be perfect for a rare photo of my friend Sandy and me. (Both of us would much rather be behind the camera than in front of it.) Lifting this layout would also allow me to play with the Maya Road mini banners that are my single favorite thing out of all the winter CHA releases.



Now I'm off to run some errands with my girl. We have shoes to return and fabric to buy and perhaps coffee to sip.