Elf on the Shelf: The Final Days of 2012!

Wow just as quickly as this fun little tradition began it is already time for the 2012 round to come to an end. I am happy it is over. The last few days I have not been able to come up with anything. 

Day 21: Sparkly ate some nasty gingerbread cookie. 

Day 22: Sparkly had surgery!!! She finally went through the pain staking hand separation surgery and then hid under the sofa. My daughter found her almost instantly. :( 

Day 23: I tried something a bit more complicated. While she did eventually find Sparkly it most certainly was not as quick as the previous day. My daughter LOVES seek and find books. I think I should have done more activities that were a bit more difficult to find. This is about the point I ran out of ideas. I think I started a day or two before Dec. 1st, so Sparkly set in this very spot for 2 or 3 days. My 2 year old didn't even seem to mind.

Day 25 or 26 who's counting? Sparkly sits in Zoey's stocking awaiting xmas morning. I sit over here at the computer typing at 3 in the morning awaiting the next time my 2 year old wakes up. Since I work late hours we normally go to bed around 2ish. I put her down at about 1 tonight since I knew I would have things to do. She has already woken up 4 times!

Goodbye Sparkly! See you next year! Merry Xmas everyone! Enjoy the time you have!

Label Maker OMG!

So for a few months now I have been eyeing a label maker. I have been searching for a great sale on one that included the AC adapter, apparently that doesn't exist. :( I was asked by my sister what I wanted for xmas and this was the first thing that came to mind! I am so glad she bought this for me (thanks sis!). Now I don't have to spend time choosing one and being super picky! So in celebration of my NEW label maker and my LOVE for organizing things I thought I would make this post about the things I have been organizing over the last week or so!

In August we moved into our 1st home and the spare bedroom had turned into a junky storage room instead of MY craft room (and our game room). Last week I finally got around to getting the moving boxes out of there and cleaning the room up! Above you can see the main storage for all of my crafty things. I used the new label maker to make it easy for me to sort all the bits and pieces.

I have a small 12x12 clear box to store my scrapbook paper and other little extras for paper crafting. (I'm not a scrapbooker btw, I did make my xmas cards this year though.)

So maybe this doesn't really relate but... I also moved all of my user manuals from the cute, little, overstuffed, annoying binder above to the perfect little file folder below!

In my daughters room I use a coat rack on the clothing bar to keep her gazillion pairs of sunglasses and a few necklaces. I am probably the only one in the world who doesn't hang up clothes. Well, maybe just a few things, but they are all in my closet.

Last but not least my "stockpile". As a couponer people always seem to think I have a huge garage filled with  20 thousand bottles of whatever that I will never use. Luckily for me that is not true. I do have more than most I am sure. You might be able to see the 10 deodorants and the 10 shampoos and the 10 body wash but by having at least that many of those items I don't have to worry about couponing every single week. Now that I have some items saved up I can take a coupon vacation! Ahhh just relaxing... Just kidding. I still try to use coupons at the grocery store but I don't have to try so hard now, because I have these items on hand.

Elf on the Shelf: Day 17, 18, 19 and 20!

 Day 17: Sparkly is going potty! Now if only I could get my 2 year old to do the same thing. :)

 Day 18: Just hanging around!

Day 19: Trying to leave the house! Get back here Sparkly!

Day 20: Since our work schedules tend to clash (and because my sister recently broke her phone AGAIN) she was coming by to exchange Xmas gifts (more on that later!), so I had a picture of her sitting with Sparkly to announce that she was coming over. 

As you can see at this point I am running out of ideas. Sparkly has turned into a paperweight on various surfaces in our house. If you have any fun ideas appropriate for a 2 year old, share them in the comments!

How to Wrap a Present! (with scraps!)

So like most of us during this time of year, I am busy wrapping presents. One of the most irritating things about wrapping presents is the pile of useless paper that is left after everything is wrapped. YOU KNOW what I am talking about. Those annoying little scraps that you just can't find a use for. Too tiny to wrap any present but too large to just throw in the trash. Meet your resolution:

Take all the scraps and wrap another present. This would be super cute on the gift for the office party, for a gag gift or just for silly presentation for the jokesters you know.

Keep in mind you will want to have LOTS of tape on hand. 

I had so much fun wrapping these gifts. I cannot wait to see my relatives' reaction when they see their gifts! What creative ideas do you have for your leftover wrapping paper?