Sunday was *not* a day of rest for me.

I'm just worn out. Like seriously worn out.
Another day, another room cleaned OUT. The dining room was on the agenda for today, and the dining room is happy! I cleaned out the cedar cabinet we kept blankets & jackets in, cleaned out the china cabinet, and the buffet cabinet. 3 bags of trash went out of there, 2 bags of donation & 2 boxes of donation went out as well.
I am so incredibly exhausted, but let me tell ya, it feels AWESOME to get it OUT of my house!!! The less clutter & junk I have to look at, the WAY better! I found myself cleaning up, and moving one pile of mess to another side of the room, and that's not cleaning. That's just moving the mess. ugh. 
I keep waiting for someone to stop & ask if we're moving. heh. 
If we didn't have to have get a freaking PERMIT to have a yard sale, I would totally have one. SOOO, someone will get a huge donation to their store, and I have less stress!!!
eeee!

Anyway, its about dinner time, and apparently, you have to feed kids daily. Who knew? Didn't I just feed them yesterday!? 

Oh, and today is my parents 41st wedding anniversary! WOW! In today's world, that's almost unheard of! Happy Anniversary, mom & dad! I love you both so much! 

whew! What a DAY!

It has truly been one of 'those' days all week long!
*sigh*
The kids have been unruly, and they're about to have their own listing up on Ebay... (ok, not really, but ANY mother can understand that!)

We've had some doozies of storms come through here the last few days. God knows we NEEDED the rain, but coulda' done without the scary wind, light show & booming thunder! Today, we had TWO major storms come through. Everything is fine, but MAN! I am DONE with storms!

Today, I finally had E-nough of clutter taking over. I realize that we have a big family with 4 kids, but I am SOOO tired of using that as an excuse anymore! So, I decided that it was time. to. change.
I decided that it was time for simple living. The less, the better! It's going to take me a while, but I know it's gonna be SOO worth it!
We have a BIG, OLD house. Big as in 3200 sqft, 5 bedrooms, 10 rooms total. Old, as in it was built in 1856, by a Civil war gunsmith. LOADS of history attached to our place!
BUT, I thought to myself 'self, Boss Man could come down on some orders to move like ANY DAY! We've been stationed here over 4 years... uh, we're not taking all this CRAP with us when we move... AGAIN...' ... and self agreed. So, with the size of our house, I've decided that I can tackle one room a day, weed out, purge, toss & give away at least HALF of what's in a room. EASY. And, that will make things feel less cluttered, less messy & less chores! YAY!
I started with our bedroom & closet today. Can I just say that it took me FIVE hours! I got rid of 5 HUGE black bags of clothes! whoa. And, I can't even TELL you how much trash came out of there! yikes!
But, lemme tell ya that I have never felt SO good about it! It was a hell'a lotta work, but OMG, no more piled up junk, no more debris!! I am SO happy!
I think with the kids pitching in some help here & there, I KNOW I can tackle one room a day.
The only thing now is that my huge front porch looks like a scene from 'Sanford & Son' ... so what. That mess is OUT of my house, and will soon be DONATED!!!
I'm starting to wonder if I'm 'nesting' cause maybe we will get orders soon.
eh.
That's OK by me! Less mess to pack up, movers! woot woot!!

I did take some time this morning to come up with a card for the My Craft Spot Challenge #13. If I don't do something creative at least ONCE a day, I'll go nuts. I think that's why I can do a major clean out of this house!
Anyway, the challenge was to so something 'sweet'. I made this card ... Hope you guys will enjoy it! It's simple, but that's my theme today anyway... simple & simple living!
Much love!!

Birthday Sundaes Challenge #14

This is a challenge from Birthday Sundaes ....
Make a shaped birthday card (no squares, or rectangles), and it must have a birthday greeting on the front...

Can I just say that I AHH-dore this card!? LOVE him!!! The monkey is from Create a Critter, and I made him into a card by welding 2 of him with my Gypsy.

I hope you enjoy him as much as I do! If my nephew wasn't so brand new, I would try & save him for his first birthday... BUT, I think this will get a mate & I'll save them for my twinners birthday in August!

A Challenge!

Suhweet!
I found a challenge! "Summer Sun"!
Anything with a sun on it... so here goes!
Simple, but cute! I hope someone likes it! I've made it to use on a card, but can be used for ANY springtime/summer layout, too!

Things I've made

After skimming through MANY blogs, I'm still at a loss on where exactly to start.
I need to find a 'challenge' of sorts to get motivated, and I haven't quite found one. At least, haven't found one that's not already in full swing, and too late for me to enter.
No one really likes the 'new kid'...
Not only that, I see these AWESOMELY cute 'Peachy Keen' facial expression stamps, and I don't have any of those. (sobb!! cry!! *gasp*gasp* ... feel free to mail me off a set or three!)
So, I've decided that I am going to post up some pics today of little projects here & there that I've done, and sold at a local craft shop.

*PLEASE excuse my horrid picture taking. Right now all I have is my Droid to take pics with, and even though sometimes it does well, it's NOT what I've had in mind...

Let's start with my Etsy shop. For a LONG time, my cousin in Florida said I needed to sell my hand made embellishments. I took her advice, started up another Etsy shop, and have about 17 or so items in there, but no sales.
No worries.
If they don't sell, I'm pretty sure my cousin would LOVE to have them!

OK, so I've mentioned I'm crazy over my cricut & Gypsy. I was ooooh so aggravated with my cricut when I first got it. (btw, I have the first, smallest one.) I hated the way it wasted paper, and always told me the 'charachters won't fit'...um, BALONEY! I put it away about a year or so, and finally gave in & got the Gypsy.
What a DIFFERENCE!!! And SO. MUCH. FUN. !!!
So, that's what I do now. Play on Facebook, google image things til I'm blue, and learn more & more what my Gypsy can do!


Miss Hula... I just love her!




Makes you want Ice Cream, right?




seriously. I'm crazy over this one.




Welding things in Gypsy.... *heart*





I can do any beach name here... this was just our favorite in Hawaii

 



Awh! Sand Castle!

 
So, that's a little of what's listed in my shop, Aloha Paradise. Please visit! I'm always taking custom orders!

Now, onto things I've made, and taken to a local shop. A lot of these are from inspiration I have found on the intra'webs...
If I could link them back to the original idea blog, I would... and if it WAS your idea I borrowed from, PLEASE let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!



Altered Journal



Close-up of paper roses

Paper roses on a gift box lid



Another altered journal with paper roses




Altered Journal




Altered Journal with paper roses & sticky pearls...




Altered journal



by the sea journal



close-up. I loved the 'pearl' ...




Clothes on a line from the paper dolls Cricut Cart...




Wrapped Hershey's chocolates... HUGE hit here!





NUTS over this paper. I found it at Michael's

 


See why? Oh, that plaid!!  eeee!!




All the yummies.... and paper roses!




just because I loved them SO much...





I think I'll go & work on finding a challenge of some sort... or maybe make my own. Challenge myself.

ooo, I know. Challenge myself to finish the laundry!

eh.

that cuts into craft time! sheesh!

So, if you know of any fun challenges going on, PLEASE let me know. I've never done one, and I'm very interested in them! I wish I had more friends into scrapbooking or such so that they could play along... sigh.

Much love!

First Post & It's Father's Day!

Taking a stab at this blogging thing... Here goes!

First off, Happy Father's Day to all dads out there! And, a *special* one to my brother, Todd, who is a daddy for the first time! My little nephew, Tyson, was born in May, and tonight I got to hear his teeny tiny cry & his 'coos' on the phone! Since we live in NC, and they all live back home in GA, I haven't held that baby yet, so that was just precious to me! I'm already crazy over that boy!

There really isnt going to be any rhyme or reason to this blog. I have a semi-addiction to searching blongs online, and seeing what others create with their cricut, what they scrapbook, or what others craft, so I thought 'eh. why not start my own..'

The reason I chose to call my blog 'Hawaii Wishes', is because I really believe I left my heart on the shores of Kailua Beach on the island of Oahu.
After a year long deployment to Iraq, my husband returned safely to us, and we were offered a trip of a lifetime to ANYWHERE in the world we wanted to go... (thanks, In-laws!!) and they would go along to help with the kids & any school work (um, ALRIGHT!)... So, in August 2010, we made the plans, packed our bags, and hopped on a plane for a 2 week PARADISE vacation! The kids & I had NEVER been on a plane, so this was *huge* for us! WE. LOVED. IT!
We stayed in a rental house on Kailua Beach on the Windward side of the island. All those pictures you've ever seen, wonderful stories you've ever heard, or videos you've ever seen.. yes, it truly is *THAT* beautiful. Let's just say, the night we flew out of Honolulu, I was sobbing like a blubbering baby, and nearly made myself sick!
Since then, the Boss Man (I'm pretty sure that's what you'll hear me call the husband...) has been trying to get us orders to be stationed in Hawaii. We've been in NC too long, and we ALL need a change of pace. Not only that, Boss Man needs a change of pace in the job area. Dear Army, move us to Oahu! please?

We're a big family. 4 kids. Oldest boy is 10. Only girl just turned 9, and the twinners will be 7 in August. Didja catch that? 4 kids in less than 3 1/2 years. Yea, we're a bit crazy to do it that way, but hey, they'll be out of the house around the same time...wait. and in college the same time.
crap.
maybe we didn't think this all the way through. hmm.
Oh well. No putting them back!

Here is a picture of my 'army' at a Luau in Hawaii. This is one of my favorite pictures! We rarely get a chance at a family photo, so this touches my heart... and makes me laugh!

Schroeder Army at a Hawaiian Luau!



So, how about a few more pics from our trip... If you've never been, I hope you'll understand our aching to be stationed there!



Kailua Beach





Kailua Beach





Diamond Head & Honolulu



 



Chinaman's Hat















North Shore at Waimea Bay





Waimea Bay, North Shore



Riding along the shores...




Us standing next to an old WWII bunker, on the side of a mountain.





So there it is. A mini vacation! Hope you enjoyed it!

We also just ended another spring baseball season! All the kids played well, including the girl! This was their second year playing, and this time, we just got word that the oldest boy was chosen to play with the All-Star team starting in July! I really am SO happy for him. He's had a rough year with struggling through school, making the time & effort for Sylvan, and baseball. His coach chose him over his own son! I can't wait to hear what the details are for this, and get him started in it (if we can... we already had plans for most of July... so... hmm.)
BUT, here is a small video I did for the grandparents...

And, there you have it. My first post.
I can't wait to post up some pics of things I'm creating with my cricut, things I'm scrapbooking, or other goodies from others who have inspired me.

Hope you all have called up your daddies! Our little monsters are in bed, and I'll be headed that way soon myself.

Much love!