GIVEAWAY day is here!

So did you guess the giveaway item from the previous hints? One winner will win their own copy of Pottery Barn's Storage & Display hardcover book (a $24.95 retail value) for their personal library!!!

After our multiple moves in a few short months, it forced us to become uber organized people (and I am over the top organized to begin with). We have gotten to the point of color coding our boxes per floor plan and labeling them very specifically so there is no confusion. We can only hope our next movers follow our technique. Long story for another day. *sigh* As they say, the best laid plans...anyway, once we got the boxes in the correct locations here, the fun part started. The unpacking, deciding what to keep, what to put out in the room and what to give away. New and different spaces need new and different strategies. No room is exactly the same, so it's like starting from scratch with a blank slate and all your belongings tend to take on a new feel. Pure excitement! Well, at least for me. So I am asking my readers to answer one question for me to be entered in this giveaway.

What is your all time favorite organizational tip?
It can be for a room, a house, a closet, a move...think about it and let me know by leaving me a comment.

One winner will receive a brand new hardcover copy of Pottery Barn's Storage & Display - Stylish Solutions for Organizing Your Home!
This book is absolutely fabulous - I have one in my home library I reference all the time!

To enter, please leave your best or favorite organizational tip along with your name (first name and last initial). Entries without a tip will be disqualified. You can enter once a day with a new organizational tip.

To earn an extra (optional) entry, become a follower in Google Friend Connect (lefthand column - click the Follow button) and leave me a comment that you did so.

Giveaway will run through 11:59 p.m. CST on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010. One winner will be selected from total comments at contest end via random.org and announced sometime on Friday, July 23rd. Giveaway is open to U.S. residents at this time only.

Thanks for participating and good luck!

(Image courtesy Amazon.com)

::: UPDATE :::

Our posts will be sporadic this week and will commence on a regular basis in early June after our move. We thank you for your patience with our transition!

(via)

We hope our US readers enjoy the long Memorial Day weekend - please take a moment to remember those who died while serving our country to preserve and protect our freedoms.
Thank a military service person - it takes only a minute.

Planning for the Big Move (and another GIVEAWAY coming SOON!)

As you know, we are planning a big move back to the city from which we moved...Confused? Yes, so was I when we got the news. Ironic? Eerily. Easy? Well...I could think of many, many other things more painful, so you won't find me complaining. On the bright side, there are many fun things on the horizon like updating our daughter's room to a 'big girl room' and getting her ready for preschool come the fall. CSN stores recently approached me to do a review on one of their products and I happily agreed (insert cartwheel here). Have you heard of them? They have everything under the sun in one place from an awesome variety of toddler beds to some of the cutest options in children's wall art. Moving and making our daughter's new room 'perfecto!' will be a piece of cake with CSN stores, that's for sure!

And let's not forget preschool this fall - new experiences are always so exciting! I will be receiving this adorable Skip Hop Penguin Zoo backpack to review for our daughter and giving one away to a lucky reader! Come back here in the very near future to read about the giveaway and enter. In the meantime, check out the 200+ CSN stores - but make sure you have ample time to browse their goods...you'll need it. Seriously.

(Image courtesy of CSNstores.com).

A Moving Story

Literally. We are moving again. However, we're moving because the hubs found a job! WOOHOO!!! And we'll ironically be moving back to the city from which we moved (17 years there only to return for a few more I guess)...so he can work for the company that cut his job...but this time as a contractor/consultant. If you're not confused, I give you kudos. Seriously. It took me two days to realize what was going on and what it meant. I think I said to the hubs a few times, "Now explain this to me again..." - he must think I'm crazy. It's like we took a 7 month vacation with our recent move out of that city last Fall...as the hubs reminds me, it was anything but a vacation (unemployment is not fun - we've crossed it off our list hoping we don't have to venture down that path again)...so, let's call it a sabbatical.

We took the crash course in frugality and budgeting...and yes, the art major who always runs away from numbers has become a budgeting queen and 'save' has replaced 'spend' in my vocabulary. My family doesn't know who I am. But I am OK - no more than OK - with this revised thinking I have adapted. God works in funny ways, let me tell you. The lessons He wants us to learn are sometimes the longest roads we take in life. We all need to be refined in different ways and who better to know and guide us than the Heavenly Father. I am grateful for that even though we may not know exactly what His plan of course may be or the paths He takes us down.

Thank you Heavenly Father for blessing us with the security of new employment. Help guide us in the future with decisions we need to make with housing and give us strength to embrace the lessons of frugality when temptation comes our way. Teach us to trust in You as you have shown us time and time again that with You (God), anything is possible.

My blog posts may be sporadic in the next few weeks - I'm apologizing in advance...I'm going to try my best to post every couple of days, but please understand I need to start packing up this family for our next adventure! Thanks for taking the time to follow my blog - I appreciate all of my readers!

Long time, no see...we're back!

Where does the time go? Well, last you heard we were packing up, had sold our house and moved. We are settling in...but not too much as we're unsure of whether or not we'll have to move because of a job offer. There are a few things in the works, some local or close where we would not need to move in the short term...and some are quite distant (out-of-state) to where it would behoove us NOT to unpack the non-essentials for every day living. So, we wait. And wait. And wait. Hoping some news will arrive much sooner than later...but for now, here is where we are holding camp. We love our Craftsman bungalow home and we are so blessed to have the world's best friends (old and new) - especially the builders who are renting this beauty of a model home to us. It is wonderful to be so close to family again and in familiar territory - we're sure going to enjoy it while it lasts. Updates to come once we hear more, I promise!