Ahhhh…the best laid plans!

This was how it was supposed to go: Drive over to the eastside, get the house decorated for the Holidays, shop, catch up, celebrate, go home…that was the plan. Now, I knew that the weather might be a little tricky, but I didn’t expect to be snowbound for going on 3 weeks!

Luckily I brought my Advent journal along with a decent variety of embellishments. But, in my infinite wisdom, I packed most of my art supplies to the westside last fall, and now I have next to nothing but Christmas themed embellishments to work with.

I pulled all non-Christmas themed pieces out and have slowly added some new items to the mix. I’ve been toying with the idea of only working in one junk journal at a time and finishing it up before moving on to a new one for a while now, looks like that’s a go!

And since it is still winter, most of the pages in this journal are relevant.

The craft supply shopping in this little town we’re retiring to is extremely limited, so I’ve been sneaking in into craft stores to plump up my stash a bit when out looking for wedding dresses with my daughter. (that’s a whole other story!)

The other side of this story is trying to keep from accumulating more stuff right now. We’re going to have to fit our other house into this much smaller one in a couple of years, and I’m supposed to be downsizing!

Although I’ve managed to be very strategic with my purchases, the problem with organization reared it’s inconvenient head. These are some filing boxes I picked up at the local thrift store I thought might work.

I made little file folders out of cardstock. The larger files hold vintage ephemera and the smaller ones hold store bought ephemera. I haven’t committed to labling them yet, I’m not sure I’ll need to…I just really needed to clean off my desk!Some examples of what I’ve been able to accumilate.

Clockwise from the top: Tim Holtz ephemera from Amazon, mics. paper pad ephemera “Shake It Chic” from Michael’s, stickers from Hobby Lobby, vintage magazine images, and various book images.

So, the plan from here, as soon as the passes clear, is to divide up as much of my stash as possible between both houses. Then put some yummy de-stash packs in my shoppe at a reduced price and share the love!

Also, I will be hosting some giveaways throughout the year to help this plan along, so stay tuned for that and tell your friends!

As always, thank you for stopping by,

Thank you so much for hanging in there with me,

Talk to you soon,

~Patty