Work in Progress Wednesday: Holiday Decorating

I really struggle with the whole concept of decorating my house for the holidays.  I know it shouldn't be that hard, but I think it has its challenges.  Challenge #1 is that is requires more stuff.  I am more of an "everything all over the place" than an "everything in its place" person.  So the idea of adding more stuff to the place makes me a little nervous.  This challenge was eradicated by my former intern Kaleigh (you remember her)

Hi Kaleigh! 

Kaleigh informed me that when decorating for the holidays, you put your normal, every day decorations in the box the holiday decorations came out of, then when its over, bring them back out.  I know this should have been obvious, but it was seriously a light bulb moment for me.  

Challenge #2 is how to arrange it.  I read a lot of crafting blogs and you should see the way these people claim their houses look all the time.  I mean were do you eat dinner if your table looks like this? 

http://planbeat.net/halloween-decorations/26/events-blog-wordless-wednesday-halloween-decor-for-grown-ups/

Where does one get so many pumpkins? 

http://www.whileyouwereblogging.com/?tag=decor

Where do you put all your piles of mail and bills? 

http://blog.myweddeal.com/2012/10/24/halloween-wedding-inspiration-decorations/newlywed-halloween-decor/

Or your purse and all the other random bags that go on tables like these?

http://betterdecoratingbible.com/2011/10/

After reading enough blogs and looking at enough pictures, I realized a pattern.  That I could just group things together as opposed to spread it out everywhere, add touches here or there, and use things I already had.  These revelations lead me to create a little bit of Halloween that actually looked good.  I was rather proud of myself when I came up with the idea to add the Harry Potter books from the shelf into all of the Harry Potter Decorations I had from my teaching days. 

I threw in the an owl candle (Hedwig) I'd bought the week before on a whim and a plastic glass I must have had from a Philadelphia party (it could totally double as the goblet of fire).

Then I took the rest of the owls, some randoms pairs of pumpkins and flowers, and some candle sticks from a wedding, bunched them all together and placed them in a couple of spaces in the room.

It's not a master piece, and this won't turn into a "decor" blog anytime soon.  But it's Work In Progress, and it's Wednesday.  So here you go!

Happy Halloween!  

Teal Tuesday - Pink and Teal - its all too real

Happy Teal Tuesday my friends!  I've been a little quiet on the teal front as this month belongs to pink and pink is rather close to my heart.  Cancer is no stranger to my family on both sides.  So far, I have three breast cancer survivors and one angel in in my family tree.  That makes us all "previvors" , the risk of cancer is all too real to my family.  See, we have a lot of girls on my mothers side.  She is one of 5 sisters, 6 out of 10 grandchildren are women, and we are currently at 3 for 4 girls in the great grandchildren department.  We knot that its just not our amazing good looks that we share.  The genes we share are strong, but not stronger than our love for each other.  So this #Teal Tuesday goes out to this crew:

The winners of the most people in the photo booth contest:



These Sisters:


This Crew:







This Team:



These Aunts:





This Angel:



And these two who started it all:

A Year Ago Today/The Return to Health: Go Pink!

Today's post is a combination "A Year Ago Today" and "The Return to Health."  As I've blogged about before, TRX was a big part of my return to fitness after cancer.  I was able to Zumba through some of my treatments, but when I was ready to get strong again, TRX and Hosner Fitness was right there to help.

A year ago today, was the First Annual GO PINK for Breast Cancer at Hosner Fitness.  Usually closed on Sunday, Hosner Fitness opened for a Sunday in October to raise money for Cancer Services Program of Fulton and Montgomery County. Suzanne Hagadorn and her crew provided screenings free of charge for breast, cervical and colorectal and provide education on cancer prevention and early detection.   Last year, I was recovering from surgery #2, but came over to watch one of the classes.  It was a time that I was still very unsure of what was going on and pretty scared.  Seeing the community come out and support one another like that was touching and hopeful.


This year, I am so incredibly blessed to be healthy enough to participate.  I put on my pink shirt and "cancer sucks" headband and joined in the fun at 8 am.  They do 4,  30 minutes classes at ten dollars each.  This year over 50 people signed up for classes.

The place was all decorated in Pink, and the lights were off to give it more of a party atmosphere with DJ Mike Garrasi providing the music and lights.

There were raffles, t-shirts, snacks, and bracelets for sale will all proceeds going to the cause.

They filled the walls with 160 ribbons celebrating survivors and supporters.

And since the classes were sold out, Rob agreed to wear this while instructing......

I know there is a lot of pink this month and the seriousness of cancer can get lost in the "save the ta-tas," that horrendous motor-boating scheme and "I'm a Boob Man" mentality of Breast Cancer awareness month.  We forget that its actually about saving women (and men), not their body parts.   This event is so great and so special because not only is the community coming together to raise money for a good cause but they come together for a celebration.  They are celebrating health and strength.  They are empowering women to take control of their health, to lead a health lifestyle that helps prevent cancer or, like me and the many other survivors that work out there, return to a healthy, vibrant lifestyle after cancer.

I can't wait to hear how much money was raised or to see the professional pictures taken by Katie Ramirez. When I'm do I will be sure to share.  For now, I'll leave you with the sign each group took their picture with, made by one of our strong survivors, Karen Agresta.