Happy Birthday Jeff~

My husband's birthday was the same day as the Olympic opening ceremonies so Nina baked his cake with an Olympic theme.
Isn't it great?
She use edible paper and her silhouette machine to make the decorations.
The sports emblems are Jeff's favorite Olympic events.  

All our children and grands were at Nina and John's Saturday evening for a birthday party for Jeff.

Gavin thinks Aunt Nina's cakes are the best part of birthdays.
Elizabeth likes the present opening part the best.

Grandpa Jeff thinks having all his children and grandchildren together at one time is the best.  

And Zerbie, the worlds largest and sweetest Doberrnan,  thinks sitting on the couch
 just like the other guests is the best.   

Last week's baking

It is another crazy-hot summer in Oklahoma but I am still doing a little baking.

I do it all the same time so the oven only gets heated up once.

Last week,  I made 3 loaves of banana bread

a pan of brownies - and shhh, don't tell my family but I used a jar of baby food prunes  that I found while cleaning out,  the recipe called for 1/2 cup of butter - I instead used just 1/4 cup of butter and that tiny jar of prunes.  They were delicious too.  

I also made a batch of whole wheat bread dough in the machine and added some of the vital wheat gluten I got from Amazon last week.  They turned out much lighter than 100% whole wheat normally is.  

I am sold on it and will be using it in all my recipes.  

This camera angle  gives a distorted view- 

it makes the hot dog and sandwich buns look bigger than the bread loaves  :)

yet another switch-a-roo that led to another big project

just like that book, 

  if you give a mouse a cookie, 

one thing leads to another 

The computer - craft room before the switching started
but it is a mess because this set up is just not working.
My supplies are mostly in big storage containers and in the closet where it is hard to find and see things.  

guest room as it looked before I started switching things ..


So,  I decided to move all those tall white shelves to the computer room to store fabric and  craft supplies.  

the shelves have been moved but that was the easy part - now I have to organize everything

Nina's old furniture got moved to the guest room
and I am wondering how all those books on will fit on those 2 sets of shelves.

hmmmm
I  have more work to do and it may get worse before it gets better!

I started this project in June- now it almost the end of July and it is getting close to be finished.  

I've also been ruthlessly decluttering closets and drawers and cabinets.  My friend Terri said she is also cleaning out and pretending to be moving,  asking herself "would I move this?" about everything.

I am not going quite that deep but I am culling out lots.  

and while I was cleaning out,  I found another big project that needs to be done- 

this is just part of 30+ years of family photos,
what a jumbled mess, right?
There is no good way at all to store all those assorted size albums and boxes.
Our wedding photos came in some very nice brown leather albums but that leather has deteriorated and   flaking off onto  whatever it touches.

So for now,  I have been taking all the photos out.
Then I plan to sort them by events, child, family- etc.
I hope to store them in safe storage boxes with dividers but have not gone shopping for these boxes I have dreamed up.

How do you store your photos?  Any suggestions?