Halloween Flowers on Friday

Another Oldie but a goodie!
Since we are moving we haven't been doing our usual flowers on friday, so I've been sharing some Oldies. Here's an October Bouquet Lee brought home right before halloween. I love the little orange lanterns!!!

Pictured is also one of my favorite halloween decorations, painted pumpkins. Carved pumpkins are great too, but I love a painted pumpkin!
Also, pictured is Lee's favorite decoration, severed limbs, there are no PG halloweens around here, it's all severed fingers and spooky skulls.

Our little Manor feels so Empty :(

Poor empty house!! It feels so devoid of life, our house use to have a soul, a personality, now he's just empty (our house is a he by the way :) a lot of our living room and mini-library are packed now. The dining table and chairs are sold, they have been replaced with boxes. There are dirty dishes in the sink and the laundry is starting to pile up. I've been busy packing, running around signing papers, I haven't signed my name this much since I first met Lee and scribbled Mrs.Ashli Malinek on every scrap of paper I could find.
I've been finding the chaos difficult, I'm a stay at home wife/newbee blogger and I've always had dinner ready, lunches packed, clean underwear available (don't get me wrong, we are still wearing clean underwear it's just in the morning they can be found in the dryer instead of the drawer). I'm a little lost right now, but with all good comes a little bad, I should count my lucky stars I'm able to pack, last time we moved I was sick and stuck in the hospital, it was awful, my dear friends had to pack for us. Just a little overwhelmed today I guess.  I'm posting this from our couch, as the office has been ripped out and we no longer have a dining room table. Maybe a coffee shop tomorrow :)
Here's a peek at the chaos, this use to be our dining room:

Max is so helpful, he's our 5 lb guard dog, no ones getting in these boxes without his say so . . . . . Careful he'll lick ya!
And the empty bookcase, the new owner of our beloved manor  included the bookcase in their purchase price so we are leaving it for them :( We're planning of a similar, shorter version in our new house.

So there's the Manor being slowly emptied and boxed up. Back to packing for me, although it's not the packing I mind. Each piece I put in I can't help but remember where I'll be taking it out and it makes me happy.

MOVING TIPS
Yesterday's post brought out some great moving tips from some smart ladies:
Lauren from Simply LKJ suggested Color coding your boxes and your rooms for the movers! 

Janell of Isabella and Max Rooms suggested moving your picture frames, lamps and mirrors the night before your move, or at least move them yourself in your own car, I agree movers aren't the most careful, neither are husbands for that matter. She also suggested stacking the boxes near the entrance, but stacking them in groups i.e. bedroom boxes together, kitchen boxes together etc . . . .

Shell from Scrapes of our lives suggested Looking for boxes at Military bases, those families move a lot! Here in Canada we don't have very many military bases, infact I don't know of a single one, but you ladies to the south of us might know of some.

KDot of Confessions of a wannabe fashionista suggested buying used moving boxes from a moving company, she did that and only paid $3 per box. 

Laura from Life on the Cheap she suggested trying freecycle for boxes.

If anyone else has any packing, or moving tips I'm all ears! Heaven knows I could use the help!

Pull up a chair . . . . . or two!

Just a quickie for today, I'll be starting to pack today!
Today's packing goal is to get the bookcase, all the magazines and everything we don't need in the living room packed up!
Someone is coming to look at the dining table this afternoon and once the tables gone we can start storing boxes in the dining room.
Packing tip:
Designate an area close to the entrance to store your boxes. Now instead of  having to go all the way up stairs to grab boxes on moving day, they boxes will be super close to the entrance and we'll be able to save tons of time on moving day not having to go up and down the stairs. So, as soon as any upstairs boxes are packed they are making their way into our dining room. Now if we had a garage I would probably store boxes as they are packed in there, doing it this way saves sooo much time on move day! 
Yesterday,

I picked up our new Library Chairs, my mom doesn't like them, but Lee and I do. haha One of the things I love about my mom the most is her unwavering honesty.
I wanted to have two formal chairs, I was thinking wing back but I thought that true wing back chairs would be way too stuffy. I chose these ones instead because they have the wing back feel but take a modern twist. And they were a Fabulous Price at $248 each. (from Scan Designs if you live in the lower mainland area).

There are our new chairs, so are you siding with my mom (kinda weird but maybe I need to see them in person hehe) or with Lee and Me (Love them).
p.s.
Love you Mom!!! It's really ok you don't like them :)