Saturday, May 29, 2010

Thanks Terri

So today I went to my friend and fellow "enabler" Terri's to pick up some more Sizzix items we had ordered. We got these great big shot rolling cases for a great price, and a few other items, cartridges, stamps and such. I got to see Terri's new Cricut Expressions, very nice (I En-Abel-ed here). She is such a great friend and it is funny how we almost always like the same things.
I could not stay for our usual creative Friday this week. I had to rush home and prepare for a dinner tomorrow. We are celebrating my husbands, and my son-in-laws birthdays! We are also going to Flint to see our son John's band Season's of Eden. Pat's (my son-in-law) birthday is tomorrow and he wanted to go, and heck I enjoy seeing my son do what he loves. The music is good, and I love that we all go together. Even though we are the oldest "groupies" he has, ha ha.
So when I got home I went back to the moving and re-organizing of my craft room. I was supposed to go to my daughters house today, but after a hard, hot day of work my daughter asked if we could just go out to see the new "Sex in the City 2" movie. It was so nice, we had the theater all to ourselves! and the movie was great. I loved the series, and the movie did not disappoint. Steph and I have been die hard Sex in the City fans from the start. We left the theater feeling good and finalizing plans for tomorrows bar-b-que.
So after having dinner with Steve I went back to work on the craft room project. Steve helped me move the big Expidit shelves to the new room, but first I had to empty them. Well anyone who has ever moved anything knows that the mess will get worse before it gets better, right? Oh, and I have managed to make quite the mess. Tired and hot I decided to shower and go to bed. As usual I could not fall asleep so I decided to check my email. There was one from Terri. Did I check the bag with the brown paper in it? Terri had given me some brown packing paper from the orders ( I use them for glimmer misting liners) in a bag that I carefully taken upstairs and set in the mess that I made.
No, I hadn't. So I went to check and what I found made me laugh. See the stamp in the picture below? Look familiar? Ha! I love it. It's the name of my blog, yeah! How cool. I don't know where she found this but it was so nice of her to get this for me. What a great surprise ending to a nice day. Thanks Terri!
Yeah and see all the "stuff" its resting on? Well that's just some of the stuff off that shelf unit.
This moving could take a while.....

Monday, May 24, 2010

Moving... to a new Room!

In my previous post I mentioned that our daughter is going to be attending college in Kalamazoo this year. They were lucky enough to get a place to rent early so they (her and the roommate) had time to find work for the fall. She has a babysitting position for now, but has been scrambling to fill out applications for part-time work while she lives out there. With her blessing I have decided to make her room, which is considerably larger my new craft room. It did not take long for my little 8x10 room to get packed with things. I added a Cricut, an Accucut, and plethora of Sizzix dies and have no where to turn. This move will give me room to have a guest or two over to visit and create! I wanted to paint the room a soft beige, but to my surprise my husband said he thought it would be too boring and liked this light pink when I showed him my second choice.
I have been keeping busy while Steve was painting the bedroom. Even my desk gets a coat or two. I have the floor yet to scrub down and windows to wash. It will be a job. Then I will restore the room I use now, for Kim when she returns. While I wait, I make flowers and finish swap projects. The other batch of flowers went so fast it was like I had been standing still. Time to make more......
Here is another photo of finished flowers. To the left upper corner are the smaller ones and the "new" lollypop flowers!
I hope to have these packaged up and ready for the shop this weekend. I have already sold and sent a few on their way. Spent the last couple days getting them all ready. I even had fun with the paper from the "glimmer" misting and used that to make some metallic looking flowers that are too cool. You can spot them because they look like they have been made from old metal.
These above are the larger flowers. I did mostly spring/summer colors.
I need to get cracking though, if I am going to be in that "new" craft room. It will be a time to purge and reorganize as well. With me luck!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Empty Nest?

Our youngest has just moved to Kalamazoo to attend college there. She left early to find a job and get settled for the summer/fall season. It wasn't like she was home much, whether it was out at a friends, work, or at school. I won't miss telling her "constantly" to pick up her things, or clean her pet rabbits cage, but I guess we were not entirely ready for her to go so far from home. I wanted her to be more prepared, save more, get the job first, and then move, but that's a cautious parent talking. Not her, she wanted to go now. I know it sounded exciting and seeing her friends go off to college has made the last two years going to college from home seem rather dull. I hope it goes as well as she "plans" it will. As for Steven and I, it 's hard. Silly really, since it wasn't like we were that involved in her daily life. I guess it was passing by her room, sort of empty, and well "clean" for once. We plan to paint it this weekend. I will be moving her things to the slightly smaller room across the hall. I had always planned to make that room she had my craft/sewing room when she left. We had been talking about it for some time, but it feels bittersweet now. She wanted me to switch the rooms before but I wanted to wait, again maybe because a part of me associated this with her leaving home. It has been over 30 years since Steve and I have lived "alone" and the house seems way too large, and a bit too empty right now. This year has been so busy everything changing, some good, some not-so-good, but it seems it is all happening too fast sometimes. I barely recuperate from Steph's wedding, losing my uncle, finding out my youngest brother and his family is moving to Indiana in June, to this. I know life is all about change, but lately it feels like I cannot catch my breath it has been happening so much, so fast.... For now I just want it to slow for a bit, and the only change I want to deal with for a while is what color to paint her old bedroom, but that may take me a little time.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Where is the time going?

I have been away, busy. Not always with things I enjoy but the tedious stuff of life. Spring cleaning, work, and some commitments I made and am trying to wrap up. I don't know about you but time seems to slip away so fast and the weekends fly by. I feel as though I am not accomplishing much these days, I am moving slower? I don't know. I have been making these paper flowers. It is relaxing and fun, and even decided to enter a paper flower swap. I had to package them up and get them off this week. So here is a picture of them ready to go: I even decorated the card stock holder so that they can reuse them for a tag. I only needed to make 18, but got a little carried away so I have a few extra. Perhaps I will use them for a RAK? Perhaps offer them in my shop? I have to finish the smaller ones I have started. Looking at these should make me feel productive, yet there is so much more I want to get done. Summer is almost here and my spring cleaning isn't done:( Heck most of it hasn't started as I need it to warm up here in Michigan so I can power wash the house and the get to the windows. It has been quiet on the blog front. I expect it has to do with the nice weather (elsewhere), or perhaps the bad weather but I wanted to check in and share.