I sent a smile.

And I thought it was the easiest, cutest thing ever!

Whew! It's done!

I'll try to get some photos - I should have done some "before" shots for reference. I'm happy with what I accomplished. Part of that being to get my most important things up from the floor or into plastic (waterproof) bins. My parents recently had a basement flood. Everything on the floor and up one foot was soaked. It was a sprinkler system problem. It could happen to anyone. I realized that some of my scrapbooks were less than one foot above the floor - and it was important to me to have them better protected. Some of my papers are still down that low, I just realized. I might need to do more moving. Stamps would do better than paper in a flood. Anyway! It took the better part of three days, but I had them to spend, and am gloriously happy to have spent the time, and to have a workable space again. I moved a ton of things around and consolidated a great deal. I got rid of things which are no longer pertinent to my current life. You don't need business items when you aren't running a business. That gave me some extra room, and made more shifting possible. I also recognized that I could put some things in closer proximity, and that they would make much more sense that way. It's funny how some time away from things can make things clear, and almost OBVIOUS in terms of what needs to be done. 

Clarity is something I hope to gain more and more of as the months go by. 

Hibernation Nearly Complete!

Some of you may know that I've been trudging through a divorce, and that is finally complete. I am back to the business of living again, and starting to feel much more like myself. The old creative bug is beginning to bite and I'm listening, rather than swatting it away - as I have been for a while now. . . like maybe a year? (Oh, it's painful to even think about that.) ANYWAY. . .

My goal this week/weekend is to get my craft and sewing area back into a state where I'd be ABLE  to sit down and work on things. I have decluttered and weeded through my fabric stash. That alone was a HUGE task. No matter how hard I try I am sure I WON'T be able to do the same thing with my paper stash, but no matter. I will find better ways to organize everything and it will turn out wonderfully well. I think I will (gasp) let go of some back issues of magazines. I am also going to give to goodwill any tool that doesn't work EXACTLY as I had hoped, like the paper cutter I got for free which doesn't make a perfectly clean cut. Gone. And. . . in this way, I hope to be able to get things into MUCH better shape, ready for some creative Heydays! Hallelujah! I've already got quite a few sewing projects lined up, and I'm excited for those. I need to start 'organizing' some future scrapbook projects the way I organize sewing projects, getting together the photos, papers and embellishments that I plan to use. It helps me to organize my brain with sewing, so why not scrapbooking?

And she's Off. . . .

We love Debbie O!

I have recognized that most of you dropping by my blog are coming from Thinking Inking. Don't we all just LOVE Debbie? I don't want to disappoint anyone, and I figured I better get moving and posting more of my projects. Right now I've been working on pillows and home decor, so I may post some of those. I should have some Christmas cards soon, too. I will be taking them to work to play with on my lunch hour. 

Have a great day!

Come back again soon.

Abby

Application Projects

I turned these projects in as an application for employment with a company in the paper crafting industry. The best part of doing things like this is that I actually do something with my creative bug - which has been somewhat dormant since - um, June. I hate to even say that. Life is like that sometimes you know?





This is the one I had previously done.
The third 3D project, the one I forgot at first, I also forgot to photograph. Sorry.

My Ten Projects

I recently submitted an entry to a contest. They required 10 items: Five cards, Three scrapbook pages and 2 three dimensional items. I struggled to the very last minute to get everything done and finished in time to mail it from an all night post office at 10:00 p.m. It took me about 2 week to complete the work. I am very glad to have taken on the challenge and even happier to be able to say that I finished it, and sent it in.
Some challenges in life are worth just being able to say - I gave it my best, and I completed the work.

Five Cards