Happy New Year!!

Better late than never...I have a stamp that says just that, and I should be using it daily.

It's been a long time since my last post and so much has happened.  The house is painted both upstairs and down.  The color on the first floor is glorious!!  Remember all those $4 paint samples I purchased over the last 4 months, and hated?  My husband selected a color from the painter's color wheel of samples and purchased 10 gallons of it.  Sight unseen!!  Talk about a leap of faith.  It's beyond beautiful, which makes me wish we'd gone with the same color on the second floor.  Instead we stuck with Tuscan Sunset.

Now having the painters complete all those walls, ceilings and that 2-story stairwell in one day is beyond a miracle, especially since it was 3 days before Christmas.  The wall art and most of the knick knacks are still stashed in guest room #2.  We haven't purchased a new rug, or new bedroom drapes, but we're living in relative comfort downstairs.

The same cannot be said for the second floor.  All furniture, wall art, rugs, etc were stowed in my studio...and remain there today, much to my dismay.  We emptied thousands of books from the built-in family room bookcases, from the library bookcases, and even from the master bedroom, stacking them all on my farm tables in 2' tall stacks.  One of my 4 tables is still stacked but 2 have been semi-cleared, moving the books to the floor.  Just imagine navigating aound thousands of books without knocking them over as I race around, opening drawers & cabinets, trying to create art.

And in the middle of all this we've both had the flu.  I'm better, he's worse. 

My job today is photographing my Stampaway submissions and getting them to UPS.  They're 2 weeks late.  (Thank you Connie!!!)

Wish me luck.

Back later for more news...  Thank you for checking back after my absence.

Yesterday my son and my husband both celebrated birthdays.  I never begin decorating for Christmas until after December 3rd, which means the push is now on to buy a tree & crawl in the attic in search of 77 boxes of holiday decorations, etc.  I've been shopping for cards.  No, I don't make my own.  Are you kidding me?  Still haven't found the perfect ones, but I'm determined.

I loved this bowl filled with holiday stuff.  Could be gift tags or cards received.  Could be recipes for guests to take as they leave, assuming I was to get my act together and invite people over for nibbling of treats, and assuming they wanted the recipes.

Now I don't really do a lot of baking, but even I could make these cookies.  I've been saving my coupons for those refrigerated rolls of sugar cookes.  And surely I can stick a straw in the dough to make these little mouths.  Why I simply adore this idea.  How about you?

Where Have You Been?

I'm not lost.  I'm still here.  Up to my neck in alligators.

I survived November, barely.

December is racing along whether I'm ready to go with it or not.

I've begun my shopping if gift cards count.  They do, don't they?

I'll be back shortly...

Happy Halloween

It's been quite eventful in my little corner of the world lately.  Lots of hush- hush artwork I'm not allowed to discuss.  Lots of fun.  Lots of inky fingers.  Lots of late nights.

Half the decorations are on the front porch.  The skeleton still needs to be dangled from the wire spring, the ghosts need to be hung from the carriage lights, the strings of jack-o-lantern lights need to be hung around the front door, and the spider webbing needs to be stretched.  I've decided not to use the tombstones this year and may regret it when I look back at the photos, but we'll see.  Never did pick up a witch's hat and broom to go with those fabulous shoes, but it might still happen.

Have to tell you that I'm the Halloween nut in our household, humored to a point of course by my better half.  So when I pointed out all these things that we still needed to do, I got a big laugh at the "we".  I don't climb ladders.  Not even foot stools because I don't do well with heights, so I guess you could say I was using the royal "we".  The other day I was in the craft store and in front of me was this tall thin woman who had to be about 80 and she was buying scarecrows and pumpkins and such for her yard.  I smiled widely because I knew that would be me in 30 years, still going strong, still decorating like a crazy person for the trick-or-treaters.

It's supposed to be 80 tomorrow here in NC which means there will be some hot kids inside their costumes.  I can still remember the year my son was dressed in fake fur as a Star Wars character and I was in shorts and a t-shirt, knowing full well that he was dyin' in that outfit.  Seems like a lifetime ago...

Here's wishing you a Happy Halloween from the biggest kid of all...me.

Big News for my B-Day!!

My birthday gift from my son this year was the announcement that they're having a baby.  Today I found out it's a boy.
Me, a grandmother...how in the world is that possible?
Have mercy...