The Reality (vs. The History)

I've been caught!!! Last night when I was talking to Allan telling him about spending part of my day off updating my new blog, he took a look and the 1st thing he said was. . . ."Where in the heck did that picture come from!?" I giggled so hard I had tears in my eyes! Reason being that my craft room looks nothing like that anymore and Allan knew the reality. He knows that since Dad remodeled the room I've added - well - quite a bit of stuff -- Good Stuff! -- to my stash. Thank goodness for 40% coupons and generous gift cards from friends and family. In fact there's so much stuff in the room now that I had to temporarily move in an extra piece of furniture (I swear - half of it's going when we do our Memory Lane garage sale this spring.). So I promised Allan I would post the current pictures of the "girl cave" as a matter of full disclosure. Here they are. And although it's a little more cluttered - in fact I'm out of room again - and there's now a full box of unfinished projects and kits in the cabinet as well as a stack on the counter, it's still the best place in the world to spend a cozy afternoon and/or evening!  Click here to take a tour and see the before and after pictures.

Party for One

Today's the President's Day Holiday and I have the day off work. My honey flew out this morning to go back to work in Sacramento for the week. Although I have a little ache in my heart, as I always do when I watch him walk inside the airport -- and especially after an incredibily romantic Valentine's Day weekend -- I'm very excited about having a play day.

I finished putting a blog together this weekend to share with my crafting gal pals from work (galpalmt.blogspot.com) and decided maybe I should dust off my personal blog, get it better organized and start posting more often.

Spent the morning lingering over coffee, visitng my favorite crafting websites and blog hopping. Then headed down to my beloved craft room to get it cleaned up. Although the official name of the room is "The Coastal Craft Room", Allan affectionatley refers to this room as "The Girl Cave". :-)

As usual I have a bunch of unfinished projects laying on the counter. As soon as I cleared some space, I tackled the one on the top. It was an elegant birthday card I cased off of my favorite card site (splitcoaststampers.com) for my friend Mona's birthday. Here's my version:


I liked it so much I decided to make another half dozen. I changd the sentiment to "Peaceful Wishes" for a breavement card I needed and then changed it again to "Healing Wishes" for an encouragement card for a dear teammate at work whose husband will be undergoing cancer surgery this week.

Then filed away some simple thank you notes I made a few weeks ago. Used some cooridnating cardstock and patterned paper from an old Mat Stack that had been gathering dust. It's a quick and easy pattern that I use when I can't get my creative juices flowing as it can be used with all sorts of papers and colors to fit any occasion.

Will wrap up the craft day unpacking all the goodies I just got from my latest Stampin' Up order. I want them all mounted and ready for my weekly Tuesday night play date tomorrow with my Gal Pals.

Until next time. . . .