Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Okay, So It's Been a While....

This is a long post, so if you just want to see the card, scroll down.
Smiley from Millan.Net
Things have been a little, um, hectic these past few months. Here's what's been happening:
  1. We bought a home in East Tennessee, which closed escrow the beginning of June.
  2. We did some major renovations on our house in California in preparation for selling it, and listed it on July 24th. Within four days we had multiple offers, all above list price. We were under contract by the sixth day, with a 30 day escrow.
  3. Things got kicked into overdrive at that point, because we had 40 years' worth of accumulated schtuff we had to sort, donate, throw away, give away, or pack and bring with us. (Let's just say we could have been on a episode of Hoarders, and leave it at that.)
  4. I planned and orchestrated everything, from hiring the movers to getting the Harley transported, to getting the "retirement project" old Chevy (which didn't run) transported. THAT was a nightmare, and I swear I have twice as many grey hairs as I did before!
  5. My dear hubby gave notice at his job that he was going to retire early, and worked his last day August 26th. On August 31st, the day escrow closed (and with the help of some very dear friends without whom we would never have been finished on time), we were on our way to Tennessee.
  6. THEN the fun began (har de har). We arrived Sep. 3rd, and had the fiber optic Internet, TV, & phone installed the next day, the same day our belongings arrived. Since that time, we've had a new roof put on (red metal!), our own well drilled (no more shared well, yay!), the driveway re-graveled, ordered super-duper energy-efficient windows and sliding doors for the whole house (should be installed next week), ordered a standby generator to be installed for the inevitable power outages, and the list goes on and on. And on......
Homestead before, just as the leaves started to turn
Homestead after, leaves almost gone!

The very last thing to be unpacked and put away was my craft room.

Crap, er...CRAFT room before (Note the wood burning stove, our heat source)
Craft room after, but before I got my comfy rolling chair in there
Craft room, again (Love the Stamp n Storage units!)
And it got delayed by about a week, because we found an abandoned kitten that some jerk dumped down by the river, so we rescued him and now have a new family member, too!

Skinny, scared Pumpkin. "More salmon, please!"
Filling out nicely, and getting comfortable!
Totally relaxed and spoiled!

So here I am, in my happy place at last, and not feeling at all guilty because I took care of the "must dos" first. The very first card I made was for my sweet friend, Diane, whose birthday was last week. It was sent a day after the fact, but better late than never, right?

STAMPS: Awesomely Artistic, Elementary Elegance (ret. SAB) INK: Basic Black Archival, Copic Markers V91, V95, RV99, G24, G46  CARDSTOCK: Whisper White Thick, Whisper White, Perfect Plum, Smoky Slate, Smoky Slate DSP (ret.), Silver Cording Trim, Clear Wink of Stella (coming in new catty!), Big Shot, Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Rectangles Dies, Stampin' Dimensionals
And that, my friends, is why I've been AWOL for so long! I promise now that the craft room is up and running that posting will happen more often!

OH, I ALMOST FORGOT!!! Stampin' Up! released its retirement list for the Holiday Catalog already, so if there's anything on the list that you've been wanting, better get it now because it's "while supplies last."

8 comments:

  1. So glad to see you're back up and running! Lovely card.

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    1. Thank you! It is GREAT to get back to creating again. :)

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  2. Love love my card, so happy you are back to crafting and blogging again, miss you my friend❤️

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    1. Yay, glad you liked it! I only do that much fussy-cutting for very special people. I sure do miss you, too! ❤️

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  3. Wow! And I thought I had problems! Love the card and your craft room. Carol Smith

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    1. Thank you, Carol! There is a lot more to the story, but I didn't want to bore people, lol. But really, other than dealing with the overwhelming logistics of it all, retiring early was a nice problem to have. 😊

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  4. So glad to see you back here Cindy. Your craft room looks awesome. Looking forward to seeing more of your cards. They are always beautiful and such an inspiration.

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    1. Thank you, Kitty! I miss getting inky with you!

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