Southern Verisimilitude

Nope, I haven't been commited, Jim hasn't killed me and buried me under the house, nor have I thrown up my hands and run away to Provence. Just been busy, no snickers, I get enough of those from my children. Yes, middle age women with no job and no walls can be busy thank you very much.

I'm taking Cathy Zielske's design class (LOL, along with half the scrap world) and I'm loving it. Not only is CZ entertaining as all get out but she seems to be a miracle worker, not only am I scrapping but I've actually done several layouts with the focus on me. Who woulda' thunk?

One of the first lightbulb moments from the class is to mix layout sizes in the same album, seriously, how cool is that? So in my quest for what to scrap on a one page, 8 1/2x11 layout, I realized that I wanted Samantha to know how much she inspired me last year when she was home. Inspired me, put a foot up my butt, jumped my case, however you want to put it, I got off my arse and actually made a list of things I wanted for me and proceeded to work through the list. I tackled the garage... purging, organizing and painting my way to a space of my own. I bought a cell phone, got my hair cut, started going for regular mani and pedicures and had lasik surgery. As I worked on the layout, I realized that I need to continue with my "list", it needs to be an ongoing thing. Hard lesson for an old mom, after thirty years of raising kids, everybody is now grown, employed and only the baby is still living at home, no more school, practices, clubs, lessons to run around to, no more prom dresses, cleats, jazz shoes or trips to Mexico, no more financing a small fleet of cars, trucks and vans, no more excuses. Scarey stuff but with renewed enthusiasm, I'm up for the battle. Jim left town last Sunday, he returned today to find two of the rooms switched. As our renovations continue, we had moved our bedroom and my scraproom/den upstairs, so that the bottom floor can be gutted soon. Our bedroom will be moved back downstairs when the renovations are complete but my scraproom will stay upstairs. With that in mind, it just didn't make sense to me that the bed was in the larger room, so I kinda fixed that. I had forewarned my dahlin' redneck, told him that the timeframe was in his hands so the placement was in mine. LOL, I did have the lamps on, candles lit and fresh sheets on the bed in the tiny bedroom (that way he might not notice how I kinda scratched the new wood floor a tad). Still not finished completely, have to order the rug, figure out window coverings and decide if I want the infamous Target desk. But in the meantime, just to prove to Cori that yes indeed I did it, here's how it looks tonight.

Do ignore the window casing, can't do the casings until the new windows are installed and that's not going to happen until the interior is finished. Sigh, finished, such a beautiful word. The closet in this room is packed with china and crystal and half of my entertainment unit is being stored here, as soon as that's outta here, all my paper and carts will go in the closet and I'll have plenty of room for a big comfy chair and ottoman, sheer bliss.

As long as this post is, I can't go until I send huge hugs and beaucoup thanks to a dear friend, Renee. As so many know, Renee has the most thoughtful and generous heart in the world. She's found her passion and has totally immersed herself in creating amazing art pieces, to call it jewelry just doesn't do justice. Last week I went over to help her clear out space for her new studio. I was thrilled that her Wishblade and Silhouette are coming to stay by my house but I really had no clue what else she was putting in my car until I had my new space set up and started unpacking the boxes. I felt like a 5 yr old at Christmas! The Clip-it-up is just perfect for my acrylic stamps, the Bind-it-all will beautifully finish off the cookbooks I'm making my kids for Christmas and the Cuttlebug is just to much fun...I had to stop and spend an hour embossing everything lying on the table. And wow, imagine my surprise when I discovered that the MM's tag tool set punches like a dream, LOL, I talked so many people out of buying that thing and just setting the tag frames with the eyelet hammer, little did I know. I'm also now fully stocked on grungeboard and cat eyes and just can't wait to play with these ColorMists and silk. New space AND new toys, it's gonna be a fun week.