We Did It!

...and I love it!

It's been 2 long weeks of moving, sorting, throwing out, organizing, sorting again and throwing out again but the switch of master bedroom and workroom is about done.

I had no idea how much space we were wasting in the big room and how cramped we were in the small room. My workbench, an iguana cage, 2 bookshelves, Donnie's gigantic computer set up and my overflow of art, craft and jewelry supplies, two humans and two terriers all in 12 x 12. It's a wonder we didn't kill ourselves or each other!

Check out the new space:

It will never be this clean again!

What you can't see is Donnie's computer set up directly across the room from the iguana cage next to my workbench. It all fit and more! I was able to bring my desk upstairs along with the file cabinet, all my photography equipment and my packaging and mailing things. I have a matching corner piece coming and more under-shelf lighting. There is so much floorspace I can actually put up one of my craft fair tables and spread out if I need to. I don't know why we didn't do this long ago. The bed, dresser and a chair for the dog to sleep in fit perfectly in the other room.

Yay to my awesome guy for saying, "Yup. Let's do this".

Missing Seattle Man

Please see this link:

http://nicholasfrancisco.blogspot.com/2008/02/reward-increased-to-15000.html

Nic's wife Christine is a member of my EtsyRain group.
This is a tragedy.

Art & Creativity Group

In November I joined a Sno County group for Women that focuses on Art, Creativity and Friendship.

So far, we have been meeting once a month in Lynnwood to learn a craft or art taught by a member of the group. It's a varied group with lots of different arts and styles.

We have painters, knitters, quilters, metalsmiths, jewelry makers, mixed-media altered artists, a woman that does concrete castings, an upcycler, you name it! It's been a lot of fun and it's where you'll find me the last Thursday night of every month :)

Tripping

Donnie, myself and the Iguana have been crammed into the second bedroom of our condo for our "leisure activities" for more than 2 years. His activity being the monsterous computer set up he has for gaming and mine, of course, the jewelry and art workbench. And shelves. And secondary table. And supply cabinet.
OK, so we are not just crammed in, I'm overflowing into the loft area in the hallway and then some. Add in an Iguana cage that's larger than a large armoir and two terriers that are constantly underfoot and there is no room left to walk. We trip through the door hoping to land in the vacinity of our chairs. These pictures are of everything all cleaned up.

One day while making envelopes for some ACEO's I casually said, "We should switch the two bedrooms since we spend more time here than we do sleeping". As we think about it, maybe we really should! Will the ginormous bed fit? If it does, will we be able to get anything else in the room? Will I have to have the headboard flat against the wall? (I hate that). We'll have to start measuring.

Etsy Anniversary!

Yesterday was my 1 year etsy anniversary!

It almost came and went without my remembering.

Not counting the multiple item listings, just the individual listings sold, I fell short of my goal.

I really wanted to hit 365 etsy sales. One for each day I had been on. I came up at 335 and 514 hearts. Had I put out more effort early on, I think I would have exceeded it by a landslide. Who knew Etsy.com would be so awesome?

I had know about etsy for nearly a year but was doing so well on ebay that I didn't want to spread out my time to another website. What a mistake that was.

So, this years goal is to hit 700 etsy sales! That is an additional 365 over my anniversary total.

I have the 2nd shop for de-stash supplies and vintage but I'm not counting it in my goal.

Holidays

UGH!
Rough year this year. 1st one since Dad passed away and this time last year he was so sick.
I remember being in Minneapolis at Donnie's parents house loving that I was there with them but aching to be home with Dad knowing time was so short.
This year, Christmas sucks. I miss the biggest brother (in San Deigo), miss Dad and feel this huge responsibility to make everyone else happy. If it weren't for the grandbaby, Dylan, I would send a postcard with "Merry Christmas! Love, Mom" scratched across the back, from a sunny beach in Mexico.

On the upside though, my Etsy store has been a destination for the holiday shoppers. Best month yet!