MY HAPPY PLACE.....

"THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS......" Following THIS post is the original post about my newly painted stamp room..... I just discovered how to add more pictures then five to the same post -but I didn't know how till now so this journey thru my stamp room is divided into two posts........Isn't it so cool to have a happy place like a stamp room? When my husband and I looked at this house, this was a young girls' bedroom. The man who owned our house was a custom closet builder.....and when we went into this bedroom they opened her closet and there was no where to hang clothes, just awesome little cubby holes and I just thought THIS IS THE HOUSE FOR US........cuz heaven knows it took me about five minutes to fill up all of those cubby holes with stampin'STUFF. :) I know you can all relate. So this is my main table where I do all of my creating.....I bought it with Great Rewards money from Stampin'UP! :) I looked at this oak table for about a year before I actually bought it. I used to have those tan plastic tables that give when you try to stamp.... not cool. :) Usually in all honesty my table does not look like this. Usually it is not worthy to take a picture OF it is so covered. It does not seem to matter with me how much space I start out with, I manage to end up stamping on about a foot square space....what's up with that? I am an absolutely sloppy stamper. One of my friends says she cleans up everything in between cards, and I'm like well aren't you somethin???? Just kidding but not really......like who really does that? I just keep piling stuff on stuff until I can't find anything and I think the creative juices flow much better when you are a slob, I really do. Okay, I seriously cannot blab thru all the rest of these pictures, how can I possibly do that?

Here is how I store my ribbon. I was narrowing my Stampin'Up! brand new catalog order down to a manageable size last week and I innocently said to my friend Melanie, "I think I can hold off on ribbon, I think I have enough when there are so many other things I want right now", and she said, "Karen, uh, yah, I think you can hold off alright, you have so much freakin ribbon it isn't funny" and it helped give me a dose of reality. I do have enough ribbon, huh? My friend Melanie is a new stamping person. I helped her see the light. It's so fun to have a stamping friend at work. Someone who speaks the language, she's not totally fluent yet, but she is getting there. It was so cool this year for my birthday, she made my card, and it's a really cute one too!! I make the office cards, so when it comes to my birthday they usually buy one but this year I got a really cute home made one. :) Okay, I seriously cannot think of enough stuff to say to get thru all these pictures~ I seriously cannot. I am fresh out of blab. We are getting a really big snowstorm. Now that's pretty random. But I am hoping a wee bit way down in my heart that we get the day off tomorrow.....we are expecting ice and sleet and snow etc.....and I would love to just hunker down and enjoy my stamp room for a day when I least expected it. :) Here to my left you see an accident waiting to happen, eh? But Luca managed to keep Keith company much of the time he spent painting the stamp room and he never did knock over the paint tray.....or step on the paint lid! Isn't he a cute dog? I sure think so. :) Okay seriously, this will help me get thru these pics in record time. My mom said she loves it when I switch to this font. :) Next pic down is Keith taking us from ugly mint melody to cozy

creamy caramel.....isn't that old paint so

ikky??? So here's Keith......my better half.....BTW, I explained in my first post about the stamp room that this was one of Keith's Christmas gifts to me, to paint the room and now MINE to him, is supposed to be an album of family pictures he can take on his truck with him and now that I have a nice cozy stamp room I can get that underway.... Hey I think I'm gonna end this puppy with a small caption under each pic coming up - why not? DO I have to blab thru the whole entire thing? I think not........so.....here goes.........

Got this really cool card rack at Pottery Barn......it's so cute and I have waited for the paint job to hang it......

This is my antique printers tray that I used for all my weeny stamps.....it's one of my favorite things.......

Some of my favorite cards hanging on my favorite Pottery Barn card rack.........

And here is the way cool closet built by the guy who owned our house before us that was the "sign" that THIS was the house for US!! Who has a closet like this in their bedroom???? A House after my own heart.........


And the outside of the closet makes my room look neat as a pin, (like once in a blue moon right before I take a picture...) And the far shelf is my word stamp and punch shelf that Keith built me........(what would I do without that guy??) And this my friends is the end of your journey thru my stamp room; oh no it's not - there is another post following this one which is the one before I figured out how to add more pics to the same post. I am getting to be a blog expert....if I ever quit my day job I might become a consultant for blogspot......uh......not. Happy stamping everyone! Hope you enjoyed seeing a few of my favorite things, and my Happy Place!!

Trading MINT MELODY for CREAMY CARAMEL.....

SO......I agonized over what order to put my pictures in.....and then good old blogspot totally changed the order anyway.....so these are RANDOM shots of my new stamp room here in Ohio, complete with its brand new creamy caramel paint job. First off, it was a sort of dirty shade of MINT MELODY, and for those of you who have been with SU for a long time like me, you remember that pale minty sort of whimpy green. There is a good reason why they discontinued Mint Melody.....that's all I can say. So that WAS the color of my room, which you can see in the picture that follows here in this post SOMEWHERE, which WAS supposed to be the first picture in this post. Just before Christmas this year Keith got laid off. When it happened we did not know how long it would be, and as it turned out they called him back on New Year's eve or somewhere in there so he actually just had a nice little three week vacation while our kids were here over the holidays. God is good. But anyway, when we found out he was getting laid off (or is that layed off?) ANYWAY.....we decided to do sort of labor of love Christmas gifts for eachother, and I asked for my stamp room to be eliminated of all traces of Mint Melody. YUKK, the stuff nightmares are made of when they are in color. SO................next problem was what color to paint it??? I went from cheery yellow, to sage green, to olive green, to tan, to mustard, to green again, and then to creamy caramel....and then WAIT, after I had the chip in hand and the guy was like READY TO MIX THE PAINT a lady walks up with some cans of a green that I liked and I was off to the land of lala confusion once again, got out of line in home depot when I was right at the front, to decide if I wanted my creamy caramel, or the other ladies green. It's a stretch for me to pick a dark paint, I am such a pastel kinda gal, but these colors are so in and I always love them when I see them in other peoples houses......so I got brave and got back in line. Only in the short time it took me to find Keith and have him convince me to stick with my creamy caramel.....about 5 people had gotten in line in front of me, and the one directly in front of me was painting every room in their must be 20 room house......arghhhh....the pains of indecision. Anyway, I finally did bring home the creamy caramel....and now that it's up I really do love it. It's so much warmer and so much cozier and so much more me. I always wanted my stamp room to be sort of an extension of our home and to fit in with the traditional look, and not be all white and crafty looking. I try to hide a lot of the "stuff" in closets etc. :) Here you see my main stamping place, I can pull this table out to the middle of the room if I have more people over to stamp but most of the time it's just little old me, or me and one other person at a time....so it's perfect in front of the big old window. You see my trusty little heater on the floor, my favorite place to be is in the room in warm flannel pajamas with that little heater humming away at my feet.....this room is really my HAPPY PLACE. :):):):) Okay, here is a picture of Keith
covering the last wall of mint melody......and I just had to take a picture so I could remember the putridness of that color that I have strongly disliked for almost 3 years now....
I used to sit and look around that room and think, "Hmmm, and we thought it was a good idea to hang all these shelves and attach all these things to the wall before we painted because....hmmmmm........and I thought we would never actually get around to banishing the green nightmare ever.... but when Keith got going he got thru it so quickly....it's nice cuz our house has oak trim so no trim to paint and it goes a lot quicker. This picture makes it look like More Mustard but it really is Creamy Caramel. See how messy my table is in this picture??? Yeh, I'd like to say it doesn't usually look like that but that would be a big fat lie. So I won't say it. Anyway now with the brand new paint on the walls, I will be motivated to keep it all clean and tidy for a while. :) The other thing I love about my stamp room is it has HGTV pumped right in there.......ahhh,,,, flannel pajamas, electric heater, AND HGTV....what more could a girl ASK for???? ANYWAY, I am going to post some more pictures of the room after this post cuz I don't think I can post more without messing up the entire text on this post.....the thing about how long I went between blog entries is I was STARTING to get good at it, but I have wiped out two pictures already tonite.....so I stink all over again. Okay, in this next picture, you see my great wall of
stamps.....which is in the hallway before you enter the actual stamp room...this is the wall that made the ladies in my church sort of gasp when they came to my house and be like, oh my, this is not just a hobby, this looks a little bit like an obsession.....and I have to admit that say someone collected like, I don't know, what do people collect, anyway, like say they had a collection this big of Hummels, or beer steins, or Precious Moments figurines, if I saw this many in one place I would be like Oh boy, sicko.......a bit of a fixation there or what? but I tried to explain that it's different with stamps....I tried the "but I have collected them over many years" line and that only brought one or two looks of empathy, so I tried the "most of them were gifts anyway" and that only brought like one more glimpse of understanding, but mostly I think they just thought I was just plain nuts.......and then when they got INSIDE the room and saw all the other "stuff" that goes with them......well, who can blame them for thinking I am totally off my rocker? Okay now down here is my best stamping buddy, Buddy LUCA. He lays right at my side all the time I am in my room. He also loves the stamp room. Any golden retriever lovers out there?
You know how they are....love junkies.....most of the time I am watercoloring with one hand and scratching Luca's head with the other one. Even now as I type, Luca is laying right at my feel keeping me company. And when I get up and walk back up to the stamp room, (because I am still so enamored with my new paint that I like to just sit there and look around the room....)he will follow me and lay his cute little head at my feet up there too. You know what I say to friends who like my stamp room but not my dog? Never mind. But one time someone told me that when your freinds don't like your dog, it's time to get new friends.....and I could not agree more. :):):) Love me, love my dog......my stamping pal.....one of the cutest embellishments in the whole room! Okay- gonna post some more pics now, and try not to blab as much. I hope you enjoyed seeing pictures of my happy place!!

It's been a LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG TIME!!

On two separate ocassions now, I have been sent "blog awards" ~ but I have no idea how to download them, or upload them, or WHATEVER, so you do not see them on my blog. Here's my question, is there a blog award for the person who goes the longest without updating their blog?? Cuz if so, it's mine!! Where do I start? I guess I will start where I left off but first let me say- to your left, one of the incredibley GREAT new SALEABRATION sets......wanna have a workshop and get tons of free stamps? CONTACT ME!!! :) Okay, so I left off in November, and here we are in January......PATHETIC BLOGGER AWARD, I am the proud recipient. I left off telling you how God was giving us the blessing of two extra weeks with our kids, Jen, Davis and their precious offspring, our grand daughters, Tovah and Lami. WELL, two weeks stretched in to FOUR, and somehow - that added time made it a little easier to let go....not sure why, but those last four weeks were precious. I think we did every thing we said we were going to do and then some....in those last four weeks. My most precious memory was Keith and I taking the two girls to the Cincinnatti Zoo, just the 4 of us, so mommy and daddy could pack. We were at the zoo for about NINE HOURS.....and those girls were adorable. My favorite memory of things kids say, from Tovah, when we were riding the train after dark and Christmas music was playing and we were each holding one and snuggling with them, Tovah looked up at me and said, "Gramma can we PALEEEEEZE come back here tomorrow?" and then Lami, when I told her in her ear, "I love you little Lami Lou, " she took my face in her little hands and said, "Gramma, I can't dop yoving you." Okay, on to a less tearful subject, I'm gonna have to dry the keyboard out here. So ~ Dec 7th they departed for Kenya.....where they wait to see if it's safe to enter the Congo in 4 months. Please keep that war torn country in your prayers, and our kids as well if you so desire. :) Two weeks after they left, our Christmas company started arriving, and we had all three of our other kids here and their families. So that meant, 3 more grand daughters to keep us smiling. Layla was here 2 entire WEEKS.......(and her parents came too!) and then we got to spend some quality time with Madyson(Maddy and I even squeezed in some guitar lessons) and Chloe, which was awesome!! What fun we had, seeing ballet recital after ballet recital in our living room. Maddy and Chloe were so good with Layla, and Layla amused us with the old dvd videos Mike and Jenna brought of her when she wasnt' amusing us in person. :) What a blessed, happy, wonderful Christmas. 12 people and 3 dogs in our house for many many days - and it was all good!! We even got to SKYPE with Jen, Davis and the girls. The holidays were ones to remember, with all of this company staying right through New Years Day!! :) My mom also came from New Hampshire (like only weeks after breaking a vertabrae - she was determined!!)and a good time was had by all!! FAST FORWARD to LEADERSHIP, what an AWESOME time we had this year!! My favorite part of Leadership is always seeing my friends, and this year was no different. Some of my closest friends did not make it this year, and what a sad Leadership to miss!! Stampin'Up! said they knew we had all made financial sacrifices to be there in this economy, so they really poured on the great times!! For Manager's Reception we went to Universal Studios, they SHUT DOWN A WHOLE SECTION FOR SU ONLY!! Tina and I rode the Hulk ROLLER COASTER 3 times, this other "thing" that flew you way up to the sky and then dropped you and your stomach like dropped out the bottom, 3 times, and then this spiderman ride which Tina like screamed into my shoulder the entire ride, it was 3D and pretty freaky. I don't know which one of us decided first that enough was enough, I think it was me, but shortly thereafter we were both moaning and groaning all the way home and thru the night.......hard to admit you aren't 16 anymore sometimes, but let me tell you we proved it to ourselves THAT night........but if I had to do it all over again I would ride the same rides!! Tina and me - one night we are having in depth talks lamenting menopause and all the rotten "stuff" it brings with it, and then the next night we are trying to prove we are still teenagers.........MORE precious memories.......have I mentioned before that the best thing about Stampin'Up is the deep, deep, deep friendships that have come along with it?? Well I can't wait until Convention now!! :) So, after all of these wonderful events, life is settling down now and returning to "normal". This morning I got up to get ready for work, and came downstairs to our basement flooded for the FOURTH time, yes, FOURTH time since we moved here. Twice it was nature and once it was plumbing, and this time it was that darn hose that needs to stay in the washtub when you do a load of wash.......when I called my husband he said, Oh my gosh Karen I took that hose OUT when I was cleaning the roller after painting your stamp room.....and he just felt, well, you know how you feel when you do something, dare I say DUMB?? Hey, I was thinking but you PAINTED my STAMP ROOM, how could I be upset??? And I was thinking how neat it is to love someone so much that you just truly feel in your heart, well I'm not upset because it JUST as EASILY could have been ME the one not putting the hose in there and YOU the one home when the basement floods,,,,,ya know what I mean? And besides, whenever we have some "catastrophe" I get the urge to clean, and I really, really, really, really needed that urge, and I have been scrubbin all day and my basement is lookin good!! :) I was just thinking what a horrendous mess it was last night and thinking gee, where do I START????? You know when a space gets that messy?? Maybe you don't, but I sure do. My house actually has 4 stories, I love it - lots of living space but most people only see the main floor so it's just a manageable space to keep looking nice, and no one knows what "lurks" below........happy to say I will sleep well tonite cuz it's gonna shine!! :) And even though my plans completely changed today, I have a sneaky suspicion I would have stamped the day away after I got home from 4 hours of work, so I am really kinda glad I had a major mess to clean up. :) Am I weird? Don't answer that. I am always amazed at my husband's grace in situations like this - when the shoe is on the other foot and I caused some thing to make HIM work extra hard.....he is always so full of grace. It was nice to have it be him for once and be able to repay him for all the sweet grace he has shown me. :) Well my son in law Jon and I have a contest going......for losing those holiday pounds. I have 10 to lose and he has 15, but I say I deserve a handicap cuz men and young people lose weight faster then women and old folks.......(I'm getting there....)so we agreed that he has to lose 15 and I have to lose 10, WE STARTED THIS AT CHRISTMAS AND I HAVE LOST 6 BUT HE HAD PUT ON WEIGHT, (he has actually gained more weight in Bekah's pregnancy then she has....harhar) but yesterday he tells me he wants us to "start over" - okay, I still have 10 to reach my goal, and he has to lose 15. The prize? It took us ages to agree on this, but the loser owes the winner 10 hours of slave labor plus one hour for every pound the loser has not lost yet when the winner wins........and I tried to say he also had to eat guacamole for me but he nixed that......(Jon doesn't eat anything green, but especially not guacamole) but if I tell him his LABOR is to HELP ME EAT SOME GUACAMOLE....HMMMMM...... because listen with Jon one must fight fire with fire!! He texts me 2 minutes after we agree on the prize and says, I am gonna tell Bekah we will stop cleaning our toilets immediately........... to which I replied, Oh, YEH???? WELL, I am gonna tell Keith we will stop picking up dog poo poo in the back yard NOW.......and after you LOSE and pick up 8 tons of dog poop in my back yard, you'll have to go home and clean your own gross toilets but it won't count toward your hours!!!! We are going all out with this, the race is ON........and folks, I do have one advantage, Jon does not like to eat anything that even remotely resembles anything healthy,,,,,so I figure I have the edge there.......I will keep you all posted on who gets the dirtiest job.......but those coffee smoothies Tangie and I get on Fridays? They are on HOLD folks, and I am living on SMART ONES from the freezer section, and fruit. And I am dreamin up long lists of labor for my son in law, too bad the contest didnt' end today cuz I could have put him to work mopping up water......but he's home painting a baby's room so I will leave him alone today. :) By the next time I blog, if I wait as long as I did this time, we may have lost the weight and regained it!! :) But I will try to be better this time. If I didn't blab on and on and on and on, I could blog

more often,,,,but each blog session is liking writing a book! Well I have wasted enough time here and it's high time I got back to work. The rest of this basement is not gonna clean itself. I love cleaning my own house when you get right down to it. If you offered me a cook OR a cleaning lady, I would take the cook anyday. Only thing, it's not that much work to throw a Smart One in the microwave......but then I could eat GOOD healthy stuff, give me a cook anyday over a cleaning lady- take all my fun away! I HATE to cook, and I cannot remember the last meal I cooked, except for Smart Ones........now how can you get mad at a husband who cooks?? You tell me! I count my blessings!! I know a good thing when I see one!! Until next time, the race is on, and may your basements stay dry!!