Anniversaries and Playhouse Makeover!

Hello Stamplings!

Tis I, twizzlers, didja miss me? Happy New Year! I missed you and I hope you are all well and you've enjoyed the holidays! And if you are in the middle of the wintry deep freeze across the nation, I hope you are tucked up warm and cozy.

I don't have a card for you because all my products were packed up until recently, but I thought I'd stop in and let you how it's going.

Anniversaries

Yesterday was our 53rd wedding anniversary, she says, looking content, happy, and nonplussed! The Mister agrees. "Life is a whizzer," he says, "No doubt about it!" That's why each speeding day is a blessing!

💕🍸💕

Today is also the 12th anniversary of my blog. Well, I actually started it a bit earlier than that, but to make things simpler to remember, I celebrate my blog anniversary at the same time as my wedding anniversary for post porpoises.

Playhouse Makeover

And that brings me to the Playhouse makeover. For the last couple of years, I have been feeling a bit, I don't know, adrift. I imagine it's not uncommon to feel a bit of burn out or boredom after you've been at a hobby for ten years or more. Plus, many of my friends moved on and/or stopped blogging and when Feedburner left, it ended my subscriptions to hundreds of blogs. Those things made me feel less connected with the craft, the comments, and the camaraderie that I once enjoyed. What to do? 

Well, to start, I thought maybe it was time to do a deep clean of the Playhouse. A lot of paper-cutting dust had to have accumulated behind the cabinets after 13 years, which can't be great for breathing. And a lot of my schtuff needed to find new homes before I could rationalize buying new schtuff to freshen my perspective.

I didn't take as many photos as I should have, but you know how it is when you get going on something. I do have a few 'in a nutshell' photos to give you the low-down. The whole process has taken several weeks because I went slowly in order to be thoughtful about it and avoid hurting myself. 

Here are some "before" photos:

I packed up every single thing, purging as I went. 

Here are a few "during" photos:

The middle photo is everything stacked in the garage. Behind what you see are more cabinets and many boxes which were filled with the things I kept. We were able to move everything out except for my glass corner desk. Once the Playhouse was empty, cleaned, and prepped, I gave the walls a fresh coat of pale creamy paint.

The "after" photos:

Not much has changed in terms of layout, except the large cupboard and the map cabinet on top of it are now gone. They served me well for many years, holding hundreds of wooden stamps, but I no longer need that massive furniture. It's great to be able to reach the bottom shelves of the overhead cupboards without standing on a stool and to have more "breathing" room. And Nellie loves her little tucked-in space!

I managed to cut my schtuff in half! I'm especially pleased that I got rid of half my patterned and colored paper! You can see in the photo above (bottom right corner) that tall dresser with handles to the left of the window has eight deep drawers. That's where I stored all that type of paper. After purging, the paper I kept fits entirely in only four of the drawers! (I have a friend who's an elementary teacher and she was delighted to get all that paper, so we were both happy!)

I am missing the pretty colors that I had painted the drawers of my old map cabinet, so I might do that again with the two cabinets on the long wall. I'll decide after I hang some colored art on the walls. 

So that's the update! I know a lot of you were also planning to do some cleaning, or purging, or reorganizing of your craft spaces and I hope it's going well for you!

Looking Forward

I haven't made any progress on other projects in the house and garden, but doing the Playhouse was a big accomplishment! As for card-making and blogging, I'm feeling refreshed and hoping to put a plan of action together soon that will get me back into some sort of an enjoyable routine again. 

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! 

I leave you with greetings from Hammy, who was adept at both keeping me company and keeping out of my way! 

Mwah!

*Life is too short!