Gettin' Crafty Again!!! Wooo Hooo!

When we got settled into our new apartment, and our unaccompanied baggage arrived, I started working on a couple of pocket letters. I was better at starting them though than finishing them, lol! You know me, I get bored easily!!! Plus I had so many ideas and I wanted to work on all of them, all at once. I did get two finished around mid-August. Unfortunately I promptly forgot about the fact that I hadn't mailed them out....until Thomas took care of that for me yesterday! Ooops!!! Well, what can I say? I'm old and forgetful!!

I'll show you the front side, but the pressies tucked into the backs are a surprise for the recipient!

This one is for Charlie!

And this one is for Christina!

Newest Lawn Fawn order which arrived in late August, early September.

(Not going to lie, I've had many packages arrive since moving!!!)

Pocket Letter I finished today for Deanna.

I think I'm going to work on a couple of fall-themed ones next, with more stamping on them. I've got the itch to do some coloring!! *happy face* I admit it's easier to push through the pain now that my room is all finished and looking so pretty!

My Sunday Blessings!

Ahhh, Sunday! A day of rest. And resting is about all I have the energy for, because it's been a long, tough week for me. Even though the Doctor upped my neuropathy medicine dosage, it seems to no longer be working. At all!!! So I'm back to constant foot and leg pain, with night-time electric pain and very little sleep. NO FUN!!! I have an appointment this Thursday and I'm going to discuss with him other treatment options. I've done some research on different medicines and we'll see what he thinks. The higher dosage wasn't more capsules like I'd been on, but a much larger tablet. Knowing the military likes to go "as cheap as possible", I'm going to ask him if perhaps it's a different medicine I'm currently taking, because it's not effective at all. We shall see. All I can do is pray and hope we can figure this out together. I'm blessed to finally have a Doctor who cares, and after the one I had to deal with in Germany, it's a huge blessing!!!

The weather seems to have cleared up a bit, which is fabulous! It was soooo overcast and dreary, and it was killing my sinuses. It's still a bit hazy, but the sky is definitely blue again and we have the sun back. Temps are slowly lowering, so the building is cooling off. I still can't believe they shut off the A/C arbitrarily like that. We also found a standing fan at the PX yesterday, so we have that in our bedroom. It even came with a remote control of all things, so you can regulate the speed and whether to oscillate or not, plus turn it on and off. Fancy Smancy!

Although we had a bumpy start, we finished our homeschool week on a high note. Friday was a very easy day (no math on the schedule!! Yippee!!), and we got to go to the school's book fair and picked up some great books for Bella. The school was really huge, and Bella mentioned several times about how glad she was not to have to go there. So she has some fun books she picked out for her daily reading, and we will also be using her new microscope and slide collection during science too! Should make things fun!!!

The sleepless nights and nerve pain have really kept me from doing the unpacking/decorating on the apartment as quickly as I would have wanted. What little energy I had was used to do homeschool, and minimum housework. Then it was time to collapse on the couch!!! I did most of the rooms already, but my stamping studio was really still a hot mess. But every now and then I would go in there, unpack some things or organize a shelf. Finally on Friday and Saturday I got a bit more serious and by Saturday afternoon I was completely finished, including hanging up some "pretties". There were a couple of things I couldn't hang because I had only saved medium and large cement nails from Germany, not the small ones. But I think it looks great!!! Want to see????

View when you first walk in.

The cubby unit is my wafer thin die collection.

My WorkBox!

Getting a bit worse for wear with each move, but the old girl is still standing!

Two bookshelves and plastic drawers (was used in my bathroom in Germany)

This took a long time to get "just so".

My little table, with ink stand and ihome.

I use this table to use my Big Shot mostly.

IKEA cubby

Holds my embossing folders, Magnolia collection, Big Shot items

and Rosalina from Italy!!!

Most of the things are where they've been before, but some small changes.

Many things from below the desk were put into storage.

Ribbon and flower stand

FINALLY got all my ribbon untangled and ready to go!!!

Inside the closet

The larger IKEA unit had been in our old livingroom, on it's side. I had a closet with shelving in Germany and this pretty much replaced that for me. I have most of my photo polymer stamps on the left side and 8.5 x 11" paper on the right. The bottom two cubbies I used the canvas drawers to hold 12 x 12" cardstock and DSP. It's super heavy and this is a great place to store it. We also found the smaller unit here in the PX, for the "overflow" of paper and other misc. items. Very handy!!! My new baby, Scan 'N Cut is on the shelf above.

Close-up views

And here is where I will sit and create....hopefully soon!!!

Setting up the new Stamping Studio!!!

The day our household goods arrived! Ugh, another move, another setting up of the Stamping Studio!!!

My Workbox...getting worse each move, but still standing!

Bookshelves...and boxes!

And more boxes!

With surprisingly little motivation...I start unpacking.

(Love my stuff; hate moving my stuff!)

(Yes, I say that every time!!!)

Ribbon nightmare!

Finding some stamps and ink pads

Putting back in the shelves I told them NOT to take out!

Imagine me looking at these boxes and saying bad words...

Another box unpacked!

Meanwhile, in the livingroom...this china cabinet is FULL of crafting stuff! Stuff I brought with me, mailed to myself, that was in unaccompanied baggage and things I had ordered. Top AND bottom completely stuffed full. And needing to find a new home in my room!

OK, so making some progress here.

I took things out of boxes and just put them on a shelf, as I didn't know where everything was going to go exactly.

Until I ran out of shelf space and started using the windowsill, lol!

Moved things around, and found Rosalina from Italy! :D

All the stuff on the floor was from the china cabinet in the livingroom. This will never end!!!

Stamp sets now in numerical order and shelves starting to take shape.

Ribbon still a mess, but I found the other stuff for this shelf.

Workbox nearly complete!

How I've felt for a couple of weeks now!!!! You'd think I'd be so happy to have my stuff that I would go all-out to finish so I could play! But...my pain/sleep issues have been pretty bad and that completely kills my mojo! But...babystep by babystep, I'm getting there. I just close the door at the end of the day, lol!!! New photos of a completed room will HOPEFULLY be shown very, very soon!!!!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday #323

Good morning, Friends! Actually for me it's already afternoon, because I am now coming to you from South Korea!!! Yes, we have successfully moved and I am crafting in a new country AND continent!!! Ah, the joys of a military lifestyle, lol! While we do have the things we brought with us, and our small(er) shipment of unaccompanied baggage has arrived, we are still awaiting our household goods shipment. Which means that 98% of my crafting things (including my desk!) are still in transit...literally on a slow boat to China!! *wink* But between what I brought with me, what has already arrived and what I have ordered in the (almost) month of living here, I have a fairly nice collection of goodies. I've learned a thing or two about what's "necessary" to make me happy in crafting terms, so this move was the most successful as far as that goes. Of course, that won't keep me from complaining about wishing I had everything else too!!!

For those wondering what this is all about, please check out Ms. Julia's blog, Stamping Ground, and get all the info on the world-wide looky-lu on other crafter's desks!!

 My "desk" this week:

First clue....it isn't a desk, but my loaner dining room table!!! I have new respect and empathy for those crafters who must make do with a non-desk, that must be cleared away for every meal!!! I've had my Stamping Studio pretty much as long as I've been a stamper and never before had to go through this phase!!! It's a royal pain in the rear!!! Although, my husband has just left today for a field exercise, so I can keep my mess out for about two weeks without any complaints.

I have jumped on-board the Pocket Letter train, and you can see four in-progress letters. I seem to be better at starting them than finishing them!!! I'm hoping that having more alone time in the next couple of weeks will enable my mojo to kick into gear.

To the left, you will see the tray of stamps (many with dies also in the plastic envelope) I have to work with. Anyone who has been here before and has seen my room, knows this is a small collection!!! However, it has many of my favorites and things I chose knowing the projects I would be working on while I waited.

This brown drawer is one of six from my previous room, but holds about two drawer's worth of dies. Most of the dies I now use are the wafer thin type, and put on magnetic sheets. This is something I mailed to myself in advance because it was really heavy! Then when we got here I ordered a new Big Shot to use them.

Most essential tools! I had the white box with me (stamp blocks, ink pads, etc), as well as my paper trimmer. The drawer set arrived in our first shipment, so I got lucky having everything on hand fairly quickly.

Box of various crafting orders!!! Yes, I went a little nutz, lol! I got caught up on my monthly Distress Ink colors, as well has some paper packs, washi tapes, flowers and other "pretties". All in the name of Pocket Letters!!!!

So that's my "desk"! I hope you will leave an encouraging comment before you hop off to the next desk!!! Are you also a Pocket Letter fan? Let me know if you would like to swap with me!! Until next time....Stamp Happy!!!

Didn't have time to blog, catch-all post! :D

Ugh, it's gettin' crazy over here people!! The usual pain/no sleep thing has joined forces with the "moving stress" thing! At least we are finished the school year (which I totally flaked on posting!! Bella is now a sixth grader!!!), and I can focus what energy I have into this move. I cleaned out A LOT of the house while Thomas was on his field exercise, and now I have to keep going and finish up. Then this weekend I will be packing our suitcases (which we will be living out of for about 7 weeks!), because the movers will be here every day Mon - Fri! Mon and Tues will be for storage, and that will clear a lot of things out because we are only allowed to bring half of our usual weight allowance in household goods to Korea! Then on Wed they will pack our unaccompanied baggage - stuff that will arrive first in "approximately" 30 days after we arrive. That leaves Thurs and Fri for the rest of our household goods. That will probably be the most stressful because they will be packing up Bella's toys and my toys. Fingers & toes crossed that there isn't any more damage done to my WorkBox - the poor girl can't take it!

Some good news though, we were able to get our new mailing address after all, so we can mail some things to ourselves, and order some things I've been waiting to from Amazon, including my new crock pot!! Oh.Happy.Day! I should think that things will just taste better in a NEW crock pot, right??? Also, we are allowed to bring three suitcases instead of two on the plane!!! Of course we have to pay for it upfront and be reimbursed "eventually", but this is still great news! I bought a new suitcase JUST for my crafting goodies!! My plan is to ship my Copics and cardstock to myself, have my new suitcase for stamps and dies, and order a new Big Shot from Amazon - (Bella will get my old one when it arrives with our stuff). I will stamp out images to color (and my coloring books!), with my colored pencils in my carry-on bag. That way I will still be able to make cards and pocket letters (more on that in a minute!) and not have to wait months and months like before!!! Of course I will miss whatever isn't with me, but at least I will have the things I use the most. We're going to be in a much smaller apartment after living in a large house, and using Army furniture for months....so a girl has to have something to brighten the day, right???  Right!!

Thomas' birthday was on June 4th, and it was his 44th!! Happy Birthday to my Sweet Baboo!! I made him a nice dinner (can't remember what right this minute, but it was good!) and a devil's food chocolate cake!

And I made this super cute card for him!

It says, Happy Birthday from the whole herd inside!

When I was on Pinterest a while back, I sent some links to my friend Charlie over in England for Project Life printables. She's big into the PL scrap booking thing. Me? Not even, lol!! I also sent her a link for this letter thing using the PL plastic sleeves. I didn't think any more about it until we got a lovely package in the mail last week!! POCKET LETTERS ARE AMAZING!!!!! She made one for The Bella and one for me!! They are now my new obsession and I can't wait to make them for all of you!!!! So.Much.Fun!

This one is Bella's and she made a sleeve for it. So stinkin' cute!! Bella was over the moon for it too, and loves getting mail as much as I do!!  There were all kinds of pretties in the pockets for Bella to use on her crafting! Isn't it pretty?!?!?? Love!!

This one is mine! Instead of nine separate pockets, it's a WHOLE SCENE!! Love the adorable Lawn Fawn farm set!!! And the shaker clouds? Brilliant!!! You know this had to have taken a ton of time and care to create - she's amazing!

Mine included some lovely tea (which is delish - thank you!) and gorgeous sequins. Sequins and microfine glitter are my newest favs and I'm so excited to be using them in my cards!!! I've started Charlie's (because with pocket letters you HAVE TO send a return one!!!) and one for Christina, but I got sidetracked with other things. Those will be sent out next week at the latest though, ladies!!!

Here is Thomas, coming home in the middle of the day!, to bring me my very last crafting orders to come to Germany!! Latest goodies from MFT Stamps and Lawn Fawn! I just couldn't wait and they are soooo cute and fun!! Love them! Love my Sweet Baboo!!!!! These will definitely be coming with me in my suitcase!!!

So, people, we need to talk about Pocket Letters! Seriously, they have changed my life!!!! I was feeling rather blue and down in the mouth because this no sleep/chronic pain/moving stress thing was really getting to me. And that is NOT conducive to good crafting!!! I lost my way to my Happy Place!! But getting Charlie's package in the mail really brightened up my whole perspective, and after I Googled what exactly this whole thing was, I was even more excited!!!

There are no RULES with pocket letters!! They can be themed, or not! They can be about things you like, or things the recipient likes. It can be totally random. Whatever!!! It's just a plastic sleeve of HAPPINESS!!!!! You use those baseball/card game sleeves (sold everywhere, super cheap!) and fill 'em up! This is so easy and fun and anyone can do this!!! No special supplies are needed besides paper, adhesive and your imagination! Usually the back side has "pressies", but these don't have to be crafting supplies. They can be candy, gum, fun stickers, flower seeds, cute post-it notes - whatever! It's fun, it's a surprise and it fits in a little pocket!!! How much fun is that??? I know you all want to get one and make some, right?? Leave me a comment if you're in on this fantastic idea!!!! I will have my supplies with me!!!

So in my "Googling", I discovered a super fun YouTuber in Florida! Her name is Sarah Woolley and her channel is Something Different. Definitely check her out and enjoy all her "magic and whimsy"!!! She's so fun and I'm pretty sure she invented enthusiasm, lol! I made her a pocket letter and sent her a box of some of the things I thought she could use for her pocket letters (she's new to crafting!) from my overfull crafting studio. They were just going to go into the storage shipment, so it's better it's getting into the hands of someone who will use it instead, no??

My pocket letter to her featured some of my most favorite travel adventures! It was so much fun to make and the memories all came flooding back. We have really been so blessed the past five years here in Europe!!! I think we've done a great job traveling around and seeing & doing so much!

Back Page

It's too hot now to send other German goodies.

Her husband is also in the "show" that is Something Different, you have to watch!!!, and I wanted to make her husband a card too. It won't make any sense unless you watch the video where he's grilling outside. Hysterical!!

Envelope

His card

Sarah's envelope

Sarah's card

Isn't this a fun shaker card??? As I said, they live in Florida, so I got to use my newest stamps and dies featuring this awesome flamingo!! I made it "different" by die cutting some chevron ribbon for the wing and giving her a pearl necklace. "Something Different" - get it?? :D

So now I have to hustle, hustle, hustle to finish the clear out here in the house. THEN, to separate things as best we can for the different shipments for the movers. I also have to pack our bags this weekend. It's going to be go-go-go until next week!!! Then we basically sit around and supervise the movers. It's boring and makes for a very long day!! THEN we will be in the hotel on post. I'm hoping to keep busy in the hotel making pocket letters, although I will only have my limited supplies with me, and no Big Shot!! How does someone craft without a BS anyway??? It's essential!! And of course I will gorge on Mozart truffles and doner sandwiches while I still can!!! Our German adventure is almost over!!!!