So Much Excitement

I'll start off with the more mild excitement. My craft room got a mini makeover this weekend! I think I've mentioned here several times that my sewing/scrapbooking room is a total pig sty. Like all the time. I cleaned up this weekend and found one of Crafty Papa's dirty socks and some of Matea's (clean) My Little Pony Undies.

My brother in law was in town yesterday and called us from the Geoffrey Beene store at the outlets and said they were closing up shop and selling all of their fixtures. He sent us some pics of these cool tables he was buying but I told Steve we really didn't need them. Thankfully, he stopped by here and once I saw the tables in person, Crafty Papa and I agreed I had to have them. Even better, they were only $15 each and his brother was here to help carry them into the house.















































So, I spent all night last night completely emptying out the craft room, setting up the tables, and then reloading everything. The shelves are so nice and practical. The only bummer is that now everything is within the girls' reach so I'm going to have to do some serious extra parenting when they're in there. If I would have known the room was going to be emptied out, I totally would have painted. Oh well, another day.

While reorganizing my fabric, I came across this fun retro flowers print that I hadn't used in a long time. Kind of a neutral, go with anything bag that still has a little bit of funkiness.

















Ok, now the BIG excitement. I'm hosting a scrapbooking retreat at an ocean front beach house here in January and my favorite scrapbooking friends are flying out to California to attend! I hadn't even mentioned the whole event to them because they're in Arkansas and Wisconsin. Not really practical for travel to the retreat. Anyway, I sent Shanna a link to one of the houses I was looking at and mentioned the retreat. Next thing you know, she, Keeley, and Shana are all flying out here. This will absolutely make my year...and keep me up at night with excitement for the next three months. Keels, Shanna and I used to talk on IM almost everyday and Shanna and I still try to IM at least a few times a week. I am beyond excited about finally getting to meet them in person after chatting online for 2 1/2 years. I hear Dr. Shana cried with excitement and I have to admit that when I start to daydream about it, I get a little misty eyed thinking about finally seeing my girls but then Crafty Papa gives me a weird "what the hell is wrong with you?" look and I snap out of it.

I'm also totally excited to finally spend some time with my friend Jenni without having to take care of our kids. We only get to see each other every few months and we always end up having to stay home with the kiddos while our hubbies go out to the beach and have fun. She is absolutely the nicest, easiest to get along with person I've ever met and I know all of my friends and the retreat will love her.

And Crafty Mama's #1 customer, Heather, will be there too. I met her briefly last spring when she took her Crafty Mama Creations stalking to a new level and hunted me down at an event I did. She went to grad school with Shana so it's a whole 6 degrees of separation thing. I think I might have to whip up a bunch of special bags to tempt her with that weekend.

I got to meet Andrea and Jen at the retreat I went to in August and it was so weird how we just clicked and chatted like we had been friends forever. I know it sounds weird, but it really is amazing how a friendship can develop so well without ever meeting in person. I'm totally doing eHarmony.com if Crafty Papa ever gets tired of putting up with me. Seriously though, those eHarmony commercials really do get to me.