It took me a year to get my blog off the ground, and then it's taken another year to figure out what I'm really doing. I still have a long way to go but.......I've come a long way Baby! And now, I'm getting excitingly close to having 10,000 'hits' which to me is amazing. In honor of you, my readers, I'm going to give away some blog candy. What's that you say? Ohhhhh, I'm sure many of you know. It's a little treasure chest of stamping goodies to add to your stamping pleasure.
Just leave a comment to this post, what you've liked, disliked, would like to see more or less of, something you'd like me to know, on my blog. Or just say HI! When I hit that magic 10,000 mark, I'll select a random number and that comment writer will be the recipient of my blog candy.
While you're waiting, I'll show you where I stamp. Come on in...... This is the doorway, off of the deck from the house. If you turned right, rather than walking into my room, you'd go down the stairs into my husband's playroom: the garage.
I was lucky enough to be able to convert a bedroom over our garage into a studio for all of my stampin' stuff, classes and activities. The previous owner/builder of our 'cabin in the woods' (we border the Stanislaus National Forest in Northern California) had designed this space as a craft room for his wife so it has lots of electrical outlets plus one in the ceiling! My husband and I built some very custom cupboards, to place under the roof line (lots of 'dead' space just waiting for our project), for storing my current and retired stamp sets and some supplies. We painted the insides of these cupboards with leftover paint so each is different inside.
I keep my Stampin' Up! current ribbons in a piece of plastic rain gutter which hangs just at the roof line bend in the wall, above the cupboards. This room is quite difficult for storage since the walls over 3-1/2' are pitched, following that roof line.
I have a great collection of Elfa storage system drawers that are seeing their 4th or 5th incarnation, this time as storage for stampin' supplies. I've had these for nearly 25 years so they've really paid for themselves. On top of the set of drawers under the large window is a door which serves as a counter top.
To the right of that (photo on the right above) is an old 'diaper cupboard'. It was in a house we rented when first married in the late 60s and has been with me ever since (with permission from the owner of the rental to take it when we left). I used it in my childrens' rooms literally for storing their diapers and other baby paraphernalia. Now it serves as another type of storage unit for swap cards, retired eyelets, and things I just can't (but should) let go of. Just keep the door closed! The lower picture above shows my cardstock storage: alphabetically, left to right, 2 colors to a 'cubicle' and one of my favorite uses of slanted space: Stampin' Up!s Stamp 'n' Stack units, 7 of them hanging up on the wall. I keep all my buttons, brads, eyelets, and beads there, right where I can see them and easily reach them.
As you walk in the door, on the right is a very unglamorous, but much loved, cupboard that I salvaged when friends left San Jose CA for Virginia Beach VA. I store my envelopes, and gobs of other supplies in there. It's really due for a purge! The fruit crate on top of it holds my background stamps.
Next to the "Bill & Susan cupboard" is one of my favorite pieces: a mail sorting thing a former neighbor (who got from someone who got it from Folsom Prison in California) offered me. I store all kinds of things in it: CDs from Conventions (like Art from the Heart), my Craft Pads and reinkers, various other stamp pads (Versamark, StazOn), and other random supplies. It also needs to be cleaned out a bit. I keep a flash light handy (power outages) and my trusty-dusty hammer/screwdrivers when I need to become Ms. Fixit, in one of the cubbies as well.
Inside the door and behind it, are my punches and word/alphabet stamps and catalogs. I got the shoe hanger thing-y at Bed, Bath & Beyond (nice heavy plastic) and my dear husband placed wood bars under each row to give it stability and strength.
Here's where I sit and do my computer work, when I'm not in the house. I'm on dial-up so have to be near the phone plug-in. And I watch out the window (over the driveway) for my favorite guy in brown---Lucky, the best UPS guy in the country.
And now, as your reward for getting through all of this, here's a photo from Stampin' Up!'s 1997 Convention which was themed "Good Olde Summertime". There I stand, between the costumed Shelli and LaVonne. This was way before I finally started to color my hair. :)
I just went into my Convention files and found the registration form that we had to FAX or MAIL to Stampin' Up! in Kanab, Utah. Early registration fee was $140; regular fee: $165. It was held in two sessions. Location: Flamingo Hilton, Las Vegas, Nevada.
OK, the tour is over and I'm off to collect Blog Candy. Be sure to leave your comments. :)
