The Big Bead Move...

I'm happily ensconced in a cute little house in Montgomery, Alabama. But, that happiness is fleeting as I continue to see piles and boxes and cardboard and tape and stuff! How do I fight the stress of unpacking and organizing? Napping!! haaaaaaaaaa I wish I was the wonderful superwoman who has energy to burn and made it through the piles quickly and efficiently, but every time I try to walk I either step on something or run into a piece of my history.

Today I vowed to buckle down. I set the alarm for early in the morning, went to the gym, and came home with a list of things to do...and I did some of them! Whooo hooo! Oh, I took a short nap, but that's part of vacation, right?

So, I want to write today about the moving of a bead crafter's jewelry life--it's an amazing challenge! I didn't let the movers pack any of my beading supplies or workspace because I couldn't give it up for three weeks. So, that meant that I had to move it all into Curt's house for the transition. Apparently, since he decided I'm worth marrying, the bead drama in his dining room didn't bother him too much.

Funny enough, one of my fave artists, Heather Powers, is also working on some decluttering projects of her own in her workshop. She published a great post this morning with all sorts of tips. Click on this to check out her workshop work: Humblebeads. The "random piles" of stuff give me hope that eventually all my random piles will find their places!! Thanks for sharing, Heather!!

I want to share some tips that I either found from other artists or learned the hard way through massive packing:

- I love plastic containers! Those Ziploc (or whatever brand) containers are not all that expensive (and there are coupons for them all the time in Sunday's paper) and they are great for small groups of items. Of course, they look wonderful all stacked in these big Rubbermaid containers, too. It took a while to actually sort everything out, but now I feel like everything really has its own little place! I put my little messes of random stuff in a container and suddenly I just feel better! haaaaaaaaaa

- Sending a shout out to Collectors Cabinets because my rolling cabinets are fantastic!!! I have the drawers devoted to colors and the beads are sorted into the little screw-together stackable round storage containers. I separate them all into these great big drawers. But, why is this cabinet so wonderful? Because, with the addition of some bubble wrap sheets and then some carefully applied (ha!) shrinkwrap, each drawer held my bead stash wonderfully in place during the move! And, the whole cabinet, while a little bit heavy, was easy to move all in one piece. **Note, if you click on the link to Collectors Cabinets you'll see that their business is for sale...if you know anyone who might be interested, pass this opportunity on!

- Back to shrink-wrap...how wonderful is this stuff?! You can cover stuff up and it'll stay all together...the little tidbits in little drawers all stayed where they were supposed to! Many thanks to my friend, Michele, who helped me wrap all these babies. It was definitely a two-person job! But, talk about a reasonable solution; it would have taken me hours to resort stuff had I not taken the prep time seriously!

So, I've got to get back to unpacking my little corner of bead paradise. I'm going to laugh through Heather's workshop tour again...just because it makes me feel better to know that I'm not alone in my personal chaos!!

Real Bling Time!

I got engaged on Thursday night!

My sweetie, Curt, proposed as we walked around the National mall and the WWII Memorial. It was raining a bit; the sun was setting; and there were lightening bugs all over the place. He pulled a pink rose out of his coat (where it had been stashed for hours!) and asked me to marry him! Of course I said yes and now we're on the road towards planning our future together! How cool is that???

So, this morning I was motivated over coffee to come up with a special piece to remember the evening. Of course, the gorgeous diamond (that he picked out all by himself!) is my new favorite piece of jewelry, but I want to remember the poor rose that made it through the evening in his coat. And, I think of lots of pink and shiny and pretty and champagne and laughing and glitter and love all go together into this necklace. :)

If you saw us together in our office--that's where we met, in the cubicles next to each other--you wouldn't think we'd match, but we've somehow turned into a perfect pair. It sounds cliche, but I can't help myself...the beads I pulled out this morning may not seem to go together at first glance, but they come together to create something better than just by themselves. How cheesy!!! haaaaaaa