Room Overhaul

I'm sorry I haven't been able to post anything for about a week. I have been having a major ROOM overhaul. My stamping "studio" as I like to call it.. is located in a "used to be Breezeway" which we had closed in some years ago. The one end housed a "MONSTER hot tub".. which was doing nothing but taking up space. So... finally I got my helper Gail to come over and we moved everything away from the hot tub (first set of pics showing all the stacks of boxes of stamping supplies, projects, etc)..Of course while moving and going through tons of "stuff".. we found all these cool items to use in future projects and classes. I found things I had forgotten that I had!! I'm sure that "NEVER" happens to any of you.... buy something particular for a project, put it in a bag or a box and forget about it?? Thank goodness stamp arts never seem to go out with the styles!! Gail said she has found a new place to come and make altered arts, books, stamping of all kinds, even some melting pot projects!!

Then I had a local wood Artist and handyman Ken Bair, come cut the tub into pieces and remove it!! The next set of pictures shows the tub with the area around it, then finally my new empty area, and my new tables all set up ready for classes!! When my stamp group walked in yesterday to stamp.. they were all amazed at the amount of room and the light from all the skylights and windows. The brick walls still need to be painted to reflect more light, but this is a 1000% improvement!! The final pics with the tables set up and all cleared out will be posted later. Thanks for stopping by! I will post the pics of the little Easter boxes and cards with recipes, the stampers made later on. So be sure to check back.

My frugal buy of the day came when Gail and I had gone "looking" for some spare tables to set up. I have to tell you the whole story so you'll see how I happened on my tables. First we went to a local new bread store we found that uses NO preservatives, no additives or other unpronounceable ingredients in their breads and goodies... House of Bread to ge some good artichoke pesto bread, a lemon loaf , and whatever else they had special that day. On the way to the bread store we saw a sign for Circuit City, "GOING OUT OF BUSINESS".. I told Gail, well, we'll have to stop by there on the way back so I can see if they have a computer part I needed. So we got our breads and went back by Circuit City.. the sign said... LAST DAY, so I didn't bother going in because I figured they wouldn't have any parts left by then. I pulled out of the parking lot and headed east on the street to connect to San Mateo (one of our main streets here in Abq), but at the intersection it said no left turn (we wanted to go left).. so I turned left into a large parking lot, which happened to be Office Depot. I said, well, while we're here, I may as well go in and see how much their tables are, since we were going to go to Staples (a local competitor).. I went in and a nice lady named Anna (happened to be store mgr) helped us find the tables. After I looked at what they had, she told me she had some on their break room that corporate told them to sell, and wanted to know if I might be interested in them "cheap".. since they had to get rid of them. I said sure.. so we went to the break room and she had 3- 5ft tables, 1-7ft, and 1- 4ft. They were the same tables I was going to buy NEW. She offered them to me at a ridiculously low price of $25 for 3 of the tables. Of course I couldn't pass that up since one new table was about $49. They loaded them in my jeep and we took them to their new sunny home in my stamp studio!! ..So.. if you are looking for furniture or something that stores may use... don't be afraid to ask if they have some used ones or demo ones, who knows.. you might find a good deal too!!