Oh love is in the air - can you feel it?  My dear husband gave me these pretty flowers along with a mushy card today.  Even after 20 years we still feel like “lovebirds”!

And guess what, he gave me the flowers and pointed out the ribbons that were part of the arrangement and said…….”I thought you may be able to use those ribbons on your cards once the flowers die”…..!!!!!!  Does this guy know me or what?

Yesterday I got tagged by Vicki over at Queen Kat Designs, with this card making princess button!  Vicki is one of my blogging sisters and a link to her blog is on the right.   Thanks Vicki!  Flowers and a “princess” designation - what a great way to start the day!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

I was just looking through my old blog posts and realize that TOMORROW is the one year anniversary of my BLOG!!!    I can’t believe it’s been a year already….so this calls for a CELEBRATION!!!  That means….BLOG CANDY!!!    Now, I have no idea what I will give away, but I promise it will be good! 

So to get this blog candy,  post a comment here about your general impression about blogs.  Are you backing off on reading them, do you have a few that you always go to?  Do you think some are annoying?????  Do you regret having started a blog and now feel the pressure to keep one up?  Are you obsessed with your blog hits!!

I’ll randomly select a winner on Saturday so check back and see it you’ve won!!

Sending out birthday wishes today to Sharon Johnson (aka notimetostamp)!  Sharon is busy today doing classes - Sharon make sure you take a break for some birthday cake!

 Check out her blog here.

Occasionally I run across things while surfing the net and I came across this blog about some legal issues for crafters and thought I would pass in on…

 http://artsandcraftslaw.blogspot.com

I’ve been working on cleaning up my stamp area and now that it is somewhat clean, I thought I would post the photos and show you where I work.  Full disclosure:  my stamp area never looks this clean and tidy!!

The room measures about 12 x 10 and serves several purposes at our house.  First, it is my stamp/craft room, but also is our home office where the main computer, printer, scanner and fax are located.  All of our personal papers and files are kept here. 

 Finally, it is our storage area for those items like holiday decorations and other things where we have no other space.   There are good things and not so good things about the room.  First - the good things!!

 It is a ROOM!!  My previous stamp area consisted of my kitchen table.  When I wanted to stamp I had to get my supplies from the closet, bring them to the table and either finish the project, or leave it on the table (not very practical).  The fact that I have a room set aside for crafting is wonderful.

Next, it is the only room on the second floor, so I can keep unfinished projects out and not have to worry about how neat things look when people come over.  Being on the second floor also means it is away from the other rooms and is a little quieter.

 Now for the not so good.

 While the room is large, it is basically the attic space over the garage built into a room.  The walls go straight up to four feet then angle in with the roof line.  This means no real wall space - which is a big thing if you do any type of craft!! 

Because it is over the garage it is very uncomfortable in the summer. We have two A/C vents and two fans, but that is not enough.  We had to buy another internal A/C unit that is very noisy, but cools the room a bit.  Even in the winter the room never gets cold. 

It has a very small closet which I tend to cram  with anything that will fit!

Even with these drawbacks, it is a great place to work and I feel very fortunate to have the room.  Now for the photos!

 This is my primary workspace.  I have most of the inks and markers on the shelf with prisma pencils on the table.  Also on the shelf in plastic boxes are my Flourishes stamps - I use them so much I need them close by.  The rolling cart next to the chair contains tools I use most often - scissors, adhesives, etc.  The light brown cart with narrow drawers and white binders on top contain the bulk of my stamps.  Most of my holiday stamps I keep in the closet, since I only use them once a year.  The binders most of my unmounted stamps.

Next is my computer desk.  On the left just next to the white binders, you may be able to make out some narrow rattan type baskets.  These contain the remainder of my unmounted stamps.  To the right of the desk is a two drawer lateral file cabinet containing our household files.  On top are the printer, copier and scanner.

This area is the one most prone to “messiness”.  This is a second work surface that contains the fax machine, Cuttlebug, papercutter, scorer and embossing tools and supplies. It also holds other tools used less often. Below the table is computer and office supplies. The shelf above contains 2 xyron machines, pencil sharpener and embossing powders.  The plastic rolling carts on the right contain most of my other supplies - more adhesive, inks, cutting tools, etc.

 Lastly is the paper zone.  I keep 8 1/2 x 11 paper in literature cases (bought at an office supply store) and sorted by general color category (yellow, red, etc).  My 12 x 12 is kept both on top of this (primarily full/unopened pads) as well as on top of the small white bookcase on the right.  The bookcase holds only about a third of magazine and book.  The rest are kept in the closet. 

Orvil and I are taking some time to travel through Florida.  We moved here in 2004 but have not been further south than Orlando.  We live just outside of Pensacola, which is in the most north western part of the state.  We headed south and tonight we are in Naples, having just spent the day touring the Florida Everglades.  This photo shows just one of the many animals seen so far.  We were on an airboat through the glades when we saw this gator!   We saw several during our hour long ride, which was just great!  We are heading to the east side of the everglades to do more touring, then on to the keys.

Just when I started to feel somewhat comfortable with Blogger, I move to WordPress!!  What’s up with that?  There was nothing wrong with Blogger, I just saw a number of blogs using WordPress and really liked the look.  There are some features on WordPress that you don’t get on Blogger, so I am making the change.  I’ve got just the basics at this point, but will be fine tuning the site as time goes on.  I hope you will subscribe again for updates, add this new address to your blogroll and visit from time to time.