I found my craft room!!!!!

I can't believe it's been over three months since I've been able to post anything here! Yup - my life is totally out of control!

Since my last post our F.A.M.E. group displayed at the Moncton Miniature show. We had several of our club projects on show, plus Louise's Via Rail train station - fabulous!

Here's a look at the inside of Garry's Old West Bath House - isn't it fantastic?

The show was busier this year than it has been for the last few years. I had driven to Moncton the night before because they were calling for torrential rains on Saturday and I'm always nervous of hydroplaning on the highway. By the end of Saturday, I admit, I was exhausted.

From then until now I have been so busy with everything else that I have not done any minis. That sucks, big time!! The rest of May was spent on Irish Association items and getting everything settled before our annual trip to Ireland. We spend the month of June there every year so need to make sure all is taken care of before we leave.

We flew out on May 30th, arriving in Dublin on the 31st. We stayed in Dublin for the first night and visited with friends, then started our way south the next morning. Instead of taking our usual route from Dublin down to Baltimore, on the very tip of South West County Cork, we took an alternate route because of something very special I wanted to see. I know you're going to love it too but you'll have to wait until my next post where I will share the story and all of the pictures I took.

So - fast forwarding to the end of our trip - we arrived home on June 28th and, after a couple of days full of laundry and housework, all focus was on preparing the Irish booth materials for the Irish Festival in Miramichi in the middle of July. Miramichi is a couple of hours from where we live so we stayed there for three days, coming home completely worn out but began getting the materials ready again for the following weekend which was the New Brunswick Highland Games. Bruce and I were so tired through that weekend that, when the booths closed for the evening each day, we didn't even take in any of the great bands playing in the evenings - we came home, grabbed a quick bite, and fell asleep in front of the television, woke up, went to bed, got up the next morning and repeated!

With July coming to a close, I knew I had a couple of weeks to catch up on other Irish stuff and get ready for the mid-August "Gathering in Gagetown" where we not only would have our booth but I have to prepare a presentation on Searching Your Family History for Bruce to give. Even so, I felt sure I could get at least a little bit of mini work done. However, I couldn't find anything! Have you ever seen an episode of The Hoarders? That's what my craft room looked like - no exaggeration!

So - last week I was determined I would clean out my craft room, find my materials and tools, and do what I love best - mini work. Have you ever heard of the expression: "the best laid plans of mice and men...". Well, before I could get started on minis, Bruce had gone downstairs to the family room late one afternoon to get something he needed and I heard a loud shout. Running down the stairs to see what the heck was the matter, I was greeted by the sight of the basement ceiling bulging. water streaming out of it where it joined to a side wall, a soaking wet carpet and bits of wall board hanging and falling on everything. What a mess! (whoever finished the ceiling many years ago, managed to put two wallboard screws through a hot water pipe. Apparently the screws acted like plugs for a long time, then finally rusted out enough that the holes just let go)

Needless to say - my craft room and my minis got put on hold while we talked back and forth with our insurance adjuster and a contractor crew arrived, fixed the pipe that had two holes in it, tore out the whole ceiling in the 12 x 30 foot room, ripped up all of the carpeting, and tore the wall board off one of the walls.

So - in addition to the mess in my craft room, the other rooms in the basement, including the spare bedroom and 2nd bathroom have been used to store all of the furniture, electronics and other stuff that we had to remove from the family room. So much fun!!!

Now for some good news!!!! Today I found my craft room!!! Look at it! Doesn't it look all pretty and clean???

You know why it's so clean?? Remember that big 12x30 foot space that is now completely empty while we wait for the insurance company and contractor to get things started? Well, I took the opportunity to empty EVERYTHING out of my craft room in order to organize it. Now I have the joyful task of going through everything, getting rid of as much as I am willing to let go of, and setting my room back up so I can actually get some work done.

Okay - don't be frightened - this is what is now out in the empty family room area that needs to be either put away or gotten rid of.

It feels like a mountain but, hopefully it will be only a molehill in a few days. I can hardly wait to get back to work on my miniatures.

I will keep you posted on my clean up progress as well as any mini work I can actually get done. Also - I won't forget to share my story and pics from something really special in Ireland that I'm sure you will all love. Now, I'm off to bed early tonight - gotta work in the Irish Room tomorrow. TTFN!! - Marilyn