Tuesday, December 14, 2010

We all have our issues...

...and mine is my desk.


I did not realize it was an issue until this weekend, when I had the pleasure of participating in a great swap through Splitcoast Stampers up in Georgetown with my friends Lydia and Dana. We knew that we were going to have an amazingly fun day, because you cannot put the three of us within 10 miles of each other without a high amount of hilarity following. Little did I know that one little comment that I made would result in a near intervention right there at the stamping table.




It went a bit like this: We were discussing how brave it is of girls to post before and after photos of their stamping rooms when they are going from piles of supplies everywhere to a beautiful, organized space. I happened to say something about the fact that I cannot stamp if my stamping table is messy. Lydia looked at me like I just sprouted an extra head. "What exactly do you mean?", she asked.





"Well, I mean that if I finish a project and there is a bunch of stuff all over my desk I stop and put it up before I start something new. That way I know where everything is and can just free up my mind to design. Why? What do you do?"





You know that scene at the end of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" where poor Veronica Cartwright sees Donald Sutherland out on a busy street, and thinking he is still human, runs up to greet him only to have him slowly outstretch his arm to point her out, all while emitting that high-pitched screech so that all the other soul-sucking aliens would realize she hadn't been transformed yet? It was kind of like that. I think I could have said, "I like taking candy from babies and kicking puppies," with a much gentler response.




"You do WHAT?!?" That was the collective response from everyone withing earshot. I seriously thought a crew from "Intervention" might just materialize and after making all my friends confront me haul me off to Riverton for stamper rehab. (Come to think of it, that would not be all that bad.) The consensus of the group was that poor Kim should be loved anyway, God bless her heart.





So, in the footsteps of those who have been brave enough to go before me, I shall show you pictures of my inner conflict in the "before and after" format. Here we go...


Before: As you can see there is a large amount of just "stuff" all over the desk. Stamps, swaps, Christmas cards that are awaiting envelopes, a full trash can, just a lot of things all over my table. Now, I can hear many of you right now saying, "But there is a ton of room to stamp. I mean, you can still see the actualy table for goodness sakes!" Now, to let you into my mind. If I were to sit there right now to stamp, nothing would get done. Not a thing. Because all I see is a ton of stuff that wants to be put up and out of sight.



















So I do, and end up with this:





















See? All better now! Everything is back where it belongs and I can easily see 93.2% of the table. My little corner has my grid paper, paper cutter, and stampin' scrub. At this point my mind and heart get all happy and sing a little happy stamping song and I can work on cards.



So, now that I have shown you a behind the scenes secret, it is time for me to get to that table and make some pretty cards for my thank you card class that I am having the week after Christmas. I hope that each of you gets to spend some time in your stampy place this week, whether it is cluttered with piles of fun stuff or cleaned and organized. Thanks for stopping by, and until next time, Happy Stamping!



Kim