Greetings Dear Friends of The Crafting Cottage,

As you may have already figured out - I did not send out a Musings last week.  I was busy dealing with (finally) the disaster out in the backyard of the Crafting Cottage.  I needed to - no kidding - deal with the bins and boxes and piles of mysterious ????? before it all gets hauled off.  The deadline I was working under was it had to be done and ready to go by May 12th.  Of course, the weather was in the 80's which was not fun. Tara came to help me on Tuesday of last week and she was overwhelmed but she helped me rescue quite a few things.  More on all that later in this Musings.

I did take some time to work on the Summer Camp In A Box for cardmakers and scrapbookers - more info on that later, too.

Lots of activity being planned for this summer...

....On to the Musings!

Last week, an order arrived from Penny Black, Inc..  Some of the goodies were re-orders as the Penny Black Inc. Design Club Members really liked the final kit of the season.  I will be getting the final Penny Black Inc. Design Club kits sent out this week!!!! 

A new order from Echo Park is due to arrive this week.

I will be placing several kits and goodies in the Crafting Cottage booth over at The Shoppes at Oldies But Goodies in June and I will post pictures of what is going to be there in the Musings.  

The regular retail shop is available by appointment.  Simply send me an email to: [email protected] or go on to the Crafting Cottage's Facebook Page and you can schedule an appointment to have a personal shopping time.

My fingers are crossed.

July 5th the team coming to tear off all the old gutters and replace them with brand new gutters on the entire main Cottage and retail shop building will arrive.

July 11th, the painting contractor/owner with her team, arrives to start transforming the entire Cottage with new colors of fresh paint.  I'm especially excited at what the front porch will look like when done.  And the front door!

Throughout May and June, the grounds will get some much needed attention.  The backyard will, once again, be restored to a lovely retreat.

I am also trying to look into options for insulating the two back rooms.  They are both over crawl spaces.

Now I simply need to hope that the weather behaves in July so that there are not too many delays in the plans.

The schedule for the Cottage is listed below through July 31st.

3D Paper Crafting With Diane Wilson

When:  Friday, September 16th - Sunday, September 18th

Preliminary Info: This special workshop is intended to be a full weekend retreat for paper crafters.  For those crafters that live too far away to commute, accommodations will be available on a limited basis at The Crafting Cottage Inn but also information will be provided to some of the wonderful hotels very near to the Crafting Cottage.  

In just a few weeks, Diane and I will be meeting to finalize the list of projects, supplies needed and determine the schedule for the weekend.  

Details with pictures and registration information will be posted in the Musings by June 27th.

In addition to the fabulous projects that will be created, opportunities to mingle and socialize with fellow paper crafters will take place, meals will be supplied and some wonderful surprise bonuses, too.  

Multi-Purpose Box Workshop with Connie Hitchcock

Friday, October 28th and Saturday, October 29th

Preliminary Info:  In this wonderful workshop, crafters will be building, painting and decorating a very large box that can be used for many purposes.  It can hold recipes, CD's, photographs, various tools or whatever you decide.  Connie will have everyone assemble the pieces of the box and then completely paint the box on Friday.  It will take several hours to dry - so on Friday, once you've painted the box, Connie will give you some inspiration to begin finding the papers and various embellishments you will need to decorate your box which will take place on Saturday.

For those crafters that live too far away - there will be limited accommodations at the Crafting Cottage Inn or information on other nearby hotels, too.

Registration for this workshop will be posted in July.

My dear, wonderful test-drive volunteers - my apologies - I am soooo behind getting the survey finished and I didn't want you all to think I have forgotten.  I will be mailing these out as soon as I can.....plus the other goodies I am including.  Sometimes, I bite off more than I can chew.

I have put together a great group of goodies for cardmakers to play with this summer when the weather is not conducive to doing something fun outside or perhaps a little late night inspiration beckons you.

Inside the July kit, cardmakers will find:

* (2 each) of several unique pre-cut white cards to decorate and embellish as you wish

* (1) 6x6 pad of patterned paper

* (1) package of Bo-Bunny Jewel Embellishments

* Several pre-cut words and sentiments to use on or in your cards

* Ribbons

* (1) package of ephemera

* (1) full stencil for building scenes

* Several 6x6 patterned papers

Ink pads, pencils, markers.....LOTS of goodies plus a small booklet with pictures to inspire ideas for creating cards from your kit.

The picture above shows just some of the patterned papers and ephemera the July kit will have.

Below is a sampling of the plain white cards that will be in the kit - there will be two of each style.  The styles include the Lattice Window, the Diamond Cut Out, the Arched Window (shutters open), slim line card, an

A6 "Criss Cross" card and two different styled Step cards.

The card directly below is the Lattice Window style.  Inside the card, I used the stencil set to build the outdoor scene.  The entire stencil comes in the July kit.

The picture above shows just one of the Stair Step style cards.  The other Step card has the steps coming down along the side.

Below, you see the Diamond Cut Out card, the Arched Window card and the Slim Line card.  The kit will include two of each of all these styles.

The online shop as well as the Crafting Cottage booth located in The Shoppes at Oldies But Goodies will have these kits available starting June 21st (the first day of Summer!!!!)

For those who don't know the beginning of the backyard story - here is a summary:

June - August 2018 - I closed the entire Crafting Cottage shop/Inn/everything down so that a new driveway/parking lot could be installed, a new roof installed and have the former garage/Carriage house renovated into a brand new dedicated retail shop with a storage room. Additionally, I was having the first floor bathroom converted into two bathrooms - a half-bath and a full bathroom with a walk-in shower for the first floor guest room.

All the projects were slated to begin in June and be finished by mid-August.

Before the garage could be renovated, it had to be completely emptied. Where was I going to put everything??? Aha, I ordered two outdoor tents and a wonderful team consisting of Sam, Tara and myself moved everything out of the garage. Once the new storage room was finished, I would be able to move everything back that needed to go back in.

JUNE & JULY

The roof job was finally completed (with a few issues that finally got resolved). The new parking lot was done fantastically.

The bathroom renovation was going wonderfully, thanks to our Tony Ferrito!

The Garage Renovation, however, kept running into delays, issues, challenges and instead of it being all done and finished by mid-August - it was nowhere NEAR being ready. The project did not get finished until mid-September.  

Sam and Tara assembled and put up the two tents in May of 2018.  The picture below shows just some of the STUFF we had to move out of the garage and put into the tents as well as wherever room could be found in the main Cottage.

The room below was just one of the rooms I moved some of the items from the garage into.

Well....the garage renovation did not even get started until August - two months behind schedule.  An early snow storm in October caused one of the tents in the backyard to have its roof collapse.  I tried to "rescue" what I could - but with the retail shop being open and the Inn and classes and events - I did not have the time to get to it all.

The picture below was taken after a huge storm with strong winds hit the tents.

Once again - I tried to rescue the bins that I could easily reach and unfortunately, I simply was overwhelmed.

My son, Patrick, tackled the two collapsed tents this past summer and dealt with the worst of the stuff.  But, I needed to hire someone to haul it all away.  I also needed to finish going through what was left of the bins that I could to be sure everything that still could be saved got saved.

Below are pictures of the work Tara and I did last week to finally be done sorting through the mess and prepping what could not be rescued into piles for it all to be hauled away.  I would pull out "salvageable" items and have her power wash them. 

BEFORE:

AFTER three days in 80+ degree weather:

For the first time since May of 2018 - I can see the back of the Cottage!!!

 Anything that did not survive the water, snow, ice, water, snow, ice....was placed in a Contractor garbage bag.

 Patrick had almost saved several wood shelves - but the tarp that was covering them blew off one night.

The metal tent frames got so twisted and bent in one of the strong storms we had.

Incredibly, Tara and I were able to save and power wash many, many items that were either predominantly plastic or simply remained protected under the various layers of covers Sam, Tara and I had placed over the items.  All the round plastic tables were saved.  Trillions of plastic paper trays were saved. 

I can easily spray paint some of the metal fixtures that got rusted a bit - so they were saved.

"Before" picture taken from the 2nd floor on the left.  "After" photo taken last week from the 2nd floor.

Pretty soon, I should be able to share a photo of the backyard with NONE of the debris left!!!

One funny part of last week's adventure was this:  I would dig out a bin, open it and sometimes find that it had gotten completely drenched with water and whatever was in that bin could not be saved.  Some of the bins had catalogs, some had old records more than ten years old and two of the bins that broke my heart that I had to throw into the discard pile was two bins filled with fabrics.  Not only were all the fabrics completely saturated with dirty water but there was green mold and I realized I had no way to empty all the water out, get the fabrics out, dry them then transport them to be washed.  However, after pulling out every single box and bin to see if the contents inside were able to be saved - at the very bottom of the last pile for me to check was a bin that I was certain was going to be a good-bye Charlie bin.  Afterall, it was under one of the molding fabric bins.  I decided to check it out.  It was almost 8 o'clock that night and I was exhausted but determined to check every single bin.

I brace myself - as I did with every bin I opened because one just didn't know what one would find.  Treasure?  Trash?  A dead animal? (yes - I did find one of those in an earlier container).  Imagine my reaction when I tentatively open the final lid to the final bin and discover...PAPER!  Beautiful, perfectly dry, scraps of paper!!! SCRAPS of paper survived over three years buried under flooded bins, snowstorms, ice storms, wind storms and rain.  Well - call it exhaustion, call it temporary insanity - but I started laughing and laughing until I couldn't tell anymore if I was laughing or crying.  

I took it as a sign that I was meant to realize that all the stress, physical toil, and utter exhaustion in the very hot, hot temperatures was all going to be worth it.  My beloved scraps of paper survived, and thus, so would I!

Another reason why I have fallen behind schedule with many things these last couple of weeks was the big projects I decided to tackle at home during Mother's Day weekend.

I had the house to myself.  My hubby went down to New Jersey to not only see his mother for Mother's Day, but he had some more tests to go through and see his doctors treating his cancer.  My girls were up at Brianna's cottage.

I finally got my hands on the walk-in closet that my hubby and I share.  It is not a very large closet like you see on the HGTV shows - but it has the potential to be better organized so that it might appear to be like one of those fabulous closets.  When we built our house - we had the closet planned a certain way but when the builder decided it would be better to put the fold-down access stairs to the attic in our closet - we lost a lot of the planned shelving.

Like most people - our closet became the "throw it in here for now" place.  I found science kits that our kids used to receive from a monthly subscription service DECADES ago!  "Just throw it in here...."

It took me all day Friday and Saturday to simply empty the closet.  I used the kid's rooms to pile all the clothes on their beds.  My hubby must have over 400 t-shirts alone!!!! Good grief.

At any rate - I went to Target to get some closet organizing things and I started making piles - one for donations, one for winter storage, one for laundry and one for "undecided".

It felt quite cathartic going through the closet and cleaning off all the shelves that haven't been touched since 2001!!!! Glad I had plenty of face masks to wear all weekend long.

I don't know what tired me out most - organizing the closet or sorting through the backyard.  Both were exhausting - but I did feel a sense of accomplishment.  I'm still working on the closet - but the worst part is done.

This past weekend, my hubby, the girls and I celebrated a belated Mother's Day and my birthday.  We joined the girls on Thursday at Brianna's and we did all kinds of day trips.  We visited a very cool antique shop in Syracuse.  We had dinner at The Sherwood Inn in Skaneateles and went into many of the shops there in town.  Yesterday, we had lunch at another restaurant in Skaneateles called Bluewater Grill.  It's right on the lake.  The food was wonderful.

It was the perfect get away with enjoying meals out, being with most of my family and playing "tourist" in a fun town.  Patrick sent me flowers but better yet - he called me on Mother's Day and we talked for almost thirty minutes.  That was such a gift in itself.  

My hubby and I said "See You Later" to Brianna and Tara this morning as he and I headed back to Corning in the pouring rain.  

I have a brand new group coming to the Inn this weekend, so I have got to get back to reality and get back to work.

I wish all of you a wonderful week of fun, creative adventures and inspiring nights of crafting.  Stay safe.  Stay strong.  Stay healthy. Stay in touch.

And, as always - Stay Crafty My Friends!!!!

Cheers,

Georgiana