Why I Have Been an Absentee Blogger

First of all, I apologize to those of you who have written and asked about me and to those new followers who've sent me such complimentary messages about my blog and decorating.   Thank you for your kind words.

I have spent days trying to conjure up some motivation to post about everything going on with me right now.  I must have a dozen drafts saved in my unpublished posts working up to this one. And so, leaving all of those posts in the draft bin,  here I am writing what I intend to be a short explanation with a few details about why I've not posted anything for a few weeks. 

For a variety of reasons, we are moving to another house and closing down the shop I opened to the public only six months ago.  Both decisions came about quickly. I have mixed feelings.  I will continue with my online transferware business and with my blog, but will not be importing furniture or have a store front, at least for the time being.  The majority of my business is done online so there really are no loss of sales, but it is still somewhat sad to close down the shop after putting so much work into it without really giving it enough time to get it going.

We looked and looked for another house.  After finding one great house and making the call to say we'd take it, the leasing agent told Shawn he had just leased it an hour or so before!  Being on a very tight schedule, we spent a few more days feverishly searching for another home.  It got to the point where we were willing to take about anything we could find that would accommodate our family space wise for the next year or two. We even went as far as taking out a house wanted for lease ad.   I found another home that would suit our needs, met with the leasing agent and then fell for the line that "oh, once a deposit is made on the home it will be taken off the market so that noone else can lease it".  I wrote a check for the deposit and was assured that we'd get together in the morning to sign the lease. Morning came and went, and so did afternoon.  We called the agent several times over the next few days and finally received a return call four days later, only to be told that someone else offered $100 more per month on the house.  I think it's fair to say that we were used as a negotiating tool for a higher rent.

Our search for a house continued but with needing to be out of the house we are currently in by yesterday, April 1, our options were scant.  We were barely able to get our move out date pushed to April 15th.  We decided that we'd put some things in a storage unit and rent a 3 bedroom apartment for six months.  On our way out to look at a couple of apartments we'd called on I had vaguely remembered seeing a 'for lease' sign not far from where we live now.  We drove to the neighborhood and though we never found the sign I thought I'd seen, we did wind up driving around and thinking of how certain aspects of the area we were seeing reminded us of the neighborhood we lived in while in Colorado.  As we were turning to head back out of the subdivision, we both noticed a 'for lease' sign on a house.  We pulled up to the front of it and simultaneously commented that it looked too small for our large family, but then decided it would probably be larger still than an apartment and so called the phone number on the sign.  We learned that the house had just come up for lease that day and that the door was left unlocked so we were able to go on in and take a look.  We took one step inside and after gasping a few times for air because it smelled as bad as anything either of us had ever smelled before, and looked very reminiscent of a house off of Hoarders, we absolutely loved it!  We both have the ability to see past major filth and neglect.   Shawn called the agent back and she said they would put in brand new floors throughout, allow us to decorate it any way we wanted, pay for paint that I would get to choose and so on.  Two days later we met and signed the lease.  She had her flooring guy there the day after we verbally committed to leasing the house. The floors are almost finished and we can begin moving in any time. 

Often, I find it difficult  to decide how much of myself I want to put out 'there' for virtually anyone to read about.   One secret I've been keeping for several months now, and that has weighed greatly on the decision for us to move and close my shop is that my husband had an opportunity to get into the restaurant business.    As I have more time to write about it and share more information about this, I will. This 'opportunity' seems to have taken over our lives lately.  And, honestly I have mixed feelings about it too.  Shawn is working a minimum of 70 hours a week away from home.  All four of our boys are working with their Dad, two of them as full time employees.   I have tried juggling my time between my online business, some custom design work, weekend liquidation sales on the furniture and a WHOLE lot of packing and sorting.  I'm up to my eyeballs in boxes and packing materials both at home and at the shop.  Both places are in such disarray right now.

Well, my post isn't as short as I'd anticipated.  I'm sorry.  I just really felt I needed to let some of you know just a little of what's been happening here.  I have also been with no washing machine for three days...which is almost unbearable!  

If you made it through this post then bless you for taking the time to read it! Please check out this giveaway to my English Transferware  shop on Etsy that Kim is hosting over at Savvy Southern Style.  Thank you Kim!