I feel like I haven’t blogged in FOREVER!  Feels good to sit down and just chat with y’all.  (Did you see the “y’all?”  My southern friends did that to me!)  Anyways, instead of posting a room this evening, I thought I would take the time to share all of my excuses for not blogging in ages!

Well, my first (and best) excuse was that I had surgery over a month ago.  Nothing major, so no worries, but it was a terrible hospital experience and recovery.  I won’t get into all of the yucky details, but my life came to complete stop for a few weeks while I recovered.

Before I had surgery, I ran around like a crazy woman trying to tie up loose ends with projects, shop for Easter baskets, and finish getting ready for two photo shoots that were planned when I returned home from the hospital.  (Yes, I planned a photo shoot the day after my surgery because I thought I was “Super Woman” and I would be perfectly fine.)

After I got out of surgery, I can remember telling someone to call E’lisa (my photographer) and cancel.  I quickly realized that I wasn’t in any condition to go home and decorate a room. 

Well, my mother wasn’t going to have any of that and insisted that I keep the scheduled shoot.  She took it upon herself to finish the rooms for me.  So, although, I did most of the room myself, my mother came in and completed all of the finishing touches.  I would try to peek over the back of the couch here and there to see what she was up to, but honestly, I didn’t really care…I just wanted to sleep.

Here is a sneak peek of that room…

By the way, I love this room! 

I’m sure that most of you know that I also work for Creative Teaching Press.  Well, I had some major responsibilities due and a lot of people counting on me to finish a large project.  In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best time to have surgery.  Luckily, I have such a great support system and everyone pulled together to help me out.

I spent two whole weeks working day and night (along with my assistants, Christy and Lisa) getting this project finished.  I SO need to give a big shout out to them!  They came to the rescue, along with their own family members who chipped in to help me get the work done.  It was such a crazy time!  For two weeks, my house had a revolving door.  If Lisa wasn’t here, Christy was.  We had three teams of people working so hard.

(My garage with project materials…)

During all of this crazy time, my daughter turned three years old, so, of course, we had to have the big family birthday party.  In the middle of all of this craziness, I pulled together another classroom theme and decided to use it as my daughter’s birthday party theme too.  It turned out really cute!

Here is a sneak peek…

(Stay tuned…this one will be up on the blog soon!)

As soon as we finished the big CTP project, the birthday party, and the photo shoot,  I had to prepare to leave for IRA in San Antonio.  It would be so great if I could just show up to these conferences and just stand there and talk to everyone, but I am there to decorate and to present.  *Stop by my Inspired In Style blog on Monday to see pics!

I was in San Antonio for six days and our booth that we created was absolutely adorable!  Someone came by and said that our booth was “The Happy Place!”  It really was.  BEST.COMPLIMENT.EVER.

Here we are in San Antonio…(with our cheesy cowboy hats)

I also had the chance to meet one of my favorite bloggers, April McNair, from A Modern Teacher!  April and I talk all the time, but we have never met face to face.  This was one of my highlights of the trip!  April is so sweet and fun.  As I talked to her, I couldn’t help but think of how “teacherish” she is.  She has such a warm and inviting presence.  She is the type of person that you would want your children to be with.  I really adore this girl!

After we set up our booth and the show started, I was scheduled to present several times throughout the conference.  This is a picture of one of my presentations.  The crowd kept getting bigger and bigger.  There were people sitting on the floor everywhere.  One of the girls from CTP asked if I even realized how many people were there…I really don’t.  I guess I tend to block it out.  It makes me feel really good when people enjoy my presentations.

Needless to say, by the end of the trip,  I was tired.  I was so ready to get home and sleep in my own bed.  I wanted to just hug my family.  This trip was particularly harder than most.  I think I just felt bad about how busy I was up until this trip.  Not only was I super busy, I was recovering from surgery and still didn’t feel great. 

I spent a couple days relaxing a bit after I returned, then panic set in.  I know all of you are waiting for me to get the new collections out! 

So, it begins. 

I am back in full swing and working away.  I have four collections waiting to be released and another photo shoot scheduled in two weeks.  My goal is to get some of my most requested rooms completed and ready for you to start preparing over the summer. 

Oh…and I’m feeling better!

So, watch the blog…I will be getting those rooms up very soon!

~Melanie~