Inspiration keeping insanity at bay..

It is getting time to move again. The stress levels are high. The past several days have been spent gathering financial information and the like.  What a disorganized mess I have! There are many layers to inspiration and reasons to get it all cleaned up and sorted... and I won't get into them now.. I have to look at it from an inspired perspective or it is just drudgery!

Today I took a quick break and drove up to Anoka... near the old home base, as a city girl now, well, Minneapolis, city... I know to some it is small, but Anoka is a charming little town on the river in Anoka County, the Halloween capital of the world and home to many Antique and collectable shops...

One of these shops was my destination today. a shop that is only open limited days per month (a great concept in my opinion, from a business standpoint and building a serious customer base) The shop features Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. This is something that I have wanted to see and feel in person. It is a low VOC matte finish paint specifically for furniture, and it can be used on walls.

The color palette is basic and small. There is a good range of lights, mediums and dark colors. A variety of hue that  can be easily mixed. I picked up a book on mixing the paints... After the move, I may take the class, to learn the best techniques. As you recall, I have a few stray pieces of furniture around here to make into lovely accent pieces!

Then I stopped in at the quilt shop in Anoka, they have expanded! I did quite well, not looking at the fabrics at all. The bright colors and selections were attention grabbing, but provided a stimulating backdrop to the variety of patterns and samples all about the store. There was plenty of room to wander through the fabric selections and the whole atmosphere was one of spacious indulgence. I picked up a couple of patterns. One for mom, Birthday & Mother's day. Just a little something that she can use her massive stash of dishtowels with. I think I may convert some dishtowels into aprons, with the adorable apron pattern I picked up.

Well, it is time to get back to the paperwork task... going on three days solid... it is hard to remember stuff from two years back... but then, I did ok with documenting most of it... just a couple of stumpers here and there...