Take a Deep Breath March 19 2015

Aw, finally, tomorrow is the first official day of Spring! And I love everything this season brings. New life, new flowers and buds on the trees. Color, oh, such marvelous color. Everywhere I look I can see it. Daffodils sprouting out of the oh so wet ground in my back yard. The blooms on the natural dogwoods are ready to burst. And while I see color ALL THE TIME in the shop, it is inspiring to finally see it in real life.

Right now I'm doing some spring cleaning. You know that time of the year where you look at your surroundings and all the STUFF!!! And let me tell you, I have got the STUFF! Now I have two houses to declutter. My shop and my house. A total of 3,600 sq. ft. to work through. The house will have to wait. I can't work if the shop is all cluttered. (That's my excuse about getting to the house.) The garage needs to be organized. And how I love to organize my garage -- SAID NO ONE EVER!!

And to get to a place where I can freely work and play in my shop -- yes, I have the BEST JOB EVER where I can play disguised as work -- I must clear out, clean out, discard, let things go.

What's the hardest thing for you to throw away? I keep the weirdest things like sticks. You know the stems from flowers after I cut them off. May seem like trash to you, but in my business a bendable stick is a treasure. So I have all sizes, colors, shapes, you name it of bendable sticks. They do come in handy to glue things to wreaths or in arrangements. And note to file, you cannot buy a decent stick to use for that purpose.

Cleaning out is good. It refreshes the soul and gives us a chance to breathe in really deep. You know that kind of deep breath of accomplishment. So whether you're cleaning out a physical room, house, drawer, garage, or cleaning and decluttering other areas of your life -- toxic relationships, difficult people, or complicated situations -- just remember, soon you can take that deep breath of fresh spring air!