Note: I drafted this post in February just before the COVID shutdown. My office/craft room became home-school central for my grandchildren so that their parents could work from home.  Life seems to be creeping back to normal for our family, and so I got the courage to come check out my blog. Thank you dear reader for not giving up on me. I hope to be posting multiple times a week once again!

I’m a frugal stamper. No, really. I am! My husband would be quick to say that statement is, at best, a contradiction of terms, but probably more of a falsehood. And anyone who isn’t passionate about crafts would probably agree. However, my husband has never given me grief about the money I spend on crafts as long as it’s within reason, and he knows that I’m being careful to get my money’s worth. Growing up in a fiscally conservative home and then being a classroom teacher for 26 years have honed my skills in this regard.

I grew up watching my mom figure out how to indulge her creative side on small change from a tight grocery budget. Old clothes were remade into doll clothes, extra large dresses from estate sales were cut apart and remade into skirts and play clothes. The maps and pictures from old National Geographic magazines ended up decoupaged to everything from tabletops and lamps to a wall in our house. When the book Conceptual Blockbusting came out years ago, I laughingly told my sister that we didn’t need to read that book. We were raised by a woman who modeled that approach to life year in and year out.

Teaching 26 years in small, less than affluent communities has taught me to plan carefully how to get the most good out of a very small supply budget. People’s eye widen when I tell them that my first semester’s supplies at the first school where I taught were 2 red pencils, one box of chalk, one package of mimeograph stencils (the purple ones), and ONE ream of copy paper. It’s just a good thing that I have never thought worksheets were an effective teaching tool, as I would have quickly run out trying to produce them for 125 students with that one ream of paper

I have struggled with whether to continue full speed with my crafting since I’ve retired, and then took a break out of necessity. Now, months later, I realize that my crafts and writing are both important aspects of who I am. So, dear reader, expect to hear from me on a consistent basis.