Looking good in public, at least.

 May I just say I have never been so physically tired in my whole life. Even though everything in the move went like clockwork I underestimated the actual physical VOLUME of everything that would be invovlved with the move to the Old Screen Door in Delaware and parsing out the various components out of the building on Broad Street. After our big moving sale we dropped 3000 square feet of merchandise by half but my space in Lewes is less than 500 square feet.

 So the rest is taking up half of the family room at the cottage, my dining room in Falls Church oh and in the 16 foot long storage container parked in our driveway.  EEK!!!!!! I also broke the cardinal rule of moving of not touching something more than once.  BEcause we had to load the big storage and display pieces intot the truck forst (to make sure that they would all fit.) we had to UNLOAD the entire truck to get those pieces out of the vehicle to set them before we could start unpacking. After unpacking, then we had to decide what was going into the Old Screen Door- Round 1. And then hump all the excess inventory back to the Lews Cottage. Holy Moly what a mess!

 And then it was back to Falls Church to clean out "what was left that didn't fit on the truck". Double eek. 4 vehicles, 4 cheerful volunteers, 4 trips to my house later and my home looks like a VERY artistic episoide of "Hoarders". Luckily for me I have a crazy wonderful supportive family, truly amazng colleagues, friends and clients who stepped in to help do the schlepping.

At the end of the day here's what was left. A sunny clean space.  Rumor control says it's going to be converted into a day spa or a wellness center.  We shall see. It was hard leaving this high ceilinged sunny space. Taking the last walk about by myself I remembered getting the space ready, learning so much from artistic colleagues while ogling their works in progress, helping people launch their brands, laughing about the time we hosted a blues trio in the "dress department" because it was raining and they couldn't play outside, and all of the hundred of people who we helped and who helped us make me what I am today.

 I am a firm believer in the "things happen for a reason" universe and while I will miss the daily contact and ebb & flow of the Falls Church shop I am envigorated by the possibilities of going back to creative art practice.  I am going to be 55 in a couple of weeks so I have declared this the Year I Actually Get Into Shape. Can only assume that clearing this debris field of a home counts as cardio!

Thanks for all of the kind emails, phone calls and texts you sent me this week.  They are SO appreciated.  I am a little fried mentally but am looking forward to sorting it all out and moving on the next chapter. I hope you will join me!

PS thanks for the flowers Anne & Mel.- They are beautiful!