Boy am I tired! Packing up is hard to do!

I haven't been around for days, due to our preparing our home to sell. Here is the link: Our Home West Deer (3 BR, 2Bath, one whirpool tub, swimming pool, office on first floor, huge dining room/kitchen on 14.5 acres in West Deer Twp., PA-if anyone is looking!)
My home was built by my darling husband just 5 years ago. We lovingly picked everything that went into and where every room would be. It's been so hard to know that soon it will no longer be ours. It takes so much energy, both mentally and physically to pack it all up. (Everyone should buy stock in the Rubbermaid company, because I think we bought them out of bins!) For about a month and a half now, we have been packing up the personal things and clutter and putting them in plastic bins (so the mice can't get in from the garage). We painted all the walls beige (insert giant yawn in right here - the artist in me abhors white and beige walls!). We got beige carpet for all over the house, which while it does look very nice, is still one of those things that make me yawn. Most of my pictures (which I LOVINGLY chose for my home) have all been packed away along with my favorite little knick knacks and such. The hard part is when everyone comes into the house and tells you how great your home looks without your things in them. I find it rather insulting and have grown rather weary of hearing it from everyone (including my own children) who comes into the house. For me ...it has been like slowly erasing little pieces of me, with every package that disappears into the garage. Left in the sterile beige environment, ripping down all of my wallpaper borders and things that made my home mine, has made me a tad depressed. I refused to let them paint over my boy's Coca Cola Polar bears mural (it's on this blog if you want to see it), hoping that some child who may move into the house will love it as much as my own children first did when we moved in here.
Tonight, after a full day of cleaning, we had our first showing. We were down to the wire here! The people were pulling in as we were taking that last bag of garbage out the door. We were still mopping and wiping toilets right up till the moment they walked in. What a nightmare!
I hope it sells quickly so we don't have to continue to live in this bland world of beige for much longer. Plus keeping it clean for potential sellers is going to be a nightmare for my 2 boys! They are messy little beings!
Speaking of my children, they can have it like this for a while, but the next house, it's back to my colored walls and carpet. I have told them, that when they grow up, they may decorate their homes however they choose. But as for me, I have waited all my life for my dream home, and to now have to give it up is so hard. The new home will be my fresh canvas and the creativity will flow once again. The artist in me will NOT be stifled! It's my home...and I will make the new one a world of colors once again.
The hard part is just not knowing where we will end up. It's impossible to look, until we have our own home sold and under agreement. So I have been gathering homes to a list, but not making appointments until we know for sure. It's hard to have your life in such upheaval, not being able to find so many things when you need them and not knowing what is around the bend. I look forward to the day when at last we will be in another house, where I can lovingly make it into a home. My home.
I think I will share a card today too...one that is in my SCS gallery so some of you may have seen it. But I haven't posted it to my blog. So here goes.
This is a card I made back in March for my Birds/Bees Swap. I love this bird stamp, it's so detailed. I had stamped it on shimmery white cover stock, so the coloring was a bit tricky. But I still like how it turned out. The BG is cuttlebug swirls and the word hope is stamped from a SU set. The ribbon is shimmery too. They took a very long time to color, using the prismacolor gamsol technique. I added a few stickles to the flowers to dress them up. I wanted to share the hope card, because ...I need a little hope right now.