Getting behind in my work

It seems as though I've neglected this blog for quite some time, huh? Well, no excuse unless you want to count my dog dying on July 7th, summer heat, planting, harvesting, canning, then coming down with my very first and hopefully last ear infection alongside bronchitis. So today after laying down $40 for a specialist to tell me I have slight hearing loss (no surprise) and there's nothing they can do about what's going on in my ear now except wait it out, I came home and told my husband I'm never going to see a specialist of ANY kind ANY more!!! I was just fine until I went to see my doc for the old annual physical the end of July, then well, let's say I'm over-medicated and not liking what she's telling me. I much prefer to just take herbs and vitamins, but will be compliant for a while. Do you realize how close together the word "compliant" and "complaint" are??? Sooooo, I have not neglected my craft room altogether and promise to post some pics of my most recent additions as soon as I scrape up enough room to mount them (you'll be pleasantly surprised to see what I found at a garage sale that is just PERFECT for miscellaneous wood-mounted rubber stamps and ink pads!) So stay tuned....

Scrapbook Paper and Supplies Organized!

I finally took some time today, well actually took the WHOLE day... to begin the daunting task of organizing my craft room. Last week I ordered some supplies that would help store the variety of paper that I have on hand. The picture below is a 15 section cardboard paper organizer, marketed for schools to store construction paper in. The openings are 9 x 12 inches, so the standard 8 1/2 x 11 sheets fit great.

Below is my new system for organizing paper scraps. One of my new toys was a Brother labeler, so I was able to neatly label the files by color or category (i.e. brown, scratch paper, vellum, etc.). I am all in to repurposing things, so when I received my card candy from a recent swap and figured that it fit perfectly in a square kleenex box, well, Voila! That's what you see in front of the files on the right. On the left are a couple of Tupperware tall square rounds holding a variety of stickers (the kind that come free in the mail along with address labels), water color pencils, note pads, and so on. The glass jar was my great antique store find full of four different colors of buttons that are great for scrapping and card making.

This is my partially organized bookcase. I'm afraid it will be a work in progress for some time to come because I keep changing my mind about how to arrange things. Even though you certainly can't tell from looking at my pictures, I really DO like to have things in order and categorized so they're easy to find. It just hasn't come together yet... There are two cardboard boxes holding my rubber stamps and a cd rack holding my small acrylic stamps and paper embellishments. The shoebox holds various sizes of cardstock and blank note cards along with some miscellaneous embellishments. I think I'll cover the box with pretty paper or else paint it a neutral color.

Below is something I'm rather proud of and really hoping it turns out to be as handy as expected. The two white wire racks were something my daughter had in her locker in school a long time ago I think. Not wanting to take up precious desk space, time or money on one of those spinning racks; and not really having that much that needed to be hung up, I decided to repurpose some white plastic coated paperclips and hang stuff from the wire rack. Then using an idea I saw someone else use, I put my stickles upside down through the holes. I heard that it would make the stuff come out easier and I keep having to stick a pin in the hole every time I try to use it, so it's worth a shot!

Take a good, LONG look at this empty desk surface because it probably wont' appear again for another year.... er decade...

Finally, the finished wire rack system! Thanks to some of the ladies in an online scrapbook room discussion group I was able to figure out how to make shelves for my 12 x 12 paper by using zip ties. I had to take the backs off because I couldn't find the extra shelves that I KNOW are around the house, garage or shed somewhere, but hey, when they surface I'll just add more paper shelves! I did find two old cooling racks (which I called cookie racks, sending my dh on an unsuccessfull journey trying to find them) that were the perfect width, so managed to get two extra shelves out of those. I still have a long way to go before this project is complete, but today gave me a sense of accomplishment and may give me the incentive I need to finish.

Work I've been doing

Well I managed to clear off the top of my desk long enough to make a couple of word books for Mother's Day. Of course since I bought a new program for my Cricut called Sure Cuts A Lot, I had to move the Cricut off the desk and in to the other den with the computer. I'm still working on transforming my craft room a little at a time, just haven't done enough to warrant new pictures yet, so for now I'll show off the word books and cards that I made:

More Bookcases!

Yippee! We got some knotty pine bookcases at an estate sale, so now I can get more books moved out of my craft room. Of course I was so busy over the weekend moving books around that I didn't get anything done, but here's what they look like: (oh and they're not going in my craft room because they're too big!)

Not much progress yet...

Yesterday was a tough day for me because I had every intention of spending the afternoon working on this room and well, let's say my fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue kicked my butt and I was moving rather slowly, if at all. We spent the morning out of town at garage sales and helped our daughter and SIL get a desk and dining room hutch, so it wasn't a loss, they got great deals. Anyway, on the ride home I knew I was getting the butt-kicking that happens any time I try to get out and do physical things (that means anything besides sitting at a desk or on a recliner.) Sooo, here's what my room looked like after I'd removed a few books from the bookcase. Notice the desk is still a complete disaster, as is the side table under the window.

I tell ya one great thing that happened as a result of taking these pictures though, I noticed that the cubies on the left side of the desk hutch have holes to adjust the shelves. Well guess what??? My 12 x 12 inch paper fits perfectly in that space, so I'm going to see if I can find more thingies to put in those holes, then have some thin fiberboard or something cut to size and viola! I'll have my own paper storage cubies! Awesome, huh? The pictures below shows some partially emptied bookcase shelves. Believe it or not I really did make a dent!

See! One shelf is almost completely empty below...

... and this cubie on my hutch had a bunch of other books in it that I'll be donating, so now it has "keeper" books that don't need to be out in the bookcase. You know, things like those antique poetry books and Bible College research books (Nave's, Vine's, hymnal, etc.)

Just to prove that I really did remove books, see the box below. My DH already carried two big tote bags out to the car. How I possibly found the strength to cart those things around I'll never know!

Ok, now for the piece de la resistance (you know what I mean, right?)... tada... I carried the folding table up from the basement (not an easy task with the Border Collie behind me, cat running up the stairs and old dog Charmin at the top of the stairs) and put in at the end of the bed so I could pile stuff on it that didn't belong in my craft room. Yeah, so I cropped it to disquise the messy bed... anyway I decided the little dancing guinea pigs, furbies, Valentine bear, etc. no longer have a place in that room, so now they're in the hall closet until I find new homes for them *sniff, sniff, sniff*... Perhaps I'll get them out to play again once in awhile, but for now I must remain serious about the task at hand!

Transformation To-Do List

Here's how far I've gotten so far this week. I got a to-do list created. TA-DA!!! Hey, at least I got that done, and being the type of person who needs to have some structure to keep her on track, this was an important first step. The actual list has squares to the left of each number so I can check them off as they get done. There's also a line going all the way down about 2 inches from the right side of the page so I can scribble notes if needed. As you can see, this is quite a project. Tomorrow morning DH and I are going garage saling (sailing looks better, but that's not how it's spelled) with our DD and SIL, then when we get back DH is going to a baseball card sale, so maybe I'll get started on it while he's gone. Of course having received some books from the library in the mail today I might be a little distracted, especially by this one:

Pretty Little Patchwork

My To-Do List

Desk

• 1. Take everything off
• 2. Sort and categorize
  Paper crafts
  Computer supplies
  Books – relocate (see bookcase)
  Misc – relocate if not craft or computer
• 3. Put storage items in bottom drawer of metal file cabinet
• 4. (There's a blank line under each category for last minute tasks.)
  
  Bookcase
• 1. Categorize books
  Keep – catalog
  Scan – put in other den
  Donate – put in box
  Sell – put in box
• 2. Relocate non-book items
  Keep
  Toss
  Sell
  Donate
• 3.
  
  File drawers
• 1. Remove and shred outdated material
• 2. Categorize and label all files
• 3. Organize files in drawers by category
  Personal
  Household (i.e. receipts & warranties)
  Crafts
  Business
  Other (i.e. travel)
• 4.
  
  Closet
  
• 1. Remove boxes and cases from floor and sort/toss/etc.
• 2. Remove clothing not worn in past year
• 3. Evaluate magazines and notebooks on shelves and toss if not needed
• 4. Install rail on floor or remove doors (?)
• 5.
  
  Other
• 1. Organize craft table
• 2. Organize wire cubes
• 3.

Before the transformation

As you will see when you look at these pictures, my craft room is in dire need of a major overhaul. It used to be my den until my computer died and I took over, er, shared my husband's den so I could use his computer. It was around that same time that I got invited by a co-worker to go to a StampinUp open stamp night and well... the rest is history, or memories in the making as I like to say... That piled-under table under the window was out in my MIL's garage for years until we rescued it, still in the box unassembled. It measures about 26 x 30 with a sort of slate top, so is perfect for paper crafts. Of course that requires that all my junk isn't piled on top, but I had to relocate a few things in order to shoot some pics of my stamp storage to show someone.
The bookcases are packed full of assorted craft, cooking, health and other books, many of which have never been opened beyond the day I bought them. My plans are to donate or repurpose a bunch of them to free up space for craft supplies that aren't as heavy as the books which have caused slight bowing of the thin shelves. Oh, did you notice the Cricut Expressions to the right of my paper bin on the desk? My dh bought that for me after listening to me carry on about all I could do with it. Isn't he a dear!
Closer shot of the side desk. The wooden thing holding my stamp pads came from a church garage sale, only cost something like 25 cents and works great. There are shelves underneath that hold my small stamp container, punch container, various paper files, notebooks and two plastic stacking drawers holding more... you guessed it... PAPER!
Every crafter has to have her tv for background noise, right? The repurposed notebooks on the right hold most of my printed instructions for just about any craft you could think of. Yeah, I'm a pattern collector!
This is just way too embarassing, but hey, if you make a public commitment to change, it has to happen, right? That timer (yellow thing) is there so when I've got something going in another room (laundry or cooking) I can make it ding to remind me. On the right are a couple of my photo storage boxes that, unlike many craft rooms I've admired, are NOT matching. My style is more what some would call bohemian, ecclectic, shabby chic (?) or some other word. For now it's just pure trashy and needs to be fixed. I'd love to hear comments and suggestions and promise to keep you posted as I dive in to the transformation!