My 2 Year Journey... so far

Yes, I am definately a slacker when it comes to posting on my blog. I just went back and realized that 2 years ago was the beginning of this blog. And believe it or not, I am still working on that craft room. I guess I like to think I am a lot faster than I am...lol.  Amazingly enough I have actually made some really good progress since I last posted. I have been pulling bins out of that back bedroom and scrubbing them down and getting them organized and labeled. All of my yarn and doll bins are now in the garage and I actually have a little space in the bedroom now. I have kind of looked through other bins and boxes and sorted them a bit too. My biggie is that one day last week I spent the whole day in the garage and got through every bin and box in there. I couldn't believe the things I found. I had one bin with Walmart bags full of brand new craft stuff that I never even took out of the bag. I guess way back then I was still buying craft stuff even though I never had time to craft...lol. I am glad I have it all now even though it is such a pain getting it all organized. And craft catalogs!! I'll bet I have tossed over 200 CATALOGS alone!! From the 90's to the present. Oh well. Sometimes I just have to shake my head and ask myself what the heck was I thinking keeping some of this stuff??

I am really liking the new setup in the craft room that I told you about in my last post. I have even done a couple of crafty projects and it works out perfect. Well, except I keep having to move stuff I am currently sorting through and working on putting away...lol. That makes it hard but I like the setup itself better. I have decided that instead of taking my time and going through that bedroom a little at a time or waiting for someone to help me, I am going to clear it out. It is physically too hard for me to carry those bins and boxes from that bedroom all the way to the other end of the house to the craft room. When my grandsons drop by I can usually get them to bring a few out into the living room for me and once I get them clean and ready to go into the garage that is where they sit until someone else comes over that can move them for me again. I feel like I always have a mess in my house and I am pretty tired of it. Not to mention losing the use of a bedroom for 2 years on top of it in a small house to begin with.

SOOO, next Sunday I have recruited my family to come over and move all the boxes and bins out to the garage, where they will be right next to the craft room. Thus, why I got the garage all cleaned up this week. I told them for Christmas I just wanted a few hours of all their time to do this. I think this will help me as far as being able to get them in the craft room and gone through. AND it will contain the mess out there instead of having it strung from one end of the house to the other. I am kind of excited about it all actually. I still have a lot to do but hopefully this will make it a lot easier on me. I have always thought putting all of that in that bedroom was a mistake, but at the time we had already packed the garage full and there was just nowhere else to put it.

When I think about it I actually have come a long way in the last 2 years. When we emptied that room I had stuff stacked in every room in my house and even some out on the patio. The garage was full, that bedroom was full, my house was full to overflowing...lol.  Yes, I am a packrat...lol. But I am better. I am purging. I have 4 boxes ready to donate right now and have taken a few trips already to drop off boxes. I have given stuff away and donated until I am blue in the face and I am positive there is going to be much much more going out the door one way or the other. If it doesn't have a home, or I can't find it one without cluttering up my house then it is gone. Not everything is craft supplies but the majority of it is. My rooms are all cleaned out except that back bedroom too!!

OK, I just wanted to let you all know I am still alive and kicking...lol. Not very high with this arthritis but kicking none the less. I am going to be really busy this next couple of weeks with Christmas and moving all of this but am going to try to post more in the new year. I have some projects I have done I need to get posted too. You all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

I am such a slacker...

when it comes to my blog....lol. There really hasn't been much to blog about to tell you the truth. I haven't really been doing many crafts because I can't find most of my stuff. It gets very frustrating for me. It is all still buried in the back bedroom. I think when I go in the craft room to work on it, I tend to get overwhelmed really fast and I have to just walk away.

Well, a couple of weeks ago I went out there and sat and just looked at it and thought about how it was working for me. I decided it wasn't working for me at all, and that was part of the problem. Soooo, out came the tape measure and the graph paper and I reworked the layout a bit. When I got the desk I had painted from my friend Manila last summer, I also got a big 5 foot table. I had wanted to put it in the craft room but coudn't figure out how to make it fit so it has been out on my patio as an extra table for barbecues. Well, it is in there now. I had originally wanted to keep the door clear going outside so I can open it in nice weather. Forget it. I can't get it open. I think it needs reframed and since that isn't going to happen for a while, you guessed it, that table is now in front of it. The big gray file cabinet that I was going to move to the garage is at the end of it. I had to move the Jet Max Cubes down about 8 inches for it all to fit. Since I had bought 4 more cubes that meant I didn't have room for my paper drawers at the end of them any more. I was running out of floor space along the walls!!

Easy Peasy fix. My paper drawers are now on top of the big table. Plenty of room for them and still room in front of them to work if I need it. Plus I am liking having them right in my actual work space. As an added bonus I was able to fit 4 of my BIG sterlite drawers under the table too! I didn't think I was going to be able to put any of them in the room at all and I have 8 of them. Plus there is still room to store my big scrap tote and a couple of other things under there. Of course I had to go through them and sort everything all out and put it away where I wanted it, then scrub them down before I could reuse them. EVERYTHNG is sooo dusty and dirty. Not the contents, just the containers. So now my 2 craft tables are coming off the big table instead of the white desk. I still have a U shaped workspace, which I do like, and I can actually get the door to the front of the garage open all the way now. That is important because that is going to be the storage room for all those bins of yarn and "stuff" I have in the back bedroom. I have been working out in the front of the garage too. When I recarpeted my house a few years back I took my old living room carpet and just laid it on that cement floor out there. I love it. It comes up a few inches in front of the big garage door and it keeps it sooo much cleaner in there and a heck of a lot warmer in the winter. No drafts and I don't have to walk on that cold cement. Since we rarely open the big door it works out really well. I was thinking ahead when I did it because I knew eventually that would be my storage space for my crafts. A couple of weeks ago I got the freezer and fridge out there all defrosted and cleaned out and got rid of a few things that I was storing and just plain didn't need. I have a plan for that space and it is slowly coming together too.

SOOOO, once I had everything moved where I wanted it furniture wise in the craft room, ( many thanks to my grandson DJ for helping me ) I had to go to work. I moved a lot of stuff and did a lot of rearranging, reorganizing and labeling. Then I brought 1 bin in out of the garage and started going through it. It almost overwhelmed me, but I stuck with it. I am glad I did because it was like opening a big Christmas present. About the top 1/4th of it was full of packages of brads of every shape and size known to man. I put them all in a box and set them with all the other brads and eyelets that I haven't organized yet because I KNEW I had a ton more "somewhere"...lol. Now if I could just find the cases I want to put them all in...lol. They are "somewhere" too. The rest of the bin was filled with paper packs that I didn't have any of in my paper drawers, and tons of stickers, tags, and miscellaneous embellishments. I was so proud of myself,. I dealt with every bit of it. AND scrubbed the bin down when it was empty. I am using my other 4 big sterlite drawers to sort into for right now since there is so much stuff and so many duplicates. I am putting what I am keeping in them and everything else is going in another bin that I will get rid of. I mean, c'mon, I don't really need 10 - 20 of each thing...lol. I have been doing some small RAK's to a few close friends and am doing a really big one in about 3 weeks at a Night Owl Swarm I am going to up in Denver. Those girls are going to LOVE me when I haul all this extra stuff in...lol. I am thinking I will eventually do some RAK's on this blog, but it will be a while. I want to have a lot more gone through and be a lot more organized before I will be able to.

DJ (poor kid, I put him to work every time he stops over) came by one day last week and I had him move the TV over onto the white desk and also bring a few things out of the back bedroom. Since I moved the paper drawers I had room in the corner for this big barrel I have full of rolls of wrapping paper. It is not a wooden barrel. More like a really thick cardboard with a silver band at the top and bottom. Eventually I am going to decoupage it with scraps of wrapping paper. I also have a smaller one I use as a trash can in the craft room that I am going to decoupage with pictures out of this Country Life magazine my Mom subscribed me to. It has some really pretty pictures in it but I don't really read them. I might as well use the pictures so I won't feel so bad when it comes time to toss all those magazines out. DJ also brought 2 smaller sets of the sterlite drawers out, so today I went through them, sorted everything and scrubbed the drawers all down. They mostly had all my crochet hooks and knitting needles, sewing supplies, some doll making supplies and a lot of miscellaneous craft supplies. All that took me most of the day so now I am getting ready to move it all out of my kitchen and start putting it where it goes. Since I already had my needlework section pretty much organized everything already has a home,

I almost have the end of my kitchen table cleaned off too. It was full of jars of bows, and just "stuff" I was sorting out a while back. I am going to put all the jars on the Jet Max Cubes since I moved all my Cricut carts, mats and tools off of them into a drawer of the big gray file cabinet. I am taking the leaf out of the table since I am not going to be using it to sort any more. I can actually see my hutch in my living room again now too...lol. I have had them big drawers stacked in front of it for a long time and I no sooner got them gone through and everything put away than DJ put  the smaller ones there that I went through today. After this everything will go straight to the craft room to be cleaned and sorted. My tables are all cleared off so there is room out there to do it now. I am tired of trying to clean around all this and my house looking like crap in general...lol. I am reclaiming my living space.

So, that is what I have been doing the last few weeks. I have decided I am going to dedicate my weekends to the craft room and the rest of the week to the rest of my house. I am probably going to be spending some afternoons out there too. I have decided I need to get through the bins that are already in the garage first since I need the space to move the ones I want to store there. There are only about 10 or so and not all of them are crafts. My Granddaughter Tiana is going to love me, and her mother hate me, when I give her those 2 bins full of Beanie Babies and Buddies...lol. She is an animal fanatic so I think she will enjoy them and take care of them. She is 7 so I am hoping so anyways. I spent a lot of money on all of them at one time. I also know there are 2 bins of papers and just junk that will mostly go in the trash or the shredder. And "somewhere"  ( there is that word again...lol ) is a bin full of my Xyron refills that I have been wanting and a bin full of Zig markers. Or maybe they are all in the same bin. I am not sure any more. I know one bin has more scrapping stuff in it because it was the one I was originally looking for. The rest of the bins are anyones guess. More Christmas pressies....lol. I hope.

Mothers Day Card

Hi Everyone!! I have another card for you today. I made this card for my Mother for Mothers Day and I think it came out pretty well. The paper and cardstock are from DCWV and I used my Cricut Expression and the Walk In My Garden cartridge to cut the flower pot and the bleeding hearts flowers. I wanted a softer look for the hearts themselves so I cut them in the pink cardstock instead of  red, which is their natural color... I think...lol. I used a scallopped circle .cut file for Design Studio using the George and Basic Shapes cartridge from Okieladybug's blog here and adjusted the size to my needs. I used Stardust Stickles on the pink hearts and the pink part of the scallopped circles. The sentiment is from Studio G and the only thing I am not really happy with. The sentiment itself is ok, but I really need to expand my collection of ink colors and buy more sentiments for more occasions. I glued the part of the stem in the pot down and then pop dotted everything else for some dimension. The bow was from my stash. Hope you like it!

Cinderella Birthday Card

This is a card I made for my granddaughter Tianna for her 7th birthday in April. It is only the 3rd card I have ever made and I don't think it turned out all that well. I figured, Oh Well, it's for a 7 year old and they are usually more interested in the money inside than the card itself...lol. I used my Cricut Expression for the cuts. The font is from A Childs Year and the Princess Cinderella is from Happily Ever After. The cardstock is Bazill Bling and I also used a lot of Stardust stickles to bling her up a bunch. Here is a picture of the inside. I forgot to take a picture before I signed it so pardon my sloppy handwriting.

March Swap 8 X 8 All ABout Me Layout

This is a layout I did for another Swap over on the Cricut Message Boards in March. I had to make 18 of these. I used my Cricut Expression with SCAL for the lettering, Walk In My Garden for the ladybugs, Independence Day for the eagle, and Everyday Paper Dolls for the little girl in her jammies and bunny slippers. She looks just like me, minus a few gray hairs...lol. The cardstock and rhinestones are from my stash and I used a Peachy Keen face stamp for the doll. I hand drew the glasses. I also took a silver pen and did a lot of doodling. Sorry, I had to cover my personal info for privacy reasons. Here are a couple more closeups.

September Swap 8 X 8 Holiday Cookie Reciope Layout

This is a layout I did for a Swap over on the Cricut Message Boards way back in September. It was our September swap but not due until December 1st. It was a Holiday Cookie Recipe Swap and I had to make 16 of these. I had a blast though. I used my Cricut Expression with SCAL for the lettering, and then Paper Doll Dress Up for the Gingerbread Boy and Girl, and My Community for the Gingerbread House. Stickles were my friend on this one because I think I stickled everything that could possibly be stickled. I also took a white opaque marker and did a lot of doodling around a lot of things. I thought it turned out fairly well. Here are a couple of closeups.

I Am Back!!

Hi Everyone!! I am back and I am going to try to be a lot more consistent with my blogging. It just seems like the time gets away from me sometimes. I have been having a few problems with my disabilities and another personal matter, but things are better now and really looking up. I am working hard towards getting a housekeeper sometime in the next couple of months and that is something that will help me tremendously!! I do well with the day to day pick up, clean up, dishes, laundry and that type of thing, and if I can sit to do it great!! But, if it involves me standing for more than a very few minutes I just can't do it. Well, I can, but it takes me hours because I have to go sit so much. What I used to do in a couple of hours on a Saturday morning now takes me all week!!

My daughter and I discussed it and I have come to realize I am struggling so hard to keep up my house I don't have time to do the things I actually enjoy. I have a craft room I have been trying to get together for a year and a half now, and while it is getting closer to being done it is going really really slow. I still have a ton of stuff to sort through and organize yet and I just feel too guilty going in there to work or create when there is so much else in the house that needs to be done.

I have been able to make a few things in the last few months that I will be posting over the next few days. I am getting the camera out tomorrow and taking some pictures during the daylight. I usually take pictures of everything I make but somehow I missed a couple of things. I want to post them in the order I made them and of course the very first thing on my list doesn't have pictures...lol.

One thing I am very proud of, and doesn't involve crafts at all, is that my oldest grandson Devin (19) recieved his nomination into the United States Air Force Academy. He has been attending the prep school up there this last year as a cadet candidate and now come June 24th he will be a Freshman Cadet. His mother, my daughter, has done a wonderful job raising this boy and I couldn't be more proud if he were my own. I love you Dev!! Here is a picture, and yes, I am bragging just a little bit...lol.

OK, I am going to try to get a few more things done before I chill for the night. Look for more posts of some projects in the next few days. I am excited about showing them to you!! Hugs, Pam

My First Cards EVER!!

Hi Everyone!! I had 2 birthdays in December, My Mothers was the 12th and my Daughters was the 26th so I decided to try my hand at making a couple of cards. I have never made a card in my life so this was a whole new venture for me. After asking a bazillion questions over on the Cricut Message Boards ( Thanks Night Owls ) I decided to use some premade cards I had and just do the fronts. I made them both the same. I used SCAL to cut the font and I used Bazill Bling for the background. Everything else is from my stash. I did realize that I need to buy some sentiment stamps though. I hope you like them!! This first one had a bad glare on it so I took a couple of others. You get the idea!!

Craft Room Update.

Well, how about some pictures!! I am by no means done with the craft room but I have been making a lot of progress. I just have sooooo much stuff to clean and sort out and organize that I am starting to wonder if this isn't a lifetime project, and if I will ever be able to grab my coffee in the morning and go sit and just craft...lol. That is my ultimate goal but I don't see it happening anytime soon. If you have been following my blog since the beginning you know what a mess I started out with a year ago. We packed it all up and moved it mostly into my back bedroom and pretty much all over the house...lol. We painted and put up shelving and arranged and rearranged the furniture and changed our minds a ton of times...lol. Well, I have the all over the house part tamed now and have started on that back bedroom. OMG!! What a mess!! NEVER have 3 TALL teenage boys move boxes and bins into a room without CLOSE supervision...lol. I had to have one of them stop by one day just to get some of the stuff that was stacked ABOVE MY HEAD down...lol. Slowly but surely I am making some progress with it though. Some days it overwhelms me though and I just have to walk away. I just wish this cold weather would go away so my arthritis would let up some and I could walk a little better. It would sure go a bit faster I think...lol. So, here are some pictures. You can click on them to make them larger.

This first one is a bunch of unfinished crochet projects and yarn I sorted out to go on my needlework shelves and in my yarn bins when I finally get to them. I am also scrubbing down all containers, drawers etc... as I go so this is actually more of a project than it looks. EVERYTHING is soooo dusty and dirty from sitting so long!! I am just glad that I was organized enough back then to containerize everything. Oh, this is happening in my living room...lol.

These are my needlework shelves before I put all the above away. They were turning into a catch all since they are right inside the door from the kitchen.

I nipped the catch all shelves in the bud though and got them all cleaned off and got everything put away on them. My sewing machine is on top with room to expand if I need it. Crochet books on the next 2 shelves down. Plastic Canvas books, yarn and canvas all on the next shelf. General Craft books and then Cross Stitch on the next shelf. Under the shelves it worked out perfect for my unfinished projects and a set of drawers to hold all my crochet hooks, knitting needles, sewing notions etc..

These are my scrappy shelves and Jet Max cubes. I have been labeling as I go and trying to organize them more but I keep finding more of what I have already done to add so decided I am going to get like with like and then organize it after I get it more together. The cubes on the left are actually going to go under the TV whenever I get one of my strong grandsons over to put them there for me. My shelves aren't necessarily going to be very pretty but they sure will be functional...lol.

These are all markers etc.. that I got all sorted out and labelled. They are ready to go on my "Wet" Shelves.I am hoping I can find some more of these containers because I have a ton more buried in that back room yet.

This is how I decided to do my stampers. I have all my wooden rubber stamps sorted and labelled in the clear containers by what they are. Then I have all my clear stamps in the zippered binders. I like them for the Studio G stamps but I am not thrilled with the binders for the bigger sheets of stamps. I am checking into CD or DVD cases instead. I have a few in some cd cases and I like it a lot better.

You can see my paper/cardstock drawers on the left here and then this is what I call my "Wet" Area and shelves. Again, still a lot of organizing and work to do here too. My wet area will hold all my stamps, markers, inks, paints, anything "wet". I have 3 paint racks on the desk for all my little bottles of paint. and a whole lot of stuff to go on these shelves yet that I haven't found in that darned back bedroom...lol. OH, those are all my punches hanging on the door to the garage storage.

This is my office area. I have a ton of office supplies and I have just been stacking the boxes in the garage for now. This will be the last area that I really get organized and finished. Who cares if the bills get paid. I want to do my CRAFTS!!!   LOL

These drawers are what I am working on now. Cleaning and sorting them out. I have 8 of them total and put 3 in the corner of my craft tables and put my Making Memories Carousel on them. I really want to keep these drawers because they are great for bigger things.I am going to see if I can fit them in next to the Jet Max cubes the TV is going to be on. We shall see.

Just one of those drawers is full of adhesives. This is why I can't justify buying an ATG gun right now, though I would love to have one. I think I need to use some of this up first. I TOLD you I have a lot of stuff...lol.

And THIS is all that is left to go through in that back bedroom. Thank goodness all the big bins will go into the garage storage. They just need cleaned up and labelled but are for the most part organized.

And this is the little bit of carpet space I have won so far in that room...lol. It doesn't look like much but I am pretty proud of it since I haven't seen any of it in a while. I keep telling myself slow and steady wins the race, but boy it would be nice to have all this done.

And that is my progress so far. I am trying to have the back bedroom cleared out by March 1st. I think I am going to call and see if I can get my daughter to come help me one Saturday. It is really hard for me to do all the carrying and moving the heavy stuff by myself and she is a great help. Plus if I can get one of the boys to help too that would be WONDERFUL!! Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think!! Believe me, I know I have a long ways to go yet but I have a good start!!