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!!

Craft Room Update

There has been lots going on the last 2 weeks!! The white primer coat of paint has been sprayed in the craft room!! Woo Hooo!! We are still going to have to brush a coat on the trim I think. But FINALLY the painting has begun!! I haven't really been able to go out there yet because he just sprayed the 2nd coat Tuesday but my daughter stopped by and that was her verdict. I will take some pictures when we start putting on the colors. I can't wait!! I want to get it set up sooo bad so I can start crafting!!

I have been a shopping fool this past week. I got my tax return back last Friday and it's been spend, spend, spend since. I got 3 more jet max cubes from Michaels which gives me a total of 15 now. I just love those things!! I also got a bunch of their little $1 bin stampers and ribbon. Walmart loves me this week too. I got a bunch of stuff I have been putting off, plus I got 2 more of the Sterlite 12 x 12 drawers for my paper. Now I have decided I need 2 more and hopefully that should do it. I also bought a blue Bind It All from an online friend. It should be here soon and I am so anxious to try it. One of my first projects I think will be to make my Mom a book with pics of all 5 of her grandkids and all 5 of her great grandkids that she can show off. What else did I buy? I placed 2 seperate orders from Joann's. I think I got 7 new DCWV paper stacks all together, not all the new ones but all are new to me. I also ordered 2 Ott Lights for my craft tables, some Disney Princess paper and some cute mini stamps. Other places, I ordered some house mouse stamps, 2 12 x 24 mats for my Cricut Expression plus the Wild Card cartridge, and some O wires and covers etc... for the BIA. Peachy Keen Stamps is having a sale Saturday so I am going to order the Animal Kingdom Faces and the Doodlecharms Winter Faces then. I can't draw to save my life so I NEED these stamps..lol. I am on the fence about an ATG gun too. I have TONS of adhesive already so it's up in the air. I have to curb my spending after that because I still want to get a new computer. I haven't decided if I want another laptop or a desktop to put in the craft room. I am keeping this laptop too so I will have portability no matter what. Decisions, Decisions...lol.

OH, I ordered A Scrap Rack!! And it should be delivered today!! I am watching for the UPS man to come. I just ordered the base unit with 7 spinders to start with to see how I like it. Remember all those green PSB Binders on my bookcase? I am hoping to empty all of them onto a scrap rack eventually. It is kind of pricey but I need to get all that out where I can see it and then I will use it more I think (I hope). I also think the dividers and pages I have in the PSB will fit the Scrap Rack so it will just be a matter of transferring everything. What I like about the scrap rack is that it is expandable and you can expand it a little or a lot at a time. I just ordered it Saturday and it is due for delivery today so their shipping is fast too. I will definately let you know how I like it. Well, one thing is for sure, if I ever get this craft room done I will have plenty to keep me busy. I have been playing some in Design Studio and actually pulled out the Expression and made a few cuts from it so I know it works...lol. I also downloaded Inkscape and the trial version of SCAL. I LOVE SCAL!! I have almost 20,000 fonts and it was WONDERFUL to be able to use any one I wanted. I am going to get the full version as soon as I find a little time. Now Inkscape is another story. I used Paint Shop Pro X when I had a signature tag group over on Yahoo, and Inkscape looks pretty similar, but I was not very good at vector graphics even after taking some online classes. I think it is just overwhelming me a bit and I need to take some time to sit and play in it and figure it out. I will also look for some tutorials for it. Doing helps me a lot more than reading about it. Wish me luck!!

On the home front, my oldest grandson is wrestling in the State Wrestling Tournament up in Denver this weekend. He took 1st in his weight class last weekend at Regionals and my sophmore took 5th, just missing states by 1 place. My oldest grandson is ranked #1 in the state in his region and weight class right now. I am hoping like crazy he wins 1st place this year. He is pretty determined after his 6th place finish last year, and when that kid makes up his mind to do something it is pretty much done. I wish him all the luck in the world.

For those of you that don't know what a Scrap Rack is click HERE to check it out.

OK, I am going to go stalk the UPS man and the mailman both to see where some of my stuff is...lol. You all have a good day and I will update again real soon!! Hugs, Pam