Well I was laying on my bed this morning surfin the web after the boys were off to school. And usually I would be up and moving or doing something but the house is clean, the laundry is done, breakfast doesn't need to be made yet cause the girls are still sleeping. So I took just a moment to look at some scrapbooking blogs. And began to doze off, and just then I dreamed about the perfect use for the desk that I have in the garage. Yeap sometimes I dream about scrapbooking/decorating ideas lol.


But let me be honest about this desk, I don't like it at all for myself (which is why it's still in the garage) its actually perfect for the youngest boys room, and so I was eventually going to get around to painting it and putting it in there...and I say eventually cause it wasn't something that I looked forward to doing at all. See this is the same desk that I painted just a year ago to put into our very very small bedroom in the apartment until we moved into the house. I hated it almost instantly because it was in our room and I knew that I would never be able to craft in there. The lighting was bad, it was away from the kids, it was really cramped and the drawers weren't big enough to hold anything at all.


So I never worked on/at the desk, but instead used it as a self to store some of my supplies. And that's all that I used it for. And since I am being honest I really didn't want to repaint it cause I just didn't want it in the house for some reason. But the boy needs a desk, but at the same time who said he needs that one. So as I was dozing off I was thinking of the drawer handles which are black, and the drawers are a very light baby blue (that surely wasn't the color that I thought it would be at the time I chose it). And I just had painted our old tv stand to go in the room as a temporary/maybe permanent piece in the room. It's current purpose is to hold the stuff that I have been stating that I have no place to put, but even then I had no way to store it. So the drawers...(sorry it took so long, lol) the drawers are perfect. They can come out of the desk and fit right under the self on the tv stand. And I already have both items. I haven't painted them yet or even checked to make sure that they can fit, but I am off to do that right now. I'll be back. And really I can get a before picture of desk so you can see what I am talking about...

Well after taking care of the girls and cooking breakfast and putting up the girl's laundry (which I was waitig to do when they woke up) I finally got to take a photo.

This is the desk (while looking at it again, I think what is wrong with me, it's a perfectly great desk for a kid, but I really don't want it in his room?) and the color isn't so bad, but I would have to paint it either way it goes so why not use it for what I want to instead.

And this is a photo of the drawers sitting on the actual tv stand shelf. It is so small but it is perfect for now. I just have to wait to get better furniture. But now you can see that there is other items that weren't pictured before. That black cd tower thing is used to store my cd cases full of acrylic stamps. Which are still in their boxes and I am really hoping once this part of the room is done that I can pull them out and get them up away. But ontop of the tower is an old cassette tape holder that holds my Colorbox chalk inks. I am thinking that I should hot glue together since both turn and it will be perfect to make sure that they stay put. But I also think that I should spray paint the cd tower an amber color. But I haven't found that color in a spray paint at all. And especially not a spray paint for plastic.

Getting closer to the finish line...or so I hope

Hello bloggers. I am so excited to say that I have completed a huge task. It actually wasn't a huge task but it really did feel like one.

This is what my ribbon looked like on Monday and some of Tuesday..

and this is what my ribbon looks like this morning...

Isn't it just the most beautiful thing!OK maybe its not but I am so excited because there was ribbon all over the great room for a day and a half. And the girls were playing for the last two days with empty spools. But it feels so good to have that mess up and the organized ribbon stash really moves me.

I am so mad at myself for not doing that with all my ribbons before. I got rid of about 150 rolls of American Crafts ribbons before my move last year because I couldn't bring them with me. Sad, if they were only rolled onto the cards like all the rest of my ribbon, I would have had them in my box. And they would be here right now getting put away.

So the lesson in all of this is I can never replace all those AC ribbons so I need to get over it and also not matter the brand, unwrap and add them to my stash. Forget the packaging and labels...they take up too much space.

Well the room isn't done, not even close but here are some pictures of what it actually looks like right now. It isn't perfect (or clean) but it is getting closer to the finish line. And all the stuff on my "table" is what I need storage for. Along with a few more boxes of books that I haven't even made it into the house yet.

I also found some cute little nightstands this weekend which were for the kids rooms.

Here is the boy#2's nightstand...I would do a full view of his room but there are pictures of family and friends in there so I will not do that. I did paint it black. And now he needs a small desk and bookshelf... And I got his table for $3.75.

And here is the girls' nightstand it is so perfect for their room. And of course there is much more that I need to do in their room like paint the walls, a color that we all can live with. LOL and a nice dresser with 8 drawers instead of the chest of drawers that they have. And a nice little bench that they can sit on under their window. But doesn't that lamp shade just scream at you for some kind of flowers and ribbon decorations...it did to me too that will be next. I got their table for $3.oo.

Sorry about the blurred pictures but I took them on my phone, and I don't have a clue how to make phone pics look better. Maybe I will take a better picture of everything once their rooms are done too? I hope to remember that...

Making prgress...

Well it was a long weekend and I had the most relaxing time. I was honestly so excited about doing my scrapbooking space, but after thinking about it, I used that time to enjoy my families company because there was a lot of thinking that I really needed to do before I started unpacking more stuff. There are several issues that I am trying to figure out but there doesn't seem to be anything that I love 100%. So instead of running around to garage sales trying to find anything that I could use, or checking thrift stores for sales, I kinda just want to think it through a little more.

Honestly the more that I think about it, it's clear that there is going to be some plastic in the room, but how much is my concern. I didn't want tons of it but really there is no way that there isn't going to be a lot considering I have a lot of stuff to store and right now my budget doesn't include purchasing new storage containers especially when I am still decorating a whole house.

But I have organized one cabinet. I can't really show a picture of it cause it is just too messy around the cabinet to have on record lol...The cabinet has a ledge/desk folding down compartment which is a perfect place to put my diecutting machines. And because of the size, whenever I get a gift of the new silhoutte or craft robo (these are just wishes lol), I will still have enough room in there to store and use them and that made the cabinet a perfect place to be my diecutting storage too, the drawers are full of dies (none of my wafer thin dies are in there)and here is a photo of one of the drawers...

And here is the other cabinet so far too, it is almost full and I still have 3 boxes to unpack (not including my 2 mini boxes of cd cases filled with stamps). The great part about my previous systems for organizing is that I honestly love them and it was easy to stay organized. I am thinking maybe just maybe I should buy some material and put it over the fronts of the cabinets but now as I type it out it seems like a bad idea. LOL

So there are tons of things on my to-be-done list;

-organize my ribbon (just making all ribbon fit into the system that I like, no more spools of ribbon, or ribbon cards for each individual collection/company, all are getting unwrapped and put onto my 6x12 cards sorted by color)

-re-label all plastic containers (using my computer instead of my label maker)

-find (build/paint) a shelf to go between the cabinets to hold my cd tower, ink pads, tools, all 8.5x11 & 12x12 cardstock that is still sitting in boxes.

-hang license plates of the places that we have lived/traveled to (which I still haven't unpacked/found??)

-create 9x9 layouts of those states to hang on the wall underneath each license plate (using IKEA wire and double hook method)

-touch up wall in areas that have scuffs and marks on it

-create family wall calendar

-purchase a bookshelf/expedite to be shared with the kids books, family games and some scrapbook stuff (mostly scrapbooking decorations that I have made).

-find a way to store other ink pads because my current system is too small

Well that is enough for now. I will try to make sure that I update as I go along, and take photos...smiles, Tracy

Two posts in one week...

Well as any of you have come to know that if I start working on something, I have gotta get it finished. Well I have finished the bookshelves and the desk and table have been painted and I can honestly say that I have no plans on painting anything else just yet. I mean really it has been really hot here I think all the days the last week have been 100 or more. I also know that I can't paint anymore in the garage without some type of fan. Although the door was open, it was sooooo hot in there. But I stuck it out and got it done.

Now I want to share of photo of the work so far, but I don't want anyone judging my messy space lol. I mean really I am still unpacking all my craft stuff and trying to figure out exactly how to merge there spaces into one. What I think is going to happen is that I am no longer going to have the kids bookshelves in the office. I mean they have 5 boxes of books but now that I have typed that, that won't work. I am thinking that we are going to have to have some type of bookshelves in the office and something for each child's room. So that is something that I will have to look for this week. There is no rush to get it but it would be nice to get it soon.

I have a couple of things that I need now in order to organize my space in the office, like more vertical paper storage. I am thinking that I should get a few usps boxes and decorate them. I really like that idea although I love the plastic cropper hopper ones, but these would let me bring more color into my space, but I did recently see where someone cut patterned paper to cover the fronts of their CP paper holders. I am planning to do that first and see if I like it and then I could easily coordinate my papers to match the room and then still use a couple of usps boxes.

So here is my work in progress....

Yes it is a mess but it is just the beginning. I am still painting things, looking through boxes trying to find my license plates that I have from other states that we have lived in and visited together. The theme of the office/scrapbook space is Explore/Travel. And I have a bunch of stuff still in boxes, in my XXXL navigator and rolling totes, which you can't see cause I have most of that tucked under the table, outta site. LOL The chair is actually from my oldest's room desk, we still need several chairs for this space (which I plan to paint 2 the color of the bookshelf and 2 some other color that isn't black)

I want to create a sign with a quote but I have not done vinyl in my cutter before and since I refuse to buy anything new for that machine (because I really want one that will let me use MCC without issues) I am holding out. I am also going to try to find another way to get what I want done without me spending money on those items for the sign.

For the record this is what I have spent so far on the room...

Paint $25 Lowes

Paint $25 Lowes

Bookshelves $10 (for both)

Table $14
Desk-Free

I also have to find my frame stash. I have no idea what box they are in and I don't seem to remember what box I packed them in either. I should take a pic of the mess on the other side of the computer desk area but I would feel too embarrassed by that so never mind. But I am glad to show what I have done so far, I still got a ways to do but it is really starting to feel like it could be an amazing place for all of us to us together. Well until next time...Smiles, Tracy