messy tour: part 2

Remember my messy tour of my scrapbook space? Well, I have updated photos! It's been about 3 weeks since that post and my room had stayed pretty much the same.....until yesterday. I decided to finally start clearing out some of the mess. I set my sights on the three floating shelves and cleared them off.  As you recall, this is what it looked like.

Before

After

I cleared all the shelves as well as the top surface of the cube shelves. In the process, I think I broke the cable modem because we had shoddy internet after that and then it just quit working on us. The cable company sent someone to look at it and they quickly replaced the box. Of course I still have the ugly cables to contend with.

But before he came, I was slightly mortified at the condition of my room so I busied myself with at least cleaning the part of the room the cable guy would be walking through. He would still see the mess of the rest of the room, but at least he wouldn't trip over anything on his way to the cable modem. Which brings us to the next photo.

Before

After

You can see the beautiful hardwood floors and the rug! Some toys, my vacuum and endless boxes of stuff still there. Maybe if I got rid of all the boxes and just dumped all the stuff on the floor it would look like less stuff. Probably  not.

Before

After

This cube shelving unit did not change that much, but the floor in front of it sure did!

Before

After

The pile in this part of the room got taller! Half of the desk stayed the same and the other half....

Before

After

Nothing major, but I cleared off this side of my computer desk. I definitely need a place to hold pens/pencils and other often-used items.

The rest of the room looks the same so no updated photos there. Hope you enjoyed my big  tiny makeover-to-date! I will probably tackle the other side of my desk next. Small steps, people!

p.s. If you have any organizing tips to share, please leave me a comment! I'd love to hear your advice.

in the scraproom: messy tour

Usually when an artist, scrapbooker, crafter etc. gives a tour of her scraproom, it's to reveal a makeover, redesign or newly organized and prettified space. To share advice and tips on how to get her new look. Links to her favorite products.

Recently, I've been reading lot of DIY blog like this and this. These are professional bloggers who live and breathe home dec and DIY and who have "handy husbands" who help them realize their dreams. I love their blogs and day-dream of learning how to use power tools, heck even my dust-collecting sewing machine. But that's not me. I'm lucky enough to put together a prefabricated bookshelf from Target or hang up a curtain rod (which I did today....with hubby's help). My vintage, garage-sale and thrift store finds lay strewn around my house. Never quite turning into that DIY gem that I'm sure is hidden underneath.

But I do like a good makeover. Which brings me back to my scraproom. My craft studio. It has always been a complete and utter mess. It's the room where all my supplies end up. My girls' toys. Cast-offs that accumulate and awaiting that garage sale that I keep say I'm going to have. It's the land of forgotten craft supplies.

Inspired by this little video tour of her "messy" house, I thought I would share my train wreck of a craft space. Why? Several reasons.

1. To shame me into cleaning it up!
2. So I have a dramatic before photo.
3. To show my progress of my gradual transformation
4. To shame me into cleaning it up.

So here's the first photo. It's what you see when  your first walk into the space. If we have company, this door is CLOSED. LOL.

Yikes! Am I really showing you this?

As you can see, I have a nice-size window that lets in lots of light. That is, when the sun is actually shining. I live in the Pacific Northwest after all. Sun is a luxury here.

I have hardwood floors that were newly sanded and finished when we moved in the house.

I already have my furniture and storage in place: An Ikea desk. Expedit bookcases (a must-have for scrapbookers because they fit 12 x 12 albums). Three more bookshelves from Target (they do not fit 12 x 12 albums but are good for books and other items). Three floating ledges (probably from Ikea) that the previous home owner left behind.

Mostly empty, but already painted walls in colors I like.

But I am poorly organized. I have tons of things I don't  use. Too much clutter. I don't put things away after I use them. It's my dumping ground of all things crafty.

If I could only purge the junk and organize what I have, I could have a really great space!

So these are some of my goals for this space and what I am planning to do over the next year.

• Sell unused tools/supplies on craigslist.
• Donate papers to daughter's schools.
• Create little kits to sell on Etsy, namely vintage supplies I've collected over the years.
• Get rid of anything I don't love.
• Stop buying more stuff!
• Artfully arrange everything I DO love.
• Create collections of things - buttons, mini albums,
• Put more of my work on the walls to remind me what I have already created
• Create a space for my daughters to create/play with me.

So I hope by posting here, I will work towards organizing goals!

p.s. Do you like that font above? Thanks Anilu for pointing it out in one of her recent blog posts. It's Pacifico.

housewarming + hiking

This weekend we had our housewarming party. We invited neighbors and friends - family too, but none of our relatives live in the same town (or state!). I think it came together well (even in my extremely self-critical rehash of the event - something I do after every party/gathering I host. After cleaning/decorating/organizing the house for the past 3 weeks, the event finally arrived on Saturday. It was a potluck so that relieved some of the stress of preparing food. Jamie grilled burger and hotdogs. I made a pasta salad and cornbread and veggie/fruit platter (except I forgot to put out the ranch dip - oops!) We had lots of sweets and a few savory dishes. And a few people brought us flowers :) And to keep the kids occupied, I laid out a table for some papercrafting. I trimmed some scrap paper into 4x6 sheets and stapled them together to make little books. And set out some scissors, stickers and markers. Most of the books were gone so I think it was a success. Also a great way to get rid of sb supplies!

But of course I still stressed about cleaning the house. But it did force us to do a little decorating: we put up my framed photos on the blank wall in the dining room. I framed several of my scrapbook pages (both digi and paper) in black 12 x 12 frames. We only hung up two before the party but at least I have them ready for later. We bought a rug for under the dining room table and big leather chair for the living room (jamie's video game chair) at Ikea. I got rid of some remaining boxes from the move that were in the hallway (shoved into the garage). We bought a patio umbrella and swept up the yard, did a little weeding.

And the biggest change to come of the party? I finally organized my scrapbook room! I could still stand to get rid of some supplies but hey it looks 100 times better than the mess it was just a few weeks ago. I even added a little table for Sofi to do her own arts and crafts while I'm doing my thing and a space for Zara to hang out.

At the party itself, we got to see people we haven't seen in a looooong time and got to know some of our neighbors a little bit better. And Sofi was a great hostess to all the kids. Well, she did get a bit bossy when showing playing video games, but she was so excited to have so many of her friends over at one time. Most of them were from her pre-school so they already knew each other.

My only regret? Not taking more photos! I have a few of the kids playing video games and some of our friends max and aya and their newborn aria but that's it.

***********
Today, we munched on leftovers. Played Rockband. I played Lips. Sofi had her friend from next door come over. We cleaned up. Jamie weeded. Then I thought we could all use some time out of the house, so we went hiking. I even had Zara in the Bjorn to burn some extra calories. (Jamie snapped that photo :) When we got home, Jamie made a yummy marinara sauce from the tomatoes our friends brought from their garden. Don't know where he got the energy to cook after grilling most of the afternoon at the party. Go Jamie. Now the kids are asleep. And I'm blogging. A good weekend. Good times.