We Will Always Have Paris

Studio Upgrade - September 2009

Hubby and I have been working on my studio this month.  It's been sadly neglected over the past year or so.  I kid you not, I still have to unpack stuff from my Summer in Paris retreat that was held in July of 2008.  Seriously.  It's bad.

So, I've been diligently cleaning and putting things away, while hubby put up a pegboard wall (Summer in Paris attendees may recognize the pegboard from my "Flea Market") and he painted my beloved tool dresser (click here for the history on this dresser) turquoise.  I painted the dresser drawers with black chalkboard paint, so that the kiddos can entertain themselves while Mommy works.

This is the dresser (and an old nightstand of my Dad's from the '60s) before it was painted:

 

This is the furniture after it was painted:

And this is the dresser in my studio, after I painted the drawers with chalkboard paint:

 

The pegboard is up & I'm overjoyed to have my frequently used tools out at my fingertips:

 

This old display shelf used to hold my grandmother's Franklin Mint bell collection back in the late '70s.  I cherished the collection as a child & she gave them to me a few years ago before she passed away.  Although I've painted it & repurposed it for my stamps, I always think of my grandmother when I look at it.  And that always manages to make me smile.:

 

I've been slowly moving all of my unmounted acrylic and rubber stamps into CD Cases for storage.  I store my most often used stamps in this cute little house that I picked up at Michaels and painted raspberry.  I plan to decorate it sometime soon.:

 

 

I've still re-organizing & have other big plans for my studio.  I'll try to post more pics later!

Getting Organized For The New Year

I traditionally spend the last week of every year trying to pull together my planner for the coming year.  I'm a paper planner.  Always have been.  I have tried going digital (using either a computer or a PDA for my calendaring), but I find myself returning to paper.  I've been an avid Franklin-Covey user for over 15 years.  It works for me. 

However, the artsy person in me feels compelled to pimp up my planner and make it my own.  Thus, I make my own dividers and add my own sections as needed.

This year's planner is the beautiful Franklin Classic Mia Zipper binder in Fresh Green. 

I've purchased the Kaleidescope pages and added a couple of inserts to make me happy. 

 

After that, I start building my system using my own hodge-podge of things I need.

Have you ever been to DIYPlanner.com?  They have an amazing set of downloadable templates that will allow you to print your own planner forms.  FREE.  FREE PEOPLE!  Their basic forms can be found here.  This allows me to print out my own goals sheets, my own project tracking sheets, my own check registers, etc.  They also have a "Creativity" set for the artsy-crafty people out there.  You can find exercise logs under their "Health" section and so much more.  My friends on Weight Watchers will love their printable Points Log.  I love printing on my own colored papers, so that everything is color-coordinated in my planner and suits my needs.

 

If you use your planner to keep track of household things, try Organized Home's free printable household forms.  They have forms for everything -- what's in the freezer, what's in the pantry and planning a birthday party.  They have forms for scrapbookers, fabric artists & rubber stampers.  I use my PDA to keep lists of my supplies (so I can prevent the ever-so-common "Damn, I already had this punch" purchase.  But, I plan to use their layout sketch pages.  They'll come in handy while I'm sitting in the obstetrician's office.

I made my own dividers using glorious shades of Berry and Aqua (God bless you my sweet Bazzill stash) and my tab divider punch.  (FYI - the font is CONGA) Now, I can go to town decorating my own dividers.

Whew!  All those links!  Who do I think I am, Jeanette?  One more day until the New Year.  Anybody else feel compelled to get organized before the 1st?

It's All In How You Package It...

At this year's Scrapbowl, I took a class with Stacy Julian where we were required to bring a baggie full of black embellishments.  I spent a good week opening little watchmaker tins & flower jars & IKEA embellishment boxes before I had my baggie full of black goodies.  It slowly dawned on me that it would be a heckuva lot easier to store all of my random embellishments by color, rather than type.  So, I scurried out to AC Moore during one of their 50% off organizer sales and purchased three sets of Making Memories storage jars.

I pulled my random embellishments and sorted them by color into jars.  I did leave my ribbons, flowers, brads, eyelets and fibers in their previous storage containers.  I know exactly where to go to find those embellishments when I need them.  Plus, my flower collection looks pretty damn good on display!

I finally labelled my jars this week and I am really love it!  Jeanette, I know you recently organized your embellishments by color as well.  Nice, isn't it?  Here's a look at my new storage jars:

Yeah, I know I don't have a purple jar.  They sell these little buggers 3 to a set & I need to buy a whole new set and then I will have one lone jar sitting on a shelf.  It never ends.....

Ribbon Ring Giveaway

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a little blurb about the new Ribbon Ring:

The Ribbon Ring Company owner, Melissa, actually e-mailed me after I posted my desire to see this new product.  She offered me a free sample and a starter set to give away to a reader.  Make sure you read below to see how you can win the starter set!

If you've read my blog for a while, you know that I have a ton of ribbon and it is all stored on cards in my IKEA storage boxes (click here to see).  It is nice to have my ribbon all tucked away in one place.  However, the one downside is that if it isn't out where I can see it, I don't always remember to use it.  This is where the ribbon ring is ideal.  I can have all of my beautiful ribbons organized by color and out where they will inspire me.

I did mention that I was worried that some of my lengths of ribbon were just too long to store on a ribbon ring.  Melissa had a fantastic suggestion for me.  She cuts one yard off the spool and then tags it with an inventory sticker.  That lets her know that there is more of that ribbon stored elsewhere (in here case, it is stored under her bed!).  Genius!  To see all of the Ribbon Ring products, just click here.  I just love her tag line -- Tame Your Ribbon.

Now, I probably won't go changing my ribbon organization right now.  However, I think I'll use a starter Ribbon Ring set for my everyday ribbons.  I use a lot of black & white gingham & polka dots on cards.  It would be so much easier to reach over & grab what I need, rather than having to dig around my studio for my ribbon boxes.

Thank you so much Melissa for the freebies.  Now, to enter the give-away, leave me a comment on this post telling me how you currently store your ribbon.  That's it!  I'll draw the winner (U.S./Canadian entrants only, please) next Monday, March 31, 2008 at 12:00 noon EST.

Let me explain...

I know I've been rather slack-ass about my posts lately.  A number of you have sent me e-mails reminding me of this.  Rest assured, all is well in my little world.  I've just been a wee bit busy...

This is what happens with my time....  I get inspired to organize.  I spend a week scouting out bookshelves.  I finally drive to Baltimore to hit up IKEA.  I come home loaded up with bookshelves and clever little boxes for organizing all of those pesky acrylic stamps I've started storing in clear CD cases.

Then I remember that I saw Pam Garrison's beautifully re-done closet.  So, I decide that I want to "pretty up" the back of my bookshelf.

Two hours later, I've added some black gingham fabric and I'm actually sweating from the exertion of decorating my stupid bookshelf.  But it looks good.  I'm happy.

Now, I have to squeeze my bookshelf in where I used to keep my black stamp storage cases.  Crap...  now where do I put the stamps?  I guess I'll just shove the cases off to the side.  Now the other side of my studio looks like this:

So I toss the Sizzix machine I plan to sell at the Rubber Chicken Flea Market and the Target bags full of photo albums for my Library of Memories class right on top of them.  Lovely.

And the stuff that used to be decorative displayed on top of those stamp cases?  Let's just toss them on my work table.  Ooh!  More Target bags!  That'll look nice:

Well, now I can't work at my workspace and I still have one more bookshelf to put together:

I'm too tired to put the other bookshelf together.  So, both sides of my studio are now a disaster area and I've lost the will to fix it.  Easily distracted, I focus on sprucing up my "Welcome" mat:

I promise to get my act together this week.  I'm going to toss my Love Boat Season One DVDs into the player and put that other bookshelf together.  Then I'll find homes for those stamp cases, clean off my work table and get some crafting done!

In the meantime, I've updated the AC Moore coupon link to the left.  I've yet to find a new Jo-Anns coupon (bastards!).  I'll be a better blogger this week.  Promise!

Organization: Ribbon Ring

I was surfing one of my new favorite message boards (A Million Memories) this morning, when I stumbled upon the Ribbon Ring.  Oh dear...  I'm just crippled by my need to constantly organize things.  My ribbon is all neatly organized in my ribbon boxes.

Here's the idea behind the Ribbon Ring - - Each strand of ribbon is woven through this little plastic thingamabob:

Then you hook all of the thingamabogs on a big ring.  I'm drawn to this idea because it looks so pretty in the picture on their website.

I'm just looking for somebody to talk me out of yet another organizing system.  Tell me that my ribbons are all different lengths and it would never look that nice.  Tell me that I have waaaaaay too much ribbon for this kind of system.  Save me from myself....

Gluttony, thy name is Korie

I was looking at the studio pictures I posted back in January this morning.  I looked up to see how very different my workspace is today.  And I realized that I have a problem.  My name is Korie B. and I'm a Prima addict.  My cute little garden has grown from this (taken waaaaaaaay back in January):

to this:

In case you can't see it through all of the IKEA condiment jars, there are THREE rows of flowers on all THREE shelves.  No, wait.... there are FOUR rows of flowers on the bottom shelf. 

I recently listened to a Craftcast podcast with artist extraordinnaire Sark.  She had a fantastic life statement that I think I need to have made into a wallword for my studio...

"You Have Enough"

I don't know what it is about this particular hobby that makes me hoard and feel compelled to buy everything.  I've been on a mission to find the Prima Aloha Box:

I've finally figured out how to store my chipboard:

I bought myself a two-tier Clip-It-Up to hold my embellishments.  I was able to fit my chipboard (MY CHIPBOARD!) on both rings with just a little room for some of my rub-ons.  The top ring holds just my alphabets & numbers, with each letter grouped to a bag.  I think I could send my kid to college with the money invested in chipboard embellishments.  It's cardboard for God's sake!

Now, for those of you marvelling at my organization, I must show you what my worktable usually looks like:

I'm a messy worker.  I can see 4 different types of adhesive in this picture alone.  They're all out on the table at once, along with half a dozen inks, two trimmers, and all the goodies I'm using in next weekend's Murder On The Last Train To Paris class.  I can't wait to be done with this class so I can clean everything up again.

Half the fun of paper crafting is putting things away in cute little containers, isn't it?

I'm off to prep for class & repeat my mantra.... "you have enough".... "you have enough".... "you have enough"...

Pretty In Pink

For the past fifteen years or so, my hubby has been lugging around a butt-ugly desk that he inherited from his grandmother.  When we purchased our house, this desk was relegated to the basement.  This weekend, my sweet, sweet, sweet hubby changed an unwanted, unloved beast into this:

It is so pink & so perfect!  I moved it into my studio right away.  Don't you just want to sit there & lovingly handwrite letters?  Or spill all sorts of interesting thoughts into a journal?  I can't create (or even think, for that matter) in an ugly environment.  Pink is pretty!!

Once I get the rest of my stamp drawers painted (ahem.... honey???), they'll fit on the other side to cover up all of the ugly wires.

My husband rolls his eyes and says that it's a little girl's desk.  He's so right!  The little girl in me loves it!

Acrylic Frames On Sale At Michaels Next Week

A couple of people have e-mailed me to let me know that the new Michael's ad (beginning Sunday, August 26th, 2007) features the MCS acrylic frames that I use for stamp storage at 30% off.  Sorry Jeanette, I know you just stocked up!  I predict a run on acrylic frames this weekend!

Rubber Stamp Storage and Organization, Part II

Wow!!  I opened my e-mail this morning to find a flood of e-mails about my stamp storage!  There were a ton of e-mails asking for more details about the crates.  Since it is STILL RAINING off & on, I haven't finished painting my remaining crates, so it made it easy to take pictures.

To create the shelf, two 1/4" dowels are placed 5" apart horizontally.  My hubby drilled holes, then glued the dowels in places, sanding the excess off the sides.  It doesn't really need to be pretty if you're going to paint them like I did.

The next row of shelves will be placed two inches below the previous row.  You should be able to fit 7 rows in each crate.  Eight 8.5" x 11" drawers will fit in each crate.

Hope that helps!!