Oh dear

More than a year has passed since I last posted here...and I am almost ashamed to say that my craft room still is not the sleek organised space it was intended to be...mainly because crafting just gets in the way of the organised part of the deal.

I say almost ashamed because during this process I have come to realise that I am never going to be one of those people who tidies up and puts everything away at the end of each crafting session, in order to start the next session with a clear desk...that is just not me and I think it is important to discover and to embrace that fact. It will certainly save a lot of anguish moving forward. I am a messy crafter and I am happy to admit it. A degree of chaos is vital  to my creative process.

That out of the way, a degree of organisation within my little bit of chaos is  equally important. In the sorting process I have discovered that I  have duplicated my supplies more than once or twice - and this I know is  wholly due to the disorganised part...

So as part of this lengthy (and super slow) transition, I am building a catalogue of  the things I have in the hope I will not  duplicate further. I am not talking about the odd slip up here...Having four packs of the same size poly bags, or seven unopened packs of adhesive, or even five  blank calender sets is no bad thing as these will all be used....along with the countless packs of cardstock that I ordered when I couldn't find the pack I knew I already had somewhere. ...but I am also finding I have three of the same set of framelits for example, two of the same border die, two of the same stamp set...and it goes on ...

I suspect that at some point I will need to have a little sale to claw back some of the money spent on doubling up on products, but for now I am busy trying to sort through everything.... and it is in the sorting that I have come to realise that I own an awful lot of gorgeous stuff and that  if I lived to be one hundred I could not possibly use everything I currently own...

So why is it so hard to get rid of things I have had for ages and never used? Answers on a postcard please ...

Snail like progress...

There is always something...and this time it is a wretched nerve compression causing me problems and slowing me down to snails pace...but I will get there...just not as soon or as organised as I had hoped.
Due this little setback it has now become more urgent to simply get the remaining boxes unpacked and things packed away than to have them properly sorted. So for now like will be with like and the organising proper will have to take place later. Not what I had hoped for at all but you have to go with you have you...lemons and lemonade spring to mind

Electrical shocks

Imagine how daft we feel when we realised that although we had carefully planned and noted our need for electrical sockets around the room, we had neglected to put them in place before we finalised the layout and stacked goodies on all the shelves and filled all the drawers....

The electrical stuff was delivered today and we have sent hours moving  stuff again... and one we had all the wires connected to the sockets and put the units back we realised we had not accounted for the increased depth of plug sockets once loaded...sigh!

Now it may be just us being super dense, and anyone reading this may roll their eyes at our lack of planning...but if we cannot be a shining example we may as well be a  horrible warning...If our mistakes help someone else in future than great.... But next time I mention doing anything remotely like this again, please remind me I need to get the professionals in because this is way above our pay grade!

Of course this little glitch has meant that the tallest units are a little more forward than we had hoped and  now really have to be secured to the wall. Hubby is of curse thrilled at the extra work...but he is easily bribed with pizza and this will be done by the end of the day.

I love that I now have extra sockets...lots of them...maybe its time to get some new tools ;)

Happy Happy Bargain Buy

I am not a huge fan of ebay and I can count the number of ebay purchases I have ever made  on my fingers,without resorting to counting toes too...but when I saw a 12x12 standing paper rack with a starting bid of just £7 it was just too hard to resist.

 Due to the size and weight it was a collection in person only listing but after a quick consultation with hubby we decided if I could get it for under a set amount it would be worth the trip to go and get it...

and so I waited ...

and with just minutes to go I entered my bid...

and then I entered my max bid in case I might get pipped at the post...

and then I got notification that I had won the item...

for just seven quid!

We drove over and picked it up today and it is fabulous. It is a really solid shop quality rack and will be a great addition to my new craft room layout. I felt ever so slightly guilty that I clearly got a total bargain,  but the seller was lovely and needed the space so said she did not mind one bit and was happy it went to someone who would use it.

Tomorrow we have to go and pick up the electrical stuff (isolated sockets and lighting) and we will move a couple of units just to be able to  make the electrical connections and then  we really will be in the final stages.

I can't wait!

A work in progress

After a few false starts we finally have the furniture configured - who knew it would be so complicated to expand into twice the space? Not me for sure...

It hasn't helped any that I have a compressed nerve in my left arm and have pulled a large muscle on my right side shoulder...so things have slowed somewhat  and we are surrounded by boxes that seem to be multiplying...

So today  we went to Ikea...

I was really disappointed to find they have discontinued the oak colour Ribba picture ledges - I wanted more to match those I already have...now they only do black or white and only the larger sizes, not the small ones. Boo to that!

But a person cannot stay disappointed in Ikea for too long and  in the kitchen dept I found some really cool drawer inserts that will fit the narrow drawers of the Alex drawer units....and they were just £1.50 each. These will be perfect to keeping small things tidy inside those drawers. I bought four to begin with ...I may get more later.


I also picked up four fabric bins for my expedit unit...and I chose these because 12x12 paper and card will fit inside these easily...and I took some 12x12 with me in a 13x13 poly bag to double check. Yes I really did walk around the entire Ikea store clutching a poly bag containing 12x12 textured cardstock...I believe it was  tangerine tango in colour. It was a case of lesson learned because the boxes I bought previously, while designed specifically for the expedit cubes,are too small because the joints of the box reduce the internal dimensions... Something I had not considered when I bought them. Anyhow these were only £2.50 each and I bought four...two black and two in a turquoise blue colour. They had some pink florals and a navy paisley pattern option too but for extra money...and since they are storage and not a design feature I chose to spend the extra elsewhere...




Like on this really cute little pot ...these were just £2 each and are made from metal so won't break if they get knocked off the counter top and they are definitely wipe clean. As we were leaving I spotted them in some other pastel colours too and I may go back for some more at a later date.





The other main things we bought today were a couple more tall Benno units. Designed as media storage and boasting to hold 88 dvds each unit, these are perfect for dies and stamps. I already have four of these but they are all filled already...The beauty of these is that you get loads of shelves and fixings and so they are completely adjustable to make cubbies whatever size you need...which means I can fit the extra long dies in their original packing as well as the thin metals dies in cd cases and stamp sets in dvd or video style boxes alongside stamp sets in clam shell cases. They are brilliant. And they are not too deep so don't protrude out into the room too much. They will be going up tonight and will be filled tomorrow.

It has been a far slower process even getting this far, but it does feel like things are finally coming together. There are still lots of little things to sort out...like power extensions and some extra lighting in key work areas, but it is starting to look and feel like a craftroom now and I can't wait until it is done and fully operational.

Watch this space....

Label it...

In my quest to be more organised - and because if I cannot see it, it ceases to exist - I am trying to organise the new craft room before I start to put things away.  So while I am waiting for the last two units to go in there and the shelves and rails to be put up I have been busy thinking about labels....

And what better than My Digital Studio... The Label This Craft Room designer kit for MDS is perfect. It allows me to make easy labels as has   ready made options for all the different items from adhesives through to Washi Tape and it lets me pop the headings into frames that match the label punches I own. It also lets me print blank label frames to add my own headings...which is going to be vital when I need at least a  few labels that say SCRAPS!

I opted to stick with plain black and white labels because they are easy on my tired old eyes and I have printed a few sheets and have started to punch them out and I popped them into a clear envelope for safe keeping...

I will use them to help me decide where everything will go before I start to fill the units...but for now let me share this little pic with you... my first little baggy of labels

On the home stretch

At last I can see an actual craft room emerging from the chaos... but the process has meant that the one room that was completed and fit for purpose has now temporarily found itself full of stuff again as we curse the size of this central London house  and decide oh lets just pop this in there for a minute...

The tape measure has never seen so much action, but the end is in sight and  after three hours of moving things around, we think we have finalised the  layout for the new craft room. It was hard -  we already had so much of the furniture to work with  and needed to make that work in the new room...and we will I am sure.

We have decided to quit for tonight and look at it again tomorrow... of curse the real proof will be when  come to work in there... After weeks of craft room deprivation, I can't wait!