This month I've been dreaming lots of big things and taking lots of little baby steps in my scrapping space. Mostly I'm dreaming of building this big crafting table (though with this modification to make an even bigger work surface) with plans by Ana White. I also want to put the whole thing on cool looking casters. Did you know that there's an entire web site that sells nothing but cool casters? True story- www.coolcasters.com!
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| Image Credit: Ana White |
It'll mean switching away from the Madison Trestle desk that I've been using for years (Mom says she'll give it a good home :) ), but I'm wanting to do more of my scrapping work while standing and have space to really spread things out (especially with the DIY FRED getting so much use now), so I think the change will be good for me!
I'd also like to move my computer off of my main scrapbooking surface and onto a very narrow desk across the room so that it a) isn't a distraction causing me to surf message boards when I really want to be scrapping and b) doesn't continue to get splattered with paint as I play. I think that a narrow desk like the one below (again, plans by Ana White) will work perfectly!
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| Image Credit: Ana White |
I'd like to position the desk in a spot where I currently have two tall bookcases full of stamps and projects-in-progress, so I'm working on clearing those bookcases off (the revamped stamp organization I talked about last month is really helping with that) so that they can be moved out and the new desk installed. I'm taking it slowly and doing just little bits here and there for all of it so I don't get overwhelmed by it all. I'm currently going through old projects and deciding what I really will finish and what I need to just give up on.
Many of the concrete changes in my scrapbooking space this month are brought to you by the wonder that is the embroidery floss organizer box. Amy Tan showed how she was using a similar box to organize her veneers in one of her Project Life videos, and I love having all of these out of their packaging and easy to rummage through!
I'm also using embroidery floss boxes to organize...embroidery floss! Imagine that! Like many other scrappers I find that I've recently been bitten by the hand-stitching bug, so I dug out my old boxes of DMC floss (plus a bag of random J&P Coats that someone once gave to me) and organized them all by color instead of the numerical order that I put them in oh-so-many years ago. I was an avid cross-stitcher when I was a kid and all throughout my teenage years, so I had quite the collection already without having to add a single new purchase. It was kind of like an insta-stash just waiting for me in my attic. :)
There are also two more boxes in this collection, but you get the idea. :)
One of the best things about the floss organizer boxes is that I didn't have to add any extra shelf space for them. I'm able to fit two of them into the dead space on top of my small embellishment color drawers- I'm pretty pleased with that!
Speaking of the small embellishment drawers, that's an area that's getting slow-and-steady progress. Every once in a while I'll take 15 minutes and sit down with a few packages of embellishments, take the items out of the packages, and sort them into these drawers. I love how easy it is to find something that's pink or orange or aqua when I need it without having to continually flip through and open packages of mixed color embellishments. I absolutely detest opening and re-sealing packages, and it's amazing how much space is saved by simply tossing the packaging out!
My stamp and paper reorganization (I talked about those last month, too) are on a similar slow-track. Now that I have systems set up for both, I take just a few minutes every now and then to process a handful of paper or a few packages of stamps and am in no huge hurry to finish either task quickly. Little changes like that can totally happen slowly- I find that I stay more sane that way anyway! :)
There was of course some DIY FRED'ing and a little mixing of old and new stash going on around here, too, and I'm also curious to know what organizational tasks you've been up to lately! Chime in with a comment if you feel inspired- I'd love to hear about it!