Giggle

Project Life!

I'm so excited! My Project Life kit is on its' way!!

I've been waiting very patiently for the kits to be back in stock and now that they are I ordered mine QUICK before they sold out again.

My kit should be here between January 31 and Feb 3. Although, we live in a weird delivery zone where we have items delivered quicker than promised. (I'm not complaining!) So I anticipate it may even be here by this Friday if I'm really lucky!

Thanks Mom!! I used the birthday money you sent to purchase my kit - so happy birthday [again] to me!

ML - I'll let you know when I receive it and start my book!! I can't wait!

Organization or OCD?

“One person’s mess is merely another person’s filing system.”

― Margo Kaurman

I thought I would follow up my last post, Let the Office Organization Begin about our new office. The desk for our office has now been put together and all the items we want and need in the office/scrapbooking room are now in the room, and more importantly in their new home. 

I sorted through three 35 gallon bins and seven moving boxes of "random office stuff".  At least for now the items that we want/need are in the places I would like them to be in.  I would like to add a few things to the space; which will change where I would like to keep a few things.

Here's how it all looks...ta-da!

Obviously, the scrapbooking end of the desk. The 6-drawer unit against the wall next to the french door is on casters and can be rolled to the middle of the room for another surface area. 

Scrapbooking area continued. The corner desk is still the scrapbooking space.  This is where I'll actually sit and do cut and paste scrapbooking.

By the window is the computer station of our office - the printer separates the two areas.  

We still need to brighten up the room with some things up on the walls. Dave would like to hang our degrees in here so I'll hang those on the wall next to the computer and the window. (Along with his Packer Stock.  I haven't figured out what else I would like up on the walls yet. I need to "live" in the room for a while before I will figure that out.  It may be a fun bulletin board or ribbon board, photos in frames and some shelves for odds and ends. I may want a cubbies shelf to store scrapbooking supplies above my scrapping area. Or maybe an office organizer to organize our family.  

I would like to add a deep book shelf (14-16 inches deep) so we have a place to actually display and store our completed scrapbooks. We also have binders full of financial/medical items that need to be stored in the office and those could be stored nicely on a bookshelf as well.  We have a wall on the other side of the window where the bookshelf could sit nicely. Just need to find one in white to match the desk. 

Call me an organization nerd. Call me anal. Maybe I'm even a bit obsessive compulsive when it comes to organizing things. (Okay - YES I am obsessive compulsive (OC).) It's amazing how calming organizing a room can make me feel. It gives me great joy and satisfaction to organize something (just as cathartic as writing is actually).  It also feels great if you maintain the organization and can FIND what you are looking for later. Clean up is quick and easy if there is a place to put everything and you know where it goes. It is - just try it come on!

You might think I am a neat scrapbooker. Nope, I make a HUGE mess when I scrapbook, with paper and accessories (some used, some rejected) all over the place. However, because I have a place for everything, it all cleans up very easily.  I am going to love this new space!  My dilemma at the moment, as it is for most scrapbookers, I have way too much paper. The four file folders under the desk contain all of my 12x12 paper. By the looks of the photo here it doesn't seem like a lot of paper. Remember I'm obsessive when it comes to organizing so each of those folders contain a different type of paper. The big one on top is just solid colored paper filed ROYGIV just like the rainbow, then I have a folder of just baby/kids papers, one for seasons/holidays, and then the last is patterned papers. I would like to find a better system to display and store my paper. The paper is so beautiful to look at! And, of course, I plan to use every piece - some day!

The problem with collecting paper is that without a good organization system it is really hard to find what you need when you want to use it. I do not want to use a desktop storage as pictured to the right. It takes up too much space and the paper is not protected from dust or humidity.  They have paper organizers similar to this that stand on the floor as well - same deal. I've thought of using 12x12 vertical paper storage containers. They are like magazine files but for 12x12 paper. But again, the paper is not protected and I would need some shelf space for that as well.  I do know I would like the paper displayed so I can see it and it is accessible. Once paper is no longer accessible and at hand it becomes that old adage "out of sight, out of mind" and you'll never use it.  One thing I like about my current paper storage system is it is extremely easy to take with me when I scrapbook at places other than home. However now that I have a SPACE to scrapbook that isn't in a corner of an unfinished basement I plan to scrapbook more at home. So if any of you have good suggestions on how to organize paper let me know. I'm going to keep researching and when I find something I like, I'll let you all know.

Anywho...hearing me ramble on about my random thoughts about how to continue to organize our office space is probably rather dry reading. So I'll end this entry for now until I've updated our space again.

That's all for now! Thanks for reading folks!

Let the Office ORGANIZATION Begin!

Today Dave and I finally pulled the trigger and purchased a new desk for our office!  Nope, we did not purchase the Pottery Barn desk I was drooling over.  We found a desk at Ikea that has MORE storage, matches our woodwork (how freaky is that?!) and was more than half the cost of the Pottery Barn desk! ZING!

Yes, Dave was out dancing in the snow because I chose the less expensive option. *giggle*

We wouldn't have been able to get our desk home without our super duper friend Valerie today! She met us at Ikea to load up all the boxes containing the components of our new desk into her truck and then helped us bring all the boxes into the house. 

FYI - I do NOT recommend going ANYWHERE NEAR THE MALL OF AMERICA as traffic is awful there! (Ikea is across the street from MOA.) It was amazing the lines to get into the parking ramps were backed up onto the highways.  Thank goodness we're locals and know that there are other ways to get around in that area so we didn't have to wait in lines to get where we needed to go. 

We put together the desk components tonight in our empty dining room. Then Dave and Austin emptied the office of all the bins, boxes and furniture into the dining room. (Thanks for all the help with the heavy lifting Austin!) As Zach would say, "BIG MESS!" because now the dining room is full with boxes and bins to empty.  All this stuff needs to find a new home in our ofice or where it should belong in our house. Some of the office boxes are hodgepodge boxes of junk we probably no longer need but I kept because you never know what you may need donw the road. Finally Dave and and I set up the new desk in the office and all I have to say is it looks fantastic!

Dave went to work resetting up the computer on the new desk which is where I am sitting now. It feels so nice and open in our office.  Actually right now there is even a slight echo because it is so empty in here. *giggle* 

But that won't last for long!

Tomorrow I will start loading in the scrapbooking stuff on the other end of the desk and getting that organized. Heck, if I need more storage I even have room to add more if necessary. It is going to be so nice to have all my scrapbooking, cricut and computer all in one room!  Let the fun begin! Well once I get things organized!

I do know we'll need a bookcase so I have a place to put all of our scrapbooks, photo albums, and other office needs; but first I need to investigate how big it will need to be. The biggest issue will be the depth of the shelves. Under 1-foot in depth is not going to work for my scrapbooks - so I know I have my work cut out for me to find the right bookshelf. 

Well I better get to bed so I can get up tomorrow and spend my day organizing our new office/scrapbooking room! I can't wait!!  THIS is the project I've been itching to do!

I'll post photos once I have everything set up!

Ciao!

A Day Out with Thomas

I started and finished all of the following pages in one day at home in between playing with Zach, doing laundry, making meals and the like. I was able to get most of my pages completed as Zach played with his trains.  So it was fitting that I was scraping our "Day Out with Thomas" from this past August. Zach would come over and check out my progress from time to time asking to sit in my lap so he could get a closer look. He enjoyed pointing out his friend Joshua in the pages, saying "Josh!" and "choo-choo!"

The pages are easy to do so feel free to scraplift them if you so desire. For all of those non-scrapbookers out there you may be wondering what the heck is scraplifting?  Scraplifting is  borrowing (or lifting) an idea from a fellow scrapbooker. It is considered a compliment and most scrapbookers are honored to be lifted. I know I am!

I purchased a Sandylion patterned paper pack and accessories from Michel's and and extra package of Sandylion cardboard cutouts and sticker cutouts.  For the title "Ticket to Ride" I made this from paper scraps of Bazzill cardstock so unfortunately I can not tell you the different shades of blue I used. I used my Sizzix Shadow Font to cut out "Ticket" and "to ride" was cut out with the Cricut Jasmine font.

 

Autumn Orchard Scrapbook Layout

This past autumn I went to a local apple orchard with a girlfriend of mine and our kids. While I was there I took over 300 photos of the kids picking apples, riding on tractors, feeding the animals, and running through the hay maze. Admittedly only half of the photos were worth keeping. But still, to incorporate even 150 photos into a scrapbook project is insane and to make an entire book of one visit to the apple orchard wasn't in my plan.  I was able to narrow down the photos to fifty photos which was eventually cut down to forty-six when I was actually constructing.

Forty-six photos on five scrapbook pages. I could have added in those extra four photos but it upset the flow I wanted. So how do you incorporate forty-six photos into five scrapbook pages?  EASY!  You make photo collages! I used Picasa, free photo editing software from Google. You could also do this using photo shop.

Here are my five pages as displayed in my scrapbook:

Pages 1 & 2

Pages 3 & 4

Page 5

Close-ups of the spreads and how I completed the layouts:

The top left photo is a 4x6 collage of two photos, the right side is a 4x6 collage of 3 photos and the bottom photo is a 5x7 of nine photos.  To make the title I used a Sizzix to cut out the individual apple shapes and then stitched the letters onto the apples. Papers: Bazzil green, and Art Warehouse/Creative Imaginations Green Apple Scalloped paper. Apple tree and crate of apples are stickers. (Sorry stickers are old an I no longer had the packaging).

Again, photos from collages, but this time I cut them apart to tell the story I wanted to. The continuation of the title, using a Sizzix to cut out the individual apple shapes and then stitched the letters onto the apples. Papers: Bazzil green, and Art Warehouse/Creative Imaginations Green Apple Scalloped paper. Apple stickers. (Sorry stickers are old an I no longer had the packaging). 

These photos are all 4x6 photos cut down. I wanted to do a majority of my journaling on this page. I used CK Print font and typed in MS word and printed on green bazzil paper. Papers: Bazzil green, and Art Warehouse/Creative Imaginations Green Apple Scalloped paper. Apple brads and a stitched apple directly on the paper complete the page.

The top left photo is a 5x7 collage of five photos, the top right is a 4x6 collage of two photos, bottom left is a 4x6 collage of three photos and the bottom right was a 4x6 collage of three photos but I cut them apart not using one of the photos and adding the other rounding the corners and adding to the column to add interest and break up the blocky layout. Papers: Bazzil green, and Art Warehouse/Creative Imaginations Green Apple Scalloped paper. Vellum saying from [will edit and insert later] and apple brads finish the page.

 

The top left collection of photos are collage photos, also includes the one small photo on the right side of the page, I cut apart and placed in the order I wanted them in for the page. The remaining photos on the page are 4x6 photos cropped. Paper: Bazzil green. Vellum saying from [will edit and insert later] and apple brads complete the page.