A Place for Everything...

So busy lately! Is it just me, or does it seems like that the nicer the weather gets, the faster the days go? I know there are more "daylight" hours, yet it seems like I am still running out of time. Of course, the nicer weather means I am outside more, playing in the sun with the boys, helping them plant a vegetable garden, and trying to soak in some sunshine.

Before the nice weather arrived, I did spend some time cleaning my studio. I organized and prettified.

 I have a large shelf by the window, and I like to keep flowers and ribbons at hand. I use a lot of bowls, boxes, and jars so I can see my supplies. If I can't see it, I forget I have it - so I like to keep my pretties visible...

My best storage solution for ribbon: mug racks. I got several of these vintage looking, white chippy racks and then hung them vertically, and the rolls of ribbon fit perfectly! Not only are they pretty, they are easy to access.

Storing supplies is one thing - crafting a creative ambiance is another.  I like to tuck in unexpected notions with my supplies for little bits of unexpected inspiration. Antique photos and orphaned pages from a vintage book are nestled in a box of tea-stained ribbon...

I adore polkadots - so I need to keep my dotted ribbons handy! A fancy dowel is the perfect home to rolls of ribbon. The paper flowers I made are a nice nest, and I had these fabulous old Bingo cards which needed a place to stay...

A love of words and letters. Old printer trays are ideal for storing chipboard letters. One tray is for plain letters, the other for decorated letters.

All little bits are kept in little jelly jars and little tin cups. Easy to see, easy to use. Buttons, bottlecaps, hatpins, and more...I put the jars on an old cookie sheet, so I can just lift the entire tray up to my work table if I need to.

Of course, that was a while ago, and it doesn't look nearly so tidy anymore. I am a messy crafter. When I work, I like to spread everything out, and right now my crafting table is covered in scraps of paper, bits of fabric, and a few half-finished projects.

However, seeing how nice it can be in there inspires me to clean.

The next rainy day.

I promise...

BEE book, things to do, and other randomness

 What is Random Tuesday? Check out the UnMom...

So I can't find my son's BEE book. That is the "Bring Everything Everyday" book that is pretty much the most important thing in his backpack. Notes to teacher, daily schedule... And the worst part? I lost it. I took it out to fill with snacks and books for his day at the Farmer's Market with me. I took out the Holy Grail of teacher/parent communication that has his little homework calendar and important numbers and alphabet practice sheets... I took it out, put it on the floor in some random spot by some toys, came home that afternoon from the market, and it is nowhere to be seen.  I asked the husband, and he can't remember seeing it.

Ugh.

So now I have officially put the first black spot on Johnny's academic career. I wrote a note to teacher, and offered to come in and wash her chalkboards if I can get a new one...

I need to finish cleaning my craft room. I have an entire room devoted to craftage, yet I still am dragging my goods downstairs to the kitchen.  Mostly because my craft room is a mess. And the TV lives down here, and how can I watch Supernatural while I craft if there is no tv?

Oh, that reminds me - I need to go to the library and get the next disks on DVD...

I have a day of bobbin winding, bread making, and sewing planned. I have one more Farmer's Market, then that season is over, and a few crafty shows right after that, so I need to do some serious restocking of goods. Halloween is fast approaching, and I have about 487 ideas of spooky things to make, but by the time I actually make them, it will be past the witching hour.   Being a crafty vendor/artisan is confusing, seasonally speaking. You have to be at least 6 months ahead of your seasons... Crap! That means I should really be making stockings and other wintry goodies...

I should be making Halloween costumes, but Johnny said he wants to dress up "just as a boy." Easy enough, yes, but I have a sneaking suspicion that when Halloween is here, he is going to want to actually be something other than "just a boy" and I will have no time to create it, and whatever it is will be sold out....

Ok, all done being random... although writing this feels natural, which is kind of scary because of the random way my mind actually works... I should see what time the library opens. Of course my plates on the van are expired (since 2009) and I am starting to get paranoid I am going to get pulled over (again).

But that is another random story for another day...

hellllooooo!

Seriously... where the heck have I been? I'll tell you:
In the depths of despair.

Internetless, with a craft studio upended, that's where. I have resorted to the library (after paying some seriously hefty late fines for books long since returned or lost) to use the computer.

I feel like a sugar addict suddenly allowed into the sweets shoppe.  Where to begin? My hands are giddy with typing.

I have been rearranging my house (that's a shocker, I know), playing with my wild children, trying to craft, and cursing the hot humidity of Michigan summers. Luckily I have the new "Glee" CD so I can belt out some tunes as I try to reorganize my house, whip up some aprons, and try to find elusive scraps of paper.  Somehow singing "Bad Romance" ala Glee cast makes me feel like I can do anything...

The addict must leave, however. I am limited in time on this borrowed computer (how I miss the days of pajama-clad me sitting in my chair, a hot beverage by my side as I rambled to BlogLand) but I shall be back! I have missed you all dearly, and I need to do some serious reading on my next visit to see just what exactly the rest of you have been up to!

Me? A maniac?

I must be, because I decided to, once again, reorganize my entire craft room. And I couldn't just do that, mind you. I decided to not only reorganize it, but also move it back to the second floor from the basement. You may recall that just last August, I moved my space from the second floor guest room to the basement. I had this notion that if I worked in the basement, my children would happily play in the "family" area. I had dreams of my serenely scrapping at my table, the boys happily playing with their toys. I could cut and paint, chit chat with them while they put together puzzles, played dinosaur, sang nursery rhymes and practiced their ABC's...

What really happens is that the plastic dinosaurs liked to knock down my stacked bottles of paint, the only ABC's I saw were my chipboard letters scattered all over the floor, and the only puzzle was why on earth did I think I could leave all of my supplies out on shelves and my two darling terrors would leave them alone?

Silly woman.

So the daunting task began. I decided to revert the basement to a family room, completely kid-friendly. I realized that it was unreasonable for me to get mad at them for touching my pretty things when my pretty things were out, about, and soooo attractive to curious hands. And let's be honest - I wanted to be able to say, "Go play in the basement" and feel safe to let them do so. I wanted them to be able to go play in their area, alone if even for three minutes, without hearing a crash, or worse, hearing nothing in those three minutes, and investigating to see that they were dancing on my craft table and covered in ink.

So. I moved every single bookcase, shelf, table, container back upstairs. Again. More details, and maybe some photos, to come soon. I have about 15 minutes until my Lil Stinkers get off the bus, and I want to get some organizing done...

My Scrap Space...

Look quick, because it won't be this clean ever again! I used to work in the extra bedroom on the second floor, and then had the genius idea to move to the basement. Of course, moving all my stuff down two sets of stairs didn't feel very genius... Especially my work table.

Let me tell you about this work table. It is the most amazing, fabulous creation ever! One of a kind, it was built by my dad. This man can make just about anything out of wood. If-you-sketch-it, he-will-build-kind-of-guy. The catch is, and the family joke, is that when dad makes something, it weighs a TON. A lover of fine wood, he doesn't go for flimsy balsam. We are talking sturdy pine, people! It would take two people to move a nightstand my dad created. (Sorry, dad, but you know it's true). Don't get me wrong - I would waaaay have a sturdy piece of his furniture than the soon-to-be-broken pieces I can find in a store!So when I sketched out a table that was over six feet long, waist high, with cubbies to fit 12x12 paper, he made this amazing work desk for me. That had to be assembled in the room because it wouldn't fit through the door, let alone be lifted. That was six years ago. And now I decided I wanted to move this mammoth of goodness down stairs. Two sets of stairs.

Now a reasonable woman would plan this out, make sure she had several strong people on hand, and plan a weekend to complete this feat. I must not be a reasonable woman.

By some miracle, both my boys fell asleep at the same time, so I seized the moment! I grabbed my power drill, ran upstairs, and started disassembling. I must have been on a complete adrenaline rush, because I somehow managed to get the wooden Titanic safely to its new home.

I was sore for a week.

So in the middle of the chaos that is my new studio, I have been busy, busy, busy! I had a bit of time last night to list some new pretties for Etsy... I have been wanting to work with dress forms forever, and when I saw these papers from Graphic 45, I was in love! I am pretty much sure that Graphic 45 is my new most favorite paper company :) They have a Christmas line coming out, as well as a Domestic Godess line too! Oh, and of course a fabulous Renaissance themed assortment that would be perfect for ATCs and other mixed media... Ahhhh... I love looking at paper.

Speaking of looking at paper... Because I had decided to move my studio, I also decided to finally resort my paper. I usually do a re-sort at each "season" because in my creative process (also known as the Giant Mess That Takes Up At Least Three Table Tops), I usually end up mixing in papers, scraps get slid into piles of uncut paper (gasp!), my Basic Grey somehow ends up with My Minds Eye, and I can never find a whole piece of BoBunny Polkadot Paper.... Anywhoo, it looked as though I hadn't sorted and organized my paper since Christmas.

It was like shopping!

I found so many fab papers I had purchased months ago and never got to cutting, piles of forgotten yet awesome Halloween papers, and even some half-finished layouts! Who knew? So my studio was looking clean and pristine, but I started to work in it even as I am still moving things, so it is very, ummmm... messy. I should just bite the bullet and take some pictures - it will never be perfectly clean. And I think I will be ok with that.

Maybe.

August is near, and I can't believe how fast the summer is flying by...

I think I am ok with that. While I love the idea of lazy summer days, I rarely actually have them.

And, most excitingly, HALLOWEEN is coming! Yes, with the end of summer comes crisper nights, and the air feels fresher and the trees turn a blaze of scarlet and sunset yellow. I love it! I am itching to start some Halloween projects. I did a few little pretty Halloween pieces for the Trunkshow last weekend, but plan to witch it up in earnest next week. Speaking of... here is a peek at what wares I offered... Oh, and my sisters of the Traveling Trunks... I will email you the pictures I took! I still need to edit them and sort out the pictures Johnny took when he got his little hands on the camera... Lots of self portraits and still lifes involving toys and juice cups...

Hey, is your sound turned on? I got all fancy and added a gizmo-dealie-do Playlist thing, and so now my blog has music! I hope it doesn't distract you... Pretty sure you can hit pause if you don't like the music, or you can skip through the songs... My addiction to Buffy the Vampire Slayer extends to music too, so if you haven't had the pleasure of watching this fab series, you can listen to some of its lovely music. I like the softer instrumentals myself, and chose those. I almost put the theme song to the show here, but it is kind of spooky and LOUD and rocky-rolly, and I didn't want to scare any unsuspecting bloggers... There are some non-Buffy songs here too, of course. I love soundtracks, and have started re-reading the Harry Potter books, so you will find some Hogwarts tunes here. If you haven't heard of Loreena Mckennit, you must stop reading now and click to one of her songs. Simply amazing. Her music will transport you with its haunting beauty...

I was going to make a sketch for this past Tuesday, but I was just tooooo tuckered out. It weighs upon me greatly, but maybe next week I'll do a card AND scrapbook sketch. Does that sound fair? Do you still love me? I love you... I adore you! Speaking of people I adore, I want to introduce you to Dee. I metioned meeting her in previous posts. Dee rocks, plain and simple. She loves Halloween, she loves artsy stuff, and she knows Sandy Mooney, a fabulous artist that I also had the pleasure of meeting at the Trunk Show! I don't have a picture of Sandy (you shy thing!) but I caught Dee unawares and begged to let me take her picture. Isn't she sweet? She makes me smile each time I see her :)

Like I said, I had the Sisterhood of the Traveling Trunkshow last weekend, and I decided that this week was a great week to totally revamp my studio. I know, I know... Is this just a procrastination of work I need to do? Things I should photograph and list? Pages to make? Most likely...I have decided to transform the bulk of the finished basement into my studio... I can't wait! Of course, moving all my stuff isn't thrilling me to death. I'll most likely run out of steam part way through, kick myself, and have my supplies and furniture half here, half there, half everywhere... Ah, well, such is the creative process, right?