Craft Room - The Take Aways

From showing off my room all of last month, I made a list of items that needed to be addressed. Yes, I'm a list maker. I always have a list or 6 going. I have a list of movies I would like to watch, list of current meal plans which I use to make my grocery list, list of stories to tell, list of completed scrapbook layouts, list of crafty projects, list of home projects, list of school work for the kids, and a list of outdoor projects.

This is my current view of the scrap room. I've got some paper colored on my desk so I can make ATC cards for the woyww anniversary swap. I have papers and photos for 2 layouts to the side. You can see the corner of my desk in the bottom right of the photo is already piled with cords and papers. Some of my list making spiral notebooks as well as one for my daughters health issues. So that needs to be cleaned again.

The following list is just for my craft room organization and a couple small decor pieces TO DO list. Some of them I already knew about, some of them I didn't. Now remember this is the color of the room before I moved in, since it will be ripped to the studs eventually, I will not be doing painting or lights and such.

These are for my husband to do. 

• Put up a bulletin board behind computer. (I have the bulletin board already, so I just need his time which he currently doesn't have.)
• Pegboard on the wall – 1. Large or 2. Smaller.
• Where the pegboard is now, put up bars for punches.

ME: Major time sucking work, but needs to get done

• Organize my stamps into sheets by what the are. 
• Stencils – put a layer of duct tape around and J hooks on.

 ME: Just Need to DO IT

• Find a spot for current to use items.
• The special project papers on scrap side bookcase need to be gone through. I should decide if it's still a project that I'll do and if I want to keep it. Or if it's not, I should integrate into my paper storage.
• Roller stamps should go in iris cases under stamping station.
• Move alpha rub-ons to go with stamp alphas.
• Put punches in with hearts and stars.
• On the rolling cart, I’d like to store my laminator and supplies, plus I’d like to put my Printer on the top. The middle could be for dies and Big Kick. I need to change the shelf to the middle and put the open hanging file are on top and then have a board cut for the top to make this happen.  I have the board and hubs will be cutting it down for me today.  Hurray!

Really this is just decor and happiness.

• Paint the base of the 8x8 calendar swap holder and put together.
•  Join a rolodex quote swap. (I could use more quotes to fill up my holder)

LONG TERM TO DO:

• either rip the room to the studs and start over, or
• build an outbuilding with a craft room, kitchen and tool shop. 

The room will be taken to the studs regardless, but if we go with an outbuilding, which we've been leaning towards lately as I can get more room. This room will be a guest room.

 As you can see I've already been able to cross a few things off of the list. The reason I love checklists, that whole drawing a line through the item upon completion. Yay!! I know, I need help. Also when going through and telling of my paper tower storage, I saw that my navy cardstock was below my other cardstock and specialty stuff was in it's place. So I switched them. Then I rearranged the whole second cube's paper to be in a better order.


I'll just keep plugging away at the list while keeping it in balance with all my other lists, or at least trying to keep it in balance.

Sharing my room definitely helped me think some things through and see some areas of improvement along the way.  Thanks for letting me share.

A New Blog and Looking Ahead

Over the course of the last 6 years, I have had no less than 4 different blogs.  Others revamp their blogs and change their direction.  I change my blog when I want to change direction.  And so again we start from scratch.  This Blog is mainly for crafting relating items and paper crafting is the main stay of that. It may include some food and possibly some homeschool (mis)adventures.  But we'll see where it goes.

Considerations for Looking Ahead

I'm a homeschooling momma to 2 wonderful, albeit obnoxious children.  The homeschooling is getting easier the longer we do it as we find what works for us and what doesn't.  I've realized that I'm not happy if I don't take time for crafting.  I mean I'm REALLY, REALLY NOT Happy.  Last week, I hadn't had any me crafty time in a while and I was a super grouch. Don came home from work on Tuesday night and sent me to my craft room and cleaned the dinner table.  I finished a layout that I had started and been piecing together for weeks and started another layout.  I finished the newly started one the next day. Don was out that evening and the kids got to eat in front of the TV while I played in my craft room.  When Don did get home, I was in a much better mood. I love to being grounded!!!  I’d like the opportunity to go to my room and think about what I did more often.   

Demands on my time through the week: God, exercise, school, house chores, daily Must Chores (cooking, dishes, laundry), crafting, website – pseudo business one that I want to start, kids quality time, hubs quality time, family quality time, accounting (ie paying the bills) and other projects (you know, that stack of filing, organizing my digi photos/supplies, cleaning the hall closet).

How can I make them all fit? I should mention that we are wintering at the Ohio house and hoping to put it on the market this coming spring.  So a big project is to go through everything and if we don't love it, we say bye-bye.  The MI house has even less room and since 2 of the bedrooms aren't even close to refurbished yet. That's a lot less space.  The downstairs isn't refurbished, but at least it's livable, especially if I get a coat of paint on the walls - but I don't have to worry about that until March.

So back to how can I make it all fit? What should I focus on in the craft room?  So many decisions….

1^st – I am not a chronological scrapbooker. I do, however, keep my albums as close to chronological as I can. I’m also not going to lose sleep over the 15^th going before 18^th if it works better to have it that way.

2^nd – I have limited time and I want to do as much as possible.

Looking Ahead

For my scrapbooking/crafting goals:

1.  I know I want to USE MY STASH.  I have 2 of those 66 quart sterilite bins full of pattern paper. And a huge stack of card stock. 

2.  I want to do at least 52 layouts - whether it is a traditional, digital, or pocketed page traditional.  52 Layouts averages 1 per week, which may not be doable, but it is easy to catch up on if you only miss a week or two at a time.  Just have to remember to schedule the time. Yes, this may be overly optimistic.  But I'm feeling good about it this year, which is saying something. Usually I set that kind of goal wondering how I'll fit it in. 

3. I want to make homemade cards and send to our friends and families.  I want everyone to get a birthday card and if the month is light on birthdays, we'd send a thinking of you card to a few people every month.  But I'm not going to beat myself up either.   I'd love to participate in OWH. 

4. I have to finish the new quilt for my great niece and buy replacement fabric for the first one and finish it.  I'll also have another niece or nephew in July'ish, so I'd like to complete a quilt for that baby as well.

What's your scrap/craft goals for the new year?