making good on my New Year's resolution...

...to purge, clean, and organize my craft space-- you know, that room that I could barely walk into a month ago, lol! I think it's well on its way to finally being organized and usable! I did a lot of purging to start: we have a 55-gallon recycle bin, and I probably filled it once, all by myself, with just paper and cardboard-- lots of it was scrapbooking layouts I had printed off the internet, old, old issues of scrapbooking magazines, and all sorts of cardboard boxes. After looking at it all, I realized most of it was really useless- I currently use the website Pinterest to save links to scrapbook layouts and websites I like, and most of the magazine information seemed extremely outdated (not to mention full of out-dated advertisements). So, off to the recycle bin it went! (At least 5 medium-sized boxes of random stuff went to Goodwill, as well: books, old dishes, etc., most of which I probably got at the thrift store to begin with.)

Goodwill books

Sad to say, some of the boxes I unpacked while doing this cleaning project had never been unpacked from when we moved into this house initially, over 3 years ago now. I guess that means I didn't really need the stuff inside them very bad, doesn't it?? (I did find some things I thought I'd lost, too, though, which was cool!)

assorted Goodwill stuff

The next step was to decide what crafting and scrapbook supplies I didn't want any more, and sort them out... I signed up for the local scrapbook store's spring 'garage sale' in April, where people bring in their scrapbooking and crafting supplies to sell, and get store credit for everything sold. It's a pretty well-attended event, so I hope to make a bit of money (store credit, technically), and pass some of my stuff along to someone else who will find them more useful than I did- things that no longer fit my style, or crafty things I bought intending to use them at some point, but never did. (I'm not the only one who does that, right?!? hopefully not, lol!)

scrapbook garage sale box #1

...things like old sets of rubber stamps (from back when I used to make stamped greeting cards, but I don't really do that very much anymore), rolls of decorative tape I don't really like (and know I won't use), some old bottles of glitter that I bought at the thrift store and never even used...

scrapbook garage sale box #2

...sheets of cardstock and patterned paper that I've had for years and finally decided to pass along to someone else who might use them (I mean, really- why did I ever think I'd use bright orange cardstock, anyway?!? and I know some of the patterned paper was bought back in Illinois, before we moved to AZ), stickers, assorted tags and scrapbooking embellishments...

scrapbook store garage sale books and magazines

...and a large number of more up-to-date scrapbooking magazines and craft how-to books. Hopefully shoppers at the the SB garage sale will like and buy my stuff, so I can get a decent amount of store credit for it (which I will then spend on buying new stuff, of course!! haha!).

I've also done some re-organizing in how my supplies are stored, which I'll show in my next post.  My end goal is that all this purging, cleaning, and re-organizing will allow me to actually create more scrapbook pages and cards! (It's not a very high bar to meet, considering that the last scrapbook page I created was made in May 2012, I think...) In all the time we've lived in this house, my space- and the supplies in it- just wasn't set up in the best way possible, so the only scrapbooking I actually did was when I attended a weekend scrapbooking retreat a couple times a year. I'd really like to do crafty things more often than that, so that means making my space here at home more useful! And finally, I think I'm on the way to doing just that!  (it's about time, right?!? lol!)

(And of course, there's the cat issue to consider as well: I'd really like to be able to keep the door to my craft room open sometimes when I'm not in there, which means things have to be cat-safe. If not, I'll end up finding erasers, paintbrushes, and other little things all over the house... or else they'll be lost forever under the refrigerator or stove.)

there IS life in the AZ desert...

...although you wouldn't know it by the frequency of my blog posts, would you??

Lots of stuff happened in the desert this summer, but it all seemed to sap my energy for anything besides the necessary cooking, cleaning, working, and sleeping. Bringing baby Bisbee home brought the household pet total to four (what were we thinking, anyway!?!). It's been a lot of fun to see her interact with Sedona and the cats, but I definitely forgot just how much work a new puppy is!

Mandatory overtime at work (10-hour workdays with a 45-minute commute) meant I was getting up at 2:30 am in order to be at work by 4 am and getting home about 3:15 in the afternoon. (Yes, this was definitely a crazy work schedule, but there was a reason- I took the early shift and Tom went to work later; this way, the dogs were home alone for the shortest possible span of time.) These things, combined with the summer heat and some other family health issues back in the Midwest, left me feeling pretty tired.

This is how I felt most of the summer:

(by the way, this is Bisbee relaxing after a hard day chasing after Sedona and the cats... what a life, hmmm?!? Yes, I would admit that our pets are spoiled...)

Oh, we did do some fun stuff in there, too... we went to Seattle for a long weekend before Memorial Day, where we visited some of Tom's relatives and saw a few of the sights. It was great, but I already know I want to go back because there were tons of things we didn't have time to do... I do have pictures of that trip, which I will post on Flickr sometime (soon, hopefully!). We also headed back to Wisconsin for Tom's family reunion, and spent an enjoyable weekend relaxing in the woods outside Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. (...although we did have to fight off an incredibly prolific crop of mosquitoes!) Right after we got back from Wisconsin, it was already time for Art Unraveled... I took three classes: two all-day, and one evening class, after work.

This photo combines projects from two classes: the rubber stamp is one I carved myself after taking a really inspiring class on stamping with non-traditional materials with Traci Bunkers, and the book it's stamped in is one I made myself in a class with Kelly Kilmer (her classes are always a blast, although I'm usually a mess afterwards- the way I paint, as much paint ends up on my hands as on the paper, I think). The third class was Two Art Quilts Two, with Jane LaFazio, which was also lots of fun- I really think I need to make friends with my sewing machine again! (I have more pictures of AU and my projects which I will also post sometime soon!) One of the other things that was blocking my creativity most of the summer was the absolute CHAOS in my craft room... I'm not sure how it got so bad, but it was such a mess that I couldn't really face it... it needed to be cleaned before I could do anything in there, and I just wasn't up to it. I finally started two weekends ago (although it's still pretty messy, to the untrained eye!) and this weekend, I scored some great cigar boxes for organizing some of my stuff. Tom and I ran some errands on Saturday which took us up to Scottsdale where we visited one of his favorite stores, Cigar Warehouse. The entire store is a walk-in humidor (it smells wonderful when you walk in; the entire place is permeated with the fragrance of Spanish cedar!!); they had two shelves stacked full of empty cigar boxes to pick from... I brought home four boxes for free, since Tom was buying 15 cigars (yay- score!!), but usually, they sell them for less than $5 apiece... I think last time I got some we paid either $1 or $2 each. (Honestly, if I'd known I could get them for free, I would have gotten a few more, but we'll go back again.)

This is one of my new cigar boxes, now turned into an organizer for some of my small bits and pieces- buttons, spiral paper clips, beads, etc. (sorry about the glare in that photo...) I think I've figured out what happens in my craft room to make it so chaotic, and I'm hoping these organizational efforts will help to reduce that: I am one of those people who needs to see things or I forget about them, but spreading out my materials eventually leads to the chaos that paralyzes my creativity... hopefully, these cigar boxes will be the start of ongoing efforts that will assist in minimizing the chaos, so I can finish those AU projects and keep my creative juices flowing. (Not having to go to bed by 8:30 pm in order to get up at 2:30 am will help that, too!!)

craft room display

display shelf Originally uploaded by crimsoncat05

this weekend, we hung a display shelf in my craft room above the work table. This will showcase some of my collectable items that had been hiding on the over-crowded bookcase. The items may/will change, but right now, the shelf holds some of my vintage children's books, a couple of handsewn rabbits (thanks, Mom!), some of my favorite cards and ATCs, and various other favorites that came to me from my Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa., and other family members. It's amazing how much impact such a small change can make! (see my Flickr page for close-up pics of the items...)