December 27th - What I did on my Christmas Vacation

Merry Christmas to all!  I have had 3.5 days of Christmas vacation. Starting with a half day on Friday, all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday. :) Oh yeah! That means a lot of time in the scrap room. Weeks ago I had started a list of all the things I wanted to "fix" in my studio. It had become quite messy, and although I can work within it. The clutter at times clutters my brain and frustrates me. If bags are piled up on the floor and you have to move three of them to get to your paper - that is NOT good.

So I was determined to take this time and get things ready to go for the new year. Last year I cleaned out the scrap closet... this year I hit the room.  With the hubby out and singing almost 24/7 for Christmas eve and Christmas day and not celebrating with my family until the 28th. I had  entire days to work on things.

So this is what happened...

Here is the over view of the room:

Starting on the far left next to the two drawer file cabinet we have a white three tier shelf on the floor with a bag. My craft table is crowded with crafty crap, and you can see the messed up ribbon wall cascading with colors. (Almost looks like Niagara falls) Bags piled next to the cabinet. And there is even stuff hiding on the floor just behind the small rolling stand in the fore ground.

The table with a 3x3 working space right in front. Do I really need all of that?? On the table? I was cutting on top of stuff.

Desktop... full of more clutter.

Close up of the ribbon mess.

Bags and projects on the floor.  I know.. doesn't look TOO bad. But you can't get to the 12x12 paper if the bags are there.

Always room for improvement. :)

So I moved all of my photo cases out from under my desk and put them on the top shelf of my closet. Works great. I just hope the rack doesn't collapse from the weight.  So far, so good.

Then bagged and tagged all my "pending" projects. Stuff like a book I'm working on for my mom, Creative Escape project, my MGIC album, Italy, etc.  With it tagged, I can just grab a bag and take out cropping with me. When I come home, instead of dropping it at the front door, it goes back right in it's place. And don't worry about using too many tags... I'll just cut more on the silhouette.

Nice? I like it.  Notice that the desk top is now cleaned off too.

I removed a mismatched "Scrap" sign, pens stored up there and chalks -  and replaced it with a project , a beautiful angel.. and pictures of all my "angel friends".

I reworked the top shelf, adding completed projects, placing albums together... putting all my pattern paper away. Paper is in the vertical paper holders on the bottom. Christmas stuff is stacked in its on own cube. (Bottom left side.)

Next was one of my biggest challenges...
The ribbon wall.
From this....

To this...

And you HAVE to love the ribbon ring.  Complete with a new hanger that holds ALL the color rings.
Thank you Bed, Bath and Beyond. :)

Each ring is separated by color.  And it's SO easy to see all the ribbons and they stay nice and straight. No ironing required.

Now there is nothing on the floor... except a make up/travel case that use to be my grandmothers that she kept her pictures in.

Yes, that is more/extra ribbon stacked in the plastic cases, separated by color or type.

Everything is labeled and organized. Every photo put away, every piece of paper from shopping expeditions from Utah and Arizona. Everything is in it's home including all the letter stickers sheets (which had to be cut apart and organized by color.) Embellishments are hung on the "tree". I know what I have and where it is. 

Between this weekend and knowing what I have, and having my "sil" (my shilhouette cameo) I'm in excellent shape for the new year to start.  And I can't wait.  With the "sil" my cards will have yet another new look. And I'll never run out of lettering. I can't wait to get started. 

So come on by. I have plenty of supplies to share and would love to do a page or two with you.

And we won't have to climb over anything.