Scraproom tour

As a disclaimer, I don't think my room is as great as those I see on peas or elsewhere on the net. I have no custom cabinetry, and it doesn't look like a showroom from IKEA. It's just a normal room. And the curtains are ugly, but they came with the house and I just moved here 2 weeks today. So be kind. :) The most important thing to me is that it is organized and I can find what I need.

This is the view from the doorway. My favorite space is that open space on the floor, that's where I sit and create unless I need to print something.

There is a lot of wall space on this wall, and that is where the pottery barn bulletin boards-magnetic and cork board with photo display will go. Dh has to help me with the rods.

Another view of my new desk from IKEA. It cost $79. And you can custom pick everything from the top (size and finish) to the legs.

My favorite thing is the the bookcase to the one side. It holds some supplies, CME and mini albums on the side. And of course the lovely full trashcan made it into the shot. :)

These are the bulletin boards to be hung up and the rods still in the boxes. A favorite piece of artwork.

The shelf was here when we moved in, and I hated to try to take it down. So I made it work. The paper in the frames is very old now, nearly 10 years old. But I loved it so I framed it. The albums on my expedite shelf match these prints (except the green is a little brighter, oh well.) And the reason I am late posting--the Clip it up came this afternoon! Spent some time loading up the thickers on there, gave me so much space back in my closet. Dh made the black piece of furniture here with the canvas pull out bins. I showed him something in the PB catalogue and he based it on that. I love it. I wish he had time to make another, but he was deployed so I bought the little expedite instead. It holds-adhesive and cutting tools; Cosmo cricket albums, memory boxes, ribbon and other Cosmo embellishments; stamps and ink; punches and card-making supplies; ribbon; and small random embellishments. The other spinning carousel holds random embellishments. I found it in the trash one day in my old neighborhood and threw it in the stroller. I cleaned it up and now it holds my small embellishments-buttons, etc.

The new American crafts Iheartyou thickers, I think I love the clip it up. :)

The only other embellishments on my clip it up besides thickers are AC rub-ons and flair, plus 3 alphas from Pink paislee.

Glare on flair. It happens. :)

My clip it up is no where near full and I counted. I put all my AC thickers on there (80 total). I still have lots more room on it, but other than the new AC releases, I have no plans to expand. This works.

The view with my back to the shelf/clip it up/etc. I got this futon from IKEA a couple of years ago. It comes with a storage container that slides under the bed to store linens for guests. I love not having a bed in this room, but having one at the same time. And the futon is really comfortable. Here is the expedite. Books on top left, Magazines I've been published in top right. New Albums from American crafts in the middle, all filled but 1! Yikes, those were supposed to last a good long while. There are 4 pull out drawers. The top left holds computer supplies. The top right holds paints and mists. The bottom left (under the boards, etc.) holds my overflow paper stash. The bottom right holds mini albums and finished cards.

The piece de resistance! (For all my French readers, glad you are here!) My closet. How I love my closet. Those shelves? $12 for 6 at Staples circa 2003. I wasn't sure I liked the tiny closet being divided by the second shelf in the middle, but it adds stability, so it works. The top 4 black organizers hold random printed photos, embellishments, alphas, and one is for American crafts-buttons, brads, ribbon, stamps, etc. I just get them down and sit on the floor. There is a travel photo printer (not sure why I have this, I don't travel anywhere.) It's a back-up one though.

Top Left shelves hold Cocoa Daisy kits, or what's left of them.

Top Right shelving: holds random small embellishments in containers and a project I am working on for J in a Studio Calico crop bag.

Lower Left: My Studio Calico kits. I need to finish some off so I can get more. No room at the moment!

Lower Right: American crafts cardstock, glitter cardstock, and patterned paper. I store the scraps on top of the pile, organized by release. That way I am forced to go through the scraps first. Lots of good inspiration in scraps.

So that's my madness, er, method to my madness. :) If you go back through the photos, you will see on the futon I have some paper, etc. I've started collecting stuff for the RAK, I think I'm going to take the weekend to collect up everything I can. I got the priority mail boxes today though. I'm ready.

Happy weekend to everyone who stops by! Until tomorrow.

Take the long way home

I suppose it's been long enough, and I should start blog again. I only have a handful of boxes left in the garage, so I'm pretty much put together again. I lost 10 lbs from moving all my crap, and I've purged and purged and now my whole house is organized. And it's only January. I figure all that's left to do is blog and craft. :)

I got a new desk last week at IKEA because the old one was so warped dh and I were afraid to put the computer and printer back on it. I love the new desk, it's smaller than the old one but way more functional. At the moment, I have the feb cocoa daisy kit all over the room, or I would take photos. I'll see how the light is this afternoon, maybe I could gather it up and put it in the hallway for the photos. I'm also waiting on a Clip it up, just the base unit. I got a gift certificate to amazon for Christmas and I decided to get one to store my AC thickers, flair and rub-ons. That way I will have more storage room in my closet on the shelves for paper. I've been doing DT work, stuff for the American crafts blog, but nothing I can share until my birthday. The CD reveal is the night of my birthday, I'm excited for that! I just have a feeling the reveal party is even better with cake. :) Isn't everything better with cake? :) :)

Here are some Cocoa Daisy Feb sneak peeks:

Lots and lots of texture in this one, stitching and sewing, foil and glitter, metal and canvas, etc. Well, we are off to find someplace to get the truck's oil changed. It's supposed to snow this weekend, again. I'm kind of over winter, I have enough snow photos to last me a good long while. :)

I have also purged my scrap room, and I have a huge tote full of patterned paper and embellishments to give away. I will be doing that next post. I'm going to stuff 2 flat rate boxes full and mail them out to 2 lucky winners, and it's good stuff- Cosmo Cricket, American crafts, Jenni bowlin, random current papers left over from Cocoa Daisy kits. I like to give the 5 people who read this blog a heads up. :)

Happy Thursday to you! Until tomorrow (and yes, I actually mean tomorrow!) Should have named the blog Ecco Domani (Italian for "There's tomorrow.")

Updating

I know there's concern. Let me sum up. My dh was supposed to be home from his deployment last Wednesday. And then we were going to officially move (the furniture, etc.) Friday. Due to bad weather, flight delays, etc. dh didn't show up until 15 mins before the movers did on Friday morning. Felt bad for the guy, he hadn't showered in 3 days and then had to help carry stuff all day long. But we made it. It took us all weekend and part of Monday to move all our stuff. That's what we've been up to. I didn't even have Internet until yesterday afternoon (from Friday, I know, it was like detox).

Overwhelmed describes how I feel. Overwhelmed by boxes everywhere (to the point where you can't walk). Overwhelmed trying to make a meal (I just stand in the center of my kitchen and twirl around trying to remember what cabinet or drawer I put things in). Overwhelmed trying to come home from the food store, I turned down the wrong side street-going the opposite way from our new house towards our old house. Overwhelmed by the amount of CHA products put out this weekend. To answer a question, no I'm not able to attend CHA next week. With the move and my dh just getting back from being gone for 8 months, there's lots that need my attention here. But I have been updating the Cocoa Daisy forum with everything, so if you need an updated list. . . :)

I'll be posting my Feb Cocoa Daisy sneaks asap, when I find my camera, and my layouts and my mind. :) Happy Tuesday! Until tomorrow.

PS Thanks for getting my humor last post, you guys are the best!

Esprit Magazine

Sorry for long blogging hiatus. Moving in sub-Arctic temperatures is test of endurance, and I've needed every spare minute to pack, load up the vehicle and transport to the new house, where I then put it all into the appropriate rooms, grab my empty boxes and repeat. Actually, I have found that I have very little other than toys (not mine, J's), dishes, clothes and scrapbooking stuff. And by scrapbooking stuff I mean paper (lord the paper), embellishments, books/magazines (even I'm stumped on this one) and old photos (printed out and traditional). And now I have albums galore! AC sent me my album shipment, so I'm excited to finally put these pages safely in albums. They also sent iheartyou. I love the color red, so I love it all. I'll try to get a photo when we finally move in. The movers are coming for the furniture on Friday (please, please, please don't snow--again.)

This is a funny story. I was contacted by Celine at Esprit Magazine a little while back to be profiled for Celine's favorites section. Esprit is a French scrapbooking magazine. I had no idea, had to google. I told dh about it and he said, "People know you in France?" To which I sarcastically replied, "Yeah, sure, I'm like David Hasslehoff. I'm huge in France." To which we both burst out laughing hysterically because I'm so absurdly stupid sometimes. :)

Here are some images of the magazine, I loved looking through it. So much good stuff in there:

The cover

Table of Contents

My article and pages:

And I just thought this article on misting was the coolest, so pretty:

So thank you Esprit Magazine and Celine. I'm not quite sure what you said about me, but I'm incredibly flattered just the same. Well, I will translate one question because I think the people who inspire me should know (and like me they may not know much French):

Q: She asked me which other scrapbookers inspire me.

A: To which I replied, Kelly Goree, Jen Jockisch, Keisha Campbell, Stephanie Dagan, and Lisa Dickinson. And if I had not had brain freeze I should have added Wendy Bretz to that list as well but I forgot. I'm certain said brain freeze occurred because I use the word "potty" as standard vocabulary in every other sentence as of late. It crashed the whole system, I'm certain this was the glitch. :)

Well, I'm too cold to type anymore and I've lost track of what day it is at the moment. Happy weekend to you! A big hello to anyone checking in from France too. :) Until tomorrow (or the next day, geez don't hassle the hoff. :) :) :))

Happy New Year!

Just getting caught up posting some of my American crafts blog postings here:

For September (card) using AC Blue Skies:

For October (altered project) using AC Halloween:
And for November (layout) using AC Merryment and AC Blue Skies:

And if you head over to the AC blog today, you can see my Dec./Jan. 1 posting here about resolutions using AC Letterbox. My word(s) for 2010 is good enough. I feel it's time to tame that inner perfectionist, she gets out of hand every now and again. :) Happy New Year to you all!

New Beginnings

This is the January Cocoa Daisy kit I was telling you about, lots of Basic Grey Origins, and American crafts Letterbox. Here are my layouts. This first one uses the rub-ons and paper from the add-ons (Happiness and Anticipation respectively), everything else from the main kit.

Since I was inspired by the rub-ons in the title from the first one, I decided to let the rub-ons guide me again! The rub-on is from the add-on Happiness. J was using those binoculars as a camera, running around "shooting" everything making a clicking noise. Where do children get these notions? Darn that tv. :)

This layout is my favorite I think. I love the colors and it really is how I feel right now, very chilly! Some paper is from the add-on Anticipation, the rest is from the main kit. The rub-ons and Pink paislee alphas were from the add-on Happiness.

This layout didn't turn out like I had planned. The JBS calendar is from the add-on Unwritten (however I had it in my stash from the gdt I did for them earlier this month). Everything else is from the main kit except the rub-ons and BG woolies (Happiness). My favorite thing is that card. I thought it looked like a seed packet, so I included it on the page. But it actually says in french that it has syrup of a basket weaver to cure any common ailment. ??? Oh well. It looks pretty. :)

This one is a page that I left half complete that I found when I was cleaning out for the move, eek! For like 2 years! I loved the journaling, so I cut it apart from the half done page. I reprinted the photo and added paper from the main kit and the add-on Anticipation. Then I added those American Crafts Letterbox Pearl brads that I had in my stash (also in the add-on unwritten). The gee is what my son called our dog (as in (do)g-ee). I love that photo of J and the pug. It's one of my very very favorite. Ever. It's moments like this I thank God I'm a scrapper, because even though I was there and saw it, my sleep deprived mind didn't register it. I need the evidence.

This last layout was a last moment edition before I left for the holidays. I had a fight with my printer and the journaling is on the back. The reason I did the notebook spiral punch? It's all I had left after I took a bunch of stuff over to my new house. Necessity. Everything from the main kit except the 'candy cane' alpha (Happiness add-on) and that American crafts Foil Merrymint candy cane I had in my stash. It was just too cute not to add it.

Happy Holidays and Happy new year to all who stop by! I'm too tired to make any resolutions. Does resolving to get all my crap over to the new house come heck or high water (or snow, ice or blizzard) count? I didn't think so. :)

6 Sneaks

Some Cocoa Daisy Jan sneaks for your viewing pleasure:

I only had two days with this kit and I made 6 layouts. Now granted, I was snowed in. :) I did like 3 a night though which is unusual for me. (Normally I work 2 at a time, not 3. I like to go back and forth, when I get stuck on one, I go to the next one.) But it's a really great kit and I love the assortment of Basic Grey Origins clips, buttons, etc. that Cocoa Daisy has put together. I always want to buy all that stuff to go with the paper, but to be able to get just a couple (which is all I'll use out of a pack anyway), genius I think. Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas to all who stop by!

PS A big hello to all you new blog followers! I'm glad you are here. :)