The Tour

If you were to step into my room on June 7, 2010, this is what you would see. As I view how my room has evolved since its inception, I like the outcome. It is a place where I can go to create, preserve family memories/history, sew, paint, or craft whatever. I can set up a long table when friends come over to scrap, or a card table when my three grandkids spend a Saturday where they can build their own books and learn the proper way to store their own photos and write stories about their young lives. My guests can relax in a comfortable atmosphere with a pull of the Murphy bed my husband and I built. Then like magic disappears back into the wall when guests are gone.

I moved my containers of pink bins to the wall where I sit. The contents are easier to reach now. This change necessitated changing my magnetic Ikea frame to a vertical orientation. I like it fine like this. I like to tack little reminders to myself on it. When I am working on a page I sometimes place my journaling ideas on it while I work. Note: My husband painted my Making Memories carousel black, I like it much more and feel it blends very well with my other design now.

Continuing around the room, this corner hasn't changed too much.

Looking directly into the room you see the Murphy Bed to the right.

The room beckons my guests and makes a cozy comfortable spot for respite. Comes out of the wall made up like this!

Each part of the room tells a little story or two. The mirror with the sequin crown has a little saying on it, "Still the fairest of them all..." When I look in the mirror I remember my third grade teacher telling me that she chose me to play the wicked queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because I was so beautiful. (I didn't want to play someone mean) :)

This is the last view of the four walls, aside from an odd corner (5th wall) shown next. The green bins belong to my two granddaughters, they have their pink albums stored along side their bins. The black on on the bottom belongs to my grandson who also loves to scrap. They each have a tote with all their tools and supplies in their bin. The Ikea door and the pink bin below it house all of my Tim Holtz stuff, including my acrylic stamps. The two Ikea drawers hold things for my printer like photo paper and ink cartridges and CD's for software for the PC. The pink bins to the left hold items for Cricut. As you can see, my dh sprayed my Making Memories Emblishment Center black for me. I just hung it up. I think I am the last person on the planet to get one of these. I didn't think I had room for one until I turned this Ikea Expedit on its side to house the printer and the Cricut I got for Mother's Day. I love the cute little Crystal knobs we put on the Expedit. 

This funny little slanted wall became the perfect location for this Ikea desk. The two framed photos are pictures I took of my garden. Two of the things I love to grow Plumeria and Roses. The sticker binders on the bottom are beloved by my grandchildren. They get to go through them and choose things for their pages. My kids bought me the cute plaque, "One shoe can change your life", -Cinderella. It became the inspiration piece for the decor of my room. Cinderella was a favorite movie and story of mine as a young girl. I knew someday my prince would come, and he did. He spoils me as you can see.

Momma always said you can't judge a book by its cover!

Looks like an ordinary book sitting on a shelf. It's labeled: Nail down Scraptime as a reminder to "take time" to pursue this priceless activity. These cool containers were wooden boxes that look like a book, found at Hobby Lobby. 

Then I found these nifty tic tac containers that I could sort all of my little scrap nails in. The cool thing is...I can even get the containers out with my salon nails on! I found the cute pink and black checkered book binding tape and didn't know what I would use it for when I bought it. I just loved it. Here is the container slid open making it easy to see all the colors. No wasted space and within easy reach resting on a shelf of my desk hutch pictured here.

Scrapbook Studio

The items pictured here inspire me so! The little cream buckets and rack came from the Ikea kitchen section. The little jars are filled with my small flowers. I am in love with Prima flowers, when they first put them on the market they came in the cutest containers, like the cute clear buckets shown here. There is a section on top that holds matching buttons for the array of colors. I found the little cream tray that fit the bottles of Prima mini flowers, even the lids are adorable. The black frame sectioned shadow box to the right holds various embellies. I found these at Hobby Lobby and painted them black. There is a nifty latch on the side that holds the door closed so it can stand up. The container keeps things in view for inspiration!

Paper Storage, Paint Storage

I have a lot of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock left from when I owned my scrapbook store and there was no 12x12 paper out there. I still use the sheets on pages. The file drawer is perfect for the paper to be easily accessed. The pink boxes above are wooden and come unfinished from Ikea. I have specialty 8 1/2 x 11 papers in these, such as vellum, parchment, ivory, black and white.

For the Making Memories paint I purchased an expandable tiered teak shelf riser from The Container Store and used half on the top shelf and half on the bottom to give me clear access to my scrapbook paints. I love customizing my chipboard with this paint. I can add glitter to them as well. Sometimes I drag out my Tim Holtz and distress them after painting them. Scrapbooking is such a great creative outlet which melts stress!

Ikea is great

I simply got lucky with this great little rolling desk! Two of the 5 drawer Ikea wooden boxes fit perfectly side by side! The whole room is done in cream and black toile. The walls are pink and green! It is a bit of a French theme, very girly! All I want now is wood floors, but I love being in my space!

My Scrapbook Connection

I found these perfect see-thru containers at Hobby Lobby. They are the ideal solution for storing and sorting small embellishments for scrapbooking. They fit perfectly inside the Ikea wooden drawers!

Glitter Anyone

I love bling! With glitter you can add bling to anything! I love stamping and adding glitter before the stamp design dries. I also have been known to paint my brad if I lack the proper color and dip it in glitter rather than pay big bucks for a pack if I only want one or two of that color. I use the little popcorn things that come as packing material to stick my brad in when I paint it or glitter it. Holds it until it's dry!

Curse or Blessing?

Is being organized a curse or a blessing? Many of us are naturally inclined to line things up, sort things out and make order out of chaos. Some of us might be considered OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), even if we are not. We may drive those we live with over the brink. Occasionally our friends envy our order, others laugh us off.

Now if being "organized" is a blessing, what are the benefits? WE can find things, we can direct others to things in our homes. We have inner peace because everything has its own space. There is less stress because chaos does not live with us.

Is there a happy medium? I sincerely hope so, an organizer always has a project or three going. We don't get bored. The perfect relationship is when both people in the household like things orderly.