Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The Challenge To Be NEAT

It's been a while - I've been "refocusing" my attentions lately and the blog has taken a bit of a back seat - but I would like to catch up a bit one post at a time.

In the month of January, my friends Hollye and Jennie, came up with the idea of monthly (meetable) challenges, rather than "resolutions", for the new year. Jennie has organized us and several of us have volunteered to take responsibility for issuing the "creative" challenge for a given month (mine will be September and I had my challenge idea picked almost instantly... but you'll have to wait until then to know what it is...) Jennie started us off with the first months challenge to create a layout with some element of the 'new year' or season AND to clean up our sCrap space - providing before and after photos to be judged - winner to be determined by vote of our peers.

Well low and behold... I was the winner for the "clean" challenge. (l believe it was by default or forfeit though...)

Let's look at some before and afters, shall we? First the "before" photos:


It's after Christmas in these photos - but there's still a lot of Christmas stuff out - including the mobiles the kids made hanging from the fan.

Samantha seems fairly comfortable on my piles of stuff...


There are bags left out from a recent crop away from home and you can't see well - but under my desk is just FULL of stuff that needs to be gone through.

My works space is just a tad bit cluttered...

Here's another view of my desk top.

But that was then - this is now! And NOW it's FAB-ooo-less in here! The kids actually think company’s coming! You can actually see the great work my babies' daddy did in putting this room together for me. Long time ago he built the tall cabinet (it's about 6.5 feet tall, 24 inches deep and 18 inches wide) the stack of 4 drawers and the 12x12 paper filing drawers. (They're also 24 inches deep and about 15 inches wide.) The counter top is a standard 10 foot counter top from Home Depot. The white is easy to clean up. The shelves are also melamine and different lengths and widths.
All reorganized and “lighter” meaning I’ve taken a lot outta the stash and I’m ready to part with it!
My favorite part has been the crafty additions to my space. I got busy and finished some extra touches - altering and personalizing some of my everyday storage items. I did things like cover my giant clothes pin, I covered my storage (photo) boxes and finished covering the magazine covers, made a cover and ABC dividers for my Rolodex address file*. I finally covered the last two of my International Coffee tins, got everything properly labeled and beautified. I still want to finish covering the tin lunch box that will hold frequently used ink pads within reach, my 12x12 clipboard for my personalized calendar and 3 -12x12 canvases (with original wall art), finish altering my wall clock, maybe add some words to the walls and then I’ll be done decorating in here!

It's sure easier to be creative when your space is clean. This is my main work area now. Thanks for the kick in the pants Jenny!
Scroll to the bottom of the blog and you can watch a 7 minute video tour of my room. Be kind... I think it was almost midnight when I shot it...

I even purged on the other (puter) side of the room and put away some dust collecting Boyd’s Bears and figurines. And in the process, I’ve finished 3 layouts and a card! I’m proud to say that I used all scraps for the card and some new items my Ssecret (Santa) Angel sent via Christina.
I’m still organizing the stuff I purged. Eventually, you'll see a post offering it up for grabs... I'll do a "choose your RAK" giveaway – don’t want to clutter your space with something you don’t really want… :0)

4 comments:

  1. It looks great!!!!!!! Heather S.

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  2. Looking good! Doesn't it feel awesome to have it all organized? Ha! I say that like I'M all organized & such...lol...just don't open my hall closet.

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  3. Can't wait to come scrap with you, Sis! You're looking good and so is your room. So proud of you.

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