Good Morning Fellow Stampers -
How is everyone today? Did everyone feel the excitement of the official release of the Spring Occasions catalog yesterday? and the kickoff of Sale-A-Bration? This is a very busy time of year for us demonstrators, but it really is thrilling! I enjoy release time, and the excitement of new products arriving at my front door, and the chance to get newly inspired and creative. Sometimes I see so many ideas, and have so many plans rolling around in my head, it's hard to know where to start. LOL I'm looking forward to sharing all the fun with you in the days and weeks ahead.
In the meantime, I promised you all an update on the Studio makeover. It was an incredibly busy New Year's week and weekend. Wednesday and Thursday were spent boxing, and completely emptying the Studio from the center of the room; and the entire South wall. By the time I was done, I had stuff stashed everywhere - LOL. The ironing board, quilt rack, and miscellaneous wall hangings were stuffed in the bedroom; the dining room was and for the most part still is, stacked with boxes and paraphernalia.
The process was somewhat cathartic however. I made a lot of decisions regarding this room and what I wanted (or didn't want) as I worked through the pack up and removal of 11 years of goodies stuffed into the corners everywhere.
While I had a general idea of what I thought I wanted in this room; much of how this is coming together has kind of just happened over this past week as we have actually gotten into the project. I am being cautious now that everything is out, about what I'm allowing back into the space. If it doesn't fit into the new organization system, it doesn't come back into the room -- it heads out to charity instead.
This is where I was at on Thursday, about mid-day. As I packed up more and more out of the room, I was amazed at how much space there really is in this room. I also realized that I needed to do several things before new furniture and so forth came back into the room. 1) I needed desperately to repaint this well. The wear and tear of 11 years on this room were showing; and 2) Now was the perfect time to deep clean the carpets in this room. With everything removed, there could not be a better time to finally do what I'd been wishing I could for so long. A nice deep cleaning!!!
However, the thought of all I wanted to accomplish before I returned to work, and the fact that most of the week was already past me, and time was not on my side, made me panic a little bit.
Plus, it was the New Years holiday; and I had invited my mother for New Year's morning brunch, and time together to watch the Rose Parade. So I had to take time out to do some cooking and get ready for that, as well as try to make sure that at least some of the house was presentable.
Inbetween, we continued to assemble furniture, and I was doing a lot of shopping - returning to Michael's and elsewhere as the plan evolved and I realized I needed/wanted more pieces for the new room setup.
Most of the south wall had been emptied by the end of the day on New Year's Eve; and a number of pieces of shelving and other items had been loaded and taken to Goodwill. In fact, we made two runs to Goodwill on Thursday -- getting in the last loads of donation before 2015 ended -- for tax purposes ;-)
On Friday, around noon, after mom left - the center table that had been my cutting table and work space for the past decade came down and went into storage, and the last items in the room were removed. My little helper here thinks all this space is pretty fantastic. She's pretty sure I did this just for her -- LOL
I made a quick run out for a couple of needed errands. This included borrowing my brother's carpet cleaner, and picking up a few items for the painting project. I was crossing my fingers that I had enough of the original paint left from this room to paint this one wall. This room has been a lovely shade of soft yellow for the past 11 years. This has always been my "country" room in Yellow and Blue. I wanted to maintain the yellow as it is a warm but soft coloring. The new accent color, however, is a bright green! I'm loving the "refresh." Even if it is simple.
Upon my return, the real work began -- taping, lots of prep work, and then the cutting in of the edges of the wall. However, once I got started with the rolling of the paint on the main wall, I figured out real quick I was in trouble. There was no way I had enough paint left from the original painting of this room to paint this entire wall. Eeeeeeeek!! I had been worrying about this. I still had the original paint chip - so I grabbed it and headed off to Home Depot.
Whew! Thankfully this 11 year old color was still in the system and the very nice employee assured me no problem; he'd have a nice quart of paint for me in about 5 minutes. Needless to say I was extremely releaved. The odds of a paint color to still be available this many years later is not always that good.
So back home we head, uncover the paint pan, and start rolling again. Now I ran into a new problem I hadn't really thought ahead about. The area of the wall that the ironing board has sat against all these years had been effected by all the spray starch and so forth I have used over the years in my ironing and quilting work. The area did not want to paint over well; as it got wet, it got sticky. Then as I tried to backroll, the area wanted to lift up and looked horrible. I had to literally grab a rag and do a quick wipe down job and repaint the section. No fun!
Once the painting was finally done and cleaned up; and I had some time to sit down and rest a little; the carpet cleaning started. I did not complete this job and stop for the night until about 10:30 pm. I was exhausted I can assure you!!!
Saturday morning we were finally able to start assembling the new center island work table.
As things started to come together, I started to get really excited!
And even more exciting was to actually have the ability to put things "away" in drawers and on shelves, instead of stuck in containers stacked on the floor everywhere!
Saturday was a tough day though. I was very tired from the push the day before, and things moved slowly on Saturday. I decided to just take my time at this point and not push myself too hard. I wanted to at least get myself to a place where I had a space to sit down to craft and create as I knew I needed to start meeting deadlines again by this past Sunday.
So my focus for the remainder of the weekend was to at least create myself the basic work space. The rest of it could fall into place over time.
The island basically complete and in place.
The one concern I have had all along is the 5-drawer piece I chose (the one you see sitting there on wheels) is not a "tower" piece that necessarily goes with the rest of the set and matches up to the table top. I knew this was going to be a little bit of a problem, and my concern came to fruition as we pulled the set together.
The pedestal I ordered for this piece has not arrived yet; but now that I have gone back and re-compared measurements, I'm not sure the pedestal is going to work.
We may leave the piece on its wheels, and create a hand-made piece to close the gap between the top of the drawer unit and the base of the table so that the proper support is in place.
Other than that little glitch, I am absolutely thrilled with the new island work table.
The storage has made a world of difference.
The smaller footprint in the room has opened up the space immensely!
The clean lines and white color have just changed everything in the room.
I am so pleased!!!
For those who may be wondering, this is the Recollections organization system from Michael's.
I would recommend that you take advantage of the sales Michael's has quite often on these pieces.
At 50% off, which is what I have made sure I got each piece at, this has been affordable; and the setup seems quite sturdy and I think will serve me well. As with anything, proper care taken will extend the life of your furniture.
This is where we are at today. As you can see, I have installed a number of these similar units from the same Recollections system on the South wall. This is part of the new changes I talked about earlier. These pieces replace some older smaller shelf pieces I had in the far corner previously. These new units actually have more space to them, and have allowed me to find homes for all kinds of things.
I got new "magazine" organizers at Target. What I like about these is that they are "kraft" brown and have a nice white edge. I plan on covering the kraft box part with fabulous designer paper when I get some time. Probably something bright and fun in some sort of green that matches my new color scheme.
As I stated earlier, this clean out and reorganization has forced me to do some careful consideration of each item I bring back into the room. I have let a lot of things go, even from the bookshelves. It actually feels really good to clean out and lighten the load.
I am still amazed at how much space I have in this room since I took everything out.
The next step is to get the IKEA Kallax shelving assembled. I had originally bought 2 of these shelves. These shelves are matched to and will hold the Stamp-n-Storage units as we purchase them and they arrive.
I was worried that 2 shelves were not going to be enough and that I was going to be short on storage units to get everything put away.
Now that everything is out, and I've revamped my plan, I am breathing a sigh of relief. The footprint of what will go on the South Wall is more clear now. I even have a nice space allotted for Sade Ann's little bed -- most important of course!! LOL
I will be able to purchase a third Kallax shelf unit and there are going to be no issues with having enough compartments for the number of Stamp-n-Storage units I want to purchase. I am excited about what is coming over the next several months.
Now that I'm back at work, I don't have as much time to forge forward and get this project done. But that's okay. I feel like I'm at a point where I can function in the room, even if I do still have a lot of things in boxes. I can at least create and design and play. And I want some time to continue to sort and clean out, decide what I'm keeping and what needs to go. I suspect that it will be a couple more months until everything is in its new home. My focus is to get my paper holders and punch holders put away first as that is what is currently packed in boxes or not in an organized state. I don't work well in chaos -- LOL
Plus, I'm already eyeing the other side of the room which houses everything to do with my quilting hobby -- plans are brewing -- LOL 😉
I will keep you all posted as things move along. Once the Kallax shelves are put together and in place, I have to start painting Stamp-n-Storage units as they arrive. I want everything to be white and matched to the new shelving. So this project is going to take some time yet! I am expecting the first units sometime next week hopefully.
In the meantime, boxes are arriving here from Stampin' Up! -- which has even more exciting stuff . . . all those fabulous new Spring Occasions Catalog products and Sale-A-Bration fun! I'll be bringing you something fun tomorrow - so stay tuned. I'm looking forward to sharing and playing. As always, if you need help with an order, or have questions about anything Stampin' Up!, don't hesitate to contact me - [email protected].
Until Next Time . . .
