All Change!

Well, not all. For anyone paying attention, the background and header have had a slight re-vamp as has the colour. I loved the images but the pink was a bit to heavy. The look now is Victorian images on a 50's colour palette. I apologise as I have not put up the Pintrest and Instagram buttons/widgets. This was a conscious decision as I would still like to keep that side of things private.

The blog colour change is part and parcel of the craft room change. I have been continuing to potter about and get things finished. I managed to get rid of the curtains and finished my niece's quilt that has been 2 years in the making. Massive loads off my shoulders. I'm really pleased with the quilt, which I will do a proper post on with photo, but it sum's up Neices's style perfectly. And I can personally vouch for it's snugness!
 
The blanket is also the spur for the colour change and theme change of the room. It features several Cath Kidston style patterns, 2 rose, 2 spotty and 2 checked. All shades of Red, Blue, Pink and Green. Red and Pink together. Totally against the rules that I grew up with but actually they go well. And it just reeks 50's retro pattern. The more I worked on the quilt, the more I fantasised about a 50's retro kitchen, complete with proper unit's that have the curved, plain doors. Lots of blue and red and pink and white. Now it's not going to happen in our kitchen, but actually there is no reason that I can't evoke the same style elements in my half of the Craft Room.

So I have started to make proper plans for the re-vamp. It needs doing as half of the space is going to be given over to OH at some point in the future. I got my graph paper out and the tape measure and have a scaled image. We are managing to re-use a LOT of what we already have. And the best part?? I get a Kallax. Which is the new name for Expedit, which is a dream come true! Measurements won't allow for a 5x5 but I can have a 4x4 with a 4x1 on top. All in lovely clean and affordable White. I'm also keeping my white topped desk with the pink legs.

Part of the reason for finally purchasing the unit is that I had a dawning realisation. I can't fit my storage to my stuff because I have TOO MUCH. So I have to fit my stuff to my storage. Have to, no questions, no arguments. I have been using stuff and finishing projects which is helping. I had a massive purge of papercraft stash which I have donated to my MIL's card making circle so I know it won't be wasted. But there is still more stuff......

In order to help get the best in secondary storage I have drawn out the 5x4 grid with the desk and will be marking it and making lists for what is to go where and in what container. I can see already that there might need to be some custom built solutions to be designed to house the small things. But I want to know that it will work before I start laying out precious Birthday money.

I will be doing lots of posts on this subject, to show progress, ideas and things that I already do. I've had my own craft room for 5 years now and I have a few things that have worked. I'd love to hear any tips that you have too.

Love Elliefantasy xx

WOYWW

Hello again WOYWW'ers! Sorry for the long absence, I've just been inundated with work nonsense so haven't been able to play. But I'm off work this week, having a well deserved holiday (well I think it's well deserved!) If you want to see what this is all about, then hop over to Julia's place where it all started, and have a look at the lovely desks on show.

I know its a bit of a mess, which is explained below, but there are some cards on the front, all made up last night using a Craftwork Cards kit that I got a Stamperama in Stevenage in Feb, and haven't been able to work out until now. The picture frame by the right-hand monitor is from Ikea, just right for making myself a desk calendar for work for next year. And yes, for those that make the picture bigger, there are some screws on my desk, again to be explained below. 

So, what have I been doing to make so much mess? Well I've been spending some of my limited time making plans for some improvements to the craft room, which includes an Expedit!! Thanks should go to Ikea, who very generously decided to lower the price of the units just in time. We poodled off on Monday to pick up the shelves, a couple of cupboard inserts and some boxes to go with some that I already had, but can't remember where they came from. OH suffered himself to help me put them together and Tuesday they were put up, along with the leftover CD rack above the desk, which now holds the handmade storage boxes previously mentioned. I must apologise for the slightly wonky picture, but the unit that holds the paper and dolls house is opposite the Expedit and so I don't have a lot of room to get the unit in frame. But its here, and its mine and its so organised!  (for those interested, the silver boxes are the pre-owned ones) 


However, this is a picture of all the bits behind it which still don't have a home, and the offending unit which blocks pictures of the new toy. No matter how many times I try to organise, there are still bits and pieces that can't be classified and don't have a proper home. So they must live on the floor until I can think of a place, or use them.


Enjoy your Wednesday, I'm going to have a proper wallow around everyone's desk whilst spending a whole day of crafty goodness! Hooray for holidays!!! 


Love Elliefantasy xxx

WOYWW

Good morning WOYWW's. How goes it today? Very glad to be able to join this week, after my aquazorbing exploits at the weekend (Layouts to follow) I've gone for a left desk shot this week to add a bit of variety (and because the only thing on the normal space was a half eaten cookie) 

So what's about. Well at the back you can see my trusty clip it up, where I store most of my embellishments, peel-offs, alphabets and a few other odds and sods. And the green  box in front where the scissors are peeking from is the work of most of Sunday afternoon and a bit of Monday. The tubes are 4 of the toilet rolls that were on the desk last week, covered with paper picked from a digi kit. 

The box to hold them in, and the 4 boxes currently sitting on the shelf above the desk (second pic) are all made from a quick sketch and a net I made from 1 sheet of 12x12 white cardstock, covered in the same paper, though it only covers the front and not the sides. I was intending to make a carrier for them myself from an innocent and unsuspecting cardboard box, but then I remembered the CD racks that the previous owners had left us (so kind) and measured them up just in case. Thanks to some flukey measuring, 2 of my boxes fit in one section of the cd rack. So I can have that put up under the shelf that carries the blank cards/craft robo/xyron, so long as its going to be secure and wont fall off and smash my monitors. 

So I have some custom made storage, and the best part is it's FREE!!!  Even OH was happy with that (though not chuffed that the shelf fixing hasn't yet stopped) There are still 2 free sections of the rack, which I am hoping will hold my jars of eyelets and brads as they are currently by the windowsill, which is not useful at all. 

Hope you enjoyed this stop on the tour of desks across the world. If you want to see more, stop off here and have a nosy with Julia and the rest. I will will will will try and get to everyone over the week and leave more comments that I have managed in the past. There are just so many lovely desks belonging to lovely ppl that its quite a thing to get about. But here's hoping for another try. 

Love Elliefantasy.

Getting things organised vs the onset of OCD

I like things to be organised. But now that I have the craft room and am starting to get all my little bits and pieces out of boxes, I am starting to wonder at what level do I stop organising it all.

The ideal state would be to have every possible thing to hand and be able to grab and select without having to move from my chair. This isn't quite possible, unless I had some kind of circular super-desk with robot arms that brought me things on command.

I have been having frequent discussions on this topic with my mum, who is also a scrapbooker/card-maker. We have both decided that boxes of paper should be available without having to lift other boxes to get to them. And that often used "machinery" like Robo's, Xyrons and Cuttlebugs should be on shelves, easy to reach and just as easy to put away.

But surely, if one is not careful, one will come to a point where too much time is spent organising and tidying new stash away, rather than getting it all out to be used. I would rather have five wonderful layouts and a messy desk than a perfectly organised space with nothing to show for it. And rather play with any new stash than spending two hours sorting it into the correct space.

So fellow scrappers, don't forget whilst in the pursuit of your perfect crafting space, that it is a space to do some crafting, and not a space to show off your stash. Those places are called Craft Shops!

Love Elliefantasy

WOYWW

Today has been a good day. OH and I both back @ work after The Big Move, keys to the old house have been given back, and we finally have t'internet back, which means that I can post again! Hooray!

So here is my WOYWW picture. Apologies, that again its boxes, but these are boxes that are to be unpacked. So I wont be linking up to the other WOYWW posts this week, but hopefully will have something to share properly next week.

The craft room is coming along. I certainly have the space to play with. Some things are coming along very nicely, some things have yet to find a home. The room is a lovely shade of cream (Ivory from B&Q Colour range if anyone is interested) I have accepted the green carpet and redesigned my scheme so that now I have shades of cream, green and beech wood. When money and time allow, I will finish all the sorting and tidying up and put proper pictures up.

Family tree - The home-made digi kit idea is something that I am still playing with, and I will do a further post tomorrow. However I did have a flash of Weetabix induced inspiration this morning, that the glass pattern on the front door would make a very good background pattern on a page. All I have to do know is work out a way of photographing it so that I can get it into Corel and start to play. For those that are undecided over their photo package choice, I use Corel Paint Shop Photo. I've been playing with free 30 day trials of X2 and X3 and have just purchased X2 Ultimate as my package of choice. But again, more of this tomorrow.

Love Elliefantasy

Scrapbooking for me

I am currently in the middle of working on a new baby book for a friend whose first is due this month. Once I have finished this I have a mini-mini book to make for my step-sister with pictures of our nephew. The last project I did was a mini-mini book for my best friend, and earlier in the year I made a first grandchild book for my stepdad. Lots of lovely projects, but none for me to keep :-(

Today's online blog class is all about blogging and scrapbooking plans for the future. With my craft room iminent, I have been thinking of doing some layouts and projects that I can keep. I have mentioned some in my previous post about my craft room, and the more I look at other people's blogs, the more wonderful ideas spring out at me. In particular, this is a fantastic tutorial for a piece of wall art at Scrappy Sticky Inky Mess, one of my favourite blogs. I can see this being the perfect way to frame pictures of my family as most seem to be taken on my phone and therefore aren't suitable for being enlarged.

Another idea I had was layouts, mini-books and wall hangings based on some of my favourite songs. Wooden Boat by Take That is a song that I think lends itself to being illustrated. And Bohemian Rhapsody appears to me to be the ultimate challenge!

So here is the start of my efforts to make some lovely pieces that I can keep.

Elliefantasy

The Craft Room

With the impending move also comes the excitement of having my own craft room. Although I have space in our study room at the moment, it will be nice to be able to spread the mess withouth complaint, be able to put my music/dvd's on without thinking that I am disturbing OH (or having his music/dvd/game disturb me) and mostly be able to decorate one room to my hearts content.

I had forgotten the fun that I have in planning decorating schemes; thinking of the perfect idea, discarding elements, going off on tangents and then coming back to my original ideas with only slight changes. This room is a challenge as I want it to be a working room and a resting room, and it also will have to do double duty as a guest room from time to time. All of the big furniture pieces are sorted, aside from 1 item, it is only left for me to decide on the little things. So I thought I would share some of my ideas with you, and then later we can see what time and budget came up with.

Item 1 - Vintage style clock
I love, love, love this style of clock. So I have used it as the starting point from which my design should spring. I really want to go for a classic and vintage look. Something that is slightly more sophisticated than other rooms that I have designed and decorated. I am taking the colour scheme from this clock as well, so the walls will be a very nice, very light beige/buttermilk colour. This should keep it light enough for workig and provide a suitable blank canvas for me to hang some of my layouts on to.

Item 2 - Gliding Rocking Chair
This is the only major piece of furniture to obtain, and I am fairly hopeful of getting it for free!! I was intending to have a futon, but after some consideration, the futon was too expensive for a piece for furniture which will would have to be removed should I ever hear the pitter-patter of tiny feet. However the gliding rocker would be an ideal piece of furniture for a prospective nursery. The one I have got my beady little eye on is currently a shade of pale green, and I think is in dire need of recovering. So it will be transforming into a cream chair, either by a careful re-cover or the cunning use of throws and blankets. The reason for the chair is that aside from wanting somewhere nicer to sit than my office chair, I have promised that come the move, my favourite cuddly toys will be removed from the bedroom.

Item 3 - Hatstand
I, like some of you perhaps, have one of those little doll type things which have many hooks to hold necklaces and bracelets. I was looking at this the other day and decided that a larger version would be ideal to store my belts, scarves, hats and bags. And of course the larger version is a hatstand. I have found this really lovely one which ties in perfectly with my "vintage" look and now have only to save my pennies.

Item 4 - Notice Board/Date Planner
I like notice boards. They are fun and convenient, and if you are in a particularly bad mood, a very quick form of voodoo. I currently have a small cork one which hangs above my desk. It is perfectly serviceable, but dull in the extreme. Whilst delving in my dim and distant memory I came across the idea of a padded fabric covered one, a relic of either Changing Rooms, House Doctor or some other quality home decor show of the late 90's/early 00's. So that is what I intend to have, a very big, padded notice board with ribbon strips and all my bits and pieces pinned up with very large dress pins. And a matching date planner so I can clearly see whose birthday/wedding/anniversary it is and hopefully make a card in time!

Item 5 - Wall Art/Layouts
Whilst at the Big Scrapbooking and Stamping show at Ally Pally this year I picked up some jigsaw pieces from Capture the Magic, which I intend to transform into some wall art with pictures of my and my 3 closest female friends. I also intend to do some purpose designed wall mountable layouts rather than just sticking up random pictures, which should allow me to experiement with scrapbooking at different sizes rather that sticking rigidly to 12x12 or 8x8. There should be more to follow on these projects once moving day has been and gone.

Elliephant