Just Make Stuff

The last...

It's the last day of summer school for Sean and Mac...Sean got home a little early from school, was getting stuff done around the house, and then I found him like this...I'm guessing there are few better feelings for him than the "Aaaah, I'm off for a month" nap so I snapped a photo and left him asleep with the dogs surrounded by the piles of clothes to pack for the trip.

And speaking of the trip...

Here is navigation central...maps and guide books..a ruler and calculator...and a binder filled with each city's hotel reservations, things to do and restaurant information...it took me all day yesterday and into this morning to get that all together, but now I really feel ready to go...especially since we have someplace to sleep each night.

First though, I think Sean, Mac and I need to have a impromptu last day of school party...I'm thinking some kind of combination of pizza, water games in the front yard, Project Runway watching, Wii playing, and ice cream sundaes is in order. :)

12...

Well poor Mac didn't ask for an earthquake for his birthday, but he got one...yikes...it's been over and hour and I'm still panicked...I tried to pick up everything I could around the house and am eagerly awaiting Sean's arrival home in a few minutes since I'm too freaked to get in the shower before taking cake and ice-cream to Mac's class at school...I am way too nervous a person for this kind of stuff.

So before the earth seemed to be coming to an end I was about to sit down to share a little of Mac's birthday celebration today.  He often comments when I make cards, and tags and books for other people that he wants me to make them for him so I put together a book with 12 reasons that I love him...

The (hopefully) big excitement will be that as of today he officially has his own phone line...family and friends have been calling his new answering machine to leave birthday messages all morning and then tonight we're taking him and a friend to dinner and then the circus...oh there's the garage door opening meaning Sean's home thank God...I can hopefully start to relax a little now...

Today's Random Thoughts...

...we went to a three year old's birthday party yesterday afternoon and were reminded that going to a birthday party is far more relaxing than throwing one...

See? I told you I use the same ideas over and over.

...somehow, someway I was able to instinctively remember a hidden brick that gives you coins in level 1-2 on Super Mario Bros. last night even though I haven't played it in about 20 years...it really gave me hope that I will be able to instinctively remember academic facts about things like the Intersectionality Theory or the Suffrage Movement :)

...I did something crazy today...I bought a bathing suit...let's just say Land's End is a magical company because this was the very first suit I tried on after bracing myself to try on one suit after another all the while horrified by massive pasty thighs and a sagging chest...and you know what, it actually didn't look awful...oh and my top is actually polka dot which of course makes everything better...and it was 60% off which really makes everything better...now when Sean and Mac are in the various hotel pools after long days in the car I can join them

...speaking of hotels we still haven't booked them...oh and we leave in five days...it's on the list to do...the looong list to do

...I gave Mac one of his birthday gifts today...

personalized stationery so he can write thank you notes...and it worked, he wrote them all tonight

...it's my last night as a mom to an eleven year old...tomorrow 12...yikes...I have a couple of fun little birthday surprises to share tomorrow...

364 days til the next one...

It's the day after the big party...the camp-out is over and the clean-up is in full force...and hopefully a little resting and relaxing sometime today...

The party turned out great with a lot of help from family and friends...my sister got us all set with her camping gear (that yellow tent has been on Mt Kilimanjaro)...my mom was chief in charge of campfire songs and ghost stories...and I just made food since I have no outdoorsy expertise to offer at all :)

"Bug Juice"=Sprite+pineapple juice+green food coloring+plastic bugs...

We made lanyard key-chains (or at least attempted to since they were tricky) and decorated pillowcases...

Sean set up a whole compass hunt through the neighborhood then Bryce and his girlfriend led the two groups, but Sean still helped because all the north-east-south-west stuff was confusing...

My sister had a camping pack stuffed with gear and the kids had to guess what each item was...my brother helped show off the items...

We had cake...

and presents...Mac got what every kid wants...cool toys and clothes...one of those Nintendo DS things...a Staples gift card and a Magic Bullet...okay maybe not what every kid wants, but my kid was thrilled...

Finally we had our campfire, roasted marshmallows, sang songs and heard scary stories...

 

and I have a happy 12 year year old (well not officially 12 until Tuesday)...

Oh wait...we can't forget the rules at Camp Macawalla :)

It's always worth it...

Most of the time rearranging, redecorating, or reorganizing is pretty much a pain, but in the end it is always the best feeling.  Things are refreshed, re-purposed, and the space is just altogether happier.  That was the case with this room...we have joked and called it the "guest-wrap-gym" or just the multipurpose room, but it is really nice to have figured out a way for it to be really useful on a daily basis and then also a space where friends and family can stay.

And here's my new favorite place in the house...no more card tables for Christmas wrapping...I can't decide what my favorite part is, the cabinet that holds supplies and where I can store gifts ahead of time (you'd hate me if I said I already have picked up a few Christmas gifts this summer, right?  Yeah, I'd better keep that to myself), bringing back out the ribbon holder Sean built me a few years ago, the big rolling bin from The Container Store that holds all my wrapping paper and then some, or that I have a workspace that's waist high which makes it sooo much easier to wrap stuff...

I worried for a minute (heck for the whole weekend) that this wouldn't come together and we were crazy for attempting it...but in the end it was so totally worth it. :)

2 things from today...

Mac is going to Disneyland tomorrow since his dad's family has something like a dozen relatives in town visiting.  He has been super excited because he hasn't been there in close to a year since we didn't renew our annual passes (thereby putting us up for the worst parents ever award as far as Mac's concerned) this was sitting on his desk this morning...

I just couldn't be more proud to be this little list-maker's mom. :)

The other thing from today was something I made to hang in my new gift-wrapping area...I was inspired by this adorable stuff...I had been hanging onto this 10"x17" frame for awhile so I'm extra happy that it's filled now...

and I'm extra, extra happy that it's hanging up now, the area is all finished, and I've started wrapping...I'll take pictures tomorrow.

Time is flying...

Okay wasn't it Friday like a minute ago?  This weekend went by in a blur...or in a haze of yellow since that's the color of the room that we were organizing all weekend long.

First though our Fun Friday was super cool...Mac's karate class got to participate in a Ski and Boat Day in Long Beach...we went out late Friday morning and watched as Mac got on jet-skis and boats and he and Sean tried out a canoe...

I stayed on shore and got my usual photos like our reflection in Sean's sunglasses...

 

And tried to get a family self-portrait...keyword being "tried"

Then, like I said before, we spent the rest of the weekend organizing the new room...it serves three purposes...for guests, for working out, and for wrapping gifts.  Yes, I have a whole new little area dedicated to gift wrapping which probably seems altogether ridiculous, but as I told my sister infertility has to have it's perks...we have a four bedroom home and one child so I just HAVE to do something fun with the extra space, right? :)

Even after all the work this weekend it's not quite done, but here's one unfinished look at it...

Can't wait for it all to be complete in the next couple of days...with Mac's birthday party coming up with weekend I have gifts that need to be wrapped!

2 more layouts & a collage...

the photo is from when we went to see "Annie" a couple of months ago at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center...I have pictures from 15 years ago of Mac's dad and I in front of the same fountain

this one was from our trip to Oregon

and this was completely inspired by this...I wanted something summery to hang in our guest bathroom.

Other than making stuff I have nothing terribly exciting to share...just looking forward to another three-day weekend with Sean and Mac...

2 layouts & a happy boy...

I am going to head to bed in a minute but we got the scanner working (might I mention this is again a blantant abuse of the word "we" since I actually did nothing to help Sean get the scanner working) so here are the other couple layouts I made this past weekend...

Then here's the cutest thing ever...my sister came over this afternoon and my nephew wanted to help Sean water the backyard since he's done that a couple of times before, but this time dear Uncle Seany just straight out hands the kid the hose...Caleb was thrilled...and soaked.

Inspired...

I think one of the very best ways to inspire myself is by rearranging and so this past weekend felt great...especially when I sat down to try to make stuff in my new space.

When I was filling up the shelf over my desk I decided to use a bird cage I had in a new way...I put the sign I had hanging on the door to my old craft room in it and then was going to make a few tags to tie to it...until I remembered that I had a tree branch that's been sitting in my closet for months from when I picked it up off the ground on one of our walks through the neighborhood...I stuck it in the cage and tied the tags to it instead and I think it might be my favorite thing in the whole room...

I made the tags after my trip to get new stamps...

Then I made a few layouts...and discovered a new place to photograph them since this room gets much better light...I pulled out one of the tables on the card catalog and set up an easel...I was finishing up pages from our two spring break trips...

I have two more to share but we're working on trying to get the scanner to work right now...darn computers...oh and I'm working on something else too...

a little travel album to take along on the big roadtrip in a few weeks...I'm trying to get a section made for each stop...putting it together is making me even more excited to get on the road. :)

85% done...

This is all there is left to tackle...the darn computer stuff...it took by far the most brainstorming to come up with a solution which will be three shelves built into the corner so it's easily accessible but out of sight for the most part because who wants to look at ugly computer stuff?  Not me.  In typical wonder-husband style Sean already has the shelves built and is currently painting them the color of the room.

So you want to see the fun stuff?  I got a few more photos today now that the couch and card catalog are in here and my desk is all settled in...

If you had told me on Thursday that all the room rearranging would go this smoothly I would have never believed it...and I even had time to make a few layouts and those tags you saw hanging off the branch on the shelf over the desk...I share them all tomorrow...

I decided...

Those stamp shelves needed a little more crammed onto them...actually it was more so an opportunity I HAD to take advantage of when I saw that there were going to be new stamps available today...I found a few other good ones too...so I'm totally playing tonight. :)

Where's the tape measurer?

I swear between Sean and I that question has been asked over 100 times today since it was constantly misplaced...but we've really been productive...for instance I'm on the computer in here now which is a feat that seems to involve about a billion cords...multiple shelves have been hung...a trip to IKEA has been made...it's definitely getting there...tomorrow "the beast" gets moved in...that's what Sean calls the card catalog since even without the drawers it weighs a ton so he recruited a friend from work to come help him move it and a few other things.

Here's a couple of photos from our progress earlier today...

I loved putting all my stamps back up on the shelves...it totally reminded me that I really have some great stamps I need to try to use more often

We gutted the closet so I could use it in my desk space area...in my seemingly endless problem-solving and furniture puzzle-assembling I decided to put my sets of drawers up on one of the tables...I'm hoping it will work well

Can't wait to get even more done tomorrow...

Knock on wood...

I am afraid to even say this...but it's going pretty darn well unbelievably enough...so far things are actually fitting together as opposed to being a half inch too tall or short or wide which always seems to happen...I'm sure that frustration is coming sometime soon...as of now my desks are in and one corner is done as you can see...but there is a ton left to do...

unless I just want to start storing my stamps in piles on the floor. :)

Blank slate...

Today's the day we will be filling this empty room...Sean will get home at 2pm and then it's game on for the rest of the weekend...but before that all gets officially started I wanted to answer questions...

I am wondering about the alphabet stamp storage-do you have all the A's together from different sets for example or do you keep the set together? I have quite a few different sets and always struggle with them.
Also would love to see how you store clear stamps-I can't decide on a system-right now they are all tossed in a drawer and I find it a huge hassle to have to dig through the pile, open the packages and get the right size block,etc.-putting them away is even worse! I have so many cute clear stamps but I rarely use them because I find the mounted stamps so much more convenient.
mary w

Posted by: mary walmer | July 09, 2008 at 06:39 AM

Here's a photo of how I store my alphabet stamps...

I store them in each square in little groups keeping the alphabets together...just depends on the size of the stamps.

As for clear stamp storage...

They're just in a drawer where I have to dig through them too...I have to admit I like wood-mounted stamps a lot better too.

THANKS for sharing all your organization ideas. I love how you have so many of your things so accessible and ready to use. I'm curious about how you store your non-alphabet stamps, stamp pads, and punches. Those are 3 items I struggle with storing and would love to hear what you do.

Can't wait to see the new room!!!

Posted by: amy | July 09, 2008 at 06:00 AM

My punches are in a drawer right behind my desk chair that you can see in the photo above.  My stamp pads take up two drawers right under where I sit at my desk...

and my non-alphabet stamps are either on a picture frame ledge shelves from IKEA or in lumped together into categories in drawers in my card catalog...

Ok you said you didn't mind if we asked questions so I have some more :)

How do you store your albums? I remember pictures where you keep some in your living room. Is that all of them? Do you keep the current ones in your space and then finished ones in your living area?

thanks

Posted by: mel | July 09, 2008 at 03:19 AM

All of my finished albums are all on bookshelves in my living room and I do keep the ones I'm currently working on in my craft room.

oh wow what a great post, I have always been impressed with your organizing skills, I love that you store button by size. I am pretty organized with my things but I have everything hidden away and I think I need to sit it out to see. I do have trouble with stamp storage, could you please show how you organise the alphabets in the floss boxes and also how do you store you image stamps? Can we see what else you store in the IKEA boxes that store your tags. Do you have a system for magazine articles and embellishments like flowers, brads etc? Do you store them by color?

I cannot wait to see your new room :)

Posted by: mel | July 08, 2008 at 04:41 PM

I have three other IKEA drawers that size one holds frames and bookplates, another holds small file folders, and the last one holds smaller, patterned tags (sorry I totally forgot to take a photo).  I have flowers mixed together in a couple of mixing bowls on a shelf and brads are organized into one of those embroidery floss boxes like I keep my alphabet stamps in.  I don't store that kind of stuff by color.  As for magazines I will rip out a layout I like and then I gluestick it to a piece of cardstock writing down the magazine and month of the issue and a few notes about what inspired me.  I just store these in a binder.

I Love, love, love this post. Love the scrap files--always left with scraps when I'm done! I'm in the middle of organizing (again!) and this is perfect inspiration. The pictures help a lot! I totally want to adopt rule #1. Putting stuff back is not my strength. My big dilemma comes from working at my desk, I'm too lazy to go to the shelf on the other side of the room and go through my new patterned paper stack, my box of punches, or sticker basket, so I just use what's sitting on my desk. Terrible considering how much variety I have and getting off my butt is stopping me from delving into it! Maybe I need better routing? A chair with wheels?

Also I think I do have too much stuff but it's all different stuff (not over-quantity of 2 or 3 things that I could purge from) -- alcohol inks, punches, red rubber stamps, cling stamps, paint, Dymo tapes, sizzix, stamp pads, etc. I've got them in big plastic shoeboxes so sometimes I'm daunted -- getting the box, digging through the box, etc. Sometimes I forget I have something, like "I could have used those cute foam stamps with paint" I like that carousel idea in the first pic (right now my dec scissors and dec punches are in plastic shoe boxes). Maybe I need more ready-to-use/go storage ideas...

Finally, how do you store your stamp pads? I have them in a shoe box and laziness (or desire not to make a bigger cluttered mess on my desk) usually leads me to using whatever is on top.

If you could address any of these issues in your next post, I would totally appreciate it! TIA!

Posted by: Frances | July 08, 2008 at 02:38 PM

I totally understand what you mean that if it's not easily accessible you don't use it.  Boxes can be tough because you have to unstack them to open them that's why I seem to do better with drawers.  Maybe reassessing your space and trying to surround your immediate work area a little better. I do have a rolling chair with an carpet pad underneath so I can move around easily and tried to place everything around me as much as I could.  A photo of my stamp pad storage is above...they are stored in drawers right under my desk.

Comment:
I hear ya about the organizing...I am yet again going to be doing some reorganizing within the next month. I am curious about a few things, such as 1)how do you store your clear stamps? 2)how do you store any foam stamps that you may own? 3)how do you store more "bulky" type embellishments, meaning more 3D type elements? Thanks for taking the time to show us around your space...I LOVE seeing others spaces! ~Erin

Posted by: Erin H. | July 09, 2008 at 06:19 PM

Clear stamps are just in a drawer because I don't have too many of them same with the foam stamps I think I only have a couple of alphabets and they're in a metal IKEA storage box since I rarely use them and my 3-D embellishments are in embroidery floss boxes...I really love those darn boxes. :)

So that's probably it for the weekend...I should be back by Monday with some new room photos to share.

The rules...

It's ironic that this of all weeks is the time I'm talking about organizing a scraproom because in about 48 hours I'm going to be all but destroying mine when I move into a different room in the house...it's an idea we've had for awhile now and it was the first room I was in when we bought the house...I have contemplated the new arrangement endlessly for the last few weeks and had the measuring tape out at least 100 times...but there's no way of knowing how well it will really work until we just start it Thursday afternoon (and hopefully finish by Sunday).

But for now lets talk about what I think works as far as craft supply organization...I'm sure I've said most of this before and these are far from innovative ideas, but I think they are some general rules...

#1 You must have a place for everything and put things back in their place

When you're struggling to get things organized it's probably because you don't have enough room for it or enough ways to store it.  I know no one really wants to spend out of their scrap budget on boring old storage stuff but having places like drawers, jars, and shelves gives you a much better opportunity to ensure every supply has a home.  I don't think there's been a mess made (and I've made some big ones) that I can't get cleaned up in a matter of minutes because everything has a place to go away to.

If you have too much...clean it out...few things inspire me more than going through my supplies...look for a place where you can donate your extra stuff that you know you are never going to use.

One of my favorite things I have organized are me patterned paper scraps...they are in a 2-drawer file cabinet under my desk.  The bottom drawer holds cardstock scraps and then the top drawer has two sets of rainbow organized file folders...one set holds small scraps of patterned paper and one set holds large scraps.  There isn't a time that I'm scrapbooking that I'm not digging into this drawer and when I'm done it's easy to clean up the leftover piles on my desk.

I am a big fan of embroidery floss storage boxes (there especially great for organizing alphabet stamps) and wood drawers from IKEA...which brings me to the next "rule"...

#2 Keep like things together

Pile all your tags into the same place, or fill an entire divided storage box with your collection of brads.  It works sooo much better than having this here and that there...group them together...chipboard letters, every button you own, every different label you've collected...get them together in the same place.

#3 Keep stuff where you can see it

Our scrap supplies are colorful and cute so don't hide them away where you can't see them...you will forget you have them and chances are high it will never get used...use jars, baskets, muffin tins, mixing bowls.  It just occurred to me that people often say my room is like a store and I think a big part of that is because it's all displayed...it's out to be shopped around to gather what I want to use.

Okay so those are my rules...please feel free to ask any further questions...I am more than happy to talk about this stuff and can do a post later in the week with answers (assuming I'm not buried under my own supplies trying to organize them into a new room).

Don't you just hate...

when you run out of time in the day?  I tried to get so much done but at the same time it feels like I accomplished nothing...oh well...at least I made dinner and got these all done...

One of the things I meant to do today was discuss some craft room organization ideas since I've been asked about it lately...so look for that tomorrow...goodnight. :)

The rest of the weekend...

So the 4th was a such a long, fun day...my family came over to join in the block festivities...Caleb loved the water-slide as much as we all did, my sister made adorable cupcakes since she's all super mom like that, and Sean enjoyed every minute of their full court basketball in the middle of the street...it was great to hang out all day with our neighbors...

Then yesterday I made layouts all day that I can't quite share yet and then went to a friend's BBQ where we joked we were the crazy people that brought all the stuff with zucchini in it since we had a whole pile from our garden we had to use up...we made these and this.

Finally today I went to a friend's baby shower...her gifts were three boxes of the breast-milk storage bags she had on her registry so I REALLY had to make up for that boring gift with some fun wrapping :)

Now tomorrow Mac goes back for a month of summer school and I try to wrap my mind around the fact that I'm actually off of school for the next 49 days (not that I counted)...I feel like I should be reading or studying something :)

Best money this neighborhood has spent...

it was delivered at about 8:45am and we set it up in front of my neighbor's house two doors down since we set up the barbecues in our driveway and then we all eat in our next door neighbor's driveway in the shade of the big trees between our house and his (and you've got to love that he always is out with friends on the 4th but totally lets us use the front of his house anyway)...the party really starts at 4pm but it's been fun and excitement all day...

Oh and I posted one of the recipes we always make today.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Old school...

We're working on Mac's birthday party invites this afternoon...it's a camp-out themed sleepover at "Camp Macawalla" because I'm a dork like that...but I'm sorry, how funny is Camp Macawalla? :)

The invites are going to be super simple and I'm actually breaking out the old Sizzix pine tree die-cut for them...Mac and Sean have been punching everything out...

and yes Mac is wearing a vest with a t-shirt (from his 2007 Easter outfit no less) apparently that's the way to be cool like the Jonas Brothers.

Oh and here's a recipe in honor of the camp-out theme.

I needed this...

I haven't done the journaling for this yet but I HAD to make it tonight...it was a total "need to chill out" scrapbook page...I was a less than stellar mom and wife earlier this evening and managed to piss Sean off and just about make Mac cry within the first three minutes of our 20 minute pizza dinner in between dentist appointments and Mac's karate class...thankfully I was able to remedy my bitchiness fairly quickly but when they left for karate I sat down at my desk and quizzed myself on Women''s Studies while making this...and I felt much better...I'll complete the layout tomorrow when I am done with summer school...done...woohoo.

Oh and two more things...

1. I posted a recipe

2.  My final grade in Statistics was an "A"  :)

(not meaning to to brag or anything, but you all were SO supportive when I was freaking out about it so I really wanted to share my good news)

Hello July...

 
I don't have much to share today...I made this quick card to go along with a box of various items we need to ship off to the son of one of Sean's fellow teachers who is in Irag...they were passing around lists at school of things he needed and we wanted to do what we could to contribute...stuff like gum and ziplock bags seem like such a small gesture in relation to all his hard work, but hopefully it helps a little...the box has been sitting on our dining room table for two weeks so hopefully we can finally get it on it's way tomorrow.

The other thing I wanted to share is my commitment to do my very best to share a recipe everyday in July...I have a few more to share that are some of my tried and true recipes...and then I'm hoping this will help encourage me to try out some of the many ones I have clipped out & waiting in my recipe binder (some have been waiting for a looong time).  Here is the one for today.

Almost done with summer school...Thursday afternoon can't come fast enough...but I have a huge final in Women's Studies that I have to memorize a ton of stuff for first...wish me luck. :)

Turkey Cranberry & White Cheddar Sandwich

Such a great sandwich that I learned about a couple of years ago in a class (recipe is from here)...make it up a few hours ahead of time so it can all blend together...it's perfect for a picnic.  I often make it on individual ciabatta rolls and I don't bother with the arugula...

Ingredients:

1 cup of mayonnaise

4 green onions, including tender green tops minced

1 loaf ciabatta or a half dozen ciabatta rolls

1 can whole-berry cranberry sauce

1 pound sliced roast turkey breast

1/4 pound sliced white cheddar cheese

3 cups arugula

Directions:
In a small bowl, stir together the mayonnaise and green onions, mixing well. Cut the ciabatta in half horizontally and spread the cut sides with the mayonnaise mixture. Spread one side of the bread with the cranberry sauce. Top with the turkey, cheese and arugula. Cover with the other bread half. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 4 hours to allow the flavors to mingle and to hold the loaf together for easy slicing.