Reorganization of craft room

My scrap/craft space wasn't working the way I'd unpacked it, so I did a reorganization last weekend.

This tower of Michael's cubes is right on a small strip of wall next to the door, in front of the closet, which doesn't seem to make sense.  In front of the closet?  Oh, yeah.  Top is ribbon, open shelf has a bin with all my Glimmer Mists and glue bottles and my silicone mat rolled up.  The drawer is Stickers, which are in folders by themes (finally ditched the binder I don't use stickers much these days).  Chipboard alphas are next.  It's divided into cubes and I had enough alphas missing letters that I organized them from a suggestion here into cubes by letter rather than font, so look for some mismatched titles from my scrapbooking!  I mostly use them and cover them with embossing powder, ink, paper, etc. so that the colors match my layout anyways, so I think this will work better for me.  Then is a drawer of Jute, Sew Easy stuff, baker's twine...thin stuff.  Then a drawer of paper ribbons like CM, etc.  Last bin ahs drawers of:  Bling, Brads that don't fit in my brad organizer, Adhesives like Tacky Tape, Envelopes, etc. and Misc which is leftover pieces from scrapbook kits, etc. that are fun to look through when I need some inspiration.

The right side of the closet stays open while scrapping (the left has altering and projects for "someday" as well as extra office supplies)
Bottom shelves have books-inspiration, instruction manuals, etc.  Then lower left above books has my wishblade and my laminator. The baskets contain left: Cuttlebug and embossing plates Right: Misc stuff too big to go elsewhere-grungeboard, silk flowers, wood panels, etc.  Top two have unopened colored cardstock, a bin of Washi tape, Boxes have rubber gloves for stamping, Tag maker and metal  outsides, crepe paper, quotes & journal spots.  Top has envelopes and in progress scrapbooking, very top is sewing stuff.

This is my stamping/cardmaking station (I could scrapbook here, but arranged items accordingly and this sturdy desk from the basement of my old, old house can handle stamping better than the lightweight one I'm using for scrapbooking.  This huge cassette tape holder was from a thrift store or library-got it at REstore for about $45, it's solid oak and heavy, it's about 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide.  In my old space it sat on a foundation ledge, but here I was scared to attach it hanging to the wall and it would be too tall for me to reach items at the top. I put lesser used items under the table and right in front of my stamp area are:
Top: Glues, paints, etc. too tall for the shelves
Top left to right:Brads in clear containers with little inserts that look like tic tac containers-Oriental Trading company bead holders
Paint
Flock and specialty glitters, distress paint and reinkers
Stickles
Paint supplies
Glitter
More paint supplies
Embossing powders and supplies
misc finishes, sticky stuff, pens
small inks across the way
large wood stamps
Above this table is a pendant lamp from IKEAto help eliminate shadows when working. Underneath is CTMH blocks and Power cord attached to light since this particular light has no on/off switch.

In between the stations....  CTMH stamps are in envelopes on the desk above the drawers in DVD holders from Container store.  SU! MArkers are between the CTMH stamps and the big shelves.  My PC tool turnaround is in front of the CTMH stamps.  In the drawers of the desk-top drawer is a divided drawer with stuff I use a lot but is too small for the turn around... adhesives, distressors, etc.  Middle drawer is portable straight trimmers, CM shape CCS, CM photo trimmer with blades in the drawer, bottom drawer has large foam stamp alphas, ATG and embossing tool, X adhesive and babywipes for clean up.
A cupholder/trashholder between the tables.  A cassette holder is attached to the wall for SU! inks.  The sideways wood magazine holder has chalks and pastels, etc. in it.  The CD holders from Container store are attached to the wall and contain SU! and misc stamps I've moved from their wood blocks and replaced with EZ foam to make them flat they are in empty CD holders from the office supply store.  On top of ink storage are two bins, one for circle stamps and one for some misc foam stamps.  On top of the big wood shelves are SU! Clear stamps in their DVD sized containers.
The table I'll use for scrapbooking.  I have a 12x24 grid mat that I leave out to help me place for 2 page layouts, pictures are in a basket, the pail has misc small stamps.  The big paper trimmer and Cricut are also over there.  Under the table are my Cricut cartridges and a big plastic container with drawers that holds punches. Predone layouts and borders are also under that table.  Cricut mats are between my rolling CM bag which holds extra albums and pages under the printer next to DH's desk for work, which has office supplies, etc. in it.  The cabinet doors on the wall hide the electrical panel.

Where Paul works

Futon for guests to have their own space when staying with us.  We put chair floor protectors on the wood floors for protection.  My MIL had some spongy stuff for under wood floors left over from their basement and I used them under the floor protectors to cushion the little spikes that are supposed to grab carpet.

Sorry to my grandpa, but I've commandeered the toy box he built the kids to hold paper in it because it's got wheels and is just the right size!  I can move it over to my area to work if I want and when guests stay, I can close the lid so they can put luggage on it.

It's right under my dry erase/magnet board of flowers (they were selling these tins at Staples full of office supplies for something like 25 cents)  There's also a CD player & speakers for tunes, the shelf for CDs was my grandmother's. I used it for Glimmer mist previously.  This is directly across from my stamp area.


That's the tour! 

So much going on!

A few more projects to post from when Paul was gone and I was keeping busy...

We needed a chair reglued but with the curve in it, a clamp wouldn't hold, so bungie cords were used...

I painted our breakfast nook chairs... we have a very beige and white house and I figured some color to match our dishes might be nice.  It was a PITA and it's not a very professional job, but they sit behind this big counter thing and you can't tell they aren't perfect and the kids love them, so there!  I used about a can of spray paint per and used Rustoleum no-prime paint.  They also show food and crap on them way less than the white they were before. I also put some scraper things on the bottoms of the legs so they scoot easier.

I also replaced this receptacle/light switch.  Should have taken a before.  The light switch was this 1/2 flat toggle thing and the receptacle's 3rd holes were both broken, so the entire time I was sawing and sanding to make that bench the plug would fall out of the outlet.  Now, the upstairs of our house is aluminum wiring. If you don't know, in the mid-70s builders decided aluminum was cheap and  accessable and why not wire houses with it?  Um, cause it corrodes and stuff faster.  Anyways, so it's not just changing out, you also have to make sure you buy the right parts-most of them at the store say AL with a cross through it, ie: don't use on Aluminum.  You have to find ones good for copper and aluminum.  Which means there was one option on each part and they were only in white (I was going to stick with Almond since it's in the garage and bound to get grubby, but whatever)  and they were not quite the most expensive (commercial grade) but close.  Then I sanded the connectors to take off the anti-corrosion coating from the aluminum wires, then I put some anti-corrosion goop and connected up the parts. 

I also made up this laundry room stand from 1/2 a closet shelf organizer that Henri's not using-he's in the smallest bedroom-9x9 and we put his dresser in his closet so he has more floor space and I put in some Creative Memory Pod organizers.  Each has a name on it so the kids can put away their own laundry and bring down their dirty clothes.  The top red one is for ironing, lol, like that's ever going to get done!

I'm also cooking more since I don't have my freezer of meals at the ready and cooking  healthier, trying to drop some of my "moving" weight from eating all the chocolate instead of moving it...  this was so easy. I took some frozen fish, thawed it out and pan fried in a little olive oil with garlic spread powder from Costco, yum!  The beans are from the farmer's market, cooked just a little, with tomatoes from the plant in the backyard, basil in the backyard and some cubes of mozerella. The longer you let it sit the better it tastes.

I also put together a device charging station.  Next to this bookcase (those are binder clips holding the chargers up the back of the bookcase so they aren't hanging out and don't fall behind the case)  is a plastic bin with drawers and more chargers, headphones, devices that will fit in the drawers.

I also built a deck stair.  Just one.  The deck is 14 inches off the ground and was quite a step for the  little ones.  At the third hardware store I visited, a guy drew plans for me and another cut the wood for me, I just assembled and attached to the deck. It was a little expensive but heavier wood than I was going to originally used and some of the work came with it, so whatever!

It is about 12 feet long, so I took a 6 inch by 2 inch by 12 foot board, they cut up a 6x2x 8foot board for me into supports-I attached these every 18 inches with deck screws.  Then I took what looked like 1/2 a ladder and attached the 12 foot board to the exposed footing posts of the deck. Then I attached another 6x2x 12 foot board, now it looked like a doll ladder attached sideways to the deck.  I then capped it off with a 12x2x 12 foot board (sorry no pictures!) to make the step, so there's a box basically attached to the side of my deck.  I then watersealed the deck and step.  Which is good because we've been having some thunderstorms at night. I also replaced the weather stripping around the backdoor and painted the exposed pine that was used when the window frames in the kids' rooms were rebuilt after moving them down 6 inches when we were residing.

Right before Paul got home, I got a call that my grandpa who had fallen the week before was having issues with his speech and I started worrying and debating going home.  I have been able to Skype with him and he seems to be getting stronger every day for which I am so, so grateful.  We just got here to Canada a month ago and Paul was due to arrive home after 10 days away.  Paul got home and I got to spend some time via Skype with some scrapbook friends at the retreat I normally go to every year.  It was good to see them, esp since I'll also miss the annual convention we go to together due to my parents coming to visit.  We decided we need to Skype and scrapbook more often :)

I tried out the scrapbook and card group that meets at the library for 2 hours once a month.  There were about 6 ladies and it's facilitated by a woman who is about my age who works at the library.  We share supplies and tips and ideas and it was fun, I'd definitely do it again. I also found out about a card-making class once a month and book clubs that are coming up.  Between that and some extra time due to Paul being home, I made a few cards up from a paper pack that needed to be finished off... not enough 12x12 paper left to make scrapbook pages, but there was one whole paper and a 6x6 paper pack pad... Valerie helped me do the finishing touches...

 

So on to my current moving to Canada issue.  Trying to get a driver's license.  The website states that I just need to exchange my US license and bring proof of 2 years of experience as well as something to prove my address and I can get an Ontario Driver's license!  This is necessary so I can get insurance (3 x as expensive because the minimums are $1million) so we can register the car in Ontario.  We've successfully imported the car through RIV program (Registrar of Imported Vehicles), registering is the next step and must be done sooner than later.

 

So I ordered my driver's abstract before I left WA so I could get insurance, etc.  My license was issued 3 years ago, so should be no issue there for driving experience.  I printed out what I got online from WA DMV.  Ontario won't take it.  It must be mailed to you or gotten directly from DMV.  I leave in tears (it had been kind of a frustrating week with Paul gone and a small bout of homesickness). I call Paul and tell him to go into the DMV while he's in WA and get one. Luckily he also keeps his receipt because Ontario driver's licensing asks for it (remember their website says NOTHING about even needing an abstract)  I show them the one I brought last week. She holds them side by side the ONLY difference is the seal is slightly different color due to my printer. She takes them to her supervisor side by side. Still won't accept it, but they'll take Paul's with the receipt. The kicker? I take the kids out to the car and am about to send one in with the utility bill I took out with me when he arrives with his temporary license.  "How did you get the address on it without the utility bill?" I ask.  "Oh, they just took my word for it."  Unbelievable.  So if I ever get mine mailed to me from DMV, you better believe I'm bringing it in a sealed envelope and praying I can keep my trap shut about how annoying this is.  And sitting there until they give me a license. 

 

Now we can get insurance (we still have been advised to keep our WA policy until I get ON license) and get our plates this week.

 

 

Entry Way cabinet

We have a really nice, big entry way and I love that the garage entrance, front and back doors all lead to it. In our old house we had FOUR entrances to the house, all with shoes at them. Took forever to find shoes in the morning!

I wanted something that we could use to charge our cell phones on by the door (we're lucky enough to have an outlet in the entry way) but also started thinking it may be nice to have a bench there since the only place to sit to put shoes on is the stairs leading up to the living room.  So was trying to decide between a console table or a bench.


I found this at Canadian Tire for about $60-$70. It's ok, but it is pressboard, needs assembly, etc. I figured I could put a drawer/basket in the smaller compartment for charging cell phones in.

Then I happened upon Goodwill when I went up north. I was considering another piece when this came in to the store...  The thing is SIX FEET LONG thank goodness I didn't have the kids in the car! It's also solid wood (red mohagany color according to the stains at the store).

 

it was too tall for a bench, but was solid wood and only had a small flaw in the corner...

 

So I loaded it up and took it home. I took the feet off, did some fancy fixing to clean up the flaw and put some gel stain on it because it had some small stain flaws on top, plus, to take the feet off I put it directly on the garage floor and scratched it up rather than putting it on a moving blanket  like I had an inkling to do :(.  I got the gel stain in red mohagany and only did the sides and top-the front still looked good.  A few tips. The gel stain when it says "let sit 3 minutes and wipe off" is serious.  The kids distracted me and I had to step away longer on the sides and it was streaky and not the even, glossy beautiful tone on top.  However, because it was still sort of wet, I was able to take a scratchy kitchen sponge, wet it and scrub off the stain and try again and it ended up alright.

I used some of the wood from the front of the leg that had an angled edge and made a patch for the part I cut out of the front where it was splintered off.  Then used red mohagany wood putty (both from Minwax so they match) to fill in the gaps since I pretty much had just a jigsaw to try to piece in the wood.

This is how it turned out. We are going to look for some cushions for the top of the bench today. Hopefully a 2x6 foot or two 2x3 foot :)

Can you even see the flaw?

How about now?

I drilled a hole in the back for a power strip for charging cell phones, etc.  I may need to make the cut out in the back of the drawer a little bigger so the drawer can roll in and out easier as the cord really needs to be in the space that's behind the bench where there's a gap due to large molding... there's not much space behind the drawers to store it.  Luckily the drawer slides are on the sides, so I can cut larger and not worry about the slide being affected.

Otherwise, we're enjoying the shade the tree backing to our yard offers though we're getting a lot of wildlife. The misquitos are thick, I've seen 3 snakes, a bunny, tons of colorful birds (and get to listen to them!)  a blue fuzzy spider (ok, tons of spiders, but my husband was right... now that we're in the house after it being empty for 2 months, they seemed to have moved on. I cleaned out our storage area under the entry way and only saw ONE in the entire time I was down there).

This week I got the master closet and storage are organized, moved the futon from Carter's room down to our office so guests can have their own space, mowed the grass in 90+ temperatures.  Tonight is the start of our small town's Summer fest with a kick off at the farmer's market.  The farmer's market is only 5 blocks away and every Thursday night, we just haven't seemed to make it over yet, so I'm hoping tonight's the night to check it out.  After cushion shopping I really need to do the cleaning though... floors, bathrooms, etc.  I can only seem to do projects OR keeping stuff cleaned, not both, lol!

Busy in the garden

I have a nice side garden that leads from the front yard to the backyard, but after I cleaned it out it was a little bare...

2 days and way too much money later (they are all perennials, it's an investment!).....

my $5 hanging baskets...

Final view of the old house

I finally got a chance now that we are unpacked to edit, organize and upload photos for printing and found some I took on the last day in our old house.

Packing your stuff to survive a move-why you can/should move yourself

I did lots of online research before packing up our stuff for our move as well as talked to lots of friends.  In our move we only had a few scratches and one broken skateboard that was about 7 years old.

First off, we used ABF UPack.  I had about 5 other major carriers come...Atlas, Mayflower, etc. they came and did detailed inventories and gave me quotes of $12,000-$15,000 and would charge $2500 for packing and supplies.  They all charged by weight and all said that our goods would be delivered in 7-14 days from sending the truck off.  ABF UPack is based off how much length of their truck you use (if you are doing a smaller move, they have a bulkhead that is placed behind your stuff, then they can pack another shipment going the same way in the truck) rather than weight.  They did not come out to estimate, you enter some figures online.  UPack estimated for the size of our home we'd need 1 truck +7 feet.  I figured we could make it into one truck and played with the numbers until I got our estimate $5500.  That's right, 1/3-1/2 of what everyone else was quoting me.  ABF does not pack the truck, they drop it off, you have 3 days to load, they drive it to your new home, drop off the trailer and you have 3 days to unload.  They also handled the customs the same way the other companies did... I still had to make the list and meet the driver at the customs house.  So what exactly was I paying so much extra money for, for them to load it???  We ended up not using the entire truck, but went ahead and just paid for the whole thing since there would have only been about 4 feet left and that way we didn't have to worry about what else was being put in the truck.

My neighbor luckily worked at a job where they get tons of shipments with bubble wrap, so I didn't have to buy any which is expensive.  I used small bubble wrap on our dishes and glasses and I used large bubble wrap to wrap up wall pictures, etc.  I think in order to diminish some of the scratching we had on our shelving that I disassembled-think Target or IKEA shelves I should have taken some of the spongy foam sheets he gave me and put them in between the boards.  I also stacked our dishes like books on a shelf instead of flat like you'd keep dishes in your cupboards.  This is supposed to put less pressure on them.

I also went ahead and paid for UHaul boxes rather than getting boxes used or from grocery stores, etc.  I can't say if this made any difference though I will say everything survived and some of the boxes had taken quite a beating when we arrived.  I liked the ease that they all stacked up nicely, esp when we were packing things and showing the house and having everything stacked in the garage. Was it worth the price of the boxes? I don't know... maybe...esp if you moved a lot and would use the boxes again. Since the packing of the truck (see that post) mostly involved packing boxes around furniture, it probably didn't matter in the truck that they were all the same size. One thing I did differently this time than the last time we packed up is relied more heavily on small boxes than medium.  This meant we had more small pieces to fit around furniture and they were easier to carry.

I also bought about 2 or 3 rolls of the plastic wrap.  I used this to wrap around shelves that went to the same unit.  Hardware went in a labeled baggie (put a paper in the baggie rather than writing on the baggy as this tended to wipe off).  We put all the hardware in a huge 2 gallon bag and Paul took it in his suitcase rather than risk losing it in the truck.  As mentioned above if I had to do it again, I'd put foam sheets between the boards as some were scratched during bumps.  It did make it easy to find the boards to put shelving back together on the other side.  I also used the plastic wrap to keep drawers closed and to protect upholstery like couches, etc.  (did you know you can pack up your dressers with the clothes inside?)

For wrapping large furniture, I bought lots of moving blankets. They are reusable and my friends who had moved before with sheets or without blankets all said not to scrimp by saving on blankets.  UHaul and UPack sell them for about $7-$10 a blanket and give discounts for buying a lot. I believe I used approx. 30 blankets.  The Upack ones are very nice and quilted, the UHaul ones are made from recycled  blue jeans.  Both seemed to hold up equally well.  After wrapping furniture, I used packaging tape to wrap around.  I think we ended up using 5ish rolls of tape.  Do not buy cheap tape USPS was the worst tape I used.  It unstuck and tore before I was ready.  Get a few rolls of strapping tape for stubborn boxes and for wrapping around the blankets. 

Dining chairs I stacked in groups of 2 with cardboard free from Dania furniture and a friend's IKEA delivery.  Paul dropped by Dania and found out that they got deliveries on Wed and by the end of Thursday they put them in the compactor. Find out where your local furniture delivery store gets deliveries.  These were lightweight and put on top of the stack in the truck.

 

Sometimes I used the wrap to help hold the tape to hold the blankets in place.  Online there's not much concensus about wrap THEN blanket or blanket THEN wrap except with leather furniture.  Leather furniture will sweat if you put wrap directly on it.  We also found that if you do wrap THEN blanket, items slide together well, the wrap is meant to stick to itself so when you put two items with wrap next to each other, they tended to stick together and not necessarily where you wanted them to.

On the furniture like this, I used leftover cardboard and made little boxes to protect the feet of the furniture then used packaging tape to wrap around the leg.

Everything made it pretty well.  You could see evidence of rubbing on some of the moving blankets, but not on the furniture!

I spent $600 on boxes, blankets, moving wrap.  Remember that I didn't have to buy my bubble wrap.

We also drove our car. It's a minivan that gets about 20mi/gal and we travelled through the US instead of Canada for two reasons... gas is cheaper in the US (I just filled up for the first time in Canada... my most expensive fill-up ever) and it takes an additional 8 hours to go past the great lakes in that way.   To freight our smaller car it was going to be $3,000.  We spent $500 on gas plus we didn't have to buy plane tickets for ourselves.