Crafty Space

Top shelf storage

labeled storage

paper and inks, great to have
a space for them.

Plastic drawer system

 Every Craftier/Artist needs a space, whether it is just a place to put the items you use to create, or a room; it still is a space. My area is shared because this is also our laundry room. The space is also a walkway into our office, so it needs to stay organized for the most part. This is what my craft room should stay looking like, but most of the time my desk is overloaded with pulled out items and started projects. Never the less, this special blog on  Crafty Spaces helped give me with a reason to actually put everything away. As you can see Ikea is great at  simplifying and, with it being helpful and storage savvy, it looks amazing. I love lots of color for my craft room. It makes it easier to work on projects and be that my colors are very bright and vivid, it is fun to craft. 

A cool storage tier my
(scrubby) gave me.
-scrapbook hubby-

     Make sure to label all boxes and storage containers, it can be a pain if not labeled or maybe some detailed info, I know. If you can see under my desk I have a plastic box that I hold all of my 12x12 paper in, I then use cardboard and labels to separate into themes.( Very Helpful) 

Tools

I also use my Tool turn a bout from Pampered Chef, as a great tool holder on my desk. Having little jars and plastic containers can be a pain but if you can label and stack or organize they are a lifesaver. Another big thing I use are rubber-maid plastic containers with drawers, these help with separating my ideas and styles of projects. I use drawers for stickers, stamps, my sewing items, and so on. I also would be lost without my dry erase board and calendar that are easily accessible. I love my space, I only wish I could keep it this clean all the time.Every Crafty needs a space and even if it is in a drawer or closet or room, organized only helps encourage the arts to flow more freely.

Paper holder on wheels,
easily slides under desk

Space

Desk storage

What does your crafty space look like, maybe a suggestion to improve my crafty space? Let me know, leave a comment. 

Coupons

     So I hit this bug and its called Coupons! I had this misconception that you spend more using coupons then if you don't, because when I would cut out coupons and use them I bought things I would not normally buy because I had a coupon. "WRONG." My friends have been talking about the new show Extreme Couponing, and I glanced over an episode that this woman dresses up to make herself feel confident and then bought 82 bottle of mustard, which they do not even use. ???(WHAT) I could not understand the why or how this worked. 
   Now I am not a genius with math and it still had me boggled, how does this make sense and why. So I started calculating in my own process. If an item costs 75 cents and I have a coupon for 50 cents off, that makes it still a quarter you pay for each item, but if I had another coupon for the same item that said 2 for a dollar. This means the items are both free. Now if you happen to live in a state that double or even triple the worth of a coupon, those items and coupons would actually make you a credit of 1-2 dollars after the cost of the mustard!!! Leaving you to keep shopping and not spending money. OK now I get this crazy idea and now I am thinking more about the savings I could make in my own life with out be a crazy nut job like some of the people on that EXTREME show. 
   Since the show, I have had an eye out for coupon shoppers and realized many do use coupons, I was out late one night picking up a few things for my husband, for a business trip, and watched a woman go through the line about seven times. Each order was meticulous and each order was coupon-ed out. The total for 7 transaction were less then 7 bucks and her cart had tons of stuff in it, plus she received a coupon on the back of every receipt she was given. This woman had me in awe because right there showed dedication and I now want to be able to save my family money on buying things that we use not buy an excessiveness amount that we do not need! As this woman in front of me check out, I thought she made a plan and stuck to it nothing in her cart seemed weird or abnormal. Band aids, Splenda, toilet paper, flour, among other things. I did not even know that Walgreen's sold really food items, and then the sale price plus manufacture coupons it was amazing!

All in all, I will be couponing and you will see more on this soon!

Sewing Scraps

     The idea of throwing things away that cost so much  is  just sickening sometimes. I have found a great way to use those little piece you cut off around a square or while cut out projects into something you can use around your other crafting projects. I find that I always have to cut a  little piece around my squares once sown. I also find that I just normally throw away, but sometimes I am in love with fabric, so I want to use for other things. I decided to start saving them and then needed to purge my art room. I took all my little scraps and found coordinating pieces and started using for tag holders to gifts. You can use them together and form a braid with three pieces and use as an embellishment on cards I also can use them to tie important letters or little projects in tightly bundled packages and set aside. You can use these scraps to close the top of a present or around a vase. Have fun with it.Use your scraps to the fullest and feel better about that special fabric purchase.

Keeping up the Pace Its February!

Well, almost through February... I cannot believe it. The days are passing by quickly and this is my first post for the month! I better start cracking. March is David's birthday so I have some things to get done. I also have to keep up in my new found ATC hobby. My seeds for pre-garden are doing well, I will have to post pictures and of course we have our new Boxer puppies running around. This month has been a little crazy! Don't worry I will post soon!