After Rather than Before and After!

These are just the after pictures. And actually, they are more like the during pictures. This is a work in progress and I sure hope it continues to progress! I'm sorry that I don't have any before photos here. I know I've taken them, but I just can't recall when, so they aren't easy to find.

Even the shots that show the worktable are displaying wide open table space, according to my standards. The shiny bit in the middle is a thick piece of glass I often work over. I rarely have any but the front edge of it showing.

I'm trying to get my working space organized so that I can find things, so that I don't lose important parts, and so that I don't trip over everything! The wall of shelves that has served me so well in other homes just isn't cutting it here. Oh it is full of stuff but it looks a mess. So I put stuff in some of my baskets, then in most of my baskets. Finally, I bought more baskets whenever I found ones in the right shapes that were on sale. Everything looked neater but now I can't see it all. And worse. The spaces on the floor in front of the shelves filled up and I cannot reach the baskets to see what was inside. Somehow, tags don't seem like the answer. All of the scrapbookers organizers I'd seen were really expensive and none of the others would accommodate the things I had to store yet keep within reach.

Finally, I found some great organizers at Michael's. (I don't need to give you the link. You can find it. And if they want a link from me, they can give me a link back!) With a 20% off coupon, it seemed like the time to buy them at last. So I bought three of the sets of three shelves, three other cubes, and the carousel on the desk. Wow! That thing holds a lot! I did already have one big shelf for the table top that I bought at Recollections before stupid old Michael's closed them. I just haven't put it together yet. I've had the two tall multi-colored drawer units for a while and they work great for me, though I don't have enough space in them. I bought another tall one and a shorter one with deeper drawers. I've got the shorter one put together and it rocks!

I've had a couple of Iris clear paper holders for a while and I like them. Here in Arizona, it's important to protect your paper from dust. If you live elsewhere, you might think it is just a simple matter of dusting regularly. (What kind of time do you have on your hands if you have time to dust shelves of papers?) You cannot escape the dust in Arizona. We don't have dirt here. We have dust that is not moving right at the moment. Anyway, I found a unit with two large Iris boxes and two thinner ones where they slide in and out like drawers with lids! It was on sale so of course I bought it. That takes care of lots of paper and my Twinkling H2O paints. I wish I had one with four of the big paper holders, so I'd have a good place for the two I already have.

Today just might be the day when I get the remaining units assembled and the room re-arranged to accomodate all! And then I'll decide how best to make drawer dividers for some of these drawers. And paint the Folgers coffee cans!

I've Been Tagged!

Lovely Jackie Cardy has tagged me. I'm supposed to tell seven random facts about myself, link back to Jackie, and then tag 6 others.

Hmmm... what to tell?

1. I like big dogs and always have preferred them. But I had a neighbor in Colorado who had a Maltese and I fell in love. But he wasn't a typical Maltese because he'd been raised with Goldens and he thought he was a Golden. In fact, he thought he was the biggest Golden! At any rate, I fell in love with little dogs with a big dog spirit and have been harboring a desire to have a Yorkie ever since. How could I not love a three pound dog that thinks he's a Mastiff???
2. I used to like to climb trees when I was a kid. I had my own tree in every patch of woods near our house. I used to sit in my tree in the woods across from our house for hours. Sometimes I'd take a book and read and other times, I'd just nap or watch the countryside.
3. When I was a teenager, I used to think about running away to the West on my horse. I knew he was my horse and he knew it. But he actually belonged to the neighbors next door so I couldn't take him because that would be stealing. So I never ran away to the Wild West. I think I knew it didn't really exist anymore.
4. I am allergic to having poison ivy. Not just to poison ivy but to actually having the reaction.
5. I got kicked out of the Georgette Heyer list's waiting list for calling the moderator "passive aggressive with nothing better to do than count the lines in people's posts". I had been called on the carpet for not clipping enough of the original post. Get a life!
6. I have a secret desire to go live in a cottage in England. The one time I went there on business, I nearly had a nervous breakdown because I couldn't get any Mountain Dew. I wonder if that would be any better now that I've officially had my drink addiction switched to Diet Peach Snapple? Somehow I think not.
7. While there are lots and lots of places (okay, most of them in Europe, and most of those in England!) that I'd like to see one day, I really like being an American and living in the American West. But I'd love to stay in a real stately home some day and not just a country house that's been turned into a hotel.

I'll name my six victims in my next post!