Art/School Room Makeover

Our school room has been a mess for a LONG time to the point I hated to even walk into the room.  Actually we have been doing school work at the kitchen table because the school room was so unorganized I couldn't stand the sight of it.

I knew we needed more bookshelves but had yet to find any locally that would fit the room and my budget. So I resorted  to ordering online.  

Happy  birthday to me! The shelves came in this past Friday and Sunday afternoon I put all three of them together. I love the space.  Well half of the room is now organized.   I still new to work on the other half which is mostly my "project" box and other things.  

We were able to do school work IN our school room Monday.  It was great.  We only have one large desk, instead of one for each child.  Works out much better.  I can get Jacobs individual work do e, then combine them for group work.  Then he is done and I can work on JoAnna's individual work and then Jace's. it works much better to work with one child at a time rather than have them all in the room all day together. Less distraction and less fighting. 

So here are a few pictures of our art/school room.

I even pulled this bean bag chair out of the garage to use as a little reading nook.  I bought it as a prop for photography sessions. Works great in this space!!

The kids helping me put together the shelves. 

cabinet

i don't know if I have blogged about this or not-and I am too lazy to go back and check. I got a cabinet from a friend several months ago, she is moving and just wanted to get rid of it, so it was FREE!!! I painted it, sanded it and here it is!!!! I am using it to store movies, games and electronics.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

ART ROOM

Well it started off as my "scrapbooking room", then it was the "CRAFT ROOM" but I think I have settled on "MY ART ROOM". Now if I can just get it organized so I can actually get some "ART" done!!!

I think I made a BIG dent in my organization tonight. Although as you can see from the photos....its gotten a LOT worse since the last time I took pictures of my room. Things are piling up everywhere!!!! I am such a hoarder and when I find a good sale....I STOCK up!! (and then forget I bought it and it stays hidden for months!!!) So tonight I tackled the shelves above my work table, my work table, and my organizational tote-that has just been a "catch all" for everything. It had gotten so bad I had just about decided it wasn't such a good organizational tool-HA! If only I had kept it "ORGANIZED"!!!!

I can now see the top of my worktable!!! Now I can work in the ART ROOM instead of the kitchen counter!!!


Here is my tote that holds all my essentials at hand. These are items I use most frequently.



As you can see I have finally obtained some 12x12 paper organizers!! Got 2 of them on sale at Michael's when they had them on sale for 40% off, AND I had a coupon for a 4 hour sale one Sunday, 25% off my total purchase. Of course I did very well and only bought the two paper storage bins....so I got them 65% off of 29.99....you do the math!!! GREAT SAVINGS!!!

I have also organized my ribbon, although I think I need one more row. I also still have some cut ribbon in glass jars and some longer pieces shoved into a big glass vase.

I have also moved my laptop and a small printer into my ART ROOM!! Mostly because I have really gotten into the "coupon thing" and it really helps to have multiple computers so you can print multiple coupons (you can only print a coupon twice per computer). Plus this printer is black and white and ever since we installed a new versions of Windows on the desk top-I cannot for the life of me find the option to print in black and white instead of color!!! What a waste of color ink!!! (I am sure I can look it up or something-but who has time for that????)

Recent Projects and Finds

I found this rounded square chipboard album at Michael's, I have a TON of these chipboard albums in all kinds of shapes. One day I will get around to altering them!! Anyway, so I got this cute baby boy paper and I am working on making a little brag book chipboard album for a family friend that just had a baby boy. I have already applied the paper and painted the edges, now its time for all the little details!!! Pictures to come later!


Here are some CUTE stamps I found in the dollar bin at Michael's!! I am a stamp fanatic!! I just LOVE stamps!! So I just HAD to have these!! I think they will be so cute on cards!!!


I have been racking my brain trying to come up with some cute way to store ALL the spooled ribbon I have. I have SO much ribbon its crazy!! I have been trying to make bows for my daughter so I have been stocking up when its 50% off at HOBBY LOBBY, plus I bought a TON on clearance after Christmas (are you noticing a trend? I cannot resist clearance sales!!) So anyway, here is what I have come up with so far. Once I paint the bases I will cut these rods shorter and sort the ribbon by color, but you get the general idea.

One small step....to organizing my craft room

A couple of weeks ago...ok maybe a month ago I found this cute little find at the thrift shop for $10. I have been wanting to find some old printing press drawers but haven't been able to stumble upon ANY! So here is my little find as purchased.

I simply spray painted it black and hung in on the wall....simple, easy, cheap and functional. I needed a better way to store my wood stamps. I had them lined up on a shelf but every time I would reach for one about three others would fall over. So this lets me view what stamps I have and grab one without disturbing the peace.

Craft Room Disaster

Well I have unpacked all my craft/scrapbook stuff and got it into my dinning room. However I have not gotten it organized yet. Actually it is a total disaster!!! My table has become the holding spot for all my clearance purchases. I have boxes full of "projects" that I want to complete but haven't had time to get started. So hopefully in the next month I can get it organized and cleaned out....

Hooked on Hooks

Ok this post is a bit lame, but who reads this thing anyway?! So lately I have been going hook crazy!!! I had hung hooks in the laundry room for the kids school bags and jackets, but it got overwhelmed with jackets, coats, etc. So I added extra hooks for bags. Here are the laundry room hooks...






Several months ago I found these plaques at hobby lobby that already had hooks on them. I modge podged some scrapbook paper on them and used a stamp and inked the edges. The first one turned out great, but the last two were kinda thrown together ad I was ready for some hooks in my bathroom. So I will eventually redo them-but for now, here they are...







The kids received hooded towels for Christmas from (Aunt) Roo. So I decided they needed their own little hook-as those things can be a nightmare to fold. I put them behind the bathroom door so they are out of the way but easy to access.





I also have a long 2 X 4 of hooks in the garage that I keep all our athletic bags hung-mostly all my bags from college and high school-just can't let go of my athletic past LOL.

So far I haven't thought of a need to put hooks anywhere else-but I am sure I will find one soon enough!!

Happy New Year 2010

Ok so I have lots of 'goals" for the new year. I really want to take time and be with my family this year and concentrate on the important things in life. I want to be more proactive instead of reactive. I want to set goals and strive to reach them.
So here are a few of the goals that I really want to work on this year...

Spend more time with family and friends: this is were I struggle the most. I usually make plenty of time for my family however, my friends usually get neglected. I don't keep in touch well with people I don't see on a regular basis. Although I hope these friends know I would be there at a drop of a hat if I can and would do anything possible for them. So my goal is to try to keep in better touch with my friends this year. Either by email, text, phone calls or maybe even...gasp...visiting them!!!

Run: believe it or not I use to love running when I played soccer. I was never fast but I felt my endurance was fairly high. I didn't much like running around a track but preferred running through a neighborhood or a trail. so I'd like to start of slow by walking and then work my way up to running.

Bible/devotions: I want to make sure I take the time each day to read my bible and do devotions. Not only for myself but also with the kids. I bought a devotional book specifically for the kids with special activities that are meant to help the lessons be memorable. So I would like to start that with them.

less tv: my kids like most kids today watch WAY too much tv. Its my fault and I need to start limiting their time in front of the tv and computer. I had tried letting them watch a show or two after 7pm-only after baths, dinner and homework (that is speech homework for Jacob). This worked great since they go to bed at 8-they only get an hour of tv AND I could take tv time away as punishment if they didn't behave during bathtime or dinner time!!

weekly game night: I want to have "game night" with the kids once a week. They have tons of board games and such and we really need to pull them out and spend some quality time with them. This will most likely decrease our tv time as well!!

date night: there for a while my husband and I were taking a date night once a week. Now we rarely take this much needed time. So if not weekly at least every other week we need to set a night aside just for us and preferably something other than dinner...

create weekly/monthly: I would like to create something weekly. Sounds a bit much considering I have three kids, work full time...etc ...etc. But I would like to complete something weekly. Either a new project, a hair bow, a scrapbook page...SOMETHING each week. It really gives me a sense of accomplishment when I spend time in my craft room and create something.

make gifts: I would like to make more gifts-such as Christmas gifts for next year and/or birthday gifts.

make cards: I need to start making my own cards and keep a stash of them on hand. I have a huge supply of scrapbook stuff and should be able to make every card for every occasion!!

photo session monthly: another passion of mine is photography. I love taking portraits. I have always wanted to be a photography but haven't taken the leap yet. I have photographed a few small weddings and taken pictures of friends and family but not much else. I would really like to schedule one photo session a month to build my confidence and my clients. I have been putting this off for far too long...

artwork on walls: we moved a year ago and still do not have much on our walls. I find I am too cheap to buy stuff in the stores so I want to create things for my walls. Which should be easy since I plan on creating something every week!!!

lose baby weight by Jace's first birthday: After I had JoAnna I went on a serious diet and lost all the weight I gained while pregnant with her and then some. I was down to my "pre kid" weight-which was before I even got pregnant with Jacob. However, once I started my new job I gained 20 lbs in 5 months and then got pregnant with baby #3 and gained 43 lbs! YIKES! So I really have to work hard now to get this weight off-especially since he is already 4 months old!!!

Cook at least twice a week: since my husband isn't home for dinner most nights I haven't been cooking much at all. My kids are picky so I usually just eat whatever it is they will eat: mac and cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, etc, etc. So I would like to cook more "adult friendly" meals and hopefully this will help introduce them to new foods and help me with my weight loss!!

WOW!!! All in all that is a LOT of goals for one year!

Craft Room

(can you tell I am held up in a hospital room? so I have nothing better to do than to create new posts to my blog that nobody will EVER read...)

Ok so I was so excited that we found a home with a formal dinning room, as I had planned on turning it into a scrapbook/craft room. Well I have finally started working on organizing my new craft room. I have bought floating shelves, I intend to have 4 when I am done but only have two up right now. Here is a picture of the bracket going up...




I will post more photos later. I have 2 shelves up and need to get photos. Then I really need to get busy organizing. I plan on having a birthday party at the house in 2 weeks and Thanksgiving a week after that-so I at least need to get all the boxes unpacked and things put away.

Living on a Dime

Ok so for the month of July I have really kept up with our grocery budget. My DH told me we were going way over budget every month and I just didn't see how that was possible. So I have kept every receipt this month. Actually I do my grocery shopping on Friday for the week ahead so I actually bought the first week of groceries in June-so I cheated a bit there and we STILL went over budget. So I have been checking out a lot of websites about frugal grocery shopping and cooking. I've also found a few coupon sites-however in the past coupons haven't really helped much since I buy all off brand stuff anyway.

Anyway, I wanted to share a website I found tonight that has a lot of helpful hints. This site is packed full of great money saving tips, organizing tips, cleaning tips etc.