My New and Improved Studio Space!

It will have to be short and sweet tonight (but aren't you just so proud of me for making it a solid month??)... My mom is in town to celebrate my sweet baby girl's (I still call her baby so that I can still call the weight I am carrying around baby weight) 12th birthday!  We ate at the Melting Pot tonight.  If you have ever eaten there you know that I am about 10 seconds away from a full fledged food coma so I must, I must, I must get this written before that happens.

As you know from my whiny post (about 3 posts ago), you know I just turned 40 and have been trying to bring some order to my sometimes chaotic world.  One of the places that needed it the most was my studio. While I am the type that makes a mess while I am working on a project, I am learning that I need a clean studio to walk into or I don't end up walking in at all.  A mess leaves me overwhelmed and under-inspired, so I am trying to clean up my act in my "she-cave" so that doesn't happen.  I mean, really, I did have to arm wrestle Big Poppa in order to make our basement MINE and not some testosterone laiden place where ball-scratchin' and cigar smokin' are a given (sorry ladies, but I gots to tell it like it could have been).

I am soooooooo lucky to have this space considering I used to scrap from the wee corner of our homeschool room, which was the loft of a 1400 (barely) square feet townhouse. We have since moved into a home that is a bit bigger and I now have a walkout basement that includes a huge great room with a bar sink and counter, storage room (unfinished), guest room with a walk-in closet, full bathroom, and elevator shaft (awesome for storage of my tables and chairs that I pull out when I have a bunch of crafty ladies over).  Please don't take this as bragging or trying to be all "in your face."  All I am saying is that I know I am blessed beyond belief and that I only hope to be able to share my good fortune of being able to create in such an awesome space with my friends and family.  I am also trying to explain that I now have NO reason not to be organized and neat since I have so many hidey holes to put a plethora of craft goodness.

The following pictures don't show everything because by the time I got home, it was too dark to take good ones (okay and let's face it...I am a horrible photographer AND the food coma was slowly settling in).  I plan to do a studio tour on my You Tube channel (link above) when all is said and done.  I have a lot more  to do still, especially in the storage room.  As I get more and more done I will post some more photos and let you know when the she cave goes live on YT.    One thing I will say is that you learn a lot about your scrapping and crafting style and what you need the further you delve into this hobby.  My organizing style and what and how I like to do things has progressed over the years and I finally think I have figured out what works best for ME.  With that said, jumping head first into Project Life for the first time has brought on a whole new set of organizing dilemmas, but let's leave that for a blog post in which my Flaming Turtle Chocolate Fondue is not sitting, shell and all, in the pit of my stomach.

This is the famous Ikea Expedit.  It seems to be the "go-to" for a lot of scrap happy organizers.  This one is to the right of the fireplace.  To the left is another one just as full.  This one contains a lot of mediums and embellishments organized into those boxes.  The one on the left is more geared towards paper.  I love the white file boxes (from Ikea too) because they can hold 12x12 paper....always a thorn in the side for organizing it seems.

No, this isn't my scrap studio, not even close.  In fact this Ikea store is about an hour and a half away from my house (Big Poppa is ecstatic because if it were closer, we would be there a lot more).  It is an organizer's paradise UP IN THERE!!  Something about all that cheap (the prices are very reasonable but that may lend itself to the fact that the quality isn't Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware like) organizing eye candy AND Swedish meatballs being all under one roof makes me HAPPY!

Sadly, this is the only other picture I have.  This is a kind of sort of wing off of the main area.  To give you a point of reference, I am standing a little in front of my main craft desk to take this photo.  My main craft desk faces an L shape couch that is in front of the fireplace and Expedits pictured above.  The bar counter and sink are to the right of my desk.  The tables to the right and left can pull to the center so if my girls come over to get their art on, we can all sit together and work.  The "Alex" as it is called (black 6 drawer unit to the right) and the white plastic 3 drawer units all hold my Project Life stuff as well as some supplies to use the various machines you see on top of the tables (Silver Bullet, sewing machine, typewriter and Cameo).  What you can't see is that straight ahead under the table that holds my sewing machine and type writer is yet another long storage shelf unit. 

Once again, this set up works for ME.  It may not work for you because of how you like to work or your chosen style of space.  My theory for ME is that I don't need things to be pretty but I have to have them be functional.  All the "candy stations" and pretty vintage milk glass in the world won't work for me because it isn't how I craft.  While it is beautiful to look at and works for others, I need more utilitarian modes of organizing.  So, I will continue to organize and search for the nirvana of studio space INSTEAD OF THE LAUNDRY!  And, if you have some YT video recommendations of some awesome studio spaces or if you have an awesome video of your own crafty she space, leave me a link below!  I would love to watch some vids INSTEAD OF THE LAUNDRY too!!