Office Update

I have been cracking the whip on myself to finish all the projects I had started around here. I've made pretty good progress but just haven't sat down long enough to write them up for you. Ah, you know that's not true, don't you?  The part about not sitting down long enough, not the part about making progress. Truth be told, I'm a professional sitter-downer.  I could open my own business if there was a call for it. Too bad I don't know anyone who needs help with their sitting down. So, here I am sitting down, with a plethura of projects to tell you about.  I've made a few changes in the office that have really helped me out; given me more storage and inspiration so I thought I would start there.

Remember my stamp pad caddy? I wasn't happy with having to take out all the stamps to find the color I liked. I wanted them individually displayed. So I've been keeping my eyes open for something that would work better. I see these wooden cassette holders all the time at thrift stores, some bigger and some smaller. I chose a bigger one so I would have room to grow.

The slots were too small to hold a stamp pad so I took some heavy snips and cut every other horizontal slat to make the spaces twice as tall. Perfect!

Craft Room Makeover

My brother is turning 50 next week. I bought his card yesterday (Shhh. He hasn't seen it yet.) that said "Turning 50? Look on the bright side...Bright side?!! There's no bright side! There's a bright light, but you're going to want to stay away from that." Hahahahhahahaha. I'm still laughing but I'll spare you more hahas. Cracks me up. He's going to love it. But why do I tell you that story you're asking yourself?  Well, about 18 months ago I got laid off from a job I loved. It really threw me for a loop. I couldn't imagine what I was going to do with myself or my time. I had a hard time even getting out of bed not to mention committing to anything. It hurt my pride, I had never been let go from anything, well if you don't count the A&W manager who sent me home after a half day and said I clearly wasn't getting it. No, HE wasn't getting it. Somehow he overlooked my great restaurant-ing skills. So anyway... fast forward, I gave up my primo office space upstairs to my husband and took over the larger but freezing office in the garden-level basement. My friend Lisa talked me into it (and of course it was the right thing to do anyway) pointing out that I could make it a joint craft room/office. What's that she said?!! Craft room? I've never dreamed of having a craft room. So I hopped on that train and set about making one for as little as possible. Now that I wasn't working, funds are quite a bit tighter. Good thing I shop the thrift, huh? Let me show you what I did.

The basis for the room was this Craigs List cabinet score ($25). My husband wasn't too sure about it but it has worked out perfectly! It has loads of storage for my paint, tools, adhesives, paper, etc. I labeled the drawers and glued a tape measure along the front edge for quick measurements. Side story, same brother called me while I was glueing the tape measure on and said "whatcha' doing?" I paused and said "Ugh, I don't want to tell you." He dragged it out of me "I'm glueing a tape measure on my cabinet."  For about 30 seconds, I think he thought I'd gone around the bend...again. But we had a good laugh. The tape measure was one of my sweet mother-in-law's and that makes me smile each time I see it. I did have a tv on top of the cabinet but I freecycled it. I found that I get in the crafting zone and never turn it on.