Altered Diary (cus normal ones are so NOT purrrty enough!)

I have decided to go back to a PROPER pen and paper diary instead of trying to juggle dates and appointments between my phone calendar and my computer! I almost missed an event next weekend because it hadn't made it's way from my email inbox to my calendar. Thankfully it's just a nearly ooopsie because the LAST thing I want to do is miss something when I need to be drumming up all the cash flow that I can for the business!!!

Soooooo I went into Woolies today and picked up a diary for a pound! It's perfect "handbag" size so I can keep it with me ... trouble is it was plain black and BORING!

Well it's not anymore!!! Look at it now! Isn't it so pretty and delish! I could have really gone to town on it, but figured as it IS actually meant to be a functional diary that will live in my bag, and get banged and bashed about ... that it probably wasn't a good idea to load it with embellishments! LOL

I used a pretty pink patterned paper (Chatterbox) to cover the diary with, stamped the word "diary" onto pink card, cut out & rounded the corners and inked the crap out of it to shabby it up a bit! The photo doesn't show it up very well, but in the centre of the layered flowers on the bottom right is a lil pink gemstone. Very cute!!

Re-organising my craft room!!

After days of procrastination (quietly to myself for once instead of loudly on my blog!) I have finally made a really good dent in moving round and re-organising my craft space!! I am INCREDIBLY lucky to have the space that I've got and I am very grateful for it! I live in a bungalow where the main bedroom is upstairs. As you look at the far wall of the bedroom you see a door that looks like it's a built in wardrobe or something similar, but you actually step right through into the eaves. One of the first things hub & I did in this house was to insulate and board it up to create extra space ... and this is where I "live" when I'm crafting!!

I've still got a LOT of "putting away" and tidying up to do yet - there's still eleventy hundred boxes of embellishments to sort through (ok mebbe not quite that!) , but this is it so far ...

This is my desk and main work space. I've got four custom built shelves for all well okay, some of my rubber stamps - the rest live in boxes! The set of drawers under the desk are where I keep all of my scraps... patterned paper scraps in the top and card in the bottom. Pinned ALL around my walls are bits & pieces, odds & ends, photos and pretty stuff to surround myself with!!! I also have the comfiest chair in the world! It reclines all the way back and is totally adjustable in about every way you can imagine! It cost about £80 but it is worth every penny considering the number of hours I can spend sitting in it!!

Behind my chair I've got a set of shelves and a cupboard (very lockable!) Across the top of these are "stuff I need to hand" - like boxes of photos I want to work on and boxes of embellishments. In the cupboard - well you don't wanna see how disorganised it is, but that's a project for another day! That cupboard houses every single printed photo that I own!! Trust me they are stacked in there! The door that you can see goes through to hub's space. It's less than half the size of mine but he only uses it for gaming!! I can shut that door and lock him in from this side if I want to! LOL

To give you some bearings ... hub's door is on the left of this pic ... and the door back through to the bedroom is on the right hand side. My room is really weird with the ceiling angles, but this pic shows my fabby 12x12 wooden cubes and I forget where I got them from but I they are PERFECT to house my trays and trays (and then more trays!) of patterned paper on the left hand side!!!

Completed albums are kept at the bottom and I'm just beginning to sort through more embellishments to store on the right hand side. Ooooh yeah, a tip I picked up from my MUM of all people ... Chinese takeout plastic boxes make ideal embellishment storage!!!

On top of the 12x12 cubes is my display rack for my handmade cards, and on the very left you can see a lil door through to the rest of the eaves.

And that's where I live when I'm being creative!!

I've been ITCHING to scrapbook tonight, but hub is up in his room playing games and even though the door between us would stay shut, I prefer to scrap in solitude ... ack it's a personal thing!!!

I want to get the rest of my embellishments properly and finally sorted / put away and THEN Dee shall sneak home from work early and scrapbook tomorrow!!

I love days off!!

... I really do! I had worked the last two weeks pretty much solidly and my last day off was easter sunday so I felt I deserved a day off today! I have had an absolutely fantastic day too .... want to know what I did?

The sum total of absolutely naff all! I plonked myself on the sofa, armed myself with a coffee and a smoke, turned the TV over to either Maury or Jeremy Kyle or similar "nonsense" type TV and sat on the sofa for most of the day!!!

Okay well that's not technically true! I did do minor housework (necessary surface clearing only!) then I spent a good hour cleaning up my scrap room so that I can start working on my new comission for a 20 page scrapbook album. I am very excited about this project :-) I'd lost my mojo for a bit there, but just stroking all my embellishments brought it aaaaallll back!!