pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

More reading for space reclaimers:
Country Living {I would love a central work space…I tried and my room just isn’t big enough. I’m happy with up against the wall in my 8×11 room.}
Decor8 interviews Claudine Hellmuth {with lots of pictures of her studio-in-her-living-room.}

I managed to make some reclaiming progress over the last 24 hours by focusing on the basics: getting rid of the rubbish (and just letting the bin overflow does not count. It’s entirely out of the house, which is stupidly liberating.) and rehoming all my basics—trimmer, scissors, adhesive, corner rounder, ink pads, etc. That plus putting scraps in one place has created a clean workspace. Tomorrow I’ll try to sort those scraps and take care of the surfaces that gather stuff in my room. Everyone has these surfaces, right? Where as soon as you have it cleared, it’s just too easy for things to start stacking up there again? Anyway, it makes me feel better if everyone has them. Or at least mostly everyone.

Totally loving playing with the kit from Scrapagogo this month. {Just a sneak peek here for now, but the full images will be on their site soon.} I’ve made 10 projects already and still have more stuff in my bright yellow box. Gotta shift gears to finish some things for the magazine, but will be able to make some more GoGo goodies next weekend. Now…can I keep the space under control? Oh, how I hope so.

xlovesx

Comment [6]

The only way I can get motivated to reclaim my space is to have inspiring goals. Sometimes that can come from a photo taken earlier—this one from last October always reminds me that when I get it just so, this room is my favourite place to be.

But other rooms also keep me totally in awe, and often changing little things here and there. On Flickr, there are several cool groups to watch creative rooms go by, like Art Studio, Craft Rooms, Pretty Organized and Inspiration Boards. But you can also find whole sets of photos grouped by room, like walking right into someone’s studio and taking in all the details. Some of my favourites include Alicia’s Posie Studio, Tara’s bright orange room, the Love, Joleen Studio and Heather Bailey’s Studio. But there are so many. Like here and here and here and here and here just to name a few. And there are fab threads on UK Scrappers, Two Peas and ScrapJazz, just to get started. Oh my goodness there are so, so many.

So step 2? Get inspired. I don’t want my space to look exactly like anything else I see—but I want it to be as workable as what’s in those pictures. And when someone has taken the time to photograph their entire room and post it? It’s usually at its best. So step 2 is like having that vision of crossing the finish line.

If you have a room you love (that is either yours or one you admire online), share a link with us!

xlovesx

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Seriously, how does this happen?

It starts out all clean and pretty. Everything has a place. There are niches for this and baskets for that and there is absolutely no reason why this room should not stay practical and presentable. But this is what it looks like after three days of scrapping through a list of projects that need to be done by this weekend. And it really does hit me like a frisbee I didn’t see coming.

The first step is admitting I have a problem, right?

This is my desk right now. As in five minutes before I posted this. And no one can say this is pretty or productive in the slightest.

Something has to be done. But for today, showing my messy desk to the world is enough, I think.

It does make me feel better that others have a messy desk—and have also shared it with the world—so I’m sharing some of them here:
one, two, three, four, five, six along with one news column that says I shouldn’t stress about my messy desk. Sigh. Sometimes the internet can just make you feel better.

Go on then. Take a before picture. Post it if you like, or just keep it to yourself.

And you perpetually tidy people? You part comes in tomorrow, when you start to share your wisdom. For today, you can just silently mozy right along. I know you’re out there and I envy you so, but today I gotta bond with the messy desk girls out there. You understand.

xlovesx

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I’m totally cheating. This is not a cupcake. This is a muffin. Which means this is not a cupcake Thursday. But it’s also not a work Thursday, which is kinda like cheating in and of itself, so why the heck not, right?

It’s been a funny half-term. The day before a school break, we get a note that reminds us of what time the school will open and close each day, in case we want to come in and work in our classrooms while class is not in session. This is something I have done more days than I can count over my teaching career, but by this time of the school year, everybody needs a break. Especially when I realise that a ton of schools are already breaking for summer and we have several weeks left, right through to the middle of July, and oh, did I mention we are not an air conditioned building? That summer session is such a challenge. It should never make a teacher feel guilty to take this break as a real break, and yet that guilt often creeps in by Thursday or Friday. This time, I got a note explaining that I could not go in, as my classroom would be part of some electrical work! Hurrah—it feels strangely free to know I just can’t go in and I have to take my holiday! Hurrah.

So, with a smaller audience, I thought I’d try just a little batch of blueberry muffins, and by kismet blueberries were even on sale. This made an even dozen; perfect for keeping a few and sharing a few. And posing with random plants, apparently.

Ingredients:
85g unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarb soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sour cream
1/8 cup milk
A big coffee cup full of blueberries, washed and stems removed

Preheat oven to 180C and place liners in muffin tin. (ha! It’s the same thing as a cupcake tin! Sorry. I am easily amused.)

Beat butter and sugar together with a mixer until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until even.

Add all remaining ingredients except for blueberries. Stir in, then mix on low speed until evenly distributed.

Fold in blueberries.

Scoop into tin, filling papers 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until set with golden tops.

Serve with coffee, adorable hedgie tea towels from The Black Apple and randomly placed plants, for good measure.

xlovesx

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Have you been over to the Banana Frog Blog? (Or just said it ten times fast?) This little project is over there today—totally loving the combination of that journaling stamp with the scallop punch. Can’t get enough—something you’ll notice in tomorrow’s project too I think! Might as well soak it up while I like it—that’s my theory anyway. Gotta love a theory.

Here’s my other theory: whether you’ve spent May being super crafty or just wishing you were, every once in a while you have to fight to reclaim your workspace. Supplies and other things just seem to end up all over the shop and not where you want or need them to be. So…I’m dedicating the first week of June to reclaiming my workspace—no rebuilding or furniture shopping or anything crazy—just getting things back to where they should be and making sure it is both happy to work in and not embarrassing should someone knock at the door for an impromptu visit. I can’t be the only one, right?

Just a Memory is helping me out with this, and they’ve got this one little purchase that I will suggest. Because once we’ve got our space the way we want it, we need a way to remind ourselves that it deserves our attention every now and again. Pick up a 6×6 page frame here and join us for that part of the project on the 7th. (Girls in the US and Canada, you can pick up one here and play along!)

A few more little projects to post tomorrow to share the love for May!

xlovesx

Comment [7]

Oh my goodness is my favourite thing to say as of late. As in ‘Really we have to wait until to September to find out what happens next? Oh my goodness!’ (For although I have no TV I have one particular weakness that I download on iTunes, and oh my goodness that was a cruel cliffhanger.) And ‘Did I really leave the burner on while we were eating dinner? Oh my goodness!’ And then there’s this one:

Oh my goodness there are so many online tutorials for adorable fabric flowers!

Okay, so maybe my oh my goodness is starting to lose its meaning, but it’s true. Here are but a few:
Origami influenced
Felted fabulousness
Hairpin sized
and a very classy one from Blair of WiseCraft

I was also loving the one featured about halfway down this post from the new issue of Cotton and Paint (from Japan).

This one was made with scraps leftover from my new pink polka dot skirt. I traced the bottom of a bottle of paint and cut 25 pink circles and 6 black circles, then stitched them all together by piling them onto the needle and then moving the petals around until they spread out. Then stitch back up to the middle, add the button and keep the thread very tight so the petals pucker a bit. Sew a pin back to a small circle of felt and hot glue the felt to the back of the flower, and all done. All done so quickly you might say ‘Oh my goodness, I could make these all day!’

Or that could just be me.

xlovesx

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When you arrive at a crop to find little touches like this, you know something special is in the air.

Thank you so much to the ladies at Wyverstone who invited me to their event to talk about The Reasons Why...It was a fabulous day from start to finish, and I was verklempt more than once. It was brilliant to meet all of you.

Hope you have had a lovely long weekend!

xlovesx

Comment [7]

Well, I said at the beginning of May that this month was insane—and now I fully remember that. This week has been kicking me in the teeth: we’ve had the first English GCSE exam (two more in two weeks and then we’re done for another year), the coursework went off to the examiners (who grade our grading, so the entire process is more than a little nerve-wracking) and some other big stuff at work, but all that is beside the point. There has also been craftiness, if delayed. I won’t have made a project every day in May but nearly and through my month of crazy, I guess that’s not so bad! Plus there is the fabulous reward of next week—a week off school to recover from the bone-shaking stress of this week. I have some things to finish that I started, so a little bit of catch up will be good for the soul. That, and having the time to make a latte in the morning.

Better yet: Saturday’s workshop for The Reasons Why. I finished up about a gazillion of these little journaling bubbles while the sun went down by my window.

xlovesx

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