St. Patricks Day Frogs & Organization too

Good evening, and welcome. We've had a lovely sunny day, warmish according to the temps, but such a wind that howled & chilled. Tomorrow the prediction is for a wintery mix, and may get snow flurries. What crazy weather! We've had snow in March before. I can remember seeing the tulips peeking up above the snow. However, flurries don't stay on the ground, and we should not have to go out in any 'weather'. Hope it will be nice where you are.

Back again with another St. Paddy's card. Got most of them in the mail. Still have about 3 more to finish up. This afternoon, Mr. was waiting on me to go out and I was hurrying to finish up, so this  one  just has pattern paper and a design from a 6x6 pack + some die cuts.

Lots of snippets on this one too. The wonky stitched  outer frame is left from another project, as is the green one. The DP also a snippet - from VOS. The center motif is a page in an Irish themed 6x6 pack, so just cut one out. Impression Obsession shamrocks were cut from a snippet from some created background done who knows how long ago. It's left over from die cutting a Christmas tree, probably early in 2016. The photo doesn't show it, but there's some gold mica in the striations of color. I like the shamrocks best of all on this card. It truly is one of the fastest cards I've ever made. (being told "if you want to go get something to eat, you better get a move on" can speed up the process. I just happened to remember having this 6x6 pack and that it had a page with squares on it, that can be used for motifs).

Here's another project I've been working on - off & on. Debated on sharing, since it's so messy (embarrassing really). Last year we got some Ikea Alex cabinets. Mr. put together for me, put castors on the base so these can be rolled to wherever. Been trying to sort through wooden and clear stamps, get them together as to 'themes'. I had stored previously more by companies, and that's definitely not a good organization. Didn't realize how many flowers, birds, dogs, frogs, leaves & trees I have. Also tried to sort the Christmas themes as to Santa, wreaths, Snowmen, Poinsettia, Christmas animals, religious, sentiments & keep those together; ditto for other holidays too. I can already see that some of the drawers I've labeled, will have to be changed as I'm finding more stamps & I wanted to try to keep the drawers consecutive with the theme (say 2 drawers of birds and then not have a 3rd one in another cabinet). I'm open to any organizing ideas you care to suggest. Also I'm stacking stamps on top of bottom layer, so I foresee I'll still have to search. At least hopefully it will just be in one place, not all over the room. (I'm hanging my head in shame at this mess and  how long it's taking me to get things cleaned up. My friend Hazel, has spurred the incentive to get cracking on doing this, as she has been doing some hard work at reorganizing her space.)

the plastic 3-bin drawers look sad, and I'm trying to think of another use for these. They're still in good shape, so don't want to just toss. Behind the door on the right of the picture, there are 2 double wire paper racks. Got these as a 'bargain' when a store closed. It's great storage if you have 100 sheets of the same pattern. Not so efficient if you have a couple sheets of many different color patterns. I want to eliminate these, and perhaps put 2 more tall file cabinets, or some more tall Alex cabinets (or something similar). Behind the 2 chairs are the big plastic bins you pack stuff in & it's adventurous moving in that space. One day I hope to move the chairs to the back wall, where the sofa is, maybe put the sofa in place of the chairs. You can just see the dark recliner (hand-me-down from a neighbor who redecorated) and that's where I sit to watch tv, color & doze at night. The plastic bins in the dark bookcase hold small dies, which I have sorted by theme, and also embossing folders. I don't like the look of the bins in the bookcase, but where to store. These bookcases used to hold books, dvds and things that looked 'nice'...not so messy. I'm lucky that DH doesn't fuss at me for the chaos I've created in his tv room!

 the narrow bins on the floor are from Harbor Freight (a guy's place! and used for storage in garage. They are inexpensive, hold clear stamps in a standing position, you can flip through easily, see what you have. I'm trying to separate these by sentiments, flowers, etc. Hopefully I can get all the stamps & matching dies together in a labeled clear envelope so I'm not hunting for the die to go with a stamped image...like I do presently. You can see the ground level window that lets in little natural light. In the next picture you can see another Ott light - and there's a fluorescent hanging light above the desk. Also lights on the ceiling fans, but these just give room light, not good work light. You can't see the recliner I'm usually in at night, but there is a floor Ott light by that chair, just as there is one by the sofa.

 

Desk is on this side of the room. The table shown is the same height as the desk and has way too much mess. Shelves above the desk and this table are loaded. The tall Alex cabinets in the previous pictures were along this back wall. Decided to move the shorter cabs to this wall, and put the SU stamp bins where they are easier to swivel if I'm looking for a color. Across from this area, is another table that has the cameo & laptop, but you can't see it just now because of all the mess piled on top of everything. It's daunting, but I've been trying to work a few hours each day. Nobody but myself could possibly see that I've made any progress!!! Please tell me I'm not the only card maker who has this kind of mess! You can be sure that IF/WHEN I get this all sorted away, I will share pictures of a clean, straightened up room. Of course I still may never be able to find anything :-)

 

Just added a new card to the Cards by Friends page, hope you'll have time to enjoy it with us. And perhaps go visit the kind person who sent it to us.

 

Thanks for joining me - hope your weekend is going to be just swell. Hugs & Prayers.