trimmingthesails

Be warned about the Bs ...

... because there are a fair few in this post! The first is for bended knees, for that is how I am coming to you today. Not out of an excess of humility, alas, but because a recent back injury is exacerbated by sitting. I'm either very vertical or very horizontal. And it's all because of an excess of enthusiasm and a dollop of fed-up-ness when decluttering my 'craft-room' (though that's a little grand for a few walls and a chunk of Ikea), combined with a lack of due care when shifting stuff. You'd think I'd have learnt at my age, as Himself duly reminded me. Still, I can bumble about in a tidy space even if I can't do anything much ... And besides, the C-word is still ages away ... Isn't it?

I was bounced into the revamp by posts and tales of how much easier and swifter scrapbooking is when all resources are organised by colour rather than by type: any of you do this? The seductive use of simpler really sold it to me, for I now need to be a more mobile scrapbooker at this point in my life, especially with a Book of December Days about to unfold. I need to be able to locate things swiftly, and scrapbook in a variety of places. A time and motion study would have shown me previously flitting from the card and papers to the pens, via the threads and ribbons, and off again somewhere else for any other types of embellishment - this kept me anchored to my room (and probably resulted in a lot of things strewn across the floor - blush of shame). I've found loads of things I didn't even know I had (second blush of shame). All items apart from card/paper (these were already organised according to colour) are now grouped in clear bags inside a square basket for each colour. Hence the Phew!

But I've come to a full stop with the brads and eyelets. Many are tiny. Do you bundle them all together on the grounds that life is too short to separate them out into colour groups, or do you get out the reading glasses and tweezers? I'd be very grateful for the benefit of your expertise and experience, and please do let me know in the comments below ... OK Alexa, you are going to say Ouch and Bother when you stand up. Breathe ... :)

Simple scrapbooking: a scraproom ...

I'm not quite sure why I'm smiling here - whether it was an automatic reaction to someone turning up with a camera, or it was fuelled by desperation - but I didn't feel very cheerful...

You probably know how it goes: the initial burst of enthusiasm for clearing out becomes dampened by the sheer enormity of the task. Amalgamating the contents of two rooms was not going to be easy, especially as the space is only about 6.5ft x 8ft. The end result needed to be very compact, tidy, easy-to-use, everything at hand, just like a cabin on board a boat or barge - and yet not feel cramped. Travelling and scrapping 'light' would take some organising and thinking about.

Amazingly, here we are. Order on the window ledge has been restored ...

My two arty friends (I must make them a hat each) have been reunited on my desk ...

and my beloved Mac is plugged in and waiting ...

Behind where I sit, there books and chests of Small and Useful Things ...

... and a wonderfully practical, wooden drop-down flap from Ikea which we hinged onto the shelf to make an extra work surface if needed:

 

Alongside, live my 12x12 boxes of card and paper, with inks and stamps and shallow things below. You know how you see pictures of idiosyncratic pieces of furniture on blogs, and people artlessly say "Oh, I had it made/saw it in a junk-shop/found it on a skip"? Well, this is mine, and sometime I must tell you the story behind it:

Having bored two holes in the edge of each plastic box lid, I pulled a piece of ribbon through and knotted it in order to make the boxes easy to pull out. The ribbon is colour-coded to match the card inside: and plain ribbon for plain card, and patterned ... you get the picture!

On top of one of the wooden bookcases, stand my (and DD's) collection of old mini-suitcases, now holding sewing and painting items ...

Opposite the window stands a shelving unit, with a corner section; I've used the sides to house hanging plastic boxes ...

... and I should point out that the Plaisir Du Vin wooden box holds not wine (alas!) but metal spirals for the Bind-it-All which itself is neatly tucked into a narrow corner between the window and the bookcase with other related cutting and trimming tools:

 

Wicker baskets hold a variety of items:

Some sentimental family treasures have their home here to.  DS's sweet-tin from a childhood birthday on holiday in France now contains not sticky shell-shaped boiled sweets, but book rings ...

Two Mum-related items always make me smile with pleasure. This one is a little pillow pin-cushion made by my amazing mother in her seventies as a sampler to demonstrate lots of embroidery stitches; and yes, the whitework stitches, drawn threadwork and crocheted edge is her own work too:

 

and this one made by my DD when she was seven, for me:

 

So there you have it. Welcome to my creative space! This is where my simple scrapbooking happens. Oh, I nearly forgot - we're going to need to return past the books to the window ...

because - given its compact nature and the need for everything to be shipshape - my scrap-cabin wouldn't be complete without this:

Should you have any photos on your blogs of your own scrap spaces, or useful ways of storing things, I'd love to see! Thank-you for calling in today ...

(Oh, and if you have time to blog hop, I'm also doodling letters over at It's a Creative World today.)