Thursday, March 26, 2009

Craft Room, first B&A picture!

I have been a bad blogger! Work has been keeping me quite busy and I've been playing catch up after being gone for so long! I'm so sorry! I still don't have time to show you ALL that I want to show you but had to share one thing . ..

Remember the craft room that I showed you the before pictures of a couple weeks ago? Well we are done! She is really on top of her products and projects and simply needed a great system for tracking it all and getting to it all, on top of deserving to give the decor a complete overhaul! THIS type of job is what I love to do! I love to decorate and I love to organize but this job is the perfect example of how I do both together and I couldn't have enjoyed it more!!!!

I have lots of pictures to show you and will get to that next week, after I drive 7 hours each way this weekend to camp with 400 people on an aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown, docked in Charleston, S.C.! Here is a better view of the entire wall of new storage!


Thanks for being patient with my slow blogging!!!

post signature

Friday, March 20, 2009

Where have I been??

Hi everyone! I mentioned to you that my TWIN was having TWINS! What a fun week I've had! I've been out of town this entire week as my new nieces came Wednesday afternoon. Here is my sister, Kim, about 48 hours before they arrived. To get this belly into perspective, compare it to her chest! Yes, she is HUGE!!! I was blessed to be invited into the delivery room (C-Section) and was able to carry out one of the twins so their big brother and sister and family could meet them! Here I am with my brother in law Eric carrying out minute old babies into the waiting room. SO much fun!!!!
Here are Chloe Grace, 8 lbs 5 oz and Kiersten Joy 7 lbs 10 oz!!
Yes, BIG twins! She carried until 38 1/2 weeks which is a HUGE success for a twin pregnancy. Here they are with big brother and big sister!

Here's Mom and babies.

What a blessing!!! They are SO sweet and adorable and amazing and I am having so much fun cuddling with them! I live 7 hours away and head back to my own life late today. I will miss seeing them all the time and can't wait for my next visit with these precious little ones.

post signature


Friday, March 13, 2009

I love my job!

I showed you the before for a craft room for a Creative Memories consultant a few days ago that I am working on. The other day, I headed off to work to start putting on the fun details of her room! So what did I do for 6 hours? Craft! Oh yes, my job is fabulous! Now I will say that some days my clients need me to clean out their garage too. Being a crafty girl who also decorates and also designs kitchens and also organizes truly brings me a new type of job every week. So it is always great to not be bored and have something new to focus on and I love a new challenge with every client but doing something this FUN was quite enjoyable!!! So here's what I walked into at 9 am. A pile of BLAH letters. We have a word to make, a cute sign to create using her new Cricut, the word "create" to alter and a big "E"! After hours of contemplating and cutting and measuring and inking and gluing, here is where we ended up with our word by the end of the day! How fun is this?
Here's a close up of two letters:

We still have some shopping and final things we need in order to complete this room so you can't see it yet but here's a solution for her tiny craft item storage issues.

And here's a spot where she now has a shopping center for her customers--an entire 'store' if you will of Creative Memories products. The little frame says "Be nice to me or I'll crop you out of my photos"! So fun!


I can't wait to show you the rest once we are done!!!

post signature

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Wanted: Creative Space for a Creative Girl!

Does this look like a room that belongs to a cool creative person? No? That is the problem!!! This room belongs to a Creative Memories consultant who also gets paid to make scrapbooks for others. Yup, you heard it right--people pay her to scrapbook. L.U.C.K.Y. Years ago, she moved into this spare room with first the desk. Then she grew out of that and added the bookcases. Then that wasn't enough space so in came the table. The closet continued to house all her crafting supplies, wrapping items and her large stock of Creative Memories products that are available to her customers until it started to burst!!! She has clearly grown out this space and this space does not represent her crafty, pulled together self!

Here's something I love about her. Many people have 'stuff' and aren't sure what they have. She knows what every single thing is. See the picture below? I would point to a box or basket and she could tell me exactly what was in it. Each grouping of photos is a specific event or planned album. Even the baskets are labeled!

She knows how to keep her things organized but there were a few things holding her back!

-the space she needs (work space and storage)

-areas for her current projects, of which there are many (all we crafty people can relate, I know I can!)

-storage items that work together. She bought some baskets but then 6 months later needed more and got another kind and though they would work on their own, together they just don't all tie together.

-a style update is needed. She is OVER the flowers and wants a fun but classic space to not only allow her to work in peace but inspire her!


This is a fun makeover! We have worked together for weeks now and though we aren't quite done, I will give you a sneak peek in a few days!!!
post signature

Saturday, March 7, 2009

House Tour-Pool House (the before)

Welcome to my Pool House! This is a small little building that is attached to the pool area. I actually took these pictures many, many weeks ago. Currently, you can't walk in it. See that white cabinet right there? That was in the twins' nursery that you saw last week! Removing that began the mess that is now my Pool House as everything in it got set on the couch. That was the plan though! First, I'll show you how it was and then tell you what I am up to . . . There is a bathroom that I will show you with the 'after' of this redo. This space has worked great for what I have needed it for. That would be to hold spare drinks, be the bathroom where wet bathing suits land (should be on a hook but it always seems to be the floor) and allow my parents a quiet place to sleep when they stay here! I didn't show you the fridge because it's boring and ugly but it is behind the door when you walk in to the left. It is full size and is fabulous for extra drinks and more freezer storage. We live FAR from a grocery store so this is a necessity. The couch is a sofa bed and though it is fine, it is not the most comfortable thing. The storage was minimal but worked for the room.

So why am I changing it? My home is very open and flows from room to room and anyone that lives this way knows the only problem--no storage! No closets! I LOVE my house but I need a place for STUFF! What stuff? Sewing, crafting, gift giving, client items I am holding, insane amount of kitchen books and magazines I keep for work inspirations, projects I am working on, decor items and I'm sure other things I'm not thinking of. Even silly stuff like I am hosting bunko and have bought stuff--I have no where to STASH it! I will have several 'project/event' bins and that would become a project until the event is over! My scrapbooking area in the house is perfect and is staying as it. The other craft items are crowding it so they will go away and allow me to scrapbook inside and go to the pool house for everything else. I am nervous about how much space a bed will take up but my parents do need a more comfortable place to sleep when they visit so a queen size bed will fit in as well. I'm quite excited to get it done!


As far as the style of the new room, I am getting rid of any basic 'country' blue but am sticking with the yellow, softer green and more teal blue tones, like the pictures about. LOTS of white will be coming in with some natural tones and rot iron but my 'rule' is no black, dark brown or any red! I LOVE black and red and it is everywhere so I want this room to have a different feel than the rest of my home. I was born in Cape Cod and am trying hard to evoke that feeling without having anything say 'beach', since I don't live on the beach! Do you know how hard that is? Seems everything cute in these tones says "beach"! We'll see if I pull it off! When I walk in, I want to feel relaxed and calm yet inspired and happy.
Here's a fun grouping over the couch that I need to find a home for. Every year in high school, my friends and I had our portrait taken. Then in 2007, the 12 of us that have stayed insanely close and vacation together every year had a 'redo' taken in Atlanta! So 5 pictures that we all LOVE to look at must stay! Many of them have slept in this room and they are all coming here for a long weekend in July and some will stay here so these must work into the space somehow! The name plates are hard to read but it has the year each was taken, 1986-1990 and then 2007.
I hope I get done with this room soon, though I'm guessing it won't be until April at the rate things are going! I've been VERY busy with work and will show you what I've been up to soon!
post signature