First, a question ...

... then some photos. (Um, several photos.)

I know there are a few of you who receive my blog updates in your e-mail. In the past I have experimented with sending out the whole entry, and again with just sending part of it and having a link you can click to get to the actual blog to read the rest. The second option (the one that's currently in use) came about because I tend to be long-winded and I didn't know if y'all would be annoyed at getting a long e-mail. But today I got a full entry from one of the blogs I subscribe to that was very long, and I didn't mind it a bit.

SO ... if you're a subscriber to my blog, would you mind leaving me a comment to let me know which you'd prefer? If I get a majority one way or the other, I'll go with that. If I get a tie, I'll probably just keep it the way it is.

Okay, on to other things!!

I was still feeling too tired today to do anything crafty. It's a brain kind of tired, and I think it's from the antibiotic (Ketek). All I've really wanted to do is sleep, and Heaven help anyone who's had to deal directly with me today. I have been exceedingly crabby and pretty much unable to help it, so I'm blaming the med since I can't blame PMS, and I KNOW it's not my normally charming personality! lol

I did manage to unmount a ton of my SU sets (yay!!). But, of course, showing that is boring. So I decided I would go ahead and show you the rest of the photos of my updated craft loft! You can click on any of the photos to see them bigger.

This is a "broader" view of my pegboard wall than the one I showed last time. For some reason this pic just makes it look messy, but I promise it's really not! It actually looks very well-organized (see the pic from the last entry). I have my SU Ribbon Keepers hanging on the wall (I had to cut X's in the back in the places where the pegs would go), acrylic shelves for inkpads, alcohol inks, colorwash sprays, etc., and old In Color pads (guess I'll have to be making space for the '08 ones soon!). The ribbon basket has now been reorganized, so it doesn't look horrible like that! You can pretty much see the rest of what's there (well, not what's in the drawers, etc., but I'm not going to get THAT detailed with you!!).

Okay, here's the wall that overlooks the entry/front door of our house. SU UMs are in the CD cases to the left (I will have a ton more of them once I get to Office Max and get more cases!), the cabinet holds coloring media (except for loose markers, pens, etc.), embellies and a few odds-n-ends. That's my StampRite Stamp Making Kit on the floor to the right. (I need to get that out again ...). My Stickles and most of my liquid glues are in the little bins on the pegboard.

This is just showing how the corner looks once in a blue moon when I actually clean my desk. Trust me, normally I can't find the corner. Well, the corner of the ROOM, but not the corner of the desk. Anyway, I'm so proud of my file cabinets! When I first took over the loft for my stamping stuff, Bjorn had the file cabs in there to hold up the desktop, but I decided I didn't want them (well, one of the ones that was in there was broken and useless). But after trying umpteen thousand other 8-1/2 x 11 paper storage ideas, I came back to this one. Someone mentioned it (don't remember if it was a comment on this blog or a post on one of my Yahoo groups, but whoever mentioned using file cabinets, thank you!! I have all my SU cardstock in them. My SU 12x12 is in the cabinet in the corner (I don't have a lot of SU 12x12, don't really know why.) Again, various stuff in the drawers.

















This is where the good times roll -- my desk area, including the pegboard strip at the top that started it all. Prior to the complete pegboard re-do, this strip was highly crammed with stuff, but now I can give my things breathing room. This strip is reserved for the things I need immediately at hand, like my scissors, rulers, brayers, Staz-On inks, Versamark ink, etc. And I've got other "immediate" items at hand in the shelves on either side of my chair. I luvz it, lazy creature that I am!

And here we have my "Goodies Shelves", which overlook the living room and are to my right when I'm sitting at my desk. Cricut machine, Cuttlebug, my SU inkpads (boy, am I glad I was a demo long enough to get all of 'em!), and, my most prized possessions, my scads of UM rubber/acrylic/photopolymer stamps! All those notebooks are full of 'em (except the last two, which are index books). And I've also got my SU wheels, my big cutting boards, and my very important notebooks that have my Technique Junkies newletters and downloads, my non-TJ tech downloads, my sketches and other various instructions and/or project ideas in them. They're my security blankets, truly!

This shows my current patterned paper (12x12) storage system (and my unfinished steps down into the loft -- we can't decide what to cover them with). The top part is a 12x12 file crate housing the "misc" PP, which is loosely categorized according to theme (I gave this job to my 14-year-old son, so there may have to be some tweaking at some point). Beneath that I have (top shelf) SU PP, put in plastic file envelopes according to "set" (my brain is dead, I can't think of the proper name); (2nd shelf) Club Scrap paper; (3rd shelf) CTMH and TAC PP, also in plastic files, according to "set"; (4th shelf) various misc. books of paper and paper collections; (5th shelf) SU scrapbooking kits; (6th shelf) Various more recent books of paper; and (7th and 8th rows) non-SU solid cardstock. Oh, and you can see a teeny bit of my cool bead curtain my mom gave me for Christmas a few years ago. Yeah, baby.


















And lastly, (don't know why this pic is out of order -- like my brain ...)
This is the right side of my desk area. The unruly box full of paper is my "I'm too lazy to put away my large scraps" box.

So, I hope you've enjoyed this semi-brief tour of my little "sacred space". Truly, in a sense it is sacred because God gave me any talent or "gift" I have to be creative, and every time I make something, I'm worshipping Him by the act of being creative. He is, after all, the Ultimate and Original Creator. And it is always, always my heart's desire to give all glory and honor to Him. He gets the credit for my loft, too, because everything I have comes from Him and His loving generosity.

I'm hoping to feel good enough to actually MAKE a card tomorrow. I have an idea for one if I can just get my brain out of its hammock and on the job!

Thanks for sticking with the long post!