Now It's Time to Start on the Office

Last week was the cleaning and organizing of my craft room. Yes, I did get finished except for our trip to IKEA to get that desk I want. That will be the finishing touch. This week is the office. We haven't cleaned or organized the office in a long time and there are piles upon piles of paperwork that needs to be filed and just junk mail that gets thrown in here when we need to clean off the dining room table when we have company. I guess you could say most of it is either trash, goodwill, or filing. We do have some items that are in the office that we will save and put out on ebay vs. goodwill. I have two desks to clean off as well as a credenza, so I started on the largest desk this morning. I was able to get a few things sorted and shredded before we started running errands.

I really need more organization in the office. In the big desk I have one drawer that is just full of cards. There are birthday, Christmas, get well, thank you and a variety of other cards just waiting to be sent. Problem is, I don't send cards very often and here they are taking up a whole drawer. What to do? Oh, I have another drawer that is full of cards that we received that I just had to save. Now why did I save them? Okay right, I was going to use them in some craft project or other. There has to be a place to donate old cards right? I'll have to look that up on the internet. If you know of a place, let me know in the comments as I would like to take back that drawer.

Now I thought I would share photos of a necklace set that I made right before the holidays made with rubies, multi color tourmalines, lemon topaz and sterling silver. I love the cut of that lemon topaz, it's sort of a spiral cut. I haven't listed them yet for sale, but they are pretty. Enjoy and have a great day!

Cleaning Out or Cleaning Up

This week has been my cleaning week for the craft room. Okay not only cleaning but organizing. My craft items have somehow managed to escape their room and have overflowed into the hall, the living room and the garage. If it is in the garage, it may just have to live there for awhile.  Ugg. What to do now? So, I'm consolidating boxes of wire and beads and other craft supplies into my cabinets and labeling. The problem is when I see something and it spurs an idea to make something else. That was my problem yesterday. I found an old necklace that hadn't sold and decided that I just had to remake it into a double strand bracelet. After getting it all torn apart and organized, I came to my senses and started putting all the beads into their respective containers to work on another day.

So, this morning while reading blogs and drinking my coffee I had this idea for an inspiration board that I could post in my craft room. Problem is my craft room doesn't have any walls available to hang anything. I can just envision these boards with beading and crafting ideas posted all over them just waiting for me to have time to make them. I have a couple of memory boards that would be just perfect. Maybe I can get them to hang on the brick wall behind my table. I've never tried to hang anything on brick, maybe I'll google it and see how it could be done.

Okay, that's all for me this morning, I have work in that endless pit of a craft room. I hope everyone has a great day.

Saturday Chores

Today was chore day or maybe a little late Spring cleaning. I started vacuuming the living room due to all the dogs bringing in leaves and twigs and then moved to the kitchen. That's pretty much were I stayed all day. It was a disaster area that really hadn't been organized or deep cleaned since we painted. So, out went all the items on the counter tops that never got used, cabinets were washed, pot and pan cabinet was cleaned out as well as the cabinet over the stove..yuk all that greasy build up. Then I moved onto the corner window with the plants and thinned those out before moving to the bar area which is a catch all for everything when we come home at night. So far it's looking pretty good, not sure when I'll get to the dining room, but my goal is to de-clutter the entire house while I'm off work. I would show you a before and after shot of the kitchen, but I didn't take a before and you might not be impressed with the after, but I am, and right now that's all that matters.

I wasn't very productive this week with the 11 yo in tow, but I did get one of my competition trees completed for Montana. I just have to glue it to a rock. Marketing items such as business cards and postcards were worked out with the printer, so hopefully I'll get a final proof early this week. My copies of the BOOK "Gem Tree Sculptures" should be in this week also. I'm sure it will be a busy week. I'll try to get some jewelry designs completed and pictures taken for next weeks post.