Organizing

I am in the mood. I've been purging and reorganizing all sorts of things in my house. As a very visual person, how my house looks is how I feel. If things in my life are chaotic, which they usually are, if my environment looks that way too, it's like my brain short circuits on overload and I am not such a nice person. ;) I can only take so much. I started working on my studio a few weeks ago and, as Julie Balzar stated it in her most recent blog post, a working studio rapidly can become a storage room. Well, that's where mine has been most of this past year. I don't want to just clean off surfaces, I want it cleaned out, top to bottom, handling every single item I own kind of clean. I haven't been able to work in my studio in... well, I can't remember when. Even as I write, my sewing machine has been moved to my dining room table. I have a 225 sq. ft. studio space and I am working off my dining room table. How sad is that!?!

Well, Julie Balzar is starting her weekly studio organization project so I'm following along even though I do not have the freedom to spend my whole week working on it. Mine will take longer, but I will carry on. Here's pretty much where my studio is at in the process currently. I am making piles of like items with the plan of then knowing how much permanent space I will need for those items. And I'm purging, purging, purging... thinking of putting together flat rate mixed media boxes for sale... I'll keep thinking on that.

I have been doing this clean out throughout my house, actually. My boys were gifted an Xbox and a t.v. to use for play for Christmas so I had to rearrange our main living space to create a play space for these items. In the process, I also moved a different computer desk in for my boys and I swiped the antique writing desk for myself and put it in my room... which lead to a major clean out and reorganizing in my room! One thing leads to another! I'm so excited to now have a small work space for writing in my journal, doing Bible study lessons, and, I put a pan of watercolors in my desk drawer too. Pretty things that have special meaning to me line the top ledge of the desk. It's one of those old desks that the top closes down and when you need it, part of it folds back to reveal the writing space and little nooks/drawers. I LOVE it. I'm so excited! The bad part is lighting in my room. The wall the desk is on has no working outlet. In fact, the closest working outlet is clear on the other side of the room! I only have a lamp in my room and am now thinking of how to remake the shade on it to allow for more light in my room. I HATE dark. Oh! And I scored an awesome chair at our church rummage sale that is PERFECT for my desk!!!

Well, winter break is over for my boys as they go back to school today and I get back into my own routine. Almost time to get them up so I gotta' stop here. If you want to follow along or even participate in Julie's Organization week, you'll be sure to get some great tips! I suggest becoming a follower on her blog as she is a whirlwind of amazing creativity all the time! Such an inspiration!