Bad Blogger Syndrome, and a Happy New Year!

So, I know - I really do know - I'm a bad blogger!  Actually I'm a very bad blogger because it's been a whole week since I posted ANYTHING on this blog.  Of course if you ever follow the link in my righthand column that takes you to my OTHER BLOG, you know I've posted several times, so I've not been totally out of cyber space!  And I apologize, truly, and promise I'll try to do better!

Anyway, before I go any further, I want to wish you a wonderful, blessed, happy, healthy, successful, fun, 'whatever you want it to be' kind of 2010!  I'm so glad to see the back side of 2009 drifting off into oblivion!  It was about as bad a year as I can ever remember having, and it's good to have an ending point for last year and a beginning point for a brand new year.

So, since hubby had to work New Years Eve day, we decided to take the easy way out and order a pizza and stay in for the night!  That let me off the hook for cooking, so I played for two days.  Well, I actually didn't play so much as work in my play area.  I wanted to end 2009 and begin 2010 doing something that would {hopefully} be indicative of how I wanted my new year to go, and that was organized!!!

I had been working on my buttons for ages now, going through the old stash, pulling out some to put up for sale on Etsy and keeping the ones I thought I would use.  So, I got all those buttons (and there were hundreds!) in one box except for one jar that are vintage buttons my Mama gave me (I don't want them mixed in with the ordinary, every day run of the mill buttons), and one jar of vintage buttons that my aunt brought me back from her fall trip to Connecticut.  So, buttons - check!  Off my list!

Next up was ribbon.  And I can finally say I am ALMOST finished organizing the ribbon.  Probably 95% plus, and that's a good feeling.  I really did not know how much ribbon, lace and trims that I had until I started trying to organize it - whew!  And some is on rolls, some in bundles, so I had to come up with something, especially for the loose yardage and bundles.  I looked at the craft stores and found  all kinds of things, but nothing really looked like what I wanted for the loose ribbons.  I did find these little plastic things that you run the ribbon through and then put them on a binder ring to hold them together, but I had LOTS of ribbons!

Anyway, I put on my thinking cap and here is what I came up with . . .

I took a plastic divider from an old 'Cropper Hopper' that I no longer use, cut the tab off and then cut it into four 6" X 6" squares.  Then I made holes in it.  I tried two different ways, and actually like both.  This one was done with a regular hole punch, with 2 and 3 holes per ribbon.  The single hole on bottom left is for hanging on a binder ring.  The other way was using a utility knife and making slits about 1/2 to 1 1/4 inches around the perimeter of the plastic.  I figure on three of these squares I have about 65 - 75 pieces of ribbon and trim stored.  Here's the finished product . . .

As I said, this is three of the squares, filled with ribbon and attached on a 2" binder ring and hanging on a small coat rack I have behind the door of my 'play room'.  And yes, this picture was taken as it hung on the doorknob, but that was just for the picture taking!

I also went through most of my lace and have it in a bird box on the 'tower of terror' you will see later in this post.  I also put all my seam binding in another of the small bird boxes, and the ribbon that I put on clothes pins a few months ago, along with some on 'cards' are in a large decorative hat box that is on my work table.  I had a few rolls of ribbon, and they all fit onto one 'pants' clothes hanger from the cleaners.  I just removed one end from the cardboard roll, put them on the roll with the ends all facing the same direction, and put the end of the hanger back in the roll, and that was that!

The twine which I have collected is in one of my new favorite small organizing bins - oh, how I love them!!!  But more about that later.  For now, here is the 'tower of terror' . . .

I've had the Sterilite drawer units for YEARS, but they still can't be beat for small things I use a lot.  The bottom row left is . . .

• bottle and tube glues in the bottom,
• sheet adhesives in the middle,
• and rub-ons, chipboard, etc. in the top

The small drawer unit in center bottom holds . . .

• self adhesive gems and such in the bottom,
• loose fancy buttons, beads, gems, etc. in the middle
• Stickles in the top

The drawer unit on bottom right holds . . .

• embossing powders and Versamark ink pads in bottom,
• smaller ink pads in middle,
• and Colorbox 'Petalpoint' ink pads in top

The small drawers on center left are all about tools . . .

• tiny hammer, pliers, jewelery pliers, , etc. in the bottom
• cutting tools like a utility knife, hole punches, etc. in the middle
• the blades for my rotary cutter, and loose batteries in the top

Center right holds . . 

• Tags of all kinds in bottom,
• blank cards in middle
• eyelets in top

The stuff in between is a pack of wet wipes for clean-ups, my 'Silent Setter' eyelet setter, an index card holder full of little templates I've made over theyears for birds, flowers, etc., and the tin holds gel pens and colored pencils.

Next is a shelf I picked up at Lowes or somewhere, and here's where it gets good!  Of course you can see my Cuttlebug on the left, the bird boxes in the center, and the new fave storage boxes on the left!

The boxes hold (from bottom to top) . . .

• buttons
• small bits of paper (soon to be changed out to another place)
• lace
• seam binding

And the new boxe are just GREAT!!!  They are by Sterilite, and the lids lock on with the handles, and they really stay on tightly, too (I know, I dropped one the other day and it didn't come open at all tospill out any of the tiny bits that were inside!).  The best part???  They are at WalMart for a whopping $1 each!!!  And as far as I know, that's not a sale price!

Since aqua, and white with accents of red and black are my dream colors for my play room, and the handles were already aqua, I went with the theme.  Consider it 'planting a seed' for my one day (hopefully) makeover!  So I made red tags on my Cricut (Plantin Schoolbook cartridge), printed out contents on my computer and voila!  Neat organization for things I never knew where to put!  In no particular order . . .

• twine (including bakers twine)
• pins (straight and safety pins), needles, clips (paper clips and binder clips), etc.
• index cards and sticky notes
• glitter
• velvet ribbon
• clothespins
• small silk flowers
• sheet adhesive overflow
• ric-rack and trims
• millinery flowers and small pre-made bows and ribbon roses

I love that things are beginning to come together!  And just so you know, as soon as this last batch of ribbon I have coming in from Hong Kong (yes, seriously - I bought it on eBay!) comes in, I have officially put myself on a button and ribbon DIET!!!  No more until I use up some of what I have!

I've also been working on my papers, and pretty much have the cardstock straightened out, so I just need to re-do the patterned papers.  Of course the next big project is the biggest of all, and that is tackling the closet in that room, but it can wait a day or two while I get laundry done and the rest of the Christmas stuff in the attic.

Don't forget about my giveaway!  I guess it's because of the holidays, but it's sadly lacking in entries, so if you enter, your chances are pretty good!

So, what have you done to start this new year off right???  :o)

Becky