the moments in between

workspace wednesday | it's the little things

Every now and then I have a wake up moment and realize something that's bugging me about my space is an easy fix. 

I split work time between my office (big monitor, but COLD in the winter) and the living room (comfy, can hang out with the fam while I knock out emails and other routine tasks). And sometimes I stay in one place when the other would be better suited to the task just because my laptop battery only lasts so long and it's a pain to move my power cord. After just accepting this forever, I finally asked Matthew how much another power cord would be. Probably around $30, he said. SOLD. That will more than pay for itself in convenience. 

With that solved, I turned a critical eye to my workspace seating situation. The stool I had was vintage and looked good, but to be honest, it was flat and hard and making my tush fall asleep when I sat and worked on class PDFs. A little time with google turned up a cute (and yellow!) drafting stool. It was under $50 and easy to assemble. I've been working from it for most of today and am putting this one solidly in the win column, too.

These two successes will definitely have me reevaluating other things in my workspace. Have you fought a similar sticking spot in your space? I'd love to hear how you approached the fix!

the great 2014 workspace cleanout

I spend a LOT of in this little room. making, planning, assigning, working. It needs to support the day to day needs of my behind the scenes role wtih Studio Calico as well as the process of making layouts and project life spreads. At the moment, it's really not the inviting and welcoming place I'd like it to be.

I'm not out to fundamentally change the room. I love the storage pieces in here, I love my desks, and I love the basic layout. I just really need to buckle down and go through absolutely everything in here - from my supplies to sam's toys to fabric and random school keepsakes - and organize it in way that works for how I use it.

My plan is to go through everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - in this room, and put back only what I need. If it doesn't support my work, it needs a new home. (While I'll be donating some of my excess supplies, I'm sure there will be some giveaways as well. Keep an eye on my Instagram - I may have some stamp giveaways planned in the coming weeks. ;)) 

This isn't going to be a fast process. I need to be able to keep working while it's going on. In fact, my goal is to ring in the New Year in a happy new space. I'm planning to make a schedule of sorts, to keep me from getting overwhlemed by the process. Taking it one drawer or shelf at a time sounds way less scary than overhauling a whole room!

If you follow me on Pinterest, I've been pinning a ton of workspace ideas. I've definitely seen a common asethetic emerge. I'm a fan of white walls, vintage and industrial storage, and spaces that look lived in. I'm obsessed with inspiration boards and clearly need one of my own. I don't mind a little chaos, but I want everything in my room to make me happy, not frustrated. And I need storage solutions that are easy to maintain.

Do you have a workspace board on Pinterest? I'd love to check it out if you do! What does YOUR dream space look like?

AHA.

every time i deep clean my workspace, i open up this printer's drawer, shake my head at the bits and pieces inside, and then shut it again.

but this time, i opened it up and went AHA! and then i dumped out the old old old bits and pieces that were inside it and filled it with my studio calico wood veneer. 

it's pretty much perfect. i love that an item bought on a whim at a garage sale 7.5 years ago is just what i need right now. =)

retail therapy

i *may* have done a little shopping while i was stuck in bed with the flu. the dangers of having too much time on my hands. ;)

i've been debating what album to use for my 2013 Project Life...  i finally settled on the seafoam album. i think. if i find one i like more, i'll move my 2011 pages into these, as those are currently in black binders (boring!). now that it's mid february, i figured it was time to embrace 2013 and get my album rolling.

ever since rachel at basic grey showed me these goodies at CHA, i've been dying to get my hands on them..  hey you, hey boy, hello (there's also a hey girl, but it's a bit girly for my house ;). since these lines released at joann's and my store isn't convenient, i bought some favorites online. i can also tell you that these lines will be popping up in studio calico kits. ;) 

InLinkz.com

i picked up this bin from land of nod to hold my project life kit, and loved it so much that when i saw they had a free shipping promo i had to grab this one to hold other kit goodies. i love that it gives me a place to put the smaller kit embellishments front and center so i won't forget about them while i'm working. i am seriously an out of sight, out of mind sort of girl. 

and last but not least, i popped in to archiver's while the boys were at my mom's this weekend... and was rewarded with new amy tangerine yes please, dear lizzy lucky charm and maggie's new line. LOVE. it all just came in at 2peas - here are some of my favorite pieces + a few from other lines that i've grabbed recently : 

InLinkz.com

now it's time for me to be good and SCRAP instead of shop. ;) today's a good day for that, we're home for a snow day. see?

they made the call last night for a storm that is *supposed* to hit today...  so far, it looks like it's mostly gone south. it'll be interesting to see if we get anything significant before the day is over. right now, there are a few flurries and a housefull of woundup boys. ;)

2012 : captured june // project life week 23

(2012 : captured // may - copyright twopeasinabucket.com)

my 2012 : captured class went up on friday - but since i spent the weekend doing baseball-y things and matthew had taken over both my old and new laptops to get files transferred over. so with all that behind us, i'm ready to get back on track with life. =) this month, my guests were vee jennings and melissa stinson and we're talking about stamping. you can see vee's week here and melissa's here.  they both did an awesome job - i hope you enjoy the inspiration!

week 23 // june 2-8 : baseball. squirt guns. fireflies. vex robitics. sam being sam. good mail days.

neutrals, stamps and pops of bright colors. totally my favorite way to do PL, so this month's class was a natural fit.

i tried to mix in a bit of non kid stuff this week - it gets left out too often. you can see more details on the techniques and ideas i used this month here.

InLinkz.com

happy monday! i woke up with a cold - boo. between that, a busy weekend, a late night for matthew and the boys (they went to a college world series game last night) and crazy hot weather, it's been pretty quiet around here. here's to a more productive tomorrow!

(project life is a system created by becky higgins to take the stress of of scrapbooking. for me, its a reminder to pick up my camera and capture the everyday. you can learn more about how i use project life here, and you can find all of my project life updates here. if you want tips + tricks to use the supplies you already have in your stash in your PL album, check out my 2012 : captured class at 2peas.)

 

touring meredith / scrapbooks etc

on friday, becky novacek and i roadtripped to des moines to visit the bhg scrapbooks etc offices. that's the original meredith building above - built to house the first magazines about a hunderd years ago. it's now connected to another more modern building - things have expanded a little in all that time.

it was like the COOLEST creative field trip i've ever been on. as the day went on, i just got more and more amped up about paper + glue.

michelle rubin picked us up at the front desk and then proceeded to blow our minds with a tour of the buildings. there are a LOT of magazines headquartered there, including better homes and gardens, renovation style, traditional home, parents, family circle (etc etc etc). we saw where the test kitchens for BHG were - and there were some DIVINE smells in that hallway. we saw their show kitchen and test garden. but my absolute favorite part? the photography studio. it's huge, with little alcoves with sets in them everywhere. all this is surrounded by props galore - rooms filled with rolling pins and vases and plates and bowls arranged by color and furniture and just about anything you can think of. it was a little mind boggling!

up in the scrapbooks etc area, we got to see the august issue all mocked up. the pages are printed and hung on the wall for a final approval before it goes to press. it's a good issue. ;)

after getting to see all the inner workings and meets lots of the behind the scenes magicians, we headed out for lunch with some of the people behind SBE and the BHG creative collection pubs. it was a great chance to meet some amazing women. as if that wasn't good enough, michelle took us to two super cute stores - ephemera and domestica, before we headed back to the office. both places were filled with eye candy - i walked out with some cool arrow clips and a couple of prints.

we ended the day by meeting with the project life group they have in their office - they try to get together monthly to work on their albums. how cool is that to have a built in support group? i shared some ideas that will hopefully make PLing a little easier for them, and becky gave them some awesome photo tips. it was so inspiring to see how they're all coming at project life from their own angle, and it made me want to get home to work on my own book!

becky and i left feeling totally recharged creatively - and our day still wasn't over. we stopped at an amazing little vintage shop - rescued junk - on the way home. it's typically open one weekend a month, but we got an email earlier in the week that they'd also be open that friday. i did a lot of balancing "OMG I WANT" with practicality (the red lockers? a boy would totally lock another boy inside those), and came home with a new stool for my workspace and a cool fan. and a bit of an obsession about a piece that isn't pictured here. like, thought about it all weekend.

and guess what? it's going to be mine. =) i just heard back from the shop owner w/ the dimensions and it wwill work perfectly in my room. now to figure out the details of getting it from there to here. i.am.GIDDY.

there is so much about the day that i can't even put into words - it was just an amazing experience. an amazing place, amazing people, amazing energy - and an amazing road trip partner. ;) i think the positive energy from that day will carry me for a while!

happy monday! =)

a workspace peek

studio calico has a new feature on the blog - workspace wednesday. i love peeking into people's rooms, so i love that they've started showcasing them. a little look into my room went up yesterday - i'm sharing my new vintage storage pieces and how i store my current kit. you can see the post here.

happy thursday! it's not even lunchtime and i'm already thinking sam and i will have to find SOMEWHERE to go this afternoon or we'll drive each other nuts. here's to finding an adventure. =)

where i glue : 2011 edition

it's been over 2 years since i've shared photos of my room, so i thought it was time for an updated tour. =) this little room is under 8ftx10ft and holds my scrap + sewing stuff, as well as office + shipping supplies, some overflow kid art stuff, and a fair amount of sam's toys (he's still young enough that he'd rather be underfoot than upstairs in his room).  i would love nothing more than to pull everything out of here and paint the walls + woodwork and do a major purge on all fronts - but that is so far down the house to do list that i can't even imagine it happening.

we'll start on the right side of the archway from the dining room, where there's a little cart from the kitchen section at target that holds my sewing machine + fabric. and a yo-yo that needs a string. there are more sewing supplies in the closed portion of the shelf, as well as extra adhesive.

this used to be a closet - and now holds a zillion things. in front of the shelf is a box that holds stuff to donate, my misting box, and a frame and memo board that i need to hang (but first i need to re-do the stuff hanging on the wall currently. overwhelming, so it hasn't gotten done. i'm not good at walls).

the bottom shelf holds mailing stuff, more fabric supplies, a box of finished LOs & the plastic drawers have keepsakes.

the second shelf has a box of kid art (clay projects), cardstock that the boys can use, another box of finished LOs (ahem) & the baskets hold misc suppleis (transparencies, notebooks, watercolor paper, smash books with yet MORE finished LOs stacked on top & paperwork.

the third shelf has my project life supplies (first cube), keepsakes (second cube - working on sorting the stuff into the plastic drawers into these), and embellishments (third cube - bottom drawer is recentish 2peas purchases, middle drawer is SC countryside & state fair & coordinating stuff, top drawer is the latest SC release + coordinating items).

the 4th shelf has stamps (one of the aqua boxes - the other is empty), some project life supplies & mini albums (baskets), more misc embellishments in the 3 drawer cube, (bottom drawer is mostly labels and tags, middle drawer is SC elementary + coordinating items, top drawer is empty) and some misc supplies in the last one (paint, AC & JBS embellies, 2 empty drawers)

the 5th shelf holds photos from my film days.

these built in shelves were here when we moved in - the last owner had a lot of plants here, if i remember right.

the bottom shelves have kid stuff in the back corner (art supplies that are seldom used) & alphabets, last year's december daily supplies (ahem), punches and magazines in the baskets.

the middle shelf has a printers drawer filled with small stuff (i should probably sort through it since i don't know exactly what's in it), mistmistmist in an old coke crate, extra adhesive and stamps in the little suitcases. the cube holds buttons, small embellishments and some jenni bowlin stuff. and back in the corner is a plastic cube with office supplies - paper clips, printer paper, tape, that sort of thing.

the top shelves have paper & albums (obviously) - as well as our windows home server (hello, photo backups)

desk space!! these are kitchen islands from the line martha stewart did for kmart way back when. i love them.

i've got punches in an old printers tray under the desk - and in the card catalog drawers. the drawers of the desk hold random tools, embossing powder, ink, printer supplies and all sorts of random stuff. i have a row of flowerpots on my desk that hold scissors, adhesive, pens & pencils, paint brushes and my tiny attacher, as well as bowls that have leftover bits and washi tape. the tray + floral box hold my latest SC kit. my clear stamps are in a basket behind my laptop. the wall to the right of here has shelving with toys on it.

so. this is where i glue. it's a little too small and a little too cluttered and it could be prettier, but it works. =)

and on the scrapfront...

i took down the big fence that seperated most of my scrap storage from the rest of the playroom (you can see it in pics here) while it was wonderfully effective at keeping little hands out of my supplies, it was a hassle to get to most of my storage - AND it became a deposit spot for all sorts of junk. so, out it went.  and now the littlest is obsessed with pulling my stool over and stacking things on my desk. he's been fairly good about respecting my things, but i realized earlier that one of my studio calico bird stamps has gone missing..  and i'm pretty sure i know who lost it. (and speaking of studio calico & stamps, there will be a new pink slip list in the newsletter tonight...  and some of my faves are retiring. i'll have to give them a grand send off speech tomorrow, along with my june kit sneaks).

 

(supplies : chip letters - making memories, chip hearts & brads - american crafts, blue, red & yellow pp - october afternoon, gray overlay - hambly, hexagon, map, green floral, grey & "s" pp - studio calico, fabrips - studio calico, label stickers - studio calico & october afternoon, punches - fiskars, tiny attacher - tim holtz, journal lines stamp - studio calico, ink - pumice distress)

this page was up on the studio calico blog last week, along with a writeup on how i got from an inspiration piece to this finished project.  it was fun to take the time to think about how i work and break it down into steps - though it makes me realize that i have some odd work habits. ;)

this set of cards & matching envelopes went up on the fiskars site earlier this week. i'm trying to get back into the habit of making cards, and trying to remember that they don't have to be rocket science - a simple design can go a long way.

also -  one of my fave pages of me + the boys was featured over on the scrapbook & cards today blog last week, along with some other beautiful mother's day projects. i took an IOU on a mother's day pic this year - i didn't shower till right before we left for the ball field - i need it to stop raining so we can get a photo of me + the boys. =)

speaking of the rain....  while i have to say that i enjoyed the first couple nights of rained out baseball, i'm paying for it now.  because practices have been pushed back and rescheduled and now the next couple evenings are looking rather complicated. i'm off to ponder when and what we're going to have for dinner tonight..  happy thursday!

ps : lorie just posted that there are more knick knack add-ons from may available - they found a box that didn't get sold.  this was my fave add-one - love that cloud stamp, love the color scheme, and those felt stars are too cool!  check it out if you missed it the first time. =)

starting my 35th year on the right foot

(well, mostly.  there was a minor debacle this morning involving my car keys and matthew's pockets. as in, that's where my keys were.  and matthew, along with his pants (obviously!), was at work.  on the other side of town.  the school secretary laughed when i called to tell her alex and ben would be a smidge late since we had to walk to school)

i gave myself the best birthday present ever.  i took the time to clean my office.  CLEAN clean.  deal with the piles.  go through and pull stuff to donate so i actually have breathing room.  see that aqua tray?  totally an impulse purchase at target last week.  it's the perfect size to hold all of my kit paper, with room at the end to put the scraps. $10 well spent. now the paper doesn't slowly creep and take over the desk, AND i can move it off my desk if need be.

okay, so it's not perfect. there's still a stack of finished pages and an envelope that needs to be mailed. but those layouts used to be stacked on the printer because there was a pile of random stuff where they're sitting now. a pile of random stuff that was a LOT taller than that pile of pages.

 

i even put labels on my mist bottles, so i don't have to pull them all out to find the right color.

i switched up some of my organization - hoping it makes it easy for me to remember and USE what i've got.  i dedicated a whole drawer to little accents - gems, brads, pins, epoxy stickers.  i reach for these a lot when i'm looking for something to finish a page, and i think having them all together will really help.  i tend to just use plain brads or buttons because they're easy and right there next to me - so i think this will work.  i also put all of my baby / little boy accents into one bucket instead of having them w/ each manufacturer.  another good place for me to look when i need a finishing touch.

also - the boys got me this cute little clock for my birthday.  now i'll actually know what time it is while i'm working!!  i can't count how many times i've had to book it to pick the bigs up to school because i got absorbed while working while sam was taking a late nap. 

aaaaaaaaaaaaaand - as promised, joyland sneaks.  i am loving this kit.  it has, i think, bumped bibliography down from the top spot on my favorite kit ever list.  that, my friends, is huge.  this kit just has a fun urban cool color scheme, and the SC exclusive paper is *awesome* - i think i'm going to need more.  especially of that woodgrain / graph.  hello, LOVE.

 

this page uses just the main kit.  i really wasn't sure about those k&co frames when i saw the pic online, but when i opened them?  they're really cool.  they look like old photo frames.  i think i'll be using a lot of them.  i used turquoise mist on the background of this one.

this page uses the main kit + an alphabet from each of the add-ons that i got - skycoaster and whacky shack, as well as a "happy" stamp from skycoaster.  i used blue raspberry mist on the chipboard & spiced marmalade for the stamp.  oh, and a bit of lemon mist on the yellow letter stickers, just to make them a bit darker. by the time of reveal, alex will be nine.  NINE.  eeps. only 11 more days of eight!

this page uses skycoaster and whacky shack. i am loving the stamp set in whacky shack - it's a solid house shape with a matching outline.  i stamped the solid shape with tumbled glass ink, and the outline with broken china.  love how they look together!!  the background is covered with tangerine mist.

i'll have more sneaks sometime next week - i am no where near done with this kit! =)  oh, and don't forget to check out the sketchbook giveaway in the last post - it's open till wednesday morning. =) i'm off to get a bit of sewing done while sam naps, and then we're hitting target to check out the liberty of london goods.  happy monday!