Wednesday, November 25, 2009

One Step at a Time

I can't believe how long it is taking me to get organized. I just seem to continue to spin my wheels. Let me walk you through my process -- any suggestions for improvement are welcome. Kristen came over on November 7th and we pulled out everything related to scrapbooking that I own - this included going under our bed, into the closet in our guest room, into the hutch in the dining room and the 'empty' file cabinet in the basement. We emptied every tote, shopping bag and box we could find. There it was every piece of paper, every ink, every tool, every Quickutz die, and piece of chipboard I own spread out on or under two 8 foot tables in my basement. It is quite an eye opening experience to see it all at once -- feels a bit like step one of a twelve step problem. But lets not dwell on it - cause truth be told I was in a scrapbooking store today and made some purchases.

Kristen and I proceeded to sort everything into categories - like with like - our theory was that this would allow me to decide how much storage I needed for each category and then go and make my purchases - or purchase options and bring them home and try them out. When a category got too large we would split it into a smaller sub category (chipboard became alphabets and shapes then alphabets became naked and coloured chipboard). We essentially ignored paper, cardstock, stamps and Quickutz - all determined to be unwieldy and needing their own specialized storage. The broad categories that remained were - flowers, buttons, flat embellishments, class supplies, adhesives, acrylic shapes and alphas, other embellishments, ribbon, paint, ink, stamping accessories tools and supplies I needed everytime I scrapbooked.

Our next goal was to determine the amount and type of storage needed for each category. This is where the day sort of fell apart - after a brief time with the two of us laying flat on the floor in exhaustion completely unable to fathom how all of this would ever fit in the Nook we rallied and decided the types of storage needed fell into a couple of categories - these included visible, open storage; visible closed storage, not visible open storage and not visible closed storage. I drew a sketch of where I wanted the stuff in the room on the shelves that currently existed. I knew I liked the look of glass jars, I have always been a fan of baskets but could not wrap my head around what I needed. Kristen having gone through this same experience not so long ago tried to assist but I was too tired to even listen to her advice -- so we just left and headed to the store.

I will fill you in on the continuing saga soon!

Jackie

Monday, November 2, 2009

Harder than I thought

I had my last class at the store last Wednesday - it was the Just Me Class - this year we have been using the Basic Grey Page of the Month Program. The class was much harder than I thought it would be - the store was already closed just the class was left. The Just Me Program had been running since April 2008. The five original members still coming - with 17 additional people some who have been with us since January and some who have joined more recently. I have learned so much about each of these members having helped them with their layouts and the subject content that made the most sense for them. They have become part of my life as well and not seeing them as often as I have is going to be more painful than I anticipated. I will miss our visits more than I thought I would - these are women who have left a permanent imprint on who I am and I am better for it - the combined strength of these women is something they should be proud of; the life experiences they have endured and thrived through is remarkable; if I only have a fraction of the strength of any one of these women I know I will be able to survive anything life has to throw at me. I was pleased that Ann was able to drop in I haven't see her in a while and I knew she already had her kit so I wasn't expecting her but was really please to see her. Not tearing up during this class was a challenge and I hope everyone realized that was the reason I may have appeared distant. The classes will continue in a different venue -- I hope they will be the same!

ttyl,
Jackie

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Back to the Nook

First things first - I need to get my stuff out of totes, boxes and bags - it is now all out of the living room, dining room and thankfully the front hall - and it is all within 15 feet of my Nook. Now as I unload it all I am putting it on the shelves by category. My plan is to see have I have in each category (ie. flowers, chipboard, rub-ons, stamps) and then decide the best storage solution for it. I haven't scrapped at home at all lately so everything is packaged for transport and now it needs a permanent home in a room that inspires me, I have three boxes, eight bags, one shoulder tote and my rolling tote to unpack - my rolling tote I haven't even opened in likely 8 months so it will be like getting new stuff - which makes it fun. The upper shelves in the Nook are built it is the lower ones and the work surface that aren't finished - the shelves are jammed with the stuff I have already unloaded and I'm not sure where to sort the rest but will push forward over the next few days - I need to have my storage requirements almost sorted out because I have a shopping date next week to look at my options.

Wish me luck,

Jackie

Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Nook

I am working on moving my scrapbooking stuff home and not having it take over the house - It is now home but currently it is everywhere but it is my goal to contain it but have it accessible. By accessible I don't mean packed in boxes I can dig through for what I need but visible and organized - for example if I want flowers for a layout I know where to go to look at all my available flowers and make my choice. Brian started to build me a scrapbook room - herein called the nook but other projects got in the way and time has passed without much progress so I will need to move this forward but start to move my stuff in at the same time. Currently there are 3 or 4 bags or boxes in our front hall full of stuff that needs a home and anything that is in here is just shoved on shelves and I don't know what is where because Brian carried most of it downstairs for me to get it out of the living room - Organizing the Nook is one of my biggest priorities over the next couple of months.

Talk soon,
Jackie

Not Asleep

One of the problems that is getting worse lately is I'm not sleeping - I am worried about the store and how things are - it is my weekend off and I am trying to ignore its existence for my family and me - I am far more relaxed when I'm not thinking about it. The store will be closed completely by this time next week and my life will return to normal -- whatever that is - lol?! So it is 4am and I am in the basement - what will be my scrapbooking room (and I use the word room loosely - it is really a nook) cruising around online. I haven't made any progress on the things I need to work on but will do that soon (in the next month). I need to get my head around Joseph's sixth birthday - we need a party but other than that I have no concrete plans. Anyway I will post more in the next few days I am off upstairs for a cup of tea and hopefully bed.

Good night and good dreams,

Jackie

Thursday, October 22, 2009

A New Start

I have started this blog about my life post store, the things I am now making my first priority, my projects, my teaching (yes - I hope to continue to teach) and life in general.

First lets talk about where I have come from -- on Sunday we (I have a business partner) announced the closing of our scrapbooking store - after sending the email I received over a hundred heartfelt emails wishing us well - it made the whole thing very real to me in ways I wasn't prepared for. There were things I loved about the store and other things not so much - I am horrible at customer service - I don't enjoy it - my husband is continually shocked that this shocks me - lol! I enjoyed most of the people -- what i really enjoyed was teaching and having a place of my own to scrapbook and order the products that I love that are so hard to find. I haven't enjoyed the time away from home and this became magnified this fall when my oldest son started Grade One and is now in school everyday - if I teach at night or work until close on a Thursday or Friday it means the only time I had to spend with him is in the morning before school - as we rush out the door - this is not enough time with one of my favourite people. I will talk another time about my hate for mornings and lack of organization when it comes to all things early. It also means I could go a couple of days without spending any real time with my husband either. Sam is my youngest son and he doesn't start school for another year so we get to hang out during the day - but some (more than I cared for) of that time was spent at the store, doing errands for the store or with me on the computer doing store stuff.

The closing of the store is going to give me more time with the people that I care about, more time to get my life in order - confessions coming later - and more time for me! I will not be looking for a full time job - I am lucky in that I will likely be able to stay home - oddly this is something I have fought in the past but not I am really looking forward to it - I have agreed to look after two little kids during the day and will look for contract HR work but nothing full time.

Time for my confessions - my life is in disarray - my house is in chaos every room needs attention; every flat surface holds clutter and my scrapbooking stuff is everywhere. I have no meal plan, I am horrible at packing lunches my son will eat, I am over weight, not exercising and I am completely unorganized when it comes to everything. All of this is causing stress in my life and even more in my husbands life it all needs to be fixed.

Better run I hear a rambunctious three year old working on something upstairs and I better make sure it is harmless - anyway this is me and where I am today.

More later,

Jackie