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

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