A Fond Farewell

A few weeks ago I read an announcement about the closing of one of our LSS (local scrapbook store). Honestly I hadn't been in there in some time but only because I usually have Reece in tow and it is usually after his therapy sessions making shopping less than enjoyable for either of us as he's tired and a little cranky.

MaryAnn was a wonderful hostess to those who came through her doors and the store was always filled with goodies just waiting to be discovered. It was dangerous to wallets and budgets everywhere as there was always a new *must* have around every corner. Crops there were cozy but no one ever seemed to mind as they were also a ton of fun. It was the store I first took my friend Missy to when I was helping her start building her stash scrapping supplies because it was close to where she lived but mostly because it was a friendly atmosphere where newbies were encouraged and fostered.

MaryAnn - thank you for World Class Scrappers! Thank you for having new discoveries around every corner that just had to come home with me. THANK YOU for just being you! Good luck in your future endeavours whatever they are.

Pysanky

If you don't know what pysanky are you have to find out... I have been intrigued with them since I was in grade school and now my husband is as well. We recently purchased a pysanky off of Ebay and don't regret it for a moment. Our egg is from Jan's Eggs and has a wheat design like this one.

Isn't she the most talented artist you've seen? We plan to add an egg or two each year and as long as Jan's Eggs are in business she is who we will be dealing with exclusively!

GOBI by the Numbers Part 4

I am finally getting to this final installment nothing like the incentive of being out of commission for a few days to light a fire is there. It's nothing serious but I have a test scheduled for tomorrow am and these things usually have me out of it for a day or two.

Week 11 - we did a recap of the previous weeks and talked about maintenance of our spaces. We had a Task Card project (mine is still a work in progress - it needs a cover but all the tasks are listed) or we could choose to go the electronic route with a service like cozi.com. The other link was jot.com but I have not been able to get that too load - just a headsup. We were reminded that storage is about the container and orgainzing is about what you put in the container. We were encouraged to step back and see what we had accomplished whether we were all moved back in or still had a ways to go.

We then recieved a checklist for preparing for scrapbooking away from home. What a great resource! Even for those of us who do this a lot and have a game plan for it this was a great refresher for attending crops and actually getting things done.

Week 12 - We were encouraged to include visual reminders in our space about the WHY behind our scrapbooking. Honestly I still haven't hung anything in my space that will do this save for one photo of my son on a photo mat I made but I will get there. I am still trying to a balance between his school necessities and my creative necessities being on display. At the moment they are winning...

Aby gave us a wonderful bonus handout about using filters and staying organized. And I am trying to figure out how to fit in a cool wall vinyl in my space.

Week 13 - we had a bonus week and got a really cool banner project. I hope to work on mine over the weekend (once I figure out what I want it to say). Wendy had us reflect on all that we had accomplished over the 3 months and encouraged us all to stay in touch. I for one hope that will be the case as the time with all my GOBI alum was fantastic!

I am so glad that I stuck in there and allowed myself to TRUST the process in the beginning even when I wasn't sure that was the way to go.

I'll insert pictures when I get back from the hospital this afternoon.

Now I am back to counting down the days to the ULTIMATE in pampering - MemoryWorks Retreat

And the winner is...

I am still working on my last installment of GOBI by the numbers but am laying in bed feeling like crud... Thank you all for playing this round and check back I hope to have one drawing a month of product from Memory Works. If you want more information about the company drop me a note and I'd be happy to share. The new catalog is in the final stages so will be release soon - watch for it. I will be picking a comment or two daily after the final GOBI installment to address so check back.

I did enlisted my son to make the drawing and he picked Teresa. Please send your mailing address to ersehnen@gmail.com and I'll get it in off to you.

Following is what Teresa said...
My greatest organizational challenge is keeping it all cleaned up. After taking GOBI I am determined to make sure it is clean all the time. However, I have to make a very concentrated effort because I tend to be a very unorganized. I am going to need support to keep it up so I hope to create a list of blogs from the women that took the class.

April 4, 2009 10:14 AM

This is something I worry about as well Teresa. I share my space with the home office and it's where my son does his school (we do Virtual Academy) so we are trying to develop a routine that all of us can manage - Reece is only 6 so presents some unique challenges. I think making the task cards for each of us and using pictures and words for Reece then displaying them prominently will help. I agree with us all sticking together for support as I never want to go back to what it was.

Now back to napping to try to shake this bug... I suck at being sick!

GOBI by the numbers Part 3

Psst remember the giveaway in the post below :)

Yesterday I shared with you weeks 5-8 during this time we contined to learn the *how* behind this hobby of ours, EMPTIED our spaces - yes completely emptied them, started to look at storage options to see which ones drew our eye. And then finally started to discuss what wasn't working for us and what was as a group with Wendy's blessing...

Week 9 - we had a few more projects that were optional (I skipped them but plan on going back to do them because - well they are cute). We were to continue to shop for storage that would work for us. I'm a visible but closed kind of girl as I live in the dust/wind capital of the world. We were encouraged to go slow with purchases and told often that our 'dream space' may not come together over night but it would come if we were patient. Lots of cheaper (read free) alternatives for storage were offered to tide us over until what we wanted had been saved for or went on sale. And yes we were encouraged to have a budget and start saving for all we wanted. Wendy shared that it took her 2 years to get her room as it is now. I found myself saying my mantra much less this week...

Week 10 - YEAH we are bring things back into our space! We started to figure out 'cute' display options, figuring out what will work for us and how to maintain it. We dicussed that sometimes our wants don't fit our budget and how to re purpose items we already have until we can get our 'ideal'. We were encouraged not to 'settle' in our search for items. We started to label our containers and I heard the 'trust the process' again... I hate labeling because I tend to overthink the whole thing - should I say tags or Tags by MM, K&Co & CI... And on and on and on! The final answer was a bit of both. We had a great handout from Lisa Damrosch about her favorite organizational items. Aby also provided us with a handout on making our spaces comfortable - another gem!

We also had our second Super Saturday! We discussed what we had left to do and about re purposing items we already had. We talked about the layout of our work stations and how over time that would likely evolve as we evolved on our creative journey.

I'll be back with weeks 11 to conculsion as I got behind with this due to company and having a very enjoyable afternoon talking about my other hobby competing with my dogs...

Giveaway...

To celebrate my return to the land of highspeed internet and the shiney new computer I am giving away to one lucky winner this wonderful collection of BasicGrey papers from their Recess line (4 sheets & 1 monogram sheet), a set of BasicGrey chip stickers from their Boxer line and one Prismatics paper pack in Razzleberry (contains 12 sheets of cardstock in 3 shades).



Just leave a comment about what your scrapbooking organizational challenge is and I'll draw one winner at random on the Tuesday April 7th. For this giveaway only those in the USA and Canada are eligible. I promise I will hold one shortly for only those overseas...

Stay tuned later today for the second installment of GOBI by the numbers!

GOBI by the Numbers Part Deux

Review of January - We spent the first month learning the *how* behind our scrapping. And made some great inspirational items - admittedly at the time I wasn't sure they were so great as I wanted to dig in and organize... I now have a binder for storing my inspirational ideas - easy to tuck a page from a magazine in, or paint swatches etc. A clipboard to display things that motivate me to scrap/create and I gave my magnet board an update of things I love and want to remember to use.

Week 5 - We spent time finishing up the assignment we had started last week from Aby Garvey. We learned of Clipmarks and wonderful resource for keeping track of things we had found online that 'spoke' to us. We had another book assignment and started to learn our creative space essentials. It was another week of learning the 'how' of scrapbooking for each of us and I found myself again saying 'trust the process' a lot because we were still not organizing...

Week 6 - Wendy FINALLY tells us we are going to need to get our energy going. YEAH!! We are going to start organizing - I can't wait because my space - well you saw the photos posted below so I don't need to elaborate right? No wait she wants us to WHAT - empty our spaces?!?!?!? Is this woman totally insane? Does see need to be on medication? Does she have a death wish? Ok so maybe that was a little over the top but I started to say my mantra much louder and more often this week. We were then prompted to sort as we emptied - it's a bit of a stretch but that could be the organizing I have been waiting for couldn't it?. Ok so the 3 piles thing is doable - one for things I want to keep, one for things I no longer love enough to keep and one that is just going out in the trash. Aby again had a bonus handout for us that was very eye opening and thought provoking. This week was also the first of 2 Super Saturdays. We spent the day 'together' in chat and doing various things with the support of our Fearless Leader and other classmates. It was awesome!

Week 7 - We continued to empty our spaces and received this pearl of wisdom...storing things does not make them organized! WOW! WOW!! So simple and yet to this point something I hadn't grasped... And with that we started planning our new spaces using graph paper (or online resources). We started thinking of new furniture or how to re purpose existing items, we were picking color schemes and pretty touches that would make us want to be there full time not just when we were creating.

We determined if our spaces were shared, dedicated, or temporary. We considered all that we would be doing in the space (me - crafting, school, home office). And we started to think about storage options we had been seeing in the book and in online resources Wendy had been sharing with us.

Aby gave us an audio pep talk and we continued to empty/sort/purge.

Week 8 - In Wendy's own words 'Finally, finally, finally we are going to talk about storage containers and shopping.' She went on to tell us that some of us may have had an 'aha' moment and realized we had become collectors and not scrappers. Ouch that one hit close to home... We were encouraged to continue purging and sorting - sorting and purging as well as start thinking about what we need to store so the purchases we made were appropriate. You wouldn't by a bird cage for a fish would you? We were encouraged to really look at the spaces of others that had spoken to us and figure out WHY we like something - was it the color, the fact they had a display area for recent projects, etc. We learned why Wendy had done some of the things she had and I know light bulbs started going off for me as I read what she was sharing. We had another project to make (a way cute desktop organizer) and completed a checklist to start us thinking about how we were going to organize so it would work for us. These last 2 weeks I found I wasn't needing to remind myself to 'trust the process' as much...

The next installment will cover weeks 9-completion of Get Organized Be Inspired. I know yesterday I told you to make sure you took this class next time it was offered but alas today I discovered that was not going to happen as the book which is so integral to the class is out of print. I am hopeful that Wendy and the wonderful people at BPS can figure out some way to offer something as wonderful without the book but only time will tell.

I am including some photos of the new scrapping side of the room. Next time I'll share the office side and likely over the next several days I'll be sharing other snippets of the transformation as well.

GOBI by the numbers

Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.
―A.A. Milne

How appropriate that the above quote arrived in my inbox this morning. This is the first in a series (that shall be uninterrupted this time) about my Get Organized Be Inspired journey. Now don't think I'll be telling you enough so you don't have to take the class next time it's offered rather I hope to share just enough to get you as excited about it as all of us that took it this time are.

To start some background - I am a piler and I married a piler. We have stacks of stuff and we are postive we will remember what they contain. We hardly ever do but since the birh of our child (and honestly the need to empty a room for him) we have been better at it. One of us more than the other but regression has occurred from time to time. I had finally got my combination scraproom/office/spare room in order and was loving it when I realized said son was outgrowing his room and I needed to swap to give him the larger of the two. And so my organized scrap area and office fell to pieces. Did I mention that this we happening during the holidays? So I remembered a reference to The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker by Wendy Smedley and Aby Garvey either in Stacy Julian's book Photo Freedom or on her blog and I asked my wonderfully enabling husband to get that and only that for me for Christmas. About the same time I started stalking Wendy's blog and learned in she was teaching a class at BPS it was Get Organized Be Inspired or GOBI to those who love it...

The aforementioned husband, AKA Jay, signed me up after seeing me look at it dreamily for days. I'd spend hours in front of our computer reading the about it and thinking I couldn't spend the money on just me. See money was a little tight at that time which was pre-refinance of the house. Then it hit me I am wasting more money by not being able to use the stuff I already paid for than the class costs! so the guilt was I had been feeling left me. And the most incredible journey began... I will caution you all that if you are considering the class get a copy of the book as soon as you can since it is vital to being able to participate fully! Several participants had trouble finding this popular tome as it was sold out.

I've posted before photos earlier and so don't want to go there again check them out here but I will be sharing some more after shots with more detail later on.

I'll be giving a brief overview of my journey through this process broken to the weekly sessions. And just so you know my mantra through out this amazing journey was 'trust the process' especially during some of the assignments LOL

Week 1 - we were tasked to create a mission statement and Wendy shared why this was important. We also had a book assignment. I grumbled and complained and ultimately I did the project and had a pleasant revelation.

Ok so the mission statement isn't my finest piece of work but it showed me much more than I expected.

Week 2 - we did another book assignment and created another project. I am thinking "what the heck..." I didn't sign up to make MORE stuff I need to get rid of some and get the rest organized! But I then heard my mantra - trust the process. I did and again was pleasantly surprised.

I can't find the photo of the Inspiration binder we did this week so am adding this clipboard for now. Also created during the class.

We also had our first bonus hand out from Aby Garvey. WOW!

Week 3 - Another book assignment and then again with the create something... I want to dig in and start organizing but again I TRUST the process... to myself I think 'for now'. And our first Super Saturday! We chatted, we commiserated and we moved forward with the gentle guidance of Wendy.

Week 4 - ARGH!! now we are wasting time making LOs for a week? Ok breath and trust TRUST the process... I did and all was right in my little world after all.



I'm only including these 2 LOs I did this week so as not to bore you all

This is the end of the first month. A month that I might add in which I learned a lot about myself and the *HOW* behind my scrapbooking and for that I am grateful that I did indeed trust the process. Tomorrow I'll be posting about the next 4 weeks and tossing in a bonus giveaway...