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...

Technology...

ain't it great? Last Tuesday I thought all my computer/online issues would be fixed when we got our satellite internet connection. It lasted less than 24 hours. The modem died (they have to order a replacement) but all is not lost as I still have dial up... WRONG they removed my dial up info 'cause you won't need that any more' - right! I finally get it back up and running and the desk top that has threatened to die coughs and sputters and pretty much does die. I can go and open files etc just don't try to do more than look at anything. Oh and the best part the laptop was in DC with my husband.

So I am kind of back up and running but I can't get my email to down load on the laptop so if you are trying to reach me/us bruneaugsp@hotmail.com is the best option at the moment.

Totally Whacked...

well that is what I would have thought about the beginning of class if I hadn't read the book - twice - before we started. We spent a lot of time doing LOs to figure out how we scrap. See if you don't know how you think of your product how do you know how to store it?

Makes perfect sense right? Then why was is so hard! It was hard because I knew what I wanted to do but struggled finding the products/tools to do it. It was the on going vicious cycle that had become my creative hell.

Sometimes in life you just have to trust in the process and those leading you. That doesn't mean following blindly just to not overthink and go with where they are taking you. Straying from the path from time to time isn't a bad thing but it does make the journey longer... Tomorrow I will need to be reminded of this statement would you do that for me?

Oh and the delay in posting this...the new satellite connection lasted less than a day before I had to go back to dial up. The tech is aware but is out of the area until Sunday. I love technology - NOT!

How did it get that bad?

Well like most things it didn't happen over night. My space was before this room was shared with the spare bed and office and was very cramped. Then I had the brilliant idea to swap rooms with Reece, who at 6 needed a big boy room right?

The priroty during that move was to get Reece settled not me and the before pictures are the result of just dumping things where they fit (more or less fit would be more appropriate). Keep in mind this was started before the Holidays so I asked my wonderful enabling husband to pretty please with cherries on top get me only 1 thing - The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker by the incomparable Wendy Smedley and Aby Garvey. My life has changed by reading this and taking the Big Picture Scrapbooking class in ways I never imagined. I'd say just as much as reading The Big Picture and Photo Freedom did.

So fast forward to the end of December the economy is tanking and we are a one income household so I never imagined that I could 'afford' to take the BPS class Wendy was teaching mostly due to me never wanting to spend money on just me. Then Jay (above noted wonderful DH) signed me up because I don't do stuff just for me and because we had just Refinanced the house so had a little discretionary cash. Still I balked and then a light bulb went on - as I stood in the middle of that diaster I realized I was wasting more money with the products buried that I couldn't use becuase I couldn't find them or forgot I had than what the cost of the course was... WOW!

Back tomorrow with more and possible some pictures. See they on are on the laptop in DC with DH who is nervous about coming here and loading them - this is the 6 ft man who will walk into a scrapbook store and pick up pink lace and flowers if I ask (not that I actually would ask as I don't do pink or lace but you get the picture).

Get Organized Be Inspired!

Since I seem to have an internet connection at the moment I am going to share some before pictures from my class. I am kind of in shock at how much the space has transformed and how user friendly it is for all of us - remember it is a craft/office/school room. So without further ado here are the before (I can't believe I'm sharing these. ICK!)

This first shot is what you used to see from the hall when you looked into the room


Here is where I used to scrap.


This was how the pegboard looked back in January when this journey started.


This is where I tried to do school stuff as well as general office type stuff like pay bills. The desks were on the wall under the window and not very user friendly for more than one person at a time.


And this mess is how the closet used to look. I still can't believe I lived with it like this...


This is the closet now...what a difference! I no longer hope that nothing falls out of it.


I made this work surface as an after thought as I had the original "desk" top available. Jay got me a huge one piece top and even drilled a hole for all the cables etc to come up.


This is where the pegboard used to live. It's on the right side of the room but my scrapping desk is now on the left side so...


I have this set up on the left side of the room right behind my scrapping desk.


I'll continue to post new ones later this week as we are having a satellite internet service installed on Tuesday!