She's Crafty

Yes, I LOVE the Beastie Boys and as we speak, I am donning a T-shirt with the words "She's Crafty"  on it given to me by my best friend (the second biggest Beastie fan.)  Although, I am fairly certain that the boys did not mean that "she" was good with a glue gun, and my name is not Lucy, the song will forever be a part of the soundtrack of my life.
Being crafty sometimes means being messy (at least for me) but I am determined to change all of  that.  This year, I vowed to get my paints ducks all in a row and create a place for every little thing in my craft room/office space.  It is a huge work in progress and hopefully some time this year, I will be able to do a big happy dance reveal. But for now, in the still lingering spirit of my spring cleaning/organization kick, I will share some of my "mini" projects.
I have been seeing a lot of gift wrapping "centers" around the blogosphere.  I had always had extra paper, cards, ribbon and tissue laying around, but never really in one spot and organized.  I decided that I would put everything in an over the door organizer on the back of my office door.  Well, that was easier said than done.   Numerous trips to my local home store (which shall remain nameless since usually they are pretty good at having something that could be jerry-rigged) resulted in a major wiff out.  I had all but given up and then I spotted this at Walmart:

an ADJUSTABLE over the door organizer !!!! Genius and just $17, it doesn't get much better (at least in my sad world.)  The only problem is that since it was wire, I would have to find boxes that fit into the spaces for my gift bags and tissue paper, etc. so that it wouldn't fall through the cracks...hmmmm.... and then I had an idea!  I had just read about DIY boxes in one of my favorite blogs I Heart Organizing and decided I would try it.  I actually used the box that the organizer came in because I knew it would fit perfect depth wise: 

Unfortunately, it was a little to wide so I had to cut a little off, and I duck taped the entire open side to create a full box.  The next step was to cover it inside and out with scrap material that I already had.  It wasn't really the prettiest sight at this point. 

But then I added some ribbon:

and finally, you know those canvas closet organizers? The kind that work really great for about 5 years, and then they start to sag? Well, mine started to sag (story of my life)  and since I can't bear to throw anything away, and suspected that I might be able to repurpose the material, I had one laying around.  The piece that I used was actually the top of it that the two hangers went through to attach to the pole.  I just put a ribbon through the holes.  

Not too shabby!  And luckily I found a wicker basket at Goodwill for $1.99 that fit absolutely perfect.  I just embellished the top and the botton with some ribbon.

And the finished project: 

For details, I added Martha Stewart labels from Staples and some ribbon run through the wire.

Oh! and No! I decided not to put my rolls of wrapping paper in this organizer for many reasons, but the most important being that they would not fit.  So I bought a wastebasket at Walmart for around $4, embellished with some matching ribbon, tied up the rolls with yarn and stuck the basket close by. 

And there you have it! She's crafty.. and she's just my type........

  

Spring is here!

Yes, I am in TOTAL denial, and it's where I'm living for the next few weeks.  Valentine brought me home the most beautiful Hyacinth which took her throne on my kitchen windowsill.

Don't tell either one of us (me or Queen Hyacinth) that it's still Winter.  I am blissfully unaware of anything that goes on beyond the window pane when I look at Her.  Stunning.
So it's full blown Spring Fever up inside here with symptoms of cleaning and organizing.

First up, I showed some love to the inside of my kitchen cabinets.  I thought I would spare you the before pictures of all my redundant and expired foods and since I am new at this, I am still a little shy about revealing my dirty little secrets.  No! Not really.  I just didn't get any before pics but trust me, it wasn't pretty.

But THIS is !

Although, that candy basket looks a little disheveled. Hmmmmm.

Anyway, these baskets are from Walmart. The three on the left are medium sized and the four on the right are small sized.  They come three in a package for the small,  two in a package for the mediums and they also have one large one for $3.97!  I think a SUPER deal.  The "jars" at the bottom are twist off tops and are actually plastic. Bonus for anyone with little ones who will climb any mountain (or cabinet) for Goldfish.  They are also from Walmart, come in different sizes and are cheap, somewhere in the $2 neighborhood.  The labels are Martha Stewart Chalkboard Labels that I got at Staples and attached to some scrap cardstock and then tied on with some twine.  I did use the chalk that comes with the chalkboard labels at first, but it wipes off way too easy and I just ended up with a mess and still noone could find anything.  Do yourself a favor and buy a chalkboard marker, they will not only write on chalkboard but vinyl, lightboards, glass and probably much more!  Well worth it.  I also attached some ribbon to the shelf fronts with Velcro because, well, why not?  I really love this ribbon, it was exactly the same size and I first saw the idea on one of my fave blogs A Thoughtful Place.  I do plan on "finishing" this cabinet with some colorful graphic contact paper in the back but I really want to get the cabinets painted first.  Different project, different day.  It's been so far, so good with this setup and even the typically-resistant-to-change husband poured the box of Goldfish into the container after shopping day.  Hey Mikey, he likes it! (remember that one?) 

So...that's the start of my Spring.  Has denial been productive for anyone else?