The New School Year

Well, it has been quite a week. I finally got my son off to University. This is his second attempt and hopefully it will work out for him. It is also the first time he has left home so it was a bit of push to get him out the door. The good news is that I get my workroom. I have been sharing work space with my bedroom since my daughter came home from University. This has not been good. I have also been trying to do all my office work off a small computer desk.

No more. I have expanded. It is amazing how important lots of room is to your success. I have most of my office set up now, including lots of shelves, a filing cabinet, and a place for office supplies. I can now find the stamps, three packages as I kept loosing them and bought more. I like to keep the office stuff separate from the crafting stuff, that way I am not in the same space all the time, and can focus on the task at hand.

I am delaying setting up my work space through, it is an overwhelming job. One step at a time, is all I can think of. For now, I will continue working on the dining room table, and organize things as I need them and put them away.

Having a well organized and comfortable work space is a necessity, not just from a practical point of view. It can be quite frustrating to know you have something and not know where you put it for all the clutter. Sharing space with laundry, cloths, and other essentials to get your day started, means that things are piled on top of each other, shoved into corners, or stored in the wrong container. I am not sure if I am out of 8 mm jump rings or if I put them somewhere. As much as I enjoy going to bead stores, I don't really want to spend money on something I don't need. I have been putting off a project until I have rearranged everything.

I am looking forward to having a comfortable chair to sit on at my worktable and get my radio set up again so that I can listen while I work. I have been hunched on a hard wooden kitchen chair for the last little while. The only good thing about this is that it forces me to get up and move around every once and a while, which reduces the strain on my back and legs, and even on a comfortable office chair, I have developed the habit of moving around more often. Today, I am thinking I will make muffins to break up my day.

My work table also has better lighting, essential when doing small, detailed work. The room has great overhead fluorescent lightening and I have some good movable spot lamps as well.

The entire work space has lots of shelves and drawers that I have labeled to easily find everything. I have a great shelf for finished products. I store everything in plastic containers that are similar is size which helps when getting ready for a show. They are portable so I take them with me, and pack everything back up at the end of the show and put them back on the shelf.

After much searching found a great shower caddy with lots of slots that holds my tools. It is portable so it can go where I want. My sister also bought me a craft box with lots of storage that I use for a items I use for multiple projects, glue, scissors, needles, sequins and seed beads.

I keep my reference books and magazines in my office space as I usually browse through them when I am not creating or if I am, I like to get away from the idea that isn't working for fresh thoughts. If I get a good idea I take the book back to my work table or flag the page and leave it on my work table for later.

Watch this space over the next few days for some great offers that are coming for both my website and my next craft show.

Happy Crafting and Shopping

CraftyLadyLiz