Where Bloggers Create Party 2011 - The Evolution of a Craft Room

The right side of my room.  The shelf unit from IKEA holds my books, cigar
boxes full of supplies, baskets, frames, & other projects waiting for me.
I stage the top with items going into the next RWAP sale.  Large items on
back wall are waiting for the next parking lot sale.  The small basket on
the floor is handy for taking projects from room to room.

 I've been looking forward to this party.  Karen Valentine, from **My Desert Cottage**, hosts this blog party every year.  I love to see how everyone stores their supplies and makes room in their homes for crafting & blogging.  

You may want to check out my craft "room" last year.   Not much room in my "room".  But since then I've moved into my now-married daughter's old bedroom.  She just left last week after a month long visit so it hasn't quite been restored yet.  

Right side, jewelry desk.  Left side, sewing/paper crafts desk.  Bulletin
board holds old necklaces that I'm going to repurpose. Glenn put the
peg board up when this was his music room but it's great for storage.

So, decision time... do I clean my room and show you how it should be?  or do I let you see the real deal?

I decided to be real with you.  This is my craft room without any changes to it.  Sorry about the dark photos.  The room is pretty dark & I wasn't using my daughter's good camera for these.  :-(

These are the two "partner desks" I mentioned in an earlier post.  The one on the left is a basic IKEA desk.  I try to keep it semi-clean so I can sew or lay out projects on it.  The right one was bought at a garage sale but has drawers.  It's my jewelry desk.

 This is what my jewelry desk looks like.  This is pretty normal.  I don't ever clean it.  People ask me how I find time to be creative or where I get my ideas.  This is my secret.  I just buy stuff that I like and leave it out on my desk.  Sometimes I'll see things laying next to each other that I never would have thought about putting together.  It's also easy to go work on something when I just have a few minutes.  I am very thankful that my hubby let's me use this space!

 I buy unique boxes & baskets when I find them, too.  This one was once a drawer from an old sewing machine.  I keep my measuring tapes, chains, and other trims in it now.

My Dremel stays out on my desk, too. One of my favorite Christmas presents from last year!

And since my hubby is now a blogger I'll show you where he is creative, too.  Here's his blog.  He's a musician so he has a different kind of mess than I do.  He was using the extra bedroom upstairs but decided that I needed it more.  And he likes to work downstairs with us.  So we fit him into the awkward area under the stairs.  He likes maps & globes so I've been collecting them to decorate his space.  I made the map collage on the right.  BTW, there are two desks here, too, facing each other.  You can see the back of our family iMac on the right.  The shelf unit is the same one from IKEA that I have in my room.  Just a different color.  There's usually either a ukelele or a keyboard sitting on the top of it.  Don't know where it was that day. 

Hope you enjoyed seeing how my creative space changed since last year.  I expect it to be much different next year, too.  I already have some ideas and plan to be at the "Where Bloggers Create 2012."  Come back then to see how the room has evolved through the year.  But don't wait until next year to come back for a visit.  Follow my blog through Google or email, follow me on Pinterest, "like" me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.  Take some time and visit all the other blogs in the party, too.  Thanks for reading!!!

Where Bloggers Create Blog Party!

Well, this is it.  This is where I create.  Not much to look at.  I didn't even clean up for you.  Just inviting you in like a good friend who has seen my house at it's best and it's worst.  I thought about not even joining in on this party because my space is so small & pitiful compared to the beautiful, decorated full craft rooms that we'd be seeing during this party.  But then I thought that I would like for people to see that you don't need a whole room to yourself to be creative.  Just a little creative use of space... and a patient husband.  You can see in this shot just how much space I have between my bed & desk.

I love the desk.  Bought it at my favorite thrift store for $20.  The drawers are packed full.  Bought the vintage metal trash can there, too.  I should have taken a picture of our bookshelves, too.  We bought some CD storage boxes from Ikea that I store my stamps & other little supplies in.  There are usually curtains hanging around the desk, too, but we took them down (and stuffed everything under the desk) when we painted last week.

Everything has to have a purpose when you're working with such a small space.  I need to clean off my three tiered tray but it holds a LOT of broken jewelry, glue, paper punches, & other items for me.

This is a silver candy dish with an elegant handle.  I just got in an order of findings & vintage beads that I bought on Etsy this week so it's filled with little plastic baggies right now.  The earrings will be in my booth for sale next weekend!  They're vintage.  I just replaced the clip ons with lever backs for pierced ears.  Jordy filled my little wire basket with pearls when she sorted out my beads for me.  Bought that at my favorite store, too!

I love these little Weck canning jars with the glass lids.  They give me two levels to store beads.  And my letter holder in the back holds photos, cabinet cards, and other papers.

I also collect frogs.  I'll be selling some of them in my booth next weekend, too.  I've found lots of ways to display them.  They can also be very useful.  This glass one is holding pins & tools for jewelry making.

Tomorrow the girls & I are going to the shop to set up my booth for the first time!  I'm excited.  I've been going through all my boxes finding things to include since I don't know if I'll have enough of my handmade items to fill it up.  I'll take photos & try to blog them tomorrow.  And since lots of people have asked I will post days & hours soon, too.

To see everyone else in the Where Bloggers Create Party go over to My Desert Cottage.  Her craft room is AMAZING!!!