Visitors to Scrapping by Design

Monday, January 31, 2011

News at Ten; Photos at Eleven


   Ha, ha.  You thought I was just kidding.  Actually, I was.  After a few more interesting events today, I thought I would add some late-breaking news.  At one point today the house smelled like dead fish, and the 52" TV was in front of the kitchen sink.  As I cooked supper for 10 people while maneuvering around the TV, and trying to keep from falling through the den floor, I was idly wondering what sawdust would taste like in spaghetti.  After eating supper, I can tell you that it tastes a lot like chicken and is about the size of New Jersey.  No, wait.  Wrong question.  With a little Parmesan cheese, you never even notice the sawdust.  Want the recipe?  One of my granddaughter's friends ate supper with us tonight and saw this quip on Facebook.  She replied, "OMG!  I didn't see any!"
Before
   To add insult to injury, the bottom of the 50-year-old sink in the upstairs bathroom had rusted out last week, and we have a replacement sitting amongst the flooring equipment and furniture on the carport ready to be installed.  Today, of course, someone upstairs forgot that the sink wouldn't hold water and turned it on.  I was alerted to this situation by my youngest granddaughter who wanted to know why the downstairs bathroom had water all over the floor.  As I looked at the dripping water coming down from the door frame nearest the ceiling, I had a pretty good idea.  Hope it isn't raining in your house!


   I'm happy to report that the floor joists were strengthened, new insulation added between them, a layer of decking was nailed to the joists, a layer of felt was attached to that, and the final layer of sub floor decking was put down.  The guys did an excellent job, and if anyone is looking for some good carpenters, just ask me!  They should be able to put down the underlay and laminate tomorrow.  For now, the furniture is safely tucked in for the night on the sturdy new sub floor, and it smells like new house in here instead of dead fish.  Best of all, no critters can get in tonight!  Picture at 11:00.  Aw. All right.  I'll post it now.
Love'n stuff,
Sandy :)

After




New Floor?????

Have you ever awakened to find men standing in your den floor?
No?  I didn't think so.  Me, either until this morning.  It turns out the particle board sub flooring that was so wildly popular in the 60s has deteriorated from moisture by the --what do we call this decade?  Has anyone come up with a name for it yet?  Anyway, over 50 years later.  Not only was the particle board rotten, but it held the moisture against the plywood decking below and rotted that in places as well as the actual floor joists.  This is much more information about floors than I ever wanted to know. 
   So instead of just removing tile, adding a waterproof underlay and adding new laminate, we're having to replace or reinforce floor joists, decking, insulation, waterproof barrier, underlay, then laminate.  Does this remind you of the wallpaper debacle?  We learned our lesson from that fiasco, so we're getting it done right from the get go.  Did I mention that a mouse came running up into the house from the exposed area underneath?  Yup.  They said he ran right into the kitchen and disappeared at breakneck speed.  Sigh.  I sent Janet to get d-CON and a mouse trap.  I can hear you laughing!  Cut that out!

   As for the den, it's outside on the carport now.  Oh, yes. And it's raining.  Yup.  We're having a "Nall" day!   More news at ten.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Craft Organization


Hi, Everyone!
   I thought I'd mention craft organization today and show some of the ways I organize my "stuff."  Happily, as I mentioned in an earlier post, organizing "stuff" is one of my favorite things to do.  I'm forever trying to find the definitive way to access my overflowing collections of craft supplies, tools and projects.  Toward that end, I've researched many other people's craft rooms on line and in books, and I've incorporated some of their ideas and come up with some of my own.  Today I'll focus on one particular area, a treasure I got from a store that went out of business.

   When I heard that Movie Gallery was closing, I wondered if they might have some fixtures that would be useful in my craft room (aka dining room, study, computer room, as it's evolved).  When I saw their wrought iron candy rack on wheels, I fell in love!  To save you from the drama of me just missing getting it, calling another store in a neighboring town and putting dibs on it only to find that it was already promised to someone else, and finally getting a call from the original store telling me I could have it for $50.00--$25.00 less than the store in the neighboring town--oh, well.  You still got the drama!  I'll show you how I use it.  Here's a picture of it right after I first put things on it:
This is the front view.  All of the shelves and baskets are removable and can be placed in a large variety of configurations.  You can see that I have flowers in canning jars on the top shelf, and rolls of ribbon and fibers next to them and below on the next shelf, along with Cricut cartridges and Close to My Heart stamps.  Below that I have a box of photos to be scrapped, a basket of adhesives, and below that to the right, a jar of ribbon and a case of glue sticks.  On the shelf below that is my Cuttlebug and a piece from my Anna Griffin tote bag.  Next is a plastic box I decorated and indexed for stickers, then a basket with embossing powders and glitter.  The bottom shelves are empty.
   Fast forward a few months, add more cartridges and drawer units, and you have a different configuration to handle the additional "stuff."

   On the top I still have jars of flowers sorted by color, then Stickles (glitter paint) and other paints. 
The next row is entirely Cricut cartridges.  The first section on the left is composed of Imagine cartridges, and the rest are original carts.  All are in alphabetical order.  Hanging on the left of this row are packages of ribbons and extra cutting blades, and below them are paint markers.  Hanging on the right is a small "book" system for embroidery floss that I've used for small pieces of ribbons.  Each remnant is wound around a plastic "bobbin," and then similar colors are stored in plastic bags that are punched to slide on the binder rings.  It's an easy and compact way to store and carry a variety of ribbons to crops.  Here's a link to the bags at Hobby Lobby:  http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/bag-it-floss-organizer-645929/
Embroidery floss organizer used for ribbon



Anna Griffin ribbon organizer

   On the next shelf you can see the remainder of the Cricut carts on the left followed by an Anna Griffin ribbon storage box.  Instead of just storing the ribbon inside the way it's designed, I've turned the lid over and stacked it on top for additional roll storage. 
 For now the space beside that holds rolls of vinyl used for cutting on the Cricut.  Below that on the left is adhesive storage.  On top of the adhesive drawer is a yellow Rolodex that I'm planning to use for a craft project inspired by one made by Sandi Geneovese.  Here's the link to that project at her Scrapbook Showgram.  http://scrapbookshowgram.com/?p=1524  I purchased these colorful plastic drawer units at Wal-mart, and I'm using this one for runner-type and pen adhesives.  The basket houses refills, pop dots, rolls of tape and other types of adhesives.  The Anna Griffin tote insert fits behind the wicker basket.  To the right of that is a wrought iron basket that contains a Close to My Heart plastic container for their stamp sets, a Crop-a-Dile punch, my Cuttlebug die cut plates, a Memories Direct set of stamp ink duo daubers, and the Polaroid computer program "My Memories Suite."  You probably can't see them well in the picture, but I also have a yardstick and a clear plastic ruler hanging on the right side.
   The next shelf holds my sticker box and two plastic holders of Copic markers.  In a separate basket are embossing powders, glitter and a box of homemade glimmer mist equipment.  Finally, the bottom area has a basket that contains my Cuttlebug storage binder, http://www.amazon.com/Provo-Craft-Novelty-Cuttlebug-371575/dp/B0015KCV92 , then my Cuttlebug, and next to that to the right are two drawers that contain various types of decorative punches. You can probably find the Cuttlebug storage binder on sale on the web if you check around.  By checking the link, you can see what it contains and if it would work for you.  On top of the drawers are 3 styles of paper cutters.  One is the Craft Lite cutter with interchangeable blades that are stored in another section of the unit.  This is only the front.  I still have both ends and the back to show you, but we'll save them for another day!
    Hope you're having a blessed Sunday.
Love'n stuff,
Sandy :)

Furniture Photos






Here are some photos of the new furniture in my den.  You can see that I have what I term as a sort of "safari" theme.  I've also heard it termed "global caravan" and some other things I can't remember.  I've tried to incorporate mementos from Eddie's and my travels to Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, the Czech Republic (Bohemia, no less!) and Hawaii, as well as our children's to Mexicao, Canada, and Australia, and my parents' to China, Korea, Egypt and anywhere else you want to name into an eclectic mix.  I have more throw pillows to add, a new leaf design area rug that will compliment the ceiling fan, and at some point soon (I hope) a new laminate floor.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Mirror, Revisited & Wallpaper, Rehashed

Hi, Everyone!

   I have a couple of pictures of the new mirror hanging in place now, and this time you can see the sconce and part of the parrot picture reflected from the opposite wall.  You can also see my palm tree wallpaper a little more closely.  When I went to pick out new wallpaper for the den several years ago, I saw this pattern right away and liked it, but I spent hours looking through books and samples to see if there was something I liked any better.  I ended up back where I started, and I've been happy with it ever since.  The one thing I didn't like was the bright coordinating border I bought to go around the top of the room.  It had a wine-red background, and when we hung it, it just seemed to close the room in and overpower it, so we scrapped that part of the design.
   I don't know if you can tell, but if you look closely to the lower right of the mirror, you can see the outlines of the ugly, gray electrical breaker box that was installed in the den wall.  Why would someone do that--put an ugly electrical box front and center on the den wall????  I covered it with wallpaper, too, as you can see, and it isn't very noticeable, even in person.
   Originally, the walls in the den were completely panelled (as so many houses built in the 60s were), so shortly after we moved in, we prepped and wallpapered over the top half.  Let me tell you, that's a job!  First you have to paint the wood and let it dry thoroughly, then paste and hang the fabric underlay to help hide the seams and let that dry thoroughly.  Next you paint the underlay and let it dry, and finally you paste and hang the paper.  This is the proper way we were told would be necessary to prepare the unsealed wood for accepting the moisture of the paper and hiding the panel seams. 
   Doggedly, we did this enormous prep work for the exterior wall and the two smaller end walls of the den--which took about 4 days of waiting between jobs for things to dry--but after so much labor, inconvenience and waiting, we decided that the interior wall would be just fine if we hung the underlay, let it dry and then hung the wallpaper.  What could it hurt?  Ha!  Famous last words.  As we sat relaxing in our new country blue patterned den, we suddenly heard a noise that can best be described as the sound I imagine an avalanche makes before it breaks lose!  Terrified, I looked around to see what on earth had made the terrible noise, and it soon became apparent that as the walls of the unprepared wood dried, the wallpaper was wrenching away from the drying wall with a horrible ripping sound.  As the papered wall came "tumbling down," we were forced to take a utility knife and cut the wall sections into three large panels.  The underlay had become "cemented" to the wallpaper, and the resulting panels now looked like large sections of stiff, printed paneling.  We moved the furniture, repasted the sections, and hung them again, but periodically over the next several years, we had to reattach parts of it to the wall.  It never looked as smooth and nice as the correctly prepped side did, and we were continually reminded of our misdeeds when we looked at the wrinkled, gaped paper.
    So---when we re-papered with the palm tree design, we finally did the remaining wall properly, and we've never had so much as a whisper of complaint from the walls.

   Also, we decided on a medium oak floor today and have it acclimatizing in its new home.  Laminate "floating" floors have to get used to their new environments for about 48 hours before they're installed, so we have ours stacked up in the den behind the love seat.  Marcus (our son-in-law) plans to get some guys to come and help him start on Monday to begin the installation.  We have a couple of low places in the sub-floor that will probably need replacing, the old tile will have to be removed, and the underlay will have to be put down before the floor can be installed.  Based on our previous experience with not doing things properly with the walls, we will definitely follow the directions for the floor.  What kind of sound do you suppose a floating floor would make if improperly installed with all us heavy humans walking on it?  Pictures beginning Monday! 
Have a great day (or night, as the case may be).
Love'n stuff,
Sandy :)

Friday, January 28, 2011

Eye Surgery and Feeding a Crowd

   So far this blog has been less about scrapping and more about our lives.  Hopefully I will soon get more of the scrapping part of it going.  Today, however, Eddie had eye surgery, and we had to go to Pensacola for that.  Everything went well, but his eye was uncomfortable for a while afterward.  He was able to rest his eyes on the way home, though, and that seemed to help.  He has glaucoma, and the doctor has performed surgery on both eyes during the last two weeks to help lower his pressures.  His pressure was 17 after a couple of hours, so the technician seemed pleased with that reading.  He'll go back next Friday to have both eyes checked again.
   While we were waiting around in Pensacola, we ate at Red Lobster and shopped.  I got a couple of new pillows for the den and a mirror, too.  Below is a photo of the mirror, but it didn't turn out very well in the low light.  I had the overhead light on, but the bulbs reflected too brightly off of the polished frame of the mirror.  Maybe you can still get a good idea.  The center square is the mirror part, but it's reflecting the opposite wall and ceiling, so it may be hard to tell.  I plan to hang it over the brown loveseat.
"Global Caravan" Mirror
   In the meantime, it was our church's turn to feed the kids at JDCC (our local community college).  We had planned for 160, but we only had about 100.  That means we're having chili Wednesday night at church!  LOL  In addition to the chili, we fed them Fritos, cake and soft drinks.  Each Friday one or more of the Southern Baptist churches in our association (county) prepares lunch for any of the students and faculty who would like to come.  Of course it's free, and during the meal there is also a short devotion provided, and a blessing is asked.  It has grown from about 35 participants to the 160 that were served last week.  I was sorry that Eddie's eye surgery prevented me from going and helping today, but I'm so thankful that I had over 17 volunteers to make chili and a wonderful team to go and serve.  I'm sure those who enjoyed the lunch appreciated all the hard work and love that went into it.
   Hope you've all had productive days and safe journeys.
Love'n stuff,
Sandy :)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

New Furniture

   I'm so excited that I got the new furniture I ordered today.  We got a couch, love seat, ottoman and recliner for our den with an area carpet coming soon.  All of this change is making me want to get in here and get my craft room organized! 
   One of my favorite things to do is organize "stuff."  When I was a little girl I used to spend so much time setting up the dollhouse made of odds and ends of boxes and fabrics, that I usually ran out of time to actually play with the dolls.  Somehow, though, that was the most fun to me.  I'm afraid I have some of that same mind-set working on me with crafting.  I love to acquire the tools of the trade and organize things to please me, but I often prefer that to actually using them!  LOL 
   Maybe the infusion of orderliness to the den will make my creative juices overflow and get me going on making things with my delightful tools.  I have a Cricut Expression, Cricut Imagine, Gypsy and Cuttlebug, to name the major "toys" at my disposal.  I love seeing what new things are out there for us crafters, and I enjoy trying them out.
   Hope you're having a great day and crafting to your heart's delight!
Love'n stuff,
Sandy :)

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

My First Post

     My very first post has been a long time coming.  I really didn't think I would have anything to share that anyone else would want to see, but I've decided I need a place to enjoy participating in things like blog hopping and posting things I'm working on. Hopefully this will be the beginning of an adventure that takes me to new places as I explore the brave new world of blogs.  Please join me as we travel on the "space" crafter's journey of discovery.  (Sorry about the pun.)  Have a wonderful day!
Love'n stuff,
Sandy :)