Messy Jessie Invades a New Space

Since moving into our new house in November, I have made very little progress in setting up my new craft room. What can I say, I've always been more motivated on the creative side of craft room activities--less so on the organizational side :)

With my first craft show of the 2010 season rapidly approaching (March 13th I'll be at the Designers Downtown Market in Raleigh, NC) it is definately crunch time to set things up in my new space so I can follow my normal routine and do a trial set-up to make sure my displays are ready to go before show day.

At least at this point (almost) everything is unpacked, and my jewelry for sale is either happily stored in my favorite piece of craft room furniture (a lovely jewelry armoire my hubby got me as a gift) or the lovely necklace roll my Mom made me for Christmas (see previous post about this to see photos!) Thank goodness some of the organizing I did before the big move (see the labeled plastic shoeboxes on the shelf in the second photo) have helped me find things amidst the mess in the interim before I get everything else put away!

Messy Jessy Packing Up for the Big Move

As you may be aware from previous posts, my alter-ego "Messy Jessy" takes over my craft room on a regular basis and destroys any attempts at organization :) It's all part of the creative process, and tends to go in cycles of messiness and organization that revolve around the SmuTopia craft show schedule.

Right now, the room is without a doubt in the messy part of this ongoing cycle! However, circumstances for clean up are a bit different now that my hubby and I have just purchased our first house (Hooray!!!!). I'll be spending the next month packing and moving, and the thought of packing up all of my beads and other supplies is rather daunting.

To make my life a bit easier, I picked up a whole bunch of plastic shoe-box-sized containers on sale at Target after the back-to-college sales were over and have been packing my supplies into those then labeling them. Between the labels and the clear plastic containers I hope to be able to find my supplies a bit more easily after the move. Unfortunately, after packing up at least 10 of these the room seems just a full as it did when I started!

Despite all of the work that needs to be done, I'm thrilled about the move. Not only is this a big milestone for the Smuteks as we move into our new home, it is also a great opportunity to get more organized both in my craft room and throughout the house. How do you organize your supplies? How do you set up your workspace? I'd love your thoughts and ideas on this!

Messy Jessie Checking In!

After reaching a seldom-seen level of tidiness during my parents' weekend visit, my craft room has already started on the downward spiral toward messiness and disarray. This is nothing unusual as my creative process and organization tend to be mutually exclusive :)

The head of the guest bed in the room is usually pushed up against the window, but I moved the bed a few days back so I could set up to take photos in the afternoon sun (natural light always gives me the best results for photos.) As you can see, I don't need much room for photo shoot--I just use a few pieces of my craft show display to put my props and tripod at the right height and I'm ready to go.

I've been tempted for awhile now to rearrange the furniture in the room to relocate the bed for easier access to the natural light from the window, but my kitty Cleo loves lying on the bed to watch the world outside the window which has prevented me from acting on the idea. I think a compromise is in order--maybe we can move the bed so only half of the window is covered :)

Messy Jessie: Progress! (at least on one wall)

As promised, here is the latest update on my craft room organization series (aka "Messy Jessie"). The photo above is from a different angle than the last photos, and shows the section of the room that looks the best :) I've actually gone through all of the drawers in the rolling organizer on the left, which now hold my SmuTopia paperwork and tag-making materials as well as overflow jewelry supplies still in their original packaging. The end table in the middle was actually my childhood nightstand, which came out of storage when I was a kid and is who-knows-how-old. The organizer on top of the end table is one of my favorite creations--a gigantic pencil/marker/etc holder made out of old tin cans attached to a 2x4 :)

I have a day off tomorrow (Friday 7/3) and hope to have more photos showing additional progress.......wish me luck!

Messy Jessie: My Never-Ending Quest for Craft Room Organization

As I start to prepare for my next appearance at the Designers' Downtown Market on July 11th and gather inventory and display pieces for the show, I have (out of necessity) begun to dig through the mess my craft room/studio/guest bedroom has become. The picture on the left is the room on Friday, and the one on the right is from this morning. You'd never know I spent the whole weekend in there cleaning! Granted, there is a lot you can't see from this angle, including my beading table and bead storage shelves which received a good deal of attention. The hardest part of organization for me is not getting sucked into half-finished projects as I discover them in the mess :)

My grand vision for this round of organization is to clean up the room enough to be able to move the bed to a different location to allow me to take photos closer to the natural light coming from the window (currently located a the head of the bed). I also have considered abducting my hubby's old desk from it's current location in the dining room to use for extra workspace, providing I can arrange the room to make it fit :) I'll be following up with additional photos as I continue the deep-clean and (hopefully) re-organize the furniture in the room. Please feel free to comment with any of your own organizational tips!