Fruit Inspection

Okay, so forever ago I wrote that we were moving our home building company into the basement of our house which meant I was going to loose my coveted scrapbook room. It was large. It was lovely. It had one whole wall of cabinets and storage. (Sigh)

Enough of that pity party! I hauled everything up to the 2nd floor bonus room above the garage that we made into a guest room, and piled all my stuff on the bed. I was determined to make it work. And I vowed that I would do it inexpensively.

First, I had to clean out the closet because it looked like this:

It contained a bunch of out of season clothes that didn’t fit anymore and a few lingering baby items. I called a local consignment store resale boutique and they not only took most of it, they actually paid me MONEY for it! Woo-Hoo!!!

Now my closet looks like this:

It’s a walk in closet so there is still room on the right side to hang extra kids clothes. The bins on the floor are clothes for Emery that were given to me and are sizes 4-6. As he grows into those, the bins will be cleared out. See the stacks of white boxes on the middle shelf, left side? Those are so great! Wal-Mart sells them for $5 and I use them to keep my pictures sorted. For example, the box with Savannah’s pictures all over it contains stickers and embellishments I’ve bought for her. The one that says “Mickey Mouse” has Disney stuff in it, etc.

I love those little white boxes.

In the closet is also where I put the albums I have completed:

The kids albums I am currently working on (and I use the word “currently” very loosely), are in this black filing cabinet I stole from Jeremy’s office:

See it there behind the chair? The chair which still doesn’t have a seat cover. Anybody know how to make one of those things? Because the one I had before is bright red and it really doesn’t match anymore.

Also, inside the filing cabinet fit extra albums, refill pages, and power layout boxes (you Creative Memories gals know what I’m talking about, don’t ya?). And then on top, I was able to stack these 12×12 paper holders which I already had in the basement:

Turned out to be a nice place to put my magnetic photo frames too! Another “bonus” in the bonus room!

The thing I had the hardest time with was my computer. Once I got the desk upstairs, it was bigger than I realized. The TV stand and all that was already in the guest room and I just didnt’ like the look of setting the computer up right next to it. But I really didn’t have a choice and it’s sort of growing on me.

See the black metal basket that sits between the two on the floor? That was on the clearance rack at Target and fits the kids movies perfectly. Putting the movies there freed up shelf space next to the DVD player under the TV for another album, an idea book and my neg-care boxes (again, CM people will be the only ones who know what I am talking about here). More idea magazines are to the right of the TV and my “to crop or die trying” file is on the left.

The big black thing under the computer is my Crop in Style carry all. I thought I might have to keep stuff in it on a regular basis, but not once I found this on clearance at Target as well:

All my embellishments, scissors, stamps, ribbon, markers, tape runners, chalk, punches, and brads fit on there, just to name a few. You can’t see the bottom from this picture, but it sits on 2 drawers that also have Cricut supplies and trimmers of every shape and size. The drawers and shelves were 2 separate pieces that I had to put together. And as much as I like the way they look, they were buggers to put together. Wouldn’t want to do it again!

Hanging next to the shelving is this:

I’ve had this thing for years. It used to hang in my bathroom with Jeremy’s fishing magazines in it. Now I’ve got some of my favorite idea books right at my fingertips.

Here is where my creative juices flow:

Jeremy’s dad gave us this table several years ago. He was moving and didn’t want it, we were without a kitchen table, so viola…it worked for all of us. My dad had to repair parts of the table when we first got it, but he did a wonderful job and it’s held up nicely. The flowers on the table were an engagement gift from my mother in law. I put them in that vase last year and had them in the guest bedroom in our basement (which was also nixed in the recent move). The only thing I really don’t like is that lamp shade. I got the light online knowing I would need more light in that corner to work. On the computer the shade looked gray colored. But it’s definitely brown. Blah! I’ll be shopping around for that real soon.

I think my only spluge during this whole ordeal was on this cutie:

I picked it up and put it down about a million times. I finally ended up buying it because I loved it so much and knew I could use it for so many things. Right now it has Scrapbooking magazines in it and I just love it sitting there. Did I mention how much I love that little basket???

How about one final before and after shot? Here is the room about midway through. I had already removed the red/white/blue patriotic themed quilt and navy tab curtains. This is the bedspread and curtains from the basement guest bedroom. And I had already moved the table into the corner:

Now here it is completed:

I don’t know why the paint is showing up so dark blue. It’s really not that dark in real life. More of a blue/slate gray color that matches the flowers on the bedspread. This black furniture is still one of my favorite sets in the house. I almost gave it to Emery for his room, but decided against it. I like it in here and I like it with the blue. As it turns out, I like everything about it. Now, if I could just find as much time to scrapbook as it took me to re-do this room. THAT would be nice!!!