Organizing with boxes

Could you would you in a:



Could you would you with a:

Pure poetry. ;)

I found those two hideously patterned and mismatching storage boxes at a garage sale for one dollar each. I have been needing storage boxes so badly I didn't even care what they looked like! (I got a gift card to my favorite craft store and instead of buying fun stuff I bought storage boxes - does that tell you what a sad state of affairs my creative supplies are in?)

Most of my craft storage boxes are the kraft box color (no punnery intended) and I ended up swapping the two patterned ones shown above with some I already had but had to empty. They never get seen so it won't matter. Then at least I had five that were basically matching.

I have my finger in so many craft pies, so to speak, that I have supplies coming out of my ears. Things like:

As well as adhesives fill those boxes. I filled the new ones with embellishments and ephemera.

I just adore the word ephemera and got a ridiculous amount of pleasure at having a whole box full. It basically means bits and scraps of paper.

After my switching of boxes and organizing of materials I realized there were still plenty more categories that could use their own box so I started collecting shoe boxes and then I...spray painted them. Yeah, a bit lazy, but I was dreading the thought of covering them in paper. Spray paint works just great in case you were wondering. Just be sure to do it in light coats or your paint will run. Now they look much better and won't clash with my other matchy matchy boxes.

My labels are actually stickers - so easy!

Did I mention I had them in plastic bags before? Now they stack and I can put them on a shelf or even slide them under the bed.

There are some boxes I don't do when organizing though - I don't do DVD boxes. Unless it is a TV series those boxes get tossed and I put my movies in a zippered case.

My action movies page. :)

Just to give you an idea of how much space this saves me, I currently have 59 movies in here and it's not even full yet. Now imagine if I had to store all those boxes! That's space I could be using for craft supplies! ;)

Linking to:

Reinvented

Silly Little Sparrow

Mosaic Monday - simple life

(click image to enlarge)

Handwritten letters, May Day flowers, warm quilts and homemade treats (rose petal jelly, eggnog cake and pear cordial, respectively).

These are a few of my favorite things. :)

Happy Monday to you all! Be sure to visit Little Red House for other beautiful mosaics!

Junk Art - wee skeleton key

I've got enough old stuff rattling around my house that if I need a piece of art it's not hard to make it happen. :)

I started with an unfinished shadowbox from Goodwill. It had been collecting dust for months but I love shadowboxes so I knew I would use it someday. It was a very pale wood and I ended up painting it black to match another shadowbox on my wall.

The inside had a few components - the "box" and a mat.

I covered the mat in paper grocery bag that I crinkled and wrinkled.

Adds some nice texture and makes it look old and a bit leathery.

My background I decided to make out of an old dictionary page. I have been using this dictionary for every project and I still have a huge book full of material to work with.

Have I shown you my new favorite tool?

It fits perfectly in the hand and makes precision cutting a breeze.

This little key I've had for ages - it could have gone to some little box or an old clock. I simply stuck it inside using glue dots. If you've never used those things before watch. out. they are really sticky.

All together it makes a wonderful addition to all my other old junk. ;)

Linking to:

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Poppies At Play

Finesse Your Nest

The Shabby Nest

Room to Inspire

Sense & Sensibility (insight edition)

How do you take a book that is almost 200 years old and make it interesting and new to the modern reader? That's a trick question, I can't imagine not enjoying Jane Austen's writing no matter how antiquated the society and its ideals are. Of course I took as many literature classes in college as time allowed so I may be an exception to the rule.

The story itself? The cast of characters is impressive; you've got the calm introvert, the passionate young thing, the rake, the snob, the neighbors you roll your eyes at whenever they show up, the man of integrity, etc. And the plotlines are almost as thick as the characters! Frivolity and fun, true love, desperate, gut-wrenching heartbreak, intrigue and secrets, scandal, mix-ups, horrible nasty people you want to punch in the nose (I know I'm not the only one who thought that.)

I've made it a personal project to read all of Austen and this was my third foray and probably my favorite to read - which surprised me because as absolutely wonderful as Edward and Col. Brandon are, I don't swoon over them like Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightley. Not to sound smarmy about it but I think it did have to do with the "insights" in my margin.

The book has a pictographic key so the notes in your margin are categorized by things like historical and cultural details, film references, themes of faith, Austen facts and tidbits, and comments and asides as well as frowny face and smiley face comments. As much as I LOVE tidbits and asides in all categories what I really enjoyed were the smiley and frowney faces - it was like reading the book with a friend who hated the same parts you hated and loved, laughed and smiled at all your favorite places.

(I got quite the laugh out of the film reference which stated: In the 2008 miniseries, Edward's bad mood leads him to chop wood in the pouring rain. The film was written by the same person who had Darcy jump in a lake. We approve of both.
And yes I did run out and rent the 2008 miniseries after reading that. Kidding. Sortof.)

If you were one of those women (or girls - I knew lots of teens who did this) who ran out and bought Pride and Prejudice the book after watching the 2005 film and found the book hard to read - I'd recommend trying it again with the "insight edition" which will inevitably lead you to Sense & Sensibility. These editions really do a brilliant job of bridging a 200 year generation gap.

Happy reading!

I received a copy of the Sense and Sensibility Insight Edition from Bethany House Publishers for the purposes of reviewing. My opinion, however, is entirely my own.

Super condensed inspiration

Now with 47% less sodium and all organic ingredients!

Or...not. ;)

Are you like me and have about a million ideas you want to try - things you keep seeing in magazines? I decided to tackle my magazine stacks and make myself one of these:

This stack of magazines is maybe 1/4 of what I have around my house. Ridiculous. It all needs to go in the recycle bin but what if there's an idea in there I forget about?


Thank goodness I didn't throw this out - an old three ring binder that once held my "staff handbook."

I've also got a whole box of these plastic sheet protectors - all of which adds up to an idea files folder!

This is a great task for evening TV watching when you want to feel like you're doing something productive. I go through each magazine and tear out each page that contains something I want to try/make for the home or garden. When I'm done I usually have maybe six pages - out of a whole magazine's worth - that I really want to keep around.

Into the plastic sheet protectors they go, back to back and making sure that connecting pages end up together and in order.

I have actually dog-eared magazine pages before and gone back and looked and wondered what it was I wanted to try. Sad, I know. To avoid any confusion here I write myself little notes like this one which I intend to include in a gift I'm making for my brother's birthday.

I organize the pages into three groups of home and decor, organization and holiday. You could have them divided by MUCH more than that, but that's all I need...for now.

And be sure to make a label so everyone knows what an organizing psycho neat person you are. (I used a header from shabby blogs and I added the words using picnik's Henry Morgan font)

I made my get-rid-of's useful again, not to mention that this takes up remarkably less room than stacks and stacks of magazines and is much more portable.

I love it so much that I'm gonna hug it and squeeze it and call it George.

Have an ideas folder on the computer? If you want to blog about it make sureto save the photo with the blog's name or url to make sure you can always find it again. If I have more than one from the same blog just start numbering them like so: fromreinvented01