Watercolor Shine!

Hi everyone!
Is anybody still out there? I sure hope so! I've missed you so, but I wanted to share a video of the unboxing of my new planner!
Life has definitely taken over, and as you might have seen by my lack of posts, I've been quite the busy bee. Everything is going great, I've just had very little time for myself, and my hobbies.
I'm super excited about this new planner, I've always been very curious about Erin Condren and her products, so as I needed some change in my planning style, I decided I needed a new planner as well!
I hope you enjoy my video!

I'm loving all the personalized products and organizational accessories I've found at Erincondren.com! Check it out for yourself and you'll receive $10 off your first purchase! https://www.erincondren.com/referral/invite/sharonmartinelli0906

This process...

.....seems to be taking FOREVER. Many of you following me on Instagram or my Facebook Page might know what I'm talking about, as I've been sharing stuff there... the fact that life is very busy, and the time I have for myself is very limited, has not helped this process go as fast as I've wanted. My entire office/craftroom/studio is a huge mess, and I cannot wait to finish organizing everything, yet I always get interrupted, or just more important things come up and I have to stop doing what I want to do. Seems like everything takes me FOREVER to finish!Man do we collect stuff!!!
I recently ordered some new pieces of furniture, and had a whole fiasco with that, not ordering everything I needed  from the start, and then needing to order again for the missing pieces I forgot to get. Has that ever happened to you? Oh that was annoying! I finally got the parts, and everything is starting to look good...

There is still a lot I have to do, but slowly, I think I'm finally feeling comfortable in my room. I want a place for everything, and everything to have it's place, and even though it's taking me forever to get everything the way I want to, I have hope that soon it will finally be done and finished. I'll be so content the day when that happens!

Inspiring...

Hello everyone! I'm back!
I want to first start by thanking everyone for all the comments, Facebook messages, and  e-mails in response to my last post. I really appreciate all your support, and all you shared with me in your messages. From many, I also got questions, and I'm going to address one here today.
It seems like many have gone through what I'm going through at the moment, but considering how hard the whole process is, many have just given up, and not really known how to start the whole de-cluterring of craft supplies, as letting go of stuff we once loved so much, seems to be such a hard thing to do.
Well, let me introduce you to something that I think really helped me start, and follow through with my current de-cluterring/organizing process in my craft room. I randomly picked up this book a few weeks back, curious to see what perspective the book would give me. I'm an organized person as is, but I just couldn't figure out what to do to help my craft room/office be what I wanted it to be. Maybe, this book would give me some insight on something I'd never done before? I didn't hesitate, and ordered it. Got it the next day, and started reading right away.

I read the whole book pretty quickly, and got really intrigued by what the author's method of "tidying up" was... I definitely recommend the book. Some things seem quite extreme, but in my opinion a lot of things do make sense, and have really helped me in my process of choosing what tot get rid of, and what to keep, while at the same time feeling happy with the whole process. I don't want to elaborate too much on it, as reading the book in it's entirety will give you a better idea of how everything works.

I'm no way near done with what I want to accomplish in my workspace (I'm so picky it's insane!), but I can honestly say, lots has been done, and so far I have no regrets!

So, to answer the questions: How do you get started? How do you approach it? How do you decide what to keep, how to organize? Read this book. It will definitely help you rationalize, and facilitate the process. It sure helped me. 

Have a great week!

Seriously....

I've been hoping to sit down and update this blog for literally over a month and a half now. Seriously! The end of last year and beginning of this year, have definitely been super duper busy for me, as you might have noticed from my lack of posts and projects. Let's just say it's been crazy, but I'm still standing, and I thank God for that!
I apologize for the lack of posts, but not only have I been running around like a chicken with it's head cut off in the last few months, but I've also suffered from lack of mojo. Don't know if it's related to my crazy busy life at the moment, but I'm really tired of it, and have been wanting to create for quite some time, yet haven't managed to do so.
Every time I've tried to sit down and make something, there has ALWAYS been something that has interrupted me, and or, the fact that I've had no inspiration whatsoever makes me take such a long time to think of anything to make, that by the time I've figured something out, something comes up and I can't even start it!
It's been quite frustrating, and one day it just hit me. I went in my office/studio/craft-room/ whatever you want to call it, and looked all around. I felt overwhelmed. It's no mystery that we as crafters (at least the majority of us), buy a lot more, and faster than we create. There's always something new coming out we just have to have, yet we still have not even touched what we bought a month ago. Can you relate? Over time, things accumulate, and new projects get put on the " I'm going to use that for such and such a project one day," and that day usually never comes, as the cycle continues.

I've been really into creating since 2008, so you can just imagine all the stuff I've accumulated over the years. Yes, a lot of things have brought me a ton of joy, but a lot of things I've learned that I will never be using, because either it's no longer my style, or I have too many other things that are very similar to it. I have done what we call "detashes" of some product in the past, but as I looked at my room filled to the rims with supplies, I realized I needed to do a huge purge of products, and just maybe, that would help me get out of the craft rut I'm in, and allow me to be happy in the space I use to create.

We moved into this house over a year ago, and though I've spent quite a bit of time unpacking, organizing, setting things up, I've never been totally happy with the way it looks, and also of the way some of my 'storage solutions' work for me.  So I've started a journey----going through my stuff and hoping to get some of them to a new home, where they will actually get used.  I posted my first destash video in the middle of February sometime, then a second one last week. I'm currently getting ready to finish filming and releasing a new video with more stuff to sell, and let me tell you, the struggle has been real...even though I have managed to put a lot of stuff in the "sell"pile, there's still a ton of stuff I can't seem to let go off. It's hard, I'm working on it. Just like I'm working on getting creatively active on this platform once again.  Many have seen my 'destash' videos, and emailed me asking if I was not going to create anymore. I am. I'm not stopping. I'm just helping myself get back to it.

Will you join me? Will you stick around while all these things take place, and things fall back into place? Have you felt this way at any time before? How did you handle it? What worked for you? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. I always love hearing from you. I know it will take time, but I'm positive I'll get there. I want to get there. I hope you stick around, and that you are still there :)

Spray Ink Organization: My Raskog Cart

Hi there!

It's no news to many of you that I've been involved in the unpacking and organization of my new space for quite a few months now. It's definitely taking longer than I ever expected, but it's because I keep changing things around, trying to figure out what's the best way to organize and store things, so they are actually organized how I like, as well as easy for me to access. I'm far from being done with the whole project, but after my recent visit to Ikea, I finally think I'm getting closer to feeling comfortable, and organized in my new space. 

In the mists of all this unpacking, reorganizing, and restructuring my way of working in this new space, I've managed to make it an area where I can still create, which is helping me a lot, because I'm actually seeing what works, and what does not, in terms of organization, and placement around my work areas.

One thing I am thrilled and have been thrilled ever since I changed it up, is my cart from Ikea, the famous, and much coveted Raskog. Everybody and their mama owns one of these, and for good reason! They store SO MUCH STUFF, and fit practically everywhere, not to mention they roll around your space like butter with those wheels which is so convenient.  I have the gray colored version, as I want my room to be all white, gray, and lime green ------you all might be familiar with the turquoise colored one. 

In my old space I used to store my small 6 by 6 paper stacks, and a few roller stamps and embellishments, but after the move, when I unpacked, I decided I would now use it to store all my Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays. (You might be familiar with this picture if you follow me on my Instagram account, as I shared it as soon as I first set it up).

I totally love the change, and I think it's totally amazeballs!!!! Yup, I said it, amazeballs, because it totally is! Even though you can't see it in the picture, there is tons of room for me to grow on the second and last level of the cart, and I can organize all the sprays by collection sets ,which comes in handy for me as I design for the company.
I strongly recommend you get one of these for your space. No matter what you decide to store on it, it will store so much for you, and I think it is so worth the money. It is super easy to assemble, and you can find tons of other inspiration pictures for storage on this cart (everything from markers, to project life storage), if you just Google it by name. It's one of the best purchases I've made for my new studio...and to think I almost didn't get one! Ha, that's a whole other topic! Until next time friends.

Repurposing!

Hello everyone!
Today I wanted to share a little tutorial on how to repurpose the containers of candles. If you follow me on Instagram, you already know that I'm addicted to candles for my home, and my favorite seem to be the three wick candles from Bath and Body Works. I go through those all the time, and hate throwing the container away, because they are so pretty, and I know they could be used for other things after I've burnt through the candles. I have to be honest, and tell you I don't repurpose all of mine, since I use many of these a year, and don't need a house full of glass containers lol. However, from time to time I do repurpose them, and here's a picture tutorial on what I do to get them looking perfect, and ready for their new way of use.
1. Take your burnt candle holder container, and remove all the stickers you can take off the glass. Put the container in your freezer for about twenty minutes. The cold temperature will make the leftover wax shrink and firm up.
2. Take the container out of the freezer, and gently with a knife, break the wax and take it all out, as well as the three metal wick holders in the bottom of the container.
3. With a nice sponge, wash out the container, and get rid of any stickiness  you have left in the bottom, or side of the jar. If you have issues removing the adhesive of the stickers, just spray the glass with Goo Gone, and it will come totally clean. Rinse well.
4. Let air dry, and that's it! Your container is ready to be repurposed.
5. I use my clean containers to hold small things, such as lipsticks, lip gloss as you see in the picture, candy, even nail polish! You can definitely embellish (or not) your container if you like, and use it in your craft area too. The possibilities are endless!

I hope you enjoyed this quick and simple tutorial. A different post from my usual paper crafting posts. I hope it is useful to you.
Thanks for stopping by!

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