Oh man, does it feel good to be settled into my new craft room and getting creative again! Do you guys feel like creative planning is your own little brand of therapy, or is it just me? I have had no time, space, or supplies to craft/plan/blog due to our recent move, and I swear I was going through planning withdrawals!  [The following paragraph is a quick recap of our move, in case you’re interested – if not, just skip ahead to the next one!]

In May, our family made a big decision to leave a home that has been in our family for 42 years.  I grew up in the house and then my husband and I bought it from my parents 8 years ago and we have LOVED raising our kids there. Though we loved the house and had so many wonderful memories there, we stumbled across a really unique opportunity in a new home (same town – only 1 mile away) and we couldn’t pass it up. It was certainly a tough decision and very bittersweet to make the move,  but we did it.  We had a lot of projects going on in the new house that kept us from moving in right away, so we put all of our furniture and belongings in storage and spent several weeks in limbo… until we finally moved in last week.  We still have workers here daily and it will be weeks before our master bathroom is finished, but at least we are waking up here every morning!  AND – that also means I got my planning and crafting supplies unpacked and set up.  Woot Woot!

Being without my planning supplies, my computer, and all my creative stuff put a pretty big kink in the whole blog process (tough to do this with no computer and no content to post) so I have been on a major hiatus and I apologize.   I have really missed this process and the feedback here and on Instagram and YouTube.  I suppose it reinforces how much this community and this method of sharing means to me.

So now I’m hoping to get back to a regular posting schedule – starting with a little peek at my new space.  It is not done yet (I’ve got to get my hubby to hang some shelves, displays, and my filming mount) but at least I can work in there and I am in heaven!

My new craft space is in my basement.  Our whole basement is dark wood walls, drop tile ceilings and this crazy brown and orange plaid carpet, all of which flows into my new room.  I am going to have to live with the carpet and drop ceiling, but I drew the line at the dark walls.  We had our painter give them a fresh coat of white paint to keep it lighter and brighter in there.   These are not the greatest pictures, but you can see the lovely carpet – yikes – and the basic setup.  I have my old school storage cubes from Michael’s that are along that mirrored wall (which is behind me when I work), and then my main desk (Alex from Ikea) is in the front right corner – you can just see my green chair in this first picture.

I love having a corner desk because my work surface is much deeper right in front of me, which gives me plenty of room to have my go-to supplies close at hand.  For example, I love this carousel with all my basic tools and adhesives: (here is a similar one)

And my most-used stamp sets live right on my desk where I can flip through them easily.

Since I work in the basement, I do not have natural light in my room – which is a bummer.  But this desktop OttLite is a huge help – great pure white light right over my work surface.  And as an added bonus – it has a bluetooth speaker built right in, so I can listen to some tunes while I’m working!  I love this thing!

Here’s a look at my whole corner setup.  Eventually, I will also have shelves right above me that house some other supplies and provide a place to mount my camera for filming process videos.

Just off to my left are my Stampin’ Up! Color Caddies which I LOVE.  They house a ton of inkpads (perfect for SU inks but others also fit), plus some trays on top and they spin for easy access.  If you are an ink lover like me – I HIGHLY recommend these.  (Stampin’ Up products are purchased through demonstrators – you can find one that is local to you on their website or if you’d like the contact information for my demonstrator, let me know and I’ll hook you up with her… I also have a whole separate post planned about Stampin’ Up! inks, which are my favorite for lots of reasons).

Well, this doesn’t constitute an official tour of my new space – it is set up very much like it was in my old house and I already filmed an extensive tour.  If you’d like a look at that video, click here or you can also ask me any other questions in the comments.

Meanwhile, I’ll be putting the finishing touches on my new space, crafting my happy little heart out, and planning some new posts for the blog – so stay tuned and THANK YOU for your patience!  I’m so glad to be back 🙂

xo,

Tricia