In My Studio with Mary

Hi friends!!! First off, happy holidays! I don't know about you but this is my most favorite time of year and if you're anything like me even your crafty space will have a hint of Christmas cheer too. Today I'd like to walk you through my crafty space all decked out for the holidays! Grab a cup of coffee or hot cocoa because I have a whole lot of eye candy coming your way.

My space is shared between myself and my two kiddo's and we are technically in the breakfast nook off the kitchen space which is to the right (but it's a disaster right now so you won't get to see that). We live in a 1920's farmhouse rental so I kind of gotta make do with what I've got. You're looking at my space and the kiddo's desks are to the left. It's small but it is completely functional thanks to some serious organization that took months of planning.

This room has the most natural light out of all the rooms in the house which makes it perfect for filming and crafting but horrible for taking pictures for you beautiful people so bear with me. Some day I'll have a big girl camera...

Here's their space as a whole:

We're now standing in my area. You can see I am still not quite finished in here. I need to wrap the gray paint color around to the entryway and mudroom which is behind that wall and, honestly, I'm just too lazy to do it right now.

Here are some close ups of what's on the shelves:

As you can tell I love all things vintage, rustic and pretty.

I also hold onto things that mean a lot to me like that old vinyl record box I store my finished layouts in, or my grandmother's thread spools, old lace and ribbons wrapped around clothes pins and stored in an rustic flower jar, and some vintage kids scissors I will make into a piece of art some day.

Not all of my storage needs to be vintage though. You'll see a lot of storage from the Dollar Tree like the white buckets and even the chalkboard labels are from there. Also I like to store my stamps in Target 6"x8" binders. I like to mix modern in for a clean look so the vintage items really stand out.

I remember the day I picked up this rustic tool box and an older man at the check out stand asked me if I knew what it was (insert eye roll)...I could have throat punched him...but alas, I am a Christian woman full of grace and forgiveness so I shook my head and said "No! What is it?!" He enjoyed telling me about it and I ended up really liking his story. He was sweet and just wanted to strike up a conversation with someone young who was interested in something familiar to his own youth.

It sure makes a nice place to put the bazillion art supplies my kids require though!

Okay we need to move on because I could talk about my kids all day long and this is about MY space after all ;) Most of these pictures were taken at night because of the window situation and so that you can see the twinkle lights.

Let's start from where I spend most of my time and work our way around. Here's where I create all those wonderful pieces and film my process for you lovelies:

Most of my furniture was pieced together with Ikea pieces. The desks are all Linmon tops and I have two Alex drawers, one wide and one file drawer. I keep ALL of my loose papers in the file drawer on the bottom right:

When I am working I swing my wide Alex out for another work surface. I have always wanted my own command center. Want to take a peak inside some of the drawers? Okay!

Here's where all the embellishments live. I am on the SpiegelMom Scraps design team as well so I have an entire drawer devoted to just sequins. I use these 24 Box Storage System containers

from Harbor Freight to keep them organized. The next drawer down I have my 3D embellishments on the left, boarder strips in the middle and cork pieces in the container on the right. These containers came from Walmart in the jewelry crafts section. I like them because of the pink clasp. Again, if it's pretty it stays.

Next up is where I keep all my ephemera sorted by color:

You'll see in a bit I keep ephemera categorized by type as well. This is just how my brain works. If I am not scrapbooking by a collection then I am scrapbooking by a theme or a color. So I sort them out as such. It didn't take me that long to organize because I don't keep much of a stock and I try to purge every season plus it saves me tons of time when I'm hunting for that perfect piece for a project.

On top of my desk is sort of cluttered right now because it's Christmas which means I'm working with two kits:

But isn't it sooooo purdy? Most of my containers are thrift store finds. The tray is a school lunch tray, the silver star tins are some baking tins and the milk glass container is a vintage Pyrex refrigerator bin. I keep my kit in a clear acrylic wall file I found at the thrift store as well but you can find them on Amazon or most office supply stores. The mint enamel container that holds my thickers is exactly the right size to contain them all. I got lucky there. Behind all of the goodies to the right is a school house paper roll dispenser. I keep that on my desk because that's where I clamp my phone holder thingy for filming. (I'm being very technical here).

Not everything needs to be a vintage find though! I re-purposed this cute chocolate box to hold some bits for my Christmas Stories album:

I especially like that the lid can sit underneath and hold my scraps!

I love that my desk sits in front of the window because I can keep an eye on my monkeys playing in the yard plus it's an extra ledge for my goodies so I can keep my surface clear.

To the right of my work surface I have all the tools I use regularly in this silverware caddy I picked up from Target last summer as well as a couple of little dishes I use to keep misc. stuff on as I'm working on a project.

Next to my main work area is the technology hub:

The apothecary style drawers are new but definitely fit right in with the rest of the room. They're actually CD and DVD holders! I keep all of my project life cards, tools, tapes, adhesives, ribbons, etc. in these drawers:

To the left is where I store all of my shimmerz products on this wooden house shelf:

I am now on a mission to find all the wooden house shelves because, clearly, I need more room for my Shimmerz.

Did I mention I love lamp?

I have 5...but I need more. Give me all the lamps. I also love my Strawberry Shortcake alarm clock from when I was a kid. Her head ticks (LOUDLY) back and forth and has an alarm that will scare the piddle out of you when it goes off but she's kind of like me in many regards so she stays....tick tick ticking away.

I love the way the sun sets on this window:

To the right of that desk is my Silhouette cutting station:

I make reclaimed wood signs as a side business and needed a large enough space for the vinyl to feed so this table is perfect for that. I also like that I have a clear surface when I need to sort the things.

There are more personal-to-me items in this tiny space than there is in any other part of our home. On the ledge are a couple of coffee mugs to hold my paint brushes. The camera mug was the only thing I wanted when my grandfather passed away and the mug on the right was a gift from dear friends before I moved so many years ago.

And underneath the desk I have some Michaels Recollection brand drawers that hold all sorts of junk:

They fit perfectly underneath and are much more pleasing to the eye than plastic drawers, however, I wouldn't recommend these drawers. They're flimsy and chip easily and several came broken. *hmphf* Don't worry though, I Mary-rigged them with some scotch quick dry adhesive and now they work like a champ...when in doubt use your scrappy supplies. ;)

Of course no command center is complete without a true 360 degree swivel so here's a peak at the last part of my room which is directly behind my main work area:

Again, another nice work surface to sort or lay multiple projects on. Plus it makes for killer storage. You'll see those little plastic Iris photo boxes on the top right cube...that's where I keep the ephemera that doesn't get sorted by color.

Usually the only thing that lives on top of this Kallax unit is my chicken feeder full of washi tape because the cook stove is directly behind it and I am always afraid grease will splatter and ruin my projects. I do love that I can pop in to my area and work on a project while waiting for the noodles to boil though!