I’m just tidying..

I’m moving back into my workroom. I will do a sort of ‘tour’ when it’s done and before I make a hideous mess of it all. Meanwhile though, I want to reassure you that I’m not doing a massive purge. Yes, a few things have gone….ink refills for example.  The refills were taking up a whole basket and didn’t match my ink pads, seriously. Anything that didn’t sell in the shop closure came home with me and I just put them away thinking I’d deal with them at a later point. Well, *cough* 18 years..but that’s still ‘later’ isn’t it? 

Ribbons have been rolled, clipped and given away too. 

I had a 12 x 12 Art Bin filled with them that I don’t think I’ve opened since Christmas, so I’m obviously not using much ribbon. I’ve kept a smaller box full, and I’ve written the date on the lid. It will be fascinating to see how long it is untiI I next open it.

Here is another activity (actually more time consuming than I thought it would be).

I decanted a load of inherited cards and envelopes into an under bed type plastic storage box. Long and low. It worked at the time, but I’ve managed to use quite a lot and this storage is a bit big now. So I decided to match every card to an envelope and put them in the storage drawers that will go under my desk. Nice and accessible.

It’s not the time it’s taking me that’s the problem, I have the luxury of leaving and re-visiting when I like. It’s not the quantity even, although there are still a lot. It’s getting over the fact that I’m folding every card. I’m a HUGE and mildly bossy proponent of working on the card flat. I have always stored them unfolded. When you’ve made the crease, they tend to need holding shut whilst you work on the card face and it leads to misplacing, cards pinging open just when you don’t need them to and well, you know, less control. Shiver. But it’s a necessary evil now. If you ever get a card from me, know that my dear father’s paperweight was involved in the making too. I can see it will have stopped being an heirloom ornament and actually gone back to being a useful lump of glass! 

I’ve set myself quite a task involving my clear stamps too, I’ve worked on and tried several ways of storing them over the years and none have really suited me. So the aforementioned drawers under the desk situation will come into play. This will be quite a long game though, there’s a lot to do…I have some in their original packets. Some mounted on their acrylic cover sheets and some others just loose and wild. They all need to be washed to regain sticky, they need at least to have acrylic sheet mounts and then we’ll see. Watch this space. I guarantee photos that will make you shudder.

Now I need to get back to it, or I’m going to run out of whatever it is that makes me want to get on with it.