A Little Peek Into Where I Create........

****WARNING-PHOTO HEAVY *LONG-WINDED* POST!****

So, I've mentioned a few times that I am really "trying" to get my loft organized and cleaned out so I can be more effective with my time and creativity. My crafting studio is the loft in the 3rd floor of our townhouse. We don't have a garage or a basement, so since we've had our son, this has also been our "catchall" room and has quickly turned into a disaster!
I have so many beautiful crafting supplies and it was really getting me down that I am not able to use these things to their full advantage and also worried that they are going to get ruined from being stored improperly.
So for the past few weeks I've been on a mission to get it under control. Life gets in the way, so many times I can only spend a few minutes at a time, but chipping away at it slowly has proven to work! I am "almost" there and I couldn't be happier! I still have a lot to go through and a few changes I want to make with my storage options, but that will all come in time.
For now I am going to share just a few pictures of the things that are "presentable" for public viewing!

I have two of these vintage printer trays that I picked up, one at an antique store and one at a country festival, each for $15.00 (I had my eye on one at an antique consignment shop for $45.00, I'm glad I held out and found these!) They hold a "small" amount of my wood mounted stamps, others I have stored in my Expedit cubes (need to streamline this in the future!)
I haven't been able to settle on a storage option for my Nestabilities. Since I only have a small collection, I decided to go with the magnet strips on my Expedit shelf. These Nesties are addictive so I'm sure I will need a new method SOON! or I can put more strips on the other side of the shelves.

This bookshelf holds all of my 12x12 paper pads, some scrapbooks and photos.

This Making Memories Embellishment Center holds a lot of my embossing powders, paints, glue, glimmer mists and other random stuff. I just started velcro-ing some of my stickles upside down at the bottom but I ran out of velcro and am also running out of space. I still have a lot more stickles, maybe I will do a second row behind these. To the right is a shelf that I found at an antique shop for $10, which holds most of my Sizzix dies (except for alphas).
Below the shelf are my JetMax cubes, I love these, I have 5 of them but would love to expand. I just need to figure out where to put them! If I decide to build up I have to move the Embellishment Center (my room has been a hodge podge as you can see and it's not very well thought out, like most things in my life! I guess that's why my nickname "Wing" fits me so well~since I am always "winging it"!!!)
Right now I have my Cricut, my Big Shot, Zutter, a container full of flowers, and my Copic bucket and Distress Inks on top.This is subject to change! I want to have my Cricut set up with room to work around it, I know it will get more use that way.

This is my 25 cube Ikea Expedit shelf that is across from the MM Embellie Center. I wanted this so bad FOREVER. But now I have mixed feelings about it. It takes up almost a whole wall and now I am lacking in work surfaces. I kind of wish I had a long counter across this wall with wall shelves all above it. I'm contemplating getting the desk that attaches to it for $50.00, but I'm nervous that it will limit me since it attaches to the shelf and I won't be able to move it around much. Still thinking about it?!?!

As you can see, my storage is not pretty, nothing matches, but it's what I have! I would love a beautiful perfect studio, but I am not an organized person by nature and I tend not to think things through well and buy impulsively. I'm trying to work on that! The picture envelopes in the middle on the right side are just being held there while I organize. Every time I came across random photos, I just stuck them there until I find a home for them! Remember this is still all a work in progress!

Here is the 7-drawer Sterilite container that holds all my punches. I definitely want to change this. The bottom two drawers are so hard to open because of the weight above them. I am contemplating the Ikea Bygel Rails, but again, I am still thinking on this. I would love to have them out where I can see them. BUT, my husband wants to rearrange and make room for a futon or pull out chair in here for when my sister comes to stay,so I think it might be best to keep them tucked away. If my son and nephew come up here to play, and they are on display, I could see them becoming toys!

I am SO excited and proud of my ribbon storage!! Heehee! I found this idea online at the Little Blue House Blog. Ribbon was one of my BIGGEST problems! I couldn't stop buying it for a long time and I had 2 cubes in my Expedit OVERFLOWING with ribbon as well as 2 shopping bags full of it. A lot of it was unraveling and tangled and I was so overwhelmed by it! I sat and cut the little chipboard pieces and wrapped it around while watching tv with my husband and son over about 2 weeks time. I still have a lot more to do but I can't believe I fit over 100 spools of ribbon in each box! Talk about saving space! I still have to finish rolling it so I will probably wind up with two more boxes and I want to go back and organize by color, but this is SUCH a relief to me :) SO happy!

 These are my Jet Max cubes and an Iris container where I've organized the majority of my 12x12 paper by Manufacturer. The Iris container has a lot of scraps and one is filled with Christmas stuff for my December Daily that I've started but not completed for the last 3 years! Mostly due to the mess in here! Next year, WATCH OUT! To the left is the lower half of the bookshelf and that holds the overflow of  paper that didn't fit in the cubes. I also have two cubes of patterned paper to go through and sort on my Expedit~yep, a work in progress, I say!
It's hard to see in this picture but I have each shelf labeled with the Manufacturer name but haven't labeled the ones that are in Cropper Hoppers yet.

Well, thanks for joining me in my tour today! Hopefully I will have more to share soon as I make progress! I have gotten so much inspiration from the Stampin Space gallery at SCS as well as the Scraproom Gallery at Scrapbook.com. I am constantly stalking them, so thanks for all of the ideas to all of you sharing out there!
I am off to work on my layout for a class I am teaching at this Saturday's crop in Cape May!
Have a Happy Tuesday :)
xx, Nora Anne

p.s. Looking for a challenge?! Visit the new Paper Wings blog for a challenge and a prize! You have until this Friday at midnight to enter! Check it out HERE!