its like spring cleaning, but more fun.

in this week's edition of Stuff I Did This Weekend, we will cover: hanging out with friends, laundry, dishes, organization, workouts, date night, shoe shopping, picture frames, church, adventures at Lowes, more friends, basketball, pizza, coffee, and paint swatches.

ok, so maybe that's too much for just one post. so fine. i wont talk extensively about ALL of those things. (but when you put it all together, just know that it all adds up to awesomeness) actually, i think i'll just hit the parts i took pictures of, which ironically in the grand scheme of an awesome weekend are really the boring parts.

this past Saturday, mark and i were unstoppable organizing machines. he tackled his side of the basement: organizing tools, rearranging the workout area, recycling a ton and a half of cardboard, cleaning everything, and generally making it possible to see the floor again over there. i wish i had been able to snap some pictures, because the difference is remarkable.

i spent my day mainly focusing on my craft corner. why my craft corner? because it was in need of some lovin'. in fact, you didnt even know i had a craft corner until just now, that's how unloved it was. so sad.

this desk and little black shelf moved into this corner out of the office back when we reorganized in there and got a new desk. since then, it had morphed into a dumping ground for as-of-yet-unused wedding presents, leftover wedding decorations, various frames and other random things that i was never quite sure what to do with. basically it turned into the smaller, slightly more organized version of the mountain-o-junk.

while the space had a great concept and unlimited potential, it was mostly unused. that chair is broken beyond the point of salvagability. there were so many boxes under the desk that even if the chair could support any weight at all, sitting there was out of the question. and as far as actual craft supplies go, it was difficult to find what i was looking for in the disorganized mess of big boxes and piles of the remains of old projects.

there are no less than 7 projects represented in this mess.

the motivation to spruce up this little corner of the basement came in the form of a shelf. an awesome shelf. an on-sale shelf that had already been refinished by the nice guy who owns a new-to-me furniture rehab/antique shop. a shelf that the hubs agreed that i should buy myself for no real reason other than that i saw it, i liked it, and i knew it would make my random craft stuff look amazing. and i was so right.

it took me pretty much all day, and it definitely got worse before it got better as i unpacked and spread everything out all over the basement before slowly putting it back together again, but it finally looks like a space where someone could actually be creative. the new cubby shelf holds all sorts of random bits of craftiness - rubber stamps, inkpads, glitter, some fabric scraps, ribbon, twine, hot glue, cards, tape, paper punches, sewing stuff, buttons, and beads. i didnt even know i had some of this stuff.

there are still a couple little aesthetic things i would like to find to really up the classy factor, like some little baskets or buckets to corral some of the less attractive items, but even without that i'm pretty impressed with how good this stuff looks when its all spread out and organized like this.

the smaller old black shelf is way less exciting, but still very important. it holds all my paints, varnish, spray adhesive, paper, paper scraps, stickers, scrapbooking supplies, crayons, markers, colored pencils, and coloring books. and they're all nicely organized in boxes and stacks and everything has its own place now.

 the big boxes got packed back up with extra fabric, wire, magnet paper, and silk flowers, along with some pictures and other old memories from high school that were apparently waiting to be scrapbooked at some point. they're probably going to be waiting indefinitely (i might have to elaborate more on some of those memories later - i spent a good half an hour just laughing at my high school self) the blue crate under the desk holds the 25 mirrors from our wedding centerpieces that we're going to donate to the church for special occasions. the black crate is still full of picture frames in need of a home.

all this corner needs now is a (non-broken) chair or stool to make it completely functional. and then there's no telling what kind of craftiness will ensue...