random.on purpose.

Revamp, renew

As most of us are at this time of year, I'm re-thinking some of my organization and making necessary tweaks.  I came up with an idea to solve two problems: 1) I bought some Ikea Bygel cups to hang on the side of my Raskog cart, but didn't like them there, and 2) I still wanted to use them.  Here's my solution:

The entire back of my workbench (from Harbor Freight, seen HERE) is pegboard.  I went to Walmart and bought a cheap curtain rod and these screws and nuts and washers:

Serendipitous occurrence:  the holes in the pegboard are exactly the same distance apart as the holes in the mounting brackets for the curtain rod!  I stuck the screw through the bracket and the hole in the pegboard, stuck a washer on the backside and screwed on the nut:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is before I leveled it out:

Since the brackets have some fiddling room, I was able to move the right side up and the left side down a smidge before I hung the cups on.  Here it is again:

The one on the far left has small rulers and Xacto knives and a very small rotary cutter.  Center is glue dots and dimensionals, and far right has adhesives of other types (Quickie Glue pen, small tape runner, E6000, etc.).  I know that I could have screwed the cups directly to the pegboard, but they're up off my worktable for now and I have a future plan for the curtain rod, so there you go!

I've also been revamping my stamp storage, organization and indexing.  I found these at Ikea:

All of my stamps are back on 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" laminated cardstock and in appropriately-sized page protectors.  They were in binders in a previous incarnation of my system, but I re-thought that idea, overhauled to 4" x 6" photo sleeves in small bins, and now I'm back to the larger size but don't want the binders. 

Because there are SO MANY stamps - even though I've purged SO MANY stamps - I needed to have dividers to help me find things.  Being as frugal as I am, I chose to make them from cereal boxes, using my WRMK envelope punch board.  Here's how that went:

1) Cut cardboard to 6 1/2" x 9"

2)Punch notch in top edge: 2 1/4" from left edge for first tab, 2" from each edge for center tab, 2 1/4" from right edge for third tab:

3) Cut from non-tab edge to punched notch(es) to remove excess cardboard:

 

4)  Round all corners:

Repeat for as many dividers as you require.  Here's the finished lineup:

And here they are in action:

My index binders (trading card pages with stamped images) have the same categories and dividers as the stamps themselves:

I use a P-Touch label maker for all of my labels, in case you care...  Those are the two main tweaks to the system over here!  There are other, smaller ones, but nothing share-worthy...  I hope some of this was helpful for you!  Happy Hump Day, and enjoy the rest of your week!  Thanks, as always, for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on beginning again...

Yesterday was kind of a write-off day.  I won't say "wasted", because down time can be a good thing, too, but essentially it was a lot of laying around.  There were things that I had wanted to do but I wasn't up to it physically or mentally.  There's always tomorrow, right?

Except - one day there won't be...  Life can change in an instant and, even if it's not death that alters it, events can transpire that make "tomorrow" so unlike your previous tomorrows, that it's an entirely different existence.

Which makes a VERY good case for doing what matters NOW, in the moment, while you can.  As I ease into this new year I am evaluating what matters most, and attempting to organize my life around that.

I had an idea along about Thanksgiving that I would spend Christmas week doing some soul-searching and prioritizing and "life mapping", but that did not happen.  Some of what I did instead was worthwhile, some was pure procrastination, plain and simple.

What is it about our "ruts" that makes us think that we're comfortable there?  What are we fearful of when setting out to change - a habit, a thought pattern, a schedule, or a life?  I'm theorizing that if we could break down the fears to their least common denominator they would fade away, because they're truly baseless and inconsequential.

One of the things that I know holds me back is the head games that I play with myself.  Calendars and timelines that are not mine, but possibly the "normal, usual" ones accepted by the society that I live in have a way of taking precedence over my own rhythms and reasons.

This year I want to honor my own drummer.  What truly makes my heart beat faster, wilder?  What makes it skip a beat?  Those are the things that I want to pursue!

The mundane "slog" that just thumps out an existence is NOT where I want to spend my time!  Guilt over missing a deadline (like January 1 for the "resolutions") will be a thing of my past, as well...

I can take my time and assess things as I go about my days:  what's working?  what isn't?  what will improve the task, the mood, the meal, the interaction and so, ultimately, the Life?  I can take notes as I notice things and use them in my morning writing sessions to do the real work of aligning my daily actions with my core beliefs.

"The unexamined life is not worth living" - or something like that...  Sounds harsh and cataclysmic, but seeds of truth and a prompt for better...

"What you focus on expands" is more hopeful (and helpful).  Learning where to put that focus is the key to being more productive, more engaged, and much, much happier.

As I am assessing and prioritizing and all the rest of it, there are two definites that I want to pay attention to:  a morning routine and a before-bed routine.  I feel that book-ending my days in ways that are meaningful to me will go a long way in creating a space between the two that is more likely to be filled with meaningful things, as well.

So - that's my Grand Plan for 2017!  Further bulletins as events warrant...  May your New Year be filled with all the things that matter most to YOU!

Love and light ~ Sue