The GREAT Office Makeover!!! Part One.

I guess it's not that great, since it was mostly organizing and clearing out.  There wasn't any paint changed or anything like that.

Seems like it  all started when we moved the bookshelves from the living room to the office. 

Looks nice, right!?

The main reason I needed the shelves moved out of the living room was that they were collecting way too much junk.  But after the move, the junk was homeless and my desk became the shelter.  The desk wasn't in great shape before, and now, adding more stuff just made it reach its clutter tipping point. Then, since I couldn't get things off my desk because the closet was too messy, I decided we needed to clean out the closet. 
It's a vicious cycle.

The closet was completely out of control.  I couldn't ever get anything in or out of it because it was all in boxes stacked on top of each other.  So of course it all just ended up in huge jumbled piles right inside the door.

 

 

 



 

And because I couldn't easily get anything in or out of the closet this is what my desk looked like.

 

 

 

It was not pretty.  After all sorts of contemplation and a lot of pinterest searching I decided to add shelves over my desk to hold my craft and sewing supplies.  The theory being that removing those items from the closet would really help the clutter in there.

 

So I bought all sorts of storage boxes and bins and tubs and started organizing.

 

Bins of fabric

Progress!  Stuff in boxes on my desk.

 

When JR came home from China he helped by putting up the shelves.  Three shelves with room to grow!

 

He also put up a set of file holders to sort bills and coupons into.

 

 

And here it is all put back together.  It's not exactly styled but it was late and I only kind of care.  Sadly, this is the best it's ever going to look, so, live it up people! (person?)

 Next up, the closet.  Dun, dun, dunnnnn!

 



 

Done!: Shrinky Dink Jewelry

My latest pinterest project was shrinky jewelry.
Here's the original pin which takes you to the Rust and Sunshine blog.  Looks like she followed this instructable.

Source: rustsunshine.blogspot.com via Manda on Pinterest

The idea is, you collect #6 plastic that you would normally throw in the recycling bin, have the kids draw on it with permanent marker, and then shrink it in the oven like a Shrinky Dink!  I love the idea of wearing some of their art and Shrinky Dinks are awesome, so really, there was no way I wasn't doing this.

In Rust and Sunshine's post she made a bracelet and had a piece leftover that she made a necklace out of.  I'm not really a bracelet person and since we were making these for Grandmas that weren't readily available for sizing we decided to do necklaces instead.

Most of the plastic came from fast food take out containers.  I thought we would hit the jack pot with bakery containers but they all seemed to be #1 plastic. So I've been saving for a long time.   First I cut them into big flat pieces so the kids could color on them.

 

 

Kaida did most of the heavy lifting in the coloring department.  But I made sure that Colin colored at least a little on each piece.  That was a challenge though, since, when you hand him a marker he immediately flips it over and tries to color with the wrong end.  I was going to take pictures of them coloring and include them with the necklace as a certificate of authenticity.  But I value my dining room table, chair covers, walls, linoleum, and cats too much to let my guard down for that.

 

Once they were done coloring I cut out the shapes, wrote their names and the year on them, and punched a hole for the jump ring. 

 

 

 

Then I put them in the oven at 250 degrees for a couple minutes (Rust and Sunshine says 350 but the instructable she links to said both 250 and 225 in separate tutorials).  They curled and flattened a bunch of times and once they seemed to stay flat I took them out.  A bunch of them were sort of wavy so I needed to flatten them again with the bottom of a heavy glass, I just smushed them flat for a couple seconds.

 

 

 

 

It's kind of hard to tell how much they shrank by but I would say it was at least half.  There were some made out of a different, blue, #6 plastic that shrank a lot more.  It also turned nearly opaque  and you can't see their coloring unless you hold it up to the light.  So it's a bit of trial and error with some wishing and hoping.

 



I bought some jump rings and plain necklaces at Michael's and this is the final product.  We sent one to Grandmom and one to Grammy and I've worn mine almost every day.  I like it best with a plain light colored shirt or something cut a little lower so it has a plain background to display my little artists' work.