Oh! the joys of moving! Our phone line was not great -very scratchy phone calls, internet that would work for about 20 minutes a day (lucky I type my emails fast ;) so finally a wonderful Telstra man graced our doorstep on Saturday and returned us to the outside world :) Internet is now perfect (touch wood) and our phone calls are clear - hooray!!! turned out to be the line was outdated and just didn't cope with our new modem or hand held phone.
We are all settled in to our new home... Just loving the space (we now have five bedrooms) and our new suburb - the Tbird and Milly have fitted right in to their new school and are enjoying being at the same school too. I have joined canteen and helped out with the father's day stall last week - then straight after I headed into Milly's Kindergarten class to teach for an hour - we made the dad's Father's day place-mats complete with black and white photos I taken of each gorgeous cherub the week before. What a bright and spirited bunch of five and six year olds they are - they were super fast and were rewarded with chocolate frogs for being good for "Mrs Hall" - many asked when I would be back for more craft!
We have been super busy with the end of soccer season for both Man of the house and Lolly, Will's team got knocked out just before finals and Lolly's team were knocked out in the semi finals - but I will share that story in another post.
The House is really coming along, we have lots of ideas (and dreams) for renovations in the distant future - including another level above the carport - and an updated kitchen, but for now we are about to paint again (we began by painting the kids rooms and my studio before we moved in) we have picked some beautiful colours for the lounge, entrance and a long dark hallway - and are off to pick up sample pots this week - I want to live with the colours for a month or two to see if I really like them.
I am so blessed to be married to a builder - he worked so hard before we moved in to make the house comfortable for our large family, including creating my studio straight off the kitchen - He has been so proud of his accomplishments too - His little project (the wall that now separates the lounge and my studio is nearly complete - just need to paint the lounge rooms side - he built inlets into the wall and had our electrician place special lights to illuminate any artworks or photographs placed inside - He made them to perfectly fit a scrapbook page or 12x12 canvas ( How's that for a good supportive hubby hey ?!) I ordered two photo canvases last week at Rabbit when they were half price - and they look amazing sitting under those little lights - made Will so proud too - that I was pleased with his efforts. (I am yet to photograph all the completed rooms in the house - will get back to you all on that one later)
So today I wanted to share the before, during and after of my yummy new studio - albeit a third of the size of my previous studio, after culling and sorting, the space works perfectly, I love it - straight off the kitchen, it has sorta become an intricate part of our daily life now instead of my haven away from the gaggle of girls!! The girls like to drag the computer chairs in and sit opposite as I work, some do homework, some watch tv and the divine Miss M punches circles from the scrap box and draws me beautiful pictures - I admit though, I am finding it hard to scrap in there - I don't want to mess the space up! LOL!
The room began as an L-shaped lounge that the previous owners had used as a dining room as well - we did away with that idea and turned the family room back into a dining area, so one wall started off with a "really special" mirrored wall!!! Man of the house was quick to remove these and replace with chiprock(sp) a new wall went up between the rooms to create two totally separate spaces. 
Will built the inlets into the lounge-room side of the wall and his Plaster uncle gave us a day of plastering for a house warming gift.
Once the walls were complete, our painter came in and painted my space with a beautiful bright lime green that I had matched from a piece of doodlebug cardstock!
Ikea gave me lots of ideas, the 5x5 Expedit was a must - loads of cubbies for scrapping goodness and my many collected treasures - including our ever growing babushkas, antique teddies and gifts from the girls and friends.
I had purchased the 12x12 storage drawers from kmart at half price during the toy sale and stacked two on top of each other - giving me 24 drawers in total - down one side houses all the main brands I use and down the other is sorted into colour for all the papers that aren't brands I use often. I loved this storage system - but it looked out of place in the new studio - I also needed a spot to place my tv - So Will built the housing around the drawers from white cabinet boards(?) from the outside it looks just like the expedit and all the other white shelving and cardboard I have in the room. and it added extra surface space on top too for displaying layouts etc. (it has my favourite all time layout on an beautiful white wrought iron stand).
Before packing up the old studio, I sorted all my "stuff" into colour - I purchased some great storage boxes in packs of four by Stairmaid(?) at Big W for around $20 on sale - these stack which is a big plus - I added small scalloped labels to the outside and anything that colour went into that particular box (flowers, tags, buttons, ribbon etc) - some boxes were overflowing (pink :) and other had hardly anything (brown and orange) It was definitely the best thing I did for my new studio - it makes scrapping so much easier - I simply pull out the box of the colour I need and rummage through to find something that suites! Once I am done, the boxes goes straight back on the shelf. new products are put straight into the colour boxes too when I get home so that I don't get bogged under again. It was a tiresome task setting up the system, but so worth it!
I purchased a big cheapy cork board from a cheapy shop and covered it with bright colourful fabric from ikea - I have kept a section of the fabric - as I want to cover the top of my desk with it then have a piece of glass cut to go over the top (wipeable surfaces would be great :) I then simply pinned things to the board that make me happy with bright thumbtacks and heart shaped pins.
Another wall has a large canvas that use to hang near our backdoor at our old house - it has three 12x12, three8x11 and three 6x6 page protectors stuck to it - I add and change layouts often - and when it's one of the girls birthdays - I only have layouts of them in all the spaces - I cut off the holes from the pages protectors and stuck them on sideways (so dust wouldn't go down inside) with strong PVA glue.
Behind my desk are two bookcases - one small and one tall and on the open space of the wall is a decal I found of ebay - a babushka clock swings beside it (thanks to my special pals Liz and Lisa for that one :) On top of the small bookcase I store my paints and mediums in a little wire potplant holder - an old piece of cermic work I made holds numerous paint brushes.
And finally in one corner sits an white pantry cupboard that is full of stuff that needs to kept out of sight of small ones! and things such as their craft materials, kaiser wood things I want to create etc.
I have been lucky in this house too that there is a store room down the hall - created when the previous owner moved the laundry to add a big open fire - so what it left was a walk in storage room full of shelves (behind the brick wall - the fireplace is in the dining room ) - I store stamps, scrapbook totes, and all sorts of other stuff in there. (shoes, slow cooker etc) and apparently it's a great spot of hide and seek :)
We are definitely feeling this house was meant to be ours - we feel so at home already, I have so much to share with you - including a new arrival in the very near future... :) but I will just have to remember to come back and update soon.
I hope sharing my studio space may give you some ideas for your own space... thanks for stopping by!
JEN xoxox
