Happy...Happy...

Happy Holidays!

Peace, love, and joy. 

Happy New Year! 

Happy Hallowe'en! A day late...

The photo shows my "costume". :-)

I couldn't get my husband to take a photo of me in my costume,
but for those who have seen my blog before or know me,
you know my love of Harry Potter.

For past Halloweens and when I go to see the HP movies,
I dress as Harry Potter or a Gryffindor student.

This year I decided to be a "new" Hogwart's student who is sitting
under the Sorting Hat waiting to be sorted into the "right" house.

So which should it be? Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin?

I chose this costume to reflect my real-life situation.
I have actually gone back to school this year.
Indeed, just this month.
I started online classes at University of Phoenix on October 4th, 2011.

It's been an intense month for me.
I'm looking forward to finally earning my degree though.
I hope that my grades will make any of the houses proud...
well, maybe not Slytherin. ;-)

I am now starting my 5th and final week of my first UoPX class
and it counts for 35% of my grade, so I really should be working on
finishing my essay and PowerPoint presentation due by Sunday at midnight.

Just thought I'd drop by and say hello!

When I get myself organized, I will be making more jewelry and probably
blogging about some other wonderful fun I've had between my last blog post and this one.
It hasn't all been homework. ;-)

In the meantime, I wish you all happy creating!

~stephanie~

DIY Jewelry Tool Storage...

I did some craft room organization yesterday...
and realized that I finally had gotten tired of losing track of my jewelry pliers. ;-)

I had most of my pliers sorted in these vintage memo/paper sorters,
but they sat on one of my craft desks.

The three pliers I used the most I just took "to" each project.
Since projects were/are generally done wherever I could find surface space,
this was not necessarily near the neatly organized sorters. ;-)

Often I'd end up losing track of them under some bin of beads,
or in amongst a basket of beads, or wherever.

Yesterday, I realized that this green basket was now going to be empty and an idea
just came to me. Luckily it worked!
The basket was big enough so that conveniently my two sorters of pliers fit into it together.

So here is what I came up with.

I posted this photo on Facebook and had several inquiries about how the storage was put
together, so I took a series of photos to show the details.

Finding the basket that will fit two memo/paper sorters is probably going to be the trickiest part. The basket should also be of sturdy plastic with a sturdy handle,
since it will get a bit heavy when it's full.

My two memo/paper sorters are from the thrift store and both vintage.

The blue one is one of my very favorite vintage finds ever.
It's marked on the bottom eldon office supplies 1980. I love the cool color and shape and that it has a space for pencils, which allows me to have a space for all those small tools.

Of course, now I won't be able to see the awesome blue color much, but
that does not detract from the overall awesomeness (and usefulness) of this item. :-)

I have a mishmash of pliers. LOL

Then you just stick the pliers in however they fit most conveniently for the space and for you!

I didn't check the original photo before I put the pliers back in,
so the order of how they went in changed somewhat, but that's the beauty
of this DIY project. You can put them in and take them out, any way you want! :-)

Happy Creating!

~stephanie~