Organization, Part 1

I had plans this weekend to make some new items, but woke up feeling awful on Saturday (my cold seems to have come back with a vengence) so had to change my plans.  I make only the things I had to have done - a couple of birthday cards (which led to an order - YAY!), a card for a bridal shower and a card for a wedding.  I also had to wrap both the shower and wedding presents, and by then I was exhausted.  I literally slept all afternoon.

Sunday was a busy day with a briday shower to attend and book club in the evening.  In between those events I wanted to watch the Vikings, but also felt guilty that I hadn't done much crafting and the weekend was close to over!   Since I still wasn't feeling very creative I decided to do some organization while I watched the game.

I think I've mentioned The Ribbon Ring before, but it bears repeating.  This is one of the best purchases I've ever made, and I think it cost $9.99!   The picture at the top of the post shows my Ribbon Ring full of ribbon.  It's simply a large binder ring that comes with several small plastic cards.  You put your ribbon on the card by weaving it through a few slots, and now you can just cut the amount you need off the end - so simple!  It keeps all of your ribbon out in the open, and you can purchase additional plastic cards to accomodate more ribbon.  Here's a close up of the plastic card:

In this case I have only one style of ribbon on the card, but you can put two different ribbons on one card if you have a smaller quantity.  When you buy the Ribbon Ring you also get some little orange stickers that you can put on the plastic card to signal that you have more of a certain ribbon stored elsewhere.  I don't usually use the stickers, but they are nice to have if you want to use them.

I risked life and limb to get these photos for you.  I wanted to hang the ribbon to take the photo, but didn't have a good spot to do that with nice lighting.  I came up with the idea to insert a stick pin into one of the nail holes in this window casing - no one would ever notice, right?  I stuck the pin in the nail hole but it was too low on the casing so I decided to move the pin up.  However, when I pulled on it the head came off and the straight pin was stuck in the wall.  Not good.  Here's what it looked like:

I thought I was going to have to go out to the garage to find a grabber (pliers?  wrench?) but after a few attempts I managed to pull it out.  Next I decided to use a small nail and stick it in the groove in this wall - another place I thought would go unnoticed.  In order to pound it in I used an antique fishing reel on a nearby shelf (shhhh!) and after a few taps it was in.  Now I have a secret spot to photograph hanging items - let's keep it between us, ok?

Tomorrow - paper scrap organization!