Rearranging my office!

I finished rearranging my office a couple days ago! I did a post with everything we use in our kitchen awhile back after I reorganized, so I thought I'd do it with my office, too. :) 

I started rearranging my office Tuesday because the original plan was that I was going to get a desk from my grandma. It had been in her shed, and I thought it was going to be a perfect spot to put my new Romeo, my Cricut Maker 3, and my paper cutter. However, the clearance between the desk and the shelf wasn't tall enough. :( Since the desk was pretty big, I didn't want to limit my already small office space even more. So I decided to just rearrange everything that I already had...with a couple new additions. Here is what my office looks like now:

Compared to what it looked like right after I got the Romeo: 

I still have my main desk/hutch that I received as a birthday gift from my mom back in 2004 and the armoire that we got from Johnny's sister-in-law in 2017. They're both really heavy and I don't know where else I'd even put them...so they stayed where they are. Basically everything else was moved around, though. 

Originally, I had my printer and paper cutter on an old desk of Johnny's and I had my Cricut on the "table" that I made using the top from my old art table that I had in high school on top of the Sterilite modular drawers that I got back in 2011. They've since discontinued the ones I have, but these are kind of similar. I had two sets each facing outward that had a large bottom drawer, two kinda square-ish drawers, and then three smaller drawers. 

When I got my Romeo, I had to put it on the DIY table by itself, so I had to find a new place to put my Cricut. I settled on this little cart and it's worked out pretty good. It's on wheels, so I can store it in a convenient place and then move it more in the open when I'm using it. I haven't decided what else--if anything--to store on it. I know I don't want to put heavy stuff on it, just because it'd be harder to move around on the carpet. I also have a ring light similar to this one for some extra light when taking product photos. One thing I haven't really figured out in my newly rearranged office is taking product photos...but I may just do it on the floor in front of the window. I have laminated background images that I attached to a piece of plywood that I take my product photos on.

When I was rearranging, I decided to put my Romeo on Johnny's desk and turn it 90 degrees from the way I had the DIY table. It's parallel to the closet doors...and I have it out a little more than the length of the closet doors when they're folded open. I use the closest for storage, so I don't have to get into it very often...so I didn't want to leave a lot of space in front of it but I wanted it to still be accessible. Next that desk I have another set of paper storage drawers. I couldn't find the exact one on Amazon, but it's similar to this one. Then I put the paper cutter on top of those drawers. Oh and I have my trash and recycle bins underneath the desk. The short top drawer has some of my cutter supplies. The other three drawers have cardboard sheets, tissue paper, and then the bottom drawer is just miscellaneous stuff that I don't know what else to do with. 

I decided to stack the two sets of modular drawers on top of each other next to my desk where the other paper drawers used to be. Some of the drawers are currently empty, because before I rearranged the office, I didn't really use the drawers that had been facing the closet because they were kind of a pain to get to. Two of the drawers that are fully exposed from the side of my desk, I am actually able to turn those around to face my desk while the rest of the drawers face the armoire. In the small drawer, I have some rulers and tape measures that I use frequently, this digital caliper to measure the thickness of my packages, and some hole/corner punches. The larger drawer has the rigid mailers that I use every once in awhile when I send sticker orders as a package instead of the kraft envelopes. They used to be in the armoire cabinet, but since I package orders at my desk, they'll be more accessible. One other thing I have in that drawer is this little label maker that I love...because I love labeling everything. ;) LOL. Now that I've rearranged everything, I need to print some new labels. ;) 

On top of the modular drawers, I have the board that I use for product photos. I also have this small dehumidifier which helps a lot...especially in the summer. If there's a lot of humidity, papers tend to curl which is a huge hassle.

Then next to the modular drawers, I have my printer. When I first made plans to get the desk from my grandma, I wanted to get something smaller to put my Epson ET-16650 printer on than the desk I'd been using. I had to search through a LOT of different printer stands to find one that was big enough and strong enough to hold my big, heavy printer. I finally settled on this one. I like that it has support in the middle since my printer is so heavy...it made me feel a little more secure about it holding the weight. It's also nice that it has a plug-in on it. I have a small paper shredder kind of like this one on the roll-out shelf and I ordered this small trashcan for the strips I cut off of the overlaminate backing. Then I just have unopened reams of paper and miscellaneous stuff on the other two shelves. 

I also have my sticker storage binders on my printer stand. For my die-cut stickers, I use these 9x9 pages. I have 2", 3", and 4" size options for reach design, so the 3 columns of 4"x4" pockets works great. Then I have these 4"x6" top-loading pages for my 4"x6" sticker sheets. 

The armoire really just has my cold roll manual laminator in the open space and I store a lot of shipping materials on the shelves underneath. Oh and I use this slice tool to cut a thin strip on just the backing of my overlaminate to stick the laminate to the top of my sticker paper to start. On the wall next to the armoire, I have this hanging file organizer where I store different types of overlaminate. 

Some of the things I have on my desk... 
- I have this LED light strip underneath the top of my desk (and in the armoire) to provide extra light. 

- I have this organizer that is actually an elevated shelf for computer monitors. I use it more to take advantage of vertical space. The drawers in it actually fit underneath it...so I have 6 storage spaces instead of just 3. I put my packaging envelopes and full-page cards in the spaces where the drawers went and my half-page cards in the drawers underneath.

- I have a cover like this one for my Samsung Galaxy S6 Lite tablet. I also have this wall mount where I keep it when I'm not using it for drawing. I like watching Netflix or Hulu on it while I'm working.  

- I have these hanging organizers which I really like. It holds my packaging stickers, sheets of stamps, and other little miscellaneous things that I use while packaging orders. 

- I use this postage meter and I've never had any postage adjustments. 

- I have these clear organizers that I store my door sign stickers and magnets, oopsie stickers, books of stamps, and other miscellaneous things. 

- On top of my desk I have these drawers where I store all different kinds of cardstocks, sticker papers, etc.  

I think that's about it. :) I really love the way everything is arranged now. It feels like a lot more room...and laid out in a more functional way. 

**Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission from qualified purchases at no extra cost to you.

Mondayest Tuesday Ever

Uuuuugh. Some days just do not go smoothly at all. Today is one of those days. :P 

First...I ordered a new mouse for my laptop. I love the mouse that I've had for the last couple years, but it started doing this thing where sometimes it won't register when I click the mouse. So then I click a couple times and end up clicking things I didn't mean to. It was super annoying...so I ordered a new one. It's the same one I've had, just a different color. It was delivered a couple weeks ago...but today the roller on top (which I use all the time to scroll)...broke. It just spins without doing anything. Thank goodness for still being in the return window and Amazon returns being convenient...because I have the replacement arriving on Friday. 

And then...I've been working on my Faire shop since this weekend. I got all my listing photos done and was working on filling out the bulk upload spreadsheet. I decided to just upload one section at a time, and I finished the spreadsheet for the first section today and tried to upload it. Well...for some reason it wasn't uploading the second photo for each listing. I contacted Faire customer support and we spent over an hour trying different things to see if it would work...but no such luck. So I decided I'm going to just fill out the bulk upload spreadsheet with only the main listing photos and then add the second photo to each listing manually. It's not ideal...but it'll work, I suppose. It's just frustrating. :P 

Most of the time setbacks don't bother me...but every once in awhile it's just like...nope, I'm done working for the day. :P It was about the time to make dinner anyway. Yesterday I'd made Chicken Milanese and tonight I made Cheesy Chicken Chili. The chili makes enough for leftovers for a couple days...so I like being able to put off thinking about what to make. ;) I'm sure I've said it before...but I don't mind cooking dinner, it's just the constant trying to figure out what to make that I don't like. :P lol.

CandiMaker orders were pretty slow over the weekend, but I've gotten 6 new orders so far today. I usually print and cut products during the day and then I package them before I go to bed so they can go out in the mail the following morning. It's been a pretty efficient workflow so far. But I think since I worked over this past weekend getting all my Faire listing photos done, I think I'm going to take a break from work this weekend. I might play my Sims4 game or something.

We don't really have any plans for the holiday weekend. Johnny may end up working in the yard. He mowed last weekend because it was supposed to rain...and of course then it barely rained at all. He'd planted some grass a couple weekends ago that was doing pretty well...but it hasn't rained much lately and we're currently under drought restrictions so Johnny can only water it once a week. So he's not very happy about his baby grass starting to die. :P So far it's supposed to rain next weekend...but we'll see how that goes. It seems that storms tend to die before they get here...or they split and go around us. 

Well...I'm gonna go package orders. Hope everyone is having a good week!

May Productivity

The year seems to be going by fast so far...which I'm pretty glad about in this era that we're in. :P 

I spent mother's day weekend just relaxing at home. I've been dealing with some annoying health issues the last couple weeks that have made sleeping a bit difficult. Luckily I was able to sleep in over the weekend. :) While I couldn't sleep...I built an amazing house on my Sims 4 game and got all the laundry done. :P Oh! And I hung up the new curtains for the sliding glass door. The curtains that we'd had were at least 13 years old (Johnny had them up when I moved in) and they were double-layered...but the thin, white layer facing the door had torn from the cats playing in it and the dogs getting caught in it. It was sewn together on three sides of each panel, but the bottom wasn't sewn together so the cats liked to hide in there. They just weren't real heavy-duty for a backdoor. So I got a thicker set of black-out curtains in relatively the same color. They're the same curtains that we have for the living room window, just in a different color...so I knew they would be a lot more durable. We've had the living room panels for almost 5 years now and they're still in great shape. I got them here on Amazon (affiliate link: I may get a small commission at no cost to you for qualified purchases). 

Since it was Mother's Day yesterday, I got a break from making dinner and got to pick where to order food from...so we had Hibachi Boy. :) And we ordered enough that we still have leftovers to eat tonight...so even better! Now that we've finished The Hunting Party, we've been catching up on episodes of SVU in between watching new episodes of NCIS, Tracker, and Organized Crime. We decided to get the Peacock streaming app...so during the day while I've been working, I've had episodes of Snapped playing. I feel like it probably says a lot about me that true crime shows are my emotional support background noise. ;) lol. 

After taking a break from work over the weekend, I'm back at it today. I got most of my current orders done last night, but I have 2 magnets, a sticker, and a sticker sheet that I need to print, cut, and package today to go out in the mail tomorrow. Ooh! And I'm happy to report that I have perfected the cut settings on my Romeo for die-cut laminated stickers, magnets, and matte vinyl sticker sheets. I was most excited to make sticker sheets on the Romeo. They were pretty hit and miss on my Cricut Maker 3 because you can't fine-tune the cut settings like you can with the Romeo. I had to pick the "rice paper" setting and use a 30 degree blade instead of the deep cut blade that rice paper is set for, try to edit the preset down, AND choose "less pressure." But even if I got it to cut perfectly one time...the next time I'd try the same settings and the cut would be too deep into the backing. So when you'd try to take an individual sticker off the sticker sheet, it would go beyond the sticker and pull up a thin layer of the backing. It's honestly why I haven't spent a lot of time creating new products for my CandiMakerPlanners shop that has all my sticker sheets. But cutting them with the Romeo, it only took me two tries to figure out the perfect cut settings for sticker sheets. A lot of people said that the Leonardo Design software for the Romeo is difficult to learn...but I didn't have any problem adjusting to it. I like being able to save my cutting setting presets for each of my products...especially when I can set different levels of force for different cut lines. For sticker sheets...instead of copying the sticker sheet outline 5 times on Cricut Design Space so it'll cut all the way through, with Leonardo I can just set a lighter force for the individual stickers and then a separate increased force for the outline of the sticker sheet. 

So now that I have the perfect sticker sheet settings, I think I'll spend some time designing some more sticker sheets. But it'll have to wait until I finish working on my Faire listings. A friend of mine from the sticker maker Facebook group said she was thinking about joining Faire, and I gave her my referral code. I took it as a sign that I really need to stop just saying I'll get to it sometime and *actually* start working on it. I'm completely revamping everything. Right now I'm working on changing my listing photos. It's a daunting task when I have more than 300 designs, but I think it'll be worth it. It's more cohesive to my brand and I really like the new look. I'm hoping to have it all done by next weekend...but we'll see how that goes. 

And on that note...I should probably get back to work!