hello, my name is courtney...

i have a small obsession with organizing things. the container store makes me excited. my daily subscription to martha stewart's organizing tips is (one of) the email highlights of my day. i love the neat little ideas that her people come up with for gathering together scrap bits of paper and ribbon, organizing them on pegboard or creating a mini-office space in an old armoire. it's why i loved blueprint, and my favourite parts of real simple and domino are always the organize-y decor ones. there's just something so aesthetically pleasing about every section of see jane work , i could get lost there and spend a few hours wandering through the designer letter holders and all-white pencil set. (let's not get into the all-white obsession for now - that's an entirely different story for an entirely different day.)

in summary: let's just say that back-to-school sales have always made me a happy girl - even to this day - despite the fact that i'm no longer a student. there's just something about the promise of a new year, fresh start, new backpack and perfectly pointed pencils.

{does that make me ever-so-slightly more exciting than an accountant?}

the problem is, a lot of the time i know all of these cool knickknacks and tips for organizing, but somehow never actually get the chance to integrate them into my own life.

i'm trying to organize myself and my workspace... i've got two, depending on my mood and noise levels in my house. the first is my dining room table (above and below), which has been taken over by polymer clay, wire, beads, paint, and more. i'm in search of a more functional (and pretty) way to store my stuff... it's such a pain in the butt to have to rifle through my polymer clay storage "system" (see below)

uh, yeah right.

below is the workspace in my room, all scattered across my newly-acquired garage sale desk. (hell-o near-perfect condition ikea!) i'm working on new storage spaces + solutions, but wanted to post my 'before' pics because... hey, i'm nosey and like to see everyone else's 'before' pics, when it comes to organizing their workspaces. i figure that in the end, it's only fair to give people a sneak peek into my otherwise superbly organized world.

ha. almost got you there, didn't i?

anyhow, stay tuned. changes will be coming soon - and i can't wait!