Before and After - Bec's & My new store "Scrappindipity"

Cupcakes from our opening night... yum

Here's some 'before' and 'after' pics that I promised I would upload. There are a lot of them, so I have randomly picked a few here showing different stages and parts of the new store.

As you can see from the 'working' pics Craig, Bec and I did most of the work ourselves... which although very hard is also so very gratifying :)

Ok, here we go with the picture trail -

The first picture below is the gathering of supplies.... paints, sanders, buckets etc all ready to go!


Here is Bec at the start of the vinyl floor tile laying (for the workshop room - a little cosy & friendly room, that we love :)


This pic shows how we planned out the store layout - the masking tape is indicative of where our counter was going to be placed - provided all ended up going to plan of course... and YES it did, as you will see further along this picture trail.....

This wall was a grey/black metallic paint!!!! ARGH Don't paint black please.... we had to scrape the paint off - took a whole day of arm breaking work... thank you ALI & AMY you helped and were troopers!
Here you can see the black paint still on the edges of the wall - it's almost done.


2 new walls had to be put up, to create our workshop room, wall is painted a lovely retro blue, and Craig is busy sweeping whilst Bec continues laying those floor tiles!

I hate painting btw!!

In the other room, the moved wall is in place, and here is Craig and I painting a nice cream colour... over that existing grey/black from the wall we moved.... It took 4 coats of paint.

Here's the workshop room again, and wow, it's looking like it's taking shape now... this time there is more paint on the walls and those floor tiles are coming together rather nicely - Bec and I laid most of those ourselves while Craig was busy sawing, drilling and preparing everything else...


The edge that wrapped up around the wall because the concrete was formed that way... a bit of a hard job, but one which I managed to complete myself... yay

"Stuff" starts to move into it's new home - and things are starting to look a bit more organised... room for more tables to arrive (when we pick them up)

Here you can see our cute little polka dot curtains - one for over the back door (all those unpacked boxes out the back! YAY), a curtain under our sink, and there is also another one at our window.
Do you notice my framed print from Kelly Rae Roberts after purchasing my copy of "taking flight" - It looks so lovely. Since this picture I have now put up a couple of my own artworks too.
A cute retro cannister and a couple of bottles that Bec liked, sit nicely on my favourite little counter top in our kitchen/workshop.

The fixtures and the stock start to move in.......... a little disorganised at this point but it was good to see it starting to happen!



One corner ready to go.... Notice those two large collage boards above the stock... they are the one's I blogged about doing a while ago. They are each 3mtrs long and .70 high!


The other side :)
The other end of the store... more stock has finally found a new home - what a lot of work to get it all laid out and in place!


This is the end of our counter, looking toward the back you can see our fish tank, yep we have live fish to entertain our customers - and us!!

We also have a gumball machine on our counter which is full of jaffa's and mints - mmmm


All our fish have names - Bec named them all actors and actress names from the 50's..... don't ask me to remember them though... We have 8 fish at the moment, because 8 is a lucky number in chinese. I do think we are supposed to have 9 - so we just might go buy another one :)

We wouldn't be complete without all our gorgeous collage supplies would we now?


and some tools of the trade.....
and some chipboards to alter......
and some gorgeous inks, rubber stamps and arty supplies!


It's OPENING NIGHT.... and we had some gorgeous little cupcakes to share with everyone. Thanks Em for making them - they were totally delicious!!


Here's me on the opening night, standing alongside the acrylic paper racks..

As a final thing on this post, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all my art buddies who offered their support and encouragement during all the moving process... with my health in not such good shape (as some of you know) it was a very trying time for me at times..... I couldn't have done it without the support you have all given me. I wish some of you could have been here with us!

Special Thanks to my husband Craig, who took holidays from his work, to work for us!!
Thanks to my beautiful daughter Amy & her partner Ali for their help with all the paint scraping.
Thanks to Mick for helping us on the 'BIG' moving day - a big job and it was hugely appreciated!
Thanks to my Dad Norm, for his help on the 'BIG' moving day, and the help with the walls and the shop floor..... we couldn't have done it without all your help.
Thanks to Lyn for her help putting out stock on our 'spinner' racks.
Thanks to Jesse for doing without Bec while all this was going on, and for the help on opening night.

A huge thanks to Bec even though it's 'our' store, without her I wouldn't be a part of Scrappindipity & I wouldn't be so proud of everything we have achieved together!

Bec is a trooper and worked so hard to get this working for us - If your'e reading this Bec (as I think you might) I'm so proud of you sweetheart. xo

A big hug to you all.

Whew - I hope you enjoyed the journey into our new store :)
Stay tuned for updates and some more pics soon!