Dealing with the Visual Clutter of the Craft Room

I love my craft room! there is so much inspiration tacked up on the walls and so many little do-dads stashed everywhere. There is a lot going on in there and I continue to add to the collection, while I LOVE all of that stuff it can be a bit overwhelming.As you can see, the craft room is right inside of my front door, so everyone who comes over sees my crafty mess first thing. Now I know that my clutter is not shocking to anyone who comes over, but that doesn’t mean that I want them to see it the minute they come in the door. The doors are also not in the best of shape, there are several panes of glass missing, the doorknob is gone and there is some weird burnt/melted looking part on the top right door and there is a “trick” to shut them. New french doors are on the list, but they aren’t a huge priority. I made some lined fabric panels for the inside of the doors using some of the Project Runway fabric I bought forever ago. It’s sooooooo dramatically different! I like it so much I’m going to make another set of curtains for the dining room side of the doors, I happen to have some more of the lovely fabric I used for the giant dry erase calendar. The added bonus is that I can now go into the craft room, shut the door, and be out of sight, out of mind from the kids.
After shelves, I think covering things with curtains is going to be my favorite way to fix things, oh I might even start covering my shelves with curtains! I can think of a few more things that would be greatly improved by covering them with curtains and I do have a good stash of fabric.

Wookies for Everyone!!!

Well at least for my three kids. I fell in love with this Chewbacca stuffie pattern from Draw Pilgrim and have been wanting to make one for each of the littles. I used three different fabrics to make each wookie a little different, that way we all know which is which. There are all nicely cut out and ready to be sewn up this weekend.Do you remember that fairy tale about the poor cobbler who would cut out leather for shoes at night and find it sewn up in the morning? They discovered elves were sewing the shoes…I need some of those elves to visit me! I would make them some fabulous clothes if I could get them to sew up all my projects for a month!
I have been busy with other things too, we were lucky enough to rescue 2 vintage wood desks from the dump and there was a flurry of cleaning to make room for them in the much cluttered basement. They are huge and wonderful and luckily there was a 1/2 inch of clearance to get them in the door and down the stairs. I can’t wait to finish cleaning and arranging the basement, it’s going to be awesome.
Have a super crafty weekend

Craft Paint Storage

I have a lot of craft paint, and puffy paint, and now even inks. All those little bottles are hard to keep track of and it seems like they are everywhere in the craft room. To help corral everything into one place I bought these revolving storage bins from Harbor Freight Tools ($19.99).

Image from Harbor Freight Tools

The two bottom trays each have three dividers, so I can sort my paints out into primary and secondary colors. The top two bins have six dividers each, perfect for puffy paints, inks, and sprays (I have fewer of them and they are in smaller bottles). I can’t wait to get all my paints and inks put away!
Before you rush out to get yours, remember that it comes unassembled. It took me over an hour to put it together and I am pretty experienced assembling stuff. Every divider (there are 18) has 4 bolts, 4 washers, and 4 nuts that have to be put together. Getting all the dividers in was a little tricky, that’s a lot of parts that have to match up!
I also need to do some more tidying in the basement to make room for two giant wooden desks that my Mother rescued for us (they were going to haul them to the dump, who does that?) What are you plans for the weekend?
Have a super crafty weekend!

...and the Winner is...

Yesterday did not seem like Friday, so sorry I'm a day late :) I threw the names in a hat and the winner is Beth, who said, "Love following your blog. You are so inspiring!" (thanks). I need you to email your mailing address to crafterella(at)hotmail(dot)com and I also need to hear from you by Monday, the 2nd. or I'll have to pick another winner.

And because I can't have a post without a picture, here is the craft room all cleaned up! You can see the floor and the table top AND the ironing board is clutter free (not pictured). I had a crafting party here last week and that proved to be the incentive I needed to get it all cleaned up. I am super excited and I keep reminding myself how nice it will be to just shut the doors when I'm finished working and the kids and cats won't be getting into my stuff.
Happy New Year everyone!!!

More Cleaning, Less Crafting

Now I know how I was able to get so much crafting done with the mess, cleaning takes a looooooooonnnnnnnngggg time.  Keeping everything done eats up a lot of what used to be crafting time.  It is the cleanest it’s been in here…well, ever! It is not spotless, but if you called to say you were coming over in 30 minutes I could have it pretty tidy by the time you got here :)
I finally got all the furniture moved and have hung up some of our art.  Before I hung everything up I gave it all a good cleaning, wow, the frames and glass were filthy!!!  Now everything looks all shiny and new.This is my favorite corner so far.  On the left is a very large, limited edition print that we call Bird Girl(sorry, I can’t decipher the artists name) that belonged to my husbands mother and on the right are life sized, wearable wings that belonged to my Father in law, he got them when he worked at Macy’s in New York, they were part of a Christmas window display.
Anyway, no crafty time means I don’t have anything super fabulous to share.  All I have had time for was crocheting these little cork knights.  I need to add their shields and faces, but I wanting till I’ve finished making an army of them.  I have also made cork ninjas, I don’t think I’m in danger of running out of corks any time soon.
I think I might need to work on my time management skills, maybe it will get easier once I get everything the way I want in and am just maintaining instead of the major overhauls I’ve been doing.  Any advise you may have would be very welcome.

More Organizing in Progress

I know that I’ve already talked about cleaning and organizing this week, but this is all I have been working on.  When I get in the de-cluttering mood I have to go with it and so this is what I’ve been working on for days.
In all the clutter there was a lot more organization than you would expect, it’s kind of weird in a way that makes me wonder if I should be seeing a therapist.The shelves will need to be worked over in the near future, but stuff is somewhat organized and easy to find.  Done is better than perfect and in this case getting things sorted and onto the shelves is much better than spending all night organizing one or two totes.
In the middle of the cleaning I found 4 pairs of knee socks to make leg warmers for Little Miss.
The sewing area was so neat and tidy it only took me 10 minutes to sew them up.  One less pile to take up space.  That pile and bag on the lower right is recycling, so it will be gone soon.
There is only one problem area left…
It’s not as bad as it looks, really, it’s been partially sorted.  I expect to finish this up tonight.  One of the reasons cleaning has gone so well this time is I have a new plan.  Upstairs we had an unused room that has become my photo studio.  I can leave my light box and backgrounds up all the time, making it easier to take product photos.  It is also where I am storing all my finished pieces, my craft show displays, and shipping supplies.  Removing all of that stuff from the craft room really cleared a lot of space.
Next I need to tackle the basement.  My husband has been working really hard to get his stuff in order down there, so it’s already half finished.  My reward will be finding all the fabric that I KNOW is down there, just waited to be sewn.

Giant Dry Erase Calendar Tutorial

I finished up my calendar and now that I am 100% happy with it I’m going to share how I made it.The basic supplies:

• 24” X 36” poster frame, get one with chip board backing (instead of cardboard) Hobby Lobby half price $9.99
• 2/3 to 1 yard of fabric, I bought a remnant and had extra that I used for the table cover
• 5 sheets of 12” X 12” scrapbooking paper to coordinate with fabric, plus scrap or 1 sheet for number circles
• basic craft supplies, white glue, glue brush, scissors, glue dots, ruler, bulldog clips

Some extras:

• printable window clings
• Rotary cutter and mat
• 1” circle punch

I took my frame apart and set the frame pieces and Plexiglas top aside.  I laid the backing on my fabric and cut it to size.I applied a bead of glue around the edge of the backing board and spread it thinly with a brush and then applied the fabric, stretching it slightly and holding it in place with the bulldog clips while the glue dried.  You don’t want to saturate the fabric with the glue, you just want to tack it down.  Once the glue it dry trim off any excess fabric from the edges.
Cut your scrapbooking paper, you’ll need 35 - 3 1/2” X 3 1/2” squares, 2 – 3 1/2” X 10 1/2” rectangles, and 1 – 2 1/2” X 12”  rectangle.  The easiest way is to use a paper trimmer or rotary cutter, but scissors can be used in a pinch.  I also punched 35 – 1” circles for the dates.On my first attempt I rounded the corners of the squares, but the second time I did not, it made lining up the grid easier.  I used glue dots to affix the circles to the corners of the squares.  Then I started arranging the squares that I also tacked down with glue dots.   I started in the lower left corner, 2” in from the left side and 1” up from the bottom.  Working across the bottom row, I positioned seven of the squares 1/2” apart.  At the end of this row I added one of the 3 1/2” X 10 1/2” rectangles 1/2” from the final square.  The next row of squares was 1/2” above the first row.  I used a clear ruler to make lining up the rows easier.  I added all five rows this way and also added the other 3 1/2” X 10 1/2” rectangle 1/2” above the first one.  The title rectangle ( 2 1/2” X 12”) was positioned 8 3/4” from the left edge and up 1/2” from the squares.  Lining up all the squares was the most time consuming part of this project.
Now you can put your poster frame back together.  Remember to remove the plastic coating on the Plexiglas, mine had a coating on both sides!  The calendar is finished, just start filling in you numbers and appointments OR we can make it a bit fancier.I opted for fancier.  I used printable window clings to make the months, dates, and some standard things that I would have on my calendar (like Doctor, No School, etc.).  I used a basic word program to type everything out, picked out a fun font (Beyond Wonderland) and printed the clings according to the package instructions.  Everything had to be cut out, but my paper trimmer made that quick.  I stuck all the dates on, the extras are stored on a page protector that I have stuck on the back of my calendar.  I used Velcro fasteners to stick my calendar on the wall, so I can take it down and lay it flat to fill it out for the month. 
The printed clings make the calendar so neat and tidy.  I followed Bonnie’s suggestion on the Facebook page, to hide the clutter, I can’t afford a new piece of furniture right now, but I CAN cover the piece that is there. I barely had enough fabric to make the top match the calendar (there is a small stripe of brown at the back, I was about 2” short).  Yes, hiding it is much better.  The same stuff is under there, but it really looks a lot better, thanks Bonnie!  Now I need to organize that organizer :P and work on the matching paper organizer that is going to hang under the key rack (that is why the table and calendar aren’t perfectly centered on the wall).
Have a super crafty weekend! and if you need any clarification on this tutorial just ask.

Decorating Help, Please

I have been needing to redo my command center again, it looked okay (when it is was clean), but it’s not functioning well.  I’m not using the marker board at all, the cork boards are just collecting crap that needs to go somewhere else, and that basket, I love it, but it collects a lot of random crap.What does work is the paper shredder, the filing system and the key hooks.  You’ll notice that the command center seems to be oozing over onto the door too.  It just looks so junky and it’s our front door :(So even when I tidy it up a little it still looks tacky.  BTW, I love having a purse hook to hang my purse on, sadly the handles on the turquoise purse are really to long for it to be effective.
Here’s what I know, that basket, the cork boards, and marker board need to go!   I want to get the door cleaned off.  The file box, paper shredder, key hooks and table need to stay.  I need this area to be where we keep our calendar (I want big, but nice to look at), the bills/mail, library books, purse and keys.  Basically a mini office and where I keep the stuff I need when I walk out the door.
Help, I need ideas, links, and pictures.  I also need to be able to keep this very low budget.  Leave suggestions in the comments or post them on the Facebook wall, I know you guys will help me figure this out, Oh and I need it up and running before the kids go back to school!

Now With More Curtains

I know you’re probably sick of seeing my kitchen, but we’ll be looking at it again today.  When I was making my screen printed curtains I had originally planned to have another set to go below the sink, but I didn’t have enough fabric to print without piecing it.  I am so glad that I decided not to make everything the same.  I have wanted this Michael Miller chevron fabric ever since I saw it online (and now can’t even find a link for it, sorry) and I found it here in Lincoln!!!
This area is a real problem:This is what you see when you come in my back door, which we use a lot since we have a larger parking area in the back.  You have to come up three steps to get into the kitchen, so you’re eye level with my under sink clutter.  I have my recycling trash cans, plastic bags, and paper bags stored under here, it’s not really that messy, but it doesn’t exactly scream welcome to my home either.
And now:Ah, much better, Welcome to my home, come on in!  I have officially decided that all I need to make my entire house look nicer is shelves and curtains.Here’s a shot from the other end.  I still need some accessories and to paint the walls, but it’s already soooooo much better (flashback to the mess).  I have a little bit of that chevron fabric left over, I’m thinking some hot pads or towels.  Let me know if you have any great ideas, I have about a half yard left (in pieces).
Thanks for looking at my kitchen again, I’ll try to find something else to talk about for the rest of the week.

That New Shelf Smell

I did not know that new shelves had a smell, but these definitely do, and it’s not good smell(it must be the wood shelf inserts).  Thursday in the middle of making my rainbow patchwork I had a brilliant idea, I needed some giant, heavy duty shelves for the craft room.  One of the most annoying things about cleaning up is that I lug several totes of supplies to the basement only to want them back up here in the next week and then the totes sit here in my dining room looking junky and back down stairs they go, it’s endless.  If I had big shelves they could just stay up here in the craft room on the shelves right?  Did I mention that when we cleaned the rest of the house that the craft room got skipped and so stuff (craft stuff) is just stacked up in there? and I don’t want to start hauling it out here where it is clean.
Sometimes when I’m cleaning it feels like I just shift things around, like a slow motion hurricane, so I thought I would document the process of putting a shelf in with some before, during, and after shots (well, not really after, more of a right now, but I’m not done yet).
As you can see, it went from messy, to cleaned spot, to shelves up, to starting to fill the shelves.  I would like to add that I am not responsible for the stickers, stencils and splotchy paint, they were here when we moved in.  The wire shelves are still up there in the last shot, they are just hidden by the pattern boxes and boobzilla.  I have a lot of my stuff sorted already and some of the excess supplies will be stored in the basement (we have even bigger and heavy-dutier (<- yeah I made that up) shelves down there).
I also have new shelves for the upstairs.  There is a room up there with a skylight where I take all of my product photos and those shelves will hold all of my finished projects that are listed in my online shops.  I’ll also be keeping craft show displays, mailing/packaging supplies and random stuff from my day job up there.  It is a weird room that is too small to be good for much, but it’s great for photography and storage.
I think I have some sort of shelf obsession, I have plans to build some for the living room too!
Have a super crafty weekend!

Spring Time

Finally spring seems to be here!  All I want to do is spend time outside, we’re been decorating our sidewalk with chalk, cleaning up our yarn, going on walks, and raking leaves, lots and lots of leaves.  My husband is on vacation this week and we have a lot of cleaning and organizing projects on the to do list.  I have several crafty projects going as well.

I working on a project using my tote of crochet thread.  I have used up eight spools so far.  I’m really excited to share this one, (check back on Wednesday).

I have built my new giant cardboard wall organizer and I will start doing the paper mache sometime this week.  I can’t wait to finish it and get my command center under control. 

I also have a few new patterns to work on, one is going to be an Easter Dress for Little Miss.  She needs a whole new summer wardrobe she has filled out so much none of her summer cloths from last year fit.  Little Sir has grown up and not out, so a lot of his shorts will still work and, of course, all of his pants have holes in the knees and will be made into cut offs soon.  I will need some stuff for Little Man too, onesies (<-I have no idea how to spell that) and rompers, I’m thinking tie dye and appliqué.

I have been collecting some great projects to do with the kids this summer and the Children’s Zoo reopens on Friday.  We have tons of stuff going on this week.  I am also hoping to do some painting in Little Sir's room, I have promised him an orange wall.  Now that the weather is nice there is tons of fun stuff to do.

Cleaning Challenge

As you know I am forever cleaning.  It seems that while I do manage to make some progress I am easily distracted and not especially motivated.  Now that spring is on its way I am in the mood to clean and organize and I have been on a roll, cleaning things that haven’t been cleaned, sorting, rearranging, and storing.

I have recently discovered that my lack of motivation is because I am a messy perfectionist, really.  Basically if I can’t do it perfectly then why bother doing it at all?  Now I have a new mantra: It doesn’t need to be perfect, it needs to be done!  Also: You can always go back later and make it perfect.  I has been going much better, I am accomplishing more than I have in a very long time and seeing how much better it is starting to look is even more incentive to do more.This is an in progress shot, notice that the table is pretty clean, but there is a lot of stuff in the doorway and what you can’t see it the ironing board on the left is stacked pretty full, with only a tiny spot left to iron on.Here is what I accomplished in an afternoon, notice that there is some stuff piled on the table now.  I have a weird way of cleaning, I sort everything in to piles and then put the piles away one at a time.  The stuff on the table is stuff that I want to work on in the near future.  There is a stack of pants that I have big plans for, a crate full of flannel waiting to be cut, a variety of plastic bags that need to be made into plarn, and a fish bowl full of misc. stuff that I couldn’t sort into a category.  I’m just happy to see the floor, even if it needs to be swept, and to be able to shut the doors again.

My challenge to you is take 30 minutes and “just get it done” really, it doesn’t have to be perfect, done will be enough for now.  Sort out your yarn, put all you current projects together in a tote, clean off a table or counter top, recycle all that junk mail, anything.  Once you’re done you’ll be surprised at how much better you feel. 

Once I get this all cleaned up it will be sooooo much easier to get stuff done, no more time wasted clearing a spot to work or hunting for supplies, Happy cleaning, let me know how it goes.

Paper Mache Play

I really love paper mache! In elementary school I hated it, but I’m going to assume it is because they didn’t explain the process well and they wanted us to make super bulky newspaper bases and what I ended up with was a damp, lumpy mess that did not look like a unicorn. Today I covered some balloons on Pringles cans to make more craft show displays (these are child head sized) and I also covered some thread cones with Styrofoam ball heads and some wooden peg dolls.  I really like the texture that paper mache gives to a finished piece and how well it integrates the separate parts together.  I think that they now look like giant game pieces and now I want to make some of those, these are going to be something else. I used the paper mache recipe from The Big Ass Book of Crafts from Mark Montano, it’s a basic flour paste with a bit of white glue added in.  I did one layer last night and it has dried rock hard, I will add at least one more layer to the displays and then some paper clay to smooth it out and add some details to my other pieces.  There is a recipe for paper mache mush in the book that would be great for that, but I have some paper clay on hand that I have had forever and I want to use that up.

I would also like to note that I have been doing some cleaning and you’ll notice that my normally cluttered dining room table is clean, we could eat dinner at the table if we wanted, I know, it’s crazy!  Now to work on the rest of the house, I finally figured out the psychology of why my house was cluttered (no, I don’t want to share) and I expect to make a lot of progress in the next month.

I should be busy working on these projects all weekend, what will you be working on?  Have a super crafty weekend, everyone!

Status Report

First, how was everyone’s long weekend?  Did you work on some special or exciting projects?  I did, kind of.  Not fun and exciting crafty projects, but around the house stuff.

I have been in the mood to clean for the last week, I know, weird huh? and when that happens I just go with it.  I have accomplished a lot, but not the awesome before and after shot of progress that I want to share (I think this is my first post EVER without a picture).  I cleaned the laundry area and actually caught up with the laundry(I know, crazy, I even ran out of hangers), I got it all folded and put away too.  The big achievement was sorting through all the outgrown clothing:  two totes to resell, one tote to donate, one small pile to save, and one very small pile to throw out.

We also got some really awesome shelves for our basement, (they can hold 2000 pounds a shelf) and totes to fill them.  I really want to get rid of every cardboard box in the basement.  I expect to be working on that project for quite a while.

There has been some furniture rearranging in my bedroom.  The crib that we used for Little Sir and Little Miss was one of the cribs that has been recalled (twice).  I was able to return it and with the refund purchased a new crib for Little Man.  I cleaned everything up there and basically flipped the furniture around.

I have been doing a little crafting, but I’m going to go with the cleaning until the urge leaves (it never lasts long).  I do have some really great quilts that I received from my Mother to share with you, I have so bottle cap pincushion “blanks” made up, and I am working on a new crochet design, more on that later this week.

Welcome to Week 41 and My Messy Kitchen

I really expected to be holding a baby by now, but I guess he’s not quite ready.  I am officially to the point of making no plans for anything, I can’t even plan dinner.  I have a very long list of things that I want to be doing, but I just can’t/don’t want to do them.  I have worked on a few things, knitting and crochet are still do-able, but pretty much everything else is out.  I miss bending.

Okay, enough whining, I still haven’t finished the Mod Podge screen printing of the fabric for my kitchen curtains, but I have been doing a little work in there.  Prepare to see a mess…don’t judge me, I know I have a hoarding/clutter problem and I am working on it.This is my kitchen on a bad day, before the pre dinner clean up.  Yes, I have a huge clutter problem.  One of the main problems of this kitchen is lack of storage, I need more cabinets.  This in the only upper cabinet in the kitchen.  There is a small pantry area in the hall and it is very full. The right side of the kitchen is a lost cause, there are no cabinets or counter space and I am using a bakers rack in an odd position to hold some necessary kitchen stuff and I keep a cutting board on half of my stove to use as a prep area.  Someday we will redo the kitchen, but that is something that isn’t going to happen for a while (think years).So, um yeah, I was a little embarrassed by the clutter so I tidied up a bit and this is what it usually looks like.  Still not great, but less cluttered.  I really need to take those plastic bags to be recycled or make some plarn with them.I decided that I needed some shelves above the sink.  I wanted floating shelves for a nice clean look.  Right now I am ignoring the fact that the walls and ceiling really need to be painted.  I picked these out at the Home Depot and while they look nice they are not sturdy.  I had read the reviews and knew this was an issue, but I thought it was a hardware/installation issue.  I bought special hangers for plaster walls and expected these shelves to be awesome.  Sadly they are not, I’m not sure they are going to stay up (as in they may fall down by themselves in the middle of the night).  I bought three (notice, I even predrilled the holes for the third shelf) and have only put up two, the third may go back, I’m trying to decide if there is a way to make them work.I found some great accessories at Target that are perfect for the kitchen, modern and slightly retro, lots of red with pops of turquoise.  I also have been slowly collecting these nice canisters from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I get them one at a time with a 20% off coupon, they are sooooo nice, but a little pricey.  I wanted to store them on these shelves, but I’m not sure the shelves can hold them.

I think that once I get everything arranged and the new curtains and hand knitted towels out and the pot rack hung (once I find it, it’s in the basement of doom) that it will look nicer.  If anyone has suggestions for the shelves, let me know, I would really like to make them work.  I am also trying to decide how to store my spices without taking up a lot of room, but keeping them handy for use.  I’ll keep updating everyone on baby watch 2010, at this rate I might just wait until May!

The Perfect Kitchen Scrubbie

I am all about having the perfect tool for the job at hand and when I realized that my kitchen sponges just weren’t cutting it I decided to try making my own.

I need something that is abrasive, but safe for non stick cookware.  I also need something absorbent to wipe up messes.  I decided that a double sided sponge was just what I needed, nylon netting on one side (I bought a roll of tulle, but cutting your own is usually less expensive), cotton yarn on the other side, and maybe a sponge in the middle for good measure.Interesting, I didn’t have a white or red sponge so I went with orange and I don’t like how it shows through.  It looks like it would work, but it is a little big and bulky.  I do like the texture on the tulle, looks like it would really scrub good. Take two, lets go smaller and round, no sponge.  The size is better, but a little smaller would be perfect.  I doubled the cotton yarn to make up for the lack of sponge.  I like round better than rectangle, but the round netting part seems a little holey.  I guess I could cut a sponge round.

I’m going to be using these two scrubbies for a couple of weeks to see how they work and wear and decide if I need to give it another try.  I may just need to perfect the size and shape.

What is your favorite sponge/scrubbie to use in the kitchen?  Do you have any patterns you recommend?

Is there a Hoarders Anonymous?

I know that there are TV shows that will come to your house and make you throw away or sell all your stuff, but is there a group program.  I guess I would have to want to get better and I’m not sure I’m there yet, I think I just want to get organized.

I sure it is no surprise to anyone who has noticed that the background in all my photos is always cluttered, but I really have a problem.  I am going to share some shocking photos with you guys today, because I know I’m not the only one with this dirty little secret.  My theory is that being creative requires a little chaos (I’m extra creative, so I need a lot, which translates to: I don’t have time to clean, I’m creating!!! )

Before we bought our new house in May 2009 we lived in a tiny apartment and kept a lot of our stuff in storage.  When we moved in here everything that was in storage got put directly into the basement, semi stacked, but mostly randomly.

Um, yeah, so this is what my basement looks like right now, there is more, but I could only get this much in the picture.  About 60% of this stuff is mine, most of it craft related.  This space is supposed to be for my husband to have his little nerdy man cave, as you can see, he’s getting a lot of use out of it.

This was, (yes was, I’ve been cleaning) the doors to my craft room, it is not that large of a room, but it does have a closet.  I have tidied up a lot and moved the furniture around and hauled up some stuff from the basement and now it looks a little better.

Here is my sewing table and a large wall shelf that is holding all my gallon sized storage containers.  The middle shelf is not tall enough, but I have a lot of other jars and do dads to put there.  I’ve organized my sewing notions and they are all nicely tucked away in the drawers of the sewing cabinet that I got at a yard sale, I still have the old machine that was in it if anyone is interested.  (I have a collection of things that need to be put on a yard sale or donated to charity downstairs also).

This is my crafting table, I found out that the three rolling carts (you can only see two here) fit perfectly under the table if I took the wheels off.  The real question is what to do with the wheels, so I can find them if I need them again.  Most of the drawers are still empty, which means that there is room for me to haul some more stuff out of the basement.  On the left in the corner is the shelf that is going to be my ironing center where I’ll be keeping all the equipment I need for pressing and probably current projects.  The ironing board will be along that left wall, where I can leave it out all the time.

Here is a shot of the closet, it is packed to capacity with shelves, on the very left, not easily seen are the shelves holding my freshly folded and stacked fabrics, there is still a lot of room for more (and I have more waiting in the basement).  The center shelf will hold all of my containers for different crafts, I expect to find the rest of them in the basement also.  The right is a sweater organizer that is totally empty, not quite sure what I’ll put in there, maybe yarn.  Not pictured is a organizer of small drawers mounted on the wall containing all sorts of small bits and bobs.  That mess on the right is a gift bag and wrapping paper organizer that is going to be relocated upstairs.

I am slowly making progress, every box I open needs to be sorted through and organized and then put away, there was no method to the madness when we packed.  I’m starting to get really excited to finish, it’s going to be so nice to have everything put away and easily found.  I’ll share more as I accomplish it and hopefully I can avoid Hoarders Anonymous and avoid anyone calling a TV show to make me clean up.  Please tell me I’m not the only one with a clutter problem.

The Official Update

I have grounded myself from doing any more crafting that is not Christmas gift related until I have cleaned up some of this mess.  I have never been an extremely tidy person and I tend to overtake any flat surface with all of the various projects that I am currently working on.  Let me be clear, my house is not filthy it’s cluttered, I do maintain basic cleaning, like washing dishes, laundry, cleaning the bathroom, etc., I just don’t do a great job of picking up after myself.  I have made a lot of progress this week, the kitchen is looking great and all the countertops are visible and the living room is coming along nicely, I just have to find a new home for some gigantic totes.  I am even getting a handle on all of my fabric in the craft room.

This photo was taken at the end of November and I am happy to say that a lot more of the floor is visible and the furniture has been rearranged, but I am still struggling to find homes for all of my carefully hoarded supplies.

I am also still working on those darn cupcakes, their frosting has been applied and now all they need is some beaded sprinkles (I did decide to go with orange, thanks Kelly), but I refuse to post another picture of them until they are finished. 

I have not wrapped any gifts yet, since I am still waiting for most of them to arrive, traditionally I spend Christmas eve in a package wrapping frenzy and it seems it will be that way again.  I hope to be ungrounded and back to crafting soon, I have a gigantic back log of projects to complete and now that my fabric is getting organized I have a ton of sewing projects that I am dying to work on.  Have a great weekend!

When Will I have Enough Fabric?

That is the million dollar question.  What exactly do I do with all this fabric besides hoard it?  I pet it and love it and make it into to lovely things, that’s what! 

I have a lot of reasons that keep me buying fabric and I don’t think that any 12 step program is going to help that, so what it boils down to is storage.  I need to see what I have so I can sew with it, I also need to be able to find that one piece that I know I have but can’t seem to find.  I searched the internet for “fabric organization” and there are oodles of different techniques.  I opted to fold using a template so that all of my folded fabrics would be the same size and fit into the designated storage cubes.

The instructions I found all used a quilting ruler, but I don’t have one, so I improvised with a cutting mat/ruler that I had.

Step 1:  Lay fabric on flat surface with selvage edge on one side (pictured on the right)  and folded edge on the other (pictured on the left), place your ruler/template on top of fabric near the cut edge.

Step 2:  Fold cut edge over ruler.

Step 3:  Continue wrapping fabric neatly around ruler until you reach the end of the yardage.

  Step 4:  Remove ruler and fold in half. Step 5:  Stack in storage cubes and enjoy the neatness.

Imagine how great this will be when all my fabric is folded and sorted by fiber content and color.  It’s going to take me a long time, but I will be worth it when it’s all done.  I’ll keep you guys posted. 

I am also working to get my craft room fully unpacked and arranged, it’s a total mess now and there are crafting supplies everywhere, but I can’t wait to get it finished, I hope everything fits.

Oh, and the answer to When? is never, I will never have enough fabric, although I am trying to scale it back a bit.

Command Center

I have been trying to get my house in order for months.  I used to be so organized and my life was sooooooo much easier, I really need to get everything back under control!  I have been reading and watching some of those organizing shows on TV and they always recommend that you have a command center or launch pad, where you keep keys, backpacks, purses, out going mail, etc. and so I decided I needed one too!  Here is the area I decided to work with, technically this isn’t the real before shot, before there was a shoe rack and a pile of shoes here.  Yeah, it looked worse than this and yes that is an entire tote full of fabric.

I was shocked at my local office supply store to see that a combination marker board/magnetic board/cork board was $35.00 – $75.00! (you know I wanted the $75.00 one) and that did not include markers, push pins, or magnets, yikes!  I made a quick trip to my local “mart” store and found a magnetic marker board and some cork tiles fairly inexpensively.  At Hobby Lobby I found a nice upholstery fabric remnant for a couple of dollars and ta-daaaaa, a spiffy new command center.

First I cut the fabric into squares a little larger than the cork tiles.  The fabric I used was super easy to cut because it has a pattern of small dots on it (they’re black and not showing up on the photo)  Using spray adhesive I attached the fabric to the front of the cork.  I trimmed the corners diagonally, leaving a little fabric in the corners for turning.  I then used tacky glue to glue the edges of fabric to the backs of the tiles.  The marker board and cork tiles came with mounting squares to stick them on the wall with and I just eyeballed where I wanted them an stuck them up.  I think I need to move the key rack to above that tile on the top right to make it more symmetrical.

Obviously I still have some work to do, like draw up a calendar and tack up some more stuff, sort all the mail, and organize the basket of doom there on the left, but I think it’s really going to help.  I’m also going to make some covered milk crates to hold library books and backpacks/purses.  I would also be really cute to make some customized magnets and push pins.  The rest of my house is still a giant mess, but I’m working on it, little by little :)