little bits & bags

After I rearranged the house and put the craft room downstairs, we did a little rearranging of the playroom as well.  We happily found a new place for the puppet tree.  There were a few sets of little bits and pieces that needed a home - so they found one there too.

One bag holds the Toy Story set, one bag holds the Beauty & the Beast set, and one bag holds all our little Finger Puppets.

I serged the edges of the bag, folded over the top, and added a ribbon for a drawstring.  Yay for organization!!!

change of latitude

SO - 5 days before Christmas I started moving my studio downstairs.  {YES, I realize I'm crazy.}  I finally have things {mostly} organized and picture worthy.  I don't have nearly as much natural light because it is our basement, and there is only one small window.  I'm working on lighting and how to take good pictures in the dark.
The books have been down there since we moved in - most of them are from my teaching days and from my childhood.  However, I will own it.  I LOVE children's books.  I have a LOT of books.  We have a good library in our town, but we rarely visit it because we hardly have time to read the books we do have!  Anyway, back to the studio.
When we moved in we had some flooding issues and replaced the carpet with the foam squares.  I love it, and think it will be nice bright fun flooring for the craft room.

The green chair is my "dreaming chair" - perfect for reading a book, reading a magazine, sketching, or working with the kids at their craft table.  The quilt is one made by my grandma - it is poofy and warm and I LOVE it!!!

The kids craft table is in perfect view of my work space, but all their supplies are on their side.  There are two plastic drawer storage units holding their supplies, and a cardboard box full of boxes, toilet paper tubes, and other fun recyclable bits perfect for random creations.  I have two task lights by my cutting table and drawing table, and my sewing machine is at a right angle to the wall.  Behind my tables is a shorter bookshelf to hold sewing books, business paperwork, and information for my sewing machine.  Lots of other supplies are mixed in with the bookshelves on the far wall.

Behind my work table there is a ledge.  On it sits different projects and works-in-progress.  Above it is my shelf of ribbon.  Underneath the ribbon shelf is a cork strip holding the order forms.  Looks like I better get busy!!

My stash.  Yeah.  I better get busy sewing!!!  There are more empty tubes, rolls of freezer paper and contact paper.  There's also a few electronic components and speakers from when this used to be shelving for our TV room.  Not everything is in its perfect spot yet... but electronic components are my husband's arena.

The last shot is just for fun - my collection of Sharpie markers sitting on my drawing table.  I love Sharpies.  Bright. Bold. So versatile.  LOVE them.

I'm really happy with the set-up, and I feel like I'm on the brink of really getting going again.  It's not necessarily the perfect set-up, I wish the walls weren't that weird textured stuff so I could paint them, storage isn't perfect, but it's MY space and I'll keep adding little touches to make it more creative and inspiring.
Color & inspiration - where do you find it?

running... always running

Do you feel like you're always running? Trying to get something, anything, everything done. Yeah, me too. I only wish I could look as cool as my daughter while I was running!!! (yes, those are size 4 pink hi-top Converse all-stars. be still my beating heart. oh yeah, they were free in a hand-me-down bag too. brand new.)
My problem isn't always that I'm running around doing too much, it's that I run around doing nothing important, or nothing that needs to be done. Because I was (briefly!) considering teaching again, and because I LOVE the start of school, I came up with a plan for myself. A lesson plan to be exact.
When I taught, I used Excel to print up schedule pages for myself. I loved the color-code-a-bility, the ease of arranging everything on my own, and not having to "make-do" with somebody else's schedule book that just didn't have the right times for our school's weird schedules and timing. So I applied those same principles and made up a schedule for our family during the week. With my son starting afternoon preschool 4 days a week, our days are going to look pretty different! I wanted a way to keep myself together, and also a way to look at our week and make sure it's full of fun stuff, errands, house chores, free play time, etc. Trying to find balance. (Hmmm... novel idea, huh?)

I then separated out my kids' schedules and made them each their own sheet. My son loves to know what's coming next, and although he can't read it all (yet) he will definitely be able to look at the color coding, learn that, and get used to what's coming. At the beginning of each week, we can pick a couple fun activities that he wants to do, and pick our time to do them so he has something to look forward to throughout the week. (A special craft or Lego project, computer time, whatever.)
I also realized that since it's on the fridge, I could print off some pictures on magnets and use that too for some of our regular activities. I could also insert pictures into Excel the next time I have to print off our schedule. There's so many ways you could make it work for different age levels!
My daughter can't read hers, but it's more just a way to keep activities separate, should things come up. I can also jot down little ideas of things for us to do while we wait for Conner to come home from pre-school.
"Laminate" it with contact paper, use a dry-erase marker, and there's your plan!
If you think this sounds interesting, e-mail me, and I'll send you the generic version in Excel that you can adapt for your own purposes.

organize this!

ugh. My fabric stash is getting out of control. I have a workshop coming up this Friday night, and although it's not at my home - I felt the need to get my stash and MYSELF organized! I know this one shelf doesn't look that bad, but multiply it by three and you get frustration.
SO I took out each color and sorted through. Folded nicely. Not perfectly - but at least I can fit it five piles across the shelf now.
And then all the "too small" scraps, left over binding pieces, squares, triangles, and bits went into this basket. Perfect for a small applique piece, my son's crafting moments, and paper piecing.

How do you take care of your stash? (Whatever it may be - fabric, scrapbooking papers, yarn?)

making room

I've been busy. But I finally have some pictures to share. I'm being brave. Not so brave I guess - it's my front room so anyone who comes over has seen the insanity. Just most people don't see it when it's this bad. You'll see the vacuum cleaner, exersaucer, piles of fabric shoved wherever. You may also notice the piano bench next to the vacuum cleaner. Yes, the piano is in the front room too. It's my creative space, and since I'm really the only one (at this point) who plays the piano, it works out pretty well.

This was in progress, but still. I needed help! I had to organize and make room for my new toy, coming later this week. Luckily I had some sleepy kids and a helpful husband.

ahhh... much better. Tulle in one tub, stabilizer in another, ribbons in another, and square scraps for a special project in another.

And my fabric stash. I make a lot of blankets for friends, and try to buy fabric on sale and have choices so they get exactly what they want. But this is getting ridiculous. Gotta stop buying and start sewing!

Where all the magic happens. I didn't include my son's little craft corner, but it's next to my light colored table. That way (theoretically?!!) we can craft together. It hasn't quite happened that way yet, I usually end up sitting next to him in a really small chair doing whatever he's doing. Or we end up at the kitchen table. But we're working up to it!
The tubs underneath the dark table are for my paper crafting. They hold scissors, punches, stamps, etc. It's not a perfect system, but it works for me. When I do paper crafts I usually would spread the tubs out all over the table, so why was I keeping them on the shelf anyway? This way, I put them on the table to work and voila, I have leg room to sit at the table. Duh?!!!

Now if only my new toy was here....
patience Beth, patience....