I've Been Working in the Craft Room

On Sunday, I turned to the craft room to make it habitable for my mother-in-law. She arrives next Tuesday. Yes, it's true--I'll be in NH next weekend so will be unable to tend to the house before her arrival. (I cringe.) Because my sister will still be in the real guest room until May 6th or 7th, my MIL gets the craft room. I put together the Ikea shelving unit (you can see it there in the box next to the Alex drawers, yes, underneath the blind for the bathroom) and started putting stuff away. Of course one needs to spend time organizing one's treasures. So, the room's been looking a lot worse. Yes, even worse than these "before" pictures. It was sort of horrifying to open up boxes and bags and find patterns and other materials that I haven't even looked at since I purchased them.

I finally broke everything down into a few categories: sewing, cross-stitch, general crafts, and papercrafting. Obviously there's some overlap with the "general crafts" category, but I just somehow "knew" what went with papercrafts and what was more general. There were also a "move it out of here" pile and a giant bag for trash. It's spectacular how many times you can move trash. A few boxes remain to be sorted. I'm getting a lot of pressure from my cohabitants to hurry, but I just can't make myself rush this. (My sister has other tasks for me to do, like stick Jordan almonds in tulle for my parents' anniversary party, among other things.) The process is a good one because I am learning about what kind of storage stuff I need.

And at some point, I need to get into the closet (my clothes are stored in this room too) and switch out to my spring wardrobe. Where is my personal assistant? I have things for her to take care of...

These pictures were taken from the elliptical trainer in the other corner of the room.