Day Four: Altered Notebook

I'm keeping up with my daily craft challenge, but falling behind in the reportage. Yesterday we put curtains up in the craft room, so my project was still drying as the sun set. There's no sense in reporting without a photo.

On Splitcoast Stampers, they refer to these as "altered notebooks." I think that's a highfalutin' name for gluing paper and stamping on one of those ubiquitous composition books.

I also finished Day Five but it seems like it needs its own post. I think I'm going to let that go until tomorrow.

I know, you want to see the curtains. Right?

They are f'Roman* blinds. I had the fabric and directions to make them myself, but in the immortal words of Dirty Harry, "a man's got to know his limitations." I called in an expert.

I'm trying to decide on that picture I have hanging between the windows. Is it too "on point"? Does it not match in color or style? Or is it kinda samey? I don't know how I feel.

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I've had many comments regarding the card from the White House. This is something anyone can do! If your recipient is over 80 or a veteran over 70, the White House will send a card. Here's the information. I sent my request in October. They only send cards to citizens, but they'll send cards for weddings, births or adoptions, anniversaries (50+ years), and a few other milestones.

The Queen will send greetings to subjects, but you have to be older. Canadians can get all sorts of people to send greetings, but they have the additional hoop of providing birth or marriage certificates. If you're in another country, I just googled "How to get {important person in your country} to send birthday greetings." Follow the directions to the letter.



*faux Roman

In Which I Embarrass Myself (Not for the First Time)

As I mentioned, I am soon to get help organizing the craft room. Recently, Donna showed photos of her craft room because it's in a state. I bragged (?) that mine was worse. I've shown how bad it is before. But I'm pretty sure it's gotten worse.

Oh, wait! What's that hiding behind the craft table?

We have got our work cut out for us!

Fabricadabra

Remember that table I cleared off? It's a mess again. I've started sorting fabrics. I have two bags to give away. A kitchen-sized trash bag of scraps and small yardages of quilting cottons and a grocery bag full of home dec and other fabrics. This is what I'm keeping. I'm hopeful it will all fit in one tub, but I don't think it's going to be the under-bed storage size. The fabric on the far right with the blues? That's slated to be double-checked against my charm quilt. If any of those fabrics are already in it, they're heading to the give away pile.

I have to focus on fabrics that are destined for a project I might actually sew or that would be perfect for finishing my cross-stitch projects. There are a lot of plans a person can make, but there are a limited number of hours for crafting. See those gold dish towels? I had thought I would applique Eiffel towers on them for my sister's kitchen. She doesn't even live there any more. (But you could!) That's the problem with having too many ideas. You can't get to them, and then you are left with gold dish towels that don't match anyone's kitchen. Please tell me I am not alone!

Thanks for your wonderful comments about the craft day with my niece. I don't know how much longer she'll want to do this with us. Though everyone will hope for more bread...even you!

Nearly There

I have a pile of 98 patterns that will be variously placed on e-bay and made into grab bags, depending on the state of them. I'm still hoping to find a few more to reach my goal of 25%. Fortunately, I have stitched most of these.

As I clear up more of the craft room, I come across things I have stitched and finished. These items seem to float about because there really is no good place for those patterns I am done with. No more floating! There is a pile for them!

Unfortunately, I don't know where the pile should live, even temporarily.

Now you see how difficult all this "organizing" is for me...

Craft Room continued

I was flipping through Oprah's magazine--the one featuring clutter reduction--and came across a woman who buys cosmetics because "they're pretty." She has spent well over $30,000 on hair and make-up supplies. She vowed to get rid of 25% of her things, but only gave away 5%.

Anyone who's seen me at camp, or for more than seven days running, knows that makeup purchases are no vice of mine. However, I recently retrieved my cross-stitch database off our oldest computer and have been adding my new purchases--the stuff that was piled on the filing cabinet in this photo. (Oh, by the time I took the photo, I had shoved it into a basket. I had to; the big pile kept sliding off.) My project list has topped out at 413--that does include stuff I've stitched. I just never get rid of anything.

Fortunately, when I multiply 413 by $8 (an average chart price), I only hit $3304, which seems completely reasonable--especially when you compare me to the makeup hoarder. I have been collecting these things for twenty years, after all. ($165 per year. A lot, perhaps too much, but well within my means. She had to have her husband bail her out of $15K of credit card debt.)

If I were on Clean Sweep or Mission: Organization or one of those shows, they'd probably "let" me keep 25% of those projects. I'm considering getting rid of 25%. Unlike so many of you, though, I am hard on my charts. I travel with them. I write on them. They're still perfectly usable, but I'm not sure anyone would pay for them. And I don't want to trade because the last thing I need is something in return! I'll think about this more and let you know what I decide. (Suggestions welcome.)

In other organizing news, I found the perfect baskets to hold my in-progress stitching, my kits, and my finishing pile. They're from Target's new re/Organize store brand. I unsuccessfully tried to find a photo online, but you'll be able to see them soon. I only have two more weeks* to get things in shape before my niece comes over.

*She's not coming for three weeks but we are taking spring break in Tampa.

No Pride

As you know my niece recently had a birthday.* Because she's always trying to get into my craft room, the dude and I gave her a list of crafts we could do together: craft cards, style a scrapbook, concoct candy, sew an Ugly-style doll, make Muddy Buddies, construct a wreath, fashion a fleece scarf, applique an apron, paint a pot, transform a t-shirt, brew up body products, jazz up a switch plate, stamp-a-stack, decoupage a decoration, can a jam, string a necklace, knead ze dough (bake bread), or make felt acorns. We thought she'd choose a couple at some point shortly before she came over to work with us.

But she was kind of excited: she sat down with the list and put checkmarks by the ones she really, really wanted to do; circled the ones she kind of wanted to do; and struck out a couple (wreath making, applique, stamping, stringing). The most popular was the switch plate, which I had put on the list to round it out, although I had seen directions for it in a couple of the books I flipped through. At first, she had to ask what a switch plate was. It turns out, however, she had just told her mother the butterfly switch plate she had to have when she was younger was "babyish." She's also interested in canning, bread baking, making a fleece scarf, and making cards.

This means of course, that we actually have to--ahem--be able to work walk in the room. Fortunately, craftzine is in the midst of showing how some professional crafters organize their spaces. I'm taking careful notes.

The title of this post refers to what I am about to show you. I want you to know that I come by my disorganization honestly. When I was growing up we had what we called "junk rooms." If you've ever watched Clean Sweep, you know exactly the kind of room I mean. When I was very young, it was our toy room--you'd be knee deep in toys until the hammer came down. In this (rather seldom) cleaning frenzy, we'd always discover toys we had forgotten. You would have thought we'd have learned from this. In our adolescent days it was the room that had the attic access. Things were always getting dumped there on the way to the attic. (And you've heard plenty about that attic lately**.) When the dude (not the tidying kind) and I lived in our two bedroom apartment in L.A., half the study was given over to the crap. There was a little path so that you could get around the outside of the room where the bookcases were. Now, it's the craft room. (Although the basement is starting to get out of hand too.) Here's what I need to fix up in the next two weeks:

So you see what I am up against. I do hope you don't think less of me...

* Though high pitched, the girls were really very good. I only had to use my teacher-voice once when one girl pushed another into the pool. And sissy gave a lecture on not being down on themselves for being "fat" (two girls were spinning around saying "fat fat fat fat" which "wasn't directed at anyone" but one girl--the tallest and hence biggest--was blushing, and taking it personally). Ironic since sissy refused to put on a bathing suit to chaperon because she "was feeling fat." I'm pretty sure if you're a size 6 you're not allowed to feel fat. No, you've got to be in double digits for that.

**Did I mention my parents sold their house? They put it on the market shortly before Christmas and sold it three weeks later, after the first open house! If you need a stager, call my mother.

Craft Room Clean-up

Stella thanks you for the birthday wishes, and hopes in the future you will be kind enough to forget precisely how old she is. A girl's gotta have her secrets.

(I know you think I posed her like this, but she sleeps this way. Honestly! What kind of dog am I raising here?)

This weekend while the dude was here to distract the pooch, I took some time to work in the craft room. Turning my attention to the craft table, I unearthed a pile of purple cards I had forgotten that I had made and the beginnings of using up my white scraps. (Hahaha, remember when I was going to use up all my scraps this year? I didn't even get through the white ones.) I also found half a dozen or so cross-stitch patterns and a pile of felt and wool sweaters I purchased to use in the betz white class I am allegedly taking. (Should I call it auditing because I have not made a thing yet?) (Sigh.) I also came across this Halloween piece that I stitched at camp in April. All I had to do was attach the front and the back and adhere the trim. For goodness sake! I can't believe I couldn't finish it on time for the one trick or treater who stopped by. But it is done now. Just in time to go back into storage.

But wait, there's more good news! I came across two bags filled with holiday cards. One held cards I made at my SU! rep's house last year and the other had 30 cards I made last year. I am halfway done #8 on the list I posted just yesterday! I feel so productive. ;)

I totally wish I had some way of keeping track of which card I sent to whom, so I don't send the same card two years in a row (I didn't even photograph them and post them here last year. What am I a nudnik? Some kind of rookie?) So you'll just have to forgive me in advance.

Craft Room Progress

Last night the dude and I humped the new project table from the back porch where it was delivered up the stairs and into the craft room. And can I tell you how much I love it? I LOVE IT! I spread myself over it and hugged it. The dude, less impressed, said it will be cluttered in no time. Which, of course, it will. I had even been thinking of moving my crafting mess from the dining room table up to the new craft table. But after a remark like that, it can wait.

So the happy news is that I didn't have to spend $1099 on the Pottery Barn table. Oh, no. Just before I left my mother's beach house, I dug her catalogs out of my car and brought them in. She made me eat breakfast before I went, so I leafed through them. And what do I find in the Grandin Road catalog? Project table; hundreds less. Shipping was still a bitch, but I can only imagine what the PB table would have cost to ship.

I think I'll be doing some decorative painting this weekend. That still leaves the curtains. But we're getting there!

Progress!

We've made some progress in the craft room. Check it out.

"Individuality is the New Black"

Friends, I've been holding out on you. I have found my inspiration fabric for the craft room. It has arrived. And I love it.

Black and White Kleo by Alexander Henry. This is what Hancocks of Paducah says about the fabric: "Alexander Henry Fabrics. Fashionista Collection. For the kind of girl who likes burgers and Bergdorfs. Motorcycles & Manolos. Grab some of these fashion patterns and do your own thing. Remember, INDIVIDUALITY is the new black." That could really put a person off--and I've written catalog copy in my lifetime.

The dude promises that the craft room will be completed this summer. I'm not sure he realizes how much of the next few weekends we will spend tearing out 50 year-old yews and conditioning soil... Nevertheless, you will get a full pictorial to follow along with our progress.

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.