Craft Room Furniture! This is Finally Happening!

Hello! It's been a while since I've blogged. I'm afraid to look at how long. If you were reading my blog before, I'm sure you thought it was dead. I meant to keep blogging. I never meant to stop. But, I got very busy trying to be Utah's sole source of actresses between the ages if 17-35. I think I was in every community production In Utah County in the last year. If I wasn't, I saw it or knew someone in it. I got sucked into the vortex of community theater and almost the only crafting I did was sewing my costumes for productions. 

Recently, I was Ms. TeaVee in Willy Wonka. Using a mash up of vintage patterns, I made this dress: 

Anyway, I'm getting distracted. What I really came to post about is this disaster: 

Yep, my craft room. Sad, isn't it? And, this is after cleaning up for a while (a long, long while--and paying one of my kids $10 to help me). A huge part of it is that I have no workspace, so stuff ends up everywhere when I'm working. (Also, I have too much stuff, but I'm pretending that isn't a problem.)

Well, my friends, that is about to change! I recently came into a very cool couch and about $100. I want the couch to fit in this room so people can hang out with me while I craft, and the $100 is perfect for building a huge desk.

Last Saturday, David and I went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore looking for kitchen cabinets to use to make this desk. We got a big fat zero, and they were more expensive than I was hoping. I could have cobbled something together, but it would have eaten my entire budget and nothing would have matched. Nothing would have matched! It was not working for me. So, on the way home I got the bright idea to look on KSL (basically the Craig's List of Utah--no idea why everyone posts there, but we do).

And there it was. Some guy remodeled four matching kitchens and was selling off the cabinets for $10 a piece. And he was home when we called! And didn't sound too eccentric! We were wrong about that last part, but that's okay. 

So, we go to this guy's house (which is upgraded in every possible way--the doorbell chime lasted longer than Beethoven's Symphony No. 9); he makes us remove our shoes to walk across the hardwood floors. Then we ride his elevator (yes, elevator) down to the walkout basement four car garage where he has the kitchen cabinets. We pick out six of them, and pay the guy. We was a perfectly nice normal guy. I'm not sure why he had an elevator, but I'll go with it. Our daughter was with us, and she thought it was cool. 

So, here they are, my new cabinets. 

The dude who sold them to us told us there was nothing wrong with them; that they were just outdated. Dude might have an elevator, but he was wrong about that. They are stinky--like old apartment smell--and greasy and damaged in spots. The hinges have plastic pieces that were breaking apart. There is some nasty gunky on one of the shelves that I am not even going to attempt to clean off. That thing is just getting replaced.

However, they are perfect for what I want them to do. More on that soon. Very, very soon. 

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Dealing with Those Pesky Sewing Patterns: Organizing Solution

This is Part 4 of my How I Organized My Entire House for $0.00 (Really!) series.
Part 1 (Intro) is here.
Part 2 (Simple Rules to Create Organization that Sustains Itself Plus Master Bath Organization) is here.
Part 3 (Inexpensive Organizing) is here.

Did you think I abandoned my organizing project? Oh no, I have not. I have only stared into the abyss that is my craft room, and it is not a short thing. It is a long, multi-part thing.

I started with my sewing patterns, which is what this post is about. I recently started crafting for a great company again, you know, on a professional basis, and that means lots of time in the craft room. And that place is scary. We don't have a garage, so storage is a rare and precious commodity at our house. Stuff that has no where to go ends up in the craft room. If a kid comes to me to ask where something goes, it's usually phrased this way, "Where does this go? The craft room?"

David has started calling it "the junk drawer." I know another crafter who calls hers "the room of requirement."

I have slowly started to change this. It was a major milestone when I could reach the closet--which by the way, is right next to the door.

I've also started changing my habits. I don't craft the same way I used to. I put things away as I go. It's a novel concept, I know, and more about how I made it easier to do later, but it does make my brain more clear. I spend a lot less time looking for the scissors (or other craft tool) that are somewhere on my table and clean-up afterward is so much easier.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the patterns.

I picked up a huge box of retro patterns at a garage sale a few Saturdays ago, and nearly doubled my pattern collection in one go. I desperately needed a way to look at what I had and also find what I had.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Inexpensive Organizing

This is Part 3 of my How I Organized My Entire House for $0.00 (Really!) series.
Part 1 (Intro) is here.
Part 2 (Simple Rules to Create Organization that Sustains Itself Plus Master Bath Organization) is here.

Some things I've learned for organizing on the cheap:

1. Organizing is about your life, not about how much money you spend (obvious, but it took me a little while to learn. I love pretty, fresh school supplies, um, I think I've mentioned my love of pretty containers, I love pretty interior design--all that generally costs money--even though I try to manage to spend as little money as possible). I used to want it to be pretty and perfect or not at all. It doesn't work that way. It can be pretty later. Right now, it just needs to be organized. In fact, it's better to see if what you come up with works, then buy whatever pretty things to put it in. That way you're not investing a money in a system that won't work for you in the long run anyway.
2. Don't get caught up trying to create the perfect system. Very related to #1. Trying to make the perfect system generally has the effect of making me want to spend $. No system is perfect, but there are systems that work. Like I've said before, if you see a problem, think about how to fix it. Sometimes it's as easy as providing a trash can in the right spot, grouping the right things together, or moving something so that you have easier access. And sometimes it's just accepting that you have to change your habits (hard!).
3. Get rid of stuff. Less to organize! I recently made a goal to get rid of 100 things. This is something I plan to do regularly. Along with that, don't buy new things. I recently read that if you are contemplating buying a (non-perishable) item, put it on a list and wait a designated period of time: two weeks, a month, whatever. If at the end of that time, you still want/need it, buy it.* I find delayed gratification so hard, but it does help a lot with clutter.
4. Use "trash" to organize.** Food comes in great containers. If all you have are oatmeal containers, cardboard boxes from cereal boxes, fruit snacks, peanut butter jars, strawberry baskets, mayonnaise jars, peanut containers, empty spice jars, even boxes of soda, then use those. There are lots of ways to dress them up, if you want.*** Baby wipe containers are also quite amazing--ask friends if you don't buy wipes yourself. I've seen great things done with paper towel rolls--and toilet paper rolls, but that grosses some people out.
5. Use what you have already.**** You've probably bought baskets or plastic containers already. As you organize, you'll find you get rid of things (see #3) or find new systems. A lot of shifting will occur and you can reuse those old containers.
6. To help with costs, go second-hand. Thrift stores and garage sales can be great for finding containers (the flower vase in the picture came from a garage sale). Canning jars are often easy to find and make pretty good storage containers; also, muffin tins. Sites like Craig's list can be great sources for free cardboard boxes people are looking to ditch after they move. This can work great for some things (the free section even has furniture if you are looking for bigger storage solutions--it doesn't have to be pretty--think basement or garage and hide it--and even if it's ugly for a while, if it's free, you won't feel like you wasted money by buying a cheap temporary option). Even cups or bowls you don't use much can make great storage containers.
7. Hit up your friends. Trade around. Find an organizing buddy and see if you might have things they can you use and vice versa. When I told my friend Natalie about my project, she said she might have some things I could use--funnily enough, I just realized she gave me those jars that appear in the picture above! 
8. Another cheap source is the dollar store or bargain stores (although I think this can add up quickly if you're not careful and sometimes you don't get much for your money. Caution.)
9. Make your own storage.***** There are great tutorials out there for sewing your own fabric boxes, and if you use fabric you already have on hand, it doesn't have to be too much out of pocket. Or use the $4 bed sheets from Walmart for the fabric to get a more uniform look. I've even seen sturdy baskets woven out of paper.
10. Make your own cleaning supplies. This isn't really about organization, but it will save you tons of money, and when things are clean, you want to keep them organized. There are a few products that I really love that I still buy, but for tons of things, I make my own. There are dozen of recipes out there, and I will probably do a post on my favorites at some point.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Medicine and Cleaning Cabinet Organization

This is Part 3 of my How I Organized My Entire House for $0.00 (Really!) series.
Part 1 (Intro) is here.
Part 2 (Simple Rules to Create Organization that Sustains Itself Plus Master Bath Organization) is here.

It occurred to me that this should be my next project when I was sick on last Monday. Super sick. I slept almost the entire day on Sunday (I was awake for like five hours the entire day) and on Monday it felt like my bones are trying to escape from my body. Fun times. Except, I couldn't find the thermometer. Are you surprised, looking at this photo?


Before:

 After:

Yeah, I wasn't either. The shelf on the top is our medicines and the bottom has some cleaning supplies and the sunscreen/hand sanitizer/light bulb type stuff. The medicine is actually kind of organized, but it ended up tossed all in there, and some of it was out because that is is the stuff we use the most.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Simple Rules to Create Organization that Sustains Itself Plus Master Bath Organization

This is Part 2 of my How I Organized My Entire House for $0.00 (Really!) series. Part 1 (Intro) is here.

I want to start off this series by giving myself a set of rules (more like guidelines) to follow. It's easy to get carried away and easy to lose sight of your goals, so this will help keep me on-track.

1. Think about how you live your life. It doesn't make sense to have a system that doesn't work with how you live. Have the things you use together grouped together, not always like with like*. You usually use tape and scissors and wrapping paper together. Have them together. You usually use toothpaste and toothbrushes together (if I'm making any weird assumptions here, feel free to educate me! :) )--make it so you only open one drawer or one cabinet to get them. Think efficiency.
2. Have the things you use the most in easiest reach. The stuff you use less can be harder to get to. Make things easier on yourself.
3. Along with number 2, have the things where you use them, or put them where you are more likely to use them.** Don't get too caught up in where things are "supposed" to go. Put them where they work for you.
4. Make things easy to put away. If they aren't (and you are like me), they won't get put away.
5. Make it simple. Don't go overboard labeling stuff. Don't make a tiny compartment for everything. Have a place for everything, but there's no need to make it more complicated than it needs to be. If you want. Simple systems are the most self-perpetuating.***
6. Reevaluate. Organize, then go back a week later and see if it's working. If not, tweak. Just because you organized it one way doesn't mean it has to stay that way. And it's easier to rework it when it's still somewhat organized than when it's completely disorganized because the system didn't work with the way you live.
7. Get rid of stuff you don't use. I've heard if you haven't used it in the last year, get rid of it. But, I think that's unrealistic. I have things I haven't used in the last year that I want to keep and it would tick me off to replace. But, there is a lot of good in honestly evaluating if you are going to use it. Are you holding onto something because of guilt? Because of what it represents?**** When getting rid of stuff, the biggest thing is to be honest with yourself.
8. Educate your family on your new system, but don't overwhelm them. Make it fun. Get their input if it affects them (I've found it works a lot better if ideas come from everyone, instead of my trying to impose a top down approach).
9. It doesn't have to be perfect. It won't be perfect. What you organize now will probably have to be organized again at some point. Hopefully a long, long time from now. But, your life will change. Your needs will change. Don't get caught up in perfectionism or get overwhelmed. One little piece at a time.

*For example, put a pair of scissors in the places where you need them the most--not all the scissors in the same spot. Then the scissors will be where you need them, they won't travel all around the house, end up in tossed random drawers and never make it back to the scissor drawer and then you can't find a pair when you need them. For example, I have a pair of scissors in my bedside table, so does David, a pair in the kitchen for opening food packages, a pair in the office, a pair in the wrapping paper box, a pair in the kids' art box, and then the specialty scissors where they go--do not touch my sewing scissors please

**I have a topical acne medication I need to use every day, but not within 30 minutes before or after showering. When it was in the bathroom, I didn't use it regularly. But, put it by my laptop, and suddenly I remembered to use it twice a day like I am supposed to.

***It's my experience that I will put something box in a drawer, but not necessarily a certain spot in that box in drawer. For example, if I have a box for often-used medicines: works great! If I have a certain spot for Tylenol in the box, it doesn't get put there every time by everyone and I get frustrated. It doesn't work across everything (forks have a certain spot, dang it!), but it's a generally good rule of thumb.

****Sometimes that's ok--you may pry my great-grandma's quilts out of my bloody fingers--but sometimes it means you need to let go of that to get rid of it. I kept some kitchen gadgets for a long time, because if I had kitchen gadgets, then surely it meant that someday I was going to be fabulous and motivated to cook all the time, right? And, it would make life easy, and I would transform into super chef-type "good mom" person. I was invested in seeing myself as "person with cool kitchen gadgets" and invested in thinking that a good mom cooks every night. Once I let go of that--good moms don't have to cook every night--then I could get rid of the clutter that wasn't helping my life. Or my cooking.

Do you all have any other tips? I'd love to hear what has and hasn't worked for you! 

(Also, I need to take my own advice! I am just horrible at putting things away and not always good at setting up things that work for me, but that's the point--right? To take time to set this stuff up; to stop and think about it.)

Now, onto the bathroom!

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

How I Organized My Entire House for Zero Dollars (Really!)

Maybe it's the kids going back to school, maybe it's just because I've reached my breaking point, or maybe it's because of no good reason, but the disorganization in my house has got to grow up and leave already. I am tired of it. I'm tired of not being able to find things. I'm tired of sighing when I see certain areas of my house. I'm just fed up.

When I've tried to organize my house before, it's gone like this (this may sound familiar to you--perhaps you have felt similarly?): I am motivated. I see beautiful pictures of organized spaces on Pinterest! Oooooo, so pretty. Wow, I want my house to look like that! I need containers! I need all the pretty containers! Must buy containers now! I need all the things! Wait, I have no money for containers! Sad face. I organize some things halfheartedly, maybe buy a few little pretty containers (I actually have about five times as many jars now, see picture above), but my money seems to have other priorities (new water heaters, piano lessons, um, thrift stores), and I think, sheesh, if I just had pretty containers, it would stay all pretty and organized and birds would sing outside my windows all day long and my children would never complain about doing their chores or putting away their toys and I would be soooo motivated to keep it nice. While it might be true that pretty spaces and pretty containers might keep me slightly more motivated, the problem is me.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Unfinished Craft Project--Finished! 1 of One Hundred Thousand Six Hundred Three

I have organized my poor (it ends up being the junk dumping room, since we don't have a garage) craft room  so many times since we moved in a year ago.

This is what the closet looks like when it's organized (if the closet is put away, the rest of the room does ok). Which is never. Because to find anything, I have to take down all those stacked boxes. And you can guess how often then make it back up into a stack (hint: never).

And it occurs to me that Flylady is right and that you can't organize clutter (or in my case, excessive amounts of craft crap). I tried to get rid of some of it, but my brain kept thinking up uses for it. Stupid brain.

Anyway, I pulled out all my unfinished projects. Every single one. Well, not counting scrapbook pages. I'm trying to motivate myself here. Not send myself to craft place-where-there-is-fire-and-brimstone-and-unfinished-scrapbook-pages-scream-at-you-all-day-inducing-high-levels-of-guilt. I don't mind the scrapbooking I haven't done--I never intended to scrapbook every photo I ever took. It's the scrapbook pages I've started and never finished that get to me. But that's another post for another day.

Anyway, I did manage to get rid of a few projects that I no longer wish to complete, but here is the list of projects I still want to complete. These are strictly projects I've started, not projects I want to start. That list is significantly longer. Some of these are biiiiiiig projects.

Spray paint frames (I'll show you these soon)
Tree tote bag (look below for pictures)
Pettycoat skirt (also coming soon!)
Ampersand (this was my last post)
White floaty scarf
Pink shirt refashion
Wrap around vest refashion
Crochet fingerless gloves
Repair pink and grey hair flower
Hexagon quilt (Somehow, I stopped working on this one)
Thanksgiving wall hanging
Rehang crochet butterfly in kitchen (See the butterfly almost the bottom left-hand corner? My kids keep knocking off the wall and breaking the glass--need to put acrylic in it or something)
Garden quilt
Grandkid silhouettes
Gold sweater
Yellow flower/pink flower/pink felted flower/purple headband/pink cuff
Yellow rosette pillow
Curtains (They need to be a tiny bit longer)
Green knitted buckets
Painted linen skirt
Braided rug (I got sidetracked on this project too)
Patches on jeans
Mom's messenger bag
Santa Claus wall hanging
Box purse
Grandma Jensen quilt--blues and purples
Crochet beaded bag
Let out Citrus halter (Aubrey never wore this much and it has some room to let it out--she could wear it as a top now)
Sew pom pom on poncho
Butterfly embroidery
Blue and brown hoodie
Wool scarf
Cross stitch Noah's Ark
Blue and Pink diamond quilt
Orange and green diamond quilt
Mom's Christmas present albums
Bag embroidery

Hummm, maybe it just seems much bigger in my mind? Because that list is looking quite do-able right now. I'm hoping I can have most of these done by the end of the summer. Maybe?

Crossed off items are ones I've already finished!

Speaking of finished, here's one I finished yesterday!

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Tutorial: Ampersand for a Shelf

A little while back, I bought a K and D from Hobby Lobby to put on my picture ledges once they were built. The plan was to get an ampersand to put between them. Awww, too adorable, right? Kara and David=forever. But, I couldn't find one I liked. I'm sort of a font snob. Ok, not sort of. I am. Like nearly every other female craft blogger, I started a Pinterest account, and there are a lot of snobby font things pinned to my funny board. Most of them make fun of Comic Sans. Poor Comic Sans. If only people wouldn't put it where it has no business being! Then Comic Sans wouldn't be the ugly dog of the font world.

Anyway, I pondered on this problem for several months. I could have cut my own ampersand out of wood with my mom's scroll saw, but it's about 20 minutes away, and that's kind of annoying to get exactly right. I've cut out complicated things with a scroll saw before (see the cake topper here), so I could do it, I was just being moody about it.

Then it hit me. A way in which I didn't have to drive round trip 40 minutes and get out the scroll saw from the caverns of my parents' garage. And this is that tutorial.

Supplies needed:
Scrap cardstock (or pretty cardstock in pretty colors)
Cricut machine or Silhouette machine or traditional die cut machine--I used a Cricut and Plantin Schoolbook cartridge
Mod podge
Sandpaper or rotatory tool
Wood filler
Spray Primer
Spray Paint

Step 1: Cut out a bunch of shapes of the same size. I didn't care about color, because I knew I was going to paint mine later. If you don't want to paint, you can use pretty colors in the same shades or coordinating shades for very pretty effects, or use all the same colors.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Massive Bookcases=Massive Post

David and I are bibliophiles. I don't read as many books as I used to now that I discovered the joys of the internet and blogs, but I still read fairly voraciously. If I get on a reading kick, reading material becomes scarce quickly. I can't do a thing (except eat bags of M&Ms one M&M at a time) until I've finished reading every book in the vicinity. Usually I get my reading material from the library, but we like to buy our favorites to have on hand for multiple readings (I mean, who doesn't, really?). I also have a lot of my favorites from childhood still around. I'm hoping the kids will start reading them at some point. So far, I've only convinced Xander to read Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.

Our books have been lugged around in boxes from apartment to apartment. We have never owned enough bookcases to have them out properly. For a lot of the time, they've lived under the bed or our in the garage in plastic bins. This is less than ideal. I cannot tell you how many times I've been in the mood for a certain book and not been able to find it.

Anyway, that's the set up for the need for some massive bookcases. When we moved in, we mounted our flatscreen on this wall downstairs, planning to build a huge entertainment center around it.

Also, this is a blank wall (more on that in a minute). It's only tangentially related to the bookcases, but since what we did on it showed up in the photos, I'm showing it to you. I can't believe how much taller Griffin is now, compared to last year. He's the blur slightly to the right.

Well, that TV didn't exactly stay there. David won a TV at work (!!!), so the wall-mounted TV moved up to our bedroom, and the new TV was moved in. Good thing we didn't start building the entertainment center yet, because I'm not sure we would have planned for a TV quite as . . . gargantuan. I feel like I need to install velvet curtains and a popcorn maker to help it feel at home. You'll see what I mean in a minute.

David and I started building the bookcases. David really did most of the work. I helped, but I was mostly grunt labor. I maybe got in the way more than I helped. We built them out of MDF and plywood. We actually got them built with MDF shelves, but they were strong enough and once we put books on them, they started to bow, so it was back to knocking out the shelves and putting in stronger ones. But, luckily, we found out before we painted the second one.

It took a long time. About four hours to build the first one, then about an hour to build the second one, then about three hours to paint the first one, then about three hours to fix our shelf mistake, then about four more hours of painting. You get the picture.

We also ran into a problem of an electrical outlet. The shelves are 12" deep, but would have covered one electrical outlet about half way. Not good. So, we knocked a hole in the wall and moved it over. Not exactly a small job. At this point, I was deeply worried we were getting into a Give a Mouse a Cookie situation. The type where you end up with pink walls and a new tile floor with radiant heat and you wonder how you got there. We managed to stop though. After a little bit.

However, while we were patching that, we figured we might as well patch the other holes that happened to be in the room. It turned out to be quite a lot, actually.

1. The hole for the electrical outlet.
2. The hole we knocked in the other side of the wall while moving the electrical outlet
3. A hole cut at the top of the wall that was there when we moved in--for some work that was done--who knows what
4. A slight dent we made while moving in while getting the couch down the stairs
5. Someone got over-zealous when putting in an electrical outlet and cut the whole too big (not the one in the above pictures, someone who I don't know who did this before we moved in)
6. Our children put a slight dent in the wall (this is not surprising. It's actually surprising that of the six patches, only one was caused by our offspring).

That was a lot of patching to do. Really, the rest of our house does not resemble Swiss cheese. It was odd to look around and see just how many spots needed to be patched.

Then, we were able to put the bookcases into place. We realized that we had not built them quite high enough to have the gap between the wall and the ceiling be able to be bridged by the crown molding we plan to put up. So, we had to figure out a solution to that problem. But, otherwise! YAY! And other words which I will not say on this blog, because they involve curse words of joy.

That picture makes me laugh though, because the large TV just throws the scale all off. Those bookcases are over three feet wide. The TV is sitting on an old computer desk. That's a nightstand underneath the computer desk. Yet, I still feel like my eyes are telling me that's a small wall. It gets bigger once you put books on it.

We eventually settled on a trim. Here's a close up. It will be covered a lot by the crown molding, but we planned on that. It will give us something to attach the molding to.

Through the magic of the internet, you get to skip the six or seven hours I spent categorizing, organizing and cataloging books! I made a spread sheet with every single book we owned! Then I sorted them by genre, making very tall stacks! Tripping hazards for more than two days! I didn't actually put them up on the shelves in alphabetical order though. Even I have my limits.

The only thing is, we are missing a box of books. I'm almost certain it is not in our house. We looked pretty thoroughly at my parents' house (our last residence). It's a box that was probably books that we hanging out in our master bedroom. It had my Anne of Green Gables series in it, a few books from my childhood I was trying to convince the boys to read, a Chelsea Handler book (verdict still out on whether or not I liked that one), one of the Borne Identity books in it. Probably quite a few more that my brain has filed away somewhere. I hope that box didn't get donated. I WANT THAT BOX. I'm mostly concerned about my Anne of Green Gables series. My aunt LuAnn gave the series to me when I was nine or ten and I opened it on Christmas Eve and read about most of the first book that night. It will be sad if I can't find that series--it has sentimental value.

Anyway, here are the finished bookcases in all their glory.

A close up of some of the decorated shelves. These will probably evolve some more.

That blank wall I showed you earlier? We actually did this project months ago, but we put up a map and framed it with trim. It's an idea floating around blogland that I saw and loved. When we first talked about buying a house, we ordered this map. It was the first thing we bought specifically for our first house. Cue cute awwing noises. (We might have hung it a little high, but. . . with all the staples and nails in that thing--it's staying.)

And here are some more views of the room. Because I always want more views of the room when people do huge projects like this. These views make the room look huge--wide angle lenses do that. It's pretty big, but probably not as big as it looks here.

And one of my couch cushions looks oddly purple. The color balance on these photos was giving me fits. Oh, and we are not planning on leaving the desk and the night stand as our TV's home. We are planning on building a media cabinet to go between the two bookcases and a bridge along the top. But, it works for now. And I have an awesome photo arrangement planned for under that airplane. One thing at a time. . .

And that concludes this massive post about massive bookcases that I alluded to in this post.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Where Are the X-Box and DVD Player?

One of the reservations I had about putting a TV in our bedroom was that it usually comes with a lot of accoutrements. Accoutrements that usually have little lights that glow and clutter up the area about the TV. The above photo is missing the little lights and clutter. So, where did we put all that clutter?

Well, this is not my idea. My friend, Natalie, from Get Scatty, had this idea for her own house, but she ended up not using it.

We hid it in the top drawer of one of the dressers. First, we reinforced the particle board of the dresser with a board behind drawer supports/slat/trim between the drawers (whatever that part is called), because it wasn't exactly strong. We used a long piano hinge that turned out to be the exact correct length. I'm planning on painting it to match, but it's still fairly unobtrusive. I was hoping we could hide it, but with the way the drawer is situated, it didn't work.

Then David put in a sliding drawer and magnet closure. The cords go up through a hole in the back of the dresser.

I always think these are going to be quick projects, but this took a good part of a Saturday. David did most of the work, although I helped. It's so worth it though and the cool part is that the X-Box controls work through the drawer, so we don't even have to leave it down! You can even turn it on without flipping it down. We use the X-Box as a DVD player and watch Netflix instantly through it, so that is very convenient.

Even though I had to give up a drawer, it's so worth it for the clean surface of the top of the dresser.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Tutorial: Camping Supplies Box

Ug, what a boring name for something I'm so excited about!

Last year, we went camping right before school started. I thought I blogged about it, but nope. Well, we went to place called Currant Creek. This was an amazing campground. Just beautiful. Back when my dad worked for the Forest Service as a landscape architect, he designed this campground and the trails around it. It was one of the best campgrounds we've ever camped at. It was fun to walk the trail with my dad and most of the grandkids, particularly, because he had written all the signs along with way.

Aubriana and Daddy hanging out in the hammock at Currant Creek. Our site was surrounded by Aspens and firs. Just beautiful!

Anyway, it was such a nice trip, only marred by our lack of preparedness. We forgot trash bags. We forgot various cooking items. We forgot our own toilet paper. We forgot firewood. I think we forgot so many things that I've forgotten all we forgot. It was a bit of a mess. Currant Creek is not close to anything, so we couldn't just drive a bit and pick up what we forgot. For a long time, I've been meaning to make a box that had a lot of the things you need to camp already packed in it so we could just grab it and go. While we're not likely to forget the tent, we sometimes forget trash bags, matches, stake mallets and the like.

I sat down and made a huge list with everything I could think of. Be aware that this list is just stuff I want to keep in my box all the time, so it doesn't include large things like tents, tarps or camp chairs that are too big to fit in my box or little things like toiletry items we would normally bring along anyway.

Supplies:
Print Out of the List
Plastic Protector Sleeve
Tape
Items from the List
Large Plastic Tub

Step One:
Print out list. Cross off anything you don't think you'll use and add things I might have forgotten or things that specific to the way you camp. Mark which supplies you already have extras of that can go in the box. Start buying/gathering supplies. I shopped the thrift store and the dollar store for most of my items, and spent about $70, but I still have a few things to get (it would be easy to spend more, so don't hate me if it's more than that, particularly if you want to buy all new). An easier way might be to pick up a few things at a time.

Click to Download PDF List

Step Two:
Wash any used items. Dry. Group like things together. Find/purchase a large plastic tub to put all your stuff in.

Step Three:
As you put things into your box, cross them off your list.

Step Four:
Glue the page protector to the bottom of your lid. Let dry over night. Tuck your list inside for easy reference.

Step Five:
Load up and go! You might want to be a bit more organized than I was (I think I gave up and started just tossing things in there, must work on my ability to be organized).

Gah, that picture is so boring. Really, it's going to be some awesome to have everything I need to keep our camp running. Maybe what it needs is a rainbow, puppies and a unicorn?

Linking Up Here:

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

We Are Moving, Baby!

I am so thrilled to be living above ground for the first time since Griffin was born (that's 4.5 years ago, people!). We closed on Tuesday and I'm busy moving this week. Since we started looking at house 9 months ago, this is probably the biggest UFO in my life and how cool is it that's it's going to create endless UFO for me in the future.
Anyway, I didn't get to do my project progress like I usually do, but here's some pretty photos of the blossoms in our back yard from the apple and cherry trees.

I'm in love! I love spring! More pictures to come, promise.
PS I finished my jar collection before we moved and took a picture. I totally *heart* them! Can't wait to set it all up in my new room.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project Progress: Crafty Organization Week 7

While I was organizing this week, I found another box of letter stickers. I thought I had some more somewhere, and yep, here they are. Little stinkers. It's funny, because I tend to use my Cricut to cut out titles for my layouts, but no more. I need to use up some of these things. The other bad thing about letter stickers is that you can never throw them away (at least, I have a hard time doing it), but when is it going to work out that you magically used every single letter on the sheet? I'm guessing I need to start doing some art projects to use up those sheets that don't have any vowels left.

Yep, that is the box I didn't remember I had:

A little sorting later, and I have two boxes of very organized stickers and rub ons, plus other assorted alphabets and shaped stickers.

I also started in on my sewing supplies. Sewing supplies are easy compared to scrapbooking supplies, because you really don't have that many categories.

Yarn is even easier (for me at least). I have three cardboard boxes of yarn, and there are only cotton, wool, acrylics (yuck, why am I keeping these??), and fancy blends (I don't have that many. Yet).

Now, this isn't anywhere where I'd like it to be when I have a functioning craft room, but everything is grouped together. All like is with like. I found all the bags of fabric I had tucked around here and there and put them all together. All the interfacing is together. All the yarn is together. All the purse making supplies are together. All the beading stuff is together. All the tools are together. All the various and assorted scrapbooking do-dads are together. In short, everything is easy to find and ready for moving.

Phew. I think I am done.

Even if it's not all the way done and all pretty like I want, I think it's a huge improvement from this:

to this:

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.