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I decided I’d had enough of not having room to do what I needed to do, and not being able to get to what I need to be able to get to without moving or tripping over stuff. I NEED a craft area – somewhere inspiring, where I can look at my materials and think “this color would go great with that color, I should make this” rather than “siiigh when would I be able to have the kitchen table (which is the food preparation table, the dining table, the school table, and the kids’ coloring/drawing/etc. table) to myself to get the sewing machine out and make that? I haven’t even mended that thing I should have mended months ago because it’s such a hassle.”
At some point I actually considered cramming all my kids into 1 room, or putting up a wall in one of their already tiny rooms to have a tiny craft room/office. But of course, neither of those would be good for the kids. So would I have to wait until one of them went off to college? Siiiigh.
Then I started looking up organization stuff, and organizing small craft areas stuff, and I was suddenly inspired!
I cleaned up my husband’s and my bedroom. I threw away a bunch of stuff from failed hobbies (xbox 360 parts that I planned to repair) or that when I thought about it realistically we weren’t going to use (the last pieces of old computers that we had already taken all the useful parts out of, CRT monitor that is just too huge to fit anywhere). I donated stuff that we planned to give away but hadn’t in months. I organized and condensed the stuff we did need to keep (for example I went from 5 boxes of wrapping paper to 1, and put them in the top of a closet instead of in the middle of the bedroom). Then I went to menards and bought a piece of wood on sale for $5, a pinboard (is that what those things are called? It’s the stuff like would be on a garage/workshop wall) for $2, and 2 packs of hooks for the pinboard for $1 each.
I put the piece of wood across furniture I already had and voila!
I actually have space to sew. I can get to my yarn without moving anything or leaning over anything. I can move the sewing machine a little bit and have space to write or scrapbook or balance my books.
I still have to figure out a way to replace that cardboard box (it’s filled with my husband’s flower craft stuff) and blue box. I’m thinking another wire shelf in that spot, and putting the clear cabinet-thing next to the file cabinet, then putting the flower stuff into the clear thing. But those wire shelves are so expensive now… I found the one I have for $8 at a place that doesn’t have them anymore, and now I can only find them for $25 – $50! And really I need 2 more, so that I can get rid of those boxes on top of the wire shelf. Siiiiigh.
I’m also considering taking the extra closet pole and shelf out of Chance’s room (because he has 2 and doesn’t really need the extra) and putting it above this. That would be acceptable, but I don’t know how that would affect the light to the desk. It shouldn’t, because of the angle the light is at, but I’ll have to think some more about that.
Anyway, I’m really happy that now I can actually get to stuff, and get stuff done, and that my materials are more inspiring to look at 🙂
And I forgot to mention what I did last weekend…
I handdyed some yarn with easter egg dye and it turned out amazing!
On Saturday I did try dying some with RIT in the washing machine, and it came out nice but not as amazing imo… and the skeins are a bit tangled and not pretty looking so I haven’t taken pics of those yet. The cotton I used to tie the skeins came out pretty amazing though, which surprised me because I didn’t think they would dye without salt. So maybe I’ll save the rest of the RIT for the buttload of white cotton I have and just use Koolaid for the rest of the wool I want to dye.