Breakfast for one… can take forever. Here is why:

Let’s just call it “school.” We’ll do math later.

Getting your internet fixed. That takes forever. Especially if you call them during the holidays.

Getting settled into a house… five months and counting, but making progress. I’ll even post some pictures soon.

Getting back into blogging. Keep your fingers crossed!

Getting my groove back. Hopefully this will help:

Finally spent the weekend setting up a workspace. Hopefully one that will be enjoyable to work in, instead of the cramped corner I had my stuff crammed into last month. This is actually in my daughters very large bedroom. It’s large in floorspace, but as you can see, not so large when it comes to head space. Her craft area is the desk on the far right of the picture and I am looking forward to working on stuff together!

Like most projects, setting up this space was actually the culmination of multiple projects including building a bookshelf divider, setting up the kids reading space (we call it “the library”), and moving my son’s bedroom. I wanted to get pictures, but their idea of clean, is not a picture I want to catch on film (or digitally, as the case may be.) One of these days, I’ll get pictures. But don’t hold your breath.

Okay, here is a weird one. This storage idea has been working great for the last eight months and I have to say that I was surprised how well it has worked out. The main problem was that my 11 year old crafty girl has a lot of great ideas, plenty of supplies, and not quite enough organizational motivation to manage it all. So her room was quite a disaster most of the time and when it was time to clean it up she was devastated and I was always frustrated. So I finally just emptied her room, sorted all her stuff, and devised a “library style” system of checking things out. Each craft type is stored in it’s own big paper grocery bag with handles (Trader Joe’s style) and hung on a hook in the laundry room.

When she wants to do something crafty, she comes and “checks out” one of the bags with her stuff. She then has to put it away before she can get something else out so that she will always still have room on her floor to throw her clothes! I have been really surprised by how well this library system has worked. I have also been pretty surprised that the paper bags have actually held up and not fallen apart. At this point I am figuring that I will have to replace a few bags in another six months and probably add a few as she has picked up a variety of new media to work with. The best part is that it’s free!

After posting my peanut butter jars in their new costumes, I thought maybe I should do a series on all the crazy stuff I use for storage around here. I like storage boxes of all shapes and sizes, but don’t like spending money on stuff like that if I can figure out a way to use what I have.

These are cardboard boxes the hubster brought home from work. They are all the same size and are even the perfect size for holding sewing patterns, although I also have them holding tape, glue, string, and fabric paint. I covered the fronts of the boxes with some art nouveau papers that I try to keep on hand for stuff like this. I did spend some money on paper that I like, but it is easy to make a little go along way on projects like this.

So, now I am wondering if any of you have storage ideas that you have posted that I haven’t seen yet… send me links!

The warm weather we have been having has had me outside cleaning up the yard, trying to get flower beds ready for planting, and potting some seedlings. So this is what most of my creative energy this week has been used for.

I have also noticed that the house is in desperate need of a top to bottom spring cleaning in every room. The problem is that this means that I keep putting off some of the regular cleaning thinking that I will be doing a thorough cleaning soon… but I haven’t gotten to it yet, and the grime is building up. Today, I decided to get things prepped by at least making sure things are relatively organized before I start some deep cleaning. I got distracted when I decided I really wanted my fabric in the studio and not stashed away in a closet. I have been keeping it in the back half of the Girls closet, and having it on hangers has been working for me for years. But even though we make the girl clean her room a few times a week, I still feel like I am wading through a landfill to get to that closet. And I can’t get to it after she has gone to bed.

And so, of course, moving that fabric became essential for getting the house cleaned up. After I got all my ribbons, trims, and bias binding organized I was amazed how much seeing what I have inspired my creativity and made it easy to find things when I needed them. I am hoping that being able to see my fabric will also help keep me from forgetting about all the lovely projects I have planned for this loot.