So much has changed in my crafting space since my last post on it! I'm so excited for it to be so much neater and easier to access everything! I've been managing to get "something" crafty done nearly every day!
Some broken jewelery of my mother's was repaired and packed up for our visit. Other broken pieces saved for the beads, clasps, bits of shiny chain, etc were broken down and categorized (un-savable/unusable pieces were thrown away). I was pleasantly surprised with how well my little one was about the whole endeavor. He actually helped me sort the larger beads by color and put them into their designated space. I only had to fish out 5 or 6 that wound up in the wrong place (thankfully they were not seed beads!) It is amazing how much space just doing that little bit cleared up. I also had to rearrange my beads and findings as I gave up my little cardboard box that held them in place so that my husband could ship out a trade-in. I keep odd beads in little segmented bins and all of my more bulk beads kept in mini ziplocks categorized by size and color then I categorize them by shade and group similar colors together in larger bags. Thankfully this is something I did way back when I was living at home so now I just keep up with it as something breaks or I find a great clearance find. Findings such as clasps are kept in larger containers (like the kind you may see embroidery floss kept in.) Thankfully they were re-purposed from my childhood beading days. I keep one for gold, one for silver and a smaller one for bronze colored findings. I also have a few small trays that I use for crystals and current projects.
I pulled out some less-Christmas-y Christmas cookie tins and used them to organize what little sewing supplies I have and used a mini fabric tote bag to keep all of my iron-on appliques in. A small vase holds my pin cushion to keep them as far from tiny hands as they can be. I'm considering putting a safety lock on my hutch just to be extra safe.
My sewing machine is actually set up (with its' embroidery unit hooked up) for the first time in my home! A mom from my new mom's group offered to help me learn to sew (with out even having met me before) and helped me get it all set up and actually gave me all of her embroidery thread to play with since she doesn't currently have an embroidery machine. My slight OCD of course made me go through it all unknot and trim the stray ends that had made a little mess and hook all the little ends into the spools. If nothing else when it's time to give it back to her it will be neater and easier for her to use! Of course I haven't really been able to get any sewing done as there's still a bunch of things I need to purchase to get started (stabilizer, new replacement needles, regular thread, a little thing called fabric... though I do have a sheet and some t-shirts ready to practice on.) We're getting ready to head to PA for a visit to my parents and my husband's sister's wedding. My mom told me she has a bunch of sewing and quilting supplies that she isn't using right now (and probably wont be able to use until she retires) that I can have for the time being. I'm really hoping that this is the beginning of me learning a skill that will help me as a mother and home maker and in addition help me create things to sell in my etsy shop. I still don't have anything listed (Knit for Japan is taking my crafting time for the most part until July.) and am trying to take some good pictures for my banner.
Scrapbooking supplies were re-organized and used! Here is where the... my crafting-space-isn't-too-neat-and-orderly-yet-but-I-don't-care-because-I'm-having-fun part comes in!
My Cricut saw its first bit of use in probably nearly a year. I not only actually had a place to use it but also trusted my little guy to listen when I told him to keep his fingers away from the blade and leave my little knife for removing pieces alone. I can't say that I've felt that way before and considering the machine is loud enough to wake him there hasn't been that many great opportunities to use it. I enjoy using my Cricut but I'm finding it to be rather useless when it comes to what I need to use it for.. however maybe replacing my mat and using some different types of paper will remedy my issues. I'm glad it was a gift (as were all the cartridges and accessories except one or two things) because it seems like you need a huge cartridge library to really be able to use it, which makes it kind of a money pit. Maybe once I get even more into my crafting I'll see if I can find some other people in the area that will be interested in trading cartridges back and forth. I don't have much scrapbooking plans for the next 2 months (other than hopefully ordering pictures.) I would however like to get my etsy shop started up and create tags for my products. I'm getting closer and closer to being ready. I want to make sure I have QUALITY items to sell and not just junk I threw together. I want my items to go through some test runs..(and am currently using about a gallon of a test run of liquid hand-soap that was kind of a flop due to the poor quality hotel soap I used to make it... my liquid soaps will be vegetable based and well.. not icky! :-) )
I was disappointed to find out that not only had one of my good scrapbooking glue sticks had dried out completely having never been used (here's a big hint that I don't do enough crafting!!!) but my other glue sticks aren't nearly sticky enough to use on card stock. Guess it's time to add them to my little one's crafting bins... yes.. my two year old has crafting supplies.. We do lots of creating in this home! Most of our supplies are things like stringing beads, pipe-cleaners, markers, crayons, play-doh (until it runs out and we make home-made!) and other things that can be used over and over but we also do some paper crafting for family cards. I *think* he's ready to use a glue stick.. my apartment complex's carpeting is not ready for him to use liquidy white glue yet!
In other news we have new cell phones with crisp, clear cameras! Some outages and new towers sent our old phones for a loop and they started to not work properly. We begrudgingly decided it was time to replace our phones as they were nearly as old as our relationship. However, when we logged in to see if we qualified for any discounts we found out that we were able to replace BOTH of our phones for FREE!! Whew!! Nice new phones with good cameras, all covered with nice shiny paint and screens that stay in! We blocked all the expense features but even with out any extra money we can access Wifi in our home! AAAWWWWEEESOME! Maybe I'll be able to blog a little more often now since I wont have to wait for the computer :-)
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