Mail and Key Rack.

We have a problem with flat surfaces in our house. They seem to be a magnet for EVERYTHING. The built in cabinet and shelving unit that's in our living room, right by the front door is especially problematic. Mail, photos, ads, library books, pens, wallets, phone, receipts, cash-you name it, it ends up there. As part of our major decluttering effort that we've been undertaking since the N-boy arrived home we've been trying to clear it off and make it look nicer.

The first step was to clear off the shelves of all the random and haphazardly piled books. But we still had to deal with the problem of mail, receipts and keys. We spent some time looking around on Etsy and Pinterest to get some ideas (domesticity at it's finest here people) figured out a rough idea of what we wanted. 

Then, during my festive evening out with Andy, I found this little guy in the dollar spot. 

The N-boy loved it. So from there we headed out to Meijer, Target and finally Michael's to see if we could put something together. We ended with up a picture frame, chalkboard paint, three drawer pulls and this cute little wooden conversation bubble.

A little spray paint and glue and we got here. 

Here's the final product! We're super happy with how it turned out and so far it seems to be working great. Each day when I come home and hang up my keys there's a new message waiting for me from the N-boy, and sometimes the owl's eyes move to look somewhere else!

Next up... we continue to work on the entry way. We're looking to better corral our sunglasses, coats and bags.

Do you have any creative ideas to organize your entry way? 

Weekend Recap-Things we didn't buy.

The N-boy and I had a pretty good weekend, with some business but also some time to hang out and get things done around the house.

We started the weekend with date night on Friday, going to see Brave at the theater.

Saturday we did a lot of running around doing errands and on the hunt for some DIY project idea items. We're working on going through some of the cluttered areas of our house and finding better ways to store things. One of the areas we wanted to work on is the front coat closet, where we also store shoes, hats, scarves, and bags. Unfortunately we didn't find anything to help with that project, but we did find quite a few things we didn't buy even though they would have been highly festive.

Our best didn't buy finds were at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. 

What I wanted: a thread and zipper rack from Walmart. 

This definitely got me the eye roll from the N-boy. 

What the N-boy wanted: an old school sign about carpal tunnel. 

Admittedly, he did want to make it say something else, but still. 

Sunday we spent a relaxing day at home sorting through various areas in the house. We worked in the front closet, the N-boy's office and my office. We also decided to do a major purge of our paper files (which were in great disarray) and shredded a ton of paper. We also decided to start scanning and then shredding the bills that come in after they're paid to avoid getting into this situation about. This whole purge and shred adventure was actually quite calming once we got into it, although a little stressful and emotional at times. 

What was the best part of your weekend?

Calendars and lists and schedules oh my!

A few weeks ago I was inspired by Cassie over at Back To Her Roots when she shared how she uses a cute little homemade PAPER calendar to help keep her on track for some of her fitness goals and Google Calendar to (micro)manage her day to day tasks. (I should note here that I've never met her, and hope she doesn't mind that I've taken her system and run with it.) Color Coding? Cute little pictures? Technology? How could I NOT be inspired and awed by her system. Especially since my motto is clearly

The N-Boy and I were already using Google Calendar, and I even had it set up to sync to my work calendar and Audrey the iphone. But one of my frustrations had been the lack of ability to color code different types of events. Cassie's solution to simply create different calendars for each category of event was brilliant! Not only is each category color coded, but I can also show or hide each calendar as I wish, so that if I only want to look at my workout schedule, I can!

It's still a work in progress, but I'm starting to feel a lot more organized and able to find a balance between all of the things I want to accomplish each day.

My other struggle lately has been avoiding the inclination to plop down in front of the TV or computer when I get home from work, so that the next thing I know it's past my bedtime, lunch isn't packed, dishes aren't done, and I haven't done anything except for make my way through four episodes of Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior on Netflix. [You'll be pleased to know that I've now finished the first season and have moved on to rewatching Dollhouse.]

I really liked Cassie's idea of also using a paper calendar where accomplishments can be physically checked off. So I used a blank printed calendar (from a app on my printer) and chose eight categories of things that I want to get done each day:

• Get up with my alarm
• Exercise (yoga, run, walk)
• Read at least 30 minutes
• Sew or quilt
• Do some kind of writing, blogging, or engaging in Social Media <---newest obsession! 
• Work on something for our Etsy shop, Prairie Sewn Companion
• Do Kelly's Daily Mission
• And Shine my Sink before I go to bed

Most of these tings take only a few minutes, and the ones that take longer are things that I genuinely WANT to do, but sometimes have a hard time getting the momentum to start. Enter-the happy chart-because sometimes grownups need gold stars, too.

So it's only day four, but so far so good. Now I just need ideas for what I get as a prize when I fill up my chart at the end of the week. Yes, this reminds me of a three year old earning stars for good behavior, but I'm ok with that.

So tell me, what should my prize at the end of the week be? 

Studio Space-Fabric Storage

I think this is the time of year when lots of people look at spaces in their homes and get the urge to reorganize. For me, that overwhelming desire to go out and acquire coordinating boxes and new organization system always seems to hit home the hardest in my studio. When my studio is clutter and messy, I have NO desire to go in there and work on projects. This is compounded by feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of UFOs (Unfinished Fabric Objects) and WIPs (Works in Progress) that I have sitting up there.

When the parentals were here over Christmas, we stopped at Ikea after I took the N-Boy to the airport for his flight back to Siberia. I wish I could live in one of the little displays at Ikea. Seriously. I could spend hours there. I have on occasion, been there so long I have to eat multiple meals. And when the Momcat and I are together...well I wish I'd gotten pictures but Daddo would just take his kindle, find a nice couch or chair in one of the displays and wait for us. When we'd catch up, he'd just go on ahead a few and do it again. He knows what this process is like when the two of us get together. I think the N-boy was VERY happy to be on an international flight during this latest Ikea excursion.

And again I digress.

ANYWAY one of the items I was looking for at Ikea was some kind of cupboard or storage unit to store my fabric. During our annual pilgrimage to the American Quilter's  Society Paducah Show a few years ago the Momcat and I discovered Polar Notions. They are these plastic inserts that you use to make mini bolts with your fabric. They are super easy to use, and make it so much easier to store and see your fabric. Previously, I'd put a lot of my fabric onto these bolts, but they were begin stored on their sides in big canvas under-the-bed style boxes. So while they were protected from the sun and from the Helper Cats, the setup was less than ideal.

When I was home in October, the Momcat showed me how she'd started putting her fabric onto Polar Notion bolts, but was putting them into bookcases with doors on them. I liked the new system an awful lot, and so wanted to get something similar for my studio. After looking at every possible bookcase/shelving unit/storage case on all three floors, the Momcat spotted this beauty in the "As Is" section.

It was a floor model and was still in great condition. And the doors! Look at those doors! It was perfect and so I bought it and loaded it into the car. It was a VERY tight ride home, but at least it fit and we didn't have to assemble it.

Then it was time to load it up with the goods!

The bottom shelf has holiday fabrics and fabrics that I have already planned for projects. The next shelf up has backing fabrics, panels and Jinny Beyer border prints.

Third shelf up has the majority of my fabric cuts that are at least one half yard, but most are a yard. Fourth shelf up has some solids and some I just purchased that coordinate with each other. There's also a very small pile of precuts.

Next shelf up hold fat quarters. I'm not happy with this shelf yet, but it's better then it was before. And then the top shelf is a bit random. Up there right now are some odds and ends for a specific project, and some larger pieces that have already been cut into in weird ways.

In the three months since we set this new system up, I've managed to keep it fairly tidy! Fabric has more or less ended up on bolts and on as shelf, even if it sometimes takes a few days for that to happen. I'm exited to pick up more of the bolts at the Paducah show at the end of this month, which I will then have to load with all of the fabric that I'll also buy there! 

Festive for Friday...To Do Lists and Colored Pens

Dokument Pencil Cup:  $1.50
20 Pack of Colored Gel Pens:  $16.68
Being in bed before 10:00 on a Friday night to write a color coded to do list for the weekend: Priceless

Possibly the most festive start to my weekend that I'll ever see. 

Welcome 2010!!!

I've always been a sucker for New Year's Resolutions, and this year is no different. The N-boy encouraged me to get them written down, as he thinks that will help me to keep them!!! So this will be a text heavy post, really put up for me to get this out there so I don't forget what I'm supposed to be doing! In the next month I'll put up pictures from our Christmas adventures and some of the projects that the Momcat helped me to finish up in 2009!!!

2010 Resolutions

1. Run a 5k

    ---Sunburst 5k on June 6??

2. Post 125 blog entries

3. Piece the following projects:

  -Mystery quilt

  - Teacup quilt

  - Challenge quilt 2

  -Valentine's Day foundation piecing

  -Limeade

  -Over the Rainbow

  -Six more projects!!!

4. Quilt the following projects:

  -Cat practice panel

  -Serenity

  - Freddy's quilt

  -Challenge quilt 1

  -Valentine's Day quilt

  -Teacup quilt

5. Write Grandpa 1 time a week, and write 52 other letters to people

6. Keep a book log of books read (I've always wanted to do this. This is the year!!)

7. Attend Mass/church 25 times

8. Control Journal/Flylady

9 Attend NAMI support group 20 times

10. Redecorate one room in the house

11. Plant a garden

12. Scrapbook 50 pages

Each month I'll make out a list for that month with my one goal for each item.

January

1-Work out twelve times

2-12 blog entries

3-Finish piecing valentines quilt

4-John Flynn practice and cat panel

5-Write Grandpa four letters, and write four other letters

6-Start the book log

7-Attend Mass 2 times

8-Revamp Control Journal and Routines

9-Attend support group 2 times

10-Declutter the bedroom

11-Step by step plan for the garden

12-Scrapbook 5 pages

New House, New Furniture

It's been a very busy week here at work, as we prepare for the return of the students to campus. We're already started having orientation for new students, and are generally just gearing up and preparing for the onslaught of 200 new students who need to be registered, oriented and assisted with pretty much anything you can think of.

I've worked on my scrapbook some this week, continuing the basic page layouts that the Momcat and I started at Scrapmania last weekend. It really helps me to just get the pictures down on the page first, knowing that I can come back later to do some journalling and embellishing. I've also been working a bit on my knitted dish towel, starting to prepare to move and have finally finished HP 7! I'll try to get some pictures of my projects up this weekend.

In the meantime, I've been wanting to share picture of one my latest finds. This was found at the University Surplus store, which is open to University employees and students each Thursday. The selection varies widely each week, and it's very much a first come, first serve atmosphere. I'd wanted one of these since I saw them at someone's house during book club, and they had seven of them! For only $25!!!
Why would a library ever want to get rid of their beautiful Card Catalogs!

It's one of the larger ones, with 72 drawers.

Each drawer still has the metal system inside for inserting the library cards.

I'm hoping to be able to use it for storage of some of my crafting supplies, such as yarn, knitting needles and fat quarters. The N-boy, however, has expressed doubts about getting this up the stairs in our new house and into my studio room! We'll see...

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Getting my mojo back, part 1

My first dishcloth! For BabyBrother's Easter Basket.

2009 has been a very tough and unpleasant year so far, and it is really only within the last three weeks that things have started to look up. I don't think I'll go into the details today, but my husband's very serious health problems have literally torn my family apart. I am thankful for the support I've received from friends, familiy and support group. And very very happy that things are finally starting to improve for us all.

Due to the unpleasant-ness of the year, I hadn't really been working on any of my hobbies since January. When I was home (at my parent's house) over Christmas, my mom (Momcat) and I had a great time going to Archiver's and working on our scrapbooks. Momcat worked on pictures from a vacation that she and Daddo (I'll let you guess who that one is) took to Estes Park, CO and I worked on my wedding pictures. Nevermind that I've been married for almost three years, I was very happy to work on things. But then when I got back home after Christmas and everything fell apart I couldn't work on anything. N-boy got very sick and eventually moved out, so I didn't even want to look at anything that had pictures of us being happy. I didn't work on the baby quilt for the baby born last September, or any of my other projects. It was unfun, to say the least.

Then Momcat suggested I put all of my ongoing projects away and start a new project. So I did, knitting BabyBrother a dishcloth as part of his Easter basket. Gee, that was nice. So I started another dishcloth and began thinking about other things I could do.

Then Momcat came out to visit me for a few extra days before we headed down to Paducah for the AQS show and we rearranged and organized all of my crafting area. I'd inherited some fabric from my grandmother and had all kinds of projects and things stuffed into boxes and corners. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pictures of the "before" but here's what if looks like now in the after:

And with Momcat's help I made this from the pretty Michael Miller fabric. I've got one from each season to put up, and blue curtains to go behind them, as well.


So that was step one to being a more productive person. Tomorrow, the insipration of the AQS show.