My oasis....

My craft space is a little, odd shaped room in the very back of the basement. It was lonely and chilly. But it was also sunny, private, spider-free and thank you Easter Bunny, all mine. I love love love this room. I'm so grateful to have a space of my own to escape to. I now have a place to store all the accumulated artsy/crafty stuff and I get a place to do my favorite hobby. Watch Lifetime TV. Kidding, friends. I 'm talking about sewing- I'm officially obsessed.....

We bought some cheap, unfinished cabinets at the Home Depot and covered them with a pine door. I painted the cabinets an antique ivory and the walls light aqua. (Valspar ala Lowe's) The door on the right cabinet is not hooked on. It was broken when we bought it. (Someone yell clearance!) I used it later for something else.

Now the room looks like this. Pay no attention to the measly organization. I took these pictures yesterday and already the floor is cluttered with the sewing machine cabinet. I'm painting that next.

Look for that missing cabinet door in the next picture :)

Here is Betty. She's wearing regular clothes. I use her to pose with the bags I make. Naked Betty freaks me out.

My attempt at fabric organization and purses on the shelves.

I took the doors off one of the closets and created another desk for paper crafts.

That's it! My craft room. Except for the carpet, I love the space. If you know me, you can just imagine what's behind the other closet door. Trust me. You don't want to know. One step at a time, people. Now. What's on Lifetime ?

Are we there yet?

"Neat as a pin." Another saying by someone with way too much time on their hands. By the way, where are my pins? See, this is what happens when I try to get organized.

Remember my little rant the other day about tidiness and my lack of it? Do you also recall that I said that I'm very capable of making it "look" neat when needed? Well, I've been working on my craft room. For the last two years. Uh huh. And I'm still not done. Like everything else in the house, I'd say it was.... evolving. Yeah, that's what I'll call it.

My oldest always asks why I can't leave things alone. "Mom, what was wrong with the way it was?" Or, "What happened to the plates that were here?" Or, "Didn't you JUST paint that wall?"Or, "What have you done with my father?" I kid. I kid....

Truthfully, I often wonder when I'll be satisfied with the way a room turns out. I can't imagine saying to the high school kid at Lowe's, "No paint today Robbie. I'm completely content with the Pepto-Bismol pink you talked me into for the guest bedroom. I think I'll leave it that way for the next thirty years. Good Luck with your life!" Nope. Sorry. That young man (who tries to hide each time he sees me) could guide you through my last two houses of colors and tell you the craziness I put him through while purchasing each can or quart or gallon of paint. "Hey Robbie, should I use satin or eggshell? Will that cover rust? Do I need a darker primer? Will this color NOT show the grossness that's left when the boys in my family miss the toilet? Is there anti-bacterial paint? Do you know any friends that might want to paint for me?" Dear heavens. If the employees in the paint department worked on commission, they would be WORKING for Robbie. Anyway, I'll be sure to let you know when that "satisfied-with-the-room" thing happens.

The people who lived here before us had two children. Two immaculate children. When we walked into this 30+ year old house, it was insanely clean. God bless the mom who can pull that off. There were no scuff marks on the walls. No pizza cheese on the ceilings. No sorry-I-forgot-to-drink-that-cherry-slurpee-in the-kitchen stains on the carpet....Incredible. I don't believe they ventured much into the basement. It was pretty desolate (albeit spotless). The family before them had divided the bottom level into four rooms for their much larger family. Anywhoo, I believe the Mr. Clean Family used what was to be my crafty-haven as a storage area. It's at the very back of the basement. Here's a pic. Man, I should have asked for that white drawer thingy to be included with the house. :(

If you get the chance, pop back here tomorrow. I'll show you what my little space looks like. For now, that is. At least until that Robbie guy gets back from his vacation.... Here's a small peek.....

Original Art by the youngest child, who loves the changes his Mommy makes.

Happy End-of-the-weekend, friends :)

-No employees of Lowe's were harmed in the making of this post.

A place for everything and everything has it's Blah blah blah...

The notion is that everything should have a place to be stored in and that it should be tidily returned there when not in use. Mmm Hmm. Yep. That's what someone said. Once or twice...

My lack of organizational skills began when I was small. I was the child who was always told to clean her room. It was never to straighten up a few things, but rather make it possible to find my floor. I was famous for piling papers on any flat surface, stuffing objects under the bed, or shoving things in a closet. God bless my sister and college roommate who had to endure the mess that was me.

Now before you start to imagine me as some Peanuts' character with swirling dirt surrounding her, please know that it's not a "clean" issue. Things MUST be clean. It's the tidy part that gets me every time. I have a moderate pack-rat problem. I seem to collect and keep way too much of nothing in particular. It is very hard for me to throw anything away. I believe in a past life I amassed maybe a rock and two sticks to my name. I can't explain any other reason why I'm this way.

When I started teaching and had my own classroom, I became blessed with TWO places to hold all my junk. It was wondrous. If you recall George Carlin talking about our ridiculous obsession with "stuff", understand I could have been his muse.

Alas, I quit teaching to become a stay at home mom and was forced to condense said stuff into a garage and one and a half storage units. Ridiculous.

When we moved into this house, we agreed it was time for a change. Actually, the husband said it was time for a change and I reluctantly agreed. Kind of. We got rid of the storage units and I went on what equated to a drunken binge of giving everything away. Okay not everything, but for me it felt that way. We were on our way to a neat and organized new home.

Hahahahahahahah! After reading this post you couldn't possibly think we stuck with it, right? I still struggle with clutter. It happens to collect everywhere. Even though I'm much better at controlling it, I seemed to have spawned three children who are more like their mother than they care to admit. It is hard not to fall off the organization wagon with a busy family of five.

I AM working on it. Every single day. One step at a time. All those cliche's. I'm kind of hoping this blog will keep me on the right track. Help a girl out, will ya? And don't worry. When you come to my house you probably won't even notice my little clutter problem. In fact, you will more than likely step into a neat looking, nice smelling, seemingly organized home. As long as you call an hour before you come over and don't look in my closets.

Happy Weekend, friends :)