Hoarders Annonymous

The other night I went across the street to visit a neighbor and when I walked back and gazed into our home where all the lights were on and blinds were open, it looked like an episode of hoarders.

I do not make light of the affliction of hoarding. In fact, I think I have a mild case. Trouble is we've been piecemeal-ing pieces of furniture together to house our bunches of stuff - almost none of which has doors. So you can pretty much see everything we own. From the street. So something had to be done.

Day 1: I set off the next morning with the kiddos and a friend to IKEA, with instructions from the fella not to make any purchases without his two cents. This mission was purely reconnaissance. He and I returned that night to make decisions and purchases. We closed the place down and headed home to start assembly. Upon opening the first flat box I realized we got home with the wrong pieces. 

DAY 2: The fella and I dropped the boys off at school and headed to a different furniture store with Hazel. We perused the sectional couches then went to IKEA to ponder our options. We got the correct pieces of the kitchen storage cabinets we goofed up the day before and purchased a honkin' Besta - an entertainment system which would also have great storage for media, the printer and other office stuff. Behind closed doors. YAY.

We also chose a lovely compact sectional and a rug from the other place.

What I forgot to mention that day 2 was Friday, and on Saturday Hazel and I were to catch an 8:00 a.m. flight to North Carolina. Details...details...

Day 2 timeline:
9:00 a.m. - drop boys off
9:30 a.m. - 1:45 p.m. - shop
2:00 p.m. - home, started assembling.
5:00 p.m. - haul all the old stuff down to the basement
6:00 p.m. - keep assembling
2:00 a.m. - finish assembly, start putting stuff away (fella goes to bed)
4:30 a.m. - it is finished!
4:30 a.m. - take a shower. pack.
5:00 a.m. - head hits pillow. fella's alarm clock goes off. agree to sleep til 6:00.
6:00 a.m. - wake up and go to airport
Zoiks.

But we really like it. There's space and organization and the things we need are still within arms reach but not in plain sight. There is still a little work to do - I plan on recovering the printed cushions and adding some artwork.

 Looks like a grown up's living room, right?

 Storage with doors! Revolutionary!

We certainly did not cure our hoarding tendencies. In fact, the hoard was not diminished at all, just hidden. There wasn't time for both culling the hoard and fixing the new stuff. We'll get to the hoard culling some other time. For now...

we like it! That last photo is just for fun. At Eli's request Hazel is dressed as a pumpkin fairy this morning. Why not?

Danger. I got pintrested.

So... three days or so ago I succumbed to the call of Pintrest. I resisted a REALLY long time, but who are we kidding. As my sister said: "It was so made with you in mind it should have been called 'Jessa Decker Smith-interest'." 

So I caved. And I have been pinning up a veritable storm of pins. Here's the twist, I fully intend to act on them. I even have a board called, DO THIS NOW. And I'm totally gonna. 

So, on that note, I shall report to you here on this blog all the ideas I found on pintrest that I have decided to take on. 

So, for my first one (ok, second if you count the sock bun, which I have tried but not yet mastered), I worked up a holder for a charging cell phone from Make It and Love It. It's downright genius and uses items I have on hand. Double bonus.

Above is the original pinned photo which links to a tutorial for this very smart idea. Way to go Make it Love it folks. Well done.

And here's mine:

Pretty awesome! It was my first mod podge experience and I must say, I enjoyed it. 

So much so that I went ahead and made on for Hazel's baby monitor:

It was so easy and fun and it took about 30 minutes total. That's my kind of project. (And yes, I decoupaged the fabric backwards on this second one, with the seam ending up in the front. Live and learn). 

And now, to feed two birds with one scone, I tested out a second pintrest idea whilst I was making the above. It was a home-made inexpensive mod podge recipe. I bought name brand mod podge and made my own per this recipe to compare. 

 

Do It Yourself Divas offered a very simple recipe for DIY mod podge - 50% Elmers, 50% water. I think I had too much water in my ratio, but I gotta say, I think the mod podge has a leg up on the homemade version. The homemade will definitely work, but I think mod was slightly better. 

So now I have a Pintrest Board called "Saw it on Pintrest and Made it" to show all the inspiration I've gotten from pintrest and followed. 

I'm hooked. 

A Make Over Peek of the Week - January 13, 2012

Ikea...you make my dreams come true. 

I've been dreaming of a sewing room makeover. So this guy:

(The patented Ikea Two Cart Pull)

and I (and Hazel and Yaya (not pictured), and Dizzy in SmalLand) scurried over to IKEA with a $90 budget for sewing room shelving and storage. 

And of course, they had just the thing.

Here is the before:

(Actually this is the during. When we moved in to this house I had a plan to fence off half of the sewing room for a boy play area so I put the giant 8 ft. table on the middle-length wall. Well, the fence plan never panned out, so now to make better use of the space, I put the giant table on the biggest wall, the medium table on the medium wall, and the ironing board on the smallest wall. Sensible, no?). 

And the After:

The cutting table. That's right - a whole table just for cutting!! 

And check out my wood cabinet full of fabric and how it actually closes now!

And look at that beautiful LACK shelf! Perfect for all my loveliest lovelies. 

Hazel likes it too.

But wait. There's more.

Now with the big table on the big wall, Betty is situated right in front of the window. Perfect!

And I have some great inspiration on the new shelves - Photos of my honey, my sisters, and my lady lobster (Sunny B); the lovebirds made for us for our tenth anniversary by the lovely Melinda; the awesome owl plate from potter and Mama extraordinaire, Amy Sanders; and the spool drawing from my craft-sperational friend and ex-roomie Christa (who also painted the J and the "Chaos is Organic" mantra painting hanging on the clothesline in the top photo). She taught me to sew for teeny baby Eli. 

I am so inspired in this new space I have been sewing up a storm. I'll be revealing some of these new projects in the coming days...but this new look is enough for today's Peek of the Week. 

What's Peek of the Week, you ask? It's our regular Friday feature and it's all about you! I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my own Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your blog post about your Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it!

Ok! Your turn!

You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.

Peek of the Week - January 6, 2012

What's Peek of the Week, you ask? It's our regular Friday feature and it's all about you! I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my own Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your blog post about your Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it! 

My Peek for today is a fun little oil cloth project I took on in a fit of 5 Minute Mania (what's that? See here.)

I've wanted to play around with oil cloth for years now. There are so many gorgeous oil cloths out there. So, when I was having a spree in Fabric Bliss a few days ago, I sprung for some oil cloth - two beautiful prints and some chalk cloth. 

Chalk cloth, incidentally, is genius. 

I also picked up a handy book full of oil and chalk cloth patterns which I haven't actually gotten to read yet. But in the shower I cooked up a grand plan for some pencil, scissor, and general utensil holders for my desk hutch area. I do my best cooking in the shower. 

That sounded dirty. 

So...a short tutorial. I totally winged it, but it worked. There's probably a real pattern for such a thing, but here's my winged way for what it's worth.

First, make sure you cure your chalk cloth before you begin. Lay a piece of chalk on the side and color all over then wipe off. Repeat. That way what you write first won't leave an eternal shadow.

Cut a circle for the bottom of you cylinder.

Here are the rest of the pieces. A rectangle of oil cloth about 6 inches tall by oh...18 inches or so. Winging it, remember? And a 2 inch wide strip of chalk cloth about 18 inches long.

 

I wanted to use a chalk cloth border so I could label the little cubbies! Clearly. 

Just fold it over the top edge of the oil cloth and zig zag the edge. 

 So then just sew the circle to the bottom edge of the rectangle right sides together. It takes some finagling because they don't really want to get sewn in a circle like that - but they can be convinced. 

Then stitch the two ends of the rectangle together where the meet. Trim off the excess and turn it right side out. 

And viola:

Ok! Your turn!

You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.

Dreaming...

Are visions of sugarplums dancing in your head?

The second week of Advent is upon us and as a new week dawns I'm dreaming of all sorts of fun festive plans. There are little clay feet a-firing, wrapping concepts being explored, and Christmas pj plans brewing.  

For a while I've felt relaxed about the whole thing, but now I'm starting to feel that the season is upon us and I best hop to.

Back in my heavy duty potting days, when I was in a pottery rush, I used to layout a grid and make a list of what needed to be done each day for weeks to come. I might have to resort to that. 

To-do lists sound like a holiday downer, but worry ye not, these are happy lists.

Cheers.

The catch...

No baking neighbors. No secret portholes or philanthropic widows.

Just your standard fishing scam. That was the catch.

Oh well. On to better things.

(Stitch Magazine, Fall 2010 - fabric organization by Kevin Kosbab of feeddog.net that I intend to copy)

We did find a real live house that won't break the bank. It's old and somewhat charming with lots of little nooks and crannies. Hopefully with any luck the application process will be quick and we'll sign a rental agreement early next week.

You know the best part? This house has a sewing room (I said that with a whisper so as not to jinx it).

The top floor is one of those quaint slanted in-the-roof kinds of floors. On one end will be our bedroom, or the other end will be a sweet little sewing/play room. I'm going to section off my sewing area with the gate we used to block off the wood stove from baby Eli. The rest of the room will be for Eli and Amos to play. It has these great little dwarf shelves and closets, which the boys love. It seems that's as close as we're going to get to magical portholes. But it'll do.

So, my mind is swimming with organization and decorating ideas.

But I do solemnly swear not to pack a thing until the following things happen:
1)I finish sewing the Christmas orders on my list.
2)We have secured the house.

Ok maybe I don't swear, but I intend.

Ok I'll try.