My Sewing Room: After

We worked solid for those four hours and check out my sewing room now!!!

We started in this corner, with the bookshelf. Right away, she made some boxes for me to put stuff in. We had Donate, Office/School supplies, To Go Through Later, Toys, and Half-Price books. At first it was hard to start, but once I got going, it was pretty easy. I decided that this room is a good place for the school/office supplies, so as I got areas cleared, she got that stuff put away. You can see, in the very corner, about 3 boxes that I need to go through. They have things like picture frames, music cds, and important papers I need to file. The grocery bags are either books that have already gone to Connor's classroom, or outgrown clothes that have been passed on to a friend's 4 year old son. The white box has school supplies, and is now next to the computer (which you will see below). The white basket tower thing now has 2 sections for projects, a section where I put things to put away later (and I'm not allowed to let it get full!), and some empty binders that I'll use when I file my patterns. I also plan to take another pass through the bookshelf and maybe weed out some more books. The drawers are completely clean and organized with office and school supplies.

Check out my clean floor under my ironing board! You can now also use that door. She gave me the idea of getting some bookshelves to put on either side of the bay window, and then using canvas totes (I'm thinking like Debbie's) or some sort of uniform containers to corral stuff. I see a trip to IKEA in the near future. I also have lots of ideas on my sewing room Pinterest board.

She also suggested painting the paneling a pale color. Other friends have suggested that also, as this room is pretty dark at night even with lights. Right now I'm leaning towards a warm grey or cool beige. I'll also be taking down that ugly curtain rod. I'm still not sure as to what type of window treatment to do. I want the window to stay open, because that looks right out onto Lake Michigan, and is beautiful. In the cabinets underneath is where all my fabric is stored.

My sewing table is clean! It's clean underneath too! That large mirror is going to go, either to a friend or a consignment shop. It's large (about 3x5 feet), and I have another mirror in the basement that I'd rather use, which is maybe 2x6 feet. More appropriate for fittings, as I'll hang it vertically, probably over by the built in bookcase. Then I'll figure a better location to hang the thread racks and my drawer thingy that's sitting on the table right now. This is as far as the organizer and I got, before we ran out of time.

So, my homework was to finish up my computer area....

....which I did on Monday night. I boxed up the old desktop, which wasn't functional, and put it in the basement. I'll get the data and pictures off of it after the holidays. I still need to clean off the clothes rack, though half of it will be gone tomorrow when some alterations get picked up.

I've been sewing in here every day since! It is so nice. I've also been a good girl, and cleaned up my mess each time I finish, so that I can keep the room looking good. Next I plan to have a friend come over and help me go through my fabric stash. I'm pretty sure I like and want everything that I have, but I would like another set of eyes, and I don't want to keep anything I don't have a plan for. Right now I have a few things in a Facebook album that I'm offering for sale or trade.

edited to add:  Gwen asked if I learned anything new.  No, I didn't.  Basically, she said everything needs to have a place (and first I need to ask myself does whatever I have even belong in this room or would it be better suited somewhere else), and everything needs to be put in its place.  If the boys want to bring some legos down here to play with, that's fine, but they need to bring them back up to their room when they are done.  I asked her why was this so hard for me to do alone, but easy when she was there, and she said it was because I didn't know her very well, and so we didn't sit and reminisce about stuff that I found, and I didn't stop and play with things I found, and she kept me focused.  She wouldn't let me delay a decision, and if I wasn't sure about something (do I donate it?  do I keep it?), she'd ask me to justify keeping stuff.  If I had good reasons, that was fine.  I hope to paint over the school winter break, so hopefully I can show you some more pictures in the new year.  

My Sewing Room: Before

Back in May, I won a 4 hour session with an organizer at an auction. I knew I wanted her to help me get my sewing room in order, and last Saturday, we finally got together. I took some pictures of the disaster before we tackled it. It actually didn't look this bad when she got here, as I tried to do some stuff ahead of time. However, this room had become the "we don't know where to put it so we'll put it in here" room, and was really really out of control. Be warned, these pictures aren't pretty...

I know, right? Somehow, I still managed to work in here, though not very well, and the disaster here is probably why I haven't been sewing much. Next up, the after pictures!

My friend Rowena has a post up that I think my sewing/knitting/crafty friends might like. You might recognize one of the rooms (or at least recognize the alias).

Remember that 4 hour session I won with an organizer? She's coming November 12. Hopefully I'll have some great pictures to share.

KOTC - my bedroom

KOTC = Kick Out The Clutter

This week I worked on my bedroom. I figured this was a good room to start with, as I could get it done fairly easily, plus it's my sanctuary at the end of the day. I usually sit and read in bed before going to sleep.

Here's what I did this week:

- did all the laundry, including folding and putting most of it away. I say most because my husband has a ridonkulous amount of clothes and so there are 2 stacks of folded sweatshirts and shirts on the blanket chest. Hopefully I can figure somewhere to put them.

- cleaned and re-organized the bookshelf.

- dusted everything, including the ceiling fan

- cleaned and vacuumed the entire floor, including under the bed. there is NOTHING under the bed now, except for the box of gift wrap. :D

- went through my clothes and filled a bag for Goodwill.

- cleaned out my nightstand.

see? I have a stack of books to take to Half Price Books, a bag of clothes for Goodwill (already gone), a bag of blankets/sheets for the Humane Society, and a bag of garbage (also gone).

A Thing Of Beauty

What does it say about me that I am thrilled to have a new oven? Am I all grown up now?
It came yesterday. I had to leave to take Calvin to gymnastics practice while it was getting installed, so I didn't get to see it in all its glory until about 7:45 last night. It's beautiful and I <3 it.

We had lemon poppyseed muffins for breakfast this morning. I plan to make cookies later. I can start making bagels again, half of my dinner plans won't be thwarted for lack of an oven, AND I have 3 oven racks (when previously I only had 1).

Landscaping

I used the panoramic setting on the camera, it kinda distorts things, but you can see more. (click on the photos to make them bigger)

Here are the results of our hard work this past week. Over the course of 4 days we planted 4 dogwoods, 4 vibernum, 8 arborvitae, 1 limelight hydrangea, 3 weigela, 1 service berry, 1 river birch, 3 grey owl junipers, 6 diablo ninebark, 3 blue spruce, and 3 staghorn sumac. I also moved 3 roses, dug up and divided various iris and daffodils, moved 2 oriental poppies, and cut the grass. It looks great!



We also moved this big rock. I'm guessing it weighs 250-300 pounds. At first I guessed 200#, but David says it's definitely more. To move this, David built a sledge out of some plywood and 2x4. We used a crowbar as a lever, tied a rope around the rock, had a boy on each side pulling, while David pulled in the middle, and I pushed. We put a broomstick handle underneath the sledge to make it roll, and got it from the back corner of the lot (by the telephone pole) all the way over to the side. If the Egyptians could build the pyramids, and the Incans could do Machu Pichu without horses, we were going to move this rock! Ancient History comes in handy sometimes! If only I got a photo, it was pretty cool.

Now we need to weed a bit more, clean up our dirt mounds and order mulch. But first, I'm going camping to relax. Yeah, really.

New Steamer

Calvin broke my little handheld steamer on Thursday. I was so mad! I loved it -- nothing cleans a toilet that boys use like a steamer! Sunday afternoon I bought a new one. Yesterday I attacked my oven.

Before cleaning the inside (I had already done the door). I swear this oven is as old as I am, and it's supposedly 'continuous clean' which means it never is.

After about 30-45 minutes of cleaning, using the steamer and the scrub brush attachment, it looks a LOT better. I didn't even have to use much elbow grease -- the only hard part was leaning into the oven, and trying to see where I was cleaning, though all the steam. Best part? No stinky fumes or icky chemicals. Now I've got my eye on the gas grill. :)

Decking the Halls

We started decorating for Christmas this weekend. I love my nativity -- I think partly because Mary is holding baby Jesus, just like a new mama would.

On Friday Caleb and I put up the garland on the bookshelf in the living room, and we also put up the tree (fake. I'd prefer real, but David likes fake, and when I found this tree at a rummage sale for $10 a few years ago, well, how could I pass it up?). Then, on Saturday, I put the lights on the tree, the boys started putting the LEGO train track around it, bumped it all over, loosened it in the stand, so I took all the lights off, took the tree apart, and put it up again, making sure it was STUCK HARD in the stand. ~sigh~ Then I put the lights back on. Sunday afternoon we put the ornaments on. About half of them stayed in the boxes, as I don't want them broken. There are now clumps of ornaments on the tree, and bare spots with no ornaments. I guess that's one of the side benefits of decorating with kids. :) I'll take some of my pretty hand blown glass ornaments and hang them from the dining room chandelier. I also need two more extension cords for the garlands on the dining room mirror and stair railing.

The boys spent last evening putting together the LEGO train for under the tree. If you are LEGO nuts like us, you might like to click over to Peeron.com, and create an account (it's free). You can inventory all your LEGO sets, and also get lists of what is needed for a specific LEGO set. This makes it so much easier to find pieces ahead of time (we sort and store our pieces by color in drawers). We got the engine and passenger car built last night, plus they created some other things for the track. The Advent calendar is all airport stuff, which works well with the train. I'm sure things will change daily under the tree!

30 yards

Thirty yards of 118" wide fabric for sheers arrived on Monday (yep, a big jump in the $ spent and yardage in stats). I have my big project for the next few weekends! This will be for the living room (2 88" wide windows, 2 45" windows) and the dining room (1 96" window). Now I have to get some rods for the wide windows.

My friend Alysia works at Calico Corners, and she helped me figure the yardage and how to pleat them up. Making curtains is fairly easy, but I find it boring. Lots of long, straight cuts and stitching. Once I get them up, then I'll figure out the outer curtains. At least I'll have something up, I'm beginning to feel like I'm in a fishbowl when I sit in the living room!

Painted Kitchen

"I paint too, Mama!" You can see we had some excellent help in getting the kitchen painted. :D

When the boys and I got home on Saturday night, from Chicago, we found that David had painted all the trim! Hooray! Less painting for me! This meant we could start right away on painting the walls. Sunday morning I started the cut-in work. I prefer to freehand the edges instead of taping; in the few places I taped, it doesn't look as nice. After I had gotten about 3/4 of the way done with the cut work, David came down and started rolling. Once we got the first coat of paint on, we left for the hardware store and mall (I needed to pick up some outlet covers and switchplates, plus we needed to get a birthday present). When we got home, I started the second coat, with more cut-in work. Monday afternoon I finished the second coat on the walls. There are a few little touch ups to do on the trim but ....

.... it's done! :D We are thinking about stamping a fleur de lis design on the walls in silver, and then roughing or wiping it off so it looks worn.

Now on to window treatments (ugh!).

No Sewing Happening Here

We've been working on the kitchen instead.

This is what the kitchen used to look like (if you click, you can look through the album and see our progress). Saturday we painted the ceiling. On Sunday David went and picked a color for the walls (it's some kind of dark blue), and also got trim paint and primer. Yesterday I started doing the cut-in work on the primer. We put some texture stuff in the primer, and it was like painting with pancake batter! It worked great.

The kitchen is all primed and ready for the regular paint. I'm going to do the trim next, then we'll paint the walls.

The Bottom Bunk

David got back from Sturgis last night, yippee!! I don't sleep well when he's away.

Anyway, as I posted earlier, I switched the boys' rooms. Now Caleb will have his own room, and Calvin and Connor will share. I made the bunk beds up again, and last night Connor slept on the bottom! All. By. Himself! Bedtime was 9:00, he nursed a bit and went to sleep. He cried out a bit around 1:30, I went to check on him, he nursed a bit more, and then went right back to sleep. He got up around 6:00, came into my bed and snuggled a bit.

It was nice to have my bed mostly all to myself again. :)

More Yard Work

We've had a lot of rain lately, and so the ground is pretty wet. It's been good for working in the yard, which is pretty much what I've been doing every night.

I wrote last week that a friend gave me some plants from her garden. Here is where I planted the stuff. You can see that the peonies are doing well. I think only the large bush will bloom (it's the only one that wasn't moved), but they all look healthy. Over to the right, just out of the picture, I planted two red climbing roses. The tree is lovely, isn't it? It's a redbud tree (Cercis canadensis), and is 20 years old.

The iris are starting to bloom. This one is right outside the kitchen door, and part of a large clump. I'll need to thin them out later this summer. I also have a white one shooting up buds in a far corner of the yard. I don't think the rest will bloom this year, as they've been moved. I also have a nice patch of strawberries here.

My big project has been getting rid of weeds and bushes in the back, and laying mulch. This is what this area originally looked like, and here it is after we cleaned it up a bit more. Caleb has been helping me. I really enjoy doing the yard work with him; we have some really nice talks. The back fence is going to go along the line made by the mulch. I need David to help me move that last large rock (it is REALLY heavy). We also plan to put a gate here in the back.

Spring Break

We decided to have our spring break this week. Other than the boys' spanish class, we've done hardly any studies. It's been nice! I've been catching up on the housework and doings some spring cleaning. Yesterday I tackled the boys' room. It wasn't that bad, but I still had stuff piled in their closet from my dad, including 4 big display boards that we had covered with pictures for his funeral. Finally I took all the photos down (I didn't even cry) and put them in envelopes so they will flatten. Someday I'll put them in photo albums or maybe even make a simple scrapbook. Their room is looking great now! I still have a few things to clean out from the top shelf in the closet, and I'd really like to get that done by the weekend. I also found a slide projector, a movie projector (remember those 8mm movies from the 1970s? one of those), and what I think is a short wave radio.

We went to the Milwaukee Art Museum this afternoon. On Wednesdays, it's free for county residents. I hadn't been there since the Calatrava addition, and I must say, the lobby area is just breathtaking. Heck, even the underground parking lot and elevator are way cool! It was nice to walk through and see all the art, especially the ancient Greek and Roman stuff, as we just finished a study of ancient Greece, and just started on ancient Rome. Calvin's only observation of the whole thing was he wanted to know what was up with all the naked people.

Monday, Calvin asked me if I had "one of those things that you push the buttons and it makes words". It took me a bit, but I figured out he meant a typewriter. I said we did have one, so he begged for me to get it out. Of course, I did, and you would have thought I had uncovered the Ark of the Covenant! They played on it all day on Monday ("Mama! I bet none of our friends have a typewriter! This is so cool!"). They made notes, a newspaper, signs for a lot of the doors, play money, and whatever else they could think of. Every time one of their friends comes over, they have to bring them into the dining room to see The Typewriter. :)

New Door

The week before last, we had a 'new' front door put on. If you don't know, I live in what was my father's house. After he died, I inherited it, and all the work that needed to be done to it. He didn't really maintain it properly. One of the few things he did do was replace most of the entry doors -- with metal ones. They looked weird, and didn't match (the wood on the inside of the house is all pale oak. The doors were all dark walnut color).

Ok, back to what I started with. My father never threw out anything, and for once, that was a good thing. The original front door was still in the basement. So, we had someone come out, take the old door off, put the 'new' older door back on, and while we were at it, we had a storm door put on. I LOVE it! Now we can have the door open and the dog can lay on the floor and look outside. In the summer we can put the screen in, and have a breeze. Sometime this spring I'll re-paint the door, either a dark plum or red.