And Somehow, It's July

How is it July already?  Goodness gracious me, this summer is flying by.  Probably because I've been crazybusy.  The kids have been playing with squirt guns a lot in this hot weather, which leads to sopping wet and muddy clothing, which leads to extra laundry.  There are days when the only thing I accomplish besides getting meals on and off the table is laundry.

But I've been working on several projects too, as usual.  I finally decided that I could wait no longer to get my sewing machine out, so instead of finishing actually cleaning up my entire crafting nook, I just cleaned off the table.  Here's how it looks:

As soon as I got it set up, I sewed a ring sling for my sis-in-law -- I'd promised to do that almost three months ago, sigh.  Anyway, that pile of fabric at the very right of the photo is for my latest project:  patchwork skirts.  Another sis-in-law found one online she thought would be super cute for her daughter, and she shared the photo with me.  I said, "That is super cute -- I could do that!"  Except, being me, I've decided to just do it myself without buying a pattern, so we'll see how it turns out.  I'm about half done cutting squares, then there's just pinning and sewing and ironing and more pinning and more sewing and inserting elastic... let's hope I finish them by the end of the summer!  Our daughters are about the same age, and there are two more girl cousins that age too, so if I get really ambitious, I might make matching skirts for all four of them.  If they turn out well, I'll try to put up a tutorial here on how to make them.

I'm also working on a second dress for my pixie doll, but that's been derailed by me remembering I need to crochet a baby blanket for yet another sis-in-law, so I'm concentrating on that for right now and letting my other crochet patterns slide, as the baby is due next month.

What's everyone else up to?  Taking it easy?  That sounds like a good plan to me!

Resurfacing

I dropped off the grid for a while -- sorry about that.  We went to my parents' house, the kids and I were sick for a week, and then I had to dig myself out from under a mountain of laundry... I've barely had time to check my email and keep up with pattern sales, much less do some real blogging. 

But right now, I have a few quiet minutes, and thought I'd do a catch-up post here.  I just finished playing The Game of Life with my son, and he's now playing with the cars and little peg people, racing them around the board and telling little stories.  Both girls are napping, and outside it looks like a rainstorm might be scudding our way.

Remember how I said I wanted to have my creative nook totally reorganized by the end of May?  I failed.  It doesn't look much different than it did three weeks ago, except that I've emptied out one of the grey plastic tubs and cleared a couple things off my sewing table.  Sigh.  At this rate, it'll be the end of summer before I even manage to haul out my sewing machine, and those skirts I wanted to make the girls for this summer will have to be fall skirts instead.  Grr.

On a good note, I've finished my fairy/sprite/pixie doll, and the first dress for her!  I need to get some photos of her the next time it's sunny, and then I'll post them here and show her off.  And get the patterns in my store!  I'm hoping to accomplish that by the end of this week, we shall see.

I've also been working on a watercolor poster thing (I'm so descriptive today!) for the baby's room -- I'll post pics of that when it's finished too.  And I'm more than half done with the first knitted storage box for the shelves in my creative nook.  Haven't had a lot of crafting time lately -- did I mention the mountain of laundry? -- but I do what I can, when I can.

Okay, that's all for today.  Hoping to post more soon!

Progress Report #3

Thanks to being gone a week, then my hubby being sick for a week, my efforts at transforming my big mess into a cozy crafting zone have been somewhat derailed.  I'm back on track at last, though -- my husband and the kids finished putting together my new cubby last night, and I reorganized where things are situated so the table can be by the light and the cubby can be by my plastic storage tubs.  Here's how it's looking:

Still a sad, sad mess, isn't it?  But I haven't gotten anything put in the cubby yet.  Hoping that makes a big difference!

And yes, I was hoping for a white cubby, but Target was out of the white cubes, so I went with this wood look instead.  Matches the table better anyway.  I'm working on knitting sides for a storage basket to go into a backless cube, though because I'm a very slow knitter, I only have one side done and another started.  I'm using that cheery green/blue yarn you can see in one of the cubes because it precisely matches something crazy I hope to store lots of yarn in (instead of that stack of four cardboard boxes to the left).

Progress Report #2

Week two of my efforts to clear out half of my bedroom is drawing to a close, and check it out!  Thanks to Mom reading a bunch of old Highlights for Children to the kids, I got five boxes unpacked!  I'm donating half a box of magazines to the library, I packed up a whole storage tub with my hubby's things (and freed up some closet space too!), and combined a couple other boxes that are things I'll be putting on shelves once I get shelves.

Yes, shelves.  I decided I need some storage space in here if I'm going to get organized.  After all, "A place for everything, and everything in its place" only works if everything has a place.  With that in mind, Mom and the kids and I went to Ikea yesterday to find me what I need.  But what I found was that Ikea is more expensive than I'd anticipated, and also I never found precisely what I want.  I want something with doors that open to reveal shelves that's about 4 feet high, and then on top of that, some shelves or cubes.  I like the idea of some storage bins to hold odds and ends that I need handy, but not all over the place, and I found several patterns for crocheting them yourself here, which I might try as a fun way to use up some excess yarn.

Anyway, since I couldn't find what I want while we were at Ikea, I'm going to go to Target soon and get a couple of things that you can add together.  I was thinking an organizer like this, with something like this on top of that, and then maybe these on top of the whole thing, all in white if I can manage it.  Let's hope I can find what I want!

Progress Report #1

Well, we've come to the end of the first week of my effort to clean up my bedroom mess and turn it into a creative nook.  I managed to unpack the suitcases and put them away, and fill up a plastic tote with stuff to take to the basement.  I broke down some small boxes I'll be keeping to mail presents to people, and I put away some of the yarn that's been lying about.  Here's how it looks now:

Not a huge improvement, but next week my mom will be here, and I'm hoping that one afternoon she'll be able to play with the kids while I really dig into my mess.

Happy Easter!

So... it has come to this...

We've owned our house for eight months today, and been living here for about ten days less than that.  And the terrible truth is, I'm still not unpacked.  I have ten boxes left, seven of them in my bedroom.  In fact, half of my bedroom is a complete disaster.  The half with our bed and dressers is okay, but the other half is supposed to be my little creative nook, where I can have my sewing machine, craft supplies, etc.  And that half needs help. See?

Okay, so the point of airing this dirty little secret in public is that I need some oomph to get that room whipped into shape, and I'm hoping public humiliation will do it.  I'm giving myself two months to transform that space into a usable, orderly, creative zone, and I intend to post progress pics here.  If I don't have it done by the end of May, you'll all know about it, which I'm hoping is enough extra incentive to keep me working on it whenever I can.