Shelfish

Tell me if this storage concept makes sense to you. Store your stuff on one layer. That way you'll be able to see every bit of it. And if you can see your stuff, then you might actually use it! I don't know about you but it resonates with me so I'll be trying it in practice whenever possible.

I recently made two pink shallow wooden shelves keeping this concept in mind. Oh, how pleasing to see my supplies arranged so prettily and so closely to hand. 

I made a third wooden storage thingy too. This one is more of a drawer. It sits atop a rolley crate that makes its home under my work table. My Lo made the crate several years ago. I made the drawer to exactly fit his crate and to hold my array of pencils, scissors and paint brushes. When I need something, I just pull out the rolley crate and BEHOLD... there they all are! 

Each of these three pieces is essentially a wooden ladder backed with a piece of plywood. Totally make-able if you can get your hands of some wood, a saw, a hammer and nails. I used the simplest of joinery, the butt joint, connected with gobs of glue and nails, to make mine. 

And speaking of butt joints, I better get off mine and get back to work, eh? Today there's sewing on the agenda. More on that later this week...

♥M

The Workroom is DONE.

It's just blogging. No big deal. Jump in and just DO IT already. Okay? 

Okay.

Deep breath... 

And go!

******************

Guess what?

I finished my workroom. And here it IS...

Today I'm sharing the overall space. In future posts I'll get into the nitty gritty details (the fun part, in my opinion).

It was a little tricky cramming the whole kit 'n caboodle in one photo. The picture quality kinda blows as a result. But I wanted to give you a sense of the whole space in one fell swoop, you know? So you could imagine yourself in here with me. The quality is what it is. What's a girl to do, eh?

First off I just want to say that Lo and I, over the past few years, have spent many many weeks, and days, and hours gutting the entire basement, reconfiguring the space, putting up new walls and drywall, installing flooring, windows, electrical, heating. Not to mention tons of painting and trimming. It's taken us... well... YEARS. But things are finally, FINALLY, getting there.

Let's have a tour of sorts. Starting with paint colours.

Well, I decided to go with a pop of colour in the floor. I wanted and needed something bright and cheery down here. So I went with Para's SuperGrip Epoxy-Fortified Enamel For Floors (mouthful) in a hue known as "Pop Rocks". It has a slight sheen so it's lovely to wash. I'm told it's durable. It sounds durable. But who knows... Time will no doubt tell.

I left the walls in a shade known as "Washed Ashore" (by CIL) that I'd applied a few years ago. It still pleases me, so all I did was spot paint here and there to fix the few unsightly marks that life had left behind. It's a pale aqua-tinted grey in a flat sheen. Still pretty (and quick too)!

The black Ikea bookcase, which we've had for about eight years, sits in a nook that I painted black to match the bookcase. I did this to give the illusion that the case is built-in. It looks fabulous. It was a natural spot for this wicker reading chair too, and combined with the overhead lighting that Lowell installed a few years back, this is the coziest little spot in the workroom.

All trim is painted in plain white semi-gloss, FYI.

Below is a better view of my worktable. Except for a couple things, most everything you see here was in the old space. Actually, Lo came home with this perfect new-to-me yellow lamp just yesterday. It's a vintage find. He picked it out by himself and everything. Could he be more sweet? Don't think so.

Lo gave me permish to use any old wood from his stash. So I went berserk and built, with my own two little hands, the two pink storage shelves you see on the walls. I'll discuss them again in a later post, but for now here below, is a closeup of one of them. You've seen the other one back here too, btw.

I'm proud of my little shelves. Having all my paints and buttons and things so visibly at hand is so... HANDY. It makes doing things much easier and more pleasant. And oddly, just being able to see my stuff makes me want to use it. It's very interesting, from a psychological perspective I mean.

And finally here's the last little bit. Some of this stuff could stand to be better arranged and organized, but hey, as of right now I know where everything is, and it's all clean and tidy. Three cheers for me!

Wow. I blogged. I actually blogged!

Crazy stuff eh?

♥M

Moving Right Along

Happy September!

How the blazes are ya? Did you have a fine August? Hope so.

Me? I'm well.

Not too sure what to write about today though... Funny, eh? I've been away for a whole month so you'd think I'd have a million things to report on. But hmm, I'm a little stumped...

Oh, I know!

I'll catch you up on the basement work room move okay? Remember this ⬇?

That's right. I had this big plan to switch areas with The Boy. It took me a while to build up the courage and momentum to actually DO it but I did manage. Eventually... Hey, I'm slow.

So anyway, Lo and I have been busy as beavers turning this area into a place suitable for working and creating. We've cleaned and purged. We've painted, we've trimmed. We've moved furniture, we've organized all my stuff. There are still a few things left to do (not the least of which is working on The Boy's area). But things are looking pretty snazzy, and moving along at a nice pace now.

Here's a peak at one little corner...

I promise to show more in a bit, but that's all you're getting for now...

Have a great day!

♥M

Michele Whines About Her Workroom 2013

Welcome to this year's installment of "Michele Whines About Her Workroom". It seems that once a year, pretty much like clockwork, I do a post where I complain about the shortcomings of my workroom: it's in the basement, it's too cold, it's too dark, it's too messy, blah-dy blah-dy blah...

This year is no different. Except that last year I thought I'd pretty much licked the problem. Alas... no. The dream of creating a bright space down there, just for working, died within a couple months. After that, it was back to the same old patterns. The mess takes over. Plant-like Michele, seeks out light every day. Awkward mounds of craft supplies and half-finished work materialize along the perimeter of the dining room, living room, kitchen, in fact the whole of our tiny little house. The feeling that work follows me where ever I go in my home, and no matter the time nor the place, it tugs at me, calls to me, guilts me for never quite paying close enough attention attention attention...

So, yes. I need a buffer zone. A natural separation. I need to be able to walk away. I need my workroom to work for me not against me. (Sorry. I know you've heard this all before.)

But what to do?

Well... Brace yourself. I have some news. I HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION. I haven't done anything about it yet, true enough. But I'm undaunted! One has to start somewhere, and I'm starting with a plan!

I've unilaterally decided to take possession of The Boy's seldom-used basement play area. He maybe goes down there once a year to get a toy. He's afraid of the monsters that live in the darkness, and I don't blame him one bit. They are awful and slimy and mean and hairy and ugly and should be avoided at all cost. Fortunately, I myself don't mind the monsters so much. I've gotten used to their ways. Aside from the house centipedes who move a little quickly for my taste, I kind of like them. They give the place character.

So his play area will be moved to my cold, dark, windowless spot in the basement, and my workroom will move over to his bright, warm spot where there are two small windows that allow in plenty of daylight. Yes. That's correct. Actual DAYlight! Essentially, we're swapping spots.

Does this make me an awful mother?... It probably does. Be that as it may, I AM DOING IT.

I'll keep you posted on actual progress.

♥M

Second Chance Workroom

If you lived here, you'd know that having a clean workroom is more exciting than it sounds. Let's just say, my workroom was in "a state" up until a few days ago. I've spent the better part of two weeks wrangling it into something worth showing you. Don't you remember? It was only last year that I told you I'd give you a tour eventually.

FYI: For future reference, the definition of "eventually" is 11 months.

In retrospect, I blame my messiness (far too embarrassing for before-pictures) on the darkness down here. There is nary a window in my little space, you see. Any craft project photo has to be taken in daylight which means hauling the project upstairs where the sun lives, taking the picture, and hauling everything back down again. Such a hassle. After awhile, except to get the occasional supply or add to the growing morass, I stopped working down here altogether.

Problem is, because I gave up on the basement workroom, my craft stuff was scattered all over creation. The basement was the dumping ground, yes. But I used the dining room table as my craft table, I used the living room as my computer desk, I used the couch as my quilting space. In short, there was craft-related stuff everywhere and because there was craft-related stuff everywhere I was forever in a craft-related frame of mind. I couldn't get away from it, you know?  I felt the tug constantly, even when my family was around. It was like being in permanent limbo: never knowing when to stop working and when to start not working. That's one of the reasons I took August off. I needed to find a healthier division between work and family time again.

In my mind, the solution involves having a space dedicated for work exclusively, a place that allows me to focus, and one I can walk away from at the end of the day. I knew it was time I give the basement a second chance.

So for the last couple of weeks, I have rounded up all the piles of craftiness, I have tromped up the stairs and down again, I have scrubbed, I have dusted, I have rearranged the furniture, I have purged,  I have organized, I have labelled even. I am making myself a tidy work nest. It's a little bit exciting.

I look around the room today and I feel okay to let you in. I still have a whole slew of loose ends to tie up (not the least of which is possibly painting the shelves and the whole lighting issue... ) but isn't that always the way of things?

Without further ado, here it is: my basement workroom. Welcome!

♥M

P.S. By the way, when Lo and I bought this little house, the basement was a useless mess of fake brown panelling, exposed cinder blocks, wicked-scary wiring, and yucky old carpet. We've since ripped everything out, installed a beautiful new laundry room, and created this work space. Lo also built me the shelving unit. We're not quite done yet... Hello? I need trim! As usual, we hope to get it done soon...

Cleanup Cleanup

No drawing, no designing, no painting, no cutting, no stitching. None of that today! Or yesterday for that matter. Only cleaning. Just me with the dusting and the washing and the sweeping and the vacuuming. And it's finally, FINALLY having an impact on my basement workroom. Yippee! Mind you, there is still alot to do. Here is my wish list:

• Make 2 sets of curtains. 
• Paint the closet doors and trim. 
• Paint the ugly orange wall.
• Install remaining trim.
• Paint a design on the floor.
• Resurface Betty's (my sewing machine) cover.
• Put up another little shelf.
• Install all the stored pieces of wall decor.
• Install some wall hooks. 
• Get a table lamp.

Yes. Not quite done. 

But I have managed to get my storage in some kind of order. See? Here's my felt, my burlap, my quilting cotton, my batting and a few other miscellaneous supplies. You don't know what a disaster this was before! Just terrible. And oops, silly me, I forgot to take 'before' pictures. Oh well. I don't need those awful images cluttering up my brain anyway. No it's much better like this. By the way, Lo built this awesome closet for me. He's my sweetie. He's not quite done yet but progress has definitely been made lately. Oh happy me!

Here is a closeup of my quilting cottons. As it turns out, I don't have as much of it as I thought. Which is good. This pic doesn't show my cotton scrap bin though. I had to jump up and down in it a number of times yesterday to make all those little scraps fit. Not a pretty sight. I will hopefully be starting on a project soon that will use some of those babies up.

Next door we have painting and drawing supplies, adhesives, crochet cotton and cotton yarn stash, laces, ribbons, embroidery floss. Jeepers, am I spoilt or what?! WowZERS! And, of course, my little button box.

And I actually managed to fit my recyclable stash all in one big bin which I've stored under my work table. But I'll have pictures of that later. The room is still essentially a nightmare. I will show you the rest once I get it under control. Thank goodness I can see a light at the end of this dark tunnel.

Oh and one more little thing. Here is my favourite item in the whole workroom. It's my tool caddy. It sits dead centre on my worktable so I don't have to get up when I need a tool. It's got most everything I need. I scored it for pennies thrifting a couple of years ago and it's just recently come out of hiding. It is solid wood and very sturdy with a nice rotating handle. It is THE best!

Well, now it's time to actually make something... but not a mess! NO MESSES ALLOWED! Well, at least not until tomorrow anyhow. Hee hee.

Have a lovely day!