I am such a slacker...

when it comes to my blog....lol. There really hasn't been much to blog about to tell you the truth. I haven't really been doing many crafts because I can't find most of my stuff. It gets very frustrating for me. It is all still buried in the back bedroom. I think when I go in the craft room to work on it, I tend to get overwhelmed really fast and I have to just walk away.

Well, a couple of weeks ago I went out there and sat and just looked at it and thought about how it was working for me. I decided it wasn't working for me at all, and that was part of the problem. Soooo, out came the tape measure and the graph paper and I reworked the layout a bit. When I got the desk I had painted from my friend Manila last summer, I also got a big 5 foot table. I had wanted to put it in the craft room but coudn't figure out how to make it fit so it has been out on my patio as an extra table for barbecues. Well, it is in there now. I had originally wanted to keep the door clear going outside so I can open it in nice weather. Forget it. I can't get it open. I think it needs reframed and since that isn't going to happen for a while, you guessed it, that table is now in front of it. The big gray file cabinet that I was going to move to the garage is at the end of it. I had to move the Jet Max Cubes down about 8 inches for it all to fit. Since I had bought 4 more cubes that meant I didn't have room for my paper drawers at the end of them any more. I was running out of floor space along the walls!!

Easy Peasy fix. My paper drawers are now on top of the big table. Plenty of room for them and still room in front of them to work if I need it. Plus I am liking having them right in my actual work space. As an added bonus I was able to fit 4 of my BIG sterlite drawers under the table too! I didn't think I was going to be able to put any of them in the room at all and I have 8 of them. Plus there is still room to store my big scrap tote and a couple of other things under there. Of course I had to go through them and sort everything all out and put it away where I wanted it, then scrub them down before I could reuse them. EVERYTHNG is sooo dusty and dirty. Not the contents, just the containers. So now my 2 craft tables are coming off the big table instead of the white desk. I still have a U shaped workspace, which I do like, and I can actually get the door to the front of the garage open all the way now. That is important because that is going to be the storage room for all those bins of yarn and "stuff" I have in the back bedroom. I have been working out in the front of the garage too. When I recarpeted my house a few years back I took my old living room carpet and just laid it on that cement floor out there. I love it. It comes up a few inches in front of the big garage door and it keeps it sooo much cleaner in there and a heck of a lot warmer in the winter. No drafts and I don't have to walk on that cold cement. Since we rarely open the big door it works out really well. I was thinking ahead when I did it because I knew eventually that would be my storage space for my crafts. A couple of weeks ago I got the freezer and fridge out there all defrosted and cleaned out and got rid of a few things that I was storing and just plain didn't need. I have a plan for that space and it is slowly coming together too.

SOOOO, once I had everything moved where I wanted it furniture wise in the craft room, ( many thanks to my grandson DJ for helping me ) I had to go to work. I moved a lot of stuff and did a lot of rearranging, reorganizing and labeling. Then I brought 1 bin in out of the garage and started going through it. It almost overwhelmed me, but I stuck with it. I am glad I did because it was like opening a big Christmas present. About the top 1/4th of it was full of packages of brads of every shape and size known to man. I put them all in a box and set them with all the other brads and eyelets that I haven't organized yet because I KNEW I had a ton more "somewhere"...lol. Now if I could just find the cases I want to put them all in...lol. They are "somewhere" too. The rest of the bin was filled with paper packs that I didn't have any of in my paper drawers, and tons of stickers, tags, and miscellaneous embellishments. I was so proud of myself,. I dealt with every bit of it. AND scrubbed the bin down when it was empty. I am using my other 4 big sterlite drawers to sort into for right now since there is so much stuff and so many duplicates. I am putting what I am keeping in them and everything else is going in another bin that I will get rid of. I mean, c'mon, I don't really need 10 - 20 of each thing...lol. I have been doing some small RAK's to a few close friends and am doing a really big one in about 3 weeks at a Night Owl Swarm I am going to up in Denver. Those girls are going to LOVE me when I haul all this extra stuff in...lol. I am thinking I will eventually do some RAK's on this blog, but it will be a while. I want to have a lot more gone through and be a lot more organized before I will be able to.

DJ (poor kid, I put him to work every time he stops over) came by one day last week and I had him move the TV over onto the white desk and also bring a few things out of the back bedroom. Since I moved the paper drawers I had room in the corner for this big barrel I have full of rolls of wrapping paper. It is not a wooden barrel. More like a really thick cardboard with a silver band at the top and bottom. Eventually I am going to decoupage it with scraps of wrapping paper. I also have a smaller one I use as a trash can in the craft room that I am going to decoupage with pictures out of this Country Life magazine my Mom subscribed me to. It has some really pretty pictures in it but I don't really read them. I might as well use the pictures so I won't feel so bad when it comes time to toss all those magazines out. DJ also brought 2 smaller sets of the sterlite drawers out, so today I went through them, sorted everything and scrubbed the drawers all down. They mostly had all my crochet hooks and knitting needles, sewing supplies, some doll making supplies and a lot of miscellaneous craft supplies. All that took me most of the day so now I am getting ready to move it all out of my kitchen and start putting it where it goes. Since I already had my needlework section pretty much organized everything already has a home,

I almost have the end of my kitchen table cleaned off too. It was full of jars of bows, and just "stuff" I was sorting out a while back. I am going to put all the jars on the Jet Max Cubes since I moved all my Cricut carts, mats and tools off of them into a drawer of the big gray file cabinet. I am taking the leaf out of the table since I am not going to be using it to sort any more. I can actually see my hutch in my living room again now too...lol. I have had them big drawers stacked in front of it for a long time and I no sooner got them gone through and everything put away than DJ put  the smaller ones there that I went through today. After this everything will go straight to the craft room to be cleaned and sorted. My tables are all cleared off so there is room out there to do it now. I am tired of trying to clean around all this and my house looking like crap in general...lol. I am reclaiming my living space.

So, that is what I have been doing the last few weeks. I have decided I am going to dedicate my weekends to the craft room and the rest of the week to the rest of my house. I am probably going to be spending some afternoons out there too. I have decided I need to get through the bins that are already in the garage first since I need the space to move the ones I want to store there. There are only about 10 or so and not all of them are crafts. My Granddaughter Tiana is going to love me, and her mother hate me, when I give her those 2 bins full of Beanie Babies and Buddies...lol. She is an animal fanatic so I think she will enjoy them and take care of them. She is 7 so I am hoping so anyways. I spent a lot of money on all of them at one time. I also know there are 2 bins of papers and just junk that will mostly go in the trash or the shredder. And "somewhere"  ( there is that word again...lol ) is a bin full of my Xyron refills that I have been wanting and a bin full of Zig markers. Or maybe they are all in the same bin. I am not sure any more. I know one bin has more scrapping stuff in it because it was the one I was originally looking for. The rest of the bins are anyones guess. More Christmas pressies....lol. I hope.