10-Things Progress: Lofty Goals

There's not a ton of storage space in my condo, but I've done a decent job of making the most of what I've got. Except one notable exception - over my stacked washer/dryer there is an open shelf, which has a few miscellaneous kitchen things on it, and above that, an 11" space that has sat empty. It's not all that easy to get to - there's a step stool involved, and sometimes I even have to monkey up onto the washer, depending on how far back the item is.

Enter: canvas storage bins. I've already got a whole family of them in my bedroom closet holding sheets, towels, ski clothes, and plenty more. Those are relatively easy to pull down whenever I need anything from them. For the space above the dryer, I decided it would have to be things I don't need all that often.


The brown/blue one has my air mattress (not much call for that these days, now that I own a pull-out sofa) and canvas drop-cloths for painting projects. The oatmeal/brown one has my box collection. Yeah that's right, I save boxes. Up until now, the collection had resided under my kitchen table. I pared it down enough to fit in the bin, and I'm very pleased with the space it has opened up!

The great thing about these (in addition to hiding my silly collections) is when I need something it's easy enough to just pull the whole bin down and rummage around. (Plus it made me limit the amount of boxes saved...always a good thing) When I first put them up there, it was a glaring intrusion in the once-empty space, but after only a couple days I was used to seeing them.

I might replace the brown one in the future with a matching oatmeal-colored one (Lowe's, $9.61), or a light blue bin I already own. There is still more space to the right of these. I may add a third bin, if I can figure out what to put in it!

Tuesday Trifecta

From the Easter bunny. Lovely happy parents. Freelance snuggler.

Inspired by the blog Orange Pattern

The Ten Things Spring Cleaning Challenge

I have a lot of stuff in my house. I use it, I swap it, give it away; I do my best to get rid of it. I've even written about these efforts before. But there's still a lot.

Now I'm cracking down.

For the month of April, I will be adhering to the Ten Things Spring Cleaning Challenge. I made it up myself, and as such, I get to make all the rules.

• - Every day, I need to put away/get rid of ten things in my house. This includes putting things in seasonal storage, packing up a craft project I'm done with, recycling the boxes I've been saving just in case.

On about Day 4, this project got harder. I had picked off all the low-hanging fruit. So I realized I needed to modify the rules a bit. (Again - my challenge, my rules.)

• -Daily chores can count - emptying the dish rack, etc (easy point each day)
• -Bigger projects have a sliding scale: sorting through magazines to recycle: 1 point. Hanging pictures: 3 points. Cleaning out the cupboard under the sink: 5 points.
• -Each week, I get one day off.
  

My goals are pretty simple: get rid of stuff I really don't need/use/want. Have more free space in my house. Have fewer things to clean around. Not end up on an episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive. (That show is upsetting)

You're welcome to play along, and even make up your own rules if you want. See? I can play nice.

I'll keep you posted.

beCAUSE Craft Show

Guess where I'll be next weekend!!

All this weekend I'm busily making more crayon roll-ups, putting the finishing touches on a few knobs, and trying to decide how best to display everything. I really hope I'll see a lot of you at the craft show next Saturday! I will be donating 75% of my profits from the day to Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sport!

Where in the world

Thanks to the magic of Google Analytics, I can see where in the country my readers are located! I've got 96% of the states - where's the love, South Dakota & Alaska?!

visited by 48 states (96%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

TIME FOR RUNNING!

(Ready, Roger?)

SUPER-FAST RUNNING TIME, GO!!

Ridiculously fast dog?

Really slow camera?
Top-secret government super-dog?
Or something completely different?
You decide.
(Hint: it's the first & second one)

Crafterday Afternoon: Roger's bedcover

For quite a while now, I've cringed every time I look over at Roger's bed in the living room. The stuffing has been worn about as flat as it can be, and has turned a permanently muddy color. Even though the cover is removable for washing, it no longer gets...clean.

When the Little Sir comes in soggy from swimming, or muddy from the dog park, he knows he's not allowed on the couch so he plops down on his bed until he's dry. Every Sunday he gnaws on his marrow bone on - you guessed it - his bed. At this point those stains are so ground in, they're never coming out.

For reference - here's what it used to look like. That didn't last long.

I decided the best solution would be to start fresh.

Last winter, the fitted sheet from my very favorite flannel sheet set "Starry Night" finally wore through. I saved it of course, because let's be honest, I can't throw anything away. It's in my genes. When winter rolled around this year, I was reminded just how fanatically Roger loves flannel sheets - nearly as much as I do. And then it hit me - the perfect use for the worn sheet would be to make Roger a bed cover!! The parts of the sheet that tuck around the mattress have no wear, there should be plenty to work with to make a removable, easily-laundered cover.

I finally launched the project this afternoon. After holding the sheet up at various angles for a while, trying to find the right angle of attack, I cut the elastic off from around the edges. I thought I might be able to use a fitted corner as a starting place, but there was so much fabric that it was hard to see how that would work. In a moment of crafting frenzy, I decided I needed to get rid of some of the excess, so I proceeded to chop out the tissue-thin middle of the sheet!

So now I had a huge loop of fabric, with still no clear path forward. I realized the whole thing would have to be patched together from the smaller, unworn edge pieces so I broke down the sheet further by ripping out the seams at all the corners, and was finally able to make some progress.

I sewed together three of the largest pieces, then attached side panels. Luckily the patchwork effort is disguised by the random nature of the pattern. The cover is open across the center of the bottom, I think I'll add buttons.

I know it'll go through the same abuse as the original cover, but at least it's a fresh start, and it'll be easier to wash!

Project: Crayon Roll-Ups

One of the gifts I most loved designing and making this year, what I've been calling "crayon roll-ups," went to three of the special children in my life: Haiden, David, and Lauren.


After seeing several similar items in craft fairs and blogs, I decided it couldn't be that hard to whip up a simple version of my own! A sweet little crayon caddy for today's young artist on the go. Plane trips, weekends at Grandma's, waiting at a busy restaurant - covered!

I started at the local craft store by picking out squares of felt in each child's favorite color, and a couple 24-packs of crayons. Of course, I already had a massive supply of fun cotton prints stored away in my closet to sort through, so that part was covered.

Normally I'm not big on projects that show off my less-than-delicate sewing. My seams tend to meander, and accurate measurement is no friend of mine. I've accepted it. But for this project, the extra effort was worth it. Most of my time was spent measuring, ironing, and re-measuring, trying to perfect the mitered corners and width of the cotton panel.

Once the slots were sewn and the crayons were in place, I had some puzzling to do. I dug into my craft chest and pulled out ribbons, buttons, elastic, hook-&-loop, and all kinds of other notions to rig up a closure.

Originally I pictured ribbons that would tie in a bow, but then remembered the recipients were still wearing Velcro shoes. Next, I thought elastic would be easier for little hands, but (a) I couldn't figure out how to sew a button hole in the elastic and (b) it looked terrible! So, I scrapped it and moved back to ribbon.

Finally I decided simple is best. I sewed a loop of ribbon long enough to reach back around and hook onto a button. And even though it looked absolutely darling, I had to replace that star-shaped button in the pictures with a classic round one. If it was tricky for me to unhook the ribbon, it would be impossible for Haiden!

Hopefully the recipients (and their parents) will enjoy using these as much as I enjoyed making them!

Wrapping it up with style, Part 2

This year I set the foundation for what I hope will become a new holiday tradition for our family: using fabric gift bags in place of wrapping paper.

A couple years ago, my Nana graciously gifted me her stash of holiday fabric, as well as a large quantity of rick-rack in several colors. She wails every time she hears I'm using it for bags - "Bags! I spent so long carefully picking out and coordinating those fabrics! $8 a yard! And you're making BAGS!" Yep, I sure am! Thanks Nana!

I set myself to work designing a simple, functional, present-able bag. And I sewed with rick-rack for the first time! It's tricky at first, but by the 2nd (or 3rd) bag, I had the hang of it.

The first batch went to my mom's siblings. I knew the size of the specific presents, but I made them big enough to be functional for many things in the future. I don't have any pictures of those because as soon as I completed them I boxed them up and mailed them to Mom to use!

After that, I made one for my friend and her family, big enough to hold all of their gifts. By the time I got to my own family, I was making custom bags for each present I was wrapping. These won't be as universally useful in the future, but good things come in small packages!

My hope is that next Christmas we will reuse these bags by sending them back and forth among our family. (Pridmore Family, are you reading this??) My mom doesn't think people will part with them, though. Perhaps I will have to add a few more into the system next year!

Wrapping it up with style, Part 1

Making our own wrapping paper has been an annual event in my family for as long as I can remember. It's a beautiful and fun way to personalize our gifts to each other and add some variety under the tree.

Mama-la-la would haul down the roll of butcher paper as my sister and I brainstormed and sketched designs to painstakingly carve into potato stamps - simple silhouettes of trees, stars, and bells.

The designs got more intricate each year, eventually including a striped candy cane, skis & boots, mittens, a scarf, and even a 2-piece stamp of a present wrapped with a bow.

Mama-la-la gets high-class with it, breaking out her stenciling skills. Personally, I stick with the classic potato stamps.

Tools:
-big potatoes
-sharp little knife
-paint and trays
-big paper

Tips:
-Draw your design with a pencil before carving it out with the knife.
-Cut a handle into the back. I learned from experience that this is a BIG help when it comes to stamping.
-Cover the stamp with paint, trim any high spots.
-PRACTICE on an extra sheet of paper. Potato + paint = slippery = smudgy prints

My 2009 Collection: