Progress Around Here

Hey -- stuff is happening! 

When was the last time I actually basted anything!? I honestly don't even know -- but I'm certain it's been a very long time.

We've rearranged the house, again, which gave me a working wall in the play area. So far, totally worth the effort.

Now if only I could find a shorter couch -- or one the cat will be less interested in shredding. Or both...

When I'm Not Posting...

I'm trying to work on piecing those delicious Ombre Blocks right now, but I keep being distracted by what I call 'real life.'

The kitchen re-do is coming along. The pantry came home on Monday afternoon -- and I'm slowly working on getting the dishes out of my bedroom and back into the kitchen. It's becoming one of those annoying/wonderful projects where it seems like every piece I put into the kitchen means a little tweak of organization and a little bit more of a puzzle for later. That entertains me greatly, but it's also very time consuming.

Because I'm organizing the kitchen -- which will eventually lead to reorganizing the living room -- I'm also organizing everywhere else. It just boils over into every other room. It's not ideal -- finishing one room at a time would be better, right? -- but it's kind of fun.

Organizing is part finding the right home for things, part getting rid of things I don't actually use.

Above is a rather shady representation of most of the baby clothes my kiddo has worn from size 6 month to size 24 month. Not all -- I already sent some of the best stuff off to a friend. I ultimately donated 6 of the diaper sized boxes worth of clothes. I kept 1 of the green bins stuffed full of things in case another friend has another child. I have two much smaller piles for two other friends, and a very small pile of 'sentimental' pieces. But a whole lot of it went off to a clothing bank.

Whew -- that cleared up a whole lot of space in the kiddo's closet!

While I was digging around in there, I also started working on another project: trying to organize what's coming up in the kiddo closet. I have some hand-me-downs and some 'oh, it's on clearance!' pieces waiting for the kiddo to grow into them. Problem is, I end up shopping with no idea what else I already have in that size.

There are some digital closet organization apps (did you know that? I didn't!), but I went with a simple solution:

These quick cell phone snaps of the various piles, with tiny scribbled notes, help me keep tabs on what I've got and what I need. That 3T pile is looking pretty good -- lots of long sleeve shirts (more than fit in the photo) but no shorts and only 3 short sleeve tops. In addition to the photos, I typed up a quick memo on my phone with the numbers of long sleeve, short sleeve, pants, shorts, coats, and other items per size. So now I have a quick visual of the amounts and colors, as well as a more detailed count.

I'm pretty thrilled with this quick solution, and I think it's going to save me a lot of wondering as I'm shopping the clearance racks and sales.

My other organization steps so far aren't digital -- chalk board labels abound -- but I'm having a blast doing it, and most of it is much easier to accept kiddo style help!

Then again, kiddo style help with some sewing is beginning to work better too...

Throw Back

Google Assistant just popped up to remind me of what I was doing three years ago today. 

That seems like a life - time ago --- and I suppose as a mother of a 1.5 year old, it kind of is!

Although just about everything else in the picture has left my house, the chair and my very favorite star burst block are still here and still together.

I'm not sure how long that will be the case though.

This chair has gone from being my sewing and computer chair to sitting at the kitchen table.

It's by far the prettiest one there. One of the others badly needs recovered, while the other is all wood (and holds a constantly sticky high chair). I don't mind that the three don't match.

But knowing that one needs recovered, it is tempting to make the two covers match a little more. Then again, the above chair isn't the sturdiest, so it might end up being replaced -- in which case I'm keeping the cover (though what I'll do with it is a mystery).

Seeing how much cleaning the kiddo's chair needs daily, I'm tempted to at least replace both other seat covers with something easier to clean than cloth.

I don't know if it's a new year thing, a spring cleaning thing, a parent to a toddler thing, or something else entirely, but it's time to simplify again.

The kitchen is getting a major redo, the organization is shifting into high gear, and I'm about to start another heavy duty purge of the house to get rid of things I'm just hanging on to for no real reason.

With the kitchen in disarray right now, it's easy to begin a list of things I expect will be leaving soon. The master closet / storage area is going to be tackled in the next month or two. And I suspect we're going to completely rearrange the living room / office -- which will be another great change to go through everything.

I'm also picking away on a new little project. Because it's more fun to sew than baste. And more fun to sew than organize (sometimes). It's not quite going as I'd hoped, so not pictures of the real deal yet, but it is nice to have a little project I can interrupt a dozen or more times a block without getting completely off track.

Chaos... in a good way?

I bought the solid white fabric I needed. But I couldn't bring myself to purchase solid browns to go with my scrappy top. The fabrics were wrong, and frankly, the thought of buying fabric I didn't absolutely have to went so against my 'buy less' plan that I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

That said, what I did instead might have been a big mistake.

I have bolts of yardage purchased when a fabric store was relocating. And several of those bolts are mostly brown -- so it seemed like a win-win. Use fabric I already have, spend less, still accomplish the goals all around.

I didn't figure on how loud dots can be.

I fought wind and snow to get this much of a photo, so it's going to have to do.

And truthfully, I think it looks better in the photo than it did in my mind's eye... so maybe it isn't quite as bad as I thought... But in person, I'm afraid it's a bit overwhelming.

The brown dot on white is printed at a bit of a slant, so if the fabric is straight, the print isn't. That makes working with it in large pieces an extra challenge.

In person, I'd have said the brown/white was okay and the brown/orange was not. In these photos, I kind of feel the other way...

And there's a lot of the dotty fabrics -- though of course I could cut it down a little. I probably will. I was aiming for a generous baby size, and wound up with about a twin! Since I'd like the scraps to go back to being the focus, cutting it down might be the 'right' choice. But, I'm going to let it percolate a while before I decide.



Obviously my mind was not on my work. But I'm going to let it rest for a few days and perhaps I will like it better next time I look at it.

Where was my mind? Somewhere between a toddler who desperately wants to be outside and does not understand the concept of 'too cold' and the kitchen re-do project. I did the math last night and I'm removing about 11 cabinets and putting in 3 (1 base, 1 upper, 1 pantry). I'll eventually also put in some other 'pantry' style storage, a small island on wheels, and a china hutch type piece.

It feels like a whole lot is going out -- and it is -- but I really think we're going to gain a lot more usability. We're losing 6 drawers -- but 2 of them used to fall out and crush toes, and 1 hasn't worked right since we got the new stove. Three of the cabinets were corner pieces accessible only through other cabinets or from the living room instead of the kitchen. Hopefully we're correcting a lot of issues... but it's a lot of work and a lot of guesswork right now!

Another Home Update

This one is probably even less interesting to anyone else, but I have to brag a little and I don't think I've done it yet.

Our little house is on the lot backwards, so instead of walking into the living room, guests have no choice but to enter at our laundry room. This is not ideal, but it's nothing we're able to control right now.

Initially, the laundry room was two side-by-side machines and a single open shelf -- which collected a bunch of our stuff, but was disorganized, ugly, and just a mess to welcome people.

Before:

Ugh. I do not miss that look.

For a few months, we lived with a temporary fix that in retrospect wasn't too much better...

Yeah. We just covered it with a curtain. Okay, it was a little less messy to walk into... but it still wasn't good.

After a few months of hunting, we finally turned up some stacking machines in our price range (thank you craigslist) and did a machine swap. This gave us basically half the laundry room for machines, and half for a new storage cabinet.

After/Now:

My amazing father built this storage unit from one of my rough sketches and it is perfect. The three upper cabinets each are just large enough for a laundry bin (one for baby stuff, one for towels, one for our clothes), with room to store things on one side as well as behind the baskets. There table portion you can see just at the bottom of the picture is on glides and actually rolls back into the cabinet when we're not using it for folding or stain treating. Under that is a big cubby that holds the litter box and a trash can.

(True, entering the house to a litter box isn't the nicest feeling either -- but this means we were able to get a dining table, so for us the trade off is worth it. It also means we clean it more regularly, which I'm sure the cat is appreciating too.)

I'm in love with the storage unit -- and I'm managing to fold the laundry directly from the dryer, so no more massive piles of clean laundry just waiting for attention. This has been a complete change in how we do laundry, but it is such an improvement. Thanks Dad!

Later
Having lived with this a few more months, I'm even more in love with it. The clean laundry isn't getting folded quite as quickly as it should be, but this still keeps us organized, and gives a central place for keeping clean spit rags and swaddle blankets for the babe. The curtain is still balled up at the top of the shelves -- only because I haven't had the time to take it away. There is just enough room between the machines and the shelving unit to store our air drying rack -- on the rare times when we put it away; these days it spends most of the time outside drying diapers! 

I thought I was making the laundry room better for the sake of our entryway looking better, but now that I'm doing 2+ loads of laundry a day, I realize that I did it for me. Fortunately, it worked out for both looks and functionality. Woohoo! 

Some House / Nursery Updates

I think it's been a while since I've posted anything about the changes we've been making around the house... and since I'm still not up to basting that panda quilt, I guess this is about all I've got to share for the moment!

Master Bedroom Changing Area:

Finding frames for these two pieces of art (okay, a piece of art and a puzzle) was a bigger issue than it should have been -- and we wound up going with things that don't quite fit because we didn't want to bother going custom -- but we've finally got the changing area set up finalized. I'm sure this will change somewhat as we actually use it, and at some point it'll move out of our bedroom, but for the moment, one more thing crossed off the list!

The art, Purrmaids print by ArtbyVW via etsy, is something I bought pre-pregnancy. So whether it's for me or the baby is still up for debate, but I'm still so happy to finally have it up on the walls. It reminds me of my favorite kids' book, The Color Kittens -- which I'd always hoped to use as inspiration for a nursery back when I thought I would have lots of time and space and energy to make one work! -- and the print just makes me happy every time I see it. The puzzle -- which I couldn't get a great shot of thanks to all the glare pouring in from our bedroom window -- is a Ravensburger puzzle called the College of Magical Knowledge which was a gift to my husband. We knew we wanted to assemble it and hang it in the nursery, but for the moment, it looks pretty good over the changing table.

My homemade mobile -- which has not held up to this spring and summer's massive humidity uptake -- is looking a little wilted from the side, but the important view still seems to be working:

I've read that high contrast simple shapes will be interesting for the first few months, so for starters, we're trying this. I figure the height needs adjusted, but again, that'll happen once we're actually using the space.

The two open shelves are actually vertical planters we're stacking diapers in... but I think they work -- and they aren't too heavy, good news for both our walls and any future incidents! Hidden just over Momo's head is the very first thing we intentionally bought for the baby, about the time we decided we would try going on this adventure:

A rather rustic looking winged pig lamp. It's sort of our way of acknowledging my old answer of 'when pigs fly.' It's another thing that might never make it to the actual nursery, but it makes me laugh -- and these days, laughter is pretty important.

Almost a New Room

I've been thinking about rearranging my office / sewing space for a long time. I don't think of myself as the kind of person who needs to rearrange the house every few months, but things need to find their right place before they can settle in and stay that way for ages. My office space has just never found that order.

I'm still not sure it has, but it is different...

With the help of my patient husband, we flipped the big desk units from the longer wall to the shorter wall. The gain was floor space -- with the sewing desk on one edge instead of in the center of the room, things feel larger even if they really aren't. The loss? Well, I'd say the biggest issue is that I now spend most of my time facing away from the window (which is next to the ocean painting). Before I could at least see the window if I was sewing (though it required about a half-rotation if I was at the computer), now it's a half-rotation from the sewing station and a quarter from the desk, but it feels farther than that. It also seems a little creepy to have the big dark window just over my right shoulder at night -- but I'll probably adjust to that.

My hope had been to set things up with the sewing station on the far side and the file cabinets on the near side, but that is backwards for my sewing machine and I didn't want to be fighting fabric into the desk's cubby when I could turn things as they are now and have the extra fabric drape off the desk into open space.

There's enough room before the corner for a little bit of storage space. Right now I've got a lamp there, but I think I'll end up moving that and putting my plastic drawers of flannel and minky fabric in the opening instead. That should help open the 'entry' area -- and mean no more moving things around before I can drop my over the door ironing board!

I'm still not sure this is the way things belong, but I'm going to take some time to adjust to the new-ish space. I am really enjoying the new sewing set up, and the more open floor space, it's more the computer area that just doesn't feel right yet. Moving the lamp to the darker side of the room should help a little too.

Oh -- and, one surprise gain in the process is that I now have a space that might be workable as a small design wall. I'm not sure that's something I need -- I might use it for basting small projects instead -- or there's a chance I'll find some more art to fill the space instead -- but I'm excited about the possibilities. In a house like this one -- with ugly walls I have coated in pictures and art -- a bare bit of wall is a rarity and I want to make sure I use this one to it's full potential!

Practice Tree

Since we have two houses to decorate this year, we splurged and went for a larger tree than the one we used last year. I know, every year I say I've found the one -- and I'm still not 100% convinced we've made the right choice, but for now, we're going to go with it. And next year, I refuse to purchase another one!

With two places to decorate, and me being a little bit of a control freak planner, I thought we should go ahead and assemble the new one, throw on a few decorations, and make sure we're really happy with how it all comes together.

I also used this as an opportunity to check how the gifts we've purchased so far fit in my expanded collection of drawstring bags. Conclusion: I need to make a few more, but I'm close to done.

I was happily surprised to learn that the lights, which in the store were blue, red, green, and yellow, can also shine in all white. That took swapping the red/yellow lights for clear right off the list. I might do it someday -- my goal is to have a blue and white light scheme -- but right now I'm pretty satisfied with the clear/white colors.

The tree is still looking a little scant, I know. We're not going too all out just yet -- in part because we'll be moving this larger tree to the other house in a couple weeks, but mostly because we are testing Momo. He's never been around a tree this large, nor has he ever really had the opportunity to mess with our decorations -- we usually put them well out of his reach just to avoid this test. So, we're skipping the breakable things for the moment.

I'd call it a successful practice. Can't wait to finish up all the details -- though I think I might keep this one fairly simple and leave all my favorite things at home this year. Minimizing damage to the important ornaments, probably a good step in Low Stress December!

Shinier... If Still a Mess

I spent most of last weekend just being grateful for the time off - and now that I'm back in the heavy and hard swing of the week, I'm all the more grateful for the time I had to get a few things done around here before life got so intense again. I didn't manage to accomplish everything I wanted, but I did get a lot done - in many 5 intensive increments pieces between tons of other, less interesting stuff.

So, here's where I am today.

Office:

1. Finish the 2011-2013 photo book
2. Shut down the old computer for the last time
3. Put old computer parts into storage/reuse piles
4. Move the new computer in the computer nook
5. Temporary new computer area now becomes sewing storage 
1. Trying to decide if this will work or if I want to go back to the temporary way. It takes me a while to adapt to changes, even changes I'm in charge of deciding to try, and I'm still going back and forth on whether I like this or not. One of the great things about having my own space right now is that I can rearrange as many times as I need and no one else is impacted.  
6. Rearrange base cabinet storage
7. Clear off black baker's rack (currently holding batting, books, and stuffed animals) and remove from office
8. Sweep and mop all floor
9. Move cedar chest and place lamp in corner of office
10. Rearrange/purge in closet so there's storage space for computer parts as needed
11. Begin re-hanging art and spool storage as needed 

Kitchen:

Former fabric storage baker's rack is new pantry space

1. Swap old gas stove for newer electric (big project, in progress)
2. Move trash and litter box* to temporary homes
3. Bring black baker's rack from office to kitchen
4. Swap pantry items, bookshelf items into baker's rack
5. Take pantry (a small armoir style desk) and bookshelf out of kitchen (possibly to office?) 
6. Put litter box where old pantry was
7. Begin re-hanging art
8. Find home for trash can!!! -- Still floating around the middle of the kitchen. Very annoying. 
9. Consider painting revealed wood panel wall??
10. Invest in a larger, corner style litter box

Bedroom:

Dresser rearranging - more drawer than ever before

1. Empty white dresser onto bed
2. Move white dresser to other side of bed
3. Empty childhood dresser at parents' house
4. Move childhood dresser to my side of bed
5. Refill with my stuff
6. Empty Greg's dresser into white dresser, overflow into childhood dresser as needed
7. Determine we have to get another cat hiding spot before we get rid of now empty dresser
8. Start shopping 

Other: 

1. Attend local quilt festival? 
2. Attend family reunion
3. Cook something for family reunion
4. Laundry
5. Get some quilting done! 

Obviously there's still a few major steps waiting to get done, or minor things that feel major. The trashcan issue is just one little piece, but it is throwing the whole kitchen into disarray. Aside from that, the new pantry area is working really well - though I'll have to dust a little more than I used to - and even having the litter box in the kitchen seems to be working out (no accidents since we brought home the corner unit anyway).

One of the biggest issues is finding a new cat power spot for the bedroom. Momo does really rely on being able to hide under the dresser we're ready to give to my parents in exchange for my childhood dresser. I hate to remove something he relies on so much. On the other hand, he also has been using the chairs on either side of the dresser as scratching posts (every single night) and I am ready to do just about anything to put a stop to that (even if it means giving away two of my very favorite chairs). The two issues alone aren't huge, but they do feed each other and wind up pushing us towards a large, cat centered purchase (or possible diy) very, very soon. I for one am tired of waking up to the sound of claws shredding velvet style upholstery.

All apparent progress aside, I haven't done a thing around the house since Monday morning final touches on the pantry area. It could use another couple days off of attention, followed by daily maintenance. I know the last few weeks have gotten me out of the habit of daily housework,but I have got to get back into it. 

* Why is there a litter box in the kitchen? Good question. Despite that very expensive clean bill of health we got on Momo last week, things are not all good in the litter box department. Unfortunately, we learned this after he chose the least water-proof area of our new flooring to use instead of the box (leading to that part of the flooring floating more than we'd like and 'thunking' back into place every time it's stepped on. I'm hopeful it'll dry out and be okay... removing enough flooring to try to do anything there would basically require redoing the entire living room. This is why you want to attach your trim all the way around the room instead of assuming it's okay 'floating' in a couple places where attaching it is harder). Since there isn't room in the guest bath for his litter box, the only place left with old laminate flooring is the kitchen, so we've all been adjusting. I don't think anyone likes it, but it's a lot easier to clean. 

New Sewing Room - In Progress

Last time I showed a picture of my work space, I think it looked something like this:

Which was colorful and fun, but honestly didn't really function as I needed it to. Any time I really needed to work on the sewing machine, I had to pull the desk into the center of the room to get enough space around it to work. This wasn't a huge problem, but it wasn't the most convenient either. Walking around the room was sometimes dangerous thanks to cords and cables all over when the machine was in the center of the room.

I'd been looking at building some storage cabinets and a little desk that would run along the wall with the window there, but I hadn't found anything both easy to build and affordable, so I was figuring on visiting Ikea for ideas (or possibly some purchases) later on this summer.

That all got set to the side when I got emailed a craigslist ad last week. A few hours later, I had the pieces to a very different office set up sitting in the back of two borrowed SUVs. It took a few hours just to get the pieces into the house, and I'm still a long ways from fully functional or staged, but check out my new situation!

The ocean painting hasn't been moved - though it will be eventually, as I figure out where everything needs to be - so that gives an idea of the differences. It looks tight between the cedar chest (under the painting) and the desk, but there's about 20 inches. The eventual goal is to have the new computer off the desk (and set up in the last cubby where the basically dead computer tower is) so that the desk top will be the sewing space. I can store my sewing machine, iron, and serger all in the center cubby right next to the table top (or leave them on the desk top as needed), and I still have a third set of drawers/shelves nearest the doorway that I'm working on filling up.

The gap between the first two units is to allow for the heat register. I would like to have set up on one of the other two walls, but for now that's not a possibility thanks to the closet door. At some point I may rearrange enough that I can move these units to the short wall, but I'm not sure that allows enough space for anything else in the rest of the room.

Almost all of my fabric stash is stored on the two shelves over the sewing machine opening - though for now my vintage sheet collection is under the old computer (because that base cabinet has doors). The open cabinet under the desk is currently holding two of my scrap bins and my notions box. I figure at some point I'll get a couple more bins, baskets, or boxes so I can make better use of the bottom shelf - but for now the open shelf is working well for Momo exploration. Over the computer opening are my books and cds (because I'm reluctant to move over to digital download, and I see no reason to get rid of the small collection I already have). The cabinet pairing nearest the door holds most of my computer desk goodies in the top (notebooks, cables, old digital cameras, and other things I don't want to see, but don't want to get rid of) while the bottom drawers (designed to be used as file cabinets) are great for holding quilts and other projects I'm working on.

It's hard to see in my photos (though somewhat noticeable on the file cabinet base above), but there is some damage to every piece. Most of the damage is minor, but I couldn't have bought or built anything better for the $100 this cost me. And honestly, a little bit of damage makes it easier to use these as a real work surface than constantly worry about babying them or keeping them from getting damaged!

The old computer desk, old sewing desk, and my lovely green china hutch have all left the room for good. If I had a larger space, I'd have worked to find a new home for the hutch, but there just wasn't a space and it wasn't worth trying to store. At the moment, this room is down to my new 7 piece desk/storage unit, the cedar chest, and the black baker's rack (visible in the 'before' picture). My goal is to eventually clear off and replace the baker's rack (which is about .25 inch too deep and keeps the closet door from opening as wide as I'd like), but it'll take a while to figure out how to make those changes. The cedar chest is probably staying put for the foreseeable future, and it looks like my old office chair will be staying as a window seat for Momo - at least for now. I still love that chair, but it needs some wood glue or something before it can be a human chair (our new flooring is slick enough it just slides apart under much weight/movement).

I do miss having my sewing machine inset in my work surface, so I'm looking at larger plates or possibly a surface I can set on top of the table top (I don't want to cut in to it), but all in all the space is significantly more functional and pleasant. I can't wait to get everything in the right place so I can concentrate on brightening things up a little more. The dark cherry tones of the new furniture does make the room feel darker than the old green hutch did, but I'm hoping that some art and hooking up another lamp or two will make up for that.


--
Woah - I thought I shared this last week. I've been working on finishing up the space. I hope to have it fully in working order by mid-August. Things are slightly more organized now than they were, but not enough to be worth a real update until I'm done. I have moved the sewing machine to the center of the desk (shoving the two computers off to under the shelves) and am attempting to remember how to sew on a machine that sits up from the work surface instead of even with it... My shoulders are so sore - I'm really feeling the difference!

Ugly Secret

The house we're currently living in has a few issues. Some of the more minor issues - like the ancient carpeting and the old toilets - we've been able to fix, but some of the more major issues are beyond an easy fix. One of my greatest annoyances with the house is that it was put on the property backwards. The front door - which opens into the living room - is all the way around the house from where anyone would park. Of course, at this point even if a person were to know that they should circle the house to get to the 'right' door, they wouldn't be able to between overgrown pathways and the stairs to the door being broken.

Instead of battling this - or wandering the waist high grasses hoping to find a 'front' door, everyone goes to what appears to be the front door: just a few feet from the parking area/driveway, nice welcoming porch, patio furniture on the porch, door bell on the side of the door. There's really no choice but to use it - if only it opened up anywhere else in the house...

Welcome to my laundry room - and the worst storage we have.

Not exactly a welcoming sight, I know. And that's after three rounds of purging (this year) and several attempts at reorganizing to make things a little more appealing. It just doesn't work.

Although in the long run, it might be worth it to replace the single shelf with a couple cabinets - as doors and multiple shelves could really help our storage needs while still being relatively attractive - at this point, that's kind of beyond my ability. So, looking for a short cut, we found a tension rod that's long enough to span the 61.5 inch opening.

Initially, we had planned on using a mounted closet rod for the sturdiness, but ultimately we wanted to go with something requiring a little less commitment - and something that wouldn't damage the walls on the off chance that Momo somehow pulled on the curtain.

I turned a flat sheet into a quick curtain, trimmed and hemmed it to the size I wanted, and within about 15 minutes we have an improved laundry / entry space.

It's not ideal, and I figure we'll make more changes down the line, but for now, I'm just happy not to be staring at all those boxes every single time I come into the house - or walk through the hallway there.

After a week of living with it, I was beginning to think that it wasn't that great of a change: it's a little bulky, it makes the space seem a little smaller, all kinds of negativity. Yesterday I had pulled the curtain more open while I was doing laundry, and happened to come into the house from outside while it was pulled out of the way and I am now even more firm in my opinion that while it's not ideal, it is so much better than seeing all the boxes. As a temporary fix (that might not be so temporary), I think this is going to work very well.

Nearly Back on Track

Replacing the carpeting in our house has taken a huge chunk out of my month - and so has the massive amount of sorting and purging we've done over the last four weeks - but the results have been completely worthwhile.

In the last two months, the living room has gone from this:

To this:

To this:

Do you see all that space!? Such an improvement on the old space - I swear I'm in love every time I walk through that room.

The living room isn't the only major change around here. Since we really purged down, we were able to rearrange the other rooms as well.

Remember the office, that room I've fought with since the day we moved in? Well, it went from a disaster more or less like this:

and this: 

To something significantly more soothing:

and 

Which might lead you to suspect that our little room had an equally great transformation.
From tight and messy quarters:

To an office just for me - which today looks something like this:

There's still some finishing work to do in the bedroom and office - like installing the rest of the quarter round trim where the walls meet the floors - and probably a little more tweaking with the office layout, but it is so much better I just can't keep it to myself anymore. The house feels significantly larger (and not just because of the flooring, taking out that much excess stuff really helped too) and cleaner in ways I don't even want to get in to. The process was horrible -- I'll spare you the 'during' pictures -- but I couldn't be happier with the results.

I've barely done any sewing or quilting since the rearranging process began (about four weeks ago) but as soon as I'm finished typing this I intend to turn on the machine and make some progress on a few things that are waiting for attention! And - I figure nothing will give me better ideas for how to re-arrange my office better than using it. So far I've only been using the desk and the charging station I've set up on the black shelving unit (near the Game of Thrones books and my iron) - which is working fairly well - but I haven't given the sewing desk placement nearly enough use to know if it's going to work.

Hopefully now that we've just got some trim to install over the weekends, I might be able to get back into the swing of sewing and quilting - especially since the 'new baby on the way' announcements in my friends group just don't seem to be coming to a stop any time soon!

Quiet but Very Busy

I've been spending all my free time the last two weeks working hard getting the nasty green carpet out of here - and replacing it with something significantly nicer.

We're five hours into the last - and largest - room. I cannot wait to get my house a little bit back to normal - living in construction zone has not been easy. I'm not even sure I know where the power cord to my sewing machine is...

Spring Cleaning Plus Plus

I'm holding nothing back today. It's not going to be gory or gross; I'm just a little embarrassed to share these very unedited and uncropped photos of how we've been living...

Long story short - we're coming up on our fourth year of living in what was supposed to be a very temporary place. The goal was always to stay here a year or two, get some savings, then get a bigger place. Well, despite over two years of chasing after bigger places - from buying a house, to moving a bigger place in here, to building, to getting a giant metal dome and building a house inside it somehow - we're realistically no closer to getting out of here than we were two years ago. Sure, we've got some paperwork filled out, we have a Realtor, and we're in talks with a builder - but none of those steps feel like progress. And every one of those steps has been painfully difficult and fraught with what feels like a hundred things to stub our toes on.

Earlier this week we ran face first into yet another of those stumbling blocks - and I just couldn't take it any more. Nothing seeks to be going the right way for us to get out of here, and I'm tired of living such a temporary-don't-toss-that-we-might-need-it-when-we-move-don't-decorate-we-won't-be-here-long-just-live-with-toilets-that-require-opening-the-tank-to-flush-because-fixing-them-is-out-of-the-question-after-three-failed-attempts-and-you-know-the-second-we-install-working-ones-we'll-get-word-we're-able-to-move-life. While I desperately want to pop the oh-so-hated seam covers off the walls (if you've been in an older modular/trailer, you probably know what I'm talking about), cover every inch of this hideous faux-wallpaper in primer, then drown the walls in paint colors I like -- I settled for going on a major purge of the house.

Do I love this? Is it sentimental? Is it valuable? Is it something I've used in the last 4 months? If none of the above, it pretty much went out the window. I can't say the house is down to only the things I love most or the most useful things, but there is a whole lot less being stored in precious inches of extra space just in case we need it down the road. I might regret being so harsh if we ever do move, but unless miracles happen, that'll be so far down the road I just can't live for that day any more.

Ready for the bad and the ugly? I can't promise there's much 'good' - but what's happening now is certainly better, even if it is still 'in progress' and a long ways from either an 'after' or a 'done.'

Here's the office/sewing room/library before.

Looks messy and cramped? Yeah, it was. We each had 32 inches for our chairs at our desks, and I had another 32 x 30 space for my chair when I was at the sewing table - but that was it for free space. We basically had a walkway through the room to the bathroom and desks, but every other inch was filled with furniture. Since my fabric stash didn't all fit on the black baker's rack right inside the door, I had stacks of projects on every possible surface (except Greg's desk and chair).

Now:

Obviously the rug needs a vacuum (what's new) but look at how much space between the back of my sewing desk (left edge of the first picture with the denim sewing machine cover on it) and Greg's dresser (which doesn't fit in our bedroom no matter what we do). We've gone from 32 inches or less there to 60 inches. It is only 44 between the dresser and the bookcase - at the lower left edge of the same picture, but still, it feels like way more room! The black baker's rack went to another room, which freed up space for the dresser on that wall. The most exciting change of all though was taking the two big bookcases out and bringing in the green hutch for all my fabrics and projects.

How much better is that!?

Most of my stash of cotton/quilting fabrics fits on the top shelf and a half - though minky, bolts, and my box of fabric from my grandmother and great-grandmother (mostly fashion polyester, but I'm not willing to part with it) are in other places. Almost the entire bottom shelf is dedicated to projects I'm currently working on, with a little stack of further out but already sorted projects on the top right (Christmas stuff mostly).

Part way through I reorganized so my iron, as well as a red box of other in progress (but not right now) projects had a better home. The other cubby is full of vintage sheets. I should really use more of those...

And since making this many changes in the office impacted other rooms in the house, here's what happened in the living room:

Both the bookcases and the piano are going to be so much more accessible now than they were. I've already used both more times in the last 24 hours than previously this month -- and not just while moving everything over! You can barely see it in the first before photo, but off to the left of the piano wall there's a hallway that leads to the room we use for sleeping (which contains our king size bed centered with 12 inches of walkway on either side and not much else). Surprisingly, this whole hallway feels better and bigger now when we walk out to the piano music stand rather than the side of the hutch -- even though the music stand is closer to the opening! I've lost track of how many hours this took, more than six, but rehanging all those pictures took about an hour in this room alone!

I'm exhausted and the whole project has taken several days just to get to this 'in progress' point - but I am feeling so much better about living here another few months (or years, if I have to). The house feels a good 12 feet bigger overall - and in this small of a place (with this much junk), that's huge.

Now, I'm off to finish a book and enjoy my improved living room!

Little Changes

Last week we had to say "goodbye" to the rug that's been in my house/s for about eight years. It was a wonderful dining room rug in my previous place - but it struggled to work in our living room. Between the constant traffic creating rug-fur-bunnies of epic proportions and the additional dangers of spills and stains, it was already struggling to keep up with our needs. And over the weekend, things happened to the rug that cannot be undone, despite our attempts.

We're all fine. There was a little issue with 'do not leave candles unattended.' Apparently, sometimes reading a book three feet away needs to count as 'unattended.' So, negligence led to a great deal of bright red wax ending up in the rug - and absolutely nothing we tried would get it out without bringing pieces of the backing and rug fibers along for the ride. 

Although we had figured this loss would mean living with the horrid old green carpet underfoot for a few weeks while we searched Craigslist for a more suitable replacement, there was actually another rug sitting in my parents' garage just looking for a home.

It's not a pattern I would have chosen out of all the choices in the world - but it was the right price, the right colors for our orange chairs and yellow/pine-ish entertainment center, and oh my is it nice on the bare feet. It is about half the size of the old rug, so instead of resting under the coffee table and rug area, we're concentrating on using it between the entertainment center and the coffee table - so covering the greatest expanse of green carpet anywhere in the house and giving us all somewhere comfortable to sit when there aren't enough chairs in the living room.

Momo spent the first three hours rolling all over it. I think that's a good sign.

I finally finished up a bag I started months ago.

Nothing fancy - but lined (with one interior pocket - to coordinate with the three exterior 'windmill' pockets) and usable. And already taken to the library and shopping.

The other changes around here are less noticeable. Two weeks ago we rearranged some of the wall hangings - and although we knew it happened and thought the changes were better, it took our weekly guests two weeks to notice. Three days ago, I hung a new piece of 'art' (a page from a torn up book) in the hallway.

No one - including the other person who lives here - has noticed yet. I think perhaps we have too much on the walls...

The chalk board message and drawing are also mine. Greg not only has better drawing skills, he has much better handwriting. The chalkboard usually holds 'to do' lists and 'I love you' messages. We're pretty sappy sometimes. 

Most of our other changes really aren't worth talking about - mostly boring cleaning or getting ready for cooler weather kinds of changes. I'm still wishing winter weren't coming soon, but we're attempting to get ready for it. Next change to come? Caulking the window where the cold air leaks in all winter!

Small Project Marathon

I had a fairly light day at work - and a gift card burning a hole in my pocket. So I hit up JoAnns, and then spent an evening watching Harry Potter movies out of the corner of my eye and playing around with two little projects.

First:
I have to show off my new purchase. I have no idea what I'll do with it - and I already broke this year's rule of only buying fabric I have plans for - but I could not leave it behind!

My picture doesn't do it justice. Trust me. It's adorable. I have no idea what I'll use it for - maybe the back of a baby quilt? - but it was too darling to ignore.

Second:
Also purchased at the same time:

I did have a plan for these little Owl Chefs - and I started on that immediately upon returning home.

For the last 2+ years, our curtains in the kitchen have looked something like this:

Which worked. Much better than the mini blinds that were there when we moved in (they fell off the wall the first time I tried to use them and I never felt like I should put them back up). And while I still think these are cute towels, we've both been searching for the next look for this window for a while.

I can be certain that any time my husband comes with me to a fabric store, he will go down the rows after me and point out anything he likes. He has yet to miss a fabric that contains owls. So, when he spotted the little cooking/baking owls, I figured that would fit the space as well as anything else we'd seen.

Within an hour of being home with my new fabric, I had measured the space, cut the owl fabric and a white solid fabric, sewn them together, and had them hanging in the window.

Again, it's not easy to take photos at night, but I think even so you'll see it's an improvement over the towels!

I'm not going to be a morning person, but I'm actually eager to get up tomorrow morning and see how these look with some sunlight behind them!

Edited to add morning photos: 

I do expect they'll fade a little over time, and if they ever need washed I'll first need to run a top stitch all the way around to close the opening where I turned them outside out, but they make me happy - and I think that's the whole point of kitchen decorations. Okay, I suppose some people might want curtains for privacy reasons too... but happiness is still high on the list around here!

Third:
Fresh off my success from the curtains, I started a book mini quilt. Twice. Even though there are tutorials, even ones I have linked to and ought to have clicked over to, I thought I could wing it. Twice. My first attempt was a little cuter - but by the end not only were the books all looking more like magazines (way too skinny) but the whole thing was a bit more fan shaped than rectangular. My second attempt went together much more easily - even if I did have less dear fabric scraps left to choose from.

I'm  not usually one to keep selvages, so finding this many in my scraps was lucky. I wish I'd had a few more, but I suppose I could always go back and add them. Or maybe I'll save them up for the next time I try my hand at something like this. It could be cute as a larger quilt...

Not bad for an evening that started with no plans at all!