Continuing...

At the start of every new year I always make it my goal to clean my craft room. This year is no different but I'm finding it much harder. I've started destashing some beads and getting rid of items I don't use any longer and I even moved some fabric that I use for donations to an under the bed box. I still have too much and not enough things/boxes to organize everything in. I did finally get my yarns in a box instead of a bag, but now to find a place for it. Oh, to have a bigger room. On second thought, I would just fill the bigger room with more stuff so we won't go there. So, I continue to try to organize until I need to work on something and out everything comes again to the point it's hard to walk or even find the table top. Did I mention this room is only about a 7' x 9' room at the back of the house and floor space is a premium. Probably the same size as my laundry room so not very big.

I do get discouraged as I walk into that small room and realize I have no idea what to do to make it better except to get rid of a lot of stuff. Although I do know that if I get rid of something, I'll probably need it next week for a different project, no best idea is to continue trying to organize. So I push on.

For those of  you that have not seen my little slice of clutter heaven. Here is a pic when it was nice and organized with new cabinets. Wish I could see that table top now.

I won't even show you what it looks like now.

In hubby's and my quest for better heath this year we purchased a new cookware set. Okay so I have to tell you a little story first before I get to that. When we got married I had cookware. I purchased the set back in 1978 or so right out of high school. Paid it off with payment plans if that gives you any indication of how much it was and used it up until we got married. Great cookware but hubby didn't want to cook in stainless steel so we packed it away in the garage loft and forgot about. So the daughter calls and says she is having a cookware demonstration at her house and would we come to dinner. Okay, sure why not. I had a feeling it was the same cookware I had in the loft and said so but we went.

Talk about a surprise, same cookware that my mother had which was a step above my old set and expensive but fixed great food with no oil and no water. Yes, this is that famous waterless cookware. Hubby loved that it packed well and you didn't have to use water and you could fry without oil and cleaned up like a breeze. I was even more impressed with the baking soda test. Most stainless steel will pass the test but we had some annodized aluminum and cast iron we were using that would not pass. Try this test. Two cups of water in one of your sauce pans and a teaspoon of baking soda. Boil. Take a small taste. It should taste like baking soda and water right, well if you used something other than stainless it tastes like poison. Not good. I just can't imagine that cooking veggies or anything else in those pans wouldn't alter the taste of your food. So out they went and hubby was up in the loft looking for my old set. Now did I say we bought us a new set...yes we did, but never fear we are not getting rid of my old set it will be put to good use in our motor home as we get rid of the pans there.

You know a lot of what the salesman said was true, we replace appliances costing thousands every few years (they just don't make them like they used to) and even replace our pots and pans when the coating starts to wear out but how many of us can say that we have cookware that will last our lifetime. I do and now I have a second set that will be even better. I can't wait to get it and start learning to cook all over again.

Now I sound like a commercial but really can you place a value on your health? My hope is that we will start cooking healthier and be healthier for it.

On the workbench this week.

Wire wrapped coins. Inspiration from a post on Pinterest.

My hand at attempting to make a wire frog. Still working on it.

Charms for a swap called "Where you live". The beach glass was given to me by a friend.

Charms for another swap that was Pink and White and since it is so close to Valentines Day I made hearts,

New shower curtain hooks and a little bit of bling in the dangles. I posted this picture on FB and everyone voted that the dangles should stay so each hook has it's own dangle of crystals and pearls.

Now that I look back at what I did this week I don't feel too bad that my craft room is such a mess. I was still able to play and found enjoyment in what I did accomplish. 

Here's to having more fun next week.

One Step Forward, One Step Back

We've had a frustrating couple of weeks while we wait and wait some more for our office furniture to be finished. We hired a cabinet maker to custom build cabinets and a Murphy bed for our office/spare bedroom. Everything has been cleared out of the room since early March, the carpet was ripped out, walls refinished and painted and a small window seat build by our handyman. Now we wait. It was looking promising when they showed up today to install but of course things just couldn't go smoothly. The wardrobe cabinet was built too large so it and the Murphy bed couldn't be installed in fact the wardrobe had to be taken back to be rebuilt. Now I ask what else can happen. As it is, this remodel of the office is taking longer than the complete gutting and remodel of our kitchen last Summer.

While we have been living with office stuff and boxes all over the house I just had to clean and organize my studio to have one tranquil place in the house. I should really clean and organize it once a month but just can't seem to get myself to do it. I went in there today to get away from the cabinets being brought into the office and it was so clean and organized I didn't know where to start or what to do. I guess I'm going to have to get it messed up again to get creative. Here is a few pictures of the clean studio.

As you can tell it isn't a very large room so I have to make the best of all the space in there. I still need to organize the open bookshelf cabinet a bit more but I just kind of wore myself out and had to stop.

This is a sneak peak of what how the office is coming along.

This side of the rooms cabinets are finished except for the shelves, hardware and other small details. I love how the leaded glass turned out.

This is the wardrobe cabinet that they had to remove and are rebuilding. It is small but a guest really won't need that much room to hang things up. It's not like they are going to stay long or at least that's what we hope.

 Here is the Murphy bed as they were unloading it out of the truck and dismantling it so it would fit into the room.

Poor Murphy bed in pieces and it is still in this condition tonight....just waiting to be put back together again.

and now a fun little collection to share.....

Aurora Borealis

  Curated By: danasjewelryd...

ArtFire.com

Handmade Gifts

Craft Room Cabinets Done

Yes, finally the cabinets have been installed and I have everything loaded into them. I thought I would have a lot of room left over, but no, I filled it up. I did get some boxes of stuff out from under the desk so that was a good thing. Now what am I going to do when I get more stuff?

Doing the happy dance now.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm participating in a Bead Soup Party. The party starts June 19th which is Saturday, so I'll be posting links to those participating so you can check out all their great creations. My date to share is June 24th as well as my bead partner Cathryn from over at Chili Cats. She just posted a teaser picture of the design she has made with the beads I sent her. This is going to be fun.

So, now back to the craft room. I took those pictures yesterday and now, you wouldn't recognize it. I decided to paint some beads so I have paint, beads, brushes and paper all over the table top as well as my art journal stuff. Oh, then this afternoon I received a package in the mail of some beads that two of my customers want me to remake.

Yes, I am still doing the happy dance as now I have a place to put things so that I can work on other projects.

For those of you interested in tutorials, I did have a craft site with .ning that will be going away as they are going to start charging for a basic web site... can you imagine that they want to get paid. Anyway, I went searching and found another site that I can host my crafty stuff on. I am calling it Wrapped Up! Check it out and let me know how you like it. All my tutorials eventually (even the jewelry ones I feature here) will be on that site as I can upload a .pdf file. So, when I post my monthly tutorial on this site, there will be a link to that .pdf so you can just download the instructions and pictures. Pretty cool huh. Oh, and my book Gem Tree Sculptures and gem tree kits are available for sale there also.

Creative Blogger - MezziG of Creative Outlet

This week I'm featuring MezziG of Creative Outlet. What a wonderful creative soul. In one of her posts this week she shows us her most recent creation that she made for a bead challenge. It just so happens that she won this challenge. Isn't this just a great design? I never use seed beads in my designs but seeing the versatility in design, I may have to rethink that.

Fringe is such a big design feature right now as well as the bib style and this has both of those. Click on over and check out her blog.

Well around here life has been quite hectic. Our kitchen is almost gutted now. Sounds very hollow in there and it is so large. Amazing how big the room looks without cabinets and appliances. We are eating in the motorhome....feels like we are camping in the back yard...oh wait we are. I can't imagine living through a kitchen remodel without having another home whether it is a RV or weekend cabin that you can retreat to. Our dining room is full of the appliances and the living room is full of the dining room furniture and boxes of kitchen stuff. I'll have before and after photos when it is complete... you really don't want to see them now.

I was really hoping to have pictures of my new craft room cabinets to show you today, but alas I haven't taken them yet and I still have to unpack everything, so hopefully tomorrow.

So, until then have a great day.

Show is Over.....Thank Heavens

Another year down. I really don't want to cook anymore....ever. We spent the entire show in the kitchen cooking and making sandwiches for the crowds of people coming to visit the show. I think I was able to get to the bathroom once a day and only today at 3:00 pm (an hour before the show closes) was I able to go shop for a bit. If you have ever dreamed of running a deli or restaurant....DON'T. Try running a lunch counter for 3 days before you venture into anything. Now I'm not saying that it isn't profitable, we were able to raise over $300.00 for the club and served all our volunteers at the show for free which equates out to a little over $350.00. So, if we didn't feed the workers for free we would have brought in $650.00 in just 3 days. Not too bad a profit. I'm just glad that I have a whole year to forget how bad my feet feel before it starts all over again.

One of the good things that did come out of this show was that my husband and I were invited to demonstrate gem trees and jewelry design at a gem and mineral show in Lewiston, Idaho in October. We've never been there and I'm looking forward to taking that trip in the motor home.

I keep thinking that life will get back to normal tomorrow but we have the contractor that will be here first thing in the morning to probably install my new cabinets in my craft room and I haven't even cleared the room of stuff so that he can get in there...dang and I really wanted to sleep in tomorrow. Then we have to go pick up the new slate tiles for our porch and kitchen so he can get started on that. I think he wants to start the demo on the kitchen but that may have to wait a week so that I can organize and get stuff packed up. I really have to admit that I'm not looking forward to living through a kitchen remodel even though the outcome will be great. I think we will have to go on a really long camping trip. Oh wait to do that I have to have a plan to pack up my craft room to take with me.

Okay now I'm stressed. I should probably just go to bed and hope that tomorrow I'll get a reprieve.