Happy Medium (and a winner!)
I've been dreaming of something like this. Not because I don't have enough already. Or because I need something else to spend my money on. But because my studio takes up the biggest room in our small house. And now we want it to take up a wall.
My sewing room is always a mess. This week I've been reading a book called "Organising from the Inside Out." by Julie Morgenstern. Julie tells me that even messy people like me can be organised. Not with more effort, but with systems that lead to less. For example, my dirty clothes basket is in the laundry. My dirty clothes are in the bedroom, bathroom and on the change table. Instead of putting more effort (and chastisement) in and making sure I always take the clothes to the laundry, Julie suggests I put baskets where the clothes are. (Why didn't I think of that?!)
Also, Julie says that disorganisation is a result of things not having a home. In my studio, I don't have a specific place for my scissors, rotary cutter, ruler, seam ripper, fabric that I've finished cutting but not yet ready to put away. I think I spend about 20% of my sewing time looking for my seam ripper and scissors.
And so, after Christmas, armed with generous cash gifts, we started looking for the perfect wall-sized office. Something with cupboards so I can lock away the things down low, as I'll be in the dining room. Something with shelves or glass doors so I can have my fabric on display up high, but out of reach. Something with room for Tully's craft things and cards we've kept and all the other stuff that I'm not ready to throw out.
We were so nearly ready to go down to Ikea and buy kitchen cupboards to make our own little amazing office/ creative/ storage space like these when Tim lost his job again. We looked around for something second hand but everything was either just as expensive, or not what we were after. So we decided to wait.
Last night, while the kids were soundly sleeping, we decided to move the house around anyway and just use what we had to fill my new 'wall'. We did a serious cull of our bookshelves to free up this one, and tidied, threw out, gave away until we had this:
As you can see, it didn't take long for Evie to start pulling things out. Hence the yarn in zip-lock bags!
I didn't take a photo of the mess behind me. but we're getting there. I'd still love a home for my sewing machine other than the dining room table, but for the moment, this will all work fine (or, at least I hope so! I guess I'll find out what better systems I need to keep it organised!)
We did finally hang this! I wrote about this framed fabric organiser a while ago. But what I didn't take into account was the fact that half my frames don't have hooks, only a stand to lean on! Blue-tac isn't working, as you can see. Anyone get any other ideas? They're hanging by fishing wire from the picture rail.
So! A winner! The trusty Random Number Generator chose number 22!
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I follow follow followwwww you (said in echoey voice!)
Congratulations Second Chance Tan! I'm glad you do! Email me with your address and I'll post some pretty colours off to you soon! The rest of you, go buy the pattern! You might help me get my new shiny office! :) xx