A Conversation About My Studio & Giveaway!

I need some help. Some input. Lets have a conversation about my studio.

This is our living room. It currently serves as a catch all for random extra furniture and that's about it. 

When we were house hunting, I insisted we find a home with a room large enough to be my studio. I didn't want to use a living room if it meant walking straight into that room from the front door. Like this:

Call me crazy, I just have this "thing" about my studio being the first room you see when you enter my home, and I don't want guests to have to walk through it to access the rest of the place.

 I have yet to see a home in Utah that doesn't have that front room, and we passed up several good homes because this room was the the only option for my studio. In short, I was throwing tantrums. Massive tantrums.

Then we found this house, and I thought it could work.

Sure, there are plenty of reasons we got this home, but I had my eye on the basement - it was the largest we had found in a Tri-level home yet.

Now that everything is somewhat settled downstairs and have done some sewing I've decided.

I hate it.

really.

I don't even want to go down there.

I can't even really explain why.

...maybe it's because I'm cut off down there, or it's so tight, or the lack of view...

So, I've been thinking about this for about a week or so.

What if I moved the studio... upstairs...into the living room?

Ya know, the room you walk directly into when you enter my home, the one guests have to walk through to access the rest of the place. The one I insisted I could never, ever, use as a studio.

So I had slick take measurements for me and draw-up a floor plan to see if it was even feasible.

And now I'm thinking I can totally do this... 

Next step, getting approval from the hubs:

Me: would you hate me if I said I wanted to move my studio into the living room?

Sarge: no.

Me: would it look weird in that room?

Sarge: yes.

Me: would that bother you?

Sarge: not as long as you kept it picked up

Me: okay. so I can do this?

Sarge: is this going to cost me?

Me: well, I want these things from Ikea...

Sarge: wait a couple months before you buy more stuff.

Me: okay, so can I do this?

Sarge: just don't ask me to help. I'm sick of moving.

Me: what if me and Anthony do it.

Sarge: just don't take forever, I don't want stuff everywhere. 

Some random thoughts:

• The rooms are similar in dimensions (one is directly above the other) But I'll have to do some major downsizing to make it look presentable. 
• I am capable of keeping it presentable, I've written an eBook Organize That Sewing Space!
• The round chair would stay, and I'm cool with that because it's my chair and I love it.
• I'd have to suffer with the bookcases I currently have until I get what I really want
• the pattern cabinet would be prominent, and it's ugly. I'd like to paint it, but couldn't until weather improves next spring...
• My teenage son is thrilled with the prospect of the couch & TV cabinet moving downstairs - he has visions of his own "man cave"
• The furniture is heavy, and there are 2 (short) sets of stairs to haul it up and down
• This room has the best lighting in the house
• I want it to feel more office than sewing room at first glance.

Here are some of my Pinspirations:

and this one does not use the Ikea Expedit, but I love the "built in" look

So what do you think?

Would it look totally weird?

Is it weird that I care?

Should I move upstairs, or suck it up and stay in the basement?

I don't know what to do, I'm torn.

I am giving away a copy of my ebook Organize That Sewing Space

which retails for  $9.95 at Youcanmakethis.com

If you would like to win this just help a girl out and leave me a comment with your opinion about my studio situation!

Entries accepted through Saturday, 12/10

winner announced Sunday 12/11

Studio Progress Update

I thought it was time for a studio update since the last time I posted about my studio you saw this mess:

Remember that? oh yeah, that was fun.

There have been a few improvements since then!

And, see how lazy  honest I am? I didn't even pick up before taking these pictures.

As you can see, I've managed to cram almost everything into this much smaller space.

 Bet you didn't think I could do it, huh?

Everything is pretty much in it's place now. I just need to do some fine tuning.

Like finally unwrapping all that ribbon....

and getting things hung up around my embroidery machine desk.....

Okay, getting everything hung up....

and clearing up all that crap under my cutting table...

You can probably tell I am a creature of habit. My studio has been set up in this basic format in almost every house we've been in. 

I seriously can't imagine sewing with out these tool boxes within arms reach. It's where I keep everything!

All I have left to do, really, is hang up some stuff, do some general organizing/tweaking and refold my fabric.

I should be happy, right? Relieved, thrilled?

I'll be honest.

I've done some sewing down here.

I'm just not feelin' it.

But I have a plan....

31 Days to Settle in After a Move: Pick Your Battles

Let's be real.
There are only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week.

I recently read a post on The Happiest Mom titled "Cleaning and Organizing is a process, not a goal". It was a great post - with a fantastic concept that I think can be easily applied to a move. In it Meagan writes " you will never be able to brush your hands together, and say “That’s it! I’m completely organized and the house is neat and clean! Now I can just relax and enjoy for the rest of my life!” Settling in is a process, not a goal. There is always going to be one more thing to do, clean, buy, make or put away. I say, pick your battles, and don't sweat the small stuff.

31 Days to Settle in After a Move: Settle into Your Closet

Having a hard time getting dressed in the mornings because you still can't find anything in your closet?

me too.

I went from a walk-in closet of my very own to a standard closet.

 I've paired down to 45 shoes and sent about 30% of my clothes to the DI. 

(I refuse to let go of anything else) 

You can see I managed to squeeze in whats left - I'm really good at "making it work"! 

For the most part I've got the clothes organized: pants, dresses, skirts  - and shirts by color and sleeve length.

Can you see where I'm struggling every morning?

It's the shoes!

(...and yes, I did just post a picture of my closet. I can't believe I'm showing you this...)

I worked in Womens Shoes at Nordstrom a lifetime ago, 

so I normally organize my shoes by color and heel size. Now they are such a mess. 

When I open this closet every morning I am reminded of  one more move-related thing I still need to do. 

Great way to start my day, right?!

I know if I just take an afternoon to get this together I'll feel better and my mornings will go so much smoother. 

Need some help getting started on your closet? Tiny Twig is doing a 31 day series on a "No Brain-er Wardrobe" and in her 6th day post she covers purging your closet. Even though she kinda lost me when she said no one needs more than 5 -10 pairs of shoes (gasp!) she's very motivating. 

What have you done to settle into your closet? 

What do you still need to do?

31 Days to Settle in After a Move: Family Control Center

Identify your dumping grounds and collection areas.

 It could be by the front door, on your desk or all over your kitchen counter. 

In our home it's the kitchen (a habit I'm breaking) and by the garage door.

 I got tired of shuffling papers around my counter top after we moved here - especially since there was a perfectly good area already built into our family room we could use. It's near the phone, computer and filing cabinet. This seems like a pretty obvious place to put mail, notes, papers, etc, right?? It took a while and met some resistance, but the kids are finally catching on. This is now my "Family Control Center"

However, this bowl in the kitchen is still catching some items before they make their way home...

And you've all seen the garage door solution...

See my keys hanging off the top of the lamp? 

Tacky? definitely!

But have I ever lost my keys since we moved in? Nope!

Where are your dumping grounds and how do you wrangle the mess? 

New Studio Woes

Yesterday I posted about the Studio I left behind in our old house. (If you missed that, go check it out so you can appreciate the tears that followed when I moved into my new studio) 


  This is what it looked like when we inherited it:

It was originally a soft yellowish color. Now, I love yellow. Love it. But this was dingy and had to go.

You can also see the lovely dropped ceiling. the rest of the basement does not have this ceiling, so I'm not sure why they did it here??

Behind the slated doors are the furnace, water heater and water softener. So when I start filling up this room, I should probably make sure these doors are accessible... (Keep that in mind, I'll suffer for it later.)

The other door leads to the "fruit room" or "cold storage room". Something that may be to be unique to Utah? I've never seen it anywhere else. It's a  narrow concrete room - basically the long hollow space left after pouring the cement for your porch. Canning and food storage is huge here in Utah, so that's what most people use it for. Me? Not so much. More like holiday decorations, luggage, you get the idea...

This little built in desk area seemed like a handy corner for all my crafting and paper stuff. Especially since that white desk and armoire would never fit down here with everything else. Unfortunately, once I started moving in I realized I couldn't donate this valuable space to paper.

While I was painting and cleaning, the space seemed pretty open. 

I thought "Hey, I can do this. Everything will fit just fine" 

Then the furniture arrived.

And I cried.

Then the "stuff" arrived.

And I cried. A lot.

I had the movers take care of all the furniture for me, and I told them to "just put it all in the room". I wasn't worried about placement, because I knew I would be pushing it from one wall to another, trying to figure out the best layout anyhow. That was my first mistake.

I planned to move all the "stuff" in after the furniture was in place. I thought me and a few girl friends, we'll take our time - no worries. Only, I spent more time cleaning and painting than anticipated, ran short on time, and lets just say it didn't work out how I had planned. It was just me and the Sarge on a time limit. Everything ended up dumped into the room. And you can see by the pictures, I am not exaggerating. everything. was. dumped.

My studio is always the last thing to get squared away when we move. So after the dumping, we ensured there was a path to Slicks bedroom and closed the door.

A week or so later, my water softener started leaking.

And yes, those doors were now blocked.

So, everything had to be shoved away from those doors, making the rest of the room even more inaccessible.

And after that, we had the cable guy out. To install my sons cable, he would need to get to the other side of my studio. Of course he would. 

It is a truely humbling moment when you see a man shimmy on the floor to crawl under and around your pile s of crap. I felt like one of those people on an episode of "Hoarders".

The good news is, I have since made progress. It's not complete - but it does not look like this anymore! You can get a glimpse of the new color in the dumped photos, what do you think?

Good-bye Old Sewing & Crafting Studio!

This was my studio before we moved into our current  home a few months ago.

 I loved this room! It was huge, at about 14x30 feet It was by far the biggest I've worked in! (Thanks mostly to the Air Force I've sewn in 7 spaces over the last 12 years)

 It was in the basement, but I had 3 full sized windows, so there was plenty of light. Plus, there was a full bathroom and bedroom on that level. Yeah -yeah, the bedroom and bathroom belonged to my son. But he's a Junior in high school so I had visions of turning that room into a very feminine chic guest room in a few short years if we had stayed.

 After 2 years this studio was still a work in progress. I had the layout where I wanted it, and everything was organized. Mostly what was left to do was cosmetic projects. While seriously functional, I still hadn't gotten around to the prettyfied part. (my prettiest studio was McChord AFB. sigh... that was a lovely space!)

My work area for my machines:

My cutting station:

Fabric storage:

Paper scrapping & crafting area:

Kadences sewing spot (was a work in progress):

My beloved cubbies:

My new studio is about 1/3 the size. It's not the smallest studio I've worked in ( not counting a corner in the kitchen, that would be Holloman AFB!) but it's been a bit of a shock to have to down size! Tomorrow I will post on my adventures on making my new space work, but first I must say Adieux.

Good bye, old studio.

 You weren't the prettiest, and I didn't get a chance to finish you the way I would have liked - or even sew in you as much as I wanted to - but you were so functional and roomy. You were my retreat from reality and provided an outlet for my creativity. We had many wonderful times together, remember how I would sew for hours and ignore my family? Or the joy we felt when I brought home a new piece of furniture for you? There were some bad times too, but the flood was not your fault - and you couldn't help the poor wiring that left circuit breakers tripping and some plugs completely useless. I will take that over sewing in a garage any day. I will miss you my friend, especially all your spaciousness and lovely windows. When a new family moves in and turns you into a playroom or TV room, I hope you remember that once you were a fabulous space. And not just any space, but a Studio. Where Beautiful things were created. And that you were loved.

sorry for the awful pics. It was a dreary day and my last chance to photograph this room before I up-heaved it to the new place. :o)
Also, don't forget to check out the MyMemories giveaway! there are 0 entries - an easy win!

Organizing Presentation at Quilting Guild

Yesterday I gave a presentation to the Ogden Quilting Guild on sewing room organization.

I started off pretty nervous actually, public speaking is not my specialty.

(In fact, I blush fiercely whenever attention is focused on me. Honestly, blush isn't even the right word -I don't think there is even a name for the shade of red I can turn. I've even gone so far as to buy a "primer" that is green to wear under my foundation, it's supposed to tone down that red hue. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. Back to the matter at hand...)

By the end of the meeting I felt so much better! 

The interaction was great, the group was involved and even had some awesome ideas to contribute.

When all was said and done I had so much positive feedback I felt like a Rock Star!

And, can I just say, how freakin'

Empowering

it is

when you speak

and people actually

take notes?!

Blissful validation.

Now I just need to download my van and get half my studio my visual aides put away and my sewing room restored to normal. ick.

My Happy Find! Vogue Pattern Cabinet

Guess what I got this week?

here's a peek...

My very own pattern cabinet!

Okay, you're right. I did make it the title of the post.

I guess I just couldn't hold it in.

One of my local Joann's is going out of business,

and I have always wanted my own cabinet so I snatched this baby up!

Thing is, I couldn't settle for just any cabinet.

I wanted the Vogue Pattern cabinet. 

The Vogue cabinets have adjustable spacing, and they perfectly accommodate my patterns which I store in manila envelopes. See? It has to be Vogue.

Luck was on my side

because when I went down to check them out most were already sold,

but this one was left.

Just for me

or so I like to think.

We brought it home this week

(I had to wait patiently until it was empty)

I've cleaned it up and loaded it down with my patterns.

It looks so awesome, I'm so happy!

I'll eventually scrub off the stickers, etc, and will probably eventually paint it

but for now I'm just thrilled to have it in my studio holding all my patterns!

Awesome Find for Organizing a Creative Space!

I {heart} Junk.

I love digging through

Thrift Stores

Yard Sales

Estate Sales

and

Things People Leave on the Curb

However, I did not have to dig to acquire this pretty little baby.

My wonderful, thoughtful friend Jackie stumbled upon it  

-and of course - 

she thought of moi.

Calling from her cell, she gets about half way through:

"around 3 feet tall with a bunch of drawers - "

"YES!"

"should I send a picture?"

"NO, Buy it! Buy it Now!"

Long story short

it's MINE!

It's a light vintage-y shade of green, and has 10 narrow drawers.

Most of the drawers have labels like elastic, bobbins, bias tape, etc. I have no idea how long the labels have been stuck there, so this weekend I'll try to soak them off and hopefully leave the paint underneath intact.

...cross your fingers...

It will go in my studio, but not sure exactly where just yet.

I already have a great organizing/storage system for most of my sewing paraphernalia, and lo' and behold, most of it involves small or narrow drawers.

What can I say? I have a thing for drawers and cubbies!

 I'm thinking this baby came into my life to hold my dies.

Or stamps.

Maybe ink?

Something definitely paper crafting related

...since I have seemingly grown out of my scrappin' armoire.

Perfect!

I am very aware that

I am lucky to have a friend who knows me well and has my style pegged.

I feel even luckier that her style differs from mine,

so when she comes upon something like this

she doesn't feel tempted to keep it for herself!

Why Monday is my (almost) Favorite day of the Week

I know most people don't like Mondays - some even hate it, but I really love 'em!

If I can get my Monday right, my whole week is smooth sailing. 

I avoid scheduling social obligations and appointments on Mondays and I try to get all my work knocked out early so I have the rest of the day to do what ever I want.

Monday is the only day I really clean, sure - I pick up everyday and clean the kitchen after meals... But I don't dust, scrub toilets, etc (unless there's an obvious need) any other day. I know for some girls that is just wayyyy to much house work for one morning but I love to tackle it all at once and not worry about it again for a whole week. Besides, house work isn't such a b!tch for me, my mom owned a small house cleaning business and as a teen I'd help during summers and other breaks. I've gotten pretty efficient - and have found it's an excellent time to multitask by listening to an audio book. 

 Monday morning everyone is guaranteed what ever they want to wear is clean and ready to go, because Sunday is my laundry day (yes, once again a chore I only do weekly)- so this means smooth sailing getting ready for school/work/the day.

Since Monday evenings are almost guaranteed to be free I can cook something for dinner and not worry about schedules or a time crunch. It's a great night to make something more involved, or bake a dessert!

Last, but definitely not least - Monday is the first day back to school and work after the weekend. Well, duh, right? Hey, as much as I love my family there is something undeniably irresistible about that first day alone... My house is clean and smells wonderful, I can take my time getting ready and spend the rest of my day watching mindless TV, reading or playing in my studio. Then everyone comes home and they are glad to be here, relaxed and welcomed and appreciating all this domestic bliss I've created. 

(::snicker:: okay, maybe that last pasrt is a bit of an exaggeration, but I can dream, right?)

Organize That Sewing Space! featured on YCQT

While browsing online I discovered my eBook is listed under the "Most Popular Products" on the you can quilt this  homepage. They like me, they really like me!

The book is titled "Organize That Sewing Space!" - and being January, I figure some people must be making a resolution to clean up their sewing rooms.  I guess even I could use some tweaking in my studio. We moved to Utah 7 months ago and this is the largest space I've ever had to myself! I've managed to accumulate some pieces to fill it up (ohhh, how I love the DI - but that's for another post...) because you know I couldn't just leave all that open space empty! Of course there are still some things on my wish list, I am a pretty simple girl and a bit of a minimalist, except when it comes to my studio. I figure I'll eventually get it just right, but I'm going to take my time and just allow it to evolve a bit.