Why my craft room is always a mess...

**disclaimer: Martha Stewart's of the world - now might be a good time to go scrub the underside of your couch, shine the grooves in your car keys, re-write your to-do list because the first was sloppy... Just walk away now.**

**second disclaimer - Ok, I've been guilty of the re-writing the list one. so what.**


The rest of you, pinkie swear you'll still be my friend after this.


This is what I should be doing:



That's the result of Round 1 of cleaning my craft/junk/crap room. I did the keep, toss, donate, sell baskets and got quite a bit of progress made. Still A LOT left to do, slowly but surely, I'll get through it all. The above is *mostly* the keep pile, and *mostly* things that have no business in this particular room. They have a way of finding a home on my desk. Not sure how that happens. ::coughcougheddiecoughcough:: So today's task is putting all of these things in their respective homes. I was disciplined, I was committed, I was focused.





But....then I found some paper. A little pile of scrap paper. Paper left over from something else. Paper that just HAPPENED to look fantastic paired together. Ah crap, now she's done it. She's distracted....

Ta-daaa!

Dear card,

you're so freakin' (awesome)

Love, Sarah

Yeah, I know, parenthesis around a random word - not correct punctuation. Its ok. At least I don't type my whole blog in rndm txt spk. w/ rndm lttrs missing and then inexplicably adding on extrass. Whyy do kidss do thatt noww? I know we did useless and stupid things too. Oh did we ever... Oh right! Card...

For the record, this is the FASTEST I've ever made a card. Really. Because I didn't let myself fiddle with it. I decided I had to sit down and just DO it. If I hated it, too bad! Just had to get done. And it worked. Go figure. I think it took me 20 minutes, and that included answering 20 questions for Zach, and digging through all of my things to find stamps/buttons/thread. (the downside of cleaning, now I can't find anything)

It made me contemplate doing a 'thing a day' challenge on my own. I'm thinking I just might.

Side note, I obviously resolved my broken camera issue. ...kiiiinda. Its still broken, at the shop actually. But its going to run $150 to get the sucker fixed. ::wince:: Not outrageous, but considering I'm saving up for a Nikon D40 (hello lover!) ...most likely used. I didn't want to invest quite that much in the old one. So I got a cheaper point and shoot for the time being. I don't love it. But...it takes pictures, and will come in handy someday when I get the new one as "Eddie's camera". God bless the boy, he CANNOT take pictures. No really, he can't.

Its alright, I can't throw a ball to save my life. So we're even.

Alright back to cleaning this mess. Focus...

Why it takes me an hour to make one card...

Alternate title: Crafter OCD

I'm in lockdown mode, trying to get things made for a craftshow I'm doing on the 23rd. I haven't done a craft show in almost two years and I'm in a slight panic. The whole "how much do I need to bring?"

"what if its too much?"

"what if its not enough?"

and of course "what if I don't sell one stinking thing..."

I'll be glad for the 24th to come. ...hopefully with a few dollars in my pocket. We'll see.

So my goal is to make an item or two each day ...to avoid the ever famous 'up till 2am trying to crank out anything and everything'. Its not good. Its not fun. There's not enough coffee the next morning to compensate.

So, this morning I sat down to make a card. Over an hour later (shut up...I know) this is what I have:

Ok, NOW....the issue of the yellow flower. Do I need it? Should I leave it off? Or should I put it here?

or here....

or maybe here....

what about here....

or....leave it the heck alone, set it in the done pile, and call it a day. For the record, I will be mulling this over while I'm at work tonite. It will bother me until I come to a decision. (and for the heck of it, tell me if you have a preference, because at this point, I've looked at it too long and can't 'see' it anymore, thus why I'm setting it aside for now)

In more constructive efforts, we have:

Another card (not thrilled with it either...too much white on the front...not sure what to do about that)

Quilt top, while not my style, I am awfully darn happy with how it turned out. It measures about 30"x40"...now to quilt the darn thing.

This one is still drying, so I haven't done a WPI count or official yardage, but its around 190 I'm guessing after its bath. The colors are SOOO pretty if I do say so myself (and nicer IRL of course) Its 100% merino, which pretty much makes me want to eat it for lunch.

Still a WIP -

Eddie's fingerless gloves/foldover mittens. Yeah, not for the craft show. But of utmost importance since its been a tad chilly in the mornings when he's doing his papers. I think he'd rather not wait until the end of november for these suckers.

And my latest 'only a crafter would understand' project:

A hundred and fifty-some yards of laceweight shetland wool. There are 3 more balls to be skeined/washed/dried, so I'm thinking I'll have about 600ish yards of this when I'm done.

Oh, where'd it come from? Here...

For those of you who aren't following....I bought the vest for $2 at the salvation army, cut the top off above the armpits (as I was taking it apart I realized the armholes are cut and sewn, which makes the top useless for unraveling, but still good for felting) and unravelled the bottom half.

Why do that? Well...because I wanted to? I wish I had a more logical answer than that, but that's all I've got. What can I say? :)

Andd Zach's 'new' rainboots. Which he loves. And wears constantly. Works for me.

(the fabric beside him is paired up for new cosmetic bags...I'm almost positive anyway)

Vintage Valentine - WS '08

Just some pictures of a card I made this weekend. I had plans to make card(S) but only finished this one. :) Ah well, it felt good to sit down and work on something like this. The blank canvas approach, whereas lately most of my crafting has been pre-planned. (which I also love, but every so often its nice to just go with it)

There was actually one point where I HATED it, was ready to just scrap it and start over, I just wasn't happy with it. But then I found the green ribbon, toyed with placement for that, no that wasn't enough. Ah! lace! Used that to 'anchor' the green and a very happy Sarah proclaimed she was done! :)


This was done for a challenge - WinterStamp '08 on twopeasinabucket. My only 'guidelines' were that it needed to be a 'vintage' valentine. There was a separate challenge to create a card using 3 items you've been hoarding. (what? who? me?) So I combined the two.



The heart wreath is from a sheet of stickers I was given about a year ago, the green 'velvet' ribbon I bought OVER a year ago and have used once, and the lace was bought recently, but I realized I have about 7 different yards of lace I have bought, but not put to use. hmm.




And, as usual, the pictures are a little off. What with all of this GLORIOUS natural light we have in February! [/sarcasm]

Hopefully, I can get my chores done and get in some more card time later :)