Why is staying organized so gosh darned hard?!

I always let my craft room get so messy I can hardly walk around in there. Then I spend hours cleaning it up, only to let it get messy all over again within a matter of weeks, sometimes days! I have the understanding that being crafty and having as many crafts and hobbies as I do, my room is bound to get messy once in a while, but I just can't seem to really understand why and how my room gets as bad as it does, as frequently as it does!

I spent 3 hours in my room one night some weeks ago and another 3 hours the next night for example, and still did not quite done. I felt closer to getting fully organized than I have ever before. I even went and bought yet another plastic sterilite drawer organizer to put in there so that I can reduce the number of shoe boxes I use for things. In particular, my perler beads. Would you believe I have enough perler beads to fill 2 shoe boxes and they're overflowing AND there's more that were ordered and I'm just waiting on them to get delivered!! It gets a little old trying to carry around 2 shoe boxes whenever I want to work on anything perler related, especially since one of them is starting to fall apart it's been so full for so long.

I got to a point in my room where it was clean again, and was looking good...

See, doesn't that just look nice and neat!? That bottom right drawer btw? Yeah, that's the perler bead drawer, STUFFED full!

Only problem is, fast-forward to Halloween prep and party.. cleaning the living room up of all the boxes and things I ended up not using to decorate and you get this:

Yeahhhhh...... my room seems to end up the end-all, be-all place where things get dropped if I'm not sure where to put them for now and/or don't have the time to really be careful about setting things aside in its proper place or put back together properly. I feel like most everything has a place and I try to keep it all in its place, but it just keeps getting to the point where I can't get in there and either decide to be lazy and don't do anything, or I get the supplies out and go to another room like the living room so I can sit with BF and watch tv while crafting.

Like the other night. I had to work on a clutch for a friend but didn't have the time or patience to clean my room to get to my sewing table so I just grabbed my machine, pedal/plug, ironing board and iron and used the kitchen table. Not quite the best solution but I did have plenty of space, got to watch the big tv in the living room while working (BF was out with his brothers and I fell to a guilty pleasure of a horribly silly reality show... "Say Yes To The Dress!"). Somehow though right when I was on the 2nd to last step, sewing around the whole outside of the lining and outside pieces and over the zipper before the flippity-flop to put it all right side out, my needle got to a point where it kept hitting.... something....and I broke 3 needles!!! THREE!! The first two were while I was going over the zipper, but when the 3rd broke over just the few pieces of fabric, I got so frustrated I turned the machine off, picked up my beer and just resigned to the sofa.

It definitely helped being in a common area when BF decided to take a look and helped me fix my machine. He took a look at my machine and found that for some reason, the needle was getting dragged back a little from the vertical drop it's supposed to do and was stabbing the metal plate below it! There was a visible hole from one of the hits too!! He took the plate off and took it to the garage where he quickly drilled at the side of the hole to widen it. Once he put it back on, I was able to finish the clutch! YAY!! He totally saved the day and my sanity!! Thank you, BF!!

While this was awesome that he could help me so easily, there's still the actual matter that I shouldn't have been in the kitchen to begin with; I should be able to work in my room at any time on any project and not have to spend hours cleaning first, or worse, move to another room altogether!

Like always, this type of situation gets me to dreaming... I dream of our future home where I can put holes in the walls (more than my current pegboard which is all I'm allowed currently to lessen the fixing when we move out) and have more permanent fixtures up so I don't have to use all the sterilite containers I use now. Of being able to paint the walls and not struggle to try and find creativity in a white box. Most of all, I dream of having a space that I feel proud of and comfortable enough in that I WANT to keep it cleaned and organized and I have no problem being able to keep it that way and that just breeds creativity and action!

Here are some ideas of rooms I love elements from and want to use for inspiration:

I love the idea of the big central working space with little shelves in it for frequently used items, but ease of getting to the rest of the room...

Artful Leigh Craft Room

I love that everything has a place, and everything is in its place...

And I especially love the corner/wrap-around desk and she has her sewing machine in the corner where there's the most room...

This room I like bc it's got all different kinds of containers that are all organized as well as coordinated with the same kind of label. That and like the one before, everything has a place and it's all in there!!

Unfortunately, there's no source on this one that I can find.

Yet another with great organization but with half everything behind closed doors, the rest in easy to see/find containers..

Inspired : Papertrey & Nichole Heady

I am just soooo envious of these gals getting their spaces organized and looking so good and I look at my room and just wonder how or IF I can ever hope to be that organized. I keep trying and trying, I'll spend hours cleaning up, organizing, trying to go through old items and clearing out things I don't think I'll ever use, but it's just never quite enough.

Do any of you have this same problem? How do you try to keep your space clean? What kind of steps do you take? Is it easier to clean up after every project or dedicate a day of the week to clean up after the whole week? Let me know in the comments!

Craft ya laters!!

Holiday Plans

While I am waiting to get ahold of pictures taken of the Halloween party I had this last weekend to show you guys, I have started looking ahead at the holidays and making plans for what I want and need to get done.

We have decided as a family/group that BF and I are hosting Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve at our house. We have also thrown around the idea of an ugly/tacky Xmas Sweater Party! Since we're doing so much entertaining already, and we don't want to overfill our weekends for the last 6 weeks of the year, I'm not sure if that last one will be a Xmas sweater party, or just tacky sweater party maybe in January? But there is also the matter of us wanting to take the weekend of December 6-8 for ourselves as our 6-year anniversary is on the 7th!

But what holidays mean is that I get to try and come up with some decorations perhaps to put up for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I borrowed Christmas decorations from my parents last year as well as BF's brother's tree (he and his wife weren't able to get it up and since they weren't hosting any family event...) so I had that covered, but what about Thanksgiving?! I'm thinking at the very least I can make more yarn chain/garland to put under the kitchen bar and over the fireplace like I did for Christmas last year, with orange and brown perhaps? But what else?! 

Most of the pictures you see online are of table centerpieces or fireplace decorations... on a ledge or shelf. We do not really sit at a big table (numbers are way too many for that) and we don't have a ledge or shelf over our fireplace, nor do we plan on installing one as we are only currently renting. This is something I will definitely have in the house we plan to purchase, but for now, no ledge. We do have the bar countertop from the kitchen to the living room, but what can I put on there that will look nice and not cluttered. What can I put in the dining room area where the food will be set out for people?

As for regular decorations to place around the living room and dining area, there are some that are a little too simple and would be better suited if we had kids...

Leslie's Latest Creations

Some decorations, although cute and/or funny, are a little outdated...

Vintage Thanksgiving Decorations

Then there are decorations I like, but would maybe be too much for our simple Thanksgiving celebrations...

A Cultivated Nest Thanksgiving

Although, looking through Pinterest at Thanksgiving decoration ideas, it makes me realize that when we do get our house one day, I kinda hope to be able to have a little more formal a setup and house layout so that we can have some of the nicer decorations make sense. Currently, we have only a little square table in our dining area as a full 6-seater table would not fit, with chairs, to eat at. Forget about the idea of eating in there at all when it's a family holiday anyways since his side has 6-8 direct family members, I have 3, but we also invite friends of the family and friends from work and it gets up to about 30-40 people for the holidays!! 

We will just do what we always do, setup the 4-seater and an additional folding long table (like Halloween in a T backing to the window between the shelves) to layout the food on and people will either stand in the kitchen eating while talking, find a seat in the living room or just go to the backyard and eat over their laps as we only  have 1 table out back. **siigh**  It's fun times, I just sometimes dream of having a little more formal, closer to family oriented holiday so it doesn't get quite so crazy, but then that's probably because before meeting BF, I never EVER had a family/friend base like we have now. Holidays used to be just my mom, dad, brother, me and my grandma. So you can just imagine the culture shock I had the first few holidays we had when I realized the first one wasn't a fluke, nor was the second, and wow, it's ALWAYS like this?!

Anywho, enough of the rambling. I'll come up with something and show you guys what I do come up with.

In the meantime, this month will (hopefully) be reserved for things like working on scarves with all the yarn I got last month (yay sales!), finishing the baby blanket I started for a friend (that's a post all its own!) as well as trying to get the jewelry and clutches posted on my website that I got back from Easely Amused to see if any of those might possibly sell, maybe work on some new ones for Xmas times as well as finish the 3 I owe my boss and friend plus many other things on my plate!

There's always things to do when you're a crafter!!

Craft ya laters!!

Resin Time!!

I am really really excited you guys!! I follow Carmi Cimicata on her Resin Crafts blog and on 10/1/13, she posted about a project she wanted her readers to participate in: Resin Time! I sent an email to her with my address and sat back to wait for an email to let me know I'd been chosen to participate.. and waited...and waited. Hmm... I guess she had enough people respond before me, and I couldn't participate. Maybe next time!

But then... late last week I got a package in the mail. I opened it and there it was! My very own time piece bezel!!

From her blog:

"Your watch face will be photographed and then I will be displaying them all in our huge booth at CHA in California in January.  That is the biggest crafting event in the world and I want your resin timepiece to be with me!

I plan to have a judging committee to select the top 10 favorites, which will be further featured on Resin Crafts Blog!"

The only requirements are to use either the ETI Resin and/or the Resin Clay. That doesn't seem too difficult but the question is, what the heck will I put in the thing?! I don't know, but I'm excited to be a part of this and can't wait to see what all the finished pieces look like from all the other participants!