Cleaning Up After the Cold...

 Someone said something about my storage of things the other day... I thought that some of you would be interested in some of the things I use.

I keep a lot of my every day tools on a tray on the bedside table... I try to keep them neat, but I have to stay ahead of them.

This is how it looks on a good day.

I use things that I enjoy seeing, but wouldn't otherwise use on a daily basis.

There is a cut glass creamer and sugar bowl... I keep most of my small tools in those.  Surprisingly, they don't get chipped or even scratched!

My larger scissors and rulers are in a favorite glass.  Someone said it looked like a vase... I stopped using it for drinks.

The little pitcher that carries the small toothpicks is from Italy.  I picked it up in a thrift shop and I have always wondered what it was originally. 

This is the bottom.  If anybody can  solve the mystery, I would be thrilled... It is hand painted and beautifully done.

Then I put the things that I know that I will loose in odd places. That way I will know where to find them.

See the little pink beaded container?  That holds all of my beading needles.  I have kept them there for years. That is the only way I know where they are when I need one.

Hey! It works for me.

The arrangement of the two tables by the conservatory holds all of the things that I need to work on it.

Granted, the work basket with tools isn't too straight, but it can easily be thrown in the workroom if company is coming.

The little drawer in the right hand table holds a box to picture hanging nails. Another thing that I used to loose.  Now I don't.  I go straight to the drawer if I need to hang a picture.

Here's a little closer view of the tray arrangement. 

When it's clean, there is even room for Tessie!  The two smaller glass pieces in the center, hold my beading thread and my long toothpicks.

The glass frog in the front holds some of my embroidery scissors.

I am pretty much ready for everything that comes along with what is here.

Now you know what to do with grandma's cream and sugar set.  I get to see it every day.  I wouldn't use it otherwise.  Same with the other pieces.  They would all be up in a cupboard somewhere. 

The tray that they are sitting in is a Japanese tray that I bought at Goodwill for a couple of bucks.  It really does keep things in order when I store them this way.  And it looks a lot less messy than it used to when everything was just scattered here and there...

Go ahead. Ask me where the wire cutters are.  I can get them for you in two seconds flat!

I am going to do more straightening and then go to Wednesday Witches.

See you tomorrow.

One Day at a Time...

 OK. I started out in the family room, because I noticed that this little gazebo had dust a foot thick all over it. 

This one is not air tight and the inside had to be cleaned too... By the time I finished that, I was out of the mood for cleaning minis...

 Walter is playing golf, so I decided to do some more to the workroom whilst he is gone. 

I managed to get the beads from last year's  gem and mineral show sorted and put in jars.  Some were already in, but not all...  It takes me a while sometimes...

This is all coral, turquoise and different minerals.  It is easier to make jewelry if I know where to look for the stones I want to use.

I also finally managed to corral all of my wire, beading line and leather cording in one tray.

Believe it or not, I don't think that it has all been in one place before.  I am going to get organized if it kills me!  I am tired of hunting for things for an hour and then having only ten minutes to work on the jewelry itself.

Kota made it so that I couldn't sit down and relax... Maybe if he stays there, I will get something done this time.

I am going back now and do more sorting in the beads and jewelry supplies. 

I don't think that Kota is going to let me leave until most of it is done...

He looks very serious!

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Organized and Occupied.....

OK.  I won one battle.  I still have possession of the six story CD tower...

I finished organizing this morning...Please note the colored hangers...One color for tee shirts.  One for pants. One for dress shirts.  One for other clothing and the last for summer stuff. 

I have been using this system for a few years now...It sure makes it a lot easier to find what I want in this mess.

There Is only one slight problem...Tessie moved in overnight.  She now insists that she is going to live here until I start Spiderwort Manor....

Notice that I don't seem worried?  Nope.  It will only take a couple of days. 

The light switch is on the outside of the closet by the door.  We are very good about turning it off as we leave.  If we make sure to close the door, she will tire very quickly of the lights going off at the most inopportune moment.

She did put some thought into the idea though. 

She has a living room and a bedroom of sorts.  A pair of my hand knit socks will keep her cozy at night...And pizza on the George III sofa in the daytime...And me to clean up after her.

She told me, "I can have a new bed for eight nights and then you have to hand wash all of them."

Dream on Tessie!  I am not hand washing eight pair of socks every week, just so you can have clean bedding.

On to minis.  I did up a kit for a purse last night.  It is one that we witches are going to make at the Halloween party.  The name on the kit is "Hag Bag".

Tessie liked the bag until I showed her the name....Then she turned up her nose and said, "I am NOT a hag and I will not carry this."  With that, she took it to the Witches Warehouse and told Esmeralda to either sell it or keep it....She didn't care which.

I have to admit that I find it kind of creepy...A loose eye ball floating in a cloud of green stringy stuff?  With Wings?

The party is here on Wednesday...Pot luck.  Things like Bloody Buzzard Wings will be on the menu. Yum!

Last but not least, I did this yesterday afternoon.  Tessie keeps hoping that I will make a basket purse that is large enough for her to travel in. 

Not quite her size, but we are getting close.  I think that she is hoping for something with eight rooms and a bath...

I am going back and cut old tee shirts into yarn strips now.  I must have almost enough to make a rug or at least a place mat...

See you tomorrow.

Almost There...

My closet looks so much roomier without doors!  Walter took them off in a matter of minutes this morning.

Just look at all of the space! 

I plan to move the side facing closet, on the right, back so that it is facing out.

I already did that on the other side....after I took the photo.  

I cleaned out my wood drawer this morning...I threw out almost as much wood  scraps as I saved.  The ones that I threw out were not really usable, except for very small items.

See the two large baskets at the bottom?  The stuff that all fit in the bottom drawer...(I forgot I emptied it about a month ago).

Those two are now freed up, probably for paint.

I know this isn't very good entertainment for you, but I am having too much fun....Fun and cleaning shouldn't be used in the same sentence, but I am doing it anyway.  After this is finished, I will be able to work in this room(when it's not toooo hot).

Tessie and Zar showed up, about the time that I was finishing for the morning...Of course.

They piled into the clean wood drawer and started making suggestions for what I should build next....Zar took one look at all the veneers and shouted, "Parquet Floor!!!"

Tessie is taking a more practical approach...."You have enough walnut for a suite for my bedroom...and for some Louis the 15th, for the drawing room....Maybe some bass wood cabinets for the pantry and kitchen cabinets...That part doesn't need to be quite so fancy.".

I refuse to be baited into asking where she is going to put all of this, but judging from Zar's shout out about parquet floors and her pile of plans, I have a feeling that they have been discussing the Palace of Versailles....

I am going to go hide in a corner now.  Far, far away from the Terrible Two....

See you tomorrow.

Digging Out...

I am trying, once again, to be an organized person....OK, I know that's not possible, but I am still going to try.

I wanted a smaller holder for just the tools that I use all the time.  So...I grabbed a basket and some Velcro and went to work.

I happened to have lots of both sticky and sew able Velcro in my stash. 

I used the hook part(sticky) in a long strip, on the inside rim of the basket.

Then, one at a time, I added the tools that I use the most, by standing them against the hook part of the tape and adding the loop part around them.  I adjusted it as I went.

The nice part about this is the loop tape can be adjusted to fit any tool at any time.  I think it is one of my better ideas....If the hook tape keeps a good hold.  It seems to be doing that so far.

For weight, so the basket wouldn't tip over, I added a big glue bottle and Tessie.  The glue bottle stayed in place.  Tessie didn't.

I then went back in the workroom and continued my quest for a neat and tidy space....It will be a long time coming.

Tessie helped....She found this pair and is trying to talk me into using them as part of the stone cottage...Her logic?  Cottage, stone.  Weird dragon creatures, also stone...They should go together.  Then she told me, "Just think of it as two more things that you won't have to find a place for in the workroom..."

Maybe I can make them disappear and she will forget about them.

I took everything out of the top drawer of my desk, including the divider trays. 

Look what I found under and behind.

I have been looking for that little L square for a long time. 

The pencil is a deco era mechanical one that someone gave me when I was a teenager...Just one problem.  I have never been able to find lead for it.  It requires SQUARE lead.  I have never even seen square lead.  Evidently it was a 20s or 30s thing. 

The third thing is a Victorian jeweler's glass, that I inherited from my dad.  It has three different lenses. Another mystery piece.  The insignia on it has letters, but they make no sense.

Anyway, on to better things.  I sorted through all of my pens and kept the ones that write.  Sadly, the gel pens die after a while.

They will live on as jars and maybe a few metallic and colored plastic bottles. 

I cut the top ends of the pens off with my micro-mark saw. It was an interesting process.  They cut very straight, but will still have to be sanded.  The plastic melts as you are sawing and you have funny plastic sawdust.

 I will pop out the colored tops and cut them down so that they look more like actual caps.  I can fill them from the bottom and seal with punched out dots of plastic.

All in all I made quite a haul and I have only begun to sort....

See you tomorrow.