Office Storage

When we made the big playroom to office switchover, we spent a lot of time thinking about how our work spaces would work, and not a lot of time planning out our storage. Why would we? There is a huge wall mounted shelf on one side of the room, plenty of space for all my craft supplies and Will's books, right?


I'd been reading a lot of Chez Larsson back then (still do) and I loved her white on white style so I bought a ton of white storage boxes from Ikea and loaded them up. It was nice to have everything in it's own box. Much easier to find, say, that spool of stretch magic thread or the packet of seed beads when there is a box for everything. But the white on white just didn't work. Partly because there was a lot of not white stuff up there. Lots of architectural book, lots of my antique kids books leftover from the playroom days. It's bugged me every day since.


Earlier this week I was doing some more work avoidance and sat in the office just staring at the wall o shelves. Yes, just staring. I'm sure a couple of neighbors walked by and saw me at it through the window. But between the half ripped off/painted house and the regular sounds of hammers at night, I think they just know I'm crazy by now. But while staring at the wall I decided what I needed was contrast on the back of the shelves. Not the whole shelves, just enough so that the white boxes popped instead of just looking blah. I didn't want to paint because it took A LOT of coats of white to cover the original nasty wood of the shelves in the first place and what if we hated it? So it had to be paper or fabric.




Yesterday I emptied the shelves one by one, culled, sorted and stored, moving the kids books to the living room and some of the uglier crafty things to the closet, and used spray glue to mount some dark gray felt to the back of each shelf.






The wood on the back is slatted and uneven so it was hard to get everything perfectly straight, but the overall effect is just what I wanted. Now that the boxes and books are in their new spots (some of the hard to reach stuff I used a lot while the little used things were easily accessible) I'm liking it a whole lot more. It feels clean and organized which is weird because before it was clean and organized(ish), but just not very stylish. At least I hope it's stylish now. What do we think? Better?

Fun with New Stuff

Evelyn has, it seems, started in early on the grand women's tradition of hogging the closet. Except since my kids use their closet as a playhouse and not a closet, she's doing it with hooks.

Shortly after we moved into the house, Briton decided he wanted to be a skateboarder and wanted skateboard things in his room. I had lots of plans for that. I made a skateboard pillow for his bed, started hunting out old skateboards to make a shelf and found a nifty skateboard hook to hang on his wall. I got the hooks up and the pillow on his bed before he decided he was more of a golf kind of guy, so the shelves never materialized, but the hooks remained, because he "sort of is still a skateboarder" because he owns a skate board, apparently. Not that it does much besides sit in the basement.

The problem was that Evie did not have a set of hooks. I didn't really think she needed any. She didn't even know how to hang things up. But pretty soon the skateboard hook was filled with flower hats and fluffy cardigans and little purses and Briton's things ended up on the floor below. Now he's a good brother and kindly let his sister hog the hooks (of course, he was able to say "I couldn't hang my hoodie up, there's no room!") but I decided it was time that they each had a place to hang their things. Plus, I really wanted to try out Modge Podge Dimensional Magic. Because, you know, it was sitting there in the store, looking all shiny and new and fun.


I had a set of hooks that used to hang in the playroom both here and at our old house. Once upon a time I'd decoupaged some green paper to them to brighten them up. But after three years of being loaded down with dress up clothes, it was looking pretty sad. So I stripped off the paper and started over.



The green paper was replaced with an orangy red print from an Amy Butler pad of scrap booking paper and trimmed (love my bone folder, it's so useful...when I can find it that is) and then I went at it with the Dimensional Magic. I have to say this stuff is kind of weird. Unless you really glop it on it stays where you put it. I used a brush to push it to the very edge of paper and was a little amazed when it didn't go tumbling off the sides. It did make the paper look more orange than red, but there's a lot of red in their room already, so I'm not too concerned about that. It's now got a nice, thick layer of gloss which will, hopefully, hold up to little backpacks and coats being flung onto and ripped off of it.


After it dried, well, ok, it has been dry a while and sitting up on a table at the top of the stairs waiting for me to drag out the drill, I hung it today. Evie and I cleared her stuff off of Briton's hooks and hung them on hers. A month ago it probably would have been more exciting but since she now has, not only a hook but a cubby at school, well, a hook at home was just so passe. At least the skateboard hook is now flower free.

Workbasket Switchup

Today, while in the midst of avoiding work I really needed to do, I spent a few minutes sorting out the basket that holds my current knitting projects. Why the clean out (apart from the avoidance)? Well, for one, it had several non-knitting items that kept getting caught up in the yarn. A yellow dragon wing minus the dragon. A small race car. A granola wrapper. Some crayons. All those fun things that children love to tuck away out of sight instead of putting them where they belong. But also because.....drum roll....I finished my sweater!

Of course after a week of cool mornings and evenings I finished the last row just in time for it to climb up into the nineties again, but at least it'll be ready for the next cool down. It's cozy and soft and pretty and maybe a tad too big, but better too big than too small, right? The teeny bit I've gotten to wear it, I've loved it. When it's not a thousand degrees outside I'll get Will to snap a photo of it so I can show it off a bit.

Since I'm now done with the massive sweater project, I've decided it's time to get my rear moving on my knitted gift for everyone for the solstice project. Evelyn's sweater is underway, with the back about half done and now, as of last night, Will's slipper socks are started. I'm a little nervous about the socks as they are knitted on skinny little DPNs and I hate knitting on those things. I always seem to get the stitches twisted between needles. I've also already managed to loose one of the five needles so instead of splitting the stitches over four needles I'm working on three. But so far so good. I haven't screwed up the stitches as far as I can tell and the wool, an Aran Tweed my mother gave me (which she says I gave her when we lived in Ireland, although I have no memory of giving away yarn this pretty, why would I have done that?) is very nice to knit with.

Briton's project is still undecided. He wants either a hoodie or slippers. A hoodie seems like another huge project and the slippers he wants are felted which, well, we know how long the last felted slipper project lasted, so that's not looking great either. I'm hoping Will's slippers fly by, making me feel like another largish project is no big deal. Here's hoping. How are your projects going this week?

Ten (Fifteen) Degrees Makes All the Difference

When the alarm went off (on my phone) this morning, I rolled out of bed and checked the weather (also on my phone, I think I'm an addict) and found that it was 59 degrees outside. 59! We've had a run of truly glorious days. Cool mornings, pleasant afternoons, light sweater evenings. That 10 or 15 degree difference, especially in late afternoon, has changed everything. Lots of time outside, working on the house or playing in the yard, biking to the park or just sitting on the front steps, enjoying the breeze and the dappled light.

Fall is my favorite season. Spring comes in close, mostly because I love to plant things, love the possibility of spring. But fall has always been the season I want to last and last and last. When I was in elementary school we lived in a town that was, to my child's eyes, packed with maple trees. Every autumn the hills around our house were bright with yellow and orange and red and even purple leaved trees. Although I'm sure it wasn't so, fall seemed to go on and on back then. Long days of cool weather and crunching to school amidst fallen leaves. Here fall does not last long. So I'm enjoying it while it's here (and also I am totally ignoring the fact that tomorrow will be hot again. It IS fall. It IS fall!).

Evelyn has made an unconscious transition into fall as well. She has, without us telling her or even suggesting it, started to wear her old favorite of pants and skirt or pants and dress again. I love sundresses, seeing her tan little arms and legs under a strappy, filmy, twirly dress, but the pants and skirt and shirt and sweater look is somehow just so Evie. This morning she bounced out of bed - unlike her brother who has begun the "just five more minutes mom" thing in the morning- and put on long pink leggings, her green-and-polka-dot-with-a-flower-mom! dress and a soft sweater and headed outdoors. She keeps putting on a coat as we walk out the door, whether it's cool enough or not, and pawing through her collection of tights, which, considering the fact that she has shot up about two inches this summer, probably needs culling and restocking.

Soon the big tree across the street will turn a violent yellow, one of the few maples in a neighborhood of oaks and dogwoods and cherries. They are all beautiful in the fall, but that maple, it makes my day.

Is it turning fall where you are? I hope so. Because it's about time this loooong summer came to an end.

One Thing

I've been thinking a lot about this little old blog o'mine. When I started, I just wanted somewhere to chatter about my projects. In fact, I wasn't even sure I wanted people to see it. But then I began reading, and being inspired by, other bloggers. It's an amazing thing, this blogosphere. Ideas are everywhere, just waiting to be discovered. Thoughts abound, waiting to be read. Stories whip and curl and weave their way through our lives, connecting people we would never have known if not for this thing called the blog.

So starting this week I'd like to try something new. I want to know what you are up to. What you want to be up to. Even what you would be up to if you didn't have a pile of dishes or a deadline or a potluck that you have to make Aunt Bessie's casserole for. Every Monday I'm going to ask you to tell me One Thing that you would like to do or create or dream about that week. It doesn't matter if you really get around to doing it, although, I hope you do. I know I'm forever making list of things I'd like to create, or sew or make. Because I want to. Not because it's on someone else's to-do list or because I should. But because I want to. And maybe if we tell each other what we'd like to be doing, we'll really do it.

If you've been lurking around here, now is the time to speak up. Link your blog so I can go read about what you're up to, or if your don't have a blog, that's cool too! Just tell me what little spark is floating around your head this week. I really do want to know.

So here goes, I'll start folks, because well, I guess I better do it to, if I'm asking you!

One Thing
This week, the one thing I'd like to get done, for me, is my sweater. I've been farting around with it all summer when it was really too hot to knit, thinking I'd get it done by the time it was cool enough to wear it and what do you know, it's starting to get just a little nippy in the mornings (thank you weather gods!) but instead of having it ready to pull on when I dash out to take Briton to the bus, it's still languishing in my workbasket. Time to finish it!

What One Thing do YOU want to do this week?

Little Seamstress

This morning I was in the office early working on a few projects for upcoming articles when Evelyn strolled in and sat in the chair next to me, watching intently.

"I want to sew." She said after a few minutes.

"What do you want to sew"

"Beads, and shoes." She replied, pointing at her half finished beaded tennies.

She hasn't shown much interest in sewing before this. I used to make her sewing cards that would get a few rounds of yarn, but then they would languish, forgotten, in the basket. Briton will, occasionally, show an interest in making something for himself, but his patience run thin quickly. So I've been waiting for this, for my slightly more chill child to want to sew like mama.

She's still too young for most of the projects I've had lined up in my head for her, and teeny tiny seed beads seemed a little tough for a first sewing project, so instead I pulled one of the embroidery hoops down that I have hanging on my wall and had her draw a picture on it that we could embroider.

Tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth, she drew a picture of herself onto the felt. I threaded some embroidery thread onto a fat needle and we started sewing. At first she wanted help pulling the needle up though the back but after a while she got the hang of it. In fact, I was surprised at how well she did sticking to her own lines. When it was finished she told me that she would put Briton next to her, except not today, because she was done now. And off she trotted to hang it back on my wall.















I love it, it's like a little happy smile above my desk.












I remember being entranced by a pillow on my grandmother's bed that featured a drawing that I had made sometime in my toddler-hood which my mom had embroidered as a gift. Even as a teenager I was always a little thrilled to find that pillow still on the bed, a little memory of a tiny me. Maybe someday she'll look at the hoop on my wall and feel the same.

Shoes + Beads = Happy Girl

The other day I was sitting at the PTO table at Briton's school, doing my duty for the open house when Will called and said that Evelyn had no shoes. Well not no shoes, but none he could find. He was supposed to be bringing Briton down to meet his teacher but had been hunting for shoes for 30 min with no luck, did I know where any were?

Now when I left the house that afternoon, Evie had a pair of brand spanking new mary jane's on, but this whole scenario didn't surprise me. The girl once lost a pair of shoes at a friends house and they didn't turn up for months despite vigilant looking by everyone in the household. She's excellent at hiding shoes. It's my belief that she thinks that by hiding the shoes she has, she'll get more shoes which, really, is true. Because in the end Will took her to the store on the way to the school and bought her a new pair. Smart cookie.

When I got home later that day I did find the shoes. One pair was at the neighbors, one was behind one of the clothes baskets in my closet (humm, how did they get their missy?) and one was being chewed up by the dog.

Normally Evelyn has a lot of shoes. More than me in fact. But between a growth spurt a few weeks before and Nigella's sudden and passionate taste for shoes, we were running a but low. So yesterday we went to the shoe store to pick out a new pair of tennies for fall. She had two criteria, Pink and sparkles (I know, what a shock!) and I had one, easy to get on. Ideally we'd get her some Lillie Kelly shoes which are her favorites, but they are beyond the budget. So somethign close had to be found. We found pink and easy to get on, sparkly and easy to get on and sparkly and pink but impossible for her to do on her own.

In the end we came home with a pair of wee little pink flowered converse (oh my gosh my kid is wearing converse! I'm old!) and a box of beads. DIY sparkly shoes.

Sewing on shoes is not as easy as I thought it would be, but it's not bad. It would probably go faster if Evie didn't stand next to me asking if they were done yet and then pointing out a spot that needed more beads. Hopefully I can get them both done (or sparkly enough) by Monday because she "REALLY" wants to wear them to school so she can show Sofia because Sofia likes sparkly things too. Better go find my thimble.