Nap Time Anyone?

Today is the day I change the sheets , they need to be washed & dried and the bed made new. Blizzard, our cat ( still a kitten) does not care about clean sheets. He is comfortable. He was oblivious to me taking them off the bed around him and settled himself right back down for a long nap. Today is also sewing day with one of my granddaughters. Here she is sewing two pairs of pajama pants. One pair for her little brother and one pair for her little cousin.She has already sewn pajama pants for her sister, older brother, herself, and her doll. Blizzard thinks every day is a great day for a nap. I hope today is a great day for you, and no matter what you have planned, a nap doesn't hurt, and might even be just what you need.

Now I Love This Room, It Works For Me! ( craft room update)

This is what beckons me in as I pass it from the bedroom to go downstairs and get my first cup of coffee. " Hurry back Kathy, you have so much fun and inspiration awaiting you here...". This is one of many pictures before I started making this room a place I wanted to be.(Click here * to see previous post on this room ) This room was quickly becoming the room I avoided , it was full of bins of fabric and projects I wanted to finish but moving bins and boxes to do simple tasks made it a dreadful room to be in. I knew that if I did not get this room in order and make it a place I wanted to be in , well, it would fill up with things that would turn out to be clutter and also useless, fit only for landfill. Before(above )... ...after.My precious husband was quick to be upstairs measuring and figuring out how we could use the space efficiently. Our first plans fell aside because the store we chose to supply the storage needs was out of our choices. We shopped around and although this is not as pretty as our first choice, it was perfect for my needs and saved us at least $100.00 or more. Before...this space was truly ugly and hard to use for many reasons. It is also one of the spaces I tend to use most frequently, making this room a place I dreaded using, but NEEDED.What to do, what to do? Well, again, our original plans fell through, but my husband came up with this.... ...look , my fabric fits here, no more stacked bins!There is also a place between the units where I can store long narrow items, canvas I need for locker-hooking, the type of canvas that will not fit into little cubicles.This space also allows me to store loom accessories that are long and narrow . I can see what I have and store it in a way that makes it all accessible and to me. I love seeing fabric folded, rolled, stacked, and waiting for me to choose just which one or two will be perfect for my next project. The basket was purchased from Goodwill for $3.00 and holds all my laces, trims, and brick-a-bracks for fabric embellishing. The boxes are free from the grocery store and hold my Wee Little Sheep, all wrapped in tissue paper and ready for adornment and carting off to bazaars. Maybe not as tidy and picturesque as a magazine spread on craft-rooms and studios would show, but this room is organized, comfortable, warm,affordable, and works very well for me. It beckons me , I want to be in this room. I put my music on, or watch recorded programs that inspire me here. I teach my granddaughters how to sew here, and give them a place to use the assembled art products such as beautiful paper, glitter, glue, paint, beads,fabric & trims ...embellishments and many other things they choose to use. The last place left to get in order is the sewing area. The place to the left of the sewing machine holds projects I and my granddaughters are actually working on. This means these projects will be finished and the wire baskets will quickly be re-filled with new projects. So much more organized and efficient for me. The sewing machine pictured here was retired just this month, replaced by a new /old Singer sewing machine from a friend, and an industrial Singer sewing machine I bought brand new. I wore this Kenmore sewing machine out. Although the motor is fine, most of the stainless steel attachments have worn out and broken off. I was having to put bits and bobs here and there to make things work and breaking at least 3 needles for every purse made of handwoven fabric. Time to make the sentimental give way to the practical. I am keeping my old Kenmore, gift from my Grandmother via my mother, but moving on to new things here. I have been getting things in order around our home and am currently going through paper-work and re-organizing our study & filing system.Within the next week I should be done, the shredder will have made much more nesting material for our chickens and helped us free more space to use for LIVING. After the craft room & study are done I will breathe a sigh of relief and feel more free to again be involved outside our home and in the blog-o-sphere. The new year around here is one of purging and expectation, how is your new year coming along?

Tuesday, Not Just For Tea - We Sew Too!

Our granddaughter KN and I sew together most Tuesdays. Tuesdays are not just for tea, but for sewing with KN and sharing a cup of tea together. My sewing skills are very basic. I figure if I teach KN some basic skills she can then take these skills to even higher levels, and sew with the intensity, joy, and creativity she has shown since she was very little. Here she is using my sewing machine, the Kenmore sewing machine my Grandmother gave me. It is as old as me- more than half a century, and working just fine.

KN has chosen a blue flannel material with clouds for the pajama bottoms she will sew.

Voila! I think today she did very well, and tonight she will wear these warm flannel pajama bottoms to bed.Next week's assignment, sewing matching pajama bottoms for her American Girl doll, Josephina. ~"Creativity is the quality you bring to the activity that you are doing. It is an attitude, an inner approach- how you look at things..Whatsoever you do, if you do it joyfully, if you do it lovingly, if your act of doing is not purely economical, then it is creative." Osho