Glad to be back

Sorry for the long absence. I've had a hard summer. A few days after I got back from our Mystery Retreat I got really sick — well, afflicted would be more accurate. At first we thought it was an allergy and I gave up every food we could think of that it might have been. Didn't help. After numerous trips to the Drs and trying everything everyone could think of and a biopsy the Drs determined it was some sort of dermatitis. No solution yet to what caused it. More tests yet to come.

The upshot is I spent the last two weeks of July and all of August with swollen watery itchy eyes, and my whole face red and scaly and swollen and itchy and — well, enough with the icky description. You get the idea. If I have been more miserable I can't remember when. Consequently I got very little business done — no designing, no stitching, nada.

But all symptoms are gone and boy do I feel better. And I'm finally playing catch up. Today it's the blog. But yesterday it was getting the last of the furniture into my workroom. Hooray!!!!!!

Last year we finally got the last of my daughter's stuff (well, almost the last) out of her room. And I decided to move my stitching stuff in. I might actually get my dining room back (it's been my office/studio for the last 12 years).

Anyway, our smallest bedroom is now my workroom. I've been gradually moving stuff in and organizing it, between deadlines. Since I don't have many deadlines right now, and I'm feeling so much better, and my dear hubby had the weekend off I decided this was the time to get the last of the furniture from the dining room into the workroom.

It turned out to be a bit more work than I thought since my original layout didn't work in reality (in spite of measurements etc) and we wound up rearranging almost everything in the room. I still have a lot of organizing and weeding out to do, but it is so great now. So workable. So I decided to take some pictures and share with my friends.

When you see my pictures you will know why I don't participate in stash storage discussions on the ANG and EGA lists. This isn't a stash, it's a small store *^_~* As you see my pictures remember all this is in a room about 9 x 10 feet, not counting the closet.

When you first walk in you see my worktable. This was created from a craft cart from Michael's and an old computer desk. My cutting mat fits on top and at the wall end is a technology storage unit (houses my Cricut right now).

You'll notice the two units aren't the same length, but the really cool thing is they both have flip-up ends and when they are both flipped up . . .

they are the same length and make a work surface I can sit at. You can also see the slide out where my fabric cutting machine sits.

On the wall above the work table are shelves that hold magazine right now. That might change, but it works for now. I'm in the process of painting all my cheap cardboard magazine holders the same color — cheaper than buying those fancy ones.

And, yes, I'm turning the icky brown ones into the shiny black and silver ones.

I have some miscellaneous storage areas for all that stuff that just isn't easy to categorize. I have a little dresser with a mirror that was mine when I was a kid (belonged to some relative before I got it) and I used it as my changing table for my babies. My daughter used it in her room and my mom in hers when she lived with us.

Now, it's miscellaneous storage in my workroom. Interestingly enough, my nursery, my daughter's room, my mom's room, and my workroom are all the same room. Oh, I forgot to mention in between bouts as my nursery it was my stitching room when I sewed professionally. So it hasn't moved in almost 32 years. I'll show you the top when I talk about some other storage. The mirror isn't accessible right now, but it's still there.

I also have a set of miscellaneous plastic drawers.

Right now these hold all kinds of stuff, but eventually they will probably hold all my paints and markers.

And I have some built-in shelves that hold a lot of the stuff that isn't used often but is still useful.

Truthfully there is some stuff here that I will probably sell eventually (computer games I've played, stacks of fabric, etc, and empty containers that are too good to pitch). Plus canvases (artist, not needlepoint). Just stuff.

The last thing I'm going to show today is my black hole of a closet.

The back two thirds of the closet is stacked over head high with boxes of my daughter's stuff. Stuff she is gradually going through. In the front right inside the door are two bookcases, facing each other (not much room to get between). The right one is full of art books. The left one has magazines, business books, and some art books (mostly my collection of First Nation art books).

And I lied. Since you can see most of it anyway, here's my canvas storage (rolls of yardage, not pieces - they live elsewhere).

They stand in a rolling rack made to hold rolls of artist canvas or rolls of art paper. It sits right in front of the closet. Eventually when all the boxes are gone the one bookshelf will move further back into the closet and this will sit inside the closet.

Well, there's part of my workroom. Next time I'll show you the pictures of all my thread and bead storage.

I'm so happy with my workroom. I can't wait to show you the rest.