My workroom part two

I promised the rest of my workroom (although I've probably shared more than anyone ever wanted to know). The last thing I showed was my closet and canvas storage.

On the wall left of the closet is part of my thread storage.

The stack of drawers on the right hold my Threadworx threads, and the start of my DMC floss (through 600 or so). The left two stacks hold all my DMC and Anchor perle coton (well, except the box of perle coton that is always packed for shipping when I teach choose-your-own-colors classes).











 
Just left of this stack of threads is the little miscellaneous chest I showed last time. And on top of that is the mirror peeking out from behind the storage. The top grey drawers hold my reels of fine sewing metallic. Anyone who has ever taken a class from me knows how much I LOVE fine sewing metallic. The two white units below hold the empty spools and labels for when I reel off smaller yardages of FSM. Left of that is my little antique lamp that belonged to my grandma (had to have something that wasn't for stitching). Below the lamp is my reeler (the white box on the left) and my labeler (sits right of the reeler). I couldn't live without my labeler. I label EVERYTHING!!!!! The drawer below holds extra label cartridges, and other stuff.

All this stuff, right through the closet, sits on the left wall of the room as I walk in the door. So when I am facing this wall, my work table and the magazine shelves are behind me.

 
And turning left from this wall is the door and the one non-stitching piece of furniture. This was my mother-in-law's and is one of the few pieces of furniture my dear hubby chose to keep out of her house. Almost everything in it is strictly decorative (although I do store some small stuff in the cupboard part). I have my Boyd's Bears Noah's Ark and my mom's stereopticon displayed. This room is a little weird. This unit sits in a little jog created by the main chimney, which pokes out into this room (which probably takes about 4 square feet from the room's space).

 

 Next to this sits my
miscellaneous thread drawers — Presencia, The Thread Gatherer, Gloriana, Caron Collection, Dinky Dyes, etc.This sits right in front of the chimney that pokes out into the room.

Left of this is the built-in shelves I showed last time.

 

 The wall left from here is the one the work table is against and where my magazine shelves hang. It also has my bead shelves. Well, the bottom half is beads. The top half holds containers of reeled threads I play with when designing — silks, rayons, cottons, partially used reels of Kreinik metallics — and some miscellaneous stuff that hasn't found a home yet. These shelves are actually media shelves made for CDs and DVDs. Nice and narrow, only 7" deep. Perfect for beads and a very small room.

Below are some boxes of stuff I have to sort through [sigh]. But there were a LOT more boxes before. I've really whittled them down. My recycled bins have been really full several different weeks.

 

The wall left of this one is actually the window wall. The windows take

up most of the wall, but since this is such a small room I've put shelves

in front of the windows, too. Some of the windows show so I have light

in the room, and the shelves are wire shelves so they let the light through.

On this wall is the rest of my floss (remember, the last stack of drawers

ended around 600 or so).

The drawers came out of a shop that closed probably 20 years ago. And even though they say Anchor it's all DMC floss.






Left of this is more wire shelves.

The two grey units on top hold my Kreinik #4, #8, and Japan thread. Left of that is a magnet board holding containers of odd beads. Haven't figured out where to hang this yet — not much wall space left. Below is my sewing machine and my felting machine. This shelf and the two below slide out so I can just sit right there and sew or felt. Don't know what I'll put on the two lower shelves, maybe my models when they aren't traveling.

Remember me mentioning the packed box of perle coton I ship for my choose-your-own-colors classes? That's the big box below the shelves.

And my uncovered window is left of the shelves. And left of here is my closet. So I've made a full circle.




And that is my small packed workroom. Not totally organized yet, but all the furniture and main stuff is there and I think is where it will live. I still have lots of little stuff to do, but I'm so excited that I finally have my very own room.

Oh, I lied. There is one more thing I have to get.

This is my sad little chair. I desperately need a new one and I'm searching. I'll post a picture when I eventually get my new one, but it will be a while. It takes me a LOT of time to choose a chair because I spend so much time in them. And it has to be small since there isn't much space in my workroom.

Thanks for taking my tour with me. It's probably way more information than anyone wants, but I am so excited about having my own space (so's my accountant, but that's another story). I just had to share.
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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. Read more!