Last weekend's project

Ugh....where does my time goes these days?


Oh yea, I'm planning a wedding :-)


Sadly very little time is spent crocheting since 2011 began.  When I do sit down with the "itch" to crochet I either HATE what is being produced or I'm too tired to work long enough to see progress...I'm working on a few birthday presents right now (one is over a week late because I couldn't even find the desire to crochet during the Super Bowl this year) which I hope to have done by Monday and I can then finally get back to posting about finished projects and those that I'm currently working on!

Around mid-January I decided that I wanted to reorganize my yarn stash.  I had my yarn in about 4 different places due to "what it was for" (i.e. crocheting, plastic canvas, current projects, projects started but never finished, etc.)  I started to notice that I was going to buy yarn I already had and after doing this 2-3 times you realize the system you have been using is no longer WORKING!  So I set out to store all my yarn together.  Regardless of what I bought it for, unless it was a project started that I knew I would finish soon, it was being put away by color.  This also required a LOT of frogging and rewinding of yarn.  Given how sore my right tricep and shoulder were on Sunday and Monday, I'm thinking I need to find a way to register for an electric ball winder as a wedding present!  Jon could care less, but I WOULD LOVE IT!

Here are some pictures of how Saturday's progress went (once I was home from picking up my mom's Mother of the Bride dress):

This is the "before shot" of my craft closet.  We currently live in a 2 bedroom apt. so the closet in the 2nd bedroom (which is our study/"the quiet room" as my mom calls it) is where all of my crafty stuff is "supposed" to live.  As you can see by the line up of bags on the bottom left of this picture, that doesn't really happen!

A good deal of my yarn was living in 5 drawers of an Ikea dresser than was purchased to store just that.  After about 2 hours of pulling everything out from the dresser, the closet and going through what was in the living room, separating it by color, and frogging projects dating back to when I was in college I was left with what you see on the futon in the 2 pictures above.  It's the same yarn in both pictures, just took pictures from each side as the blue and purple in front was too tall :-)  I proudly made Jonathan come into the room at this point to see my BEAUTIFUL collection of yarn because I do think it's beautiful and having a collection of yarn isn't something you get over night.  It's taken years of sales, unfinished projects and just a yearning for new yarn to end up with all of this.  Makes you feel like a true "crafter"....doesn't anyone know what I mean? Or am I just as crazy as Jon thinks I am?  He told me it looks like a yarn store and I proudly said "I KNOW!"  He just shook his head and went back to the living room :o)

By the time I took the 2 pictures above this ENTIRE project had been taking me much longer than I ever thought it would.  You should know that the poor quality of these photos is because it was now dark outside and my cell phone camera and flash can only create so much magic!

I LOVE THESE BOXES from Ikea.  Sadly I should not be bragging because Ikea has stopping selling them! I was devastated when I found this out and ended up having to buy something else, and re do my living room wardrobe storage in order to have the 9 sitting there full of yarn.  They work perfectly.  The yarn is not 100% as perfect as I would have liked it to be....some colors aren't paired how I would have liked them but I had to go with what would fit where.  They're all a tight fit for now, but I think that's a good thing.  As I start use this more and more there will be more and more room (either just in general, or to buy more - take your pick!)

 Here is the finished product for the night!  I cropped out the top half of the photo because those shelves weren't touch at all.  The 16 cubes have been redone in a way that I'm happy with for now but the study is still all tore up and I've got to figure out where all my washed material for sewing is going to go.  Thing is, if I could get the 2 boxes of clothes that are to the right of the book shelf out of this closet and back into the bedroom area where they belong I'd have LOADS more room.

Didn't do much with on this on Sunday, I really just did some picking up of my clothes and week old laundry from the bedroom.  Everything is in a state of chaos lately.  It drives Jon crazy and it drives me crazy too but I'm trying my best to get it all done and that's really all I can do.  I think we both appreciate it when I try.  I hope to work hard on all this again tomorrow (reorganizing really doesn't give you back more space, even when you're not throwing lots out - it's fantastic!) so that Sunday can include some "Holly time" (i.e. crocheting) and enjoying the 50 degree weather that's coming our way with a run and some suit shopping in downtown SS!

P.S.  Work has been mentally and physically challenging and exhausting this week and I just don't have it in me to sit here and proof read what I just typed.  I apologize for any grammatical errors, etc.