Such Sweet Hands

A Simple Ikea Hack:

Lion Brand was very generous, they sent us a ton of yarn to use in our booth. How were we going to organize the yarn in an attractive way that still kept the plentiful supply at the fingertips of our eager crocheters and knitters? Shannon was at Ikea and I was standing in the booth space surrounded by boxes of yarn, so we shopped together via cell phone. She’d announce something she’d found and we’d brainstorm ways to use it, then discuss if it would really work in this booth space. She found the Ikea trash bag holders and suggested we use them attached to the back wall of the booth, but there wasn’t enough space on the booth wall. I convinced her they’d work laying on their backs and begged her to buy a lot of them…

The idea blossomed the next morning when we stuffed the containers with a variety of yarns with the center pull tails strung through the holes. It worked! The set up survived two days and a ton of people using the yarn to knit and crochet.

We also had a lot of fun brainstorming even more ways to use these awesome containers. One suggestion: close the open end and trap a cat toy inside to provide your bored kitty with a challenge. I brought several of them home with me, more later on what I come up with them. I just hope the one I’ve used for 2 years as a boring old trash bag holder doesn’t get jealous!

We have here a rather boring picture, but that is much of what I’ve been up to.  Switching between rather tedious work and sorting out the stuff in my office.  A quick snap of the view from my desk at that moment.  I have too much stuff…

You might see the shadows cast on the wall by the chandelier, I love those shadows.

Late on the night of the 15th, I had a flash of brilliance and realized a huge, heavy, but very useful shelf could be moved (I had previously been totally convinced there was only one place where it could fit), and the filing cabinet next to it could live in the closet.  This opened up a wall to try my desk at.  While I was at it I emptied my cube shelves, turned them on their ends and made plans to buy more the next day. My shelf space has been doubled, but now to sort and place it all…

Here you can see the door to the kitchen, the upended shelves, some of the piles of refugee bits and books.  So far having this wall opened up for my desk has been pretty cozy.  More pics and tales of the never ending office resort as things progress…

Today’s photo is a part two of sorts from yesterday. The scarf got tired of lounging in the tree outside my window and agreed to being shipped away for a likely more flattering photo shoot and publication.

I’ve always had this thing for stationary. I do indeed still have the first box of stationary I received when I was about 7 or 8. I tend to use only 1 or 2 sheets of any stationary set and selfishly squirrel the rest of it away. I’ve decided to start to release the pretty papers back into the world. This sheet is from the Sukie set by Chronicle. It is oh so loverly. Of course I think it’s really sweet that the print on the stationary matches the feel of the scarf. Gods forgive me being all matchey with that one.

I’ve been overhauling the apartment. When all is sorted, sent to Goodwill or shelved where it belongs the place likely won’t look too different to any visitor. I do hope we’ll finally get around to hanging stuff on the walls, but for now the aim is getting rid of all the things we just don’t need.

I’ve been decluttering steadily for a few years. It started with the huge stock of costume stuff I had from my acting school days. It took 2 or 3 purges spaced about 6 months apart to really get rid of it all. It was that hard to let go of all those improvised, patched together renditions of everything from a dress fit for a minuet to a dress perfect for the Charleston. Most of those things were ratty, but I had put each one of them together myself for specific characters and letting them go was like throwing away the ties I had to the part of me that connected with each character.

With all of the character pieces gone, it is now time to move on and free the rest of the things I don’t need. Three trash bags of clothes went to Goodwill yesterday. These were either orphans from the “mend me” pile, or vestiges of the 90’s. I still hung on to several things that break the “if you haven’t worn it in 6 months rule”, but I freed up almost a full closet worth of hanging space… besides, given the work from home attire of drawstring pants from American Apparel and t-shirts, if I followed that 6 month rule I wouldn’t have anything that doesn’t look like sloppy pajamas to wear when it comes time for the next TNNA!

I’m also sending off a small pile of books. I don’t know if I’ve ever let go of books in my adult life. And then there’s sorting through all the crafty bits and bobs. Most of that stuff is staying for now, but I have started a box of things I won’t be keeping that might fit nicely in a gift package for a crafty person.

With clothes and crafty bits, I have a box for each of things I intend to fix, mend, use, etc. The deal I’ve made with myself is I review the boxes again soon and see if I’ve actually used any of them.

I’m starting to get a high from all this decluttering though! It feels so good to get rid of stuff and leave clean open space for my own thoughts and new ventures. The new room in my closet means I have storage for crafty stuff that just littered and cluttered my office. Now my office will have a nice little clean space where I can place some pillows to make a cozy place for eating cookies and playing with my old Spirograph.