Ok, so once I saw what Jill had done over on her blog, I couldn't resist trying to do one myself. Course the laundry list of problems with that didn't seem to dim my enthusiasm. Let's start with I'm in Michigan and all my stuff is in New York. Oh, no problem..I'll go spend money I shouldn't and buy some supplies here. Hmm..I've never used mod podge, but that's ok..it can't be too tough, right? *grins* Anyway, nothing stopped me. Not even not having any pictures to choose from. I got lucky. The boys school pics had just come back. So, without further ado..my attempt:


Hmm...it bubbled. It looks ok in the end, but I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for this kind of thing.


The completed project! I think it looks pretty darn good and I can't wait to hang it in my bedroom/craft area when I get back to NY. I wish I could have disguised the vellum a bit more, but it looks pretty good for not having the tools. Oh..and that darn x that had to become a y because I ruined the first y and there were no more in the box...hehe...

Well, I'm stuck in Michigan at Peter's house while he's in Asia. While I love the extra time with my boys, it also means that I can't take pics of my crafty things at home. What I can do though is take pics of the things that I found at the AmVets store before I came out here. So, without further ado...


Nice vintage suitcase...cost me $2.98!


Smaller vintage suitcase..$1.98!


My yarn finds..packed neatly for the trip to Michigan.


Yarn from a Buffalo store that went out of business in the 90's called AM&A's and a lovely red scarf that Roger stole as soon as he saw it.


Lovely red yarn purchased by someone before Woolworth's turned into Foot Locker!


See the Woolworth's brand?


Lots and lots of yarn and a really cool label on more yarn!

Oh my gosh, I had 2 comments on my welcome back post. That's not the exciting part. The exciting part is that they were from Klo and Dona! These two ladies are super, super talented and wonderful women! I used to look at their stuff and just think oh my gosh, I could never come up with stuff like that. They're total sweethearts too. I'm so so so excited that they commented on my journal. I really hope that if they still have a yahoo group or anything like that, that they'll let me join them.

OK..I'm so excited that I'm just babbling, but I can't help it. It's been a long time since I've been in touch with these ladies (and I know it's so my fault for just vanishing) and I'm super thrilled to have heard from them.

On the crafting/organizing front, I've taken a couple of days off. I spent Saturday enjoying my boys and then yesterday driving to Ohio and back so they could go back with their Dad. Today, I had a doctor's appointment and I'm feeling worn out so I'm taking it easy while plotting the next steps of cleaning and organizing. :)

I was sitting here thinking of the process it took to get to put those away and decided to post it.

Sticker binder -> Sort out stickers (ones in binder and loose I've found so far) -> Put plastic ziplock bags with stickers that don't fit into 2 drawers in my new drawer system -> Kit binder -> Remove all kits -> Sort loose stuff into kit bags where it fits best -> Repair bag -> Replace 9 kits in binder -> White tub -> Empty tub -> Sort out contents -> Crafting stuff -> Magazines -> Trash -> Misc other stuff -> Refill basket with kits and binders -> Office/School bin -> Empty bin -> Collect things to go back into it -> Refill it neatly -> Clear trash out from under table -> Pull out nasty box -> Empty box -> Put nasty box in laundry room to go out with garbage -> Push Office/School box into place -> Put basket into place.

So what seems like a 2 minute process in the other post was actually all of these steps. Whew!

Well, more progress has been made. It's slow going, but I'm so proud of it. Yesterday, I totally cleared out from under my table in the bedroom. Ick! It involved pulling out a case of paper that had gotten wet. The whole underside of the box was mildewy. So gross! Once it was all cleaned out though, I replaced the nasty box with a lovely plastic bin filled with office supplies and school supplies (pens, notebooks, loose leaf paper, folders, blank cds, etc) which fit in there totally perfectly. Then, I was able to put my small white laundry basket (filled with my sticker binder, kit binder and extra kits) down at the other end. It looks so tidy under there.

I filled an entire garbage bag yesterday with trash from under there and trash from containers that I unloaded.

Trash bag count for this week : 8

It feels so nice to see a nice, clean apartment and workspace forming! Now, I just have to somehow repair that drawer that fell apart when I tried to load the reams of paper into it...

I think it's been close to three years since I've done any serious crafting. So much of life has gotten in the way of me being able to sit down and really enjoy crafting. First there was the breakup of my marriage and then the divorce. Of course after that, it was all about working hard and finishing my associates degree. I'm very proud to say that I graduated Magna Cum Laude and now I'm in Buffalo working on my Bachelors degree. The move from Michigan to New York wasn't in my life plan, but after nearly a year of being here, I'm finally settling in.

My biggest excitement right now is the fact that I have *finally* started organizing my craft things and I've been slowly moving them into my apartment. Now, my apartment is only 300 square feet, so it's taken some creative organizing, but it's slowly coming together. Thank god for a nice big bedroom closet!

So now I've created this new blog where it's my intention to start posting some pictures of my organizing progress and hopefully sometime soon, my actual crafting projects. I'm also hoping to get back in touch with some of the wonderful women I used to know in the crafting world.