Last Day of 2014

I have been busy cleaning and organizing since my classes ended on the 14th of December. When I am in classes I do minimum cleaning it never seems to fail that I just get so wrapped up in the classes. This next term due to begin January 12, 2015 all my classes are online. Which brings me back to the cleaning and organizing I am hoping that by getting everything cleaned and put together that I may be able to do more sewing and complete more projects while in school.

Looking at this year there are many things that are about to change one of those maybe that 2014 will be the last full year that I have had a child in my home. My daughter turns 21 in January and in March she is looking to move out, I am hoping it goes as she wishes it to go. I wished to move my sewing and crafting into a separate room so we are looking at putting my sewing into the office and turning her room into the office, this way if said daughter needs to move back in we only need to move our desks and computers out rather than all the sewing equipment.

When looking behind I always seem to look ahead at the possibilities, I find that when I do this I don't regret as much what I haven't done because when looking ahead I can still achieve so much more. So much is coming together, I am absolutely thrilled with what my husband is doing in the kitchen and now that I have tile and my oven and my cooktop it is so much easier being patient as he puts the rest of it together. I just know it will look fabulous when it is finished. And you know most women would not be as ecstatic about a closet as I am but I simply have to show you all what he has done for me. In the hallway to our bedroom there was a small closet I think at one time it may have held a heater I am not sure as it sits above the return vents to the house and the heater is now in the mm I guess you would call it an attic but to me it is a crawl space. So when we first moved in we store the vacuum and odds and ends in there but what I wanted to do was to be able to store my craft supplies you know to keep them all together. Well my husband could have simply thrown some shelves up and you know I probably would have been just fine with that but nope he did so much more he measured my largest tub and built the shelf space accordingly  and then he stained and finished them so that I wouldn't snag or damage anything that I stored in there.And it is right across from the office which we will be putting my sewing and crafting into so it is a win win. So now I can get to really rearranging and organizing I may even be able to label some things and use what I have.

                   

I also took back a bookshelf that I was letting my daughter use to store my fabric in rather then the wardrobe I was using because I couldn't see all my fabric. So now I have my fabric all rolled up onto comic boards or actual bolt boards as I have begun asking for the bolt boards when I go to the fabric store and it is so much easier to store it that way. So I went from this wardrobe to this shelving.

I have made some progress on cover of my soon to be nieces umbrella for her wedding I am at about 10 1/2 inches in diameter now so only about 26 more inches to go. I am making faster progress than I thought I would and I like the pattern that is emerging.

 

 And finally the last of my clean up not organizing mind you but clean-up is on my sewing table now. So now I just need to wrap this up and label it for the project I have in mind and then finish up a few other projects and maybe I can get back to Smaug.

In 2015 there will be many changes for me some ok, some spectacular, some scary, but no matter what it will all be changed for me. And if it is anywhere close to what I felt in 2014 I will enjoy it all.

Never Enough Time To Do All You Want

Here it is already December 23, 2014! I remember growing up and thinking I will never see the year 2000 I was never very good at math you know. And yet not only did I live to see it I have lived beyond it and am still going. As I look around myself these days so much has changed and so much is still the same, the parts that have changed in many ways I am ever so glad they did and the parts that have remained I am also ever so glad they did. My creativity is still so very strong in me and as I continue to explore this avenue I am slowly but surely building the confidence that I seek. My children are all grown and the final one will leave the nest to try her wings in a few months, I am not sure that this will be a final leave taking for her, however, I hope that she finds what she needs in life to feel the confidence and security that I have today.

I found that trying to work among chaos today doesn't work as well for me as it once did, sooooooo I have set myself a goal of finishing up small projects, gathering other projects together and doing a through cleaning and organizing for the New Year. With my last fledgling leaving the nest this opens up the avenue for a studio area for me and I am finding I like this idea as it means putting my creative chaos into one area and not spread all over. Of course this also means that I must adjust and arrange my creative material to fit into one room hmmm this shall be interesting as currently I have the hall closets and yes that is plural as there are three of them, the living room and the dining room as my playground right now how will I ever pair it all down to just room. Yes you got it I must clean and organize hence the remainder of 2014 will be spent going through everything I have. I have found that it is much easier for me to let go of things that I know I will never use today, where once I could not let loose anything as it may very well be useful one day.

OMG, how is it that I can be sitting here talking about cleaning up and organizing and bam another project just jumped into my mind. A quick flash thought of my daughters grandmother and the thought of an embroidery project that I started OH SO MANY YEARS AGO but never finished because of one reason or another and then it got stained and I have held onto to it for what ever reason and now I know what to do with it and it will be a perfect memorial for my daughter. I will of course have to pull it out and see how to incorporate this project as well. You see I am so obviously easily distracted by my own thought processes so it will definitely be a challenge to complete my organization that is needed. However, I am truly determined to do so. Of course I can't just clean and organize I also have to have something that I can work on to ease that need that I have. So I have also been working on a design for an umbrella for my nephew's fiancee as they are to be married in 2016. So I have begun to work on the pattern to create the umbrella here is a photo of my progress so far it is about 9 1/2 inches in diameter at this point and I believe I need it to be approximately 36 inches in diameter.

The last image is of another woman's work just to give an idea of what a finished product looks like I simply Googled what I wanted and saw her work and found that she has an Etsy shop and that she sells her umbrellas here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/154982407/48-ivory-or-white-lace-crochet-flower?ref=shop_home_active_13. 

From the reviews she does beautiful work so if there is a want for one right away she does have them available or can make them.

However, as I enjoy the work I am working on my soon to be nieces myself. I did finish my kitchen valance which makes me so happy   and my kitchen remodel is coming along really nice as well. It is so very different from the home we moved into about 3 years ago.