Aftermath...

One of the things about going to dance camps and weekends and festivals is that it's impossible to explain to anyone who wasn't there and who's never experienced it before what it was like - the intensity, whirlwind madness of it all, the non-stop reunions, the adrenylene highs that keep you going in spite of sleeplessness, inadequate caffiene and food intake, and aches in places you never knew you had.

This past weekend was Neffa, a fabulous festival in Mansfield, MA. It was all of the above and more.

(Picture by Robin Reid)

Today was a true day-after, similar to coming back to civilization after a week at dance camp. It feels odd that I didn't recognize people on the street and in the elevator like I did in the hallways of the school where Neffa happens. I wanted nothing more than to look at pictures of the festival, relive and rehash all of the moments, share stories, think about next year.

Reality will sink in after a few days, though I fear the next few home dances will fall a little flat in comparison. I will wash all of the dresses, finish unpacking before I repack it all for next weekend's adventure, and who knows, maybe even catch up on a little sleep.

Craft Room progress report

Warning - this post contains about a million pictures!

This past weekend I finally got some quality time at home, the last such weekend for about a month. I used the time to make progress on my craft room reorganization.

On Satruday morning, after a quick run to Cherry Hill to pick up the last piece of my shelving system from the container store, I got to work making the craft room ready. I moved bookcases, crates, filing cabinets, etc. A bunch of things took up temporary residence in the hallway.



By early afternoon, the future shelving area was clear and ready for what I thought would be the simple job of hanging the single track that all of the shelving hangs from. Silly me...



Because I don't have a lot of experience hanging things that need to be really level unsupervised. I asked a friend to come and help me with that bit. While I waited for his arrival, I put together the drawer frames. One of the beauties of this Elfa system is that it goes together easily. What I like even more though is that the instuctions included with each component are very explicit and easy to follow.



Well, the drawere frames were the easy part of the day... I chose to hang the shelves on an outer wall of my house. No problem, said the nice lady from the Container Store who sold me the screws and anchors for plaster walls (which seemed really strong and sturdy). Problem. The screws are 3". The gap between the plaster and the outside brick is about 2". So, off we went to the hardware store to find shorter screws. Then we couldn't get the fancy anchors all the way in. So we tried different anchors I had in the house. Almost, but now they're not as happy or secure with the screws. We try a few more things. In the end, I made a second trip to Cherry Hill and purchased the screws and anchors meant for dry wall. They're still as strong, but shorter, and therefore, perfect. By about 10:30pm, the top track was up!

I had this notion that I would go to bed as soon as the top track was up, but no, not possible. I started putting up the brackets...

...and the shelves. I liked this spacing, but discovered I didn't leave enough room for the drawer units to fit below. I waited until Sunday to reconfigure.

I spent quality time on the ladder Sunday morning working on shelf spacing. This is what I settled on.

Next, I completed the drawer units and put them in place. As an added bonus, the drawer legs fit neatly over the radiator pipe and don't interfere with the phone jack that's near the floor.

Almost immediately I began filling the drawers. It's so great to have the space to be organized!!!

By the time I stopped working on it tonight, the upper shelves were filled with my fabric (greatly in need of sorting and perhaps storage in bins), and most of the drawers were filled. Imagine, I have a drawer full of nothing else but ribbon! I took advantage of one of the extra shelf brackets to hang ebroidery hoops from (where did I get that many hoops?)

Over the next many days, I hope to keep working on this. Even if I only unpack a few things at a time, that will be enough to keep the momentum going. Stay tuned for more posts as the sorting/rediscovery of stuff I'd forgotten about process continues!

It's going to get worse before it gets better...

One of the many things I love about my house is the craft room. I am astounded by the amount of stuff I have that's craft related: rubber stamps, package upon package of fabric, paper, beads, yarn, stuff! The picture below is indicative of my current storage technique:

You'll notice the unit under the windows, the two tall wooden shelves, the stack of crates, and the small drawer unit. And this is only one side of the room. There's more like that. And every piece is full.

So in an attempt to create order out of chaos and take advantage of my 9' ceilings, thanks to the Container Store, their sale on Elfa shelving, and the generosity of my mother, we have a plan!

This whole wall between the windows will become shelves and drawers. I have all of the materials except for one shelf which I can pick up next week. The whole thing requires assembly, of course, but the only thing that requres skill and power tools is hanging the strip just below the ceiling that all of the shelves will hang from. After that, the shelves and drawer units will go up quickly.

It will look something like this, minus the green wall, and taking into account the radiator that juts out inconveniently into the space:

But of course it's not really that easy. The room is full of stuff, and the wall of future shelves has that charming array of pieces already there. I've created only the rudiments of a master plan to deal with this all.

The first step for me was dismantling my old desk in the corner, the file cabinets and desk top I've had since junior high, and pushing the table that was in the center of the room into the corner. The file cabinets have to go. They're bent and have drawers that hate to open. Their contents will go in the new unit. I'll save the desk top and possibly get some new legs for it (from Ikea?) to use as an extra work space/cutting table when needed. Here's the desk on its way to not existing:

I did not photograph the pile of fabric bags that were under the desk, though you can see some of them above. The next step is to move the tall wooden shelves that are currently against the key wall elsewhere, and to get help hanging that top track. Stay tuned for progress updates. and let me know if you feel like constructing drawers some time!

The renewed crafting bug...

Because I am a big fool, I stole some time on Saturday morning to run up to a rubber stamp show in Allentown (only an hour away!). I'm sure I've posted about these shows in the past, and this one was no exception. But still, as there are no good, independent craft stores nearby, I feel compelled to go to any show that's reasonably close and on a day when I'm free.

I thought I was going to escape mostly unscathed from this one. A few little stamps called to me. I gave in and bought a few sets of Inkadinkado clear stamps you use with acrylic blocks.

These bridge the gap between mounted and unmounted stampsd for me. They are cheaper and easier to store than wood-mouned stamps, and cling easily to acrylic blocks (which I just happened to alread own a few of). I can't wait to try these!

All of the booths at the show also feature demonstrations of new ideas and techniques you can try with the products being sold there. While I was waiting on line to pay for the clear stamps, the demonstrator was showing how to emboss paper quickly and easily using embossing dies and brass stencils and a machine called a CuttleBug. It was amazing!!!

I've played around with paper embossing in a number of ways: with brass stencils and Fiskars texture plates, but they all have the same problem - they're too time consuming, and I don't have that much time. But with this machine, it takes seconds to make a beautiful background paper.

Oh, I could go on and gush, but I won't. Needless to say, I went to Michaels today and bought one and have already tested it out. And yes, I love it.

Much depends on the dies you have, and I have next to none at the moment. I have many brass stencils though, and as soon as I get the right layer to use so they don't kill the machine, I'm golden. Here are a few examples of the patterns I'm longing for:

And of course, the first one I bought:

It's almost garden party season...

Here's an amazing, and amazingly doable idea from Decor8.

I think I have a few lanterns in the house I could possibly use for this...

The one that got away...

As luck would have it, one of the blogs I follow, House Obsession, follows the adventures of a Philadelphia homeowner who bought one of the houses I looked at last year, liked, but rejected because of the amount of work it needed. From reading her blog, it looks like she's doing a great job of working on the house, especially the transformation of her kitchen which was featured on ApartmentTherapy.



(Those Before cabinets were amazing!) I'm so jealous! Someday...

This would have been perfect...

...if only the person who posted this on Craig's List had responded...