What Have I Been Up To #2?

Well here’s the second picture of my organized container and the stash that I have had time to organize. Aren’t I organized???

Okay, stop that snickering… I know that the containers are mostly empty! It’s a Work In Progress (WIP)!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Originally Posted: June 4, 2006

What Have I Been Up To? -- June 4, 2006

I can’t believe that it’s been almost a month since I last posted! What have I been up to? Well, all of the activities for the end of the school year. The kids will be out next Thursday so things will get quieter! I also had a head cold for the last two weeks… Sigh…

I promised more pictures so I thought I would show you where I’m currently stitching. Now, the house is a mess now that we are finishing the basement (more on that project later). The first picture shows the corner of our dining room where I found some space to setup my table frame. What is on the frame? Well, that’s for a future post… Giggle, giggle, giggle… Since our contractor started three weeks earlier than planned, I didn’t have the time I wanted to organize my stash at least a little so it was dumped into plastic containers. All of the containers that you can see contain my stash. It’s actually not as much as it looks. At least that’s what I keep telling myself! Since I had to dump everything into containers in one afternoon, a lot of it is shopping bags and it’s not organized very well…

The second picture (I'll post a second entry with this picture) is of the containers that I set up several months ago when I thought I would have time to organize my stash! As you can see they are beautifully labeled and artistically stacked!

The intent was to downsize from boxes in picture 1 into organized containers in picture 2. Preferably before the basement finishing project started! Well, who says that things go as planned… Sigh…

This will be my July, 2006 project. Hear that family? Mom is organizing stash in July!!!

Now let’s see if I can keep that resolution!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Original Comments:

- I love it!!!! Isn't it amazing how much room those shopping bags need? You will be so organized

when you finish your July project. You MUST show the after picture too. Just think, you will

be able to take all the empty containers and fill them with NEW stash.

Kelly W.

- Hi Kelly,

Yes, it's those shopping bags fault! See my stash isn't as large as we think it is, it's all

air and shopping bags! Sigh... Now I don't have to feel guilty... :-)

As if we need a reason to buy more stash!!! :-) Yes, I will take pictures of organized stash, once

it's done that is!

Cyn

Originally Posted: June 4, 2008

Entry for March 29, 2006

The basement finishing project is going only quickly. The basement was framed up in three days. Lot’s of sawing and hammering! They’ve been working on the electrical and the wiring and the bathroom fixtures are going in later this week once the first electrical inspection has been completed.

The one thing that we didn’t think of when the project was moved up three weeks was all of the decisions that we would have to make that we had not had time to make. In other words, we were going to use the three weeks before the project started to continue working on downsizing and organizing the basement and to start shopping for materials.

There are a lot of decisions that you need to make and HGTV makes it look too easy! Now, I am an HGTV groupie and I know that it takes more time and effort than what they can show on TV but when you are the one doing the running around and still trying to work, volunteer and just have family time it can get hectic! Have you ever tried to pick out a tub and a toilet? Do you know how many options are now on the market? It is truly overwhelming at times! But we are slowly getting there. The tub and toilet have been selected. We have also selected the bathroom ceiling fan and the bathroom hardware. We know that there will be delays in the project as we had not had time to order cabinetry and after ordering it may not be in for 4 to 6 weeks. Soooo we are going to order the bathroom vanity and sink this weekend. Did I mention that the basement is going to have a full bath? More stuff to pick out, tile, light sconces and a mirror and then of course the toilet paper holder, towel bars etc. Lot’s of fun but it does take time!

We are also working on planning out our snack bar. We are going to have an 8 foot snack bar with a microwave, mini-refrigerator, and a sink. Lot’s more decisions!

What does this all have to do with needlework? I don’t have time to work on my needlework until this is done!

Actually I am very fortunate that since our house is a one story we have a large basement. I will now have a craft room! Yeah!!! We’ve worked out the lighting for the craft room. I am also going to have a large closet. I probably won’t pick out the cabinetry until the rest of the basement is finished. I’ll be happy when I can put a table in there and I can work out of my storage containers for a while as this will be better than what I currently have!

If you have any suggestions about cabinetry, wall colors/treatments, lighting, countertops, I would love to hear them! I was able to go by last night and look longingly at my containers full of needlework projects…

More later!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Originally Posted: March 29, 2006

March 28, 2006

It’s been over a month since I last posted an entry! Goodness time has flown by!!!

I haven’t been doing much personal stitching. Sigh? But there are good reasons why?

We started a project to finish our basement at the beginning of March, 2006. The original plan was to start construction at the end of March, 2006. When we met with the contractor to sign the contract at the beginning of March, he asked if he could start the following Tuesday, exactly one week later from when we signed the contract and three weeks earlier than originally planned!

I’m not complaining as its sooooo nice to have someone want to start a project early as opposed to nagging them as to when they would start and when they would finish (remind me someday to write up what happened with our screening in the deck project from last summer which was finally finished in February, 2006. On second thought, I think I just did! It took that contractor nine months to screen in an already built deck with an existing roof. Don’t worry we aren’t using them for this project? Sigh!), but there went my plans to spend time getting organized and sorting and pitching before packing up items to move upstairs. It’s panic time!!!

The kids and my husband were terrific. The kids actually downsized more than I thought they would. We sent over six boxes of toys and about 6 bags of books to charity! We were able to sort and then pack up the toys and books that they wanted to keep and move them upstairs all on Saturday. We celebrated by taking them out to dinner. Plus I was toooo tired to cook!

On Sunday it was my husband’s and my turn. He was able to quickly pack up his stuff into Rubbermaid containers and set it aside to be sorted and dealt with later. Now my husband has a lively sense of humor and he frequently refers to himself as labor and I’m management! He definitely has the easy end of this project so far and he knows it! He didnt have to negotiate between two kids as to what was kept and what was donated!!!

Sigh… I was the challenge! During the Holidays I had begun a project to finally organize my needlework stash. I had set up Rubbermaid containers throughout our dining room. It was a funny sight to see the containers as they were all lined up against two walls with their lids propped up behind them. My daughter kept calling them my coffin collection. Aren’t teenagers fun?! Each of the containers were then labeled with the different categories such as Painted Canvases, Painted Canvases with Fibers, Stretcher Bars, Fibers, Needlepoint Books, Christmas Books, etc. I was startled to see that there are over 20 categories and now 20 containers! At the end of January, 2006 these containers had been labeled but they were still empty. During January, we had decided that we were going to finish our basement this year and we started looking for a contractor. I moved the labeled empty containers down to the basement where I lined them up against the wall. My plan was that when I had time, I would open a container/bag that contained stash and I would sort into the already labeled containers. This way, I could work in short amounts of time as I don’t have a whole day that I can set aside to organize stash (working full time with two kids). And with the size of my stash it would take longer than one day! The basement finishing project wasn’t supposed to start to the end of March, 2006 so I have plenty of time to sort? Right? Sigh…

Note I do have a container set aside for donations so hopefully I’ll be able to donate some stash for the Baltimore ANG Seminar in 2007!

When the contractor asked to move the date of constructor forward three weeks I knew that my plans to organize my stash would have to wait. The 20+ empty containers were moved up to our bedroom. Now that they are stacked up against the wall next to my dresser they make a lovely place to put decorative items!

On that Sunday I knew I had to deal with my unorganized stash as I would not have time on Monday after work. I had already placed a lot of my stash in large plastic containers over the years so they were quickly moved up to the dining room next to the kid’s stuff. The loose stash was my next problem area. I finally decided to place all of this in new plastic containers to be sorted later. Off I went to my local hardware store to purchase $150.00+ of plastic containers. Yes, I have that much stash but some of the new containers were to pack up the books that we couldn’t fit in the containers that we already had! Did I mention that we are all avid readers and we have a very large book collection which was also originally in the basement?!

The funny part is it took two trips/purchases in and out of the store to buy what I needed and to load it into the van. Thank goodness I could fit everything in the van in one trip to the store. I had to ask one of the sales personnel to help me by moving some of the plastic containers down to a lower shelf so that I could reach them. The man was very nice and helpful. He reminded me that for the containers he was moving I would need lids and he handed down the lids only to be startled when I said that I had already loaded the lids that I would need into my cart. He didn’t know that he was dealing with a profession plastic container buyer!

By the end of Sunday, I couldn’t move! But all of the kid’s toys and books had been moved up to the dining room. My stash had also been placed in containers and moved upstairs.

Now over the years I have been asked how many painted canvases and charted projects do I have in my stash and I have always side stepped the question. Since my stash has still not been organized I can’t answer this question but I can tell you that I have 20 containers full of stash that need to be sorted! Does anyone have more? Now in my defense I should say that each of these containers is a 45 gallon container but they all aren’t full. Does that help? Hey, it’s cheaper than therapy! Giggle, giggle, giggle?

I’m still buying as I see beautiful things that I’m hoping that someday I’ll be able to stitch! Actually it is a fun harmless hobby so I decided years ago that not only am I a stitcher, but I am also a collector of fine potential needlework and works in progress!

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Originally Posted: March 28, 2006