im married to the hustle
I was starting to wonder if I’d be able to post today with the AWS outage – couldn’t upload anything to my photo server. But seems to be working now so let’s get on with it.
Been mostly focusing on finishing my sewing room clean-up. Is it done? No because there is SO MUCH to do. I can’t remember if I said it last week, but usually after dragoncon I do a deep clean of my sewing room every year. I reorganize and put everything away after working all summer. Like total sewing room reset. And I didn’t do it last year. So I’m having to slog through 2 years worth of unorganization and mess. Going through my fabric piles is crazy because I’ve got scraps from projects from LAST YEAR still stuck in my fabric bins. I don’t mean like, a 1/4 yard leftover, I mean like literal trash.
I was reminded I have all of this pink fabric sitting around. At one point I was going to do a historical version of Ariel’s pink ballgown. At one point it was going to be a remake of Something There Belle (actual cartoon look this time, not a historical version). Now I don’t know. I should do something with it.
I’ve been gathering up all of my stickers and patches I find into one box and found my old GetGlue stickers. Decided to decorate this ugly cardboard box with them, because what else am I going to do with them?
Reorganized the sewing machine area – realized if I put them at an angle, I can fit 3 of my machines on the bottom. Really wish I could’ve fit the serger down there too but alas. But it does leave me some space on top, and I think I’m going to put some fabric baskets there with frequently used stuff like snaps, hooks and eyes, tape, etc.
I also moved my treasure chest out of here. It has sat under my mirror since I first set up the sewing room, and I’ve always hated it. Firstly it does not have ANY sewing stuff in it. It’s all just random sentimental stuff. I cleaned it out (I had a TON of bridal/wedding inspiration stuff I’d torn out of magazines back in 2007 and 2008. Threw all that away!) and then moved it into the hallway for now. After I finish my sewing room I’ll be doing my work office/the guest room next, and that’s where I plan to put it next. SO glad to not have it sitting there all the time now.
One thing I’ve been really hating about my sewing room lately is how I’ve developed this pile of STUFF in the corner next to this wardrobe. Two large bins of overflow patterns, and then I typically start stacking recent fabric in there too. It’s a constant mess. So I really wanted to change that area. First was getting rid of those pattern bins. I found these square-ish plastic bins and was able to fit 4 of them in the vertical space in the wardrobe – I wish they were a tiny bit longer to fit the space better, but I was able to get 75% of the bin patterns into the wardrobe! Yay!
I still had a stack to put somewhere, and I ended up putting them in a rolling storage stool I keep under the table. Previously I had my zippers and interfacing in there, but I was able to move the zippers to one of these small drawers in the wardrobe, and I moved that stack of patterns to the stool. It’s all like… “normie” patterns like bags, kids clothes, pajamas, normal clothes and jackets. Stuff I won’t use much but it’s still in reach if I need it. I did clean out my interfacing hoard and refolded it all and it all fit back on top of the patterns in the stool.
The other small drawers are more basic stuff – one drawer is all velcro, elastic, snap tape, and bias tape. The other is things like heat bond. The owl fabric storage cube is all large envelope patterns. Only crappy thing about moving all this into the wardrobe now is that it took away my space I had for just random toys to sit up there. They will just have to find another place.
Big changes over at the built-in. I moved all of my old media collection (minus the Disney clamshell VHS tapes) into the top shelf of the door section, behind my Monty Python Holy Grail doll collection. Cleaned out some random stuff up there too and made more room for my vinyls.
Organized all that other stuff down there, put stuff in new containers. Got rid of all of my old glass and plastic bead jar collection – they’re all now in bags in the large sparkley green Taylor Swift box.
Ok now crazy story. Last week I very much in my Mema feels, just missing her; her birthday was Friday. I unexpectedly found a note she’d written me. Other little things that reminded me of her. I was cleaning up and dusting the collections on the exposed shelves, and I got to that little teapot/teacup on the upper shelf (you can just barely see the bottom of them in the pic above). She gave me all that. I have a tendency to stick random stuff in anything where I can, so I was curious what was in the teapot (I could tell what was in the tea cup – mini brand stuff and action figure weapons). I opened up and… it was money. I had to get down off the ladder and sit on the floor with it and count it out. It was a lot of money. I must have made that my money hiding place at one point and forgotten about it… I don’t know HOW I would’ve forgotten about that much money, but I do remember at one point a few years ago, feeling like my costume budget jar was less than I thought it should’ve been.
And besides the joy of finding unexpected money, it also just made me cry because Mema was ALWAYS slipping me money. So finding it so close to her birthday and after thinking about her all week just kinda felt… magical.
Anyway let’s go through all this. I’ve got my Disney clamshell VHS collection in the very back of these 2 shelves, and in the Yellow Submarine lunchbox I’ve got my sequin collection. In the grey fabric bin is all of my friendship bracelet stuff – how do I have so much friendship bracelet stuff?? I may pack all that up and send it to my friends’ kids.
Anyway black box on the bottom is just a bunch of sentimental cards and keepsakes that I may move out of here. Floral bin is swag – trading cards, moo cards, leftover badge ribbons etc. The metal bin is Tsum Tsums I can’t bear to get rid of yet. I tried to separate some out to donate and I’m just not ready. I fought for some of those!!
Next door we have a bunch of my old sketchbooks and art in the very back. A random wig head because it was in the way, probably not staying there. The white box is stickers and patches. The box on top of it is grommets, eyelets, button cover kits, punches, snaps, etc.
Big sparkly green bin on the bottom is beading and jewelry stuff, the floral bin on top of it is embroidery stuff. And the last bin is all rhinestone stuff.
Next shelf over – the wicker bin with the striped fabric is all oversized stuff, scraps of worbla, craft foam, pipe cleaners, etc. Black box in the back is needle felting supplies. Wicker bin in the front is glues.
In the very back of the bottom is an old sewing supply case – it was my great-grandmother’s. It now houses all of my ancient button collection, except for 2 bottles and 1 bag I have to find another home for. The blue bin in the front is all wire and tape. The big ugly paper box is more oversized stuff, shoulder pads, batting, large trims.
And the last shelf – I’ve got a document storage thing in the back that is mostly sentimental stuff, art, cards, etc. Couple of folders and notebooks next to it. The green and white bin is all my self-made pattern pieces I wanted to keep. And the metal bin in the front is all just random stuff, brooches, metal findings, stuff I cut off purses and clothes, you name it.
And then I have a whole empty shelf!! It may end up being fabric storage since I took all that fabric out of the vertical section of the wardrobe and now all that needs a home (grimace face)
Over in the blue cabinet, the top shelf is all ribbons and trims that are still on spools. Second shelf is ribbons and trims that are in bags. Third shelf is so far homeless stuff – stuff that just doesn’t fit in anywhere, like wooden pieces, craft metal, etc. Last shelf is sewing machine manuals, cords and presser foots for anything not actively being used.
And then there’s the horror. I’ve got soooo much fabric to go through, clean out, fold and put away. I did start on it and got all of that on the floor sorted, and 4 of the bins on the shelf.
Anyway that was a lot of stuff I really only wrote for future me to re-read one day and enjoy, I know nobody else does LOL
Saturday we went to get lunch and went to a vintage market where i found THIS!!
And it FITS!! Yes! Vintage TPM shirt, $30.
Oh one more sewing room bit —
When we moved in to this house, the previous owners had left this duck dish towel hanger. Chase hated it and immediately took it down. I’ve had it just sitting in my sewing room since intending to use it. I finally had him put it up on the wall this weekend. She’s now my measuring tape holder. I love how bitchy she looks.
Monday my parents got back from Vegas, but it was going to be too late for them to pick up Skye and Walker from boarding, so I went and picked them up and took them home. Walker was VERY put out to be put away and me leaving so soon.
Finally put our Eras Tour poster up in the newly painted kitchen. It looks great.
More findings from my sewing room – when I got my bug in 2003, I got an ipod, a cd with music from the commercials (it was a banger too I still have a lot of those songs on playlists because of that cd), and this VW tin with coasters inside. Funny thing is this tin is SO hard to open that I’ve only actually seen these coasters maybe once? I made Chase open it for me one time so I could see them. I just found it and made him open it again – they are cute, like little national parks/vintage travel looking things. I think I’m going to keep it downstairs and put some of our other coasters in it since they are about the same size… just not put the lid on all the way LOL
I also found our cosplay citations from Dragoncon!! I thought these had gotten lost and I was so bummed because I never got to read them – I gave up on my contacts halfway through Dragoncon so I couldn’t read anything til I got back to the room and put my readers on. These were in Chase’s pocket so I never saw them again — checked his Beast pockets when we got home and it wasn’t there. I just found them in my wig box! My fav is “Offleash pet” LOL This was so funny.
Let’s see if this works. I finally got to play with my turntable! This particular dressform doesn’t work great with it, but it’ll be perfect with my ones with arms.
Also yesterday did we go visit my grandma Mama Gin for her birthday. She’s 99! It was kind of a bummer tho. Her hearing and sight are both pretty bad now, she couldn’t tell who I was even with me shouting my name directly in her ear. She did finally figure it out and we had a nice hug, but man I just feel sorry for her.
That’s all for now. Maybe next week my sewing room will be done and I can finally get started on other stuff.
