So I had been feeling a mite poorly in the recent past. A multitude of reasons for it, each one more boring than the last, so I will spare you the agonizing details. You can thank me later. 
But one glaring thing in my environment was really bringing me down: my sewing area. I thought that having the metro shelves out in the living room/dining room would make it über convenient for me to sew whenever I wanted. It did accomplish that but it also made my living/dining room cramped, messy looking and dark. Do you need a reminder of what my creative space looked like?
Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have never been a neat person. Clean, but not neat. Don’t get me wrong… My mom tried her hardest with me, but I came without a neat and orderly gene. I was still lovable though. Uh, sometimes. Well, maybe once.
When you combine really messy not so neat with open shelving… um well, you can see what happens.
I wanted my apartment to be more of a home for Jack, rather than just a place where we go to sleep every night. I want Jack to be proud of his home, to think it’s pretty and a relaxing environment. So, I did what any normal, sane person does. I went to the Container Store and bought a mortgage payment’s worth of shelving for my bedroom closet and various other organizing accoutrements. For those that might ask, the metro shelves were too wide and deep to fit in the closet, drat it all!
Later that day, a good friend of mine came over to install said shelves, an iron/ironing board holder thingymajig and a few framed art pieces and all of the sudden I had “insta-home”!
Ok, I didn’t all of the sudden have a home because I had to clean up the even bigger mess I made in the name of organizing and put everything in its place (haha! everything has a place now — how cool is that?!?!?).
My fabric is neatly folded and I found some that I had forgotten about — it was like finding $20 bucks in your winter coat the first time you wear it again. All my patterns are in one place (well, except for the ones still open and lying around on the dining room table, but we won’t mention that, will we?). My Burda magazines and sewing reference books are in a bookcase. My supplies are neatly organized into bins and I have a craft box full of all the tools of the trade (way better than the shoe box in which I could never find anything).
Here are some pics of Project Organization in progress.
Closet, left side
Closet, right side
The pros are that I love that I have more room in the living room. Love the brighter, neater space. The feng shui is so much better. I am much happier walking through my door every day now. The only con? Well, I am going to have to be really sure I have all the supplies I need out of the bedroom closet for any project I am working on because I won’t be able to go back in there once Jack is asleep. He’s a light sleeper. It’s a small price to pay for Jack’s home though. 
Ok, the barf inducing sickly sweetness is over.
Happy sewing everyone!
Oh, wait, I have a P.S.! I have two more commissions for hats and mittens after posting pics of my first commission. How cool is that?
