My Craft Space. Who's the Messiest? - Part 1

Ok.  I'm hoping if I talk about this on the web, then maybe...just maybe I'll accomplish my organizing goal.

15 piece puzzle

I've been battling with my craft space/bed room for months(ok maybe years).  From the hard long task of rearranging furniture in my room, like a 15 piece puzzle, to moving furniture in and out of my room.  This might sound easier than it is, but it's not.  My room is a loft with a spiral staircase.  So rearranging a room in other cases could be slightly easier by moving a piece of furniture into a hallway, but, in my case removing a piece of furniture consist of removing a balcony railing and lowering furniture off a ledge(or holding/balancing it on my head to walk up/down the stairs).  In this case removing a couch, it was s a nerve racking event, even though my ex-husband made it look easy.  However, the thoughts alone of all the things that could have gone wrong were enough to not want to proceed.

Anyways.  The couch has been out of my room for a months now and it's been replaced with a 6 foot table.  It's so nice to have a table to cut fabric on, and not on the floor....that is of course if the table is not underneath a pile of vintage sheets and thrifted goods (as seen here).

My room is jam packed with furniture, covered in sewing, crafting, and thrifted items.  Let's break down what I have in one room.

• 6 ft folding table - For cutting fabric and gathering some necessary sewing tools, which at times has piles of vintage sheets, fabric and thrifted goods on it.
• Extend-able antique table (painted black) - For my sewing machine, serger and sewing notions.  Currently topped with UFOs, some fabric, and thrifted goods. 
• Tall boy - aka printer stand
• Dresser - catch all (fabric, thrifted goods, craft supplies).  I have hopes to have this area to place my finished sewn products for Etsy, and markets.
• Bed - to sleep on.  Usually half of it is covered with clothes I need to fold and put away, or fabric/thrifted goods.
• Computer desk- to house my fabric and vintage sheet stash.   This has done well for this purpose, but the task to refold and put back fabric once used doesn't always happen.  So this desk does get horrific  untidy at times.  
• The floor-  Oh!  Let's not go there.  Just use your imagination.

Do you see the trend?  Fabric, vintage sheets, and thrifted goods have taken over my room.  A little over a week ago I started really focused on trying to get things more organized (HA!).  My mom was so kind to put up a large set of shelves in the garage for my thrifted goods.  So with that set up I was able to make a slight dent in my room, by removing a good amount of stuff off the floor and other areas.  

After I got most thrifted goods out I focused on one area, which seemed like should be the most obvious starting point.  The computer desk, since I have fabric and vintage sheets over all surfaces it was imperative that I organize this area first.

As I mentioned I've been trying to get this area organized for months, so I have two before pictures of this desk.  Originally this is where I sewed, but eventually came to realized it didn't work so well with larger projects since the desk was so narrow, and some sewing projects would hit the back of the desk.   So one before picture is with my sewing machine, and one before picture from just prior to organizing all my fabric.

Before picture from the beginning of the year.

Before picture from March/April-ish..

Yikes, right?  Well here is what it looks like now.

This is an illusion, being that it's the one organized spot in my room... as of right now.

So whatcha think?  My regular fabric is at the top right, rolled inside small storage boxes.  Right  next to that I have milk glass nesting bowls that contain fat quarters, some fabric scraps, charm packs, and jelly roll strips. 

The desk portion holds all my vintage sheets, with larger scraps to the right, behind my large agua fresca, juice jar that is filled with small vintage sheet scraps.  In the two cubbies are vintage sheet pillow cases and fat quarters.

Underneath are my other fabrics, vintage, apparel, and home decor fabrics (A few years back I was really into home decor fabric with the intentions of making a whole bunch of purses out of it, but as you can tell not much has happened there.) 

The keyboard tray is where I'm storing my packing paper (for Etsy breakable orders). 

Now brace yourself.  I'm going to show you  another before pictures from months ago when I started this process.  This dresser had to be moved in order to get a couch out of my room.  That meant all the drawers had to be removed, and ALL that fabric and junk had to be placed somewhere else (bed, floor, computer desk).  Ugh!

The red things in the top right are dragon fly wings.  I made them for  myself a few years back for Halloween.  I also wore them to Fairy day at the Texas Renaissance Festival.

Look,  there's the couch at the edge of the loft ledge waiting to be lowered.  Yikes!

I don't normally see those "ghost" photo spheres in my pictures, maybe a friendly spirit was around to make sure everything went well with the couch.  

My cutting table (seen above) did get some relief when I moved my thrifted goods to the garage and organized the fabric in the computer desk.  I still have some organizing I need to do on it, but for now I'm gonna focus on the above dresser since I want to put my finished items on it.

Oh, and you think that dresser is for clothes don't ya?  Silly.  Only one drawer has clothes in it.  The others?  Well, one drawer is a designated junk drawer, one has beading supplies from when I went into my jewelry making phase, one has craft supplies, and two have fabric....mostly home decor fabric from above mentioned home- decor purse phase.)

So are you shocked, disgusted, or both?  Maybe this doesn't even phase you.  Can you beat me at who's the messiest?  I'll be unveiling the other disaster zones other the next two weeks (keeping my fingers crossed).

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Thrift Share Monday- July 16

Don't you love buying an item at a thrift store, estate, or garage sale, and later find it's mate, or what makes your item complete?  I've come to the conclusion that when it comes to thrifting don't not buy something because it's not a complete item, or set, or just one wouldn't work for you.  I've had done this plenty of times and days, weeks or months later bump into it's set or mate, then regret that I didn't buy the other item I saw previously. 

I'll get back to the mate(s) I found later in this post,  I want to jump right in to the other items I scored this weekend.

Garage and estate sales filled my Friday morning and afternoon, and I got

A single vintage sheet,

Vintage fabric,


A bird cage,

and a slew of Vintage Avon perfume/cologne.

At this garage sale it was marketed as being a collection of items from a former Avon rep.  Now, I haven't got into collecting Avon or haven't done  the buying and selling of vintage cologne, yet, but you know what curiosity does.  Right?

Well, yeah aside from curiosity killing the cat, it also gets you into buying items you normally don't buy.  When I stopped by this sale they were in the process of emptying out boxes still, so I grabbed a few items and went back later with my mom, since they said they had 47 banker boxes they still had to unload. 

So.... I've learned the hard way....and obviously haven't learned throughly that bringing my mom with me to estate/garage sales can be dangerous.  Many times I see things and pass them by, or pass them by because I didn't see them, and my mom brings them to my attention and talks them up and becomes a huge enabler talks me into buying stuff I may have otherwise left behind.  This was one of those classic cases.  As I'm going through the Avon stuff I grab a few things, and head to pay.  "What you're done?  I'm still looking.  Look this is really cute, and this, and this and this."  All of course "cute" meaning for me to buy, not for herself.  So 14 Avon bottles later, on top of what I bought earlier, I'm paying for my loot.



These are all vintage Avon products.  From what I can tell, so far most are from the 70s. Combining my two purchases I have a total of 20 items, with 16 out of 20 being still full and in it's original box.  Now,  I wouldn't recommend these vintage scents to be used or smelled, but try convincing a 12 year old out of wanting to smell all of them, which my daughter did.  Which translates to them being shoved under my noise for me to smell as well.  Ew!

What was interesting to see was what came in one of the jars.  I've bought and sold these aqua Avon jars twice.  Last weekend when I sold one my mom asked me, confused, if I was sure it was an Avon jar.  "Well yeah Avon was embossed on the glass".  She then asked what would have been in it.  "Um, I have no idea."  And what do you know we find one filled with peach shape soaps (that were stinky...you know how old soap smells.) in it's original box.  Well, that answers that mystery (we can now sleep well at night).

Ok, onward.  We headed out to two estate sales, and I grabbed a few items.

Got these vintage mugs with tree stand, new in box,

I've seen these mugs sprawled out all over here and there, but the Japan mark usually steers me away since I have no way to date it aside from them "looking" vintage (yeah I know, search Ebay and Etsy).  Don't get me wrong I have bought and sold Japan marked ceramic mugs before, but I like to have some sort of info for the items I sell.  Now I have documentation for use on these mug (and others in the future) since these were still in their box.  Awesome!  These cups were made in Japan for Kmart, and if I'm reading their code right they are from 1978.

 
Now at this same sale I saw three milk glass vases that I already have.  I made a point to give my mom a little tidbit of info on these vases.  The ones I have were all purchased at different locations, and I spent $2 for each.  At this sale they were marked $8 each, I left those behind.  Onto the next estate sale I see one of these vases, and ask my mom to reiterate the info I gave her at the previous sale.  She remember I paid $2, and this vase was $2, so I bought it. This purchase was one of my mate/set purchases.  When I bought my first vase, yes I liked it, but thought a pair would be nice, and when I had two, I thought three would be even better.  Now I have four.  Let's see how out of hand this gets. 



I got this red plastic bread box.

and a Jadite mug.


Here is my super match/mate find.  A few months ago I scored this very nice red utility cart, at a steal of a price, $5 (I contributed that price to it missing a wheel).  Well, I wasn't gonna let that deter me from buying it, especially when I see these carts go for $20-$60.

Once I got the cart home I pulled off one of its wheels and threw it in my purse.   The waiting game then started.  I wanted the wheel in my purse for the pure fact of you never know.  You never know what you're gonna find at a sale and you might as well take the guess work out of things and have the wheel available for comparison, and that's happened at the second estate sale Friday.

The backyard had tables of bins filled with nails, nut, bolts, odd and end.  Once we stepped into the backyard I jokingly tell my mom that she was officially put on a mission to find my 4th wheel (I think she blew me off).  We went in and out of the house several times.  My third time around the backyard I dig through the bins some more and find three wheels almost identical to the one I had, they are missing a widening/fitting piece, but I think this will be the closest I'll get and at 25 cents each I bought all three. 

Left wheel is the original, the right one is one of the finds.

I did get a strange look and comment as to why I would only want three wheels.  Oh and I also "jokingly" scolded my mom for being put on a mission to find the wheel and failed her mission.  But seriously, would you have thought you'd find a lone wheel for a vintage cart that was missing its wheel?

Just remember you never know what you're going to find... so look with the thought in mind that you WILL find "it". 

 

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Thrift Share Monday - July 2

Happy Birthday to my little MT.  He is 9 today.  I asked him what would happen when he turns nine.  He said "I'll get bigger and stronger."  Aw!  My little boy it gonna get bigger.  :-(  Where did my itty-bitty babies go?  On the plus side, they are no longer babies, and they can somewhat fend for themselves. 

So onto my thrifting/estate sale finds. 

Got this, in fantastic condition, sewing chair with seat storage that is filled.  I still haven't gone through whats inside yet, but look at the picture I see some pinking shears, a new seam ripper....

Another metal shelf.  That matches the one I bought a few months back, but smaller.  I'll never beat the price of $1 for the large, 3' x 5',  shelf I got at a church sale, but for $4 this smaller one, 3'x3', is still a great buy.  It'll be perfect for markets as well.

Salt and pepper shakers.

More shakers, but they are stacking Tupperware shakers. 

This super cute Bisquick canister, with recipes on the back.

I got this roll of fabric (it looks like toilet paper in the picture, but it's really fabric), and I'm not sure what kind of fabric it is.  It doesn't seem to be cotton.  Anyone familiar with fabric being sold this way?  It's about 6 inches wide by who knows how many yards...maybe 10(?).  The question is what am I gonna do with it, you know sometimes you just can't pass things by, and at $2.50 I wasn't passing it by.

Last but not least vintage sheets.  Yay!  Last week I had two orders for vintage sheet fat quarters, which totaled 100 fat quarters.  So that put a dent in my sheet stash, but I guess the vintage sheets fairies were watching because I got a great big stack of them this week from a thrift store and estate sale. 
 
This has been one of my favorite patterns. I've had this sheet before that I've made into a bag, and I've used it as a part of my shop sign. Now I have three times as much, top and fitted sheets and pillow cases.  Yay!
 
 These are absolutely gorgeous!



I love finding matching patterns in different colors.  I got these at two different locations.

 One is even brand new.

 And got these

 


See all the vintage sheets that I have available on my vintage sheet Flickr page, and you can pick your own fat quarter bundle through my Etsy shop.

Sale! Now through Friday June 6 get 15% off your total purchase from my Etsy shop.  Enter code July2012 at checkout. 

Did you have any good finds last week?

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Thrift Share Monday - April 30

Wow! Where did April go?  This month flew by.  It started out with great thrifting, had a lull in the middle and ended just as good as it started. 

My scores started out early in the week with a great find at my favorite thrift store.  At one point last year I had decided that I was going to collect the butterfly gold Pyrex/Corning Ware for my own personal use.  This was determined when I got some great hook handle cups in the pattern.  Then my finding of this pattern wasn't as easy as I thought.  I had found a butter dish and some D handle mugs....which I eventually sold (not too sad about getting rid of those items).  Then I found a set of 5 mixing bowls/serving bowls, and last week I got these...

A 23 piece plate, mug, and saucer set (7 plates, 8 mugs and 8 saucers) for $7.99.  I got an 8th plate a few days later at another thrift store.

And these two serving/casserole dishes.  All three finds at different thrift stores.  Yay!

That was a great start to my thrift week, but it didn't stop there.  Got this small green Pyrex casserole dish.

7 of these super cute milk glass, Indopal, farm scene custard cups.
 
The farm scene is so tiny and detailed.  Look at those cows.  Does anyone know anything about this brand, Indopal, made in Indonesia?  Is it vintage or newer?  I haven't seen anything vintage from Indonesia yet, but that doesn't mean anything.

Thursday I went to an estate sale that started at 2 in the afternoon.  That was a first for me, usually that's close to the time estate sales are closing down for the day.  Hey, but I'm not complaining.  I got there 30 minutes early, and I scored one of my happiest finds there.

A vintage Cosco step-stool chair.  In RED!!! I rushed into this estate sale hoping this would be a good price since I saw it in their online advertisement.  It was $20.

About a week or two earlier I was just telling my mom how you never see these.  I remember my great-grandma had one that she kept in her kitchen.  This chair is in fantastic condition.  It looks like it has some paint splashes on it, but the paint is red so it doesn't stand out.

And here at this estate sale I scored a pile of vintage sheets and pillow cases.  Three of the sheets have the same patterns, but are in different colors.  Awesome!  I already have some market bags made out of these for a fair I'm selling at this coming weekend.

Then on Friday I went to another estate sale.  Mom wanted to stop for breakfast, as I hesitantly said yes.  I wanted to get to the sale early to get what I saw online.  Ugh!!!  We were number 34, and they let 1-20 in first, and we had to wait for almost an hour to get in. The suspense was eating at me.

It wasn't a large estate sale, they had higher end stuff like art work that I don't mess with...yet.  However, I did get what caught my eye.  This dress form.

I went in with a price in mind.  I know how much these are new, and it would double as a display for picture taking of my aprons and bags I list on Etsy.  The price I had in mind was a bit high and I did walk away from it once I saw the price was exactly what I had in mind.  Ouch!  I came back to it to look at it some more, then saw the adjustment dials on it's side.  Damn!  It's my size too.  I had to get it, and in all reality $60 is a steal for this, and it's in a great neutral brown color, and of course in fantastic condition.

Here is Esmeralda (what one of the sales ladies called it when I was carrying it at the estate sale) displaying a new market bag I made with the just purchased estate sale vintage sheets.

Saturday morning I hit up a few garage sales and got...

this super fab Samsonite two-suiter.  It's sturdy, heavy, and I love how it's set-up inside.

I was a bit confused about some of the doo-dads in the suitcase, like a bar that swung out, and a rod flush against the interior, not sure what they were for, then I found this ad.  Man they were fancy back then.  

The rod is for your ties, and the bar is to hold your suit pants.  Wish I could travel that light. 

Well onto the few remaining things I got. A much needed cutting mat, 24x34, $3(forgot to take a pic).  Got a tip for those who have warped cutting mats (maybe from ironing on them.  Don't ask me how I know this...eh hem).  Place it on a flat surface outside in the sun and it will "melt" back in place from the heat. ;-)
 
An retro pitcher pitcher with lid.  

 and got a couple of random glasses and mugs via thrift store and garage sales.

Did you have any great finds this week?  If so include your link with your comment.

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