Clean up Project

Well, during some recent lengthy days of boredom (not when I was busy painting the kitchen, but before that, and again after) I happened across a number of craft and sewing blogs. This got my craft-brain thinking, and I've been inspired to make some things. I started a page (in Microsoft OneNote - love this, using it all the time!!) of projects I'd like to work on. However, there were a number of things preventing me from starting right away. First off, finishing the kitchen. Secondly, I don't have much in the way of suitable material for the projects I'm thinking of (I "donated" a lot of it to my classroom over the past several years, as teachers do...) But most importantly, my "craft room" was not... ready.

When we moved into this house three months ago (3 months already?! Crazy!!!) our first priority was to make the main floor more liveable, and smokey-smell-free. Not to mention make it a little less out-of-date. This past week I finished painting the kitchen and hallway, which leaves the following jobs for upstairs:

• kitchen flooring - remove carpet, clean up yucky old yellow carpet glue, cover old (vinyl?) tile with sheet vinyl (not my first choice by any means, but a relatively inexpensive, temporary solution, meant to last several years while we save some money for a kitchen reno)
• install crown molding in living room
• paint spare bedroom and remove carpet
• strip wall paper from second spare bedroom (nicknamed "the den"), paint, and remove carpet
• install 1/4 round on main floor
• install living room blinds

I think that might be it for the main floor! So we're getting really close! Keep in mind we've already done:

• master bedroom (paint, carpet removed)
• ensuite bathroom (painted)
• main floor bathroom (painted)
• dining room (painted, carpet removed)
• living room (painted, carpet removed)
• kitchen and hallway (painted, carpet removed)
• new electrical outlets installed in kitchen
• new electrical panel
• various other little things I'm sure...

So, I finished painting the kitchen on Tuesday (kitchen, almost done! Stay tuned for pictures once the floor is complete!), and on Wednesday, Ian kindly took me to Fabricland the other night and I got some great fabrics from the Clearance section (my favourite place to shop, in any store!!!) Fabric, done! So next up, I had to make some room in my "craft room." This is what it looked like before:

My craft table (yet another treasure that came with the house, as well as all the shelving, the stools, the filing cabinet, and two dressers in that room) had become a catch-all for things that didn't have homes elsewhere, or things that had been temporarily evicted from their forever homes (like the panini press and tequila that will go back into the kitchen when we're done making a mess of it.) Everything's still sort of a work in progress right now and I'm just not sure what to do with it all. Plus, digging through my craft things, and playing with my painting easel, I'd made a bigger mess of the stuff that did belong there. So while I washed my new fabrics, I tackled organizing and (somewhat) unpacking my craft stuff. I also had to wipe down all the shelving. And it was really gross. On top of the dust, the lovely yellow-brown tar, and the bits of unidentifiable.. bits, there was evidence of spiders long since moved on... But, it was worth the effort! This is what my craft room looks like now: Soooo much nicer!!
First thing on my list of things to make is a sewing machine cover. I am also going to re-do the seats on the stools. I removed the fabric they were recovered with, a very thin layer of foam, the original vinyl, some icky looking batting, and found the wood underneath to be much thicker than I imagined it would be, and in really good shape. I can leave learning about cutting wood for anther day, and another project. Also going to make an apron for myself. I'd like to decorate some frames, make some decorative flowers for some things, a few other little projects, and of course, put birds on things!! (If you don't find that amusing, google "Portlandia birds on things.")
So I'll keep you posted!