Saturday, November 22, 2008

Pick me! Pick me!

Oh - they did. They picked me! I've been lucky enough to be one of 50 people chosen to take part in a fabulous Christmas season challenge.


I  am really happy to have been chosen to be part of this group.  So is my husband.  With our recent trips, car accidents (which the at-fault-driver's insurance company is fighting the claim, by the way - therefore incurring even more costs to us at the moment) this could just not have happened at a more perfect time.  

Kim, her twin sister Kris and all of the behind-the-scenes people over at You Can Make This
do an awesome job of providing quality e-books on such a variety of topics.  From sewing to crocheting to appliqueing - even how to bake pies.  And I'm really grateful to all of the talented authors who are happy to share their expertise.  I've yet to find something at YCMT that I wasn't interested in, couldn't afford or that didn't live up to my expectations.  The patterns and e-books are super affordable and so laden with detail  and info that they are worth far more than their price tag, in my opinion.

I'm excited to be on a great team, too - TEAM CARLA!  "Carla C", as she's known around YCMT, is a fabulous author & designer.  I've learned many an invaluable skill from her e-books and credit her thorough, clear instructions for helping me build my confidence in designing and sewing.  She was a bonafide scientist once upon a time - Funny that such a creative soul lurked for years behind a lab coat & petri dishes!

So one of the first challenges in our group is to "Show Your Stuff".  All or some of the things we'll be using to meet our "Thrifty-Under-$50" goal or the space we'll be doing it in.  I'll do both.  While all of my supplies aren't visible in the pictures below, some are.  More supplies are in another room and out in the shed, but will be moved in here over the next week or so. 

This is also our classroom, since we homeschool.  So here's a view from the center of the room, down toward the end where my fabric, machines, etc. are..... 

There's empty boxes to go out, paint, etc.  This room is still in-progress.  Fabric to the left - fabric to the right - here I am, stuck in the middle with you - oh, my, my.


This is only about 2/3 of my stash.  I have more in a wardrobe that needs to be emptied and moved in here, as well as most of my notions.  I tried to organize it by color and/or pattern - reds, oranges, yellows, etc.  Then stripes, checks, dots, black & white, dark prints, light prints that didn't fit into the other colorways, exactly.  Then the bottom right cubbie has fabrics that I've set aside for specific projects for myself or kids...special stuff.  As you can see by the top of that shelving unit, there's still more to sort and put into the cubbies.  It'll be stuffed!  Plus the fabric that's still in that wardrobe in my den.  Have I mentioned how much I love fabric?

Here's my sewing desk.  Not really set up yet, I just haven't had a chance to try the layout yet to see what'll work.  More fabric, this time on bolts - duck, laminates, upholstery.


There's some craft supplies on the shelves up top - glue, buttons, cutting tools and the obligatory googly-eyes.  Gotta have googly-eyes.  Also, the fabrics for Audrey's Thanksgiving outfit is sitting near the machines.  Better get busy on that, I think.  And that danged rolling drawer unit - it fit under the desk before when it was in another room but now it's almost an inch too tall - I think I'll have to perform surgery on the top of it to get it under there.

And here's part of the other end of the room - the dry-erase wall (sorry it's so dirty - I ran out of that spray cleaner stuff for it and my kids had used the black & red markers to play hang-man.  That partial shark you see was the fate of the hanging man.)



Off to the right is more "stuff" to go out to the shed, thenthe doorway to my laundry room - thus the wad of giant white tablecloths under my folding table that have yet to be laundered after a function in October. Yep. I'm a slacker.

So - that's my space and my stash. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

That post on the super hero capes and "A Letter to Ree" will have to wait for now. My oldest son went hunting today and killed his first deer!! So I'm off to his grandparent's house to squeeze him a few times (the kid, not the dead deer), take pics and then go cry for while. My firstborn is no longer a baby. Not when he can go out and bring home dinner. He's that much closer to manhood and forgetting his poor Ma. *sniff*sniff*

Stay warm!

Love to all,
Jennifer

3 comments:

Tom said...

Wow! You have some great fabric there!
Is there any way that you could shim up the legs on your desk so that your rolling caddy will fit under there? I would just hate to see you have to give your cabinet a lobotomy!j:)

Unknown said...

What a great space! Thank you for sharing and looking forward to seeing what you make for the YMCT Challenge! Go Team Carla!

Kris said...

Wow...what a dream to have those spaces filled with fabric! Good luck with the challenge!!