Getting Organized: craft closet

Yesterday was one-of-those-days.  You know those days when you are on-a-roll and get so much accomplished?  Perhaps it was the combination of

a) that quiet lull after the holidays

b)the crazy need to organize that seems to come around in January after I've pulled out and put away all the Christmas decorations and...

c) enough sleep for several days in a row to catch up and feel rested after a busy fall.  Anyway - it was a great day for getting-things-done.

Maybe the fact that it was minus 25 helped as well.  We did the outdoor chores in record time.  We felt sorry for the animals but not sorry enough to stay and visit for long.

The scrapbooking area.

After quickly tidying up the house and deciding on dinner (which wasn't too difficult - frozen leftovers from the holidays defrosting on the counter- done) I made up my mind to tackle a task that had been on my mind for some time - the craft/fabric closet.  It was a jumbled mess of fabric sticking out from under the door and cardboard boxes that held mystery items of crafting-nature.  My currently off-to-school daughter loves to sew and be creative and has made some very lovely items in the past - particularly cloth shoulder bags and clothes made from her own patterns.  The successful ones made it into her closet - the not-so-successful ones made it to the bottom of the craft closet trunk along with many tiny scraps of strange and wonderful fabric, yarn, trim and pins and needles.  After seeing the reject pile I'm glad she's is on a trip to Sweden so I didn't have to run every castaway project past her first - hopefully she'll be able to live with my decisions - or maybe just not remember what was there!

First I added a few wire shelves to an existing shelving system in the closet. I happened across the shelves and hardware last summer at a yard sale.  I didn't realise what a great deal I had on my hands until I went back to buy two more shelves last night.  My yard sale find was a bag full of parts and 6 random sized shelves for $4.00.  TWO plastic end holder-things cost more than $4.00.   

The craft closet after shot.

Clear plastic shoe boxes were on sale at Canadian Tire a few months ago so I bought a stack of them and organized the fabric kinda-sorta by color.  Is that every nerds dream or what?! One big trunk holds the large pieces of fabric and the plastic shoe boxes hold all the rest.  My craft closet is clean but someone please come have a look soon before we mess it up again when the creative juices start to flow and the organizational zeal leaves with a whimper.

Next stop - linen closet!

I also spent a good deal of time looking for the cup-hooks I bought before Christmas - they were right where they were supposed to be but I didn't find them until I had looked in the same place three times.  My excuse is that the room they were in wasn't heated and being that the temperature in the room was only slightly warmer than -25 I was in a hurry!   They were for my next project - hanging up the measuring cups and spoons I got for Christmas.  That might sound a little weird but we do a lot of baking and cooking so having them handy makes sense to me.  Besides you-gotta-see these!  So cute!  They are made by the Ganz Company in case you're ever looking for them you can find them under Ganz measuring spoons on google.

The measuring cups are engraved.

1 cup:  A cup of closeness

1/2 cup: A heap of happiness

1/3 cup: A scoop of love

1/4 cup: A lot of laughter

A luxury for sure but these are heirloom quality and a great addition to a HOPE CHEST for young girls.

It was a busy day and it felt good to get some things off my list - lets hope the momentum continues!