Day 10 - Office and Craft Area #cgsc2015

Alright then, let's get crackin' sorting our offices and craft areas out. I was sure I had a picture I could show you of the one time my craft area was actually nicely organised but I can't find it so I guess it's about time I get on redoing that so I can do a photo of it organised again.

A good place to start is to sit down and really think about what crafts you love the most and in particular, which ones you will be working on over the next six months. This should give you a reasonable idea of what you need to keep on hand. Most of us will have at least a corner in a room or a closet dedicated to craft and/or office things. If you don't, you may want to do so now, create a spot, whether it's an entire room or just a rolling cart of drawers specifically for craft and office. Obviously, if it is an entire room you can have both in the same space, I still recommend separate shelving for each. If you've only space for a couple of Rubbermaid totes, do keep office and crafts separate if you can. As you sort your supplies, organise them either by like item or project, whichever suits you best, release anything you are really unlikely to work on in the next few months and toss those projects you had hoped you could fix when reality just did not match the photo on Pinterest ;).

As mentioned in a previous post, I'm not a fan of plastic containers, and while mason jars have some use in the craft area one still needs places to organise larger collections and larger items; for this I like to use plastic shoe boxes and drawer sets. Sure I could get a stack of beautiful baskets and some wooden drawer organisers but my budget really doesn't have the room for such so plastic it is. If you have the budget, by all means, it is far better for the environment to go au naturale. For the most part though, there is nothing interesting to mice in here and I certaily have no plans of eating anything out of my crafts so I'm not concerned BPA leakage, lol. This is a photo I took today of my craft closet, it looks better than the reality, trust me ;). As you can see the latest trend in chalk labels come in very handy here and the chalk pens they have now make it even easier to label your different drawers and baskets. So go ahead and figure out what system will work for you and get that shite organised so you can actually use it :).  Cheers!

Love & light,

~Síonaínn **  ƸӜƷ  **

Ps. You will likely notice there was no Day 9 post. Via my Facebook event I noted that Day 9, which was Sunday this year, would be Sunday Survey and Share Day. Essentially a day to review what has been accomplished already in your home, complete any of the previous day's challenges that need it, and to share your tribulations and your trials. And that is where Day 9 disappeared to :). See you tomorrow!

My Pretty Nuts

I have this obsession with Mason jars, I've completely and utterly fallen in love with them. I use them for storing dry goods, for storing leftovers, for freezing leftovers, for anything I can find to do with them. I'm learning and adding to my wishlist all the wonderful ideas I find of what I can do with Mason jars. They're inexpensive, easy to clean, easy to label, easy to fill and sturdy.... I'm a klutz.

Last fall I had a mouse invasion. Now I want to be clear about what I consider an invasion, one or two mice, while annoying, aren't terribly bothersome to me. I don't hate mice, at least not house mice, they're actually kinda cute. But when, between the cat & I, we managed to catch (and this is just those we caught) a dozen house mice in just over a week PLUS two very large specimens of deer mice (which freak me out, these suckers were eating the house mice in the traps I set out!!), well, that's an invasion. I was chasing mice at 2 AM, I was throwing out food, I was loosing sleep from stress and I nearly lost it when I found the deer mice.

Never really been a fan of that super expensive plastic storage product. I have plenty of it, but it always seemed to make the items we don't use as often smell kinda.... well, weird. (For the record, my olfactory sense is rather sensitive). So when I found some glass jars, then some 2 quart Mason jars, I went glass crazy. I've not turned back. Mice can't chew through glass, dust doesn't get in, no weird odours no matter how long it sits and glass is far more environmentally and health friendly.

My pantry has quickly become a showcase of glass and I love the Mason jars so much I got a new shelf, set it up proudly in my kitchen and proceeded to fill the jars and I think it looks quite aesthetic :). I'll go into more detail another time but I had to give a quick history so I could lead into the conversation I had with my 11-year old son this morning.

 Pointing to this lovely jar of artistically layered nuts, seeds & dried cranberries....

Me: "I really want to eat these nuts but I can't, they're too pretty !

Spaz: Grabs the jar, "Hey! Peanuts!"

Me: "NO! Don't eat those nuts, they're pretty!"

Spaz: "MY pretty nuts!! "

Me: "snicker.... giggle.... Bwahahahahaha!!!"

Spaz: Looks at me quizzically, realises what he has said.... O_o "Never mind!!", and returns jar to shelf.




Have a terrific Thursday!!

Love & prayers,

~Miss Shannon **  ƸӜƷ  **