When Big Stress Lurks-Post About Your Little Happy Place.

Those of you within hugging distance know what kind of crazy has been going on, and on out here regarding Jeff's employment situation. I am not going into details now, but today was supposed to be a turning point and an end to months of difficult waiting and hoping and planning. But it's not. We must continue the waiting and hoping which makes it hard in our particular situation to conduct the planning part.

So, the stress is lurking which pushes Jeff out to the shop every time and it usually leads me to... my craft room. It used to be the office/craft room but I moved the computer out to the living room when Jeff was on shift a while back. He likes it out there though, don't worry.

Here is the bulk of the craft room. Cutting area and sewing desk which I found in the landlord's garage. He graciously let me de-spider it and drag it inside when J was at work again. Must be weird for him to come home to a new house all the time.

Anyway, on the metal shelving, I have my smaller cuts of fabric and all the pins and goodies you need in reach while sewing. Next to it against the wall are all my rulers. I like rulers. Inside the three drawers of the sewing desk (not shown) I have my drawing stuff and other various trims, plus tracing and pattern paper. My "work-in-progress basket is on the desk to the right of the machine. Which is also right by the door so I can't forget about what I got going on.

Here is a close-up of the metal shelves. There, in the little brown basket is the THREADLINGS merchandise warehouse. All of the items for sale are waiting there for new homes. As of yet I haven't hired an employee to help with inventory. It's been pretty manageable on my own.

To the left of the THREADLINGS stuff is the blue paper bowl the boys and I made last winter and I have all my patterns, instructions sheets and templates in there.

Here is the cabinet to the left of the cutting table. I painted the glass on the doors so you can't see the mess inside. The kids knitting jumble is in there along with other crafting stuff. Our stationary and greeting cards that we save for re-use or collage are tucked in there with our stamps. The boys just started carving their own stamps and I think they will likely be doing more and more of that in the future.

Here is my modest fabric and craft book collection. The bottom row that's hidden is full of books too. Minna likes to thumb through them and say "Oh, cute! Oh!". Little maker in the making. There is an art gallery there to the left and on top is a framed strip of old-time computer labels with my fashion drawings from age 10 or so. I remember my Dad letting me take as many sheets of those things I wanted. I must have drawn a thousand ladies in dresses with names like, "rich-ness" and "ball gown!". Even at age 10 I was abusing that exclamation point. I like having some of my young-Natalie creative stuff mixed in with grown up-Natalie stuff.

And here is Minna's desk that she staged by herself. Notice she is not sitting in her chair even with the best lighting in the room. She is much too busy on the other side with her fingers in the drawers and pulling down books and trying to take bites out of my erasers. The boys spend time in here too even though they primarily use our big dinning room table that is right next to their bigger kid craft cabinet.

I guess when I said my craft room I meant ours.

That's what makes it the happiest... and happy Monday to you.