Weekend project

So I was picking through my head trying to find a story for you and well life has been pretty routine lately and I don't have a great story for you.  But...What I do have is a project.  That's right.  Every weekend I try to do at least one thing productive with it.  Well most the time anyway.  We spend quite a bit of time on the motorcycle (with good reason but that's a story for another time)

I like to post at least a couple pictures with each of my blog entries so I was flipping through my phone to see if I could find something to share with you all.  Turns out I have lots so I am going to have to figure out which order they should be shared.

I was thinking I would make this "weekend project" a frequent post.  For those of you that don't know I work every other weekend and when I do have a weekend it is 5 days long so sometimes I find myself doing more than one project per weekend.  Like the weekend I did this desk project I also made a mini ironing board.  So maybe this will help me to post a weekend project each Saturday.  We'll see  ;)

So that's the plan one weekend project every Saturday.  Not because I think you should rush out and make one of everything I make.  That would be silly.  Just to show you what I have found on pinterest and tried for myself.  If something I have done sparks you to create something for yourself well then that's awesome.

I found this pin on pinterest and I followed the link and it took me to a blog of a lady that sounded so much like myself.  She took an old computer desk that she wasn't using and turned it into a sewing cabinet.  WHAAAT???  I can so do that.

I love to sew (quilts anyway) and when I started sewing 10 years ago we lived in a much smaller house my girls were sharing a room and if there were more than 6 people in the house at one time it felt so tiny and confined.  But the one thing that tiny house had was an incredibly large laundry room that doubled as a sewing room as well.  There was enough room for a long table and my sewing machine and tub after Rubbermaid tub of fabric.  I loved sewing there because if I were working on something I could just stop turn off the machine and walk away only to return turn the machine back on and start right where I stopped.  Here we have room to move and breath and we genuinely like our home just fine.  Well I do for the most part.  It does have the smallest of small laundry rooms therefore no sewing area.  So for 7 years now if I wanted to sew I had to drag all my sewing stuff out from all the different places I had stashed it bring it to the kitchen on the dining room table.  Here I would sew until it was time to have dinner or some other meal and I would have to pack all the sewing stuff back up and put it away.  Eventually it just sat in tubs at the edge of the kitchen and I had almost stopped sewing all together.  Then it would somehow collect more stuff(not sewing stuff) and more stuff and it has been a complete eyesore for I don't know how long.  Then I found that pin and was sure this was just what I needed.   

<~~I found this desk at a yard sale with Stephanee one year for $25 bucks.  I thought it was great because it could hide the computer and all its mess.  Open it when we need it close it when we don't.  It worked like that for a while until the computer broke and we stopped using it.  The desk sat right inside the front door right by the coat rack and well the desk itself became a sort of coat rack(pile rather) a dumping ground for coats, jackets and hoodies. It was a piled up mess.  After seeing the pin I cleaned the desk out put all the coats and mess in the rooms of their owners, dusted this bad boy off and moved him into the spot that was once the pile of sewing stuff.
It looked so nice there instead of a pile.  I started sorting all my sewing supplies and making spots for all the different things I have.  So now everything is pretty much easy to find and use (no more buying something that I couldn't find because it was lost in the bottom of the tub)  Every thing has a spot and every thing's in it's spot. 

<~~The desk top where a computer monitor would sit is home to several different jars with lots of different notions in them, rotary cutters, thread, markers, pens and pencils.  An old envelope sorter is holding all my rulers up right where I can see them in one glance.





The shelves below (three of them)pull out.~~>  One is to pull out and place a sewing machine on while it is in use.  One is for my laptop because it was once a computer desk right?  ;)  and one is for a couple of sewing projects I am working on.  The very bottom is home to 2 of my 3 sewing machines a bag of old jeans I need to make into something and a basked for machine cords and foot peddles.



<~~

Both doors have cork board where I can pin small useful items so they will be handy and readily available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the shelves above~~>

they hold more thread, the tool kit for the machines and pattern books and a folder full of fun ideas to try.  And a work in progress.

 

The photos above shows an old computer desk that was going to be hauled off to the dump or out to the burn pile refreshed and given new life.  Yes it could stand a nice bright coat of paint to freshen it up a bit but because it has to live in my kitchen I figure I will wait until we redo our bedroom to paint it before it moves in there out of the way.  But for now it works and it doesn't look like a horrible mess.  While I working on something I still use the kitchen table as a cutting table because...well you kinda need a bunch of room for fabric sometimes.  But when it's time for dinner I can turn off the machine set it on the desk top, slide the shelf in and shut the doors.  Only to return pull the shelf out and get back to work.

This seems much easier now and I am super glad to have that pile of sewing stuff sorted as well as the pile of coats and jackets sorted and put away.  It makes things a little less messy in the crazy house where the mess sometimes has a life of its own and seems to grow out of control. 

That's my weekend project and if I never find anything useful on pinterest again (I'm sure I will) this has taught me to look around at everything.  Just because you bought something for one thing doesn't mean it can't be used as another.

Leave a comment, let me know what kind of weekend projects you have been working on.  Even if your weekend isn't the normal Friday, Saturday, Sunday.    I would love to hear what you're creating.

Have a fantastic weekend

always

tammyc