Mission accomplished!

My decluttering/organizing/cleaning project is now DONE! Over the weekend I emptied the doll closet and took bunch of crap aside and oraganized everything else and put them back and here are the results:

Before

At one point I couldn't even get the door more open than this!

To get here I had to clear off the floor in front of the closet.

After

I still have too much stuff for that closet, so it's not perfectly organized, but so much better!! I have the same problem with my fabric storage. I simply have too much fabric for my storage space. Sometimes I love my problems! :D

In the dolly closet there's still plenty of items that should be organized better. Like now all food is in one box, and I'd like to have fruits and veggies serated from desserts and so on. So next time I'm super bored instead of coloring my Twin Peaks coloring book I'll sort those.

Once again I've been sewing a lot. (still not that much progress, I'm afraid). Couple days ago I started to wonder if I work too much. That sounds silly. Of course I don't. But still, I'm working all the time. Everything is related to Pinkkis somehow. Online searches, fabric shopping, designing new pouches, sewing, cutting, stamping, packing, emailing, ironing. Seven days a week, hours and hours a day. I love it, but should I force myself to take it easy? To avoid burning out? I thought about that, slowing down. But I can't do it. As a person I can't "pace my self" if you know what I mean. I know there's a better word for it, kind of like portioning, but not quite. I go full speed and then I crash. But this also gives me so much.

Okay, what I wanted to say is that on my To do -list, I wrote Play with dolls! So after I got everything else done (and some extra, too) I had time to play with my precious dolls! I honestly haven't played with them in ages. I just use them as my models for the pouches. Poor things! The dollhouse was a bit of a mess, so I started putting things back on their places. But I was so tired I just kept dropping things and I think I ended up making more mess :( . So I left. And now I need to go back sewing again.

I ordered hand-held luggage scale! And flight socks :D I', really happy about the scale. Even though I have an extra luggage I'm still afraid I have extra weight. This way I don't have to worry about it too much! I can weight my bags every day! Tehee!!

One more thing! My school stuff is all done now! I had my last two major tests last week, that's why I haven't written that much. Not because I've been studying, but because I've been at school working on those tests. I went there totally unprepaired, but I'm sure I'm smart enough to pass. And at this point that's all that matters. I'm so done with studying for now!

Okay, bye!!

xoxo,

Raisa

Fight against boredom.

I do get bored pretty easily. I'm also quite bad with serial work (not sure if that's the correct term, that's how I'd say it in Finnish. And actually it's not even what I mean.). I don't like doing the same thing over and over again. Well, who does?

But I'm a master of divinding things/work/tasks into smaller, easier portions. Like cleaning - I never clean the whole house, wash all the windows (I never wash the windows anyway), empty the whole dishwasher. I do it in small portions. I take out all the forks. Then all the spoons. All the glasses. And so on. And usually I'll end up emptying the whole load. Or whatever I was doing. One small piece at a time. Usually getting something small cleaned/organized makes me want to continue. But don't you dare to force me to do anything! I don't know why but I'm really awfully bad with stuff I HAVE to do.

So of course I use this method when working on my pouches, too. I have to admit I don't love it all the time :) Sometimes I enjoy the "sweat factory" feel of it, I like the rapid moves, I like to pretend I'm in a factory sweating my ass off, sewing the same seam over and over again, and then passing the product to the next table, where somebody else (actually that would be me, and the table would be the same one) would sew the next seam over and over again. But even then I keep looking at the clock. Making excuses to do something else. So I keep making these deals with my self: 10 seams and a tea break, then back and another ten seams and a piece of candy and so on.

Instead of making all of these in a one sitting I made five at a time, and then five more...

I think it makes life a lot easier and more pleasant if I get to do everyday tasks and my work this way. Instead of doing 10 sleepsacks I attach 10 zippers, sew 10 flaps, and so on until it's done. Or I keep changin the fabrics, do things in different order - anything to make it "new" somehow.

I also have this pretend thing I use quite a lot. If I have to clean I pretend I'm a cleaning lady who works for some celebrity, if I'm cooking I pretend I'm in a cooking show, and like I mentioned before if I'm sewing I pretend I'm underpaid (hahah! I don't have to pretend that!) factory worker.

Do you  any tricks to share how to make your everyday life any easier, or more fun?

xoxo,
Raisa

Dusting Kitties

Hola! I slept till 9  o'clock! I don't know when was the last time I was able to sleep that late! I guess I woke up around 7am, and almost got up. But then decided to stay in bed. I'm glad I did. I was really tired yesterday.

Too tired and bore to actually sew. I did sew something, vests and shirts, but I had to force myself to do that. I colored my Twin Peaks coloring book :) And also sewed a mattress, a duvet and a pillow for my "Dream come true" doll bed. I liked that. Also took a picture of my newest doll, wearing my newest outfit (bought as a reward for myself for well done job on the sleepsacks!) on the bed (which was also a reward, for the same reason).

I did get something "real" done, too. I dusted my Hello Kitty (and few others) plush toys! Boy, were they dusty!

I took bunch of stuff off the top of my cabinets, and placed something else on top of there instead. Now I have more space for the important stuff close to my desk. And that's a good thing!

This morning, before I got up I was thinking about my upcoming birthday. Since it's the last one before I turn to "really old" I wanted to have a party. Well, since it's me I'd want to have a party anyway. I like parties. :D Okay, so I was thinking about who to invite. And from there I started to think about who has invited me to anywhere during the last 12 months. If I only invited those people I'd get maybe two or three people to my party. That made me so sad. Is it us, or is it me? Is there a partying world out there that I'm not aware of, or is it that we're "too old" to throw parties? Then I started to think about why do I keep inviting people who never invite me to anywhere? Why don't they invite me? Don't they have anything to invite me to? Or do they think they know I wouldn't come anyway? (I probably wouldn't, so I guess they'd be right with assuming that, but wouldn't that be a bit rude?) Or is it just that they don't want me to their parties? (how awful!)

But then I decided I'm not like that! I can invite who ever I want, I can consider whom ever I want as my friends, and if they don't want to invite me for their parties that's their loss!! Not mine! And most of all - I don't have to feel guilty for not inviting everybody I know! Right?!

Enough of that! I have life to live! We've been invited (or was it me who invited us to come over?) to a late lunch at friends' house. And before that we want to stop by at Kierrätyskeskus.

And I need to fix some pictures before I can add them on Etsy. There's one more observation I've made I want to share: Life is weird.

Happy Women's Day!!

xoxo,
Raisa

The Project

I really didn't do anything about organizing the Tehdas yesterday. I tried to take off one of the racks, with no luck. It's stuck. And now I can close the cabinet doors and the door are blocking part of the window making the room darker that it actually is. Grrr! Need to ask hubby to do it for me. Grrr!

Yesterday really wasn't my day. I mean part of it wasn't. And part of it was. I found out that one of my dolls got totally smashed on her way to beauty parlor. The face is ruined. I know it's just piece of (expensive) plastic, but it feels really bad. She was one of my girls. And now she's gone. Luckily she wasn't one of my favorites, otherwise I wouldn't have sent her to a spa (to be customized) in the first place. But still. One of my girls. :(

 It really looks like the post office people have mistreated the package. I wrote to them but am still waiting for a response. The package wasn't insured, so I'm afraid there's nothing they are willing to do about this. It really sucks. That was a sturdy cardboard box and the doll was wrapped in bubble wrap. And they really don't break that easily. The dolls I mean.

Okay, enough of that! I didn't get a lot done yesterday, I think. But in a way it was a good day. I drew and cut a lot of patterns, even for the secret project. I should have more time to work on that over the weekend. And I have decided to actually finish it and just put it out there. Like it or not. It's nothing that special anyway. Now that time has passed I can have a better perspective of the whole thing. And it's not really that big of a deal at all. It used to be in my head. I don't know why. Maybe because I'm a bit "ding dong" in the head...Okay, so my big project is a line of doll clothes! Wohoo!! I know I might not be the first person you might think of when talking about fashion, but trust me - the style I have chosen for my line I'm very good at! And the style is....? Harajuku/Japanese street fashion! I can't make elegant or sweet, but I'm very good with crazy and colorful! :D So far I have thights, leg warmers, shorts and I'm working on shirt and some sort of a vest. And it will be sold as a set. I love sets! I also have planned another set with stockings, a dress, a bag, a necklace and also a vest. All in "Harajuku Style" :)

I'm struggling with the shirts. So far I've only used second hand fabrics, except for some of the thights. Maybe I should use the store bought fabric on the shirts as well, since it's kind of less stretchy. I might be easier to work with. Well, I cut few shirts yesterday, I'll sew those and decide after that. I also bought some iron on transfer sheets for printer, to make my own designs on the shirts. But so far I've pretty much used only printed fabrics. Sorry for babbling about this. I just wanted to share, and not to keep it as a secret anymore. :D

Okay, my sewing machine wants some attention. One more, two! more things! I rode my bike to the city yesterday. Approx. 15 km one way. First time this year. Mr C changed the tires to my bike and the summer tires were incredibly light to pedal. I loved it! I love riding my bike! There's quite a lot of dust out there at this time of the year, when all the sand is still on the ground, but other than that it was great. (also the sand makes it a bit dangerous, since it's so slippery.)

Also, I managed to get this great kitchen set! I've seen it being sold before, not this particular set, but similar vintage sets, but the shipping has always been ridiculously high. It's big and rather heavy set, so no wonder it costs a lot to ship here. I've seen it in Australia and in the States, never in Europe. I didn't see it in Europe this time either, but better than that - somebody who's also coming to the Blythe Europe con is selling her kitchen! And I bought it! She'll hand deliver it there!! Super awesome!

I've decided to dust my Hello Kitty plush toys today. A lot of work! Also the top of the cabinets.

After that I don't have that much more to do. I still have two closets, and I guess I should do my drawers as well. One of the closets is the doll closet. And that is the worst. I had to use a pice of wood to keep the stuff from falling off when I open the door. It's really that bad. But I'm not doing that today.

Bye!
xoxo,
Raisa

My desk, my mess! One Month Project, Organize Tehdas. Day 9?

Howdy!

.Yesterday was a very good day! I got so much done! Finished the bat, Totoro and a fox carriers, and got a lot of others almost done. And I cleaned my desk! Not the drawers or anything, but now at least the desk is decluttered and a lot more fun to work on!

Here's the pink haired blogger working on some important details. :)

First time for a very long time I took a short break from sewing and organizing and all that "serious" stuff and played with the dolls a bit. Actually just to organize the house, since dolls were just piling up on two of the top rooms, the ones that the doll house doors don't cover. The main reason for doing that, other than it bothered me that my precious dolls were on piles, was that I needed to locate Miki's (the middie doll) other shoe. Honestly that was awful that I had lost it. It was her shoes I liked the most: little red Mary Janes with a cat face on them! Sorry there's no picture. I tried (twice) but it didn't work. Google Zukin middie. So yes, I had lost one of her shoes. Before I decided to keep the doll, I was thinking about selling her without the shoes, so I could keep them. Even though I wouldn't have a doll who could wear them. That's how much I liked them :) And now I had lost one of them!!

I was a bit worried since it wasn't in the dollhouse. I pretty much never vacuum the room, I have too many miniatures and jewelry bits and beads on the floor. So I sweep. So I was quite sure it had to be in the room still. But wouldn't I spotted it along the cleaning?

I emptied my zipper drawers, since they were underneath where I had kept the clothes, and the drawers are open all the time. The shoe was found in the last drawer!! Yay!! I was so happy!! Now I had the shoe and also more organized doll house! :D And inviting desk! Life is good!

Here's the small closet I did couple days ago. The one I didn't post yesterday. Doesn't look that great, not impressive at all. But that's okay. 

 And here's the bat, finally finished! Well, it still needs the zipper pull beads and deco, but other than that - Done! I'm super happy with the way it came out!

I have so much to do today I won't have time to organize or anything. I'll try to do the zipper pulls this morning, so hubby could photograph everything. But other than that, I just can't. I have some four hour meeting and then I need to go celebrate my mom's birthday! I'll try to drive our broken car to my dad's (who can get it fixed by his brother) and that's making me really nervous. It's 35 km's away. :(

I should get started! Enjoy the sunny weather! (in case you have sunny weather! if not, then enjoy whatever you have!)

xoxo,
Raisa

One month bla bla bla, day 6 and 7?

Sorry, I can't keep track. I don't really think anyone cares which day I'm on, so why bother?

I took a day off from the computer, which is why I didn't post yesterday. And also I was one day behind on my too-tight schedule, so there wasn't really that much to show.

I spent two days working on my sewing corner. Not because it was too much work, but mainly because it was so boring and you really couldn't see the progress. Especially in pictures it's quite hard to see if one has dusted or not. So on the first day I dusted everything and on the second day (and that would be yesterday) I organized and cleaned the desk.

Mostly I've been sewing. I have to say I love cotton -- you know, the non-stretchy one. I absolutely love working with it. After all the stretchy and fluffy and furry materials, basic cotton is a dream to sew. I'm getting better and better with my sherpas and faux furs as well, but nothing is as easy and comfortable to sew as cotton is. Sorry! That was my little love letter to cotton. :)

But yes, I have been sewing a lot. I have a lot of custom orders I'm (still) working on. While trying to figure those out (like how to make a bat-shaped carrier?!?) I have learned something very strange about me: I enjoy the mental challenge. I hate it when things go wrong, but this has been fun and it's given me strange, reality-based trust of my skills. (That might sound strange, but trust me, it feels even more so! lol!) I think I'd be great at designing things and creating the prototypes. I like to solve problems, I think.

I've also tried (and re-tried, and re-re-tried) finishing my t-shirts for the secret project I've mentioned earlier on. I'm afraid I'll never get it finished, and one reason for that is that I'm afraid it'll fail. (I've done some serious soul searching over the weekend ;) .) I just don't like stretchy materials. Or my sewing machine doesn't like them. But I'm not going to give up. Not yet!

Back to the project! My goal, among packaging and shipping tons of orders, (the code is still valid for today! PINKKIS300 will take 30% off of your order! Expires today!) is to organize this closet. It's a small space, so there shouldn't be that much to deal with. But all those papers! What am I going to do with all those papers!?! This closet also contains most of my stamps. But my inks and rest of my stamps are somewhere else and I want to keep them all together. So I have to do something to fix that.

Last night hubby and I started watching awful, awful movie called 12 Years a Slave. So far it's been just so depressing and sad. Somehow it has made me think about the animal slavery, too. The way we are used to live, all the well being, it's all based on slaving somebody. We couldn't have "it all" if the prices were fair for the other part as well. Animals are paying with their freedom and with their life, and it's just so unfair. People making our clothes, toys and growing our food pay with their health and sometimes with their freedom and life, too. But how can we settle for less? Less toys? Less clothes? Less electronics? Less exotic food items? Just look at my craft space! I have it all, and I just keep wanting more and more!

Not the ending I wanted for this post. Enjoy the colorful picture my daughter took yesterday.

xoxo,
Raisa

Still working on my One Month Project :), Day 5 (spell checked, safe for Finnish Rock Stars and alike to read)

Huge Celebration! Pinkkis has 300 sales on Etsy!! What do you think of that? I think it's amazing!

I've had that store up for years. I think I started in 2008, but I'm not sure. The sales were so slow and it was quite frustrating, so I focused on Finnish markets only. I emptied the whole Etsy store for years. Until the online store in Finland had some major changes. Then me and my hubby decided to try Etsy again. And I'm glad we did. :D

However, I don't want to celebrate alone! I want you guys to have some fun too!! I'm feeling really generous so I'm giving you a coupon code for 30% off of your next order! That's an awesome sale, I think!! This offer is valid until Monday 24th of February. The code is PINKKIS300. It's never too early for Christmas shopping. ;)

Enough of that!

My organizing project is going great! Last night I calculated that I should be done in two weeks... hmm... what should I do with the rest of the time? Or maybe I shouldn't be this effective. Maybe I should take baby steps?

Yesterday my main project was the small blue shelf. It took quite a lot of time to get it right, but I'm pretty happy the way it is now. :)

I also gave one of my tiny display sortcases (god! what are they called? the wooden thing on the wall with lots of small items in it?) to C and replaced it with bigger one that was hidden behind a door. I'm so happy to have San (Princess Mononoke) where I can see her. She was a bit too tall to fit on my other display cases, so she had to be on the one that was placed behind the door. Not that it's a lot better place. (I'm sorry I'm talking about it since you can't see it from the picture.)

And behind the door I placed two Pippi Longstocking collector plates. I'll take pictures when the whole thing is done.

Last night I got bitten by a sewing bug and I didn't feel like stopping at all. But sometimes Mr. C is quite persistent... so I had to come downstairs to help him cook. And then we watched the last episode of Sherlock Holmes and also the Wikileak movie. For dinner we had popcorn and smoothies... (kids are with their father). But as soon as I'm done with this post and then one email, I'll rush back upstairs to finish what I've started. I'll give you a hint in Japanese: Tonari no Totoro. ;)

For today I have decided to clean up my sewing area. It doesn't require that much organizing, mostly just dusting. All those small Japanese figurines on the wall...

Off she goes! Bye! Stay sweet!

xoxo,
Raisa

One Month Project: Organize Tehdas, Day 4 (?)

Enjoy it while it lasts! I'm still writing every day!


I'm still sick, but I managed to go to the post office to collect my two dolls who had been in a spa, in Spain. I wouldn't have done it but I had to mail few packages and I had missed the four o'clock pick up, so I had to go to the post office for the five o'clock pick up.

I also walked my daughter to the train (to go to her father's) and pre-paid my son's hair cut he's having today. So I had my daughter with me. We were waiting for the train and I just couldn't wait to get to home to see the dolls, and of course I had to show them to her as well. So I unwrapped the pretty box right there, in the middle of everything.

The dolls were amazing! Magical! And the package didn't just contain the dolls, it was filled with gifts! And I love gifts! But the train was arriving so I had to wrap them up and kiss my daughter good bye. And go home to play with my dolls. This is what I got

 She had even taken pictures of my dolls and printed them - real photographs! And the hat!! I got the hat, too!! Isn't she amazing?! Most amazing of course are the dolls! She did such an amazing job on them. The pink haired is my mini me. She used to be called Sugar Kane, after Marilyn Monroe's character in "Some like it hot" (feel free to correct if it was some other movie instead, I'm really bad with titles.) But now I see her more as Cherry Fox. My middle name is cherry (in Finnish) and my last name is fox (also in Finnish)

 Isn't she amazing! Even all the "beauty marks", actually moles, match!

 

These two are both Disco Boogie's. I'd say DB is one of the least liked dolls out there, but she makes such an amazing custom! The one on the left is made by Friends with Blythe and the other one is the one I just got. I asked her (Dafnery, who customized my two dolls) to make her look like the other doll's sister, but not a twin sister. I didn't want her to copy the work of FWB, and I'm sure she wouldn't even be okay doing so. Pola, who's also named after MM's character (on How to marry a millionare, I think) is now Astrid's big sister. And I love her to bits! Before she was like this :

Lol! So, if you are into dolls and would like to get a really great talent to customize your doll/s, I'd suggest you contact Dafnery. She was amazing to work with, her prices are very reasonable and most of all - her dolls are pieces of art!

Okay dokey, back to more serious business. My craft space. Even though I'm still sick I've gotten somethting done. All of my fabrics are now organized! I'm still short of two shelves, one is enough for doll clothes storage, and also one's not enough for unfinished projects, the one's I'm more likely to finish. I do have two shelves for unfinished projects, but the one at the botton of the closet are less likely ever to get finished. But I work on them if I feel like it. So I can't really put them away, either. Maybe a better solution will come up along the rest of the organizing. 

I got some great progress yesterday, other than finishing the fabric closet. I got all of my scrapbook stuff in a closet, and it wasn't the doll stuff closet. I'm pretty sure this will be their permanent storage place! I also got all doll stuff stuffed in the doll closet. It's not a pretty sight, not at all. Actually I'm afraid to open that closet door at the moment. But at least everything is in one place and my floor has a lot more space and rest of the cleaning and all will be now a lot easier! I might save the doll closet for the last. 

For today I have this small shelf to organize. I know it doesn't look that intimitading, but it's actually worse than it looks. It's the shelf I use when I don't know where else to put stuff...and it's also serious storage for items I use on daily basis, such as zippers and ribbons.

I also came up with (maybe) amazing solution for my lack of proper cutting space. I use this white smooth piece of coated wood (actually a shelf from a wide closet) as a base for photographs. It used to be downstairs, but I brought it up when I got mad at the person who used to take my pictures so now I do the pics myself and I do it upstairs. I had the piece on top of my ironing board for some reason and it was great extra desk for packing. So I might use that when ever needed. It should be easy to store between a wall and the doll house. If I can fit it in there. I emptied that space yesterday, but also found out it was a great way to store my bigger papers. So, well see. And if it turns out to bee to much trouble I'll keep cutting my fabrics either on my too low desk, or on the too narrow ironing board. 

That's it for now! I hope you all have a mazing weekend ahead of you!!

xoxo, 

Raisa

One Month Project, Organize Tehdas, Day 3

Howdy!

Yesterday was supposed to be the worst day of my sickness, after that I was planning to start feeling better. But then I forgot to rest and I still feel like shit :( I don't like being sick at all.This is quite bad start for my ambitious project. I know I can make it though. Just as long as I don't lose the excitement of it!

I still got quite a lot done yesterday! I even found my camera :) Except for two shelves all of my fabric is organized! Can you believe that! I'm most proud of my thick, bulky fabric closet. I think it looks really great, and what's the best part is that it actully works really well! Yay! The cotton closet doesn't look that great, there's still the two shelves I haven't organized yet, but also something else that makes it look messy. I really need to start sewing doll clothes more to get rid of some of the fabric ;)

I also attached the blue thing I got from the thrift store. Well, my hubby did it for me. I'm really getting a lot done, but everything is "in between" places, so it's still quite a mess. I'm getting a lot more space on my desk, which is awesome since I've been cutting fabrics on top of my narrow ironing board. But I'm afraid my desk is not high enough for cutting. We'll see.

Before I felt I was ready for bed I managed to sew two pouches that had been ordred long time ago. I even took pics of them and uploaded them on Etsy! Before I got all that done I think part of my body was a sleep already.

Now that my fabric is neatly organized (almost!) my biggest challenge is the doll closet. Not the doll house closet, but the "extras" closet. Where I keep doll clothes (two overflowing suitcases), extra furniture, male dolls (not Kevin!!), extra Re-ment, cars and also small pieces of thin wood to build stuff with. In that closet there's only three shelves and the floor, so everything is just huge mess. I also keep some of my scrapbook items in there. And I'm actually planning to put it all there, to have it all in one place. This means I really have to down-size a lot on my dolly stuff. I have tons of items "just in case". Some of them have to go. Maybe. To be honest I think it's justified for me to have tons of that stuff since I like to create scenes and temporary dioramas. And you'll never know what you might need. So I should keep it all :D

Mr C went to work meeting so I'll give you all the typos and grammar errors and all - Enjoy! Silly thing I want to share: A Finnish rock star said big tits and deep cleavage make him click and typos make him mad. It was about his online habits. I'm afraid my blog, either in Finnish or English would make him furious. Luckily I don't have rock stars reading my blog, or do I? Probably not, since there's no big breasts or deep cleavages to make them interested ;)

Must go! Bye!

xoxo,
Raisa

One Month Project, Organizing the Tehdas (Factory), Fabric

Wow! This really is a great start for this project, third post in a row! Good job Raisa! But still, don't get used to it. I can't keep up with stuff, I'm like that. I get excited and then the excitement dies and I no longer care. At all. But now I do care, so lets enjoy that! :D

So, yesterday was the first day. I paid my son 2,5 euros to move all my craft related things from downstairs to upstairs, to Tehdas. So now my room is even biger mess than what it was before I started...

But that's a good start. Now I have everything in almost one place. At least I have everything upstairs! In the attic,in the bunny room, inthe kid's room, in a small foyer, but hey! I do have a lot of stuff!

Okay, so I was supposed to start with the fabric storage. I did a lot yesterday, shipping and finishing orders and so on, but I kind of forgot or maybe it was me running out of time? I didn't get to do any organizing, until late at night. Hubby, who wanted to watch True Detective, gave me 15 minutes. So I ran upstairs, emptied the top shelf of my main fabric storage closet. I decided to dedicate that shelf  to lining fabrics. In my case that's thrifted kid's bed clothing (is that the correct term for sheets and stuff?). So now I have one shelf all nice and organized. And then the timer went off. I had to leave.

Today I have to do some more packing and shipping, and sewing, too. To get some action going on in Tehdas I really have to clear my desk off the junk that's on it. I also want to get at least two more shelves organized.
I also have two boxes set aside, one for items I want to keep, but stored away. Like keepsakes. And the other box for donations. I gave away my thread spool collection! I've been collecting empty spools forever, thinkin one day they'll be used on some amazing project. I think now is good time to give them away, since I can't think of anything to do with them, other than this.

So off they go! Along with some fabrics I definately won't use, or shouldn't use since they are not my, or Pinkkis style at all. So bye bye clutter, welcome room and space for more important stuff! Did I mention I'm going to Japan in one month and 21 days? With one extra luggage ;) No more space to spare after that :D

To make life more complicated I'm getting sick. Being sick sucks if you work at home. If you work for somebody you don't like it's sometimes fun. But when you are supposed to get shitload of stuff done...no fun at all.

Must go now. Be good!

xoxo,
Raisa

One Month Project: Organize Tehdas (Factory)

As some of you know I have my very own craft space -- a whole room dedicated  to my crafts. It's a luxury, I know. I used to dream of my own space, where I could leave my unfinished projects safely, knowing they'd be there when I get back to them. But what I didn't dream about was the constant mess, the lack of space (how can that happen when you have tons of closets  and shelves??!) and the endless piles of just about everything.

I know I'm not the cool minimalist with white walls and three super awesome pieces of art on my desk. I'm messy, loud (but only around people I know and trust), chaotic, and most of all, I'm the opposite of minimalist. I'm hoarder. I love stuff. Having a lot of stuff around me makes me feel safe. And beautiful things are, you know -- beautiful things and the more the merrier.

I've gone through phases where I want to get rid of stuff and I still think that's very important, even though in my case it always ends with me buying even more stuff to replace the things I gave away. But at least I go through my closets and then have better knowledge of what I have and what I don't have.

As a crafter it's okay to have big stashes of everything. You'll never know what you'll get excited about the next day! It could be something totally different from what you've been working on for weeks. So it's vital you have all the right tools and supplies ready.

I think all this is okay. It's part of my nature to be hoarder. But what's not okay is to have fabric around the house (mostly in my room, but I have stashes downstairs as well). Actually I think I have fabric scattered in six different places. And that's at least four too many. I don't have closets big enough to store them all in one place, but six is too many!

I have packaging material (bubble wrap, padded envelopes and so on) in four places, ribbons in four I think, doll stuff all over the place, beads and stickers everywhere, jewelry parts here and there... I might look like I'm well organized, since the room is quite small and I have so many drawers, some even labels on them (but the labels don't make any sense anymore). But what friends and visitors don't see is how everything is everywhere. Like I said, fabrics in six different locations.

I pretty much know where to find what ever I'm looking for, but to save time and to be more efficient and to get more space I have decided to organize the whole room all over! Everything! Hubby said I should take some of my toys away and use the space for my craft stuff, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to go to such extreme measures. But we'll see! I might even do that! Not all, but some. Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not. Most likely not, but I'm not saying definately not. Not yet. :)

I don't have any pictures just yet, but when I go upstairs I will photograph every single closet and drawers and everything. The way they are now, so you'll now what I'm talking about. Let me warn you, it won't be a pretty sight! I have at least dozen (ha! Who am I kidding! At least two dozen!) projects going on over there and everything is just scattered around my room. I had to do some cleaning before my hubby came in to help me with some cutting, but there's really not that much I can do in just few minutes.

So, my goal is to organize all my storage space, desks, cut down on toys, get rid of unused stuff and clean up the whole dusty room (even my Hello Kitty plush toy collection!,

Here's some old pictures to give you an idea of the hoarder I am.

Have a great and organized Sunday! It's Ravintolapäivä (Restaurant Day) here in Finland and I'm in charge of Vegan Restaurant Tour, so I can't really start organizing today. Or I could, but I HAVE to sew. Seriously. Don't know what's happend but I haven't gotten anything done lately. I've sewed a lot, I think, but I can't seem to finish anything.

xoxo,
Raisa