Organization - Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Happy February!

I have been staying on track with my motivation, organization and expanding my jewelry line to sell in more local stores. Everything is running right on track!! 

The organization has been a bit of challenge, not gonna lie, and here I am going to bear it all!  It takes guts to show the bad with the good, and I am showing it to you. I work better in a jumbled chaos - it sparks my creativity and the ideas flow. What this chaos doesn't do, is allow the creativity to happen in a timely manner. This meaning, to be cost effective when pricing my jewelry, time goes into that formula. When I spend 20 minutes looking for my hole punchers, so I can package an order, that is 20 minutes lost in profit!!! When this revelation hit me, the organization began with a fury. As I rolled up my shirt sleeves and dug in, I realized I have been wasting a lot of time. 



Here you can see, holy cow!!! that is the only way to say it :) I dragged everything to the middle of the room, swept the floor, and started putting everything back. This process let me go through things, find things I haven't seen in years, and evaluate what I really need, and what is just hoarding. The purging is happening!!  I still have a ways to go, and it feels good!!

As we all know, February brings Valentintes Day, a day set aside to show love to those special someones in your life. A fun way to show someone your appreciation and love, is to enroll them in the Earring club! Choose, 1, 3 or 12 month membership, and let the fun begin! 

Friday is going to be an awesome night, with the Snow Moon (full moon), lunar eclipse AND a comet!! Grab your binoculars and see natures splendor! 
Talk to you soon!!!

And as always..

I send you love and peace.
Be blessed!

Craft Hoarder Confessions

It is always this time of year I look at my work space and say it is time for a change. I get it cleaned up and feel good about myself for about 2 hours. As I start to work and explore new ideas, the room falls apart around me. I have learned to accept that I create from chaos.

Up til now - didn't matter how bad it got, and trust me it was bad. I have posted several before and after pics to try and purge some, maybe shame myself into not doing it, it hasn't worked - but up til now, I always knew where everything was. As of recent, I can't find a thing. It takes me forever to find my shipping supplies, to find my packaging papers, stamps and ribbons, so when I mail out the order it is all wrapped and sweet.

  I saw this today while on Facebook -

This is me in a nut shell. I thought maybe it was time to confess.

Hi my name is Tish McDermott and I want to call myself and artist, a clever crafter, but all I am is a hoarder.

When I started making jewelry, it was always done on the kitchen table, and when I was done, I cleaned up and put things back where they belonged. We used the kitchen table for other things, why I don't know it was the perfect crafting spot, and I had a cat that loved to steal things.

Next I moved into the spare bedroom, oh the joy of it. All the space I need AND I could close the door. I had things organized in the closet, I had bought small little storage cabinets, it was perfect.

Then we had someone move in with us, and I was displaced. I moved into a small room off the office, that had been used for storage, and for my daughters sewing room.

This is where it turned bad. I had room and lots of it. Not the advantage of the storage of a closet, but still, room. The room did not have a door, it was a small hallway that lead into the kitchen. Not good. The zoo could come and go as they pleased. I brought down the armoire  from the bedroom we had used for the tv - storage and it blocked the hallway. This is MY domain. My husband built me a work bench, so things could be hung and arranged, and I had plenty of room to work.

Soon, I couldn't find things in my work room because they had spilled out into the office. Now I have shelves in the office to hold more things. The computer desk is now piled with business cards, shipping supplies- where is my computer?


Here is the confession - Because I not only make jewelry, I sew and paint as well.

I NEED THINGS!!!!

I save all cardboard boxes. I may need them for shipping.
I save all packing materials - again shipping
I save all tissue paper

To me, I think I am doing good, reducing my global footprint, recycling these shipping items.

I save every pair of jeans.
I save every t shirt
I save socks
I save towels
I save sheets
I can use the material.

I save empty coffee containers. They are great storage.
I have 23 of them

I save empty tins (this is a new thing) Again - they are great storage!
I have 2

I save pretty, heavy paper. I use them for my packaging.

Mason jars - storage

Magazines - I make canvas from them

Shopping bags - storage

I can't pass up a good sale - I don't make wreaths, but I got such a great deal, like serious after coupons and such, I just paid taxes on that burlap ribbon that people make wreaths with.
I have 12 rolls

And the list goes on.

BUT as luck should have it. The spare bedroom has now become my husbands office, and the office that is attached to my workroom is mine.

I am rolling up my sleeves and getting started.

Pray for me ;)

Project for Today (confessions of a hoarder)

14 hours it took me.

14 hours to get to a stopping point where I can move forward with the rest of my organizing of my craft room.

I stood for 13 hours and ironed 5 tubs of material. 5 tubs of material I have had for years, that has be stuffed and rolled and squished from bin to box to shelf to cupboard. I got a wild hair, and decided I needed to have it done.

So 13 hours of standing and ironing and 1 hour sorting, stacking and replacing it in tubs. I have taken the 5 tubs down to 3....well 4, because I took all of my fleece and batting that was stored elsewhere and put it in one of the tubs. What am I gonna do with the last tub???

All these were taken with my phone - having camera issues....

Here is the mess in the floor

After the ironing and sorting

This tub is for all of the panel fabric, shiney lining fabric and the lace. 

Just one tub of lace, I had to condense it down.....

Now that I had it all sorted, I had to put it back in the tubs, but I wanted to be able to find it. I got the bright idea, I have all of these magazine that we go for 'points' or something, I can use them as dividers!

So I stacked the fabric in by color bunches, and separated them with the magazines.

While sorting and ironing, I found of couple of these squares that my mom had done. In the scraps there are several of the pieces already cut, I just need to separate them out, and I can make several more blocks. I think it will be fun to finish it and send it to my mom.

Now I still have all of these 'scraps'. These are pieces of material that have already been cut to use for a project, or are very small. I haven't figured out how to store them as of yet.

I feel like I have a lot accomplished, and I have so much more to do.

Do you have any big projects you are working on? I would love to hear about them!

"Give light and people will find the way." - Ella Baker