Sew Distracted

Hello From The Studio

There have been some happy hours spent in the studio this summer and yet at the same time there is very little to show for that effort.   Much of that was spent in handwork practice that I am not ready or willing to share, or that is not mine to share.  Some time was also spent with some older textiles, refreshing my memory regarding textile restoration, hand work, and organizing thoughts and plans.  It always seems like the planning bit is the longest part of anything really, and in many ways the least amenable to blogging because it can take me days to organize my thoughts into a path, and longer yet before that path becomes coherent.

 

Why should it be so complicated you ask?  Don't I just want to make clothes?  Well, yes. Yes I do, but being myself, I can even manage to turn that into a maelstrom of musings.

 

First however, I finally finished the bookcase that goes in the Northwest corner of the studio.  It had been partially assembled, and I had some piles here and there, mostly on the pressing table, making it unavailable for current projects.

 

Here is the finished corner now.  Well the rubber mallet is no longer on the floor; it has been properly put away.  I added four cubes, and shifted the bookcase slightly so it occupies that entire end of the room between window and wall.  This required moving the white plastic cubitec unit that I had built in the laundry room, and later found to be less useful than I had hoped, out of the basement and across the way to the studio.  Then of course I had to remove all the books, expand the bookcase and put everything back.   

 

This all took place over a series of days.  The books were sorted and put in order.  Then there was a mad frenzy of searching because it seems very apparent to me that a box, or two, of books is missing, and yet I cannot find them anywhere.  I am certain I had certain books, equally convinced that I would not have given them away for anything, and yet they are nowhere to be found.  It is completely illogical that, of all the things that could disappear in a move, two boxes of books would be the items that would "fall off the truck".    I have no explanation. I probably never will, and really it is irrelevant.

 

But it was a great deal of fun to reacquaint myself with my knitting, sewing, and fiber books.  Many happy. hours were spent reading, looking at patterns, dreaming dreams.   I still think I want to come up with some plan for cataloging the patterns in the various volumes and magazines, as well as the notebooks full of patterns I have clipped over the years but I am really not sure if I will ever get to that.  The world is full of patterns, and yet, I also discovered there remain many things I still want to knit, or to knit again.

 

There is still a lot of organizing that must happen before the studio is fully functional but increasingly it is becoming a space that works for me.  I really like what I have achieved so far, and it has proved functional and maintainable. There are still some boxes of things to sort through, and the two bins of UFOs are larger than I would like, but at least everything is together in a coherent way. 

 

I did get all the sewing patterns organized, or most of them.  There is a small basket of about a dozen patterns that have turned up here and there on my desk waiting for me to get around to cataloging and filing them.  I also got about 1/3 of the yarn stash photographed, catalogued, and put away.  The remainder has been corralled but I need to work on plans for how to organize the storage closet.  I got started, changed my mind, and temporarily abandoned the project.  I can't resume cataloging until I have a coherent way to sort and store the cataloged yarn. I rearranged the sewing tables, but haven't yet shifted the way I store tools and small things so that they work with the new sewing arrangement. Actual sewing then, as opposed to cutting and flat table work, is still a little bit of an adventure.

 

I bought fast-dry foam and sunbrella fabric to make new cushions for the outdoor seating, but then, when I had the time and energy, we were drenched in rainfall.  Now that it is dry, I once again do not have the energy.  Sooner or later it will all come together. In the meantime the materials are in their own corner, waiting peacefully.

 

The last time I wrote, dress patterns were on my mind.  They still are.  I ordered more muslin because I was out but I have not made much progress on the dress front.  The five dress patterns are dresses I will wear again and again, and I have no problem with that.  I am living in the three dresses I made.  They are pretty much worn, washed, and worn again.  I am perfectly content.  I could simply make more dresses and continue on my merry way.

 

But I also have a closet, a closet that contains clothes, mostly separates, that need to be worn.  Sewing dresses is easy because I don't have to coordinate them with anything else.  But what do I do about my other clothes?  I do want to wear them.  And I don't particularly want a closet full of widows and orphans.  In the past I just sewed, and knitted, whatever it was that I felt like sewing or knitting at the time, and hoped that eventually it would go with something in my closet.  But I think I want to take a more organized approach. I want a closet where everything works together, or at least with its own capsule of items.   And this means both more time thinking about what I have and what I need, and also more shifting to a more organized approach.

 

It started with these slim stretch cotton ankle pants.  They fit now and I very much like them.  Except that, as you can see, they were initially too wide at the ankle.  I don't recall if that was the style when I purchased them, (whenever that was; I am surprised I held on to them) or if I just have narrow ankles in comparison to my hips.  But I don't think the combination of this width and this length is flattering.

So I thought I could take them in, tapering down from the knee.  I didn't want to take up too much, because doing that would require dissassembling the entire pant, recutting it and putting it back together.  It would be easier just to make new pants.   The pants are now about 1 1/2 inches narrower at the ankle than they were in the photo above (see lower two photos). And the blue thread is really not that bright in real life.  

I think they look much better.  But the process of altering the pants made me think about what I have in my closet and what goes with what.  Although I was thrilled to find something I had forgotten that fit me now, I was also frustrated to see a closet full of clothes that do technically fit, but which I have no idea how to wear so that they work for the person I am now, with the body I reside in now.  I need to figure it out.  I need to let go of what doesn't work, regardless of whether it fits, and I need to have a plan to make and/or buy things that I will actually use  together with the things I have.  

 

And so it seems I have a whole new project. I have started working on that: pulling clothes out of the closet to see what goes with what, trying on outfits, photographing them, putting everything back away.  It is daunting because I have to try everything.  I've been avoiding buying new things or making new things because I didn't know what I had, and opening the closet was overwhelming. It is one thing to add a new item to an existing wardrobe that woks well together, and to create outfits and play with ideas.  It is somewhat more exhausting when when I don't know how anything goes together, and many of the things I once wore no longer work for who I am now.  Sometimes it feels like this closet belonged to someone else and I am, in some ways, starting from scratch.  It is all exhausting.  It is also very rewarding as I have a much better sense of who I am now and what I want to wear now in this stage of my life.  I am gaining a more focused sense of what I need and what I want.  

For example, one thing I noticed is that the above pants look much better with the pointy toed flats than they did with the ankle-high buckled sandals.  I  discovered that I like a necklace that sits much closer to my collarbone.  The 18" strand of pearls in the top photo is too long and needs to be shortened, probably to somewhere near 16".  Pearls that are never worn because the lengths of the strands are wrong can be restrung.

 

I am developing a catalog of sorts of what works, and series of lists and plans.  I don't want to make, or even spend money buying, something that doesn't work.  Oh one of the things about making is that not everything works, and I am sure I will make many duds, but at least I won't be flying blind. I am not sewing now and yet, finally, I am becoming increasingly focused and excited about the options ahead.

 

Minor Burps Perhaps, But Still Here.

The world has not stopped, although at any given moment parts of it seem traumatized by events somewhere or another.  I have not stopped venturing into the sewing studio either, even though at the moment there is not a great deal to show for my time or efforts.  The studio is actually my sanctuary, a place where care, fear, and stress disappear. It is not that I have quite overcome the many-directional pulls of distraction, but in the end, it is not distraction that grounds us or provides meaning in life.

I did manage to get almost all the fabric unpacked, put on shelves, and catalogued.  This is the first time in many years that everything is easily visible.   I have to admit to being only "almost" unpacked because after going through all this, I found three banker's boxes of fabric in the basement, boxes which were never supposed to be in the basement in the first place.  Alas there is no space on the shelves to unpack them so they remain in fabric purgatory, out of sight and out of mind until I at least sew something and clear some space.

There were other aspects of sorting and cleaning up going on -- beginning steps of creating a system, although no system is finished until it holds up to actual work.  There is always a disconnect between the imaginary world of design and the real world. I am certain that any attempts at organization will go through upheavals and revisions, but for the first time really, I am beginning to see and feel a place, a haven really, to come into and let the work itself take center stage.

It feels good to be in the studio.  The pressing table has seen more use as a photography station than for pressing of late.  I expect it will continue to do double duty, at least until the yarn has been sorted and catalogued.  At least the yarn has at least been corralled into a single space and I have catalogued and sorted enough for any short-term projects.  I admit, it felt good to be taking photos, to put my hands on every piece of fabric, to satisfy my organizational demons.  Conflicting emotions arose, every piece feeding both creative instincts and angst over the too-muchness of it all. The best I can do is admit that there was a period when George was ill and I was not sewing, a time when I consoled myself by buying fabric.  I cannot say it was cheaper than therapy, I can say that what you see on the walls serves as my retirement fund, my wall of dreams, and a place of great calm.  There is no point in fretting over the choices of the past, only in accepting that we each do the best we can.  Whatever choices we make or fail to make, they are intimately woven into the fabric of who we are.

There has been a little mending here and there and more than a few alterations.  Mostly no photographs were taken of same, and that is OK.  I have attempted some embroidery as well, although for the most part my fingers are out of practice and not quite as adept as once they were, partially due simply to inactivity, partly due to repercussions following last year's chemo-induced neuropathy.  I will move forward, regrets cast aside. Hopefully skills will improve. There is no point in life in dwelling on what I once could do, even as I realize that I should have celebrated more and fretted less. 

I did buy a shade card set for Appleton wools, necessary for a crewel-embroidery project that is mostly still in the planning stages.  Shown here on a piece of wool boucle that had been washed and partially felted.  If anything I love the colors more after felting than in their original state.  I was all gung-ho with excitement when I conceived of this project, but tiredness, arrhythmias, and life slowed me down, and it got put aside for a few weeks.  Not to be concerned, there are several projects on my cutting table now and I want to work on all of them.  Something will come of it all, even if that something is not quite what was initially envisioned. 

 

This is the year for play after all.  It is not the results that are important but the process of exploration, of doing, of experimentation.  Who knows where it will all lead, and ultimately it is not really important if it leads anywhere at all. 

 

Cutting Room 3: Cutting Table

The work table/cutting table is complete.

This table is nothing like what I had before.  In New York my table was 4' x 8' and it was covered with a custom-sized rotary cutting mat that I had ordered from cutting-mats.net.

But I did not bring that table with me for several reasons.

1. That table was too wide for the new space and it was both too wide, and too tall for me to work comfortably. My previous table was 42" high and 48" wide.  A better table would be around 37" to 38" high and 42" wide.

2.  Although the large seamless rotary cutting surface was great in many ways, I also found it incredibly frustrating.  It ends up, that except for quilting or cutting small geometric pieces, I don't usually use rotary cutters.  I prefer to cut garments with long shears.   I prefer to draw on my fabric and cut directly from the drawn patterns with shears.  I pay far more attention to what I am doing with shears than I do with a rotary cutter, when my hands tend to run far faster than my brain can register what they are doing.  

3.  Delicate and problem fabrics slip on the rotary cutting mat but not so much on a cloth-covered surface, and I can always place a rotary mat over the padded surface when I want to use it.

 

My original plan was to make a table that was 42 inches wide by 8 feet long.  But my room is long and it gradually occurred to me that a longer table might actually be better.  It started with the fair linen.  I am in the altar guild of my church.  The woman who has cared for the linen for many many years needed to take a sabatical, and I offered to fill in.  Now I love caring for fine linens and find the process of caring for them and ironing them to be a very mindful and calming way to spend some time.  As I was ironing a linen one day, the same time I was planning my cutting room, it occurred to me that if my work table were 9 feet instead of 8 feet long, I could lay the long altar linen out flat for ironing without having to drape or move it.  

 

After that day I couldn't get the idea of a 9 foot table out of my mind.  It is not necessary.  I don't even know how long I will be doing the linen, if this is a temporary or long-term assignment.  Yet while I am doing this I have linens spread out on this surface at least 4 times a month and I have the space.  The table is long enough that I can do pretty much anything I want on it, I can spread out 3 yards of fabric for cutting.  I can work on two projects at once.  I can block a sweater and still have room to work on something else.  

 

And so my work table is not exactly what I originally planned.  Even though I had issues with my slippery former table, it didn't really occur to me to pad a table until I started planning how I would put this table together.  Maybe I'm just ready to accept how I actually work rather than how I think I should work. I think I am happy with the result.  Only time will tell, just as it took me some time to figure out what I didn't like about my previous table.  But I might just have it right this time. 

 

This new work table is made from 1/2 inch plywood.  Over the plywood I placed two layers of 1/2" thick wool batting which was compressed to 1/2" during the process of stretching the cover over the top. The cover fabric is cotton twill printed with a 1" grid. The entire process worked well. However, if I were doing it over again, I think I would use 3/4" plywood, or have a proper table top built.  1/2" plywood is a little too flexible and unstable at this length, although it doesn't really matter because it is completely supported by cabinetry underneath and I have no real reason to move the top.  It should last for several years before this becomes an issue.  When I do need a new top, or to repad this top, I will enlist another pair of hands to help with the stretching and lifting.

 

 

New Cutting Room Part 2

This was originally posted on August 23rd on the blog restingmotion.

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We literally just got the last cabinet completed and all the pieces together for the cutting table:

I am just thrilled by the fact that it looks so good and I have more room to move around than I thought. You can see the Billy Bookcases along the back wall, partially filled with fabric.  There will be another bookcase where the ladder is standing now: it is scheduled to be delivered the end of next week. In front of the bookcases you see one end of my humongous new cutting table.  The materials for finishing the top won't arrive until next week either, so you can read more about that in another post.

Here is a view from the end of the room:

The table base is basically made from 3 components, all of which I got from Homedecorators.com:

    2 Martha Stewart Craft Space Flat File cabinets along the front side (because it faces the door).

    1 Stanton 6+1 drawer wide storage cart which occupies the space between the two cabinets

     3 Supreme 3 tier metal shelving units side-by-side along the back.

 

The larger lower drawer of the stanton unit holds my hams and most of my bulky pressing tools and it is convenient since it stands opposite my ironing board and press, of which you can see just a tiny bit on the left side of the photo above).

Here is a partial view of the cabinets side by side from the door:

The whites are not quite the same, which I knew when I ordered them, but I figured it wouldn't matter that much and it is much less evident IRL than in this photo, either that or I just don't notice, which may also be true.  All of the cabinets from Home Decorators were supposed to be 36" high, except for the Stanton unit which is 35 1/2, but that wasn't the case. The cabinets ranged from 35 1/2 to 36 1/2 high, so there was a bit more shopping and cutting and gluing involved than originally planned, but it all works and I am happy.  

 

It will be even better when the top is finished.  But in the meantime I have a lot of unpacking and planning to do.

New Sewing Space -- Cutting Room Post 1

In anticipation of reactivating this blog, I am double-posting.  This post also appears on Restingmotion.

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The first four of five Billy Bookcases are up.  Only one top extension is in place, and the doors are not on it yet, but I have started moving fabric into the lower cabinets.   The fifth cabinet was damaged in shipping and I have to send the damaged parts list to Ikea as soon as the top extensions are finished. 

 

I can't claim any responsibility for the results so far other than buying the cabinets and helping lug them up the stairs.  I am grateful to know a couple of good handymen and am very happy that A has taken on this job since I know I would be nowhere near this far along were I attempting it myself, and I would probably be lying on the floor with my feet up on the sofa feeling stiff, sore, and frustrated, and too tired to unpack fabric.

 

My only other responsibility so far, other than moving tons of stuff around and helping carry, has been to crawl around the garage floor while I glued large pieces of plywood together, and haul more heavy stuff around to weight the pieces, in order to make the 42" x 108" (3 1/2' x 9') top of the future cutting table.  

Seeing the assembled slab of plywood lying on the floor, although not in its final place, I see that although the cutting table will dominate the room, I will have room to work around it, and I am happy at that thought. Only half of the base cabinets have arrived, and two of them are awaiting assembly.  The final cabinets should arrive this week, and the materials for finishing the top probably this coming week or early the following week.

 

I probably won't get more fabric moved today as I'm hosting a dinner party this evening.  But I can go upstairs and sigh occasionally, and dream of the space to come.

 

 

Thread Cabinet and Family Fun

At one point yesterday the entire family was busy in the sewing room.

 G was bored and wanted something to do, so I set him to work.  First I had him cut up some old sweaters I had felted, then had him cutting old t-shirts so that I can use the pieces for other projects. 

Meanwhile, I was cutting up foam board, attempting to make drawer liners for my thread and bead cabinet.

As you can see from the photo, that first tray was a little rough.

 I have an antique chest of drawers I use for storing thread, beads, belt buckles and similar things.  I picked it up years ago at a second hand store and although I love it, the bottoms of the drawers are splitting and bowed with age.  Things fall through.  It occurred to me that I could just line the drawers with foam board and this would solve the problem.  Not only that, I realized that although I had been storing thread in a single layer in the drawers, I could actually use the foam board to make two trays, and store two layers of thread in each drawer, doubling my storage capacity.  This is useful because I had a few bags of thread sitting around on the floor, thread my mom generously sent me, waiting for me to find storage space.

While I was measuring, cutting, and creating the thread storage trays, you can see that Moisés was busy helping me sort the thread into piles by color.

 I only purchased three foam boards because I wasn't really sure how well my plan would work out.  One board almost makes two thread trays.  More exactly it makes two bottom pieces, four long side pieces, and three short side pieces.   I made trays for two drawers, and succeeded in storing most of my basic spools of sewing thread in these drawers, sorted by color.  Polyester and cotton threads are mixed in the same drawer.  Although I have grouped similar colors together, I have not yet sorted each drawer in any orderly fashion.  I might do that someday, if not putting them in a strict sequence, at least just putting spools of the same color next to each other.

 I need to pick up more foam board to finish the project.  I need one more drawer to hold the larger spools of Mettler thread, and also to hold top stitching thread and buttonhole twist, which are not mixed in with regular sewing thread.  Silk thread and embroidery thread get their own drawers. 

The top two drawers hold cones of Metrosene thread for the serger.  These fit in a single layer in each drawer.  Belt buckles, beads, and a few things (belts and necklaces) that need repair are in the lower drawers.

I think this plan is working well and it will be much easier to find the appropriate thread now as I will no longer have to sort through bags and boxes.  If I put multiple spools of the same color together, it will also be fairly easy to see when I am missing or low on important colors and to replace them as needed.

Organizing the Pressing Tools

OK, I sewed napkins last week.  And I spent some time avoiding sewing.  I really need to break this habit.

I also spent some time moving piles of things around the sewing room so I can work.  I really can't work like this, that much I know.  I want to finish the sewing room.  I got it 3/4 done a few years ago, life took a couple of sharp turns and I never finished.  I did let things pile up waiting until I finished.

I have been working on the piles though.  They have been greatly reduced and moved out of the way and sorted in ways that I can work on them a little bit each day and finish, probably even before fall (yeah!!)

I also needed some shelves.  I had planed to put a narrow shelf above the ironing board, and above the window for little used items, but never did.  The shelves I originally wanted don't seem to be available anymore, and I didn't want to spend time dealing with making something just right. So I found something that worked and they arrived Friday.

The high shelves are for a few pressing tools that I don't use every day, but still need to have around for those times when they are needed.  I also have a few other things used for specific tasks that aren't regular day-to-day projects.

I wanted shelves that had invisible mounts because I don't  really have room to put brackets up on the top and still room to put things on the shelves due to the window frames.  To get the length I had to put up a series of short shelves.  Someday, when I am feeling ambitious and have nothing better to do, I might make a custom sized shelf and just drill the holes to use these brackets, now that I have them.

On the far right the white roll on the top, way up by the beam is a piece of PVC plumbing pipe that I use when felting.  Below it, on the shelf is a roll of  "soil separator paper" that I got once for trying pattern alterations and muslins.  I learned that I prefer actual muslin because I can't see the marks on this stuff, but there are times, when I am making multiple copies of something to work out a detail, that it is convenient, so I am keeping it around.

Here's the south wall showing the shelves above and below the window.  The blurry white thing on top is my flash reflecting off the soil separator paper.  The shelf above the ironing board is narrow (4 inches) and just perfect for holding the things I use all the time.  The sleeve board is hidden in a slot right behind the cutting table next to the iron, easily reachable but out of sight..

Now all my sewing tools are off the floor, where I was always tripping over them, and some things that were piled up on a bookshelf are properly stowed so I can get the books off the shelf.  I am running out of excuses for not sewing.  This is good. 

But to make sure I do something I am going to have to give a regular accounting.  If I feel I have to write, I will also feel I have to have something to write about, rather than just the random musings in my head.

Aqua

I am still in the painting stages of the closet.  The walls are painted and the trim and radiators have been painted.  And while I am on the subject of painting radiators, why the guy that built this house (before we owned it) baseboard heat in all the closets is absolutely beyond me -- it is the worst thing for my clothes and shoes and fabrics.  So I try to keep it turned down.  But some rooms would have no heat if it weren't for the closets, which also means of course, that you have to keep the closet doors open..... duh!

Well, someday I intend to put in radiant heat under the floors, but that means we have to get rid of the wall-to-wall, which is pretty much everywhere, with no finished floors underneath (gotta love the '70s).  But let's not tell G yet, he'll think he can't retire.  I can wait a long time.....

  So here's the basic color.  The walls are done.  Isn't it a lovely aqua!  The trim is a light blue gray  and I still have to put on a second coat. 

The shelves will be aluminum so the gray trim will look really nice.  It looks so nice in fact that I am glad that I never got around to painting the windows and window frames in the sewing room because I think I will use the same gray.  It looks good with the light green of the sewing room, the turquoise, and this lovely aqua. . 

Isn't it nice to be able to justify having not done something when your were originally supposed to have done it?

I don't know if I have enough of the gray to do the closet doors as well.  I'll do the trim first.  The gray paint is one I have had for years, it is a Martha Stewart color from K-Mart that I used for painting some planters a few years back.  I don't even know if it is still available.  But then, maybe I don't need closet doors.  The room is small enough that they are in the way if they are open and I like to see in.  At the same time having doors does keep dust and light out.  I wonder if I can mount one of those honeycomb shades inside the door frame and get one in a pretty, complimentary color.  Then I can just open and close it at will.  Is there some rule that closet doors have to be a door?

Well, I probably need to think about that a bit.

In the meantime I have been doing some more shopping late at night when I can't sleep.  A package filled with lovely treats came from Lucy's.  I ordered them immediately after finishing my top (and I still haven't cut out another).

I don't have any immediate plans for these fabrics so they just go into the stash, even though my stash is definitely at SABLE proportions (stash accumulation beyond life expectancy)  I don't usually worry about it, although I had been more cautious about buying fabric for a while, just because I wasn't sewing.

As I've said  before, I love my stash for its own sake, and I obviously love pretty fabric.  I do realize that I may be overindulging right now, but shopping as therapy is not a totally bad thing unless you let it get out of hand.  I don't intend to.  I was about to say I was already slowing down, I hadn't bought any fabric for several days, until I got the Fabric Mart swatches yesterday, but swatches provide a whole different level of temptation.

Well, we'll see how I feel tomorrow when I have to put everything in the closet.

Matilda waits for her new home

Matilda is getting a new home and she is very excited about the prospect.  Unfortunately I have been slow at finishing up the planning stages of the sewing room closet and have not yet ordered the components or hardware and so she must wait.

Matilda has had no real home of her own since her stand broke.  This was not her fault, as she is based on me (built from a cast) and is rather unbalanced (like her mother).  When the stand was mounted in the physical center of her base, this was not the center of her weight, but even when we calculated where her true center might lie, we found that a slight brushing up would be enough to send her to the floor.  Alas her stand was broken in many places and she has been relegated to moving from table to table, surface to surface, with no real place to call  her own.

This is about to change, as I have created a cubby in the new closet shelving system just for her.  It will be a place where she can stay and also a place where she is readily available whenever I wish to work with her.  She can easily be brought out of the closet and onto the sewing table, and since her new spot is just about 5 feet from my sewing machine and easily accessible, she will always be at the ready.  She is thrilled, if a little impatient.

Here is a rough plan for the ends of the closet.  IYou can't really see the details as I am still working from the original pencil sketch, but you can see that Matilda has her place. I  am still working out the hardware details, but it is looking like it is going to work:

More inspiration

The spring Marfy Catalog came!

Although spring is not usually my favorite season, there are still a couple of things I am interested in ordering.  Unfortuntely I am not particularly interested in the free patterns this time, but that is always the chance one takes. 

I never order as much in spring as fall, I think I am just more oriented toward fall clothes, perhaps part of why the thought of moving south has never appealed to me too much. I don't like being cold, and too much winter is a pain, but I can't imagine life without warm snuggly sweaters and coats and lovely warm woolen things.

I suppose for every sun dress goddess in the world there needs to be some polar bear who loves to snuggle up like me .

It was pattern inspiration weekend, because not only did the Marfy catalog come, but I got the December Patrones that I ordered from eBay:

There are definitely some interesting patterns here, so I need to get to work tracing and working on muslins so that I can have NEW CLOTHES!.

But Marfy first.  I still need to do that Marfy muslin and I may not be ordering many spring patterns but there are still several from the fall catalog that I need to order so I need to get a move on now.

In the meantime however the weekend was successful in that one new closet is completed.  I finished the shoe closet and I am very happy.  All of my shoes are in one place, and I can see them all and reach them all -- well the evening shoes are up pretty high and I need a step stool for those, but it is not like I wear them every day. 

It is strange because I am using the same shelving system I used before, but in a different closet, which fits better, and I got more shoes on the same shelves than I had before?  I have no idea how to explain that, except perhaps that I am not reaching around dark corners into hard to reach places.

And I am thrilled that I painted the closet.  Opening up the closet in the bedroom and seeing all my shoes lined up against the soft taupe background I painted the walls is such a joy.  The taupe goes perfectly well with the wallpaper in the bedroom and sets off the white shelves nicely.   

I am afraid I can't get far enough from the door to give you a full view so I a pretty one with the more extravagant shoe colors will have to do instead.  Most of my shoes really boring old black and brown.

It will be a bit before the other closet is finished because I can't devote as much time to it all at once, and besides, I have not even ordered the new shelving unit yet.  But it will be nice, and I will have more room than I had before, and some storage issues that had been hanging around my neck like lead weights have been solved.   But more about that later.