Saturday, October 23, 2010

Inspiration and Organization

Great places to visit:

The Crafty Nest....give-aways, links to give-aways, DIY tutorials--good stuff!
Just Something I Made....lots of crafty tutorials and great ideas!  Too many fun & useful projects to mention!
The Graphics Fairy...free images and crafty projects and links!  I'm working on a project using the Fairy's images right now.

I'm organizing and labeling bits & bobs!  No, I'm not neat in general or in specifics, and the labels are not always even, the handwriting is poor, etc.  But...this is going to be a lot more efficient when I finish categorizing and labeling.

 When I finish organizing the tiny things in this little storage bin, I'll move on to things in boxes that are still behind the attic door.  Dragged out one box yesterday, but many items won't fit in the storage bin because the majority of the drawers are so tiny, but I have other containers.  I will soldier on for a while, trying to organize so that I will spend less time searching (often fruitlessly) for an item, I'm pretty sure I have.
 
I bought the old cloth covered sewing box a couple of years ago and found some neat stuff in it.

I've downloaded labels from both The Graphics Fairy and Just Something I Made for organizing all sorts of things, but mostly the chaos in my studio.  I have tools, fabric, vintage items, embellishments, WIPs, scraps, embroidery floss, needles (for all purposes, including felting needles), rulers, pens, pencils, clay utensils, paints & paint brushes, chalk & oil pastels, old postage stamps, magazines from the late 1800's, etc., etc.

Here is a great way to organize fabric remnants over at Just Something I Made. I plan on using this idea in the future.

It wasn't always easy to find what I wanted even before we moved; now, it is almost impossible.  Thanks to The Graphics Fairy and Just Something I Made, perhaps the things will improve!
------------------
Today's Poem of the Day is by Gerard Manley Hopkins, one of my very favorite poets, and this is one of my favorite poems:  Spring and Fall.  So appropriate for this time of year.   And it makes me thinks of Shakespeare's Sonnet 73:
That time of year thou mayst in me behold (Sonnet 73)
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
   This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
   To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
In one of the boxes in the attic, I found a bunch of handouts of some of my favorite poems that I used when teaching.   For many years, there were few days when I didn't read poetry, but lately that has not been the case, and it was fun to go through the handouts.

4 comments:

  1. love love love it when you include poetry! this post leaves me admiring but also a bit guilty and vaugely anxious. Have been doing some fruitless searching of my own lately so maybe it's time to get tough and instigate some kind of system that will truly work for me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm already losing momentum in the organizing, but plan to keep at it. Lots of things are turning up that I'd forgotten about!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! you have been busy... those labels look great. I wish I could get my butt into gear and be as organized!!!
    Lovely poem :O)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Abi, I've been distracted from that project and find myself just hunting and gathering from boxes in the attic. Eventually, I will return to organizing and labeling...I hope!

    ReplyDelete

Good to hear from you!