Unexpected projects

Well, I may have not been feeling creative, and I certainly wasn't feeling energized, but when I asked friends "what to do on a rainy day?" and someone said "Clean out your closets!" the thought stuck. It was the perfect project for a person who's been feeling like getting rid of stuff. Also, it's been a pretty damp year, and that means mold sometimes builds up on some of the stuff in the back of the closet. Whoa, was I in for a surprise though, when we finally pulled everything out.
Black mold. All over.

I was pretty upset. And then to find it all over the bedroom, yuck.
This actually was good to find out, because after doing some research, we learned that all the symptoms I've been suffering from all month (headache, not able to breathe well, depression, being tired all the time) are actually symptoms of black mold exposure. And here I thought I had a virus that I couldn't kick. Or that I needed to go see a shrink or something. But it makes sense, and to know what it is makes me feel a lot better already.
So, we scrubbed it all down with bleach (which is awful, the bleach stench makes me feel worse than the mold), and then we decided that we really need to prevent this from happening again. There are two big problems with this closet that are contributing to the problem, as well as making the closet not as functional as it should be. One is that there is a window (because it didn't use to be a closet), but the clothing racks were in the corner smooshed against the window, so the window had to be covered to keep the clothes from getting bleached from the sun. If the window could let light in, and if it could be opened, then the moisture problem wouldn't be as bad. Also, having the clothes in the corner made them hard to access. So we took out everything, and decided to re-arrange the whole closet to allow for air flow, to allow for better access to the clothes and also to allow for better organization.

Of course, this means that everything that was in the closet is now on my dining table. And it will be there for a while, because we had to make a trip to the hardware store in order to construct the new shelves. It was 3:30 or so when we decided to head to the hardware store, and by the time we got out, it was POURING rain, and we didn't get home until late and of course the rain meant that the creek had risen and we couldn't drive across it to get home. The joys of living in the sticks. Sigh.
All our lumber spent the night in the back of the truck and progress on the closet project was halted.
No matter. We made kiwi sorbet instead. Because we had a TON of kiwis from our CSA box that we needed to do something with.
BUT, I did spend part of the evening with the label maker and a stack of plastic bins. Yes, everything is going to be organized in bins! I'm so excited about this. It feels like the best thing in the world to happen to my closet. Bedding in one bin. Sweaters in another bin. Bellydance bras in another. Belts in this one, hats in that one! Oh, hooray!
Hopefully, I'll remember to take pictures and you can see the rest of the progress. I think this will be good. Yesterday morning, I was so upset I was ready to move ASAP. But now I'm feeling a bit better. I have Nitro to thank for that, really. He sorta talked me out of my panic and frustration and helped come up with a solution and helped make the solution start to happen.

Work, ick!

Ah well, the creativity has slowed down considerably. I'm using it all up on work stuff. Ick!
But I am working hard creating stuff for my Relay for Life team -- Relay for Life is a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, if you didn't already know that.
I did sketch a bit to come up with some new purse ideas. I really love the clutches I've made so far, but it's not a pattern of my own design, and I feel a bit awkward about selling them. As in, I feel as though it's stealing and I ought not to. So I sketched a bit, and then realized that a drawing wasn't helping too much; what I needed was something three-dimensional to really see how it would work out. So I got a bunch of paper out and created the shapes with paper and sort of taped them together and ... hell, yeah! I really like it! So, eventually, I'll get all my sewing stuff out again and start working on a new series of clutches that are all my design.
Oooh! And in other news, my husband brought home a 4-drawer filing cabinet last week. I'm ecstatic, because the clutter factor in this little house was getting out of hand. Inside my filing cabinet? You'll love this.
Top drawer: All the dog magazine back-up files.
2nd drawer: Knitting supplies -- needles, yarn, etc.
3rd drawer: Fabric scraps -- all in baggies to keep each project together (scraps from each bellydancing costume, for instance, are in their own bags, to easily find all coordinating fabrics) and embroidery stuff (thread, hoops)
4th drawer: Iron, projector, sewing box (with all thread, needles, sewing machine parts, etc)
The whole thing is just awesome. I wish I had a whole room full of filing cabinets like this. Imagine how organized I could be! Imagine how clean the house could be, if I didn't have paper bags, piles, boxes of projects all over the place!
For instance, right now I'm not making any more purses because I don't want to create a new disaster in my living room, because it makes *living* in that living room near impossible. BUT if I had a clear place for everything to put away, or to find it straight off, I wouldn't have to make such a huge mess, and would be more likely to create something in whatever time I have available. Actually, some people may say this is B.S. That I'll always create huge messes where ever I go. I'm *dreaming* if I think something like filing cabinets is going to make my house clutter-free. Those people may possibly be correct.