Book lover short of space!

Ever since I joined Crafter's Choice I have WAY more books than I know what to do with. (which is never a good sign when living in someone elses house) I needed to find a better place for them. I orginally had them on my desk shelves, but I was worried that they wouldn't be able to take the weight. I have a small bookshelf that I put in my room when we moved my stuff into the house. The rest of my stuff is in the storage room in boxes and taking up a very LARGE section of the storage room. (I seriously LOVE my parents for letting me come home until things pick up for me)
Anyway this bookshelf has been over piled with books because I am a big book lover. Another carry over from my mother, who reads even more than me. I have like 30 books full of books and maybe 10 storage bins of big books. I took the books that I don't really want to have in the room, got another storage box for them, and moved them downstairs with the rest. I left 8 books that I want to read and have up here for right now. I also had a few tins on the shelves, so I left those too.

I have gotten most everything else organized. I have all my printed patterns and ideas in binders and labeled. All my magazines are filed and sorted as well. Those are on top of the bookshelf. Along with my flower petal ball I made.

I received a few more in the mail today, so this is what made me notice I need to get this under control space wise. I have a new order in, but that won't get here for a while, thankfully.

 I thought Simple Knitting had a lot of stitches, well these have WAY more. I keep finding new and interesting things, hence the rather large collection.

I wanted to file these by type of project, but turns out the shelving became an issue. The top shelf had to be dropped, so I dropped the second one too, but the second one wasn't able to drop as far. This meant I had to have one shelf of books on their side, which is fine, but it also meant I had to mix up those book subjects. Actually for the most part that worked out to be ok with me because the subjects were close to each other. I had to put my card making, scrapbooking, and thift craft books together and my sewing and cross stitch books. At least I was able to make two piles. Actually looks kind of cool that way.

I was even able (for now) to have my collection tins mixed in. They are serving as seperators up top. The Spool tin is new and it works perfectly. Found that this morning.

My jewerly books are on the left side of the top shelf. Then my quilting books in the middle, and finally my knitting books on the right of the top shelf. The very bottom shelf is my books I want to finish reading and my monopoly tin.
I think it worked out pretty well. I have all my information in one place now. YAY!

Still surviving

In the building that I used to work when I was still in Denver, the lobby had sveral flower pots and they would change out the flowers several times a year. The most common flower they would have was orchids. When they change out the flowers the people in the building were allowed to take the old flowers. Most of the time the orchids wouldn't survive after, but I have one that did. Well I should say the one I gave my mother is surviving.

I gave it to her about 2 years ago now. Its still doing really well. You have to cut the stems down once the flowers die and drop off. It allows for a better stem and normally more flowers. When I originally got it there were only 4 flowers. Now there are 9, so I would say its doing pretty well.

Treasures refound

The area of Colorado that my family and I live in is just up historic Ute Pass in a city nicknamed "City above the clouds." Woodland Park is a typical mountain town and we couldn't love it more. The people are so friendly and very down to earth. Just about every weekend, and this goes on for several months past summer time, there are yard sales and estate sales all over the place. My mother and I have been big believers in them, but we have recently  'sucked' my father into it. (Especially when he learned he could get tools for cheap!) Some times you get sales during the week, as was the case this week. I didn't have a super early shift, so mom and myself dragged dad out of bed (he doesn't enjoy the early hours) and went exploring. I was able to find some real treasures. Fine additions to my collection.

I LOVE camios, but they are hard to find in good condition and just hard to find period! Mom actually spotted this one. I am, at the moment, trying to work up a design. Going to try and get started on it tomorrow.

I found this clasp attached to the most UGLIEST beads I could even imagine. So naturally I got rid of the beads (donated them to the ARC stores, so I get the tax bonus) and kept the only part I DID like. The detail work on it is hard to see in the picture, but its very pretty work.

Not sure if I ever meantioned that I collect classic tins. I had them displayed in my kitchen when I still had my apartment. I have a vintage country cottage kitchen theme going and the tins are part of that. I found a two new ones that I think are very cool. My collect consists of old candy tins, coffee tins, thread tins, and even game tins.

The detail work on this next tin is what caught my eye. Its got all the characters from the comic strips.

The bonus about this tin, other than the decent condition its in, is that it contains about 30 sets of cross stitch floss inside. Twice score on that, especially since it was 50 cents!


The other day I meantioned to a friend my earring frame holder. She wanted to see a picture of it, so I'm posting it for her and I thought you all might enjoy it too.

They are SUPER easy to make. Just find any frame that you like, this one has some great gold detail work. One great place to find really interesting, but cheap frames, is the ARC stores, or goodwill thrift stores. They are marked way down and most of the time you can get them without the glass, which will save you a step. Once you find a frame you want, if it still have the glass and backing you just have to take that out and put it aside. They measure the frame, or the glass if you have it, so that you can cut out the right size chicken wire to fit inside. Take the chicken wire once its cut and staple it to the sides of the frame. Make sure that it is secure at every corner and will not sag. If you don't want to use the hanger from the frame, nail a length of chain at each end and hang it from that. Mine has a chain attached, but since I'm a semi-visitor I didn't want to put a hole in the wall to hang it. Its just leaning against the wall on top of my dresser.

One bonus is that you can have ANY size you want. Mine is a little too full to be that useful, but only because I have been making my jewerly and so I have more now. I will have to make another one soon, or I will be over run with earrings.
This can also be used to store pins and hair clips. You just have to use bigger chicken wire, or use lengths or ribbon overlapping each other. I have one of those for my bathroom, but sadly that is boxed up with everything else from my apartment. (hence all the brooches and pins at the bottom of the picture)

I sure hope that some of you will find these to be useful and will make one of your own. Happy project-ing!