At Last

Organization is key.  Neatness counts.  I like things to line up nicely and make sense...because...if I can't see what I have, then I can't make anything.  Or, I should say, I'm not inspired to make anything.  My sewing room had become, slowly and over time, the sort of place where no sane person would ever want to work.  The lighting was terrible.  There wasn't enough flat work space, there wasn't a good place to put things away in an organized fashion and fabric was stacked in giant piles with no rhyme or reason.  And then...a couple different blogger friends mentioned the Alex Flat File from Ikea.  And then a couple more friends mentioned how great it was.  I suddenly started to feel like I had missed the great organization boat, so I had to check it out.

It turned out to be more than your typical piece of particle board put it together yourself furniture.  I was warned that 1. It weighed a ton (it does, but once it's together, it's on wheels, so no big deal). and 2. It takes forever to put together.  Well, we brought it home, heaved the little, but insanely heavy box into the house on a dolly, I made a nice pot of coffee and set LAM to work.  Two hours and no cursing later, it was together.  LAM was even impressed with the fit and finish.  The exterior is painted wood, the drawers are on nice sliders and the back is finished as well as the front and it's quite wide, which is one of the things I really liked about it.  You see, I have this tissue paper problem.  I can't throw it away.  When it gets crumpled, I iron it.  If I buy something in a store and they wrap it in tissue, I have to save it.  My collection has come in handy on numerous occasions from packing orders to wrapping presents, etc., but I didn't have a good place to stash it so it would stay nice and neat.  In addition to housing paper, mats, templates, card stock and whole host of other artistic ephemera that previously had no real home, the two large bottom drawers are the perfect size to lay tissue out flat.  Perfect!  This freed up much needed space on shelves that were supposed to be housing fabric, so now it's all folded and organzied in a way that I can see exactly what I have at a glance.  In addition to that, I re-purposed a friend's old pine kitchen table as a middle of the room work island, moved some things around, added much needed lighting (thanks to the Alex file, I now have a PLACE to put another lamp) and once I was finished admiring my handiwork, got cracking on some new plastic bag holders.

Meet the new additions to my Etsy shop.  I'm particularly excited about the beachiness of the coral fabrics.  The one on the far left is Waverly's Coral Cascade fabric and it is just buttery soft!  Stay tuned for more additions coming soon!

~ESM