Starting Work On Our Little Crafting Corner

Hello again honeys
I hope you're staying warm today. Do you have snow? We do. The garden is buried in a thick carpet of snow & our furbaby Jade isn't at all keen, bless her.  She stands at the back door looking out and then looks at me as if I can make it go away for her so she can play in her garden. I so wish I could.

As promised in my last post I thought I'd share how our little crafting corner is taking shape.  It's nowhere near finished yet but I'm making progress, even if it's only a little :)

Do you remember our newly set up book nook?  This corner of the room directly faces the top of the bed, so it's under the same (and only) window in the room as the bed is. So far it looks like this.....

As you can see honeys, it's definitely not anything fancy but I can't even think about it without smiling :) This room really is starting to become somewhere I can be really happy.  I'm so enjoying gathering crafting supplies from various cupboards around the house and putting them all together into their own designated area.  I'll try to show how I've made a start in organising this little craft space in a little more detail..... 

At the very top of the picture you'll see what might be a familiar sight to regular readers.  It's been re-purposed, we had originally bought the shelf unit, turned it on its side and used as storage cubbies, for our bedroom.  We've since replaced it in the bedroom with a Ribba picture ledge which is equally useful for storing ereaders or tablets at night without the fear of a 10lb shelf landing on our heads :) 

We'd also previously bought this same unit for our living room where it still sits above my desk and acts as a desk hutch. 

In the new crafting area this unit is already proving invaluable in sorting things like candles, beads & other things, but everything is still in flux right now as I gather, sort and organise so many crafting supplies from around the house, so it will change again, I'm fairly certain.

Directly underneath the cubby unit is one of my favourite organisational products from Ikea.  We used this system when we organised our lower hall and in our recent kitchen makeover.  It's a Bygel rail with two of the matching Bygel containers from the same range.  It's the perfect place to store crochet hooks, extra needles for the sewing machine, embroidery threads and knitting needles. I will be adding another tub to hold scissors etc too.

Directly underneath again is our little drop leaf trolley table.  I love this little trolley table.  When both leafs are up and in place it makes a perfect dining table for two and used to live in our living room before we moved our formal dining table in there to make room for the kitchen makeover.  Hubby and I have had some lovely dinners sitting at this little trolley table, so it seems proper that it should be a part of my new happy space.  It also has a handy large shelf underneath and is a good height for me to sew at, so it's the perfect new home for the sewing machine which until now has been living in a cupboard.

That takes us into the corner by the new sewing table.  You can see that in a little more detail in the photo below....  

I've found myself with a perfectly square corner next to what will be my working area, which pretty much seemed to organise itself :) The work surface next to my desk is slightly lower than my new sewing table, so I added a plastic coated shelf. The same shelf I've used in one of our kitchen cupboards downstairs.  Under the shelf is a square fabric container which came from the same set as the small square container next to it. They're from Ikea and are part of the SKUBB range. 

The square Skubb container is a home for my wool, and it's friend, the smaller square Skubb container has fabric embellishments (satin hearts & butterflies) all in small ikea clip seal bags to keep them dust free and organised.

Above the wool, sitting on the shelf is a white "lazy susan" we've had for a while. I originally bought two of them for the kitchen but hadn't worked out what to do with them yet.  Sitting on the lazy susan (so it spins easily) is a two tier cake tray with assorted small containers holding buttons, sewing needles, safety pins, dressmaking pins, tape measures, and as you can see at the front the smallest miniature "clothes pegs."  Next to that is a round tub, which is part of a set, the tiny containers on the top row of the cake tray all fit neatly inside this tub. The tub now contains ribbons :)

Off to the side of the small square Skubb container you can just see the edge of my sewing basket. I still have needles and thread, a few buttons, a pair of scissors etc inside. It's easy to lift and take to another room when a button has come off for example. A sort of mobile "fix it" station :)

I have hopes that by creating this crafting corner I'll be able to make a start on reclaiming what were some much loved hobbies. You see I haven't done any more sewing than adding a button for quite a while now, nor any of my other crafts for that matter. I used to make all of my own curtains, elaborate pelmets, tie backs, cushions.... I even dipped my toe into the dressmaking pool a couple of times :) I loved creating things. Taking a piece of fabric and turning it into something pretty, which usually involved adding lace. I've always been a roses, pearls & lace kinda gal honeys :)

Crafting though, like many other things, became a victim of my growing mobility issues. It became too painful to knit for very long, even sewing with a machine could only be done for so long before pain would make me stop.  I'm sorry honeys, I've said before on this blog that I don't do pity parties, and I so don't.  Setting up this little area is really important to me because I'm trying to take back things I allowed pain to take away.  I have hopes :)

So, dear ones. What do you think of my efforts so far?  It's only a start and the room is nowhere near finished yet but as I said, I have hopes :) With the little reading nook and now the crafting area, it's already making me smile :) 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend honeys, do stay warm in this bitter weather we're having, till next time, as always sending heaps of hugs xx