Saturday, May 12, 2012

I must be nesting...

So, the past two days I have been holed up in my sewing/laundry room (slash utility room... ugh) working on a new canopy for Avalyn's jogging stroller... and while I was doing that I decided to organize and clean... excessively.

First, let's start with the stroller. Here's the before picture.
Notice how the canopy covers nothing? What's worse is when I walk with it the thing flips back all on its own. Very annoying!

I also added a five point harness. I did this a while ago (as in over a year ago) but I strengthened them quite a bit since my daughter is so much stronger now.

From the back. Totally adjustable. Like the lone sandle in the background, and messed up rugs. That would be Avalyn's doing.

So, I went to Joann's and bought a yard of laminated cotton ($17.99 per yard, not exactly cheap), and a quarter of a yard of clear vinyl ($2.39 per yard, much better!). I didn't need any bias tape since I'm using the leftover fabric of the old canopy to line the new canopy with.

First I marked where the old canopy was and added  about eight inches in the middle. Nice big canopy!

Next was actually cutting and sewing it all went well, no issues really. Until I tried to get the metal rod back into the original fabric. It was all kinds of sticky from whatever adhesive was used to keep that rod in there. So, I used the old canopy fabric to make a new place for the rod.

You wanted to see it. ;)

Here's the finished product. What do you think? I really like it!

View from the top - yep I added a little window!

 If you can't tell from the two pictures above, my laundry room/sewing room is a freaking mess. It doesn't help that I haven't done laundry in a week, so I have sorted piles of clothes all over the room. I'll give you a few before pictures.

             
The Staples box contains socks that don't have a match, the stuff on top of the dryer is random junk that came out of pockets... you know rocks, acorns, money, sorcerers wand, sunscreen, coke bottle (yeah, I wish those last three were jokes). Also, that's where the detergent, fabric softener, and stain remover are. There's really no good place for them. I need shelves, or better yet: cabinets!         


Here's the after. Not a lot better, but it's an improvement. I put the stain remover and fabric softener on the ledge behind the washer, the other stain remover is positioned (rather precariously) behind/on the dryer and ledge. I kept the detergent on the dryer for easy access. It's hard to reach the ledge for every load of laundry with a giant 34 week baby belly in the way! The curtain is a leftover from Avalyn's room. I actually like it down here. I was thinking of painting the room a really happy yellow and these would look nice with that.

Here's some inspiration for what I want it to be:

I like the idea of a bulliten board, or peg board on the wall the sewing machine is on. Love the open shelving, too... and the hanging lamps. Can I just love all of it? I don't have the original source of this one, but I found the image on Pinterest.

And I will certainly be making a curtain to go around the ugly that is the furnace. Check out the before and after of this laundry room on her blog. I found the image on Pinterest but the blog post has a lot more pictures!

Here's the layout right now, then what I want it to be...
In the second picture I replaced the hot water heater with a tank-less hot water heater that will mount on the wall, moved the central vac over by the furnace, and added shelves to the wall with the window. I doubt this will ever happen as seeing I want to put a bathroom downstairs eventually... guess we'll see.
                 
Okay, back to reality... Here's a picture of my messy sewing table. Totally not able to work there easily. And yes, I was "watching" Grey's Anatomy on Hulu when I was cleaning. Anyone watch the newest episode? I can't wait til Thursday!

Why hello, messy table. You are messy.

My thread cabinet - this is where thirty percent of my thread was.

This is where the other seventy percent was... nice huh?

This this the blank wall next to the furnace. I hung a poncho there... yeah, I don't have a clue as to what to put here. The switches make it sort of hard to work with.

Clean! I managed to fit all of my fabric in a tote, all the thread in the cabinet, and all of my odds and ends in the storage slots on my sewing table. The hamper and backpacks on the floor need a home, and that cord that's all rolled up needs to be put in the garage where Matt is going to put ends on it for the generator. It's too heavy for me to carry, so it's waiting patiently for him!

Here's a nice little summary of what's going on in here...

My many spools of thread. I have like a billion of each color (if a billion means three to nine spools of each).

So, am I nesting? Or is this something anyone would do if their room was this messy? I also scrubbed the floors and vacuumed... and scrubbed the washer and dryer... and the walls... It's not just me, right???

No comments:

Post a Comment