The Beebas' Bottoms

Mixing Family and Business the Mommy Way.

Posts Tagged Organization

New Yarns; Busy days

Apr 28

Posted by Theresa in CCFibers, Family | No Comments

So, once again, I have managed to build up a little stash of handspun yarns that need listing.  But, I’ve been very busy around the house too… that nesting thing, I think…   Hmmm… I think thats what you call it when the 8 month pregnant chick runs around the house cleaning everything in sight despite knowing that it will be a mess 2 minutes later, does a marathon of laundry that leaves the whole house with approxiamately 3 loads of laundry unwashed (and beleive me, we have a lot more than that usually), and started cooking big monster sized meals from scratch to save away in the freezer for after baby.

All that has left me with very little time to do things like MAKING things, or taking pictures of the things I have made.  and I keep telling myself that for now, at least, I need to stick to my schedule… but its hard.

I spent several days this week going through my fabric drawers… all that diaper fabric that I have not looked at in over a year?  well, now, a large chunk of it is in my paypal account… as in, gone, goodbye, syonara… I don’t miss it.  destashing that stuff gives me 2 things.  1, space for the things I DO use, and 2, MONEY.  Money that is MINE.  well, ok, so I am debating what to spend it on, and the head-runners right now are either a new camera, or full size wool combs.  Either one would be nice to have.  Either one would in its own way make life easier for me.  (ok, maybe the wool combs would not do more than give me another way to prep my fibers… and I do already have minicombs made by a freind… which do work well)

So, I guess the camera is winning out… and that is ok.  I have been wanting a new camera for a long time… the one I have now is over 4 years old, and while it works, it is not as product image friendly as I would like, aside from having essentially no video capability.

So, the one I think I want is this: Olympus Stylus 7040 Pink 14MP Digital Camera, 7x Optical Zoom, 3.0 LCD, HD Movie/HDMI Control, AF Tracking

It costs more than I Actually have for now, so I will have to hold off a bit till either 1, the rest of my destash stuff sells (over at DSD for any Divas who might read this blog and not have seen it) or till I sell some more stuff in the shop, as I DO see this as an acceptable use of business moneys, being that it will be used very very often to photograph products.

I would also love to have it before the new babe is born, both so that I can get some videos done for the website (how to spin from a batt mostly) and so that when the new baby is born, we don’t have to miss a second of his or her life on camera.  Ok, so really, that is more so that the long distance family can see baby too.. but still.

Meantime, between all this STUFF I have done. I HAVE managed to get spinnign done.  which is why I have a pile of yarns sitting in front of me, waiting to be shown to you, and listed in the shop.  This is mostly only because I have been getting tired so quickly, and have had to take frequent breaks from all the other stuff.  what better to do than spin?

So, without further Ado, some yarns:

Jacob wool, spun from a batt, in my original attempt to create that video- which failed horribly due to me and the batt being a sillouhette in the camera's eye.

SW BFL, lovely stuff, though this one broke once in the winding... and I somehow have a sneaky suspicion that I showed it off already... did I??

Merino Yarn, soft as soft can be, perfect for baby somethings... pretty pastel colors. I know I showe dthis, but on the bobbin... isn't it nicer now?

Polwarth- Yumberry... mmm...

and with that, hopefully not too redundant photo session, I am off to get some of this scrumptious yarn listed in the shop!

Oh!  and if you have not done so already, jump on over to my ravelry group and enter the baby guessing game!  only a few more days before the game closes to guesses and the waiting begins!

Post to Twitter

Tags: , ,

New Workspace, New Yarns

Feb 17

Posted by Theresa in CCFibers, Crafting | 1 Comment

So, we know I’ve been working on my craft room.  As it turns out, I’ve made a lot of progress with it.  I won’t bore you with old pictures, you can see those on older posts.  But I WILL show off some new ones.

Of course, I still have a few things left to work on.  But we are making GREAT progress here.

See the difference here? I have WORKSPACE! and the laundry monster is gone, lol... for now. I still plan for some shelves over the laundry space.

I've since re-cleared the desk and the table (and re-uncleared them too, lol) But really, on the desk, all that is full time is the sewing machine, lamp, and phone, so that is pretty good I think.

A Close up of the space over the desk, with my new cork boards and organizer. Total cost of these pretties? $7 for the corks that came in a set of 4 (still have 2 left) and the thumbtacks I turned into pins with beads and buttons. WIN!

This basket I made at a basket weaving class. It was meant in this space to hold only current carding projects and carding tools. I think I went slightly overboard on my dyeing day, and overfilled my ready-to-card drawer. So now the basket is holding some pretty colors of ready to card fiber too.

Ok.  Have you seen enough pictures?

Well, how about one more.  I wasn very productive this weekend.  On the spinning front.  Over the course of the weekend, and Friday, I finished spinning and/or Plying all these yarns:

The Pink is Uruguayan Merino, the dark green is Merino/silk, and the green and blue plyed with white is Punta. Yummy, aren't they??

Post to Twitter

Tags: , , , ,

It’s Snowing!

Feb 10

Posted by Theresa in CCFibers, Personal | 1 Comment

And I’m Glad, in most ways.  We have had a very Odd winter so far.  Most winters, around here, by now we would have had at least a few big snows, where the kids would be out playing, building snowmen (or snow piles, being that my kids are 3 and 1, lol), and making a fun mess.

This year, we have not had so much as an inch at any one time.

That is why, I am glad to say, that this is the view out my window right now:

My sewing/computer desk faces straight out this window, and I love the view right now.

It’s good that it is snowing.  It means that the kids can play in the snow later when Daddy gets home, and our area needs the snow…

On the other hand, snow means that I do not know who will attend my regular knitting night.  Several ladies who attend drive a fair distance to get here, and one walks (I’m not sure how far).

But, all in all, snow is good.

On other fronts, My craft room re-do is coming nicely.  I am progressing well with the changes I am making.  I found corkboard squares that I am going to cover with this fabric:

Isn't it pretty? it is an Alexander Henry fabric, and I found it in the bottom of my fabric dresser. a whole yard!

I finally moved my thread racks, so they are no longer sitting all over the room on random nails in the wall, and now they have a permanent home, and I am going to make some hanging organizers out of beading wire and beads and plastic canvas to organize my sewing and jewelry tools.

I haven’t been very “on schedule” this week with my naptime schedule.  Monday, I spun as planned, but I was so on a roll that yesterday, I just spun too!  I finished plying 2 different skeins of yarn, and got 3 skeins washed and hung to dry (to set the twist).  I also finished the singles on another pretty pink yarn, and I am plying it today as I get time.

I still have a long way to go with the craft room.  I’ll post more pictures as I get more noticeable changes into place.  And of course, I am always spinning and making new yarns and fibers.

For now, adieu.  See you on Photo Friday!

Post to Twitter

Tags: ,

Photo Friday

Feb 5

Posted by Theresa in CCFibers, Crafting, Personal | No Comments

My Newest Batt, and my very first "art yarn" made from it's twin... "Deepest Ocean"

Progress on the craft room! New Shelves. (the thread stands will not be staying where they are, either.)

And... A MOSTLY clear desk. This will be the sewing/computer area, and likely the beading/photo area too for a while.

Happy Photo Friday!

Post to Twitter

Tags: , , ,

Can I just re-do that?

Feb 3

Posted by Theresa in CCFibers, Personal, business | 1 Comment

Why, Yes, I can.

I am actually in the middle of 2 seperate “re-do” projects right now.

The first is online. I am re-doing my website for Crystal City Fibers, in an attempt to lower my bounce rate. (for those not web savvy, bounce rate is the percentage of people who click onto a site and right away close the window)

I worried that perhaps the links were not clear, or maybe people could not find that they were actually supposed to buy something… So, I added a nav bar across the top of the page for the links, moving them away from the side, and replaced the single photo with an etsy mini.

Now, I am trying to decide what to do to avoid that feeling that the page is “floating in space”.  I tried an image in the background (here, if you want to see), but several people have told me they think that might be too busy…  I used to have a border, but apparently it took away or distracted from the main text…  So… I am still working on this one.

My other “re-do” project is much more solid based.  I am re-doing my craft room.  I want to totally overhaul it, organize into stations, and reduce the amount of non-crafty things in there to a minimum.

Want to see how badly this needs doing?  I know you do… So here is what my craft room looked like a couple days ago:

My Craft room as of Feb. 1... and why yes, that IS an inflatable ball pit in the foreground...

You can see that I actually have a nice big space, with lots of potential.  (this actually is the living room of our house… we moved our living room to the dining room, though, which used to be my craft room, since I can put a gate up on this room to cut off access better.)

I have no closets, and no hidden storage, though.  And I have this little problem where the room keeps getting used as a dumping ground.  Plus, its the first room you see on entering the house. (directly next to the entrance).

So I really need to work on this.

So far, I have removed at least 90% of the toys.  not including DH’s (the dead computer).  I have switched 2 tables (the one that the drum carder was on with the one under the window) allowing me to turn the drum carder out further into the room AND increasing my surface space because the table that is now under the window has a drop leaf that  gives it an extra 2 feet of length. (it is technically my sewing desk, and, I am happy to say, my sewing machine is once again at home on it)

I have a long way to go though.

I’ve been spending hours everyday (the ones where I have been too sore to move after DOING other things, lol) searching online for inspirations and Ideas how to organize this room.

I am planning on those wire cube storage things or on top of the long dresser on the wall, and I found these cool Clip Rails on another blog… I want to put some up on the wall above my carding station to hang kid art and inspirational pictures.

I also want to buy or make a cool clock to hang on one wall, which would be so much nicer to glance up and look at than always looking to my watch or the computer…

I’d like to get some pegboard to mount above my sewing desk… to hold things like my thread racks (I have 3 full ones), scissors, and jewelry tools… not to mention small items like pins and needles (in small bins of some sort).  I want these things to be within MY reach, but Out of the kids reach, and NOT ON the desk.

You see, this small station, I think, will be used for 3 stations.  It is where my sewing machine lives, and the serger, underneath… it is where I have chosen as a docking station for my new little computer, and it is where I will likely do most of my beadwork.

I have moved all my carding supplies over to the other table (before, the carder and supplies were across the room from one another), so that table will be nothing but Fiber prep.

The round(ish) kitchen table in the center of the room is temporarily off to the side, and will be used as temporary workstation for anything that comes up… fabric cutting, ironing, or a place for the kids to do crafts.

I still have a long way to go.  But I will continue to write about and update how the progress goes on.  And if you have any ideas for me, any little craft room or website inspirations, or any words of advise, please feel free to post them in the comments.

:)

Post to Twitter

Tags: