I have a feeling it’s a losing battle

             I posted a while ago on how my craft room/study has a life of its own. Well not much has changed I guess. There is still entirely too much stuff in there, but it is getting better organized.

            So a side note to set the stage here. One of my best friends Lyndsey and I have this thing, and this thing is IKEA. I will never forget the first time we went there. I had heard about IKEA but I had never experienced IKEA. And let me tell you it is an experience. And I will pass on the advice she gave me before we left. “Measure the space you want to fill and then measure it again. Go the first time and look and touch everything figure out what you like write it down, then make a second trip.” It’s good advice. The hardest thing about going into an IKEA is that you feel like a total failure coming out of there the first time. It is amazing what they can do with 1200 square feet that you can’t do with 12000. Coming out of there the first time I felt like I lived in a cardboard box, and a very unorganized one. It is hard to go in there and not want to buy the whole store but you really have to pace yourself and not get too excited. There really is an art to shopping there. This is also the point in the trip where Lyndsey gently reminds me that they engineered the room that way. They got to decide where the windows and the sink go. We unfortunately do not have that option. And I am sad to say that I am sure that the guys that built our house have never been to an IKEA. I am slowly forgiving the builders of my current residence and becoming less overwhelmed and a more scrupulous and systematic shopper.

All chewed to pieces. The picture is sideways
but you get the point.

            For some reason our trips always start out with Lyndsey wanting a chair. “I just have to pick up a chair.” She likes chairs. Last time it was a desk chair and now one for the living room. Of course I was on board immediately! We hadn’t seen each other since my wedding in October and what better way to reunite! We also brought along my other favorite Rotha. She’s great and added a good energy boost to the group and it gave me a chance to show off my veteran IKEA shopper skills to a newbie. This trip I had nothing in particular that I was looking for so I was along for the ride. Well about the time we got to the kitchen section an idea struck me. Why not find a skinny table/desk that I could put the sewing machine on. I have come to the conclusion and resolution that the craft room just needs to be a craft room, and not try to be an office too. With school winding down it’s getting easier to make that happen. I looked at every desk table and sideboard that they had. Then I saw it. It’s perfect. Skinny enough it doesn’t stick out from the wall too far; tall enough I can stand up and work at it, shelves for storage and two drawers. This sideboard has got to be one of the more perfect purchases I have ever made. I would have never thought that the way to open up my little craft room and get it organized would be to buy another large piece of furniture.

All clean and organized...For now anyway

             Now I am hopeful that for the moment I have one the battle but I am not naïve enough to think that the war is over. But I have changed my strategy. I have decided that it is just the craft room now. I have ended up doing most of my schoolwork in other places anyway so I think that if I just make it the craft/sewing room I might have a better handle on things. Of course this could just be trying to trick myself into thinking that I have a room organized and taken care of. I might just be kidding myself. But as of April 27^th I will no longer have schoolwork and I will have a master’s degree so I might as well have some fun in that room.

            So after I found my awesome sideboard I then had to find a seat. Now the perfect choice was a barstool. Its very simple and just my style and for $15 it couldn’t be beat.

            We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We always do. But our evening wasn’t done. We had a birthday to celebrate; Lyndsey’s husband. And out to dinner we went. Now before I get to the next part please remember that my dogs lived a charmed life no matter what they tell anyone. On this particular night though they were not happy and decided to let me know about it. Along with a new sewing table I got some fabric, a salad spinner that I was particularly excited about, a railing system with some containers to hang for all of my sewing accoutrements, and some new sheets and a comforter. Well when I got home, I still had the sheets but they had been opened and slept on, the salad spinner DOA, and even the metal railing system was chewed along with almost all of the plastic containers. What really sent me over the edge was the fact that they chewed a hole in the fabric; right in the middle of a fold that was of course in the middle of the fabric. I lost it. I completely lost it, and thank goodness that Charlie wasn’t home. Naturally the only thing to do was channel that energy since there was no way that I was going to bed. At about 02:45 am I had finished putting together my barstool, sewing table and then got it organized. I enjoyed it for about 5 minutes then crashed in bed. The dogs slept in the living room, which was for the best really. We were still not on speaking terms.

            I’m happy to report that I am speaking to the dogs again. It took a few days to get over, but we worked through it. Plus the way that I look at it, it’s just a good reason to make another trip back to IKEA. I wonder what chair Lyndsey will find this time?