For Laurie....The Spelling Goddess...and anyone else who cares to play

1) Are you currently in a serious relationship? 

2) What was your dream growing up? 

3) What talent do you wish you had? 

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?

5) Favorite vegetable? 

6) What was the last book you read?

7) What zodiac sign are you?

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where. 

9) Worst Habit? 

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride? 

11) What is your favorite sport? 

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?

15) Tell me one weird fact about you. 

16) Do you have any pets? 

17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly? 

18) What was your first impression of me? 

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary? 

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

22) What color eyes do you have? 

23) Ever been arrested? 

24) Bottle or can soda? 

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?

27) What's your favorite place to hang at? 

28) Do you believe in ghosts? 

29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time? 

30) Do you swear a lot? 

31) Biggest pet peeve?

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself? 

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?

35) Do you believe in God? 

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

My Goal to Accomplish Before School Starts.

 I am going to work on the former "Teddy Bear Room"--so called because it had teddy bear border on the walls when I bought the house.  So, from that time forward, I have thought of it as the "teddy bear room."

I have actually done quite a bit of work on it already, though you really cannot tell by the pictures I am about to put up....



This is looking in the door.  On the left are five book shelves and a green shelf thing that I "liberated" from my old school.  (It was just going to be tossed in a dumpster.  It was something the ag teacher had in his office to put papers in.  I like it to store my manilla envelopes, magazines with patterns, colored printing paper, and other stuff like that in.)  Closer to the window are four light colored wooden bookshelves.  Each has three shelves.  I stacked one on top of the other, to make use of the "upper" space.  In them, I have a lot of books, 3-ring binders with a variety of information, and plastic storage bins with a variety of craft stuff in them.

I also have a lot of my larger Tonner dolls and some of their accessories in four of the shelves.



This picture is just slightly to the right of the other.  Back against the closet door is an old desk I "liberated" from my dorm many moons ago.  My goal is to take that down to the kitchen and get rid of the wobbly little table that I have down there now.  Jim put new bottoms in the drawers for me so they are no longer warped.  I want to keep my menu charts and napkins and stuff like that in those drawers.  It will go better in my kitchen too than that little red and white table with its spindly legs...

The junk on the table is stuff that I recently hauled into that room to be put away.  Not really sure where to put everything.  The crate and laundry basket and wooden boxes are also full of htings that need to be put away in that room.




This is another view of the desk, closer and more from above--you can see the stuff on the floor that is in boxes and crates and baskets, needing to be sorted and put into "homes."  It's mostly fabric and doll stuff and patterns.

That rug has got to go.  The cat keeps puking on it, and I am sick of cleaning it up.



That is the far corner by the window on the west side of the house.   That wooden thing is a microwave cart that Jim and DeAnn gave me.  I have a spare microwave that I brought up mainly to make tea and stuff in.   i actually want to put a toaster oven there--I have an extra one downstairs.  I plan to use that to bake my fimo projects in.  Someday, I may be selling my fimo doll food to my doll collecting buddies or on ebay.  That's going to be my work room, so it would be nice to have a toaster oven dedicated to that craft in there.  

There are more stacks of plastic crates in that corner too.  Some of them are almost empty.  I have been working on the stuff in there...but it seems to get worse before it gets better.



This is the other corner of the west wall.  My desk top computer is there.There is a stack of stuff on the floor there, next to the chair.  I have been sorting through that stuff little by little.  There is some stuff on the desk too that I am sorting through.  Most of it is fabric and patterns.



This is the area on the north wall.  I have done a lot of organizing in this part.  I bought that spool holder to put all my thread on--I might need to buy another one once I get done finding all my thread!  The stacked plastic drawer units on the left side are full of my various sewing notions--lace, ribbon, rickrack, trims of all kinds.  Also, the top drawers contain stuff for rerooting the hair on dolls.  That's something else I hope to make money doing eventually.  The rerooting I have done has turned out really cute.

On the right side of the picture there are other stacked smaller drawer units.  They contain a variety of office  and craft type tings--tape, glue, scissors, crochet hooks, embroidery thread, and other stuff like that.

The shelf between those plastic drawer stacks is a wooden one that used to be in the bathroom holding towels and stuff.  It is a short shelf, and I put it on top of my work table.  It isn't very deep.  I have three ring binders on the shelf that hold patterns--mostly crochet patterns.  The plastic drawer boxes on that shelf have all my markers and colored pencils in them.  The two colored cardboard boxes are filled with dolls that I hope to alter to become OOAK (one of a kind) dolls to sell on Ebay.  Most of them are the Kelly sized dolls, but there are a few vintage skippers and other dolls in there.

The drawer thing on the next shelf down contains my page protectors, my variety of zip lock bags for putting pattern pieces and cut out fabric and other craft stuff in.  



This gives you a better view of the bottom shelf.  Next to the plastic drawer thing is a stack of file folders that I am organizing.  I am working on all my patterns.  Those file folders are ready to be sealed up with clear contact paper that make them into folders.  The picture from the pattern is on the front of the file folder, protected by clear contact paper.  All the pieces to the individual outfits on the patterns are in ziplock bags labeled with permanent marker which outfit they are and what pattern number it is.  In case they ever get left out of the folder.

next to the folders there are my glass container of more colored pens and a box of Kleenexes.  The stuff scattered on the table is stuff that needs to be put away.  There is some doll furniture there.  A couple of rolls of lace.  Fabric.  My LeeAnn doll whose name is Pixie Lee is laying there in a swap outfit one of my doll collecting buddies sent me.

The pink plastic box is actually a pencil box, but I have tiny buttons and things like that in it.  It has little dividers and works great to throw in my purse and carry along to work on a project.

The other plastic box with the blue lid, I am using to put doll shoes in so they do not get lost.  

That cluttered area is actually my work space that I use to cut out patterns and stuff.  The lamp gives me light right where I need to work.

Behind the lamp is another organizer.  That is actually something that men use in their garages to sort out screws and nails and things.  In it I have my beads and silk flowers and buttons and appliques and other tiny things that I use to either trim doll clothing or make doll jewelry.  It's a very handy little item, and I wish I had another just like it.

Underneath the work table are two file cabinets.  The one on the left has all my barbie sized patterns in it, and the one on the right has all my Tonner/Kish sized patterns in it.  I have another file cabinet downstairs that I need to bring up to put all my regular baby doll type patterns in.  It will be fantastic when that project is done, but it is very time consuming.  

You see, I CAN organize and clean--my problem is that when I do it, I am OCD enough to HAVE to do it at the MOLECULAR level....sigh.

I hate to admit it, but that little nail/screw organizer thing?  I had to (YES HAD TO) pour all the beads into a box cover and sort them according to size and material.  And to some extent, color.  I separated the bold colors from the pastels and the whites from the blacks...and the plain from the pearlescent.

On the left of the file cabinets is a little blue peach crate that I bought at an auction years and years ago for 50 cents.  It has three shelves built into it.  I keep my file folders on the top shelf, my white computer paper on the second shelf, and some 3-ring binders of information on the bottom shelf.  They are mostly research I found for some of the stories I have been working on.  



You can see that little screw and nail organizer better in this picture.  I forgot that there were pompoms in there too.  I have so much crap...The green crate has some fiber fill in it.  I use that to stuff my little mattresses and chairs and sofas with when I make them. You can also see the cute little metal chairs I got at a second hand store--they actually hold candles in the seats, but I am going to make little pillows for the seat cushions...and possibly spray paint the chairs black.  I have some dark wine colored velveteen fabric that would look great on those chairs, but I don't think I have enough for all five seats.




This is the right-hand file cabinet and the area in front of the door.  The stuff on the floor is fabric the cat knocked off and inside the wooden crate there is a pile of stuff I want to get rid of--it is a small pile as I hauled the larger amount downstairs, photographed it, and put it up on the "garage sale" yahoo group I belong to.  In the mess there, you can see in the lower left, next to the file cabinet, the Rock-em, Sock-em Robot Christmas ornament from hallmark.  I got it after Christmas at 50% off.  It is just the right size for a toy for my children dolls.  I am always on the look-out for size-compatible things for my dolls.  

On the right lower side is a patriotic looking sock.  I got several pairs for a buck a piece somewhere.  I will use them to make sweaters for my dolls.  I have perfected the art of making sock sweaters.  I am so proud of myself.  LOL.

The narrow plastic shelf unit on the crate is where I've been putting my seasonal doll accessory stuff.  You can sort of see the small plastic pumpkins in the top drawer.  

My goal is to someday have doll houses for each of my doll families (after I seriously purge the collection so I don't have so friggin' many dolls).  And I hope to live in a house with a finished basement, where I can have all my doll houses set up and I hope to be organized enough so that I can decorate the doll houses for the appropriate seasons and set the dolls up like they are doing stuff like taking the children trick-or-treating, or carving pumpkins or bobbing for apples.

LOL.

I know.  I'm insane.  But it is a lovely madness, don't you think?

Anyhow--there is the room I am currently engaged in cleaning and organizing.  Sorry for the incredibly long entry, but I needed to do this to get it all clear in my own mind.

Good night.