My new black drawers

You checkin' out my black drawers?
Huh.
My drawers were grey and little rusty.
I bought them second hand
at a flea market.
Ever bought used drawers
at an open air trading post?
You'll need to wipe
or vacuum them out.


How's about some black spray paint?


Um, no.
Paint FAIL!
Look at the bubbling mess.


What's a crafting skitzo to do?
Paint that shit again.
Paint it again.
Layer the paint until the
bubbling texture looks smooth.

Slap some labels on it.
Be proud of your OCD.

I got you pegged

Not gonna lie, my fabric covered peg board is something to behold.
AND, I'm gonna tell ya how to make one for your very ownself.

Materials needed:

• pegboard
• frame
• spray adhesive
• fabric, wrinkle and crease free
  
• scissors
• iron
• pegboard hooks
• awl
  

Find a frame.

Purchase some pegboard at a lumberyard or Lowe's or Home Depot. Or totally luck out like me (because People Give Me Stuff) and snag brother-in-law's leftover pegboard material.

Cut pegboard to fit inside your frame. (Don't install pegboard into frame yet.)


Walk yourself outdoors with a can of spray adhesive. Spray the pegboard with adhesive.

Carefully smooth your fabric over the tacky pegboard. Get it right the first time because there isn't much forgiveness between the fabric and glue. Trim excess fabric.

Install the pegboard into your frame. Stand in awe of your near wonderful creation.

Install two Gorilla hooks to balance and level your framed pegboard.


Now we're getting to the fun part. Drag a finger across the fabric to select a pegboard hole. Grab your handy awl and gently poke through the hole. Aggressive poke-age will result in stretched and unfortunate fabric puckering.

Insert a pegboard hook.

Start filling that mutha'!

Don't forget to add a disco ball, fool!

With remaining pegboard material,
I repeated the procedure for
three smaller framed pegboards.




You like?

Skitzo Leezra's New Studio

WooHoo!

The new and expanded Skitzo Leezra is being unveiled! It's been months in making and I am ready to share photos and how-tos from painted floors to fabric covered peg boards.

Take a look at a few sneak peek photos and check back for detailed tutorials and ideas.

The Master Plan

Ribbon Gutters make an appearance

Gotta be organized!

You label me, I label you

Easy fabric storage

Thanks to Eileen, I had a heap of silk fabric with no home and wondered how to store it. Sure, I could buy plastic lidded storage boxes but those are pain in the ass because they're heavy when stacked full of fabric and invariably it's the bottom box you want when searching for a specific item. Already had this metal shelving unit (that I had powder coated in metallic silver paint) so filled it up with fabric.

Filled that mammajamma and still needed MORE fabric storage space. Another visit to my favorite used office furniture store and found this cool unit for less than marked price of $49! WooHoo! I opted for the sturdy metal cabinet at the same price as four plastic storage containers. Cleaned it up and opted to place unit in closet so no powder coating necessary although, am now considering a powder coat finish to match the other unit and placing them in the same room.

Top two shelves have sliding doors removable for easy cleaning.

Sliding drawers on third and fourth levels.

All the sliding mechanisms are incredibly smooth. No, it isn't pretty but it is incredibly functional, dust-free and easy access storage. It is a joy, I tell ya, JOY for this anal retentive girl to squirrel away even more silk fabric!

Organize your earrings

First, pair the earrings and attach to each other.

Here's how:

Hoops - open one hoop. Slip the other closed hoop inside. Close hoop.

Posts - remove back from one post. Slip post through the back of the other post and slide back onto post.

Even if you take it no further, this is a sure way to keep the pairs together and it is much easier to find an attached pair than a single earring.

Next, find yourself an antique tin-type tray and place on shelf in your closet. You might find one at an antique store or flea market. Alternately, you can use shallow drawer space with dividers.

Arrange earrings by ascending size of hoops, stone earrings, pearl earrings, whatever makes sense to you. Silver on one side, gold on the other. Cover silver side with tarnish-free flannel cloth. Charms and chains behind the earrings. See an empty compartment? You should be able to guess which earrings are missing. (If you were really anal, you could label the compartment.)

Click here to organize necklaces.

Organize that closet!

If I don't see my long sleeve pink cardigan sweater, the only place to look is in the dirty clothes basket or laundry room because my clothing is arranged by color within the following categories:

• sleeveless and tanks and camisoles


• short sleeved shirts


• long sleeved shirts and sweaters


• pants


• skirts


• coats are in hall closet

Organize your closet like this and be amazed at how quickly you can find things AND how easy it is to put things away.

A place for everything

and everything in its place.

As it should be.

(Wh)Organizing deep thought

I sometimes perform freelance organization jobs on the side. For an hourly rate, I help folks organize their closets, garages and homes. It brings me joy to root through "stuff" and leave it in better shape than I found it. They're happy, I'm happy plus I earned money doing what I enjoy.

Anywho, a few years ago, I helped to organize a friend's home. She is a lady with a great heart, wealthy means and cool stuff so the work was fun. We pulled everything out of her "gift closet" to ascertain the keepers and tossers. She was quite embarrassed to find 5 very nice personalized gift Bibles with the intended recipient's name in gold leaf. The Bibles were to be high school graduation gifts. 5 years ago. She couldn't bring herself to give the 5 year old gifts to the intended recipients so donated them to my church's outreach program.

A few days later I read a church sign with the following message:

A small gesture

is more powerful

than a great intention.

It perfectly summed up the misplaced Bible experience and it became my New Year's resolution. Because the real reason we do nice things for others is because it feels good. Your recipient receives the gift of your generosity and you gain the warm and fuzzy feeling of sharing but it doesn't work if you cannot find the gift and the moment (day/week/month/year) passes.

Later, I spoke to my friend Dori. She sounded horrible. Dori felt sick and miserable. She had everything she needed so I asked if she would like some fresh satsumas my co-worker brought from his tree just that morning.

"Would love it!"

Well, how to carry them to her? I found a small plain paper bag in my desk drawer. Filled bag with satsumas. Folded over top of bag and creased. Punched 2 holes at top. Poked a satsuma twig through the holes to secure the closed flap. Left bag on friend's front porch.

Fast forward a day or two later when I received the nicest thank you note: she squeezed the satsumas into juice and felt the healing properties of citrus but she raved about the "presentation" of the simple bag with twig closure.

It was simple gesture that made her feel good.
Made me feel good.
AND my co-worker was happy that someone enjoyed the fruits of his labors.

Win. Win. Win.

Heads up for (wh)organizing

Keep on with your slovenly selves for the remainder of the month because next month is (Wh)organizing January.
I'm gonna highlight organizing ideas and hopefully prevent us all to sliding into hoarder oblivion.
Until then, don't you dare purchase one single box, tub or container. Retailers push those bins the day after Christmas but don't you fall for it. Okay okay, if you cannot resist the gathering impulse, just promise to keep the freakin' receipt, y'hear? Because organizing is not putting things into nice new containers. Organizing begins by getting rid of CRAP!

Your job between now and January 1st: gather trash bags, cardboard boxes and markers

You're welcome.

Hoarder? Or Not?

I notice that I announce character flaws about myself like calling myself a "control freak" or "anal retentive" or "hoarder" then wonder if I do it to beat others to the punch although I don't really see anything wrong with the first two attributes but dang(!) watching that "Hoarders" series on A&E ~deep breath~~ it gives me the monkey nerves to begin immediately begin clearing stuff to reassure myself that I am NOT a hoarder because those folks are nuts.

NOT my house

Sometimes I think I am sliding into crazy lady territory, accepting all the loot from People Give Me Stuff bounties, stockpiling supplies for future projects and fastidiously ironing vintage trims and ribbon . . . sounds a little obsessive already, right? But the fact is, I enjoy rooting through the stuff, separating the wheat from the chaffe. It may look like a mess for time but while I am greedy with ribbons and notions, I am generous with the things I won't use or don't need. Last night I packed up 3 bags of things for other crafters/sewing chicks with stuff they (hopefully) want. If I thought for a second they were hoarders, the stuff would go to charity thrift stores.


Just because my stuff is organized and labelled doesn't mean it isn't hoarding

I hate waste, I hate when good stuff goes into the trash when it could go to Goodwill so that attitude could be my downhill slide to hoarding but no way do I want to bring it MY house. Someone once said that waste is a lack of creativity and guess that is why I am drawn to alternate use items and art made from found objects. Look at my blog for stuff made with neckties, wine corks, and repurposed things. Yikes, maybe I do have a touch of the hoard.

However, that's why you would want to know me if we were in prison together. I would be that person that knows where to get stuff. My brain stores inventory lists and not just my own, other people's too. My sis mentions that she would like to try a floor steamer? Brother has one. Mom needs to make a "fascinator" for 20's costume party? The supplies are in my craft stash. Friend needs a batch of high school class rings for a Grease skit? Got a dozen or so. Someone needs to borrow a few cake stands for a wedding reception? I know 4 people to ask.


Recently I asked an ice breaker question at a meeting: If you could cast yourself for a television show, which would it be? The answers were very interesting, everything from "Golden Girls" to reality shows to "The Real Housewives of Atlanta".

My revealing answer? "Sanford and Son".

1) I KNOW there is a treasure somewhere in Fred's piles

2) I would like to help Fred organize that mess

Linen closet spay

What cat doesn't love to wallow in clean, pressed and organized linens?

File under: She's Got Too Much Time On Her Hands

While doing laundry, I examine the white wash cloths* and insure that I am not washing and folding them with the cleaning rags** (the old white wash cloths).

Anywho, being anally retentive and all, I stacked the rags next to my sewing machine last week and ran a stitch over the edge for easy reference. (See below, stitched over washcloth and butted the next one right behind it, then clipped the threads to separate.)

All better now, bet I saved 4 whopping minutes off my monthly laundry time!
Oh well, it makes me happy.

*According to my aunt, if used on your body, properly called wash cloths.

** For household use, designation is cleaning rags. (Cloths and rags should not be laundered together because of the various chemicals and solutions used on rags.)

Elizabeth gives me stuff

Elizabeth gave me a stash of wooden spools.
(I use them for narrow ribbon storage.)

Hang it up

Pant hangers are great for craft organizing.

Craft paper and freezer-paper-reinforced pattern pieces
(You know the freezer paper trick, right? You iron it on your pattern for more durability.)

Multi-color pack of gift tissue paper

Sammy

at Icanhascheezburger.com

Craft room upgrade

When pressed for space, designers will tell you to look up for storage. My craft room is getting cramped what with all the stuff people give me and the 20 roll lot of serger thread I purchased from eBay. Found 2 aluminum shelves at IKEA and installed them above the closet doors.

Wanna see more pix of the Skitzo Leezra Studio? Click HERE and even more at Flickr.

Love to organize, hate to clean

Instead of vacuuming or dusting, I tidied my closet.

Nevermind the dust or cat fur,

take a look at my neat closet and laundry room!