Which Is First Crochet or Cleaning?

This week has been a weird on for me. Trying to get back into the groove of life after the Holidays, sickness of everyone in the family x2 and Birthdays I suppose.

Sometimes balancing life and business is hard. I'm so thankful that I get to stay home and work doing what love. This actually marks 4 successful years of Calleigh's Clips and Crochet Creations. Each new year is a new adventure and I look forward to doing this for as long as can.

I'll admit crochet tends to out weight everything else and I need to set some personal goals for home and family. I think this card kinda sums up my week! It's a goal that easy to meet. Haha!

"For the new year, I resolve to spend more time knitting or crocheting
and less time doing housework!"

So now that I have my crochet goals, I have business and life goals to set! I see this as being a successful year if I put my mind to it. Organization and balance is a must! 

So is balancing it all hard for you? What comes first many times for you Crochet or Housework? 

Need to Organize?

After I posted all those 2014 goals I have yesterday I think I forgot one goal! Now that the crazy holiday season is past it might be time to tackle my craft room! It's a bit of a disaster and took quite a hit! I have yarn everywhere, unorganized. I have random projects laying about that need to be finished or find new homes. 

(I will be posting a de-stash sale soon.....as soon as I get organized, items and maybe yarn, if I can bare to part with it. {raise a hand if your a yarn hoarder}) 

When we moved in May/June I was so excited about this space. So much room and I was going to keep it top notch! See it looks so nice here. Everything had a place! 

Now look at this disaster! Inside of some of those cubbies are yarn tornados! I really need to wind some of my partially used skeins! 

My desk is usually clean. I do all my shipping here! Labels, packaging and organizing! 

(Although someone should really take out all that paper trash by the desk...)

For Christmas I did do a little shopping with Thrity-One! I have lots totes and more fun items from them and I love it! 

I got this hanging organizer to help me better keep track of orders, receipts, patterns (which I rarely print) and many other things. I'm going to add a calendar and labels that will help me better plan. I usually just fly by the seat of the pants but I think with a little organization and planning this can be an awesome 2014. 

So how is your crafty space? Does it need help? I'm going to make a post on my Facebook page and I want you to share a picture of how you organize? If you don't have Facebook just post a pic to twitter instagram and tag  #Calleighsclips (that's my name for both) I can't wait to see your pics and tips! 

Weekly Challenge #1

It's time for the next challenge in my organizing. I attempted the 21 day cleaning challenge and was doing awesome but then we moved so everything at the moment has a home and is pretty organized so I'm moving on to the next challenge of organizing my life :) I'm super excited about these weekly challenges and hope I can keep up because I love being organized and used to be pretty good at it before I had two kids and a family to take care of! A mothers job it never done so here we go...... I hope you'll try too!

I do better with deadlines so these challenges really help motivate me! 

if you'd like to follow along, join in and link up her you go:

Weekly Challenge #1 is a Home Management Binder

I will get started on this soon and share later in the week :) The Bowl Full of Lemons blog has some great resources for printable (some free) so check it out even if you can't join in each week! 

21 days of getting organized- day 7

Day 7 - The Pantry

I don't have an actual pantry but when we had organize a cabinet in the kitchen last week I'd already organized it these two cabinets as well. I still want to get some containers to store my baking supplies. 

I don't have before pics because I did this on a whim so here is what it looks like now!

Since this is done I think I might make an attempt to put away the Christmas decor today! 

21 days of getting organized- day 6

Day 6 - dresser drawers

Today I'm cheating a little! Earlier in the week I cleaned out the kids closet and dresser. So I'm going to count that. It's my son's third b-day and I won't have time to tackle my dressers today!

 My Hubby and I's room is the most neglected in the house. I'll be the first to admit we have way more clothes and shoes than needed and a tiny house with little storage space. I've never been a skinny girl but a healthy girl. After college I did Weight Watchers with my mom and got really skinny. I was a size 4-6 when we got married and after having two kids back to back, I gained all my weight back and then some,  growing through maternity clothes and not losing baby weight. I'm having a hard time parting with clothes that I should have been able to get back into. I got rid of a lot of skinny clothes this summer in a garage sale because I know I won't be getting into them anytime soon. I want to lose weight but I know I can't do it alone. All that to say I'm not ready to tackle getting rid of clothes that don't fit because honestly I don't fit into much I own and I refuse to buy new clothes because I should lose weight to fit into the clothes I have. I did buy some large storage tubs so I plan on packing up some clothes to put away for now and that might help. We'll come back to this! - Honestly I'm embarrassed to even share a photo. If anyone has advice or encouragement! This would be the project I need help with since it's more of an emotional one than just an organizational one.

My room and things in it will have to wait for another day that I can tackle it with my hubby.

21 days of getting organized- day 5

Day 5 - Under the kitchen sink

This wasn't to bad today :)

BEFORE: 

I took everything out and cleaned out all the dust, grim and yuck out!

I threw out some old towels and organized  it all up! 

YEAH! Easy peasy! ---now to get to those pesky dishes in the sink! 

21 Days of getting organized- day 4

Day 4- Linen Closet

Todays challenge wasn't too bad. 

Here is what I started with. I really high cabinet and 4 drawers. (we'll save the drawers for another day)

Here is a closer look of the mess! Let just say I have no organization going on in there....LOL! 

It's a place for linens, games and puzzles. When my hubby and I first got married we loved doing puzzles together but with little fingers around they don't get done! I'm sure it'll be fun when they get older. :)

I took everything and I mean everything! I cleaned and dusted out the closet which needed to be done! (Ah- ah-choo-- I'm still sneezing) 

I moved the kiddos linens into their closet (which I cleaned the other day anyway) ! Got rid of some older items. I have several special crochet items in here! 3 crochet Blankets from my grandmother who passed away a few years ago. a couple of Crochet Blankets from my mother and some I did myself! 

The games and puzzle are all now on one shelf and look - look there is room for more in there! 

This project didn't take long! Maybe 20-30 minutes! - aside from trying to get the kiddos out of the way. They thought it was a game when I was throwing all the blankets on the floor. Hope I'm inspiring you to clean up and organize too! 

21- Days of Getting Organized - Day 3

Day 3 - Tupperware Cabinets

I actually don't have that many Tupperware containers and several of the ones I have were being use so I didn't have that to organize. I usually stack the small set I have together in one of the cabinets and have a drawer designated to lids.

 I decided to tackle another cabinet area in the kitchen but instead of one I worked on 3. :) If I had more time today I probably would have done the whole kitchen but I have three crochet orders that came in over the past few days that I need to tend too! Which I'm excited to work on as I usually am!

Here is the before picture:

This particular cabinet is my catch all for my baking and cooking items. It's been pretty neglected and I'm been pretty lazy about how I even stack things.

Here is the after picture! 

I took everything out, cleaned and scrubbed the cabinet out!

Then I organized everything! I have a few more pots to put in but I have to do the dishes ...LOL!  

I kept on going through the next cabinet because there inner connected in the corner. 

I keep the meds up high out of the reach of the kiddos. I can't even reach them with out a step stool. 

This is where I also keep my baking and cooking supplies I should really get some containers for the flour, sugar and such. 

Then I went on to cabinet #3 

I keep my baking pans and sheets in here along with boxed foods and cans. 

So far so good . OH and I almost forgot I did get to a pesky junk drawer too !!! I didn't get all the before picks because I'd only planned on doing one thing but I just kept going. So I hope you work the same way. I think when it comes to starting anything the hard part is just getting the motivation to get started! Now if I could just get vamped up to exercise and lose weight too! Keep up the good work everyone! 

21 Days of Getting Organized

I've seen several "bloggers" hopping on this challenge and well it motivated me to get things organized too. I am a clutter queen. I like to say I have organized messes...LOL! I'm naturally an organized person and a planner, but after having a couple of kids and living in a small house with little storage space the past three years that went down the drain. I know we just have to much stuff. I tend to be a packrat and have a hard time getting rid of sentimental stuff. I keep cards and notes. Now don't get me wrong. My house is clean and I'm not a hoarder type person. That show just makes me sad and every time I see it I feel the need to clean something right away! 

Day 1 - was the junk drawer and I really don't have "one" I have several.....

I have this large built in desk area and well I don't think any of the 7 drawers have unique storage area designated. I missed this day so I'll have to catch up which I did slightly today because....

Day 2 - Computer Desk - 

My Computer is a laptop so generally I'm sitting in my big chair when I'm on it. It's usually close on our big ottoman when I'm working on crochet patterns. I suppose I could print patterns out but I don't like to waste the paper. 

My desk however is a crazy crafty mess. In our rent house we have this corner desk area thats like an entire office space and catch all! Since I was already in process of cleaning it off I don't have a before picture. It was pretty bad! So yes this is the after pic. I think it still needs more love but mostly inside those drawers and the bookshelves above is for another day! 

This first picture is my desk/craft area. I have lots of ribbon, clips and supplies for making bows in all those storage containers. You can also see I have a sewing machine, printer and our doll model Paisley. I actually don't usually make bows here...LOL! I tend to bring the Items I need to the living room and work in front of the TV. (please ignore what you see under the desk- that will be organized another day) 

View two  - is the left side of the desk storage area - This is my hubby's area and it's usually his catch all. I did organize it today and threw lots away....hopefully nothing important. 

View 3 is the right side (there are those pesky junk drawers. I won't lie one drawer is organized with fabric and headbands, one has computer cds, two have office supplies, one is really a junk drawer, two are paperwork, cards and random electrical cords and one is full of writing utensils- wether it be pens, pencils, markers or hi-lighters. ) I sort of organized them today and threw away lots of things but if you notice on top of my large two drawer organizer I have bills/paperwork that need to be filled and a large bag full of ribbon my mom gave me !  ---and yes those are stocking still hanging on the bookshelves with care... I hope taking down christmas decorations is part of the organizing or it might get ignored.

I got a good portion organized but this is a bigger task to me than some. 

Well here was a peek in half my work space- the crochet side is well another story for another day I'm sure! 

I hope you'll join in the challenge or at least be inspired to clean up an area that needs a little love! 

I think the first week or two we'll be easy but when I get back to teaching piano in a few weeks the end part might get neglected but I'm going to try really hard! Good Luck!