Five Minutes

Tonight, after dinner, I was unloading/reloading the dishwasher.

In that five minutes, Alice took ALL of her clothes off, peed and pooped on the floor in the playroom, and then picked up a black crayon (not of the washable variety), and colored all over the wall in the stairwell. Followed by a purple colored pencil.

Alice's Artwork

Thank goodness for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (cleaned the wall AND the nasty baseboards — mmmmm, wintertime makes the house so pretty), but I will be repainting that wall next week. Some of the crayon is still visible, and there are a few other places that have sustained other child-related damage that need repainting, too.

Every single crayon that is not or might not be washable has been thrown away. Even brand new ones. It’s just too freaking risky. I considered throwing ALL crayons away completely, but decided that was too harsh — Helen doesn’t need to be punished when I don’t think she’s ever colored on the walls.

FIVE. MINUTES.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn, that child is efficient.

I want this.

In the next coupla months, I’m going to redesign my scrapping/quilting space. Which may involve trading spaces with Jerry, so that he won’t be in the Goldfish bowl of the New Room anymore, since it wouldn’t bother me to be in there (provided I have appropriate storage so I can put things away and have it look nice when people come over).

In my quest for Storage Supplies, I have found quite a few things I like. This is one of them, made by Ikea. It’s part of their Varda Free Standing Kitchen series, and it would be PERFECT as a cutting table.
Varda Kitchen 3 drawers

I like this one, too, but it’s a foot shorter and about $140 more:
Varda Kitchen 12 drawers

This shelf system would fit PERFECTLY on the North wall of the room, and based on the cubes I’m currently using upstairs, would more than house my scrapbooking stuff (except for the Iris cart, which I am NOT giving up. I love that thing). It would probably also house my thread boxes and most (if not all) of my fabric stash as well.
Expedit shelves

And these boxes would fit in those shelves if I wanted to obscure the contents of the shelves. Can’t buy the boxes online, though; I’d have to go to an Ikea (closest one is in Atlanta, I think) and buy them there:
Trissa box

Or plastic boxes, which CAN be bought online:
Box

Or baskets….:
baskets

Or possibly even baskets for the fabric stash to contain (and color-code) it a bit…(Guess which possibility is my favorite??? Oh, look! They have ORANGE. Of course, they don’t sell these online either. Bunch of meanies…):
bright baskets

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Other options:
Store In Style cubes

I could buy those cubes one at a time with 40% off coupons from Michael’s (assuming our Michael’s actually HAS them, which they may not)… Not sure I like the idea of white stuff, though

Elfa stuff is also the #1 recommended storage solution by Alex Anderson, a nationally known quilt teacher. It’s VERY expensive, but apparently fantastic. I know my mom has some (or at least a similar type of system), and has really liked it. And the mesh keeps the fabric from getting musty, which is good.
Elfa

I think it’s a little too utilitarian, though…

What I like about the Ikea stuff (as opposed to the Store-in-Style cubes or the Elfa) is that it doesn’t scream “HOBBY STORAGE” as much.

So now the quest is to see what to do about tables/workspaces… And to be honest with myself about how much room I really need. Never easy.