mom to a crafter

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Crafting a Craft Room Part 2

One of Carla’s favorite pastimes is crafting. This is a blanket term that, for her, includes without being limited to:

  • Drawing
  • Painting
  • Making things with yarn
  • Using hot glue to make shapes/structures
  • Using a 3-D pen to make shapes/structures
  • Building things out of paper or foam
  • Cutting up paper into tiny confetti bits for unknown purposes
  • Diamond painting
  • Coloring
  • Gluing pieces of cardboard together
  • Transforming pens, paper towel rolls, dowels and other items with string, gems, glitter, foam, etc.
  • Making Barbie furniture
  • Making clothing for various stuffed animals
  • Cutting paper into snowflake shapes
  • Origami
  • Sculpting animals out of playdough or clay
  • Making things out of yarn
  • Sewing scraps of fabric together, to make clothing or purses or stuffed animals

She is extremely creative and derives a lot of joy from crafting. While I might prefer that she were to make things that had some utility, I certainly don’t want to restrict her creative mind. The big problem is that her creations tend to take up a huge amount of space. 

So our solution was to create a craft space just for her in the basement. (Slide the image below to see the before and after.)

Based on wonderful suggestions from you, my husband and I went to Home Depot and found a door to use as a craft table. Home Depot has a surprising (to me) variety of doors, and we went with one that was flat, unstained, unfinished, and unadorned in any way. It didn’t even have a hole for a doorknob. Just a flat slab of wood. Best of all, it was fairly inexpensive – around $85. (We are comparing the cost of the door to the cost of an actual table.)

We allowed Carla to choose a paint color for the door, and then the three of us painted it. 

We already owned a six-cube organizer shelving unit, so we bought a second one. Then we bought fabric bins to put inside some of the cubes. Once the paint was dry, we set the door horizontally across the shelving units.

My favorite thing is this spinning desktop organizer, which holds a bunch of pens and scissors and paperclips.

The “table” is nice and tall, and big enough to hold A LOT of crafts. We set up Carla’s Cricut machine on one side, put the spinning desktop organizer on the other side, and filled the shelving unit bins with construction paper and foam and painting supplies.

Over time, we have added additional shelving units and fabric bins, and lots of plastic bins and smaller shelving units.

It is a very well-used space. 

Two things that I think we still need, but haven’t yet figured out:

  1. Some sort of plastic floor mat. I would love to protect the carpet. But we have only hit roadblocks when trying to find solutions. We originally thought we could get one of those stiff plastic mats that you can put under a desk so that your chair wheels don’t get stuck in the carpet. But to find one that is large enough is prohibitively expensive. We considered finding some heavy plastic sheeting, like the kind you put down when you paint… but I’m not sure that would be sturdy enough for daily use, or how we would affix it well enough to the carpet. We then looked into buying a cheap rug that we could put under the desk… but my main concern about that is that it might create a tripping hazard in the basement. Plus, the cheapest rugs at Home Depot have raw edges, and I think they would fray and fall apart pretty quickly… but I have no idea how to resolve that. So for now, we deal with occasional paint and perpetual glitter on the carpet.
  • A chair. I think Carla would benefit from having a drafting stool of some sort. She says it’s tiring for her to have to stand when she’s drawing, and I get that. Sometimes, this means that she moves the crafting onto the floor, which I do not like. Maybe a stool of some sort would make using the actual table all the time more appealing. I don’t think she would use a stool all the time… but that’s fine. Then again, the need isn’t so pressing that I’ve done more than idle googling. 

The space is usable and Carla loves it and uses it regularly. Overall, it is a success.

My primary complaint about this space is that it is a craftastrophe 95% of the time. It is a horrific mess that encompasses the top of the table and the space underneath and bleeds into the surrounding areas. (Toggle for the mess if you dare.)

The problem is that no matter how many organizational bins and shelves and baskets you buy, they only work if you use them. And my kid doesn’t use them. I have no idea how to help her with this. One of our family mantras is that everything should have a space, and when you are done with something, it needs to return to its space. But that… doesn’t happen. 

Either Carla is in the middle of a project and doesn’t want to put it away…

Or she forgets to put it away…

Or she doesn’t know where the item’s “home” is (or, worse, it doesn’t really HAVE a “home”)…

Or she has used the storage bin for some alternate purpose… (This one really annoys me. For instance, we have this little case that has a bunch of separate spaces for small items, like pom poms or gems or paper clips or whatever, and she had removed everything that should be in it and replaced those things with individual small chunks of clay that had since dried out. This kind of “using a storage unit as a toy” is frequent and drives me NUTS.)

I am not sure how to reframe things for Carla so that she understands the how and the why of putting things away… or so that she sees the bins and shelves as Storage Only and not props in her elaborate imaginary scenarios.

If we ever buy another house, my dream is that we dedicate an entire room to Carla’s crafting. A room with our makeshift table, and tons of built-in shelving units that are all labeled and stocked with everything she needs. A room that has a door behind which we can shut the mess. 

But this is a dream, not reality. 

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Sick Kid, Craft Project, and Another Garbage Disposal Incident

Carla got sick this past Saturday afternoon, right before her beloved grandmother was set to arrive. Fever around 103, achy body (why doesn’t the word “achy” have an e in it????), headache, sore throat, the whole thing. She woke up in a panic at midnight, sure she was going to throw up. (Tell it to the toilet, Carla, do not run into my room to alert me in advance!) She did not throw up, but she did lie on a makeshift bed in her bathroom for an hour, and then finally moved to her bed around 2:00. She was unable to take Tylenol because it made her stomach “feel weird,” so she just lay there until eventually she fell asleep. (I couldn’t sleep, of course, with Possible Imminent Barfing. I went to check on her around 4:00 and she was lying on her back, very still, and I thought she was asleep but then she waved at me. Sigh. Poor child.)

The next day, fever. (Which is, perhaps, why I was able to be awake by myself to write a blog post? After being awakened by a vomit alert, it is very hard to fall back to sleep. Also I was deep in denial on Sunday morning that this was a 24-hour bug.) Sore throat. Movies and TV and popsicles. No grandmother. No special dinner at her favorite restaurant. 

Monday, still fever. No appetite. No energy. No school. I posted my Dinners This Week intentions even though I only finally made it to the grocery store yesterday. She continued to test negative for Covid, but I called the pediatrician and learned that he likes to see a child who’s had a fever for three consecutive days. So we went in. He was SURE it was strep but the rapid test was negative. (This is all sounding extremely familiar; I swear we went through this entire rigamarole just a few weeks ago, although there was vomit that time, so this was an improvement.) 

Tuesday, her fever was very low. In fact, it was so low that it might not have existed. When our thermometer said she had a fever of 100.6, the pediatrician’s thermometer said it was 99.3. Low enough for her to go to school Wednesday???? Hard to say. But not low enough for her grandmother to feel comfortable staying at our house, so it seemed pretty wishy washy to allow school. I don’t know. PCR test for strep was negative. Still a negative Covid test. 

Her doctor acknowledged it could be flu, but usually kids with flu were “much more miserable.” She has had very low energy, which is significant for my go-go-go high energy child. But he’s the expert. He said strep is extremely prevalent in the community right now – “the diagnosis of the day,” he said – but also suggested adenovirus, which sounds to my inexpert ears like a fancy way of calling it “just a cold.” She was able to go back to school on Wednesday, and you have never seen a kid happier to be going to school. She woke up promptly, ate nothing (I forced her to eat a small amount of ice cream, just to get some fat/calories into her), and was cheerful and singing all the way to school. I am so glad she is feeling better (although as of this morning, her appetite remains very slim).

But I admit, it was kind of nice to be together. We made the best of our forced period of restfulness. I did lots of laundry. I addressed and stamped our holiday cards and put them in the mail. I wrapped some presents. (My office is turning into Box Central, but I suppose it is only temporary.) I cleaned Carla’s craft area in the basement; she didn’t want to help me, which meant that I had carte blanche to throw away anything and everything I wanted to. This reminds me that I never showed you the After of the craft area we created in the basement last winter. Is that something you would be interested in seeing?   

While we were at home together, Carla and I worked on a (very expensive) craft project. She is making hand-decorated drinkware for her family members. They are turning out SO well. (But seriously, until you make like, 50 mugs, the cost per mug is astronomical.)

We are using her Cricut to print vinyl objects (hearts, stars, bears) and words, and then we are affixing everything to the mugs with dishwasher-safe Mod Podge.

The recipients’ names are on the backs of the mugs. They have to “cure” for 28 days, which we did not know at the beginning of the project. So we printed out little labels to alert the recipients not to get them wet until the 28-day deadline. Into some of them, depending on the recipient’s other gifts, we are tucking hot chocolate bombs and/or Starbucks gift cards.

Part of the process involves dumping swirls of nail polish into a tray of water and then dipping a ceramic mug into it. The polish adheres to the mug and it looks so lovely and marbley and gorgeous. And every single mug is unique and special.

Apparently, if you turn a bottle of nail polish upside down to dump its contents into a tray of water, the ball bearings that are inside to mix the polish come out, too. I was pretty glad I noticed that because I’d been pouring the pans of water into the sink after each dip (and after using a paper towel to remove any excess polish). 

Only after I dumped out an entire tray of inedible Trader Joe’s microwave salmon did I discover that I had not, in fact, noticed the ball bearings in time. I did not want to chance breaking my disposal after the last incident!

At least I knew the cause of the horrendous crunching noise my disposal made. I used – what the heck are they called? pinchers? tweezers? oh right! tongs! – tongs to remove the remnants of salmon and spinach and very poorly textured orzo from the disposal. But the tongs were too bulky to pull out the ball bearings. And no way in any universe am I sticking my hand down my garbage disposal. No. Way. 

Carla does, however, have an ancient magnet set. My First Magnets or something. Why we still have it, I do not know… but I’m grateful. I requested that she find me her most powerful magnet – she was of course happy to comply – and used it to fish out the two ball bearings. The disposal works once again. And now Carla knows a) mistakes happen and b) creative thinking is the key to a smoothly running life (and disposal). 

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Santa’s Little Helper: Crafting a Craft Room Part 1

I hope you had a wonderful, delicious Thanksgiving and celebrated exactly the way you wanted to!

If you are looking for a little post-prandial distraction, might I ask you to join me in contemplating the execution of a Home Project, with potentially satisfying results? You don’t have to spend a dollar or move a single piece of furniture, you can simply sit back, sip your beverage of choice, pass judgment on my plans and life choices, and perhaps offer advice! Win win!

Carla has been asking, for months, for a “rilly big box full of all craft stuf.” That is a direct quote from her letter to Santa.

Carla is a crafter extraordinaire. She makes anything and everything, from miniature furniture to fishing rods and fish to tiny clay animals to elaborate seascape scenes to clothing for her stuffed animals and more. We have a lot of crafting supplies in our home already, and very little space to store it all, and my little craft enthusiast is constantly coming up with new ideas.

My husband and I decided that we wanted to help Santa fulfill Carla’s wish… but we needed a bigger plan than just a “rilly big box full of craft stuf.” The big box is part 2. Part 1 is carving out a crafting space.

Right now, crafting takes place on the kitchen table:

This is how my kitchen table looks at least 75% of the time. Craft mat, glue gun, craft detritus.

Or on the dining room floor:

This is what Carla hears when I ask her to “put her crafts away.” Deep sigh.

Short of moving to a home with a dedicated crafting room, we have to make do with what we have. And what we currently have makes me twitchy and claustrophobic.

We do have a decent-size basement, and my husband and I discussed repurposing the space for crafting.

Right now, the basement has several purposes. The left third is for exercise and gaming and TV watching; we have a treadmill, a recumbent bike, a couch, and a TV over there. It’s pretty full.

The right two thirds has a dual toys/music function. As in, it holds a huge amount of Carla’s toys (Barbies galore, dinosaurs, building sets) but it is also where we keep the electric piano and my husband’s electric drum kit.

(Our dream house needs to have a dedicated music room, too, apparently.)

I hope you are enjoying our walls. The color scheme… grows on you.

My idea was to move/break down the piano and drum kit, since they are so rarely used. My husband agreed to moving the piano, but he wants to keep the drum kit. (Sigh. The drum kit takes up so much more room than the piano. But we take what we can get.)

And then we use the space freed up to create a crafting space for Carla.

The dinosaur is envisioning a crafting table right here where the piano is. Perhaps we will find a new home for the dehumidifier.

While we already have the Expedit (which holds games and some puzzles and all the Make Your Own [XYZ]! kits that Carla has yet to put together, along with many that she HAS put together but have enough ingredients for more rounds) (I am going to go through and RUTHLESSLY TOSS some of the latter and RUTHLESSLY DONATE some of the former), a four-cube organizer that holds our DVDs and my husband’s video game collection, and a six-cube organizer for Carla’s LEGOs, we need dedicated craft storage and we need some sort of table.

We bought this with the sole intention of using it to relocate all the LEGO that have taken over my living room. Currently, the LEGO collection is still upstairs, strewn all over my hearth. In the meantime, the Barbies are making good use of the space.

Santa, in addition to the “rilly big box full of craft stuf” has assured us he will bring additional storage. I think he is planning on another six-cube shelf organizer and fabric bins.

Santa will not be bringing a table, although that’s a critical element of this plan. My husband and I have been on the hunt, but it’s difficult to find anything that doesn’t cost one million dollars. We decided we can wait to figure out the table solution until after Christmas. But that doesn’t mean I am not already thinking about a table.

When Carla crafts on the kitchen table, she takes up approximately half of the space.

Don’t get me wrong – given time, her crafting essentials eventually migrate to all four corners of the table and spill over the edges onto the floor, but she seems to be able to make do with just half. That’s 32” by 42”, so it would be IDEAL to find a table that is three feet by four feet. A table that folds, so we can slide it up against the wall. A table that has a smooth, untextured top for drawing. A table that is NOT one million dollars. (I would love love LOVE to spend less than $50, but that seems like a pipe dream. Maybe I should be aiming for under $100.)

Because I am a genius, I suggested that maybe all we needed was a giant board! Then we could help Carla move the not-yet-installed shelf and the current LEGO storage shelf into the middle of the basement, and put the board across the tops of both shelving units, and VOILA! instant table!

My husband doesn’t think that we will be able to find a board of the right size, and, even if we did, he is picturing something rough with jagged edges. So I need to think on/research this idea a bit more. I still think it is a genius solution, although that’s dependent on boards a) coming in the right size and b) also not costing one million dollars.

Because crafting is so important to Carla, and because it causes SUCH chaos in my home, I am pretty motivated to find a solution.

To help keep everything organized, we will also get a desktop carousel.

And I can think of dozens of uses for this craft keeper, which has 16 little plastic containers for pom-poms, stickers, glue sticks, beads, etc. etc. etc., so I think we’ll get one of these, too.  

Plus, it’s so rainbow-y!

The only other thing I can think of to complete this craft space is perhaps some sort of plastic carpet mat. You know, to protect the carpet from all sort of crafting debris.

I’m sure there are other things we will find we need, once this craft space is realized. But for now I am focused on the minimum needed to make it functional, and also on keeping it under one million dollars.

P.S. My plans include getting rid of Carla’s dress-up closet, which is the purple structure that lives to the left of the Expedit. I can’t remember the last time she played dress up. (“Halloween” she told me when I asked her. And before that? “Last Halloween.” This proves my point.) She laments the loss of the mirror, but it’s a pretty crummy mirror and we can easily get a mirror and affix it to her bedroom door.

I really wish we could get rid of the drum kit.

I also think it’s time to get rid of the Giant Bear. I impulse-bought this bear at Costco many years ago, and it achieved the surprise and delight I’d imagined when I spotted it. But now it mainly lives on one of the couches in the basement, rendering the couch unusable by humans. Or it endures various forms of torture inflicted by Carla. It has sagged a bit in its old age, as though the stuffing has been crushed or redistributed, so it is now much less fluffy than it was when we first brought it home. I think it’s time to say goodbye.

He is putting on a good front, but he is clearly SO miserable. This is not the life he wanted for himself.

If you were designing a crafting space, given what you now know about our available resources, is there anything I’ve missed or overlooked?