Sorting through Calico Critters, Part 1

We have been moved in now for a couple of weeks, give or a take a day or so. And still we are drowning in post mess/down size disaster. I haven't really had a whole lot of time to even get back to working on the curtains. I have done more on them, but not enough to update that particular subject with. 

Believe me when I say - and I will probably keep saying it - this move has been the biggest disaster ever was. I have spent all afternoon and a couple hours after dinner sorting through the Calico Critter boxes that I finally found in the storage building yesterday and brought in after 2 rows of boxes decided to just rain down on top of me. Our little outside storage building is obviously angry at its state of complete disarray as well. (And it used to be so nice! Hold on, little storage building. We will get you organized too.) These Critter boxes are hopefully the last remaining bit of Critter we will have to sort through. We made the decision sometime last week to simply set out by the side of the road nearly all of our Critter  houses for people to pick up for free. We simply do not have the room to store it nor the energy to try and list and sell all of it. Do I regret that decision? Not for one second!!! I hope whoever picked them up is really enjoying them. They got some steals. 

The stuff I had to go through today was the accessories and furniture pieces. Can I use the word disaster again? The boxes were not packed in a neat and organized manner. Oh no. No no no. It was all thrown haphazardly in there. Thankfully some things were actually in bags, such as the chocolate set, but basically everything was in a ruckus. I remember clearly the state of mind I was in when these boxes were packed in such a way. I really can't look back on myself and pass judgement. It was not an easy time. And the only solution that we had at that time was to throw stuff in boxes and get it out. Which has now led me to have the pure joy of spending literal hours sifting through it all and organizing what is being kept and what is going. 

I am fairly pleased with the progress. But am I done? No. The living room is still littered with get rid of bags and the stuff that I still have not sorted. ;"( At least there is some progress. I decided after a few hours of that to take a break and go through my Critters themselves and just clear out the extra families and figures. I really have to think about who I have the space to keep at this point. I kind of surprised myself with what I decided on. All of my Woodzeez, gone. My few Honey Bee Acres, gone. As for my actual Calico Critters, I decided to keep just a dozen families. My goal at first was maybe only 7 families, which soon grew to 10 and finally, 12. That's it. 

I am quite happy though. It has been such a battle with myself of grabbing everything cute and feeling desperate for more and more Critters. I really wasn't enjoying them. I couldn't do much with them, and having them closed away at a storage building in town, or in boxes and containers in my then room, really wasn't very fulfilling. I suppose the only way I was "connecting" with them, if you will, was to buy more. Stress buying. Sheesh. It's never a good idea! I even cut down my baby collection. I now only have a few babies per family and let go of all the extras that I have been hoarding. (Who needs 18 of one baby kind?) That's really huge for me. In reality, I want to be able to make all of my Critters more than one change of outfit, and considering how many I had, that would take forever.

After I sorted everybody out, I had some fun and worked on naming everyone. Most of the names I used I had already come up with, even if it was for a family that I am no longer keeping, so I didn't have to think of much that is new.  I'll write a list later on  and post it of who I have and how many of each family as well as their names. I'm kind of Critter listed out right now and still have a few more to name. My last family I do have to think of something new, and my brain is in grind mode ATM. I'll enjoy doing that later.

Once I am done sorting through Critter Disaster, I would like to get all of my Rainbow Highs listed on eBay. I started listing a few things yesterday. I am keeping my Shadow Highs, just not the Rainbow Highs, but all of this is a subject for another post. I just hope the storage building doesn't throw more boxes at me when I go out to find the Rainbow High clothes and stands!

Curtain making begins! Gothic Home Project #1

Since I have turned over a new leaf and am beginning a new chapter in life, I decided to just start a new blog. I'll keep my old one, but will no longer be posting on it.

 So, what's new? Well, the most exiting thing has finally happened. I finally have moved into a cute little trailer. While we are still in the middle of organizing and down sizing, we really haven't had a chance yet (it's only been a week) to begin any of the redecorating plans we have to turn are little trailer into a sophisticated gothic lair. The style we plan to go with is an eclectic mix of Victorian, industrial, Halloween and a few other elements. While it's a mix of styles, the most important part of this theme idea is cohesion. Everything will be cohesive. All rooms will have a mix of blacks, greys and whites. It will be fun to see how each room comes together, but cohesion and cool relaxing tones are the name of the game.

My first project is making curtains. :D I've always wanted to make my own curtains, so I am super excited. I've also never really done any real official curtain making and as I am winging it, I think this will be fun. We just want a simple curtain - no fancy drapery, so winging it is pretty much fail proof.  I'll just be doing one room a week, so this week I am going to work on my bedroom space.

Yesterday we went to Joann's and picked out 2 fabrics. One for the window covering, and one for the closet. I really want to remove the closet door. It's a pretty small space, and eliminating the door needing space to open just seems ideal to me. Plus the plain white door just isn't really nice to look at. I want to bring in decoration in space saving ways, and for this room, no door and a lovely skeleton print fabric is perfect. This will be the only room the closet door gets removed. 

I got 2 and a half yards for the closet curtain. This will be super simple as there is no point in lining it like the window curtains. I should have that one done pretty quickly.

For the window curtain, I got 5 yards - each curtain will be around 2 1/2 yards with a little fabric being set aside for tie backs. I don't think I actually need that much, but we will see. I'll be better prepared after I do these for when I get the next round of curtain fabric. I also got 5 yards of plain white muslin for the lining. 

The fabric has been prewashed, dried and then ironed. (Let me just say, for the record, I really do not enjoy ironing muslin. It's like, once it's been washed and wrinkled, it cannot be undone. At least not totally.) Ironing the fabric took me over an hour! I'm not sure how it took my that long, but I gotta also say that I adore my new iron. <3 It only cost around $20 -24 from Walmart and it is glorious! It's got a heavy weight to it and that makes ironing so much more effective. It's truly a joy to use. :) :) :)

I'll do a progress update once I get to work on the cutting and sewing after dinner. I also need to find my camera so I can take pics. TBC!