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clare14 Jun 17, 2005

Hello All!

I am moving to a smaller house next week, eeeek, where will I put everything????:o

I am interested in how all of you work - I presently have a workstation in the corner of our dining area, but more often than not that gets blocked up and I spread out onto the dining table and then the computer desk..........:rolleyes:   I have collected soooo much bear making 'stuff' and I don't want to have a clear out - I NEED it ALL!!!;)

I need to roll my workstation, dining table and computer desk all into one, I feel a project coming on for hubby (very clever and understanding - thank goodness!!)

Any advice will be very welcome, and pictures of your workstations!!

Best wishes
Clare

Dilu Jun 17, 2005

Oh Claire

I am so sorry you are moving to a smaller workroom.  I will take a picture of mine and post it-but it is to make you laugh, not to use for guidance!

My honeyhubby said that next week we go to Lowes!  Yippee!  :):)

Dilu

Daphne Jun 17, 2005

A sewing table with folding leaves/sides... so you can expand and condense as needed. Sewing supply places, especially places that sell sewing machines usually have them or a catalog you can look through. I also use lots of those plastic stackable drawers with wheels so I can have stuff near me when I need it and can roll it all out of the way when necessary.

I have a whole room (it WAS the master bedroom!) to sew in but I still end up in the kitchen, dining room, livingroom..... so I'm not one to give advice!!!:/

Good luck, Clare!!!

However, before buying our house last year my hubby and I spent 4 years in a SMALL 2 ROOM apartment. The dining room table was replaced by my work and sewing tables. We sat on the couch (where there was room between bags of stuffing, etc.) to eat. The coffee table was replaced by the big plastic boxes containing my fur! AND we're both packrats! Needless to say we NEVER had company!

Judi Jun 17, 2005

Oh how I know what you mean...

Before we put an addition on our house I worked in at our kitchen table......It was always covered with my stuff!  Now I have my own work room....allllllll for myself!   It's our old living room.   It has a bay window and a beautiful view which looks out onto one our our hay fields.  I even have my computer in here.  Things still have a tendency , though, to spill over into othere areas of the house and my work room gets pretty messy too.

My guess would be that if you have very limited space then you need to be very organized (which would be very hard for me).  There are lots of stackable organizer containers out there  at Office Max or a good craft store.  I also keep extra storage bins of fur and mohair in the basement until I need it.

Good luck and let us know how it all works out.

Laure Jun 17, 2005

Clare,

I thought that when my hubby sold the pool table and bequeathed his game room to me (12.5'x24'), that I would have plenty of space for all my bear supplies.  Ha!  I have since learned that mohair and other bear making supplies have a propensity for expanding to fill the space wherein they are allotted.  Actually, every now and then I make well-intentioned plans to organize my extra craft supplies into a "Blockbuster Inventory Reduction Sale"!!  Only trouble is, I seem to be always too busy to stop and do the organizing, so thus-far, no fruition.

There is one gem of personal organization I can contribute.  I don't think this is my original idea, and I sure wouldn't want to claim it ;).  I keep 'hard copies' of my patterns on cereal box cardboard...plan to transfer them all to plastic sheeting some day.  To keep them orderly and accessible, I punch a small hole in each piece and string them onto a metal 'wire' type shower curtain ring.  They are kept on a hinged wall-mounted old-fashioned style kitchen towel hanger, the kind that has rods that swing out or can lay flat against the wall.  I try to sort them into 3 size ranges and load all of the same size range onto each rod.  It's not perfect because the rods get kind of weighted down and then they sag a bit, but it helps.  Hope this info helps you.

Eileen Jun 17, 2005

Funny you should bring this up! :lol:

I have a small but manageable (so far) space in the basement, where I can work at my computer beside an ancient Bi-Oven that serves as a table. I've got random chests and bookshelves for supplies. Cozy, and mine.

All was well until this morning, when the basement toilet overflowed and all the drains in the house started (should I say it?) hooting. :rolleyes:

After I worked at the mess with plunger and snake for a while and husband and son-in-law took their turns, we called a plumber. The entire drain system has to be dug up and replaced--it's a 60' run of clay pipes, 95 years old, and RUNS RIGHT UNDER MY WORKSPACE.

So I've hauled everything upstairs into a corner of the family room in bags and boxes. At least I get to sit in a bay window and look out on my garden!!

Eileen

SueAnn Help Advisor, Banner SponsorJun 17, 2005

I'm hooting here!!  Love it, Eileen . . . well, NOT the fact that you have to replace all your pipes, but the way you described it!!  Have fun in your temporary spot!

bearsbybeesley Jun 18, 2005

OK,OK. I have to confess! You guys will get a big laugh out of this but here goes. MY BEAR ROOM IS MY MASTER BATHROOM IN OUR HOUSE!!!!! Oh Gosh!!!!!!!!!!! I have no other place!!!! What can I say???? Anyway, we have a huge bathroom and our youngest son is taking over the second bedroom in the house??? Need to find that guy a woman ?? Know of any good woman?? He is 27 (far to old to be at home) but works out of town for weeks at a time and I told him not to waste his rent. Good Mom huh? Anyway we do not use the bear/bathroom now for the all natural things just BEARS!!! Anyway, I think it's a hoot!:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Hugs Louise

Laura Lynn Banner SponsorJun 18, 2005

Oh my gosh Louise!!!!!  That DOES sound funny!   course, that's cause I'm thinking of the size of our ONLY bathroom...  which is just 6 foot square (not counting the tub).

My husband built me a workstation for my bears.  I designed it  (I have long legs but a short body... and most desks are a little too high for my comfort)  and he built it   It is made out of red oak and paduk.  Here's a photo.....

HOWEVER.... this photo was taken right after we moved it into my office!  It looks NOTHING like this now!!  I should take a "now" photo and you girls will be rolling on the floor laughing

I'm embarrassed to say that I've really just stuffed stuff into the drawers.   And those drawers are nice and deep too!!   And these drawers are solid!  The bottoms are as high quality wood as the rest of the unit!  On the other side of the kneehole is a door.  I have a couple of boxes in there of "accessories".  Need to get to organizing...:rolleyes:

Right opposite my "bear station" is our computer station.  It has the computer, 2 printers, scanner, shredder, cable TV and the bill stuff too.  I'm lucky to have a closet in the room... which I have about 2/3's of.  I keep stuff in there in boxes.  I LOVE the plastic boxes... but sometimes use the cardboard ones till I get them changed over. 

I'd LOVE to put shelves or cupboards over the work station!!!  BUT... hubby has that poster up... and also a few remembrances of our Brazil trips.  I'm just thrilled that I have a room to put everything in!

And yes, in the evenings I do bring my stuff out into the living room to be with my family.  I have one of those Craftstore plastic totes that I keep my "everyday" bear making stuff in.  I just bring that little tote out with whatever bear I'm working on and I'm set!  I got it at JoAnn Fabrics... and of course used the 40% off coupon they mailed me!

bearsbybeesley Jun 18, 2005

Laura lynn!!!! What a neat and tidy work station. I am sure it's an old picture? Ha Ha??? You are far to organized Girl! Now, I must say there is no hanky panky in the bathroom that our bears are created in and nooo I will not send a picture as it is an absolute disaster. Trust me the potty is banned in this room.:o:o:o

Hugs Louise

P.S. Only beesley bears could be created in bathroom right!!!!!:rolleyes:

Eileen Jun 18, 2005

I'm embarrassed to say that I've really just stuffed stuff into the drawers?

  But Laura, that's why it's called "Stuff", and that's what drawers are for.

What a beautiful workstation, Laura.

Tell your hubby (from another and lesser woodworker) that it's a beut. I'm carving a plane handle from Padauk for an old 1904 Bailey #5 plane I found at an antique shop in Mo. That chunk of wood is THE hardest I've ever tried. Closer to rock than wood, but gorgeous.

BeesleyBathroomBears? Bears of the Bathroom?  ToiletBellyBears? TubbyBears? Teddy Bear Shower?

We've Got to have a picture, Louise.

Eileen

doodlebears Celebration AmbassadorJun 18, 2005

With a ten roomed house I still sit with my sewing in the dinning room. I have the most beautiful view over the garden. I just sit with the large patio windows wide open (weather permitting) and sew. I don't have a work room but I do however take up many a space with my huge storage boxes full of mohair etc. I work from my son's baby table which is the lower part of his high chair (he's 20 now) If I decide to sew in the lounge room then the table is easily moved and I can work wherever I wish. I use the dinining table to mark out the fabric but other than that it's back to the baby table. I fine the plastic style drawers a great asset and can wheel them to where I'm working.
Jane.
P.S I have just found the bear head that my little dog Lucy ran off with, She had put it in my son's bedroom...little sweetheart!!!

millie Jun 18, 2005

Well it is comforting to know that I'm not the only one with mohair all over the place.  I do have  a whole room to work in.  After my son married, I took his room.  The problem is that I don't stay in one place.  In the evening we will sit down to watch a movie in the family room and I work on bears then (multi-tasking).  One thing that I have found to be super useful to me is a craft table that I bought at Lowes.  This table is height adjustable.  Because I am tall, bending over the dining table was a killer on my back.  I said we could either put pegs under the table to raise it a few inches or I needed to get something else to work at.  I got the craft table.  It was under $40.00 so that wasn't too bad.  It sure has saved my back.

Marie_ Jun 18, 2005

Lura Lynn, I love your work station table and It's soooo neat and clean......I admire your
husband work :cool:
I do my work at kitchen table.......I make sure that mohair(hair) doesn't get in to our food. oops...

Hugs/Marie

clare14 Jun 18, 2005

It's nice to know I'm not the only house with bear making chaos!!  Tee! Hee!   Thanks for the picture Laura - I would like 2 of those, one for my sewing and another for my computer - I have hinted to my in house woodworker.....!!!

I have to admit I am very messy and need to be tidying up behind me a bit more!!!

So many thanks for all your advice!!

Dilu Jun 19, 2005

OK  I have some truly inspiring pics for you, Clare,

This is a what not to do-(although in my own defense the room is the size of a walk in closet in most homes, and we are getting the cabinets this week to change this, never-the-less

Have a really good laugh

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

All soon to change this week!!!

Golly hugs and beary love to all

Dillydally

Winney Jun 19, 2005

Yikes ! Where do the bears play with the cats ?....he, he..
My room is just as bad...I bought an extra wide ironing board and keep that up for an extra work space...you know what happens...everything gets dumped there ...temporarly ? So when I need to iron I HAVE to move all that stuff. OK..so I take the board down to make more room to move around in and...you know what happens...I need to iron...and I don't have any place to  open , look thru things..agh !.....can't win...Winney

Eileen Jun 19, 2005

Dilu, it looks just like home to me!

Eileen

Wisdom Bears Jun 19, 2005

Hi Dilu,and Eileen.
                                 We could be the best of pals ,cos I would feel at home in your house too. I have a workroom and a walk in cupboard that was shelved from floor to ceiling for all my crafty bits .it was meant to keep my workroom " tidy ".But all my friends just love to visit my workroom and see all the things I,ve been up to,they say its a friendly room to be in. Is there a Bear-Maker, craft person that keeps a tidy workspace ???. Back to my bears in the guddle of lots of other projects too.

Happy Hugs Rita xxx

Eileen Jun 19, 2005

Wouldn't it be great to get together and wallow in one another's messes?!!

Actually, when I had to save all my stuff from the plumbers, I had it neatly piled on a sofa at the back of the family room, and put up an old scruffy card table for my computer. By now, 24 hours later, my bearstuff is all over the place. I have to climb to get past it and feed my fish--who are, come to think of it, looking at me rather desperately as I speak :/

And I'm just a beginner. Not that much stash yet. All I can think of is getting MORE . . .

As Queen of the Unfinished Project, I second Dilu's idea. No more than two bears at a time. Finish one, and you're allowed to start another.

Eileen

Dilu Jun 19, 2005

Rita
honey in my book we already are the besst of friends-but be careful wallowing in the  sewing room-it could be dangerous.

Winney- I can not remember the last time I ironed when it was't related to dressing a bear or golly-as you can see the ironing board is trapped!:D

I am using the kitchen counter with a towel under it

Oh dear

I keep telling my honeyhubby how absolutely excited I am about this workroom project.....(I don't want him to forget!)

At least the livingroom is liveable-

Hugs

Dilu

Winney Jun 19, 2005

LOL ...I heard that creative people are lateral thinkers and usually do have their junk piled around them and its not unusual to have it strewn all over the house....that is literally  lateral too.

It is difficult in our small place to keep the " stuff" confined to one room. I need to have my " stuff" all around me, it stimulates my ideas. That " stuff" is an extension of my process of creating....it's part of me.....Winney

SueAnn Help Advisor, Banner SponsorJun 19, 2005

Oh boy . . . I LOVE that description of creative people!!  If that's the case, then I'm a creative genius!!   I have a big workroom, but every square inch is cluttered.  Here's to messy - uh - creative people  . . .  Yee Haw!!!

Winney Jun 19, 2005

I'll go along with that..Yee Haw ! Yee haw ! Yee haw !!! ...Winney

Kirsten Jun 19, 2005

Well, I have a table in the corner, but I spread out all over the living room! :)