If You Give a Mouse a Cookie . . . .

Yep, William Morris got it right and I am taking his words much more seriously this year. A new year, a new creative spirit. As a quilter, I'm visually oriented, and I like to surround myself with pretty things. It's good for my spirit.

From organizing my pins into cute containers came another good idea: Let's go to Ikea!

Don't go there if you have silly notions rattling around in your head about buying a couple of containers to organize your sewing things. By the time I was through it took 2 trips and quite a few hours and ended in an overhaul of my sewing space. 

Honest, I just bought a few things  : )  And I'm working hard to get it all together. I felt I needed to carry over the "beautiful things" from the other rooms in my house into my sewing space a little more. Wish I could afford Pottery Barn. No reason inexpensive and functional can't also be inspirational and pleasing to your creative spirit (and budget) though. 

At first, I just wanted a new sewing table that was longer and deeper. My old one was too short and small and I always felt cramped on either side. And I wanted it near a window for the natural light. Last year I had a plan and we started clearing out my son's old room (He's got an apartment now so he'll never come back, right? Hah!). But the window needed new curtains . . . . Then I also had to buy a few more pretty organizers for my things. And some shelves. A new cutting table too, perhaps? You get the picture. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie kind of thing. (If you give a quilter a pretty table she'll create something to go with it.) 

                                  

(The book both my kids loved when they were toddlers -  A boy gives a cookie to a mouse. The mouse asks for a glass of milk. He then requests a straw (to drink the milk), a mirror (to avoid a milk mustache), nail scissors (to trim his hair in the mirror), and a broom (to sweep up his hair trimmings). Next he wants to take a nap, to have a story read to him, to draw a picture, and to hang the drawing on the refrigerator. Looking at the refrigerator makes him thirsty, so the mouse asks for a glass of milk. The circle is complete when he wants a cookie to go with it.)

I'm not nearly finished yet but now everything is prettier (and lighter) than it used to be and I really am feeling more creative. That can't be bad. I'm taking my time - I'll get some quilts up on the walls and organize my fabric a little better. Find some pretty, cheap bins at Target. And because I just can't create in a messy space, I'll keep it nice and clean. (Please don't think that when my space gets too messy, I just create another new one, somewhere else, LOL.) 

No reason you can't have a pretty container for your snipped threads. This pink basket makes me smile  : )

When I'm finished with my needles, pins, scissors they'll go back into the organizer tray. So I can find things again.

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You gotta love Ikea -  where else can you find a robin's egg blue dresser?

Wonder if I can talk my husband into painting the furniture in our bedroom robin's egg blue?? Better yet, maybe I'll do it myself someday and see if he even notices anything's changed . . . . .