Re-purposing a Vera

First of all - I am joining Simple Mom in Project Simplify.

I am looking forward to this decluttering process.  I'm so ready for my home to feel more spacious and not bogged down with a bunch of "I might need this someday stuff".

On that note - for many years I have collected all nails, screws, and extra "fasteners" in a baby shoe box.  It has been my "go to" box for 15 years, with it I kept my hammer; those two things have been either in my bedroom or my office stuff for the same amount of time.  For several years I kept my screwdrivers (1 of each) in my silverware drawer for easy access.  Unfortunately my children got older and between them and my mom I couldn't seem to hang onto my screwdrivers for anything - because everyone knew where I kept them, but they didn't come back.  So, for Christmas I asked for tools- nothing fancy, just some basics.  I wasn't concerned so much about a container as having my own stash of screwdrivers, wrenches, pliers, and drill.  My dad & son gave me a couple of their extras and mom pick out a pink tool bag, from her & dad, with some tools in it.  I had to smile at the pink tool bag - totally not what I would have picked :-).   So anyway, since Christmas the baby shoe box and hammer have been in my bedroom and the pink tool bag & drill have been sitting by my kitchen door.  It was annoying.  The tool bag was unorganizable and hung open all the time.

Today I accomplished a small task in the many projects floating around in my head.  I was working on cleaning out my sewing area so I can sew again.  In the process of making a container of all the projects labeled "I just need to do {supposedly little things}", I decided to just sit down a do a couple of them.  I sat down with my first Vera Bradley, Stephanie bag.  I loved using this purse.  A dear friend gave it to me.  I wore it out, to the point of fabric worn through to the plastic tubing and discolored hardware.  {I was still happily using this purse until I was robbed while at the hospital with mom after her appendices burst, after that I felt like it was too conspicuous and a target when I carried it.  That has been almost two years ago and I still haven't been able to give it up - it was the perfect purse and they discontinued that style :-(.}  Anyway, I sat down with seam ripper in hand and was going to at least salvage the zippers that were in excellent condition.  But I just could do it.  I set it down and went back to cleaning and organizing other areas.  Then I had a great idea! :-D

This is what I did:

Hardware before remnants

 My baby shoe box and all the various baggies that held the different sizes of screws, nails, bookshelf brackets, all the allen wrenches and other left over hardware from putting my numerous pieces of  purchased pre-made furniture together.  

I think I have enough hardware to make my kitchen table when I get to that point. :-D  I even found the hardware I purchased for making Christine's bed-that I didn't end up making.

Tool bag before

Here is the empty pink tool bag (I forgot to take a picture with the stuff in it).  The three interior pockets you can see are the only pockets inside and the 3 exterior pockets were too short to actually put anything into, and they hung open so they were secure for little things.   This bag didn't make sense to me.

First my baby shoe box.  {I have to admit - my son is 14 1/2 and the box is from a pair of shoes someone gave me for him before he was born.  It was so cute and has been the only semblance of crafting and DIY I've had at times.  It was hard to let it go, but once I decided to it felt really good!}  Anyway.  I took everything out of the multiple baggies and put them into individual containers.  This little box is about the same size as the shoe box, but it is taller.  The small plastic container on the right is from my straight pins -- I need more, now I have multiple reasons for getting them, I need more containers that size so I can separate the sizes of nails, and so I can have snap-on lids for all of them.  The glass jar is just a small (pint size?) one - it holds all the brackets and bookshelf holder thingies.  There is another container with a snap lid on its side next to the jar and it is holding the bigger screws.

{Okay, here's another dorky bunny trail - that gold box with a tiny bit of red ribbon showing is 20+ years old.  That box held the blue frosting flower from my high school graduation cake until last fall when I cleaned out that tote :-D.  I remember wanting to keep the flower and my mom thinking I was crazy, but she issued a challenge by asking, "What, are you going to keep it until your 20 year reunion?".  I packed it away in that little box (which is musical [light activated] and still works too) and that gold box went into a wooden box given to all graduates by a local furniture store.  I am ashamed to say I thought, "Ha! I'll show you, I'll keep it for 20 years".  No, not respectful thoughts at all.  I can honestly say I didn't keep that disrespect, and I didn't conscientiously keep it.  Funny though, when I found it last fall it was as if it had been the day previous, I remembered it all too clearly.  It was like the words were closed into that box and when I opened it, I could hear them.  Here's a disturbing thought for you though -- that blue frosting rose was still fine!!!  The color was a little less intense, but there was no mold.  Truly bothersome.} 

Enough trips down memory lane - good grief!  I didn't even realize that cleaning these couple things had so much more unseen tucked away in them.  Wow, I believe we really are off to a new beginning - in more ways than one.

So, as I'm sure you've guessed - I used my lovely Vera Bradley as my new tool bag.  It can sit in my sewing area and make me happy.  :-D

Here is the side that has two pockets.  They hold the two different screwdriver handles and all their ends.  (I am the only one in the house with a pink screwdriver) The black & red one can be a ratchet as well.  The red stapler isn't really mine, I'm just borrowing it for a couple projects while my dad isn't home :-D.  As you can see the drill fits in here, with its charger and adapter too.  I have a pink hammer from the pink tool bag.  I'm choosing to keep my nice, light, wooden handled hammer in my office area.

This is the side that has the long zipper pocket on the outside.  I put all my wrenches and pliers in there handles down.  I put them handle down so I can see which one I'm grabbing the first time.  I just have it zipped up to the middle to hold them upright and accessible. You can also see my clamps on the left.

Here is the overall picture.  On the inside:  the charger and adapter just sit on the bottom.  The star wrench set, small connected sets of allen wrenches and hex wrenches are in the three open pockets.  In the inside zipper pocket are the sheet rock knife and another really big knife dad gave me for Christmas.






I have to say, I really like having my most favorite purse in the world in sight with my tools in it.  :-D

Here is a picture of this corner of my room.  Yes, it is dark. I love my dark brown walls.  In case you can tell - the bright green words on the left say 'hardware' and the bright green words at the bottom says 'tool bag'.  This is the new home of my tools and hardware.  It is with my sewing stuff which just seems right.

If your still reading....  I just want to say, I had no idea that cleaning out and getting rid of some sentimental things would feel so good and right.

Was your day Rest-full?

Mine was.  I thoroughly enjoy reading through so much material I just haven't been able to get to, lots of business thinking, processing, dreaming.  No action, that felt too much like work. :-D!  However, I will be sleeping on the couch again.

My plans include getting to be home all day tomorrow.  Projects here we come!  After church I got the jars and freezer paper I've needed to finish up a couple organizing projects.  Also, I will get my sewing stuff all put away nicely so I can get to my bed.

Today was really a relaxing and rest-full day.  My last stop before getting home I found my new favorite coffee shop.  I got to come home with a hot cup of coffee and enjoy sitting on the couch with a book.  I was grinning for a long time - the really-fun-not-so-good part is that I will drive past it about 75% of the time I leave my house.  Hmm, I will be needing to exercise some self-control big time.  I pretty much always like a good cup of coffee.  When I'm home I only drink my one cup of french press each morning, but there is something about going from point A to point B with a hot cup of coffee in my hands.

I did get my nails done by my daughter today.....I bought the color of polish, so I deserved it....but I'm a clear polish kind of girl.  Here's an iPhone photo as proof.

One problem, she was tired of doing it after one hand.  So...nail polish remover to the rescue.  I don't know if I've ever used as much remover as I did today.  Then a couple coats of a little less intense color went on - both hands - but they're still pretty scary.  But I figured since I'm just home tomorrow I'll take it off at the end of the day.  Until then I have OPI's 'Not like the movies' on my finger nails....this is a color I bought for toes.

Spring Organization.

Another party is coming & you are invited!

When:  starting March 26^th

Where: starting at Organizing Made Fun

Why: to celebrate spring and organization

This is one you need time to prepare for so you can be prepared to participate, or just take really good notes :-D.  There are nine Organizing bloggers who are going to parade their organized homes:

Becky from Organizing Made Fun

Jen from Iheart Organizing

Anna from Ask Anna

DaNita from Delightful Order

Lesley from Goodbye House, Hello Home

Becky from Clean Mama

Toni from A Bowl Full of Lemons
Leanne from Organize and Decorate Everything

Laura from I’m an Organizing Junkie

Some of these blogs I have been reading for awhile and some are new to me.  I'm so happy to have the next three weeks to get to know these ladies.  
The parade starts on Monday, March 26^th, at Organizing Made Fun.  On day #5, there will be an opportunity to link up your organized space.

I LOVE things organized and put away in their right place.  I can’t wait to see all the new ideas for my home.  Go to A Bowl Full of Lemons or Organizing Made Fun to get your button for sharing the invitation. 

A bit of history & my closet...

My closet is the one place in my home for storage. When my parents built this apartment over an attached garage, it was for my mom's parents. My mom's parents did many amazing things. My grandma actually travelled on the Queen Mary. My grandparents were married in Paris, France; their wedding photo has the Eiffel Tower in the background. They were missionaries to Africa (where my mom was actually born) and upon returning to the States my grandpa was a pastor. My grandma painted; I don't know when she started that in her adventurous life. They moved to Alaska in the mid-90's, my grandma LOVED my dad. They were in their early 80's when they moved to Alaska. At first they lived in their own apartment in a nearby town, then they moved into my parents' home. My youngest brother was in high school at that time, middle brother was also here, and I was living out of state. My mom's brothers came up to help build this apartment for their parents. I believe my grandparents moved into it around October of 1996. The end of February 1997 my grandpa passed away, in May my grandma passed away, and Vince was born in July. We moved back to Alaska (from Portland, Oregon area) in February 1998; and I moved into this apartment end of October 1999.

Anyway, the apartment was built custom to my grandparents' needs and desires. The living room and bedroom are the same size - 15'x15'; there is a ramp that comes up to my deck and kitchen door. My grandma had purchased a Baby Grand piano at a garage sale (Yes, for real!) and the living room was sized and wired for lighting to accommodate that piano. The bedroom was sized to fit a King size bed and sitting area, with a ledge for holding my grandma's paintings. Today I'm going to tell you about the closet.

The closet is 43.5"x10'8". The closet has been a bedroom for both of my kids, a playroom, my sewing room, and always my general storage - besides my clothes closet. It was Vince's room first and I built a bed the width of the closet that was high enough to slide Rubbermaid totes under to hold his toys. The width of the closet is too short to put a crib mattress lengthwise, so I used a chunk of 3" foam for his mattress. (This was before I had a digital camera; I will look for a print and get it here someday.) He had a sweet little room with cute truck wall paper border on the wall. Then he upgraded to a built-in room in the corner of my room. At that point I moved Christine's crib into the closet and changed the wall paper border to the cute clothes on a line that you'll see in the photos. When she started crawling out of the crib, I was concerned she'd get hurt from lack of room between the crib and wall. God blessed me with finding a wonderful wooden toddler bed, so her room was able to remain in the closet. When Christine was four (I think) I switched her to a loft bed in the big bedroom and that part of the closet was used for a "playroom". Somewhere in there the closet was my sewing room. This closet has had so many faces in the 12 years I have lived here :-D. Here is it's current organization and use:

The view as you walk into the closet and kind of look towards the left. You can see the cute wall paper border. {Yes, I know - I have way too many hangers. The blues and green are for my clothes; Christine's are on black and hot pink. I don't like the notches on the shoulder part and it's become harder to find them and when I could they went up to nearly $4! I found a pack on clearance for .75 - I couldn't not buy them :-).}  The two white shelving units and plastic drawers are our homeschool books and supplies. There are two built-in shelves; the one above what you can see, has about four feet of space that is all homeschool things as well. After 10 years of homeschooling, we have quite a stash, but we love it :-D!

This is the view when you step in fully and look to the left. That is a lot of my sewing and crafting supplies. All three of us do lots of crafts, and up until lately it has all been just my stuff, but it's starting to be that the kids use it as much as I do.

This is the view standing directly in front of the tall black shelf and looking back towards the entrance (on the right). We don't move the sliding mirror doors, so the doorway pretty much stays the same. You can see my clothes hanging on the left (straight ahead when walking into the closet) Christine's clothes are to the right (straight on view in the above photo). I installed the wire shelf you can see so she could reach one shelf for her clothes. Otherwise the first built-in shelf is just over 5'. The rods on the ends don't really do anything now, but it is better than storing them somewhere else.

I'm linking this to The Nester's nesting place blog and the "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful" party.  I have already changed the organization in this closet and have had this post written since mid-January waiting for the updated pictures....so I'm "celebrating the imperfections" by posting anyway, even though it's a day late too.  It is a conscience choice for me to not let life get me down when I can't get things done the way I think they should be done.  I appreciate this chance to acknowledge imperfections' place in our lives. :-D

I'm so thankful my Heavenly Father doesn't get tired of my silliness{sigh} ... He is even partial to my imperfect-ness, it is His choice for me to lean on Him and Him alone.