Good start on the cleaning/organizing...

I'm not finished but at least got off to a fairly good start. (Made the mistake of picking up a book this morning but used my timer and read for a half hour then worked for a half hour so the day wasn't a complete loss...until my Mom brought over a true crime book about an event in my home town...but I finally managed to put that down and get some more work done.)

As I was sorting through and bagging the items in the shoeboxes I showed you earlier, I came across a bag of canned goods. In that were 2 cans of spray glass cleaner that I had forgotten I had made...one will go on the shelf in the laundry room in the Bombay house.

For those of you who have been following the progress on the Bombay house, it's sort of on the back burner while I work on the dining room area. I'm in the process of  trying something for the dining room table cloth and until that's finished (if it works) I can't put all the dishes, cutlery and food back on the table. Plus the kitchen is a real disappointment since I put the cupboards and appliances back in so that's back in the 'thinking' stage. But I will get back to it.

And of course, I was busy with the scrapbooking vignette. And hope to do our Canada Minis Trash to Treasure Challenge before we leave for Arizona to see the Tucson Miniature Time Museum and attend the Phoenix Show and Sale.

But nothing is going to get done on any of my projects until I get some major cleaning/putting away done!

With that in mind, I sat down with the two shoeboxes of minis that I've purchased/made/took out and haven't put back and sorted through them and have started putting them away properly.

For those of you who don't know me, I store my miniature accessories in ziploc bags on cork bulletin boards that I hang in a closet at the end of my workroom.

As you can see on the second bulletin board from the right, I wire clothes hangers to the bulletin boards.  I have 21 of these boards (I've been a miniaturist for a LONG time) and they are such a great way to keep things organized.

When I first started, I used the parts storage cabinets like these. And they were fine but as my collection increased the separating and labelling got harder and harder. Especially once I started using things from the collections. I had to remember to cross off what I had used from the label and remember to add additions to the label.

Going with the bulletin boards eliminated the specificity.  Now I could go with general categories per bulletin board and specific categories for each board. And if I removed something from the board, it didn't require relabelling.

These four are for food, dishes and pots and pans.

Here's the edge of the first corkboard on the left: Pots/Pans; Baking Pans; Baking; Pantry

These will go on the food boards: salad made from artificial snow, sundae on a pushpin, grape jelly from Lite-Brite peg; wedding cake (Dollarama wedding favour; bag of canned goods made from strips of paper; cake on pushpin stand; salad; potato chips from pepper seeds; cake from cork; bottles of pasta made by my friend Elaine; another sundae on a pushpin; licorice allsorts by Le Gourmand; purchased ice cream sundae; more licorice allsorts bought in Calgary years ago; watermelon made from tutorial in American Miniaturist magazine

Mixing bowls made from food dye containers; knife block with knives made from turned toothpicks (I made both the knives and the block); mixing bowl made from contact lens container: drinking glasses (stained glass paint container lids); Three teapots made from beads and findings (I bought these from Another World Miniatures but you can get the findings from Oriental Trading); great Tupperware bowl miniatures (I got these from a Tupperware dealer selling at the Glenrose Hospital in Edmonton); plate templates (a gift from Tina M., MEE chairman); a bag of Chrysnbon dishes and silverware from the Edmonton Sale and Show; and a wonderful Chinese takeout meal from Ann Vanture.

I've tried to put links to the 'how-to's" or information on these particular pieces but if I've missed anything or you want to know more, please let me know and I'll try to add the info.