Organization for the Hopelessly Unorganized - The Series

Over the next few weeks I'm going to do a series on getting organized. I'll be focusing on creative and inexpensive ways to organize studio spaces as well as ways to prepare yourself for the holiday buying season. The amusing thing about this series is that I am, admittedly, not the most organized person on Earth! I have, however, come up with a lot of ways to get myself more organized (and stay that way, which is always the biggest challenge in my world). I'm hoping that having first-hand knowledge of what it is like to spend half of a Saturday looking for something that you just know you "saw last week, right here" will help me give good, useful advice that can actually make the once hopelessly unorganized at least a little less stressed out.

The Organization Series will consist of the following:
1) What to do first when you want to get organized
2) Too much stuff, not enough space
3) I know it was right here, but now I can't find it
4) Giving yourself permission to be messy
5) The packing and shipping department
6) Working ahead = sanity

Spoonflower

Thanks to Steve (my pretty, pretty bridesmaid) I was introduced to the coolest idea/website I've seen since he sent me a link to Etsy a year and a half ago. It is called Spoonflower and it is probably best described using their own words, "Spoonflower gives individuals the power to print their own designs on fabric that they can then use to make quilts, clothes, pillows, blankets, framed textile art and many, many other things that might surprise you." I was immediately taken in because this is something that I've been attempting to do on my own for quite a while - with varying degrees of success. I've tried everything from those expensive printable sheets that you get at the craft stores (too expensive), to creating my own printable fabric sheets (too much ironing and prep work), to carving stamps and stamping fabric (inconsistent results), to sun printing ... oh, I could go on and on.

My idea journals dating as far back as 2 years ago contain pages and pages of fabric design ideas so this is something that has really been festering in my brain for some time. To say the very least, I was giddy at the thought of having my very own fabric line at my disposal and jumped in feet first without giving it a second thought.

My brain has been running non-stop and I can't get my ideas down fast enough. There is SO much potential here that I don't even know where to start!