I am a self-proclaimed organizational freak. Things have a place. An order. Somewhere they belong. Really, don’t we all want that!?
There is a sense of comfort in knowing you can find what you need when you need it without tearing apart the house.
Needless to say, my house is not in optimal organized shape. The lovely ladyfriend traveled a lot for research last fall and is now writing her dissertation. If you are close to anyone in a PhD program you will understand. If not, then just trust me when I tell you it is a special kind of hell. We are barely holding it together around here. There are piles. And stacks. Hidden items. The tool box is now a tool pile. The space on the dining table that isn’t covered by library books is occupied by crafts-in-progress. Recipes- 90% organized, but yet unfinished- are covering the chopping block. I lost my camera for 2 days because it fell behind my computer chair (narrowly missing the bag full of unfinished knitting projects or the gym bag where it might never be found.)
You get the point. It isn’t pretty all the time. Yet. We are getting by. We are working. I’m baking and cooking all our food. We make a bit of time for hanging out with friends. We are being awesome mamas to the amazing babylady. We have planted all our indoor seed starts. We have seedlings popping up outdoors and the garden is getting cleaned up for spring.
But the onslaught of new seed packets and catalogs almost did me in. Aside from the fact that I wanted everything, it was just too much. The big bin of seed packets, tools, labels, markers, old tags, bags of cover crop seed all tossed together in a big ol’ jumble? That is no way to treat some seeds! Trying to dig through it and figure out what I’d planted and what I hadn’t? Uh, more chaos? Where were the spring planting crops? Summer? For a gal like me it has the makings of a bad dream.
Enough. No More. Lookie, lookie what I did!
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The basic supplies: an index card box, 4" x 6" dividers & index cards.
Recycling seed catalogs via decoupage! Decoupage is so fun! So easy. Get Mod Podge. Apply to surface. Attach paper. Apply more Mod Podge every 15". Done!
Looking full of fancy potential huh? The beer to the side is an essential crafting supply.
The top now dry.
Pretty box front!
All done!
Side of box with some random stickers I had around.
Back of box with old Seattle Tilth Edible Plant Sale postcard
Check out the inside of the lid! All those fabulous veggies! All those recycled seed catalogs!
Closer look at the styles. I am going to attached the lined index cards to the front of the dividers and & list the varieties with purchase year.
My grandmother used to have a similar box for her seeds!
She had it decoupaged as well with seed packets. I remember that she had tucked away a clipping from an old Life Magazine that showed the dapper Duke of Windsor and his Sweet Peas (Spencers — and now I understand the joke there).
She was mentally gone by the time I came around to gardening as a kid, but I used to play with the box when we would visit; I remember it well. Instead of dividers for each kind of seed, she had dividers for each month of the year, then she put in the seeds to be planted each month, so it also was her planting guide as well as storage.
My parents said that she was an excellent gardener and that her Victory Garden was in her local paper.
Regards,
Tengrain
Ooooh, that is a good tip…the planting by month! Don’t seeds, plants & grandparents bring up such strong memories?
as always I bow dpwn to your craftiness and persistent pursuit of all things fabulous. well done!
Super cute! And organized to boot! I like that.
Love the box – how cute!
Pret-ty Cute! I love decoupage. And yes beer is vital to crafty goodness. Fun fun fun and I think I have to bookmark your blog. (PS found you on the Facebook ModPoge page!)
Awesome! Thanks! Wow, I’m on the FB modpodge page!? I’ll have to check that out! Thanks for the heads up!
great idea, friend! i want another craft night!
Well done!
I love decoupage.