But honey, I don’t have time to clean the house….I’m busy crafting.

The worse part (and the part I hate the most) is cleaning up after the project is done; so I have a tendency to stick with crafts that let me keep the main mess spread out for years at a time while I work on small projects. Like scrapbooking, beading, painting models. This habit does not endear me to The Geek but we have reached a compromise. I have a worktable in the living space and my crafting can stay spread out on that all the time. As messy as I want. I feel that the table is not big enough. No surprise there. I had a larger table. It was not big enough either. Conclusions concerning space issues and cluttering large areas with stuff can be drawn from that; and those conclusions would probably be correct.

Whatever. The compromise is I can have the table in the living space as long as I DO NOT leave my craft stuff spread all over the dining table, kitchen bar or island. Do not get the wrong idea about The Geek, I can USE those surfaces I just cannot leave everything spread out all over them for long periods of time. I can tell one day that we are going to have a long discussion over what is a ‘long period of time’, for right now I’m trying not to be too liberal in my interpretation. My theory is that as long as half of the dining table is available for meals I have not cluttered the table and therefore, I am not utilizing that surface for long periods of time. Even if I leave my stuff on there for weeks or months. Can you see the fine print in that?

“So what brought this up?” you ask. I just finished another couple of necklaces and I was putting up the supplies. Yes, I was on my table but I still have to put enough away so that I will have a clear surface to start the next project. I was bemoaning the fact that I have to clean up and how much I hate it. Then it dawned on me, “at least you don’t have to put it all back in the spare room.” Sometimes my conscience is annoying. So here are my latest efforts. If you would like to own it let me know. Free of charge to my friends and family, of course.

(images deleted to free up space for other pics)