Pinterism

When I was young, my mom had a notebook in which she would glue pictures she found in magazines and catalogs – pictures of ideas and dreams. There might be a picture of a kitchen with a note beside it that mentioned how much she liked the tile on the counter or a picture of a bed with a spread she particularly liked. I have a very similar notebook that I’ve added to throughout the years and I even made one for my daughter when she turned 13.
Now, along comes Pinterest and it is much the same thing – only internet based. I am completely hooked. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out http://www.pinterest.com It’s kind of like a visual way to keep track of and organize your internet “favorites” – only I use it so much more than I ever did my favorites folders.
One of the things I saw and pinned, was an idea for a hanging organizer.

Actually, I pinned several of them.

So, finally I decided to make my own organizational center.
First, I made myself a couple of write on wipe off boards – simple picture frames that I had sitting around with pictures or scrapbook paper behind them. You can write on the glass with a “vis a vis” pen and wipe it off easily. For my to do board, I found a picture of a plate like the ones I like to collect, stretched it to fit the 8×10 area and added lines on which to write each item on my list. (My son says that when I have a long list of to do’s, I can say I have a lot on my *plate*! LOL
I still wanted a pocket organizer though, so I started by measuring the area I had to work with and I found some fabric that I thought would be just right. (It was an old drape that had been in a box of hand me down fabric.)

I cut two rectangles to fit the size I wanted the pocket organizer to be. Then cut smaller rectangles to make each of the pockets. I started each pocket by sewing a strip of ribbon near what would be the top. Then I folded the pocket in half, right sides together and sewed around the edges, leaving an opening for turning. After turning, I top stitched them onto one layer of the organizer where I wanted them to sit. I backstitched several times at both top edges to strengthen them.

 

The “pens” pocket, I did differently as I wanted one that was more cylindrical in shape. However, I am not satisfied with how that ended up working out, so I won’t go into that.
One thing I do like that I did with the pens pocket, was that I sewed three buttonholes into the top edge. I use these to tie my scissors, my scotch tape, and my favorite pen to the organizer so that they can’t run off as they have been prone to do.
Once all the pockets were sewn on, I put all my layers together. I decided to add a layer of very thick interfacing between the two layers of vinyl-like fabric to make sure it would lay straight. So, I laid all three layers together and bound the edges with navy blue bias tape. I put two buttonholes in the top edge of the organizer to hang it by.
I wonder if it might look nicer with some other coordinating fabrics mixed in, but then, I didn’t really have anything that would have worked just right anyway, so I guess I’m satisfied with how it turned out.
Finally, I wanted tags. I liked that about the brown one shown above, and I’ve always loved labels – especially the cute metal framed ones that look like library card catalogs. I found a place online that sells them, but haven’t been able to afford the splurge yet. So, I decided to make my own for this project. I created them in Photoshop Elements and printed them out on cardstock and just stuck them on with Fabri-tac. I really like how they look!

So, in “give a mouse a cookie” fashion, one thing led to another, and I decided to make some more of those tags for my bins. We have a bin tower beside the freezer in the kitchen with bins for medicines and bins for tools etc. So I made and printed out some pretty tags for each one. (I glued each one to a scrapbook paper background.)

I was so excited recently when Walmart got *Navy Blue* bins in, and switched out my mixture of royal blue and white bins, putting them to work elsewhere in the house.

Here is the jpg of the tag that I made. (I was going to include the psd version with its layers but the blog wouldn’t let me do that. Hmm.) Right click and choose “save picture as” to download it and make your own tags.

Enjoy! And happy organizing!