Seasons Change...

I think its safe to say that summer is officially here! :)
We've had more than two sunny days in a row that were above 70 degrees! This is a good sign :). 

Speaking of seasons change...

Over the next few months you will see some changes taking place in my lil etsy shop what you will see is fewer items being renewed. Lostsentiments is not closing but scaling back on items that don't recieve many views or sales. Some items will be reduced in price to help clear out inventory as well! :) I will be posting the reductions on Lostsentiments facebook page here so feel free to tag along and follow there! :)
I always love seeing new faces! ^-^ (um-hmm, yes ;))

What will remain a constant are the patterns and items made after I've worked up a pattern so you will see a few new items cycle in from time to time. 

Custom orders are primarily received from friends and family which it great! However, trying to balance those, work, social life, the shop stuffs, house stuff, etc. has been trying at times.
And since I want to continue to fill a few requests from time to time and keep my creative juices keep a flowing, it's time for a change :).
I will continue posting on the blog and sharing with you lovely followers whatever I might be working on or getting into next or just day dreaming about. ;)
I'm looking forward to the change and hope you are too! :) 

Speaking of day dreaming... 

Vintage Winter by Jude McConkey

I stumbled upon this photo today when I saw it in my favorites! ^-^  lol Apparently I'd seen it before ;)
... seeing it today I fell in love all over again... and thought it fitting to add to this post. 

There is so much beauty in each season if we just look for it :) Times a changing! :)

 But oh how sweet the memories! :) 

Thank you for reading lovelies! ...and for following along wherever we may go! :) xox ~Dawn

Storage is Important

Why for yarn of course! :) Of course ^-^

Okay and for clothes, and shoes and other clothing things :). 

Closet renovating is something else the family helped us with while they were out to VA this year!

The hallway closet, our bedroom closet and my sisters closet all got facelifts! ;) 

The original design of each closet was okay but I felt there was a lot of space not being used quite so efficiently. So with help from the parents, my sisters helping unload the closets and in some cases painting them (the hallway closet) we were able to get the closets tended to from start to finish in two days. Dad and I painted and prepped the boards/walls before and after the shelves went up. Initially we were looking at the wire closet aide's and in the end decided wood will last longer and look sharper (and cost half of what we'd have paid for the wire shelving). We got shelving that was 1 by 12 and then however long we had measured we'd need for each closet. Dad and I painted just the shelving white and left the rods natural wood as you'll see in the photos :).

* * * * * * * 

The hallway closet BEFORE:

...and...

AFTER:

We painted the inside of this closet  to match the rest of the hallway and large sitting room, making it the last area upstairs to be painted since we moved in. 

All other walls upstairs had been painted since we've moved in. :) 

The rod was placed higher than where the prior one was. 

My husband being 6' 4" and having long coats we made sure the closet would store our longest coats with ease :). Shelving was added on top of the rod brackets and around the left side of the closet. This created a nook for the folding chairs to rest on and some camping gear to be hid away yet still readily accessible. The bottom shelf allowed for more shoe storage *yes* which helped tidy the floor up a bit! I moved a shoe caddy from my closet to the hallway closet for storage of purses, hats and gloves. I also purchased a basket for other scarf storage you'll see in the far right photo.

* * * * * * * 

Here is our closet - I neglected to take an official "before" photo but if you can envision more clothes on the right side of the closet packed in tightly then you get the picture. If you can't picture it then imagine a closet where if you pull out a shirt, the hanger stays attached to the pole but is stuck outside the clothes because there's not enough room for it to swing back into the mix, think SARDINES... yeah. I don't miss that. ^-^ 

Spacing this closet was very important to me. I wanted my mister to be able to have his shirts hang and be high enough for him to see. A custom tailored closet for sure ;). Luckily the dimensions worked out quite nicely with both his tops and mine. The top shelf of the closet allows for the misters shoes or my shoes in a shoe box, his shoes also rest on the 2nd shelf along with a small basket that he call pull out to grab dress socks when needed. All the way to the right we left space to store long dresses and pants. We made a small change to how we store our jeans. Jeans, shorts, all pants :) are on hangers now. I had to brain storm about my shoe storage because once I hung up my clothing it hid the shoes! I found an under the bed shoe caddy that has done well so far. I love that I can see all my clothes now and its not such a fight to get an item out just to see it!

Dad did an awesome job making sure the rod brackets were flush with the wall in every closet where applicable. Prior to redoing our closet on either side I just hoped the clothes wouldn't push too far to the ends... or they'd fall off. So annoying. First world problems... I know ;) 

* * * * * * *

Here again I didn't get the official "before" picture so imagine again clothes on the right side 

why did we always clear that side out first?? Curious... ;)) 

with clothes on white hangers that fit the space on the first photo.

 My sisters closet was modelled after ours only in this case we brought the top rod and shelf down further so there was more than just a shoe boxes' worth of storage. 

* * * * * * 

Reorganizing the closets proved quite helpful in the yarn arena as well - the old shoe rack went into the white room/craft room and ow holds yarn in a way that you can shove skeins together (yes! :D) and still see the colors quite readily when you open the closet door. Granted this is *not* the only place I have yarn. 

But I wanted to show off this updated part! :D

Shoe rack used for yarn storage - for the win!

OH! Oh! Also - the mister got his long awaited garage closet area - an open closet? :) 

All the motorcycle gear came out of the hallway closet and found their rightful home here - yay! :D

Can I just say I love to organize? I thoroughly appreciate when everything has its own place. 

Though yes, I still have a few "junk" drawers :). 

Birthday Daisies - Planted!

For my birthday my coworkers gave me some tea and a live daisy plant! Since the family was visiting and my mom has a bit of a green thumb ^-^ she planted them where the peonies used to be! Thank you mom! :D

Hopefully these pretties will fare better than the peonies did there. 

Quick update - the peonies transplanted about a month ago haven't grown any more :s nor have the dahlia's come up! I asked my mom about them when she visited and we cultivated the soil around it again. Maybe they'll come up next year? 

No matter - I will let you know either way! :D

Are there any plants that are struggling for you this year?