Crazy 226 and some storage solutions

Yesterday was a busy day. Hubby took me for a day out: we had a round of bingo (he won £20! Friday the 13th and all that) and we did loads of shopping... well, it seemed a lot but not really, just the kind where you-hunt-for-school-shirts-in-every-shop-and-until-you-find-the-right-size-in-one-of-them-you-buy-a-couple-of-things-in-every-one-of-them. And so in my search for shirts for the wee man, I ended up, among other things, getting this new storage system for my threads - and I surprise even myself with how ridiculously happy I can get just looking at it! :D

OK, so this is how I stored my threads until now: lots of zippy bags in a large Ikea box.

I keep my threads in small zippy bags, which in turn are kept in larger zippy bags that are numbered by the hundreds, according to the DMC numbering system.

To be absolutely fair, this wasn`t a bad system - my biggest problem was that I didn`t like squeezing the air out and closing the zip every time I took a colour out or put it back. Erm, I probably need to revise what `problem` means but anyhoo, I was really chuffed when I saw this stackable drawer solution in Matalan yesterday: I`ve been looking for something like this for some time, I just never saw the right size, the drawers were either too big or too small. Not this time though, mwahahaha!

The units came in a 2-small-1-big arrangement and I bought 4 of them; luckily, the plastic frame comes apart, so I could rearrange the 12 drawers to build one tall tower - now tell me it`s not a thing of beauty! ;)

When we came home, the latest issue of Cross Stitch Crazy was waiting for me - love surprise Postie! :) - and I was happy to see the little wooden heart freebie that I`d stitched a few months ago. I loved working on these, they were such a breath of fresh air in between the other projects - usually I work on large designs and if you are a stitcher, you know how good it feels to sew something that you can start AND finish on the same day. ;)

By the time I sorted my threads last night, I admit I was too tired to go past the first page - which means I have the pleasure of reading through THREE magazines today, yesss! Yesterday I finally got round to buying the first issue of The Art of Cross Stitch (actually, I dilly-dallied so long that the 2nd issue is out now too). So I bought that one as well and now I can`t wait to see what they are like inside: I think I`ll give the no-brand threads to my friend`s daughter to make friendship bracelets with but the aida will come handy for cards and the hoop from issue 2 will be ideal for framing the flowery number I want to stitch for MIL for Mothers` Day. ;) And no matter what I find inside, I`m already happy that this magazine exists: anything that popularises our hobby is a good thing in my book. Happy stitching! :)