My Rennovated Craft Room: An Adventure

Hi.

Craft Show Season has thrown me for a loop. But, I've been chomping at the bit to share with you my beautiful new crafting space. My darling Louis, who is a wonderful photographer (seriously, his pictures make my heart warm, just go look.), brought his camera with him on his last visit and stunningly captured my new space.

Some high points:

• The $1 yard sale find ironing table. That would be the picture with shoe organizer filled with fabric and trinkets. The lady that sold it to me didn't even know what it was! I built a table frame to the perfect ironing height. 
• My sewing table (the top came from menards, the base I built myself.) has room for a cutting mat and two sewing machines.
• Above the sewing table, there's some organizing tools that came from ikea. Plus my cool as hell thread holder that I've blogged about before.
• My mustard colored crushed velvet vintage chair that I snagged at a thrift store. It perfectly hugs the shoulders and is so comfortable for long nights of sewing. 

Some things you can't see in the pictures:

• There's a HUGE chair in the corner that is perfect for cat naps and sitting and hand sewing.  (it was a hand-me-down from a family friend)
• There's a big box store 5-shelf unit that has fabric stacked to it's gills. 
• On the floor under the sewing table is a heavy duty power strip with a on/off push button on the front. When you touch it with your toe the radio, the light, the sewing machine all come on at once. It is brilliant. (I kind of stole the idea from Louis's darkroom set up.)
• Under the ironing table, there are totes for storage that is covered up by skirt that I made from a vintage sheet. 
• My clothes closet is in this room as well. It's a walk-through to my bedroom. (My house is 110 years old. there's some odd architecture going on.) However, because I don't really care about clothes storage, I emptied half of it out to put up an industrial shelf that holds all my other miscellaneous craft supplies. Like stamps and paper and styrofoam and beads and glass melting equipment and shells. 
• I have one large window that faces north. There isn't much window light in the room, however, I do have a view of a bird feeder and I can open it and listen to the rain.

So, yeah. that's my new craft room. I love being in it. It's a haven.

Fabric Swap Success

Last week, I had a bunch of crafty types over for a little get together. I made a ton of ice cream, sat out all the toppings and we all dove right in. But after that, came the fun part.

Everyone was directed to bring 3 1/2 yard cuts of fabric and two fat quarters. We piled it all into the middle and drew numbers. Then we all took turns and picked from the pile. It was really interesting to see all the different styles and patterns everyone brought. So much fun to see everyone!

Now all I need is a bigger house. ha!

new business cards.

The other day I really needed a project to get my wheels turning. Do any of you ever do that? Just get stuck in a rut and need a good shovel to dig you out? Tedious projects are usually my shovel of choice. I find that something repetitive and creative greases my wheels and lets me work more freely. So, i sat in my living room watching a marathon of mad men and made these new business cards. They were really simple. I printed my business name, email and etsy store in a very simple font in light gray. I used the snap apart avery cards you can buy in a pack. Out of all the do-it-yourself business cards, I find these to be the brightest and heaviest. After that, I used wonder under on some fabric. (I don't even think it is called wonder under anymore. It's just called Heat Bond. but my grandma and mom have always called it wonder under and I will too!) I cut the fabric into one inch strips and ironed them directly onto the card. So each card is personalized with a different strip of fabric. It was a lot of fun. And now I have these really sweet business cards and greased wheels.