Archive for the ‘Other Crafty Endeavors’ Category

I have been dreaming of blogging again, like I used to do way back when.  I used to blog very regularly, had a personal blog site and the whole 9 yards.    Somewhere along the way I lost the bloging mojo.  So still I dream, but in reality I doubt it will happen again.  Even once a week seems unattainable, when I look at my postings here and realize I am only blogging about once a month!  Such is life I suppose.

Anyhoo, this past weekend I got some wild hair up my derriere to paint my craft room.  My whole house is in sore need of a makeover (of which Stephinie of Gypsy Forest can attest to).  I used to not be embarrassed to admit to living in a mobile home, back when we first bought the place and I had so many dreams of fixing it up so nicely … but now, 6 years later, the mantra of ‘we are planning to do … ‘ is just not working anymore.  My husband, bless him, is just not into the whole home improvement thing.  I have been begging him all these years to let me paint, begging him to fix the decks, begging him to let me plant shrubs, flowers, trees.  But always he tells me it’s something we can do without, wait till this time, etc.  There is always an excuse.  Well this weekend I decided enough is enough.  I am making my house a home this year.  I am going to make it look inviting.  I may not really know what I’m doing, but I will do it!

And so I started with the craft room.  I guess I am going a bit backwards, that I am doing the least seen room in the house first.  And next I plan to do up either Matthew or Abby’s room – likely it will be Abby’s as she loves the new color of the room and I have 1 & 3/4 gallons of paint left.  I dislike the idea of the two rooms being the same color, but I hate to waste the paint.

Here it is, all painted up after only a day of work.  And the husband really likes it- in fact he’s asked if/when I am doing more rooms!  He is so predictable, once I do something that he was so against, he loves it.  The huge blank expanse of wall is being filled up with items as I come across them.  Anything and everything will go on the wall.  Anything that catches my fancy, and is hang-able, or that I can make hang-able, will go up.  Right now, it’s still pretty bare – I have 2 framed pictures up, an Amy Brown print, and an old mail sorter that belonged to my grandmother.  It will be a forever work in progress I think.

On the left of the photo, is my spinning corner.  The glider faces the computer in case I’d like to watch a movie while spinning.  And I have fabric on order (Kokka sheep farm in turquoise) to recover the glider cushions.  I’m debating about painting the wood – I don’t think I want to but it definitely needs a cleaning.  The ironing board is cluttered b/c I took this soon after I had moved everything back into the room.  So there are still things there that need sorting.  On the right, the blank paper was bookmarking where my Amy Brown prints would go – they are there now.

And this poorly stitched together pan shows the opposite side of the room.  Directly in front on the left is my tiny sewing table.  My machines had been picked up for months before I decided to start making my own interchangeable knitting needle case.  Then I remembered how much I despise not having things ready to go when I am, so I found the machines a place.  On the wall above the table is blank now, but I have this on it’s way to me.  Above the printer used to reside that yellow shelf on the floor.  I am going to trade that off with a similar shelf that’s bigger, that’s in the kids’ bathroom.  The hubs doesn’t want to move it.  Looks like I will be doing it.  Then next to the shelf will go my bulletin boards.  I’m also going to make this (in turquoise) to hang from the ceiling above the computer, and get 2-3 more photo frames for the opposite wall.

This room seirisouly makes me happy whenever I walk in.  Lime green is one of my favorite colors, and just screams creativity to me.  I can’t wait to get the finishing touches up to show it to y’all!

So I made myself a spinning journal and I love it I got the idea from Andrea who bought a drop-dead gorgeous hand bound spinning journal from a seller on Etsy. Since I knew I couldn’t buy my own, I decided to look up how to make my own!

Now this isn’t perfect, but it stays together, and is just perfect for me. I used my favorite sheepy fabric for the cover, and uber-cute scrapbook paper for the front end pages. I didn’t have enought pretty paper for the back end pages as well, so I just used white cardstock.

I’m working on my next one, this time a coptic bound journal. I went paper shopping, as I want to make journals for all the nieces for Christmas – they all like to write and draw. I bought a few extra pages to make myself another one to practice the coptic stitch with. I have since decided I would use this journal as a dye journal

Without further ado, here is my spinning journal in all it’s glory