Farmhouse Love Episode 13: Sewing & Craft Room

Like most of my Farmhouse Love episodes, this post is long overdue. I'm over the late post guilt though. Ain't nobody got time for that. I'm just happy to have this room functional so I can use it for my ongoing projects.

Like always, let's start with some before pictures.

This is what the room looked like when we moved in. It's a long, narrow room, but it's really quite perfect for my crafty needs. 

The work surfaces and storage units were left behind. Thank you very much.

The former owner of this house used this as as a sewing room, as indicated by the themed curtain and painted drawers. Once upon a time, I would have loved this particular decor, except that I like color on my walls. Too many years spent as a renter have caused me to crave color on the walls.

So I scrubbed everything down and got to work. I went around and around about what color to paint my space, but finally I decided on pink. It makes me happy.

It really could have ended up being just about any color because I love all the colors. Color inspires me.  

My pegboard got a new coat of paint too.

After scouring Pinterest for thread storage ideas, I smacked myself in the head because I had the perfect storage solution right in front of me all along.

I love having my sewing thread on my pegboard, and I wish I would have done it a long time ago. It's so accessible now, and easy to put away. Which means I'll actually put it away.

This is the Making Memories unit that I tweaked way back when. That little letter board above it is a reminder message for my pink hating family. They do not like my pink room, and I don't care. It's mine. 😊

The four bins I have on the top shelf are for my current projects. They are full up to the tippy top. You might laugh, but my new rule for myself is that if I don't have room for the supplies for a new project in one of those bins, then I can't have a new project. 😟 It's for the best.

My dirty little secret is that I have a couple moving boxes underneath the work space which are also stuffed to the gills. It's the thought that counts. Regardless, it's good to have goals.

I've had this chair for at least twenty years. I painted it and added the stencil to coordinate with my new space.

I also painted and stenciled the storage unit and swapped out the hardware with these nifty cup drawer pulls.

I do have a a little problem with this unit, cute as it is. Before I painted it, the inside reeked of mouse droppings. I scrubbed it, and painted it with multiple coats of stain-blocking primer and multiple coats of paint.

Still it reeks. I put air fresheners inside several of the drawers but still, the drawers are stinky. I don't know what else to do besides drag it outside and light it on fire. That seems like such a terrible waste though.

If you have any ideas for me to try, please share.

I'm happy to report that these drawers are not stinky though.

This is my scrapbooking paper stash. I no longer paper scrapbook. I am 100% digital now. This stash does come in handy when the girls have school project boards to do though.

These shelves hold all my Cricut supplies, stamping supplies, and other miscellaneous things. The labels help me to find things when I'm maniacally crafting.

The other end of my room has turned into food storage and paper supplies overflow. It's okay. I'm not bitter about it. Really.

I made these little curtains for the window. They stay open most all of the time. Otherwise the laundry room, which is right next to this room, is as dark as a cave.

Right outside this window is a spooky shed which we haven't used. It's a dark, creepy place where I imagine a serial killer might like to bury the body parts of his victims. 

Sorry. I read a fair amount of Stephen King.

Happy thoughts only. This is my happy place.

IKEA Magazine Files Decorated

Do you remember last week when I was complaining about the fact that I wasn't looking forward to decorating my IKEA magazine files?

These magazine files.

Well, I'm pleased to report that they weren't so bad after all. I gave them a couple coats of black spray paint, of which two cans was not enough. Three was the magic number.

Spray paint dries quickly, so soon after painting I was able to apply some pretty school themed scrapbook paper on the spines of the files. I applied the paper with Mod Podge, and then I gave it two more coats of Mod Podge over the top and that was it.

Done.

I'm almost embarrassed to tell you that I'm probably going to label them with Post-It notes to start. I don't want to commit to using them for what I had planned because so often my brilliant ideas don't pan out the way I think they should.

So, if they work, I'll go ahead and make some pretty labels worthy of the cuteness. Until then, Shabby Town.

Valentine Banner

This is very likely the very last banner I will ever make. On account of the eyelets have all gone. 

I can't say I'm super disappointed because the banners don't go together all that quickly. I started this one over a year ago.

I'm using a new list app though and I have to say that I've been cranking through my "To Do" list like a madwoman. And yes, I am a madwoman, but I'm speaking relatively here.

Never mind that there are still 125 things on my list, and I keep adding new ones.

I know you want to know what my app is, right? I'll get back to the banner in a minute. The new app that I absolutely love is called Toodledo. Mattie Cake hooked me up with it, and it runs on Apple devices, Droids, and even the Crackberry.

I like it because I have the ability to categorize my tasks in multiple ways and the app prioritizes them for me based on the due date I input, the priority level, and whether or not I star it.

The part that has been super convenient for me is the ability to have things recur as a To Do item based on completion date, due date, or just a specific day or date. It's incredibly versatile. I've only just begun to scratch the surface of what this app can do.

Anyway, I seriously love it and I credit it for lighting a fire under my bum thereby forcing me to get things done this year.

Yesterday I even scraped all the old caulk from around my windows and re-caulked them, just so I could check it off my list. 

Well that and it was way overdue. We had some serious drafts whistling through our house.

But my point is that it was on my list for at least two years before I got around to it. The app made me do it.

Back to the banner. Even though it took me over a year to get this done, you know I made two so I could give one away to one of my lucky Peeps, right?

So here's what I want you to do if you want to win this. I want you to leave a comment telling me three things that have been on your list for an embarrassingly long time, and what motivates you to get things on your list done. I can't wait to read your comments. Good luck!

Oh yeah, you have until 3:00 p.m. Friday, Siberia time. Whatever that is.

Winter Wreath

I finally tackled a crafty project that has been on my list for several years. Every year I take down my Christmas wreath and I have nothing to put up in its place. Well this year when I took down my wreath, I looked at my bare door and vowed that I wasn't going to go through another winter without a wreath on my door.

Again, my enormous problems.

I don't know why I put this off for so long because I've known all along what I wanted my winter wreath to look like, and I was able to bust this out in fifteen minutes last night.

Fifteen minutes. Yeah, and it's been taking up valuable space in my brain for all that time. Crazy.

I started with a bleak and barren, prickly stick-twig wreath that I picked up at Jo Ann's. Then I cut apart a pine cone Christmas garland that I've never been able to figure out how to drape right because it was so sharp and prickly, it may as well have been a garland made of knives.

I used lots of hot glue, and I only burned myself once. The best part is that I didn't glue the wreath to the table this time. Yay!

Look closely at those little red berries though, because they are evil. I would only ever put these on a winter wreath because I had a bad experience with them once. They are made of a squishy foam-like material that melts when it gets hot. In the summer and fall when the sun is beating down on our door, it gets dang hot. I once had a beautiful wreath made of purple berries that melted right off its wreath hanger and onto my door. It left a snail trail of snot running down my front door that had to be scraped off, and the door had to be repainted, it was so nasty.

So beware of the snot berries on wreaths.

Doing Whatever I Want

The end of the year is fast approaching, and I keep thinking of things that I want to share with you, but I've been too lazy to get up and do something about it. I'm going to attempt to do a little of that in this post.

The first of those things is, at first glance, possibly a little boring. It's our 2011 Christmas ornaments from my Mother-in-Law, The Barefoot Contessa.

Every year, the BFC gets every single person in her extended family an ornament that is appropriate to the year they've had. Quite often the ornament makes light of a comical event in the person's year. My ornament this year is the cruise ship, and it is appropriate, although not comical, because Peanut Head and I went on a cruise for our 20th anniversary.

Stinkerbell's ornament, however, is a knee slapper.

The Stink's comical even for 2011 was the fact that she was assigned a mule at Girl Scouts Horse Camp. It's appropriate, it's ironic, and it's hysterical. The BFC gets extra points for this one.

Peanut Head's ornament had us all stumped until we asked The BFC about it. I had to slap my forehead, it was so appropriate and I had let it slip my mind.

His ornament makes light of this unfortunate event. I have to hand it to The BFC, she's good.

Zoe Bug's ornament was a horse, just because in her world it's horse, horse, horse, horse. I took a picture of it, but it was blurry so I left it out. I could retake it, but then I'd have to move. Not happening.

The BFC has a knack for finding the perfect ornament. She frequently procures her ornaments at  Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, just in case you need to know.

On another note, I'm on break from school this week and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. We don't have enough snow to play in and it's too cold to go outside just for the sake of getting fresh air, so we're hanging out inside. I'm not complaining either. I love being inside, in my sweat pants, doing whatever the heck I feel like, because I'm not constrained by any deadlines. It's pure bliss.

I'm taking advantage of the extra time by working through some Photoshop tutorials and learning how to use my new program. I've been staying up super late, and when I go to bed I dream about digi scrapping in Photoshop. It's awesome.

So I tapped into a bunch of tutorials over at JessicaSprague.com and there's so much great stuff there, that I'm going to be busy learning for a long time. Sadly, the tutorials aren't free, but the one that I've been working through has four complete lessons with five or six tasks within each lesson. I'm averaging about one lesson every other day. The lessons come with all the supplies you need to do each of the layouts too, so that's pretty nifty.

I figure I'll wait a few months before I buy another lesson because I need to give myself time to process all the new information and get comfortable using my new skillz.

I found the Jessica Sprague site in connection with Becky Higgins' Digital Project Life. One of my New Year's resolutions for 2012 is to make progress towards getting caught up on my backlog. Notice I didn't say I was going to get caught up, but instead make progress.

I don't want to psyche myself out with the stress of another unattainable goal. Not that it's unattainable, but I like to play head games with myself and set myself up for failure. This is how I outsmart myself and work around my self inflicted obstacles.

Project Life is going to help me with that, by enabling me to focus on the story and not spend so much time on the creative layouts. I'll still do layouts like the one above, but they will be scattered throughout my albums and not stressing me out with the pressure of needing a fabulous layout for every ding dang picture.

Or stressing me out because I only have one or two pictures for an event and I don't want to waste a whole page on a one-photo layout. I hate that.

The last thing I want to share with you today is the Christmas gift I gave to my students this year. I had good intentions of getting these up earlier this month, but I ran out of time. I you like the idea, you can pin it for next year. You are pinning, right?

If you aren't and you want to, e-mail me and I'll send you an invite. You must start today. Trust me.

I got this great idea that I was going to give my kids water bottles for the classroom. They drive me crazy with their up and down to get a drink every ding dang minute. I knew I couldn't afford really nice water bottles for the whole class, but I was able to score some pretty decent ones at the dollar store. I bought every last one and I was able to get exactly the number I needed. I was crawling around, digging behind plastic containers to come up with 27 cups, 27 lids, and 27 straws to make a complete set. I really lucked out. 

I cut the names out of vinyl on my Cricut and they went together surprisingly fast. Then I stuffed them with a candy cane, an Airhead, and a mint and left them on their desks for them in the morning. The best part was that my kids loved them and they were very surprised that I personalized the cups for them. That made me feel all tingly and lovey dovey inside.

I heart their sweet little hearts.

And I miss them, but I do not want my vacation to end.

Did you hear that, Father Time? Slow the bus down, will ya?

Holding Hands

I just finished a project that I started eight and a half years ago, right after Stinkerbell was born. We knew The Stink was going to be our last baby, so that knowledge is what prompted me to trace all of our hands. Stinkerbell was a bruiser and I wanted to get her hand traced while she was still little.

On Mother's Day of the same year, Peanut Head gave me the sweetest card ever. It said "Sometimes just holding hands is holding on to everything."

I'm not normally a sappy person, but that just melted my heart and I knew the sentiment had to go with our hand outlines. 

I only wish it hadn't taken me eight years to put it all together.

Backpack ID Tags Round Three

Every year I make new backpack ID tags for the girlies, and every year I try to come up with a way to make them more durable. I sure hope I have it this time.

Two years ago I used ID badges, but they got pretty beat up by the end of the year.

Last year I created them myself digitally, then laminated them with my laminator. They still got pretty beat up.

This year, I bought some little rectangular wood pieces at Michael's and turned them into the new and improved backpack ID tags for 2011-12.

First I painted the wood, then I Mod Podged my pictures right onto the wood. I added some ABC stickers for the names, and then Mod Podged the whole thing quite a few more times.

More Mod Podge means more strength, right? That's my theory.

Although I didn't take a picture of the backs, I put my contact information there in case the backpacks are lost.

Finally I used my trusty Crop-A-Dile to punch holes along the top for cute-ifying with ribbon. I put a 1-1/4" split key ring through the hole in the middle for attaching the tags onto the backpacks.

I'm really hoping that the third time's the charm, and that the Mod Podge did the trick.

Recycled Cans Turned Pencil Containers for School

I think I've mentioned before that I like to troll through other teachers' classrooms and lift their brilliant ideas. This is yet another example of that. I've seen a lot of teachers with two pencil cups, one with pencils needing to be sharpened, and one with pencils that are sharp.

This is a big deal in my world because I like my pencils sharp, and I don't like digging through my pencil cup trying to find the perfect pencil with the perfect point. Again, I have such enormous problems.

I have also seen cutesy decorated soup cans to house the writing utensils, and I'm in love with the idea.

So you know I had to make some for myself.

Of course.

I'm in love.

I spray painted my cans black, decorated them with pretty paper, Mod Podged them to within an inch of sanity. Okay, insanity.

I put a lot of Mod Podge on to protect them from the hazards of teaching. The kids. Then I hot-glued some buttons on and used my Crop-A-Dile to cute-ify them some more.

Oh yes I did. The eyelets serve absolutely no purpose other than to cute-ify the cans. The Crop-A-Dile is A-MAZE-ING. I could gauge my own ears with pretty eyelets if I wanted.

I don't want.

Okay, school can start now. I'm ready.

No I'm not. I'm not ready! I take that back! I have more things on Pinterest I must make.

Peace out.

Band-Aid Boxes for Teachers

During the Great Decrapification of the Summer of 2011, I found these nifty little boxes. Oh yeah, I was going to make Band-Aid boxes for the girlies' teachers two years ago! Oopsie.

Sometimes I procrastinate. I might have told you that. It doesn't matter, now I have a newly organized craft space and I can make things. Yippee!

I found some super cute paper in my drawer labeled "School" so I plastered it all over the boxes.

I just used photo tape and tape runner, a lot of it, to adhere the paper. As a final step, I gave it one coat of Mod Podge to protect it from blood.

Whaaaaat? It is a Band-Aid box. Bleeding students will be opening it, otherwise why get in it, right? I have one in my own classroom, and I tell my students to help themselves, just be careful to not get blood on my cute box.

They think I'm crazy.

Did you know you can get Band-Aids at the Dollar Store? They're just a dollar.

I like these because they are pretty school looking colors. And they go well with blood.

I think I'll buy some Bactine to put in the boxes, and the girlies can give them to their teachers on the first day of school.

I need to attach a ginormous candy bar for Stinkerbell's teacher with a note that says "For the Pain and Suffering My Child Might Cause You This Year. So Sorry. Band-Aid?"