Letterpress Drawer Decor

This past Saturday, I helped my mom tackle the epic task of cleaning out her craft room.  She gave a lot away. I brought 3 big polyfill boxes (the ones that hold 10 lbs worth of polyester stuffing!) and we filled them all with stuff to donate.  2 boxes went to Craft Bits & Pieces, an awesome thrift store for craft supplies in Fairport NY.  And 1 box I brought to the MAAC Thrift store.  But of course, I got to bring some stuff home for myself.  It was like a free garage sale! One of my favorite things I brought home is this letterpress drawer.  I've always though they were cool and have seen them used in home decor before in magazines and online.  So I was psyched to have my very own. Last night, CJ got hardware to hang it on the wall and we've both been having fun deciding what we can display in there... and I'm filling in the blanks with my vintage thread spool collection!

I like that I finally have a good spot to display all the cool little things I have around... especially the things I've gotten from local artists I've met at craft shows. There's the "Spike Troll" and carved heart spool from Wonderful Whittlin', the felt bunnies from Moya Lazy Factory, my domino pendant from Cloud9 Jewels, my Minion peg doll from Sweet Whimsy Designs, and my felt mouse from Lumpy Buttons.  

There are 3 mice and 3 aliens in this picture.

The figure drawing model looks like a zombie.  I hate zombies, but it was the only way to make him fit in the space.  Plus it makes me giggle.

Easy Vintage Spool Photo Holders

Vintage wooden spool picture holders. These are great for displaying vintage photos. 

All you need is an old wooden thread spool and a paperclip that fits snugly into the hole! Then use the paperclip to hold your picture up. I like this style better than the style I've seen online where you actually saw a groove into the spool. With this style, the spool is left intact in case you want to use it for something else.

I'll be using these to decorate the tables at RNEST's Etsy Craft Party this upcoming Friday (June 6th).

Home Improvements!: Cast Iron Skillets as Kitchen Wall Decor

After rearranging the kitchen this past Saturday, the wall to the right of the door (where the shelves were previously) looked really empty.

I guess it was really bugging CJ, because Sunday morning, he busted out his electric screwdriver and improvised some wall decor from a large old frame I had lying around, and our cast iron skillets!  I thought he was a little crazy at first, but I love it!  (and I love that my husband has a sense of style and enjoys home decor!)

 It looks much better than a blank wall, we didn't need to buy anything, AND we have somewhere to hang the skillets instead of them taking up space on the stovetop!

It was quick and easy too!  We were hosting church on Sunday afternoon and he had this done before people came over! (it is really just 5 screws into the wall!  One for each skillet and the spoons, and two for the frame.) 

The frame was the first thing he put up, just to have something there.  When I said it looked like something needed to be inside the frame was when he got the idea to put the large skillet inside.

  Then he wanted to hang up the smaller skillet as well.  It was my idea to hang the wooden spoons. "Design on a Dime" would be proud!

It definitely looks very farmhouse chic! ;)

Reupholstered Chair

CJ picked up this pair of chairs off the curb back before we got married. They have a modern look, but aren't TOO modern. They are sturdy and surprisingly comfortable. Upon close inspection, you can tell a cat tried to use them as a scratching post once upon a time, but they are still good chairs. The picture below is when we had them in our old apartment...

A few years ago, my mom bought us some fabric to reupholster them with. I had chosen the fabric back in our first year of marriage, but never really expected to get any. It was more of a dream project. But one day while shopping with my mom at JoAnn Fabrics (our favorite store!), she saw it in the clearance section and commented on how nice a fabric it was. I told her it was the fabric I had wanted to use to reupholster our chairs, so she said she'd buy it for us for Christmas!

(I think it was even cheaper than that. I think it was an additional 50% off and turned out to be like $4.50 a yard! That's quite a deal for home decor fabric! Mom bought us 10 yards.)

That was about 3 years ago. And we have finally gotten around to reupholstering one of the chairs!

The reason it's taken so long is that we were really just too intimidated to do it. We had even considered just taking the chairs and the fabric to a professional upholstery place. But 2 weeks ago, CJ had a vacation week from work and while he was in super-DIY-handy-husband-house-project-mode, he figured out how to take the chair apart, and we found out that it wasn't so difficult! Just unscrew a few screws, take out the panels, cover panels with fabric, reinstall panels and put the screws back in! It's so simple! So during his vacation, CJ busted out his screwdriver and staple gun and finally reupholstered one of the chairs!

:D

I'm really loving the look of the chair now! I'm looking forward to when we have time to do the other one!

And Terra seems to approve as well. She went and curled up in the chair as soon as we were done!

You can lay on it...just as long as you don't scratch on it, kitty!

Happy Fox Throw Pillow

Foxes are the new thing lately. And I had a triangular scrap of the sweater I used for my last fox, so I made a fox throw pillow!

Link Roundup from Ohdeedoh

I don't have kids, but a lot of my friends have kids...and plus I am just a big kid at heart...so one of my favorite blogs is the Apartment Therapy kid-decor blog Ohdeedoh. A lot of times I'll find posts there that I want to share with friends and family, or just want to bookmark for later, so I'll post the link on Facebook. But I've been so behind on reading the blog lately, that when I finally got around to catching up on it today, there were WAY too many links to share! So I decided to do a roundup here on my blog.

How To Make Flubber, Glurch and Other Homemade Art Supplies at Home

I posted a link on Facebook last month of the "Make your own watercolors" tutorial I found, expecting one of my young-mother friends to benefit from it and maybe make some with their kids, and my own mom (a preschool aide for special needs kids) actually made some at home on one of her days off!

Rediscovering Ed Emberly

I think I remember an Ed Emberley book I liked as a child. It was one where you made various creatures using your fingerprints. I always thought it was so fun!

One of my friends who is homeschooling asked me recently if I could give her son a weekly art lesson. While I am an artist, I don't consider myself a particularly good teacher and sometimes have a hard time coming up with a "lesson plan". So I think I may try to find some of these books at my local library. *Just doing a search on the online library system website is revealing that he has a LOT of books!

Changing Table Transformed Into Driving Dresser

This is just fun. I can just see my friends' little boys driving their matchbox cars up and down this dresser!

Drab to Fab Thrifted Dollhouse

This reminds me of the dollhouse I still have from my childhood. Not because they are the same style (mine is much more simple...and not quite as funky-colorful) but because my childhood dollhouse is one that my grandmother picked up out of someone's trash and my grandfather fixed it up and gave it to me for Christmas (or was it my birthday?). The funny thing is that I thought for years that Grandpa MADE me that dollhouse. It was only a few years ago that my mom told me that Grandpa only refurbished it! But I still love it anyway!

* Make sure you click through to the original blog to see all the little details!

Repurpose A Frame To Keep Kids Under Control

Even though I believe that some naughty children just need a spanking to bring them in line, there is something to be said for positive reinforcement so that children will want to be good and less spankings will need be given out in the first place!

Gavin's Winning Woodsy Nursery

This room is so gorgeous! My favorite part is the tree graphics on the wall (as well as the pops of turquoise!). I'd love to do that in a room someday. Although I probably would not have the background color so dark.

*all images via Ohdeedoh

Featured Studio on RNEST!

I was featured on the RNEST blog yesterday! Their "Make-It Mondays" series is now featuring a different artist each week, interviewing them about their creative process and workspace...and I'm the first artist to be featured!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

New Desk's Final Spot

As promised, here are pictures of my refurbished desk's new home!

Until yesterday, I had moved my sewing machine from the old school desk (that I picked up off the curb from in front of an Amish house) to the new desk, since the new desk just fit in the space between my two column shelves. But yesterday I decided on a whim to rearrange the space and so I moved one of the shelves over just enough so I could include the school desk. So I put the sewing machine back on the school desk and put my fabric cutting mat on the new desk. I like that the fabric cutting "station" is right next to the sewing "station" now instead of on the "L"-shaped desk (Wow, I have a lot of desks crammed into this space!). Plus, now I can push in my chair. When I had my chair in front of the new desk, it was too wide and wouldn't push in. Now It fits under the school desk and I've put a pillow under the new desk for Luna! (She likes to be near me during the day). I'm sure Terra will end up using it too, but she seems to prefer the chair near the window so she can watch the birds.

So...this is where the magic happens!

Finished Desk!

Remember that desk I was refinishing? I finished it a few weeks ago!

My husband bought the hardware himself when he happened to be at Home Depot. I'd say he did a good job picking it out!

As I said, it's been finished for a few weeks and has been in my craft room. I re-rearranged my craft space today, so I'll need to take some pictures of the desk in it's final spot to share!

"New" Desk

I got this cute little desk from my friend Kim. She just got some new furniture and didn't have room for it in her bedroom anymore. It was just going to go out to the curb, but she offered it to me first.

I'm painting it, giving it a few coats of polyurethane and I'm going to get some new knobs for it as well. (If I've learned anything from HGTV and Design*Sponge, it's that a coat of paint and some new hardware can do wonders!)


I haven't decided what kind of knobs I'm getting yet, but my mom told me that Cracker Barrel is selling glass knobs for $1 apiece.

When It's finished, it's going in my craft room and will be the new home for my sewing machine. I can't wait! :)

Belated Christmas Tree Post

Here's a belated look at our Christmas tree. This post is specially for my Grandma. My parents visited her this weekend and Mom informed me today that Grandma wanted to see pictures of my tree this year. Here you go Grandma!

We had the tree on the porch...since we weren't sure where else to put it, and we weren't going to be home for Christmas anyway.

I've always wanted one of these peacock clip-on ornaments. I found this one on sale at JoAnne's.

My sister-in-law gave us this ornament for Christmas.

And she gave us a set of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ornaments a few years ago. It has baby Rudolph...

And grown up Rudolph!

And of course, the Abominable Snowman is at the top of the tree because he helps put the star up.

Kitty being curious about the tree...

She was very good and didn't even try and climb up it. (for fear of the dreaded squirt bottle!)

Luna likes the tree too!

My "Studio"

Here's a glimpse into the evolution of my workspace.
Here's what it looked like during our "walk-through" of the house before we bought it. It was the smallest bedroom upstairs, and I immediately said "This will be my craft room!"

Here it is shortly after we first moved in (but weren't completely moved in. I should have taken a picture of it on our "big" moving day! There were so masny boxes that I never thought I'd get everything organized!)

And here it is now!

Don't let the mess fool you! I actually have things pretty organized! But tell me that the rest of you don't have craft rooms that are as messy as this (or worse!). Those shelves are reused/repurposed bi-fold closet doors from my parent's house. I originally took them because I thought I would use them to make big paintings...but I think they're serving me better as shelves!

And this is where the magic happens! My sewing station!

The table my sewing machine resides on is an old school desk I picked up from the curb outside the house of a local Amish family who were moving. The top was really dirty, after some scrubbing and magic eraser, it was as good as new!

And here is my newly installed monster clothesline!

I LOVE my monster clothesline! Whenever I do another craft show (or if I ever have my own shop) this is how I want to display my monsters!

Fun with Light Sticks & Paper Lanterns

We went to a friend's bonfire Saturday night. The kids had lots of light sticks and CJ and I ended up taking some home. I had the idea to put some inside some of my paper lanterns...



Speaking of paper lanterns, I used some to decorate my craft room, along with those tissue paper poufs left over from the baby shower

(that green fellow at the bottom is Jake...my Muppet Whatnot.)