Craft Room 3.0

This post has been a long time coming.  I LOVE looking at other people's rooms, especially rooms where they create, so I hope you will enjoy a peek into mine. Some of you may remember Craft Room 1.0, which became slightly famous in Flikr land.  Well, when we moved, Craft Room 1.0 had to be taken down and moved to our new house.  Craft Room 2.0 was never really finished and probably never photographed.  It had yellow walls which were pretty and it was pretty big.  HERE is what Craft Room 2.0 looks like now!  We moved bedrooms upstairs with the coming of Amelia, so that meant CR2.0 had to move downstairs.  Well, enough chit chat - come on in!

 My mother-in-law gave me the sewing room sign and button heart.  The framed pattern is actually some scrapbook paper I found.  The best thing to do with beautiful scrapbook paper is to frame it and hang it!

The view right as you walk in.  I do my photo editing at that desk.  Josh gave me the Degas repro painting last Christmas.  I love Degas, ballerinas, and Impressionist paintings.  This one is called Rehearsal of a Ballet on Stage.  Catchy, isn't it?  The cubes are all from Michaels or Joanns and are super perfect for building a desk.  The desk is a door painted green.  It's the perfect width to go across two cubes.  The To Do chalkboard is really a mirror from HomeGoods painted white and chalkboard paint.  When I first signed up for Pinterest, the first thing I wanted to do was chalkboard paint everything!

A better look at the far corner of the room.  The chair I planned on reupholstering looks good, right?  Too bad the sides and back aren't done!  It's only been a few years!  In that cabinet is most of my random crafting supplies.  I use plastic bins to keep things organized.

The other side of the room houses a closet where all my fabric is stored.  Yeah, we definitely aren't taking pictures in there at the moment! Josephine is hanging out by the window, wearing a shirt that's never going to be finished...

 Here's a full on shot of my sewing area and inspiration board.  The middle machine is my main machine.  Then the left hand one is the only machine I can get to do shirring.  The right hand machine is my serger.  The chair we reupholstered in zebra print fabric.  I love it!

The cubes are almost all different.  Here are some looks inside some drawers.  The top one is labeled, "embellishments."  The bottom one is labeled, "cutting tools."

Some organized scrapbook paper.

My Heather Bailey pear pin cushion, a flowery pin cushion from my bridal shower, some antique silk thread in a glass container, wire dress forms from Home Goods, and various other things (including the casings from the first time I fired a gun!).

The inspiration boards. 

I hope you enjoyed a peek into Craft Room 3.0!  Currently it is decorated for Christmas, so I might be back with some more pictures of Christmas Craft Room 3.0!

Thanks for looking!

Nursery Tour

Welcome to the nursery!  The baby for which this nursery is designed has not made her appearance yet, but we are hoping that it will entice her to come out!

 The crib skirt, curtains, and some of the basket liner fabric is from "French Hatbox" by Tanya Whelan.  I did a LOT of fabric research before I settled on that one!  My mom did a decorative painting technique on the walls to make the stripes.  The paint color is a pale lavender (with a pinkish tint).

Here you can see the changing table.  The crib and armoire are in the same collection (Stanley Young America), but the changing table is from Target!

  I added some baskets and made new liners for them - easiest project in the whole room!

This curtain was not made without tears, but that is another story for another time and involves a serger and a very noticeable hole.  : (

The rocking chair will go in this corner.  As you can see, the closet is in an awkward spot for a door.  It is also shorter than a regular door.  When our house was built, "standard size" must not have been popular!  I made a fabric curtain instead. The fabric is a pale lavender pattern from Joanns and is SO soft!  The crib sheet is also made from this fabric.  I love it!

I love the wall hanging my aunt and grandmother got for the baby's room!  It goes so well!!!

Here is the lovely armoire!

We still need some more things, but the room is clean and mostly done and waiting for its little inhabitant (although she won't be spending time in there for a while!!).

I have the tutorial for this little lady about 85% finished.  Provided I don't go into labor, I will post it this week!

Sorry it has been so long!  I'm dying to post more projects and tutorials!
I must add - LOTS of hard work went into this room.  My husband and mom did SO much painting throughout the whole house.  My dad helped as well!  I am so thankful for them!

Kitchen Makeover

Today's the day to show kitchen improvements! As with the living room, the kitchen is not complete. It needs things on the wall, and mostly it needs a full size kitchen table. You'll see...

BEFORE!!

AFTER!!!!

The door and lower walls are painted "Covington Blue." I saw this paint color on an episode of Divine Design with Candace Olsen when I was obsessively watching HGTV before we moved.
We owe a lot to my mom, who painted MUCH of the kitchen. Thanks, Mom!

The upper walls are "Pear" and the cabinets are "French Ivory." I swear that naming paint colors must be the funnest job on the planet!

My husband and dad put in the lovely wood floor themselves. I love it!

We still have the same antique kitchen table. We found a table and chair set we like, but now we just have to locate the money for it...... This tablecloth makes me happy though. I found it at an antique store in Connecticut some time ago.

Josh found this key hook at Joanns and I think it's pretty perfect!

The grrrrrrreat kitchen towel set came from my mother-in-law. It is so perfect for the kitchen. She found it in Florida, but it's part of the Moda Home collection. I am currently obsessed with their kitchen and house products. They are so quirky and vintage!

The lovely towel set, (plus a red one)

I am completely happy with the kitchen improvements! Decorating is so fun!!!

Scenes from the (new) Living Room

We take a break in the "action" (yeah, right! BUT the chair actually finally got stripped tonight! More updates coming...) to bring you scenes from the new living room. We still need to hang things on the wall, but you can get an idea of what it looks like....

BEFORE


AFTER

We painted the walls "Kraft Paper" by Martha Stewart and the trim a classic white.



Added our own special touches








And if any of you were wondering, Sir Linksalot is now guarding the front door. Watch out!

Progress

I figured I'd update with some pictures of completed projects.

Here are two kitchen improvements:



A roman shade for one of the kitchen windows. I used a tutorial here: Roman shade tutorial in 20 pictures or less.

I really like the way it turned out and the instructions were super simple.

Here is another kitchen project - an under cabinet curtain. Ignore the plywood floor. We've had some flooring delays because the hard wood floor we ordered was back ordered. It is in now and may start going down tonight! How exciting!

This is a closeup of the under cabinet curtain. I added some of the striped fabric from the window curtain to the upper part of the curtain. Both fabrics were from Joanns - 54" decorator line.



Outside things are coming along as well.


Josh is making us a patio in the backyard. He's making sure the sand is an even 2"


Laying the patio bricks.


Homeownership is fun! Now that things are *MUCH* more settled, it's fun to get into the projects. The craft room has had lots of progress as well. I'm just not ready for photos yet. Stay tuned!

Confessions of a Homeowner - Updates

Well, clearly the first confession of a homeowner is that they don't have a lot of time for blogging. Plus this homeowner's only place to sit is on the bed and by the time she gets there, unconcious is the only option. Here are some things I've learned about owning a home:

• Hot water is very important
  Things in houses built before 1978 can contain asbestos
• The previous owners liked to use scotch tape and nails. Sometimes they used them together, like, let me scotch tape the wall, then bang a nail into it.
• I have a lot of stuff
• I am not strong
• I like to sit on couches and when that isn't an option, something feels wrong
• Homeowners take LOTS of trips to Home Depot and Lowes and Ace Hardware and maybe all three in one day!
• Homeowners need to make lots of decisions
• Door locks are expensive!
• ...So are hot water heaters
• ... So are tile floors
• ... So are wood floors, which is now going in instead of the tile floor
• When in doubt about a paint color, ask Candice Olson of Divine Design on HGTV
• You don't really realize what owning a home entails until you own one
• Home ownership is TIRING!

The happy (and relaxed) homeowners at the closing

Taking up the floor - SIX layers of linoleum!

The view out the kitchen windown when they were fixing the septic system

Taking down those poles. Yeah!

The kitchen looks brighter already!

Choosing paint colors, which ended up being none of the above. I'm taking suggestions on what to do with lots of sample cans of teal paint though!

I have been *Horrible* about posting on other people's blogs. I promise that as soon as I catch up, I will be a posting machine!