{Pink and Brown}

For the longest while I've been dreaming of a space that I could call mine. Somewhere where I can create, sew and leave scraps of fabric lying around without anyone complaining. I've been scouring Flickr and a host of other blogs for craft room ideas. A few months ago our room mate moved out and our guest room was available for me to finally move my craft stuff into! I only took a corner of space, so that we can still have guests stay over, but it's the perfect area for my creative needs! The room actually gets great natural light, though it doesn't seem to translate in these photos.

I played around with a color scheme, and finally chose pink and brown. I wanted the space to be uniform in color and storage, and because it is a small section of the room it needed to have a very organized look. Plus, I like to keep things neat  and tidy. Though it is hard to see, the color on the walls in the room is a pale green and the contrast is nice.

The white table was a hand me down from my mom, and I primed, painted and sealed it myself. I love the clean look it gives. The chair however needs to GO! I hate it, and am on the hunt for the perfect chair to paint and recover. The space definitely needs it! It's a little hard to see, but on the wall to the right are two pictures framed. They look like this, and this. 

This crummy picture (sorry about that) shows the shelf above my table, it holds my magazines, a few boxes of crafting supplies, cans wrapped in decorative paper (to hold pens, paint brushes and extra stuff), as well as a haphazardly placed stack of felt and fabric. 

My peg board was bought at home depot, cut to size (thanks husband!), primed and painted the same color white as the table. It holds all my craft tools, scissors, hole punches, etc... The letter "L" is for my name, and both it and the small clipboard below it were covered in decorative paper. You'll see a sneak peak of some of the paper cutting I've been doing on the bulletin board, which I'm eventually planning on covering in this brown woodgrain fabric. I may just make a matching cozy cover for my sewing machine too!

Finally my 70's sewing machine. I love this thing! It may be a little dated, but it works great and is in great condition. In real life it is a soft buttery yellow color with a contrasting yellow based cream color. It's not fancy, but gets the job done. And it does look awful cute. The hideous office/table lamp is a "make do" until I find something else that fits the space. I'm on a constant search for the perfect fit.

So, this is it, a work in progress, but somewhere I can call my own! I'd love to see pics of your craft/sewing/creative space, so if you have one please leave a link!

{Dreamland}

I usually don't focus on fashion related items (perhaps I should more, since I have such an interest in them), but I had to post these pictures. I want to live here, permanently. These new pics from the Anthro homepage are absolutely gorgeous, and I would love to be found wearing any of these beautiful things. I spend way too much time endlessly searching their web site dreaming of being surrounded by all the beauty that is Anthropologie. My wish list is updated weekly (and rarely comes to fruition) but it is an addicting dreamland. You could say i'm slightly obsessed. That flower, that scarf, that necklace, sigh........

{Little Darlings}

Here in the craft blog world we're used to seeing homemade dolls. Heck, if you do a search on Etsy you'll find thousands of them. This pattern is a basic one that, this gifted and wildly well known blogger, has made very popular. You can even get the pattern here if you want to make a small flock of them for yourself. The pattern is fun to make, and the opportunities to be creative with it are endless. I've made a few, given a few as gifts, and given myself a few. This one sits around my sewing area reminding me to make more of them! P.S. Overlook the linty scraps of thread!

{A Headache of A Project}

So, I started on the Amy Butler Birdie Sling pattern two days ago. I made a trip down to Beverly's Fabrics  to pick up some Amy Butler fabric (they were one of the only one's who carried the line, plus they take competitor's coupons-BONUS!) and while there asked one of their salespeople for a recommendation on fusible interfacing. This is where all went wrong. 

She led me to some interfacing which she said "would be great for the project". I took her up on her advice and bought the stuff-even though my intuition told me, uh...i'm not so sure about this.... 

Well...to cut a long story short...my Birdie Sling turned out beautiully-except that it was crinkly like a plastic bag. Litterly. The interfacing she told me to get was so stiff and paper-like that my bag made crunching noises at every touch. My husband even said-"Um...I could hear you coming with that thing, it's definitely not right". It was obvious the sales lady DID NOT sell me woven interfacing, and my beautiful (not to mention expensive-nearly $40) project was a bust. 

So...this is where the redemption happens. I called up Beverly's and talked to the manager. Telling her that the recommendation the sales women gave me was severely wrong, thus ruining my project. She told me to come in with the bag and she'd take care of it. So...I drove down to Beverly's, very disappointed I'd have to take another 6 hours to make a new bag. 

Well, now I'm a Beverly's fan for life. Not only did the manager give me all new fabric, interfacing and supplies to make a new bag, she gave me my money back as well!! Discouraged at the idea of having to make an all new bag, I tore open a seam and ripped all the paper out I could, barely salvaging the thing. It's no where near what the right one would have been (not to mention I had to cut two huge holes inside the handle) but at least its not crunching when I put it over my shoulder. (You can see in the photo how crinkly the handle looks. That was pre-paper rip out.)

On the other side of it- this bag is just too cute. I want to make a ton of them in all colors for summer. The bag is just the right size for me-HUGE. I love big bags that fit everything you could every want. Perfect for summertime. Perfect for springtime. Perfect, perfect, perfect. 

{Busy Bee}

I've been MIA since Valentines Day, almost a full month! My apologies. But i've been busy sewing and crafting away. More specifically, starting my spring veggie garden, tending to my tulip bed, paper cutting (three designs done!), building my little craft/sewing area (in pink and brown), sewing baby cloth shoes, dolls, and working on this little beauty as of this morning. Hopefully it'll be finished by tonight. Have fun looking at the Flikr group for this project, i'll post pics of mine when I finish it.