Thursday, March 29, 2012

my craft room {part 1}

I spent some time cleaning up my craft room recently and thought I'd share it here.  (When it's clean and picked up is the perfect time to show it off, right?)  So read on if you'd like to see my craft room reveal!

Before I begin, I have to share that for many years, I had my crafting supplies scattered all over my house.  I had my sewing machine in my hallway closet (which I would pull out and set up on the table for a week or more, then take it down), my crafty supplies in little baggies all over the place, and the knitting things -- well, I had knitting projects in every room in my house stored in little cubbies, bags, and just hanging out all by their lonesome.  The yarn was another story ... my house was like something out of a Yarn Harlot book chapter.  I was "hiding" "storing" yarn in many creative places (... think of places like the sleeves of unused coats in the summertime, the space under my couch, the trunk of my car ... you get the idea).

Then, two years ago, it all changed.  We had a small room in the corner of our basement that a loooong time ago was my baby daughter's bedroom, until we figured out that she slept much better sharing her brother's room.  Then, for a few years it was a never-used guest bedroom.  My awesome husband is the one who suggested that I could use my very own space to escape to for craft time, so I scrounged up supplies from everywhere in my house.  I spent less than $100 decorating the room, and then, it became my dream : my very own craft room.  Come on in !



Upon entering, I have on the wall a gift my aunt sent me -- an original lithograph by P. Buckley Moss entitled "Knit One, Purl Two".  (She knows how much I love to knit!)



Because I had decorated this tiny downstairs bedroom in a bright cheery color scheme of yellow, blue and red for my baby daughter, I had a decor scheme that I could already use, and did, in my craft room.

On one side of the narrow room is my computer station.

 
The best thing about my computer station is my old gooseneck iMac that was relegated to my craft room after we upgraded our family computer.  It's really old and clunky and  s-l-o-w  but it works for my purposes which are light web surfing, reading of pdfs and other patterns, and a bit of word processing.  Because it's so  s-l-o-w   it's actually a plus -- it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r  to browse the internet, which means that I don't spend gobs of time on it when I could be crafting in my craft room.



Above the computer is a shelf that I originally painted for my daughter's room.  It's perfect for storing all the little spools of ribbon I have collected over the years (especially when I was sewing up lazy day skirts by the dozen, it seems like, for my daughter).  Now, they hang out in a roy g biv assortment.    I hang a little yarn ribbon from the shelf to hold my latest little wall arts, as well as recently made baby things (to have on hand for emergency baby gifts) and inspiring skeins of yarn (madtosh are the current ones). 


I have a mini collection of sheep going on as well, to the left of the ribbons.  Above the shelf are two paintings that I made for my daughter's room, that were very pottery barn-inspired.  They have a faux-stitching detail that I think translates well to my craft room!






To the left of my computer are all my knitting needles (straights in hand sewn pouches, circulars in the awesome namaste circular needle cases) and other doodads.



I keep my yarn on a bookshelf to the left of the computer (to be shared here in a later post), but I will share a picture I put on the side of my bookcase that I see as I sit at my desk :



I know that these "Keep Calm and ... " retro posters are everywhere and have become quite kitschy these days, but I couldn't help but to put one up, anyways.



To the right of my computer are my other things : pens, pencils, magazines, and a fabric-covered mousepad that matches my ironing board cover, and a journal.



My mother actually took an embroidery of the letter "J" that I made for her as a child (her initals are "SJ") and repurposed it into this felted journal a few years ago as a Christmas gift.  I love that!

To the right of that is my other bookshelf, the one that houses my fabric stash (more on that later).  On the bookshelf, within sight from my computer, is another sign I printed up :



I made up a medley of me & my fabric stash or the Amy Butler "Show Me YOUR Stash Contest" ...



And that's it for now!  Stay tuned for Part 2 in the craft room reveal ...


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

spring break

It is spring break at our house and I've had a chance to get a few things done. First, I spent the better part of a day (that had really nothing else on the agenda but chores and laundry) setting up my blog. Yay! I once had a blog long long ago but gave it up when I went back to work. Those were the days of clunky blogs, clunkier uploading of photos, and clunkiest of all, my old computer. Because everything is so streamlined and quick and easy now, I have high hopes that I might be able to keep this habit up. We'll see!

Other projects included some baby quilts. The first is a quilt inspired by this adorable crocheted turtle cape and hat. The crocheted set were requested by the mom, but I had made her a quilt for her first baby ... so of course I had to make her another for her second! The greens and browns of the set inspired the baby quilt. A lack of turtle fabrics meant that I had to go with my old fabric standby for babies ... polka dots. Who doesn't love polka dots, I ask?

Here are the blocks before being put together ...


The second baby quilt is slightly whacked. Because we are pirates at my school, I wanted to go with a black/white/red pirate theme ... but because the dad is Mexican and the mom is my super trusty Spanish-speaking sub, I wanted to throw some calaveras in there as well. The result is what pirate-eating-calaveras would look like on crack ... I did throw in some reds on the last round of every other block to give *some* unity to the whole thing.


The mom will either love it ... or hide it.

Friday, March 23, 2012

proof that "vegan" does not equal "healthy"

We made some Whoopie pies for St. Patrick's Day recently ...

They were super yummy.

They were also vegan.

But, no ... vegan does not necessarily mean healthy.