Friday, June 18, 2010

Where Bloggers Create Party ~ My Space

I was not going to participate in Where Bloggers Create II at My Desert Cottage, because I don’t have an actual room.  However, a moving of my craft table in the garage {a spot I cleaned up and took over from my hubby, who wasn’t using it except to put more and more crap on it}, made me change my mind.  After all, not everyone is going to have a separate room/studio/office, so I figured “why not?”. 

WhereBloggersCreateII A secondary refrigerator moved into the garage and took the spot where I have been crafting and putting projects together for the past 6-8 months.  So after nixing my idea of moving it under these two shelves, hubby changed his mind and moved it under these two shelves {insert eye roll}.  Here are a couple of before shots and lots of pictures are below.

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I had already had intentions of fixing up the little area ~ wall and all ~ where I was previously, to make it a little prettier for when I’m in there, and I was thrilled to get the shelves to use for storing some supplies right above the table.  A recent order from Hobby Lobby online got me a roll of black and white Harlequin wrapping paper and a roll of pink and black French wrapping paper.  Ooh la la! 

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I started by doing the harlequin paper at the top and I just went the width of these metal shelves.  I then did the French paper in the middle and finished up with the harlequin paper at the bottom part of the wall.  I added some pink ribbon on the front edge of the shelves.

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Here’s a full view of my area.  This gives you a little perspective of just how small a spot I have. To the right is the door that leads into the house {kitchen, laundry, exercise room}.  My craft closet is in the exercise room, so it is a few steps away if I need to grab something out of my supplies.

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Here are some close-ups of the items I utilize when I’m crafting or working on projects here.  Some of these may look familiar as these were actually some of the first projects I did when I rediscovered my crafting side last year.  You can see my cookie sheet magnetic board.  

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This was a jewelry box I found at Goodwill ~ brand new ~ from Target {who has it for $14.99 and I got it for $4.99).  It had a “Love” word on it and I took it off and added the key hole.  I also added some scrapbook paper behind the glass, which is where a picture was intended to go.

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My recycled Vanity Fair napkin holder, which now holds some small packages of rub-ons, stickers, and small tags.  Some ribbons I grabbed from the baby shower that needs to be put away.

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The previously gold gift basket that had a screen-type of trim around it, now painted brown and holding some of my larger embellishments and adornments.

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My scissor holder ceramic bunny, which I love.  This actually had a small thing of string that originally came with it and the string could feed through the mouth area and the scissors would sit on the bunny face as glasses.  The string is gone, but sometimes a small pair of scissors comes in handy so I hung him up out here.

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I’ve got tags in the harlequin box, which I need to change out the label to read “tags”, and the purple storage container holds larger stickers, scrap card stock and other larger items that don’t fit in the other things.  I’d like to get something a little more in keeping with the area, but for now it works.

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Other random pictures of items I feel I like to have in easy to reach areas.  Items I don’t use as often or that are just decorative I’ve put on the very top shelf.

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Gotta do something about this open bottom portion.  Some of that underneath is hubby’s crap tools and junk stuff.

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That’s a little better!  Much neater now.

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This light was already attached to the table and it has definitely come in handy when I need light close-up on something.

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After seeing the first pictures I took, I had to get rid of that blue plastic cup holding pens, pencils, scissors and such.  I covered a sauce can that was in the recycling with some scrap paper, ribbon and stamped muslin.

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I recently added this extra tray I had gotten from the Dollar Tree.  It looks like it will come in handy to hold little items so that they don’t roll off the table.  I also like to keep a pad of paper close by so I can easily write down supplies I need to get or replenish.

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Hubby wants to know when I’m doing the rest of the garage! 

Thanks for visiting where I create.  I wish I had a dedicated room for all this {and my decorating business}, but sometimes you gotta make do with what you’ve got!   Don’t forget to check out everyone else’s space over at My Desert Cottage.

Target and Their Lovely Dollar Spot

I took off the past Friday from the day job so that I could do some final running around before my daughter’s baby shower.  Part of that running around brought me to Target and you know you can’t go there without checking out their dollar spot.

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Besides some great little tin pails, they had these cardboard paper ones.  Love the black and white with that hot pink inside.  I got two of those for my craft area, as well as these fun polka dot ones; $1.00 each.

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I’m always one for picking up extra wrapping paper when I see it on sale or, in this case, cheap.  They match the pails and were also $1.00 a roll. 

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I’d say that was $8.00 well spent!

Linking up with:

Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Decorating Ideas Folder

Sometimes I think I save too many things on my laptop.  It makes me nervous, even though I make sure to back up at least monthly.  I thought I’d go through some of the pictures in my Decorating Ideas folder and share them before I delete any.

atticmag

Image from  atticmag

bh&g Image from BH&G

books and antiques

Image source unknown

country french.home office

Image source unknown

Well, that wasn’t much help.  I still like all of these pictures!  Maybe I’ll just back up a little more often. 

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

What Do You See?

I almost entitled this post “Do You See What I See?”, but then that Christmas song started going through my head.  Like. an. earworm! 

Do you remember the post where I mentioned going back to Goodwill two days after I had been there, hoping to find something that I had picked up and put down again?  If you don’t, trust me, I did.  It was all the fault of Carolyn at My Backyard Eden and her project with chord charts.

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Picture from My Backyard Eden

A little background is needed here.  My son’s birthday is today; he’s 20!  He loves guitars and is basically self-taught.  I played guitar when I was younger, too, so including my old one, he has 4 or 5 different kinds of guitars in his room.  Carolyn’s chord chart project gave me an excellent idea to make something for his birthday.  With this.

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This is where the “what do you see?” question comes in.  The day I was at Goodwill and picked it up, then put it back down, it looked to me like a guitar!  When I eventually got it and showed my daughter, she didn’t see a guitar.   It is obviously some kind of wacky cheese board, but I saw a guitar.  And a guitar it shall become!

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Since he always seems to lose his guitar picks {as I did when I was playing}, I decided to make this as a decorative piece, but also to serve the function of holding his picks.  First it needs to be guitared up!  I started by painting it with Rustoleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze.

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I then found tack like nails and put two on each side of what would be the neck/top of the guitar.  Don’t know if you can see them in this picture {above}, but they’re there.

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I got sheet music, in this case, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody {because who doesn’t like Queen!} and tea stained the papers to age them, after I cut them to fit the areas I wanted it to go in.  In this case for the back and the front.

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My hubby cut two small pieces of scrap wood for me, which were also sprayed ORB and became the pieces that would hold the “strings” and be the fret at the bottom.   

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Some wire from the craft store to use as strings and a pick holder I found on Amazon {with some new picks}.

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Does it look like a guitar now?  The picture below shows it with the pick holder attached.

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My thanks to Carolyn for the inspiration!

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Do you ever “see” something that no one else sees? 

Linking up with:

It’s So Very Creative at It’s So Very Cheri

Be Inspired at Room to Inspire

Make It Yours Day at My Backyard Eden

Show and Share Day at Just a Girl

Sunday, June 13, 2010

~ The Baby Shower ~

Just a quick post with some pictures from my daughter’s baby shower yesterday.  She got tons of stuff for the baby!  I had these flowers on both of the tables I had set up ~ the dining room for the food items and the kitchen for the drink items.  My daughter is into the orange and green combo more so than the expected pink.

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Her fiancee helped me move my black and white chair into the great room for her to sit in while she opened her gifts.

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I made tea sandwiches with egg salad, chicken salad, tuna salad and a vegetable garden cream cheese {which my daughter just loved}.  Along with that we had cupcakes, petit fours, tarts, cookies and cream puffs.  The food was half gone by the time I got a chance to take these pictures of it!

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The favors were those styrofoam coffee cup baby booties filled with personalized M&M’s.

For the liquid refreshments we had hot tea {regular and decaf}, raspberry iced tea, a strawberry/kiwi and 7-up punch {with frozen strawberries added in}, and water {which was requested by several people}.

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Some random shots of the shower.  The flowers were hydrangeas at different bloom points, and hot pink and orange daisies that I found at the supermarket.

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Before I forget, I have to mention that I ordered this great diaper cake from Jamie at Crafty Couture.  She did a fabulous job on it and it arrived well packaged and intact.  The frame in the background {on the windowsill} was also something Jamie made and sent along ~ it has the baby’s name and is ready for a couple of pictures.  Jamie will work with you for your theme and how big you want your diaper cake, so definitely check her out if you have a baby shower in your future.

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Here’s the daddy modeling one of his soon-to-be daughter’s outfits ~ with sunglasses and sandals to match!

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Her BFF Pam is in the purple and wrote down what she received and from who.  She also made her a beautiful scrapbooked album because as my daughter said, “I love these, but I don’t have the patience to do them.”  And just like a BFF would do, Pam put the whole scrapbook album together for her so all she has to do is add the pictures!

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And, of course, a picture of me with my sister, One Cheap B*tch!  {I am not short; she is tall!}.  Another friend of my daughter’s is trying to get her photography business off the ground and took some pictures that I can’t wait to see.  She took this picture for us with my camera.

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All in all {even with the brief downpour as everyone was arriving} it was a lovely day!

 

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