Thursday, April 12, 2012

Half-baked: My Crafting Space


So, obviously this isn't really a cooking day.  But I do believe my little crafting corner qualifies as half-baked--really!  My craft room is really a corner of my bedroom--approx. 4'x6'.  Our master bedroom has 3 closets, and rather than use one for storage (that's what the garage is for, right?), I commandeered it for my craft closet.  We've lived in our house about 10 years now and I've had two other different crafting rooms--real rooms.


I started out in our little loft area.  On the original home blueprints, it was called the children's loft.  Probably acted as a play area.  It's pretty small, with a sloped cieling and maybe 10'x10'--you can't stand up all the way in any part of the space, but its great for sitting at a table or desk and working.  I think the previous owners to us completely ignored the space.  The ladder had been removed and the original 1960's linoleum was still on the floor and the dark wood railing was untouched.  The thick layer of dust simply said, "This space was useless to us."  Rhett installed one of those fold-down ladders and it became the perfect mommy escape place.  I bought wire shelving units to organize everything so I could see it all.  I set up a folding table to act as a work table and had everything just so.

Then, less than a year later, #3 decided to join our family.  Well, Rhett didn't like me climbing up and down all the time looking like, well, never mind.  He talked me into moving everything into our 3rd bedroom.  He took over the loft and now the only hope of removing him and his stuff from there is, well, about as likely as pigs flying.  To this day I regret listening to reason and making that move :)
The new room is pretty small and the other two kids were sharing the larger second bedroom.  At the time, I totally cleaned everything out.  I painted it a bright, cheery yellow with a soft white stippling (a la plastic bags).  I hung denim curtains overlayed with pretty eyelet fabric.  I set up my shelves to neatly store everything.  I felt inspired in my pretty space. I grew to love that space.

Then, as kids do, the oldest two grew out of sharing a room and #3 was ready to move from the living room into a bedroom.  So, the girls (oldest & youngest) were moved into the big bedroom and the boy (the MIDDLE child) moved into my small bedroom.  My craft shelves were carefully re-assembled in the 3rd closet in the master bedroom.  Whenever I wanted to work, I had to clear off the kitchen table and haul everything out.  This meant I did very little for a couple of years, because I believe in EATING at the kitchen table, so it was quite a pain to get something out, only to have to put it away for a meal or snack just when I was getting into the groove.

After a while, we tried putting a table up in the back portion of our living room, but I didn't like that either, because it always made the room look more messy than it actually was.  Eventually, we got a table from a yard sale that fit perfectly in the corner of our bedroom next to my craft closet.  Now my sewing machine and current projects have a home and I can close my bedroom door if it looks to much like the big bang.  It's a little cramped, but it works--until I have that dream home with six bedrooms, a library, an office, walk-in closets ... Back to reality.
I share this because I have made several adaptations in order to make this area work for me.  I'll share a few of these over time--but hopefully now you'll see why I take on some quirky projects.  Also--If I can make it work, anyone can.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Happy Easter!

It's been more than a couple of weeks now since I've sat down and written anything, and once again I'm a day late and a dollar short ...  The sun is shining here and I did finish one pretty big project for me--getting everyone matching on Easter.  It's not all perfection, but everything turned out pretty dang cute, if I do say so myself.  (I'll work on pics ...)

Once again I'm re-learning my schedule.  I was blessed to fall into a part-time job have been finding my footing there.  Although the job will mostly be on evenings and weekends, the training started during the days and then slowly moved closer to my intended schedule for the beginning of April.  Bear with me--I'm still doing as much sewing and crocheting as possible--just a bit more limited for a little while.

I finished about 1/2 the quilting for Luke's quilt, but ran into an issue with my machine, so I'm having to re-do a good portion.  I've re-worked my quilting scheme, but it'll still take a little more time.  I missed the silent auction, so I'm really bummed.  I'll hang on to it for just the right occasion.
A quick re-cap of the Karrs over the last few weeks ...
The first day of spring was accompanied by snow in the beautiful Willamette Valley.  Not our usual wet dusting that disappears by noon ... I mean almost 7 inches with tiny, dry flakes still coming down for a couple of days.  It was the most snow I've seen since moving to Oregon eleven years ago.  We've also had some crazy hail storms, too. (Notice the soft green *new* leaves poking out to say, HI--I'M HERE!)
We made some really cute Easter eggs for decoration a la Pinterest and http://www.craftyendeavor.com/2012/03/08/easter-egg-garland/.  It was messy and the string liked to tangle, but they turned out really cute!
I made Samantha a scripture cover from my tutorial (http://areformedheathn.blogspot.com/2012/03/tipsy-tutorials-pieced-scripture-cover.html) since her English class is studying The Bible (KJV) as literature.  She picked out batiks--not my personal style, but it turned out cute and she loves it :)