Dear Self,

I'm very proud of you. You have put in a lot of hours lately turning your craft room into a relaxing and inviting place. A place to escape from your crazy but joyful life as a mom of 5.

You've made decisions and commited to color schemes.

You've bought items that made your heart sing.

You've been painting yellow brackets and white shelves, rearranging furniture and dreaming of whether you should get the little bird cage or mini cake stand with cloche... all at the same time.

You even squeezed in some digital crafting Sunday to create the sweetest little calendar banner to drape from your new yellow brackets. It's going to look amazing!

I hope to share a free download soon of this sweet calendar! Just need to figure out how!

You even bit the bullet and ordered the baskets, the only baskets you could find in the right color and size (and price!) and in the end, it is exactly what you never knew you always wanted. Just wait until you spiffy them up with a ruffle!

I love seeing you so excited about silly things like baskets and yellow brackets. Not much gets you jazzy these days so this is a nice change of pace. And I know, once your little craft space (studio, craft room, craft studio- whatever you decide to call it!) is finished, you are going to have a blast going in there to create every chance you get.

xo

P.S. You look stunning today in that navy and white striped shirt with the neon yellow/green embellishment around the neckline. I know it is your new favorite.

Come dream with me...

Gooood afternoon!

This past weekend I had some free time to work on my little studio spruce-up!

Thanks to Better Homes and Garden's I Did It story in the February issue, I now have a much clearer vision of how I want the space to look when it is finished.

 Yah!

Come dream with me!

Saturday and Sunday I whipped up this cute little fabric banner using scraps that I had on hand. After hanging it I decided it should span across the whole length of my desk. Off to the fabric store I need to go for something with the color yellow in it!

The cork board WAS above my sewing desk but I decided it would look nicer above my hutch. It still needs to be hung but so far I'm liking it!

I had been considering a fabric skirt on my desk since there is a ton great storage space under there but just wasn't sure...until BHG came along featuring this amazing craft room.

I certainly never would have dreamed of doing ruffles but isn't it perfect? At this point I can't even image the yardage of fabric it will take and since my budget is limited it is lower on the To-Do List. But someday, I think it will be perfect! And the color fits my color scheme perfectly!

I have one more rod to hang on my punch wall. I found little baskets that will be perfect for holding ribbon!

It is the BYGEL Wire Basket from Ikea and with a price tag of $2.99 each you can't go wrong!

I love my very little sewing desk. It use to be white and once-upon-a-time ago it was a bedside table in our master bedroom. I spray painted it aqua and changed out the wooden knobs for some old beat up (beat up from being tossed around in a box in the garage! ha!) ones for a quick update. From this picture you can't see it but sort of behind my sewing machine is a little bucket of scissors and a little wire bird basket of threads. If my desk were larger, having stuff out on it would probably fine but since it is so small I'm constantly knocking them over with fabric every time I sew something. 

Once again, thanks to BHG, I have a solution that is better than ever!

Where my cork board once hung there will be white shelves sitting on yellow brackets! It will be perfect for my scissors and threads along with other things like buttons and baskets. And speaking of baskets, I want some! I came up with the idea of having "project baskets." Instead of having multiply projects that I've started laying around until they are done, I will store them in baskets on my shelves above the sewing desk! And don't ya just love those fabric ruffles on her baskets? I hope to do something just like that!

Let's head back over to my desk again. After deciding I wanted YELLOW throughout my studio, I spent some time looking at ways to add little pops of the color all over the room. One way to do that on the cheap is to spray paint the lids of these baby food jars.  Perfect!

And the back of this cabinet will also get a pop of yellow with the help of some oil cloth or fabric.

Isn't my little shipping station the cutest? Like the pop of yellow? Yeah, that wasn't planned that way but I was pretty excited when I realized the picture frame, tiny vintage film case and the shipping supplies were all yellow!

And last but not least this window needs some lovin'. I happen to have some lacy white curtain panels stored away that will be perfect.

Thanks for coming along and I can't wait to give you a tour of my finished studio soon!

bye!

Craft Studio Makeover

Good Morning Everyone!

I've been up for a while...like since 5:30 am. That is early for me, not by much but earlier than normal. My smallest rascal woke up upset and it took a while to settle her down so I decided to just stay up. I'm gonna be tired today! Thank goodness for coffee.

Once upon a time ago (if feels like that!) my husband offered to build me a craft desk. OKAY! Well, as time went by and we no longer needed our breakfast room table I decided a hutch would be perfect. I started sketching plans, figuring out my needs, flipping though magazines for inspiration and making plans. Hubby drew up detailed drawings, took measurements, all that good stuff and got to work. 

It has been a long wait but the day has finally come. BUT, you are still going to have to wait to see all of the make-over pictures. I just have a teaser for you today. Why? Because I'm still getting things organized, picking out baskets and bins and cleaning up. 

My brand new custom hutch is complete with paper dividers and marker storage and so much more!

Wanna see some messy room pictures? Oh I've got them!

 Do you ever feel like when you are cleaning up one room that you just move piles of STUFF to another? That is how I felt cleaning all of this up, except my piles were just getting moved around the room. At one point I had most everything off the day bed, which doubles as our guest bed, onto my sewing desk.

 Don't think I could have fit much more on it do you? I did!

Look at this mess. Not so bad at the top but as you move to the floor- HELLO MESS. At one point I sort of gave up putting things away knowing that as soon as my new hutch was done, I'd do one big clean up.

One more pretty picture to calm your nerves after those messy ones. See that cute chalkboard label? Yep, they are in my shop now! I saved empty baby food jars and stashed them away knowing that I'd eventually find a use for those cute little jars. I peeled their label off and stuck the chalkboard label right over the sticky adhesive left behind. I now have several in my studio to house all of those little things.

And don't forget- for my readers, though the end of December you can save 20% off your entire purchase in my shop. Use code MERRYCHRISTMAS

Time to refill the coffee cup- bye :)