Craft Room, In Progress January 24, 2010

You’ve seen this space as it has progressed, here and here.

If I waited until it was “done” we’d all be done with blogging so I thought I’d put up what I’ve got up.

I’m standing in the doorway, taking this shot.  The room is longer than it is wide.  A funky little space that came with this great built-in bookcase.  The previous owners used it as a little girls room:

I FEEL THE NEED TO CAP THIS – BEFORE AS IN, I DID NOT PAINT THE ROOM YOU SEE ABOVE.  Okay, I feel better now.

I had some much needed help from my friend Kate and son painting the walls and shelves.  It was a bigger job than I anticipated and hence, the only room I have repainted thus far.  Kate?

A lot of these shots are taken on different days at various times of the day.   Plus I am sure I punched up the color on some of the ones in my rare, non-lazy moments.

Decoupaged the closet door with sewing tissue paper.  I had planned to do the backs of the shelves with the same treatment but realized it would take forever and wouldn’t showcase my collections as well as just the blue (am looking up the color in the basement, will report soon).

I have yet to hang this blue door I found on the curb.  I am replacing the entry door with it.   Big plans for that puppy.  Will unveil that after February break, it’s on the list.

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Some of my collections.

Antlers and wooden bits on the left and wooden men with moustaches on the right.  Line ‘em up!

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I am still digging on my granny smock curtains.  I got them at my most favorite thrift store (miss you Charlie and Pat) and saved them for a year before I moved without a clear plan but when I painted this room the Dark Celery color, I knew they would be perfect!  I love it when it when stuff works out.  My collection of faux bois metal boxes, not working as much.  Not even going to talk about my attempted IKEA hack on that little yellow table.

Craft corner.  I did not clean up for you.  Trying to show all the bits, not just the pretty posed bits (and there are TONS of them as well).  I keep all my stamps, thread and various other little bits of crafting crap in the tangerine crates.  Luckily my youngest can eat his way through a crate a week so I have no shortage of storage.

“No Soliciting”, a nicer way of saying, “Leave me alone!”.

Just got a new Brother sewing machine from Costco.  Still trying to figure out how to thread it.  I think I can, I think I can…

This is a shot of my old craft room focal wall.  I took it TTV (through the viewfinder) and it might be one of my favorite photos I have taken, not including the kiddos.  I loved the fabric hoops on this wall but wanted something a little different this time around.  I had planned to put Fishel up on the long wall in my new space but couldn’t figure out how to a fix him to our plaster and lath walls.

Here is what I could hang using twine and push pins.  Thanks to Meg (and Stacy) for letting me “store” these amazing finds in my little craft room.

And this is what I love best about my craft room.; room for my boys to join me in crafting fun and memories.  And since I am still in that “keeping it real” phase, moments after this was taken I believe I made my oldest cry because I was too impatient with his sewing skills.  Well, here’s to more and BETTER memories in my craft room!

Dr Martin Luther King January 18, 2010

Mantel January 12, 2010

I have never lived in a house with a mantel.  I am kind of stumped.  What do you put on the mantel?  Do you rotate collections? 

This is Valentine’s inspired.  Why yes, little astounded 17 year old self, I DO decorate for Valentine’s Day.

Got the tin in a box lot at an auction, cheap.  The striped box is an old record case, FULL of old 45’s.  Including some children’s music with great graphics I am going to put into our shop.

I love all things vintage metal.  Particularly when they are red.  Thrifted at various spots.  Starting a collection.  Wish I had not donated some old ones in the move.

Not mantel related but a follow up on the evolving guest room walls.

Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day?  Are we dorks?  Leave links!!!  Plus, any mantel advice would be much appreciated.

Playroom December 30, 2009

We were lucky enough to be able to buy our first house last summer.  After being crammed into a little apartment for 7 years, which was worth it because the trade-off was I got to be a stay at home mom, it has been a whole new world of quality family time.  A lot of it has been spent in the attic.  We had it converted into a playroom for the kids and a music room for my husband (he is a good sharer though).  Links to before posts: 1 & 2

And my little blur of motion going down those same stairs.

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This is the building zone.  Blocks, games, people, etc.  Go ahead and say it, I’ve heard it before.  I don’t feel like my kids have an excessive amount of toys and I will proudly tell you that most of them are craigslisted, freecycled or thrifted.  A bit defensive, perhaps. 

The book area over there behind the rubber ducky collection.  Okay, you have me here.  It IS excessive.  The boy loves his rubber duckies, what can I say?!

Dress up and dramatic play area.

This is the playmat area.  Our hope was to leave a big blank space that the kids could manipulate and rearrange as the game and their creativity dictated.  Also we wanted a place they could get their energy out in the winter.  Here they are this morning, building a house out of the of the playmats I scored off Craigslist (I searched for about a year and got lucky one day last summer!).

And here are the little ones getting some of that energy out the other day.

Can’t type much, too nervous.  Going to get an emergency root canal in an hour.  Arrrrgh.

Paint By Numbers December 28, 2009

I finally found a home for my (growing) collection of vintage Paint by Number paintings.

Here is a quickie iphone shot of our guest room.

I would take some more but my parents and their 2 large dogs are inhabiting the space at the moment!  My mom is a great hunter and found lots of these for me in NC.  (thanks Ma)

I just found this great online exhibit and thought I’d share.  I was going to post it to Facebook but those folks are tired of my chatty a**.

Jump to the online exhibit.

I particularly like the part where they have included peoples’ memories of PBN.

I’m on a Roll… December 28, 2009

I’ve got butter on my pants!  Ba-dum cha.  I will always love that joke.

But I came here for help, not guffaws.

What is the name of this plant?  The one that looks like little grapes.

I think it’s in the succulent family.  I covet it but can not find the name.

Any help and/or cuttings would be much appreciated.

Science Museum December 26, 2009

We took a trip to the Science Museum, we are lucky to live so close to some great Museums and even more lucky that my FIL bought us a family pass!

I was smitten with the color of the walls in the Human Body room.  Any guesses to the make and name?

-Struggling with the age old question…           

Bones overlooking the Charles.

Deconstruction.

Painless deconstruction…

I DON’T KNOW!!! GET OFF MY BACK SWINGING GNOME, PLEASE.

Doesn’t everyone get chocolate milk at the Science Museum? Our habit is chocolate milk and Space Ice Cream.  (dehydrated wafers of yuckiness but space in the title and it’s SOLD!)

Tube and ball fun.

I am well out of the habit of writing and sharing.  Funny how quickly one can fall out of the groove.  Maybe my mind has been taken over by Bejeweled Blitz ( 279,250 suckahs!).

Uh… November 29, 2009

so, remember me blathering on about being too busy?  Well I didn’t.  My friend Hannah and I just went in together on a booth at a local antiques cooperative.  Zoinks.  It’s a good outlet, right?!!!  Like my etsy shop without all the annoying shipping hassle.

So if you are a MA person and want to check out our wares, drop by  the Massachusetts Antiques Cooperative, 100 Felton Street, Waltham and go to town.  We’re the cool booth (at least that’s what our mothers think).

Update: Here are new photos of our space.  We will eventually have vintage Valentines and other bits and bobs on that divider screen but for now it’s covering up the neighboring stall’s grungy screen.  One of the guys that works there walked by and said, “It looks like somebody lives there.”  We were pumped as that was what we were going for.   Second only to, “It looks like somebody shops there.”!

Short of buying it, we still can’t figure out how to cover up the neighbors art work on the other side.

The beginnings of our booth.

It’s not that fuzzy in real life.  We have work to do to make it more cozy and inviting but we’re proud of our start!

Went to the last flea market of the year in Rowley this morning.  SUPER SCORES.

Close up of the crazy divine fabric.

Salty wants you to SHOP.

These are rusted to perfection.

A pair of these for a ridiculous price.  They are NOT leaving my house though.  Not for a good long while.

Close up of one side of our “booth”.  We are working on some partition ideas.  Anyone out there who has a booth, we’d love any tips you had to offer!

Cheers and goodnight!

This Post Brought to You from a (temporary) Resident of Sickville November 24, 2009

The quickest path to a blog drying up, imho, is having stuff you want to say but for whatever reasons you feel like you can not.  It makes it hard for me to shoot the sh*t.  Nothing serious, stop your guessing.  Just stuff to process that probably is not best done in a public forum.  How’s that for a juicy post?  Meh.

I hold out hope that I shall ride again.  When I was a stay at home mom, this venue (and the way it connected me to your blogs) was a lifeline.  It was a way for me to feel creative, inspired and part of a larger community.  I do not want to let that go but the reality is that I have to let some things slide now that I am working outside the home.  My friends who read this blog and who started work before me or were always moms with  paying jobs are smirking right now (Hi Kath!).  It’s okay, I deserve a smirk or two for thinking I could move into a new house, start working after 7 years at home, transition my youngest into daycare for the first time, put my heart and soul into my job (that I love), do wonderous things like cook dinner, keep up my Etsy shop, write a blog, read your blogs and have time to enjoy my amazing (and growing) boys not to mention checking-in with my loving husband who is my partner in this all.  One step at I time, right?

I should say that the reason I have time to type this at all is that I am a temporary resident of Sickville.  2 nebulizers, buzzing at full blast.  Turkey what?

So I am going to surprise you now with MORE photos.  Maybe I should just set up a link to my Flickr account…

On Flickr, I named that last one, “Zipline to Heaven”.

I just reread this and I wanted to say this is NOT my goodbye, just a ramble in the wind.

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Over the Thanksgiving break I have some photos of the craft room to finally share!

I Love My Little Boxhead November 10, 2009

He’s got a beard, a shoulder tattoo, a flower tucked in his “hair” and oh so much attitude.

I could not be more proud.