Got the antlers at an estate sale and hung them on my shelves.
Ring on antler from the antique mall where our booth used to be (was not as fun as I imagined it to be).
Thrifted wooden shoes with gourds grown by my father and tagged by my brother for my boys,
Thrifted metal tea set stacked on top of a thrifted Mason jar filled with glitter, water and a found pink doll shoe.
My oldest made his hands into a heart and I took a shot with my iphone. I used the lo-mob app to give it the vintage photo look and then picniked the message. For today’s purpose, I blurred out my eldest son’s name in the bottom right corner We printed these up and he handed (ba dum cha) them out, easy peasy.
My youngest wanted his face on the body of a bear for his Valentine this year but I had neither the talent nor the time (next year my little bear, next year…) so we went with a photo taken last year of my little guy in his big brother’s Kindergarten Valentine hat and Valentine sucker. I really like the way it turned out.
I used Picknik on this one as well. Both to color isolate the pop and to write the message. That little toddler pudge of hand is melting my non-sugar heart.
Hope you are all enjoying this Valentine’s day. I went to bed with a stomach bug (geeeeze) and am just now crawling out of the bed. Bed —-> blog.
I did get a lovely handmade card from my love and a beautiful 3-D glass star to light up and hang on the porch. I am grateful to be the mom of 2 sweet and funny boys and the partner to an amazing love.
Lucky me.
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.
.
Some of my collections.
Antlers and wooden bits on the left and wooden men with moustaches on the right. Line ’em up!
.
.
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!
I was finally able to host craft night! Kind of a big deal since our last apartment was too small to host such an event.
I think Trader Joe’s is the new Martha. I hoisted 7 boxes of various fried cheesy bites of goodness from the freezer and my hostessing job was nearly done.
After the “what? I always keep the place this clean” cleaning and the hors d’oeuvre heating up, I was too exhausted to think of a craft so I took photos of the crafts of others in progress plus odds and ins around my kitchen with my iPhone. Is there a crafty app?
This craft night we had a new member join us. We sent emails back and forth suggesting a light hazing might be in order, an excerpt: Maybe the first time she comes, we could all be working on fake projects like an artificial floral arrangement, bedazzling a sweatsuit, and making a toilet paper cozy. We’ll ask her things like, “Do you think this is over bedazzled or just enough?” “Does this floral arrangement look classy, like it would be in a really fancy hotel?”
Yeah, I know, we’re CRAZY.
But despite all our big talk, we welcomed the new member with open arms and she’s great. She is doing this cool project, the pattern of which you see above. She is crocheting the kippot (yarmulkes) for her daughter’s bat mitzvah. ALL of them! I wish I had gotten a photo of one. I imagine she’ll be working on them next craft night as well!
Another crafter made a lovely necklace from these beads. I set the bowl on top of my lame attempt to craft.
What I love the most about the Polaroid app is there is no cropping. It is what it is.
Scarf on chair. After this I gave up “crafting” for the night and focused on the aforementioned TJ bites of goodness (and badness).
And I don’t know if any of you are still with me because I have become sporadic because life has become more hectic (in a good way) but here is a teaser.
Our attic is FINISHED! I will do a before and after post this weekend. Total transformation of the space and how our family will use it. Woot!
Ok, so I made it a few months ago and I kind of failed at science but it felt good to do.
I shall craft again but a broken sewing machine, a new job, new house and life in general is posing a bit of a crafting hurdle. I ain’t complaining.
It’s a wind chime made from an old xylophone that I took apart. I saw the idea online, maybe Craftster? Sorry to not give specific credit. I loved the idea and found a great/cheap old xylophone at Brimfield. During one of our craft group sessions I brought the old toy and used a fellow members amazing stash of scrounged items to make the base and handle. I tied the metal “notes” onto a sieve and the handle is made from a potato masher (I think that’s what it was).
I proudly hung it from our side porch where it promptly became overshadowed by our neighbors bamboo chimes. As my son said, “I like the way ours looks better but theirs sure sounds better!” So I pondered aloud why my little chimes were getting blown away (ba-dum-cha) and my wise 7 year old son said, “Probably because your chimes have holes in them. The wind just goes right through them.” DUH. Ah yes, of course.
So here is my beautiful hanging sculpture or maybe I could call it a hurricane alerter? As in, “If the wind is strong enough to blow momma’s chimes, head for the basement!” kind of thing.
What have you made lately? I need some inspiration. Link to your Flickr or blog if you’ve got something to share!
In our house the boys cheer excitedly when the “Sharpie Mushroom” comes down off the shelf. I used to call them the “Mommy Markers” but they seemed to intuit the superior quality of the Sharpies compared to their washable markers and their calls for the “Sharpie Mushroom” increasingly became louder and louder. Then one day, I let them use them.
The house did not fall down, they did not make themselves mustachioed bandits, and the wee one didn’t even run down the hallway screaming as he made a wiggly permanent line. All things, I guess on some level, I feared.
One of my favorite projects the boys made with the Sharpies was decorating wooden clothespin dolls.
I have a thing for wooden dolls (see, I told you I’m morphing into a crazy cat lady who collects toys instead of cats) so my oldest made me this beautiful beast of a doll. I adore the colors he chose, especially the teal boots.
He made the instrument/sculpture that sits behind the little dude at school. I love that he goes to a school that allows him routine contact with nails.
Hell, next to nails, the Sharpies are kids-play!
Tiny bit of the craft room taken this morning.
I have big plans for those antler in the little bathroom under the stairs in the new house!
I needed help with a craft project so I asked the craftiest folks I know, that’s you bbs!
Each class at my son’s school decorates a chair and then the chairs are sold at the school’s fund-raising auction. I was asked to make the Kindergarten chair.
Here is the post with the before shots of the chair and table.
The auction was last weekend and it was really so much fun. We bought 2 pieces of art from 2 very talented artists in the school community and I look forward to hanging them in OUR NEW HOUSE! I have not been very active on my blog/twitter/etsy because in addition to getting a teaching job for next year, after being home for 7 years, we are in the process of buying a house. It’s all very exciting, good change! But my head is spinning a bit with all the details and work to be done!!! More details to follow as things settle.
But back to the auction. Here is the finished chair (plus desk) that I decoupaged with the K kids’ amazing drawings of a farm field trip earlier in the year.
Sorry the last one is so blurry!
I like how they came out (5 coats later on the desk legs, ugh) and they raised more money than I thought they would for the school. Let me just say it’s a 3 digit number that if I were to round (a smidgen) , it would be closer to a 4 digit number! If I thought for a moment it was my craftiness and not the hard work the of the teachers, the artwork of the kiddos, and the worthy cause that sold the chair, I would be decoupaging instead of typing at this very moment. 🙂
I know you are not supposed to compare yourself or your work with others but who in the hell doesn’t? When I dropped off the set I felt a little like a kid holding a crayon in the lobby of the Museum of Fine Arts! The other chairs were very creative and arty, cool conceptual pieces. But in the end the chair and table went to the family of a little girl who is quite the author at such a tender age so I like to think she will use this desk to write many masterpieces!
Here are some of the other funky chairs people made:
I really wanted this chair. What you can not see from my photo is that the poetry of the children from this class is swirled in there. Love it and would copy it if I could.
Keys were a big theme of the auction and there was a bidding war for this one!
I know the Pre-K chair must have taken so long to do! I love hos it is true to the developmental stage of the kids. Boom DIDDY, A Goodbye!
How fun is this chair? You know the kids had a BLAST helping make this.
Yeah. I was going to cut out the bottom of my chair and make a beautiful scene with birds and twigs and glue feathers all over the chair but then I just went with paper and glue! Oi vey, it’s a pretty cool chair!
Now I am off to pack the car with 6 boxes of my destashing for the thrift store!
Freezer paper stenciled Storm Trooper shirt for my big guy who is COMPLETELY engrossed in all things Star Wars (whole other post about that when I am well).
I do not care what my family says, I LOVE this little baby doll. I went to an estate sale that was crazy-collector FULL of dolls. This was the one that “spoke” to me. I gave her/him a little FPS tattoo to help out with the perpetual silent scream. I ask you again, please do not analyze me.
This is one of those finds that before I even thought of anything else I said to my husband, “The bloggers are going to be SOOOOO jealous!”. Can anyone else admit to feeling that way? I probably would not have know this was so dang cool if I hadn’t developed some sort of bloggy aesthetic.
It was published in 1960 and it’s an origami craft book with the most amazing illustrations and examples. I plan to frame these for my next craft room, where ever she may be…
Favorite one (because the subculture tells me so, wink wink) :
Sore throat, can’t type anymore.
Like crap feel, to nap need. Seriously WAY too much Star Wars…
Is there any other kind these days? I found this in my craft desk as I was mercilessly weeding. It should be in the “GO” pile but something about it struck me as Dr. Seuss-like and silly so of course I put it in the “Live to See Another Day” pile.
If I remember correctly, I made it before I even had a cell phone! Embarrassing tid bit #73 about me is that I just sent my first text message yesterday! It read something like this, “44howthehelldoesthisthingwork!” except maybe not spelled so well.
There was a time I was addicted to sewing paper and vinyl. I could easy fall off the wagon with that one.
I have tons of posts on deck. Just trying to shake this awful sore throat and fever and then I will barrage you with an auction update, Roller Derby photos and more ramblings to be sure.
Paper Dolls for Boys 