the little things

boy oh boy..

Well, at least we know which room is the boy's room around here, you know.. since it is clearly labeled and all (ha ha?)..

A quick tutorial that was up on the Hambly blog a while ago.  So very simple.. but a fun little way to personalize a child's bedroom door.. he has since taken them down and put them back up to his liking, I guess the straight letters just didn't cut it. ;)

Speaking of the 'boy' room.. I still have to take some pictures and share don't I?  Almost ready.. I think. hee heee!

Follow this link if you want to see the full tutorial! :)

probably should have been doing something else..

Yes.. many things I should have been doing this morning... like.. vacuuming, or walking the dogs.. anything really... but instead, I found myself making a cute little keychain!(???)  

Random right?

Harley and I ended up on a lazy 'no point' shopping trip yesterday.. and of course, one of our stops was Michaels.  We were going through the aisles when I spotted the 'Vintage Groove' jewelry line by Making Memories.  Until then, I had never seen it in person.  They had very limited selection.. and most of it was on clearance!  Crazy!

So I bought a few pretties.. some chain, and some other random jewelry stuff and brought it all home... spreading it all out on my desk within 30 seconds of being in the door.  I kid you not.  

..and it sat there until this morning, when I was desperately looking for a reason not to go get the vacuum out. ha ha!

And then after that.. I might have made myself a necklace too... and it might match the keychain (kinda) ..which is probably weird, probably one of those fashion no no's, huh? Like seriously, who matches their necklace with their keychain!? hee!  Oh well.  

I see a new addiction coming on! ..do I need another!?

my new craft space..

These two spaces (old and new) are night and day in comparison.. the new space is A LOT smaller.  Which surprisingly.. I am looking forward to!  Nuts right?  The thought of a cozier.. less 'junk filled' space is very exciting!  Looking around the room at all of the boxes (not pictured lol).. I am realizing that I may need to get creative with some storage, but I am definitely up to the challenge!

So far, I am down one brown Ikea Expedit shelf (extra one now lives in Harley's room.. toy storage heaven), one desk (the other now lives in Laine's room.. her very own big girl desk) and I gained a turquoise kitchen island.. which I am thrilled over!!  Why the island? ..the new kitchen has a built in island, and since this turquoise stand alone is one of my favourite pieces of furniture.. had to make it fit in somewhere. ..where better than as a workspace in my new crafting room!  I just *might* miss it a little in my kitchen though. :(

It has been very challenging so far, shuffling furniture around the house.. a challenging but fun process.  Harley has all new furniture in his room, Laine has a desk and I haven't spent a cent.. just repurposing. ..it has been kind of like going furniture shopping within our own walls!    

My two tall storage shelves are going to live side by side, and to tell you the truth.. as soon as they were placed beside each other, I knew I liked it more than with the space/window arrangement before.  My remaining white topped desk will go under the window (to the left of the door in the picture above) and the island will remain in the middle.  Oh yeah, and the left over Expedit is behind that pile against the wall. ;)  It will definitely be tight, but it should work!

Sadly, the new space is much more cluttered up right now.. it seems to be the 'catch all' space for baskets and other random things. lol  Oh well.. it will come along soon I am sure.  Can't wait to get in there and set up this new space properly! ..and better yet, can't wait to actually get in there and make stuff!! :)

Yep.. iPhone pics are as good as it is gonna get around here for a while... my main computer is currently in a mountain on top of that island.. surrounded by who knows what. ;)

What do you think?  Will I come out of this 'downsize' happy.. or will it get the better of me!?  I see many many blog stories to come! ha ha ha ..ha ha??

xoxo

happy creative mess

This is what my desk looked like last night before I crawled into bed..

A mess.  

It was after the whirlwind of creating eight projects yesterday.. six of them being layouts (whew!).. stacks of stuff.. boxes on boxes and dvd's of The Hills piled on top of more dvd's of The Hills (ha ha).. 

This picture hardly does it justice actually.  I am sitting at that chair right now typing, looking around.. dreading having to clean it all up.  Because it spread onto the floor as well, which is the part you can't see.. the desk will only hold so much mess after all.

It is a happy mess though, it means I got to scrap and play.. and make stuff.  That is a good thing right?

Ohhhh.. and speaking of my messy desk, it was so so so cool to see a much cleaner version of it on Apartment Therapy the other day!!  Ahhh yes, if only it looked like that right now. ;)

gift jars

Before Christmas I linked a project that I had done for KI Memories.. the gift jar.  I ended up making another version as well.. and I wanted to somehow incorporate gift cards that we purchased this time around (see them tucked in behind?).. 

Had to stick with the fur, of course.. right?  It is like feathers.. will never get old! ;)

A dab of hot glue held the gift card envelope in place (made sure I left a bit of it peeking out behind the doily.. so the recipient knew it was there! lol).. stayed in place perfectly!  The kids loved making these as well.. they both thought drawing and writing on the doilies was pretty darn neat!

Easy gift giving.. I know Christmas is over, but this is such a generic gift giving idea.. figured it was still worth sharing.  

Now I need to replenish my mason jar stash! hee!  I have another little jar project calling my name!

xoxo

a mini album/journal.. with some feather lovin' (hee)...

I think I would tie a feather to anything if I could.  I don't think I will ever get tired of the feather trend.  Is it a trend?  I say timeless, really. 

I made this mini book/journal for 'Focus On 10x5 Pockets' on the KI Memories blog waaaaay back before Christmas.  I know I know.. a little late right?  But I really love how it turned out.. and I just wanted to share it here too. :)

I decided to make the three pack of blue 10x5 pockets into a mini album/journal... with the pockets being the front and back cover and then a center divider.  

The pockets come with a fabulous peel and stick backing (makes things so easy for projects).. so I took advantage of that and used the adhesive back to add patterned paper to for the cover etc...  

Then, I punched some holes with the three hole punch and used binder rings to secure the pockets and blank white pages together.  

I figured this would make a nice little journal for monthly budgets, planning etc.. the pockets would be great for receipts and coupons.  To finish it off, I added some punched shapes and of course.. tied a feather on for fun!!  

*sigh* ...feathers!  Looooove! 

nature themed birthday party.. the details

Well, my little Laine turned nine (NINE?) on Wednesday and then had seven (SEVEN!?) girls over for a sleepover this past Saturday.  I think I needed a few days to recover from that one myself.. maybe that is why it has taken me so long to post these pics! hee!

I think my love for nature inspired 'stuff' has worn off on Laine.. so, when she came up with the idea to use 'nature' as her theme.. I was sooooooo on board!  A reason to go buy pretty butterflies and cute forest figurines!  Of course!!!! 

Here is the cake (inspired by this cake from a Martha Stewart Weddings magazine)..

She chose an angel food cake.. easy peasy!  I iced it with whipped icing (from Michael's.. comes in a box, it is theeeeeee best.. yum), and finished it off with some simple pretty butterflies (which of course we can re use as decor around the house! hee!).. 

I think I could take pictures of cakes and food all day (if only I cooked and baked more ha ha)..

The banner was super easy to make as well.. I printed the letters in super light grey on the back side of the paper (cut down to 5x7 and fed into the printer).. printed in reverse of course, so when the letters where cut out, the right side was showing.  Then, I just stapled the letters to white ribbon.

I also could have used the silhouette machine I am sure.. but I haven't used it in ages (bad bad bad) and I wasn't up for figuring something new out that late at night! ha  Of course it was like midnight when I was making it.  It had to be up for her when she woke up on her birthday after all! ;)

The forest friends..

They are still on the dining room table by the way.. I grew kind of fond of them.  So have the kids.. they get up there and play with them.  Bought these at Michael's.. as well as the trees, Christmas stuff is out.. perfect timing!! ..and there sits the birthday party budget. ha ha ha!  Worth it though right? ;)  ..of course I had to get the pine cones too. heee!

Mr. Moose is my favourite. :)

We came up with the idea to decorate flower pots and plant mini plants in them as a craft/activity.. then the girls took them home in brown paper lunch bags as party favours.

They had so much fun with this!  Faux fur.. feathers, pom poms and sequins.. oh, and glitter glue!  The pots turned out adorable (missed getting a shot of them all lined up).. but my gosh.. it looked like a few furry/feathery critters exploded all over the table by the time they were finished! ha!  It was quite a sight!  Here is Laine's..

I found the cuuuutest little yellow rose plants for them.. saved over $40 on them too, they were priced to sell (I actually jumped up and down a little when I found them).. wish I had more pictures of these!

We also spent a few hours searching for woodland type colouring pictures on the internet last week.. printed off a bunch for the girls...

THE perfect activity to allow for some quiet time!! hee!  I think I may have enjoyed this one more than the girls.  Ahhhhh quiet.. bliss! 

There it is!  All my other pics have Laine's friends in them.. so, not going there. It was a fun day, I just hope the parents aren't too mad at me.. the girls may or may not have stayed up until 2am (rumour has it a few woke up to play barbies at 3am.. ooooooops!).. ahh well, that is what slumber parties are for right!?  

Yay for fun nature themed and forest themed birthday parties!  Inspiration from here.. finally found the link for the table I posted last week. :)  How long do you think the critters will stay lined up on the table!? ;)

my craft space

Hello friends!  I took some pictures of my craft space this morning.. I had kind of mentioned it before, but I spent a bit of time purging my space.. big time!  I also moved my desks around a bit, and added a few things.  

It seems so so so much more cozy to me, like an actual room of the house now.  If that makes sense.  So yeah, I took a bunch of pics.. but I am running so short on time today, that I only have time to quickly share one...

Here it is!  Mostly the same, but here is a quick break down of what I changed.  I simplified my supplies (got rid of a lot).. re-organized how I stored them (more on that later)..

The biggest change is the desks.  They used to be separate.. one was in the middle of the room (so I scrapped and crafted facing out), and the computer one was under the window (so I faced the wall).  Well, I decided to put the two together and make one massive work station in the middle of the room.  So, for the most part.. whatever I am doing allows me to face out of the room.. unless I need to switch sides to do some quick sewing on a layout.. or just need more room to spread out.  

Also loving that this set up allows me to go back and forth between computer and creating. I am hoping that I will use more digi elements this way, and experiment with hybrid more and more.  Wishful thinking maybe.. but so far the work flow is so so so much better, no more switching desks every 10 minutes! 

I also moved the blue pom poms to the center of the room.. they span the entire area of the two desks.. so bright and cheery, love them.  Also added a few white eyelet lanterns from Martha Stewart (can't see them in this pic, I accidentally cut them off).. notice the fur love? lol  Yes, a bit of an obsession there (this brings the total of little fur rugs around the house to a whopping SEVEN ack!) ..the two brown ones serve a triple purpose though!  They are nice and cozy to look at, and add that rustic modern look I am going for around the house (another new obsession.. whole other post! hee), they also hide the computer wires that have to run outward to the walls and printer/silhouette machine.. and they provide a nice soft spot for both the pups to curl up on.  When they aren't laying on my feet that is.

I still have more pics to share, but I have to run out and finish getting party supplies for Miss Laine's sleepover tomorrow night.  Washing all our extra blankets.. cake is cooling, lists are being made.. it is one of those go go go days... finish it off with some skating tonight and hopefully a get together with friends.. eeeeeeek!  Get off of the computer, right!?  

Anyhoo.. just wanted to share.  Little changes, but such a huge difference for me.  The whole process ..purging, organizing, making pretty (of course) was so very therapeutic (lame sounding but true) and rewarding.  OK ok ok.. gotta run, later friends!! :)

playroom

hey hey!

The playroom was one of those projects that as soon as we started it, all we could think was 'it seemed like such a good idea at the time!' ha ha!  It really was worth it in the end though, the kids just love it.. the space works so much better than the little room they were in.  James and I find ourselves hanging out in there with them more and more as well! ..love that.

We chose not to put the train table into this room.. we kept it just in case, but we wanted to see what Harley would think of it not being in there.  You know what?  He has played with his trains every single day since.. using his imagination, setting up tracks and roads.. with the train table he never did that. We would build them, he would play.. and then get bored.  We still help him build, but his little imagination takes over and soon he has it spanned across the entire room.. and is as proud as can be.

The pallet beds are inspired by the very talented and so inspiring Ashley Ann.  Switched up the colours, since the room is connected to the family room downstairs.. big open archway.  We wanted it to flow with the family room.. almost as an extension of it... instead of overwhelming toy land. lol

Out of focus picture of the 'crayon tray' ..how on earth do we have so many crayons? lol  Ah well.. you can never really have too many can you?  I took these pictures before my new lens came in.. so I was taking them with my broken one.. using manual focus the best I could... but it still had a mind of it's own!  In the end, I gave up and let it win.. it was definitely a loosing battle!

Some of Laine's favourite dress up clothes.. some vintage hats that my mom found... little Harley has claimed the one on the left. ha ha!  That is a whole other blog post my friends! hee! ;)  I found the cute turquoise 'dream' hook thingie at Winners (but of course).. and the yellow banner, Cheryl sent in a yummy Cartwheels goodie box.  So cute.  The boy and girl prints are from my Etsy shop (which is still on 'summer' vacation for some bizarre reason.. yes I am rolling my eyes at myself).. I think I might have to do this super fun technique that Marcy did on the Cartwheels blog.. a little clothespin makeover, Kitschy Digitals style!  Cute little feather clothespins would be super cute clipped to that banner!

That is the fantastic chair that I brought home from my mom's in August.. still want to recover it, but it is fine like it is until I find the perfect fabric for it. Yep, I think this is my favourtie little corner of the room.

Where the desk is, is where the bar in the 'man room' (the original plan for this room) was going to be.. so there was lighting roughed in, and a fridge built into the wall where the chalkboard is.  So this corner was a bit of a challenge! lol  It ended up working out like it was meant to be though, we placed the desk under the lighting, so the kids can sit behind.. looking out into the room (which is awesome).. lighting totally looks like we planned it for that all along! ha ha!  Then, for the massive fridge sized hole in the wall (biggest challenge of all).. we hung this sheet of metal (heavy duty 60 pound sheet of metal.. OMG) with even heavier duty glue (how we survived that task without snapping at each other ..James and I that is... I still have yet to figure out lol .but yay us!) ..it was almost impossible.  We couldn't get a grip on it.. it was sticking really well, but sliding down at the same time.. ohhhhh, I get all grumpy just thinking about it!  We were going to leave it metal, and have it just be a 'magnet board' but it came cut with a huge heat/burn mark in the middle... and that just wouldn't do!  So, James saved the day with a can of chalkboard spray paint, and gave it a quick spray before we hung it up.  Love how it turned out.. even though it was pretty much a nightmare from the start! lol  

Can you tell that there is a fridge sized hole in the wall?  I am starting to forget it was there already! hee!

Another out of focus picture! ha ha!  I really should have gone and re-shot these.. but the playroom is no where near this clean anymore.. and it just would have been too much work.. and I am well, lazy! lol  

 

I think there are feathers in almost every room of the house now, yes.. obsessed! ha ha!  While I was raiding the storage room for decor items, I found the pine cones in the Christmas decor.. perfect!! I tried to incorporate a mix of everything in here.. new and old, glam and rustic.  I really love how it turned out, flows with the house, but still has a bit of fun/whimsy that appeals to the kids.. a win win for everyone I think! 

Yes, more birds.  Yes.. they are the same birds that are in my blog banner ...and yes, they are the same birds as my tattoo.  Uh huh.  I am obsessed.  Who knew turning my tattoo drawing into a Photoshop brush could result in so many fun projects!! ha ha! I used the Photoshop brush, 'stamped' each bird individually onto a letter sized canvas, printed, cut out.. traced onto vinyl and cut out with my scissors.  Super easy!!  

I used the wonderful Eye Candy Overlays to print out some 5x7 images for these (many) cheapo wooden Ikea frames, a 2 Peas digital scrapbooking kit (Jennifer Pebbles) and KI Memories digi kit as well as assorted vintage car ads/images.. mixed in with a few stock images and family photos = fun art wall! 

Love redecorating by stealing things from other rooms.. so cost efficient! lol  Like this fan.. totally stole it from the living room.  Much better in the playroom window.  

Well.. that is all. :)

A lot of work (but not at the same time).. well worth it!  If you want to read more, you can pop on over to Cartwheels In My Mind ..it is the subject of my newest 'Update Your Room' article.  Lot's of handmade love in here.. there are links to different projects from the Cartwheels article... like the paper flower mobile hanging from the ceiling. :)

Anyhoo, just wanted to finally share... sharing on here is motivation for me to get things done!  Is that weird?  One of my favourite things to blog about though!  Thanks for reading along my friends!! Happy Thursday.. which up until now I thought was Friday... and I was wondering where the week went.. doing better than I thought though, a whole day ahead of myself! ha!  Later!

Oh.. and the toys...

Gotta love big closets with big curtains.. to hide all those big toys! lol  They do pull these all out, and it does get turned into crazy toy land.. but I just love love love that they all have a home, and we can close the curtains and it turns back into serene/happy/calm playroom.  Like I said.. win win for everyone! hee!

OK, later!!!  (for real this time) 

photo of the day..

Good morning all my lovely blog friends!

 

A quick photo share this morning.. this was up over at Cartwheels In My Mind yesterday as the photo of the day.

A little peek at my sewing corner.. from my desk in my craft room looking out.  Fabric in embroidery hoops, cross stitch, paper pinwheels.. all in yellow green and turquoise of course!  This little corner makes me smile every day! ..I love how the simplest of projects can make such a huge difference in a room!

Speaking of photos.. I am pretty certain that my lens has taken it's last picture.  Mr. Harley was sitting on my knee at my desk yesterday, and caught the camera strap with his foot.. sending my camera falling to the floor.  Seemed ok at the time, but I went to take pictures of a little project I was working on today, and it wouldn't focus (manual focus was touchy.. couldn't seem to get it to focus all that clearly at all).. after a few hours of freaking (and I do mean freaking!) and thinking it was my camera, I found a crack in the side of the lens (between the focus ring and the glass).. grrrr!  Lesson learned I suppose (I sooooo should have had the strap up and out of the way).  OK.. movin' on, vent over... happy day here we come? hee! ;)  Thank goodness for fun iPhone apps.. right... right?? lol

Ugh. :(