My Craft Room

I'm hesitant to post about this because it's not quite done yet, but projects this large tend to be completed in stages, so there's no telling how long it will take. In fact, we were supposed to start last summer, so there ya go.

I finally converted our dining room into an official craft space back in Birmingham, but we had to take it down a couple months later to put our house on the market. Upon moving to Nashville, I decided to use our master closet as my craft room. Now, don't start feeling sorry for me that my husband has an entire bedroom for his office and I only get a closet. This closet is huge! I'm not really a fashionista, so I couldn't imagine filling this entire thing. It lends plenty of space for an office and what really sealed the deal is there's a window, so it's much more room-like. I have all sorts of plans, but for now I'm writing about the desk because that's the first and most important detail to get this room ready for crafting.

Last year I decided this Ana White corner desk would be perfect for me! I also really want this craft table, but there's just not the room in here. Maybe one day when a kid moves out. :) Anyway, it didn't happen last year so when my birthday rolled around again, it's the only thing I told hubs I wanted. I saved up Christmas and birthday money to buy the supplies and his gift was the actual labor of building the desk.

The first three pieces cut! This was the bulk of the cutting 

and with it the desk is already taking shape!

 Hubs workin' hard...at least this was an excuse to use power tools, right? :)

 Will helping. He fell in love with the measuring tape and went around

measuring everything he could find, it was cute

 structural supports being added

 both boys came out to help :)

 Once the building was complete, I got to work painting, here it is

with the first coat after wood conditioner!

I found a couple filing cabinets at Goodwill for $7 to use as the base instead of building our own, or building cabinets underneath from the original plans. With the desk well underway, I got to work spray painting the filing cabinets in between painting the desk.

 Then came the big day when we moved the desk upstairs! Before 

all this, I went through and did some major de-cluttering of the space

 All put together! And with a cute little accessory to boot :)

Since the highly coveted craft table could not be used in this space, I decided to use my old computer desk as my sewing table. It doesn't offer the room to have a cutting/crafting area and a sewing area like the craft table would, but it's rare I'm cutting and sewing at the same time. Or doing either of those while I'm crafting either, so I'll just have to rotate out.

 Before & After. I debated awhile on what colors to do everything. Initially, I wanted both the desk and sewing table to be white since all my craft storage is. Then I had a brief moment where I considered doing the desk two tone- white table top, filing cabinets black or aqua. In the end, I decided to keep the desk one color to match my storage and give the sewing table a little pop by painting it aqua. I really like how it turned out!! Stay tuned for more pics as I continue to make progress in my "little" craft room! :)

Baby Jake- 7 months & Nursery Reveal

Wait, what? Uhm, isn't the nursery reveal like 8 months late, you say? Eh, technically, but what can a girl do? I could blame it on the move, but without the move Jake wouldn't have his own room and therefore no reveal. It didn't make sense to re-do Will & Jake's joint room as a nursery and I couldn't find a superhero/nursery combination I was happy with. So we all agreed to use Will's frog & duck baby theme until Jake got a little older or we moved into a new house giving them separate rooms (we discussed moving within the B'ham area before we knew about the TN move). Also, Jake's room has been finished for a couple months now, I just haven't been able to post about it. I'm making up for it now, 'cause this is a really long one, so sit tight!

Jakie-poo, before we talk about your room, I want to talk about you! So here's some things we've learned about our 7 month old baby boy:

• You really got this sitting thing down! You fall over every once in awhile but often you catch yourself when you start to teeter totter
• You've graduated from the Bumbo to the highchair
• You have not cut a tooth yet, but in addition to chewing on your lip, fingers/hands and anything you can get hold of, you're chewing on your tongue. Surely all this chewing is going to pay off soon and get you a brand new tooth!
• You can be quiet and observe your surroundings or talk with just a tiny little baby voice. But there's times when you just have something to say and pretty much scream it at us. It's so cute!
• You're still in 3-6 months clothes and size 2 diapers
• You love to bounce even when you're not in your bouncy. Seriously, you'll just sit on the floor or in the highchair, our laps, wherever and just bounce, bounce, bounce up and down and back and forth!
• We put you in a swing for the first time (at the park) and you really like it :)
• It sounds like you're trying to say ma-ma
• You are such a grabber! You grab anything you can reach and bring it straight to your mouth

Jake, you have the sweetest little laugh and are still such a cuddly little boy. I love watching you grow and your budding personality come through. It's also precious how much you love your siblings. You just smile, talk and laugh and them and your little eyes track them around the room. Will & Maggie both love talking to you and giving you kisses. Melt a mama's heart!! 

The Nursery
When I started planning for baby 3, I knew I wanted to make the bedding myself. I've never done it before and this way #3, now Jake, would have a 'first'. Will was our first child, Maggie our first girl and now Jake is the first to have homemade bedding by mommy. I did search for fabric to coordinate with a superhero room, but as I said, just wasn't finding anything I liked. One of the fabrics I did love was unavailable by the time we moved and I went fabric shopping. So we hung all Will's baby stuff in Jake's room because I wanted him to have something. I wasn't happy that it wasn't his 'own thing' but hand-me-downs are better than empty room.

Before

Then one day I went to JoAnn for something completely different and found exactly what I wanted. Bright and fun, but still baby boy and went with the colors already in the room. I like the green walls and had no intentions of painting. I left the curtains up because they're tailor-made and go fine with the new bedding even though they don't match. I found a tutorial here for the bedding and though it took me some time, it was easier than I thought it would be. And I just love that my baby boy has his own custom-made bedding. It's not perfect, but made with lots of love from mommy. :) 

walking into Jake's nursery

Along with the bumpers and crib skirt, I made the blanket draped over the glider. 

I made the letters and piggy bank before Jake's arrival.We bought a bookcase and Daniel assembled it...I wanted a place to set photos, decorations and books, of course. The blue frame above the bookcase was a gift from my parents when Jake was born. I found the other 3 frames from Goodwill for $1 each and spray painted white. I also found the lamp base from Goodwill for $3- it was brass so I spray painted it blue.

I bought the lamp shade from Hobby Lobby and added fabric to it. The other little items (cup that says little prince and two ceramic boxes for first tooth and first curl) on top of the bookcase were gifts from my Aunt & Uncle when Jake was born. 

Aside from the letters, I wanted to incorporate a fun, homemade element with Jake's birth information, like Maggie's, but different. I came up with this (below), designed and cut with my Cricut on vinyl. Because it's only 12x12, I needed something else and I love the idea of ABC flashcards...I first saw this several years ago when Daniel's cousin, Jennifer, kept a blog about her twin boys. It always stuck in my head as a cute idea. I found already made cards online (free), printed them on my home printer and attached to the string by mini clothes pins- left from Jake's gender reveal party. (I knew they'd come in handy!)

The shelf used to hang in the entry way of our B'ham house (for a short time anyway). I was glad to find a use for this since I just barely completed that project before having to take it down last year. The LOVE didn't work with the rest of the colors in the room so I covered the hooks with scrapbook paper and embellishments to match Jake's letters. I like that the shelf coordinates with the white bookcase- they both bring some brightness into the room. I probably would've bought white furniture if I had a girl first, but Daniel  didn't really like it for a boy. I purchased the J from JoAnn's and covered it with the same fabric as the lamp shade- I got this idea from my neighbor. The other items atop the shelf are hand-me-downs from Will's room. 

This accordion album was one of the final homemade touches and was also made 

to match Jake's letters. I talk more about making this here.  

I really like how my baby Jake's nursery came together and enjoyed adding all the little homemade touches to his room. Crafting is even more fun when it's for my babies. :) I still have one more project I want to complete but I couldn't hold off writing about this any longer. And who knows if I'll ever actually get around to it. I love you Jake! 

Craft room reveal

This has been a long time coming! I should really put craft room in quotes because our dining room has actually been converted to my craft room. Nonetheless. Last fall we ran across some cube storage solutions at Michael's and I told Daniel how nice it would be to have a craft room. He asked why we couldn't just convert the dining room- it was my craft area anyway, especially since I started sewing. He was immediately ready to go to work taking down my computer desk from the other room and moving everything around in the dining room. I, however, wanted to have a better idea where we were going, how much storage I needed and how to set up the room. I purchased cubes little by little as I could (during their 50% off sales) and acquired the last several with gift cards and Christmas money at the end of last year. So why the long wait after that? Well, there's a lot of little and big reasons but most were my uncertainty about what I wanted and how I wanted it.  But it's finished now!

What we originally started with:

Last fall Daniel did assemble the six cubes I was able to purchase, so things moved around a little. This is our 'before' the day of the move- I waited a little too long to take the before shots.

And the mess in between:

The after:

There are small changes I would like to make, but spacing issues made all our placement decisions necessary. In a perfect world, I would have my very own room- like a bedroom or large bonus room/basement space I could decorate and arrange to my hearts desires- but I'm happy to have a space, period. My hubs worked very hard to make this room happen for me and we made it work as best we could with the space we have available. Thanks babe, love you! Looks like some storage is too readily available:

Little moosie keeps crawling in and helping herself to my paper stash. Maybe one day she'll craft with mommy :)

Craft Corner

Every year we buy each family member a new Christmas ornament- a tradition we started our first year of marriage. Back then we each bought a couple ornaments and even some for the dogs- I would buy snowmen and gingerbread couples, Daniel would buy penguins and computer guys. Now we usually buy a family ornament and one for each child. It's a fun tradition because everyone is involved and I love Christmas decorations...those that trim the tree are no exception.
Sometime around Halloween, I found a fabric ornament at Cracker Barrel that I just loved and knew I could make one myself. Shortly after I ran across some do it yourself ornaments at Michael's for half off. My inspiration ornament looked to be made of ribbon but after some consideration, I decided to use fabric I already have on hand since ribbon can add up quickly and I would've needed a lot to cover them. So I got to work- mostly improvised- and here's what I came up with:

They're not perfect but I'm happy with how they turned out, Daniel liked them and Will really enjoyed having his W ornament! He even helped glue on some of his ric rac. This was a fun project and may be our new tradition!
My next project has been awhile in the works. I was first inspired last year while at the hospital with Maggie- I saw an adorable hand-made, possibly hand-painted, door sign hanging on the door of a room down the hall from NICU. I guess I logged it in the recesses of my mind 'cause when I started thinking about making one a couple months ago, I didn't even remember where I got the idea. In fact, Daniel was the one who reminded me. Anywho, the idea came to me but I thought about it and went to craft stores a couple times before I could really flesh it out. I don't paint so I knew had to approach mine differently (makes it more unique anyway). Once complete, I knew it needed something more, so I sewed some flowers and added them. I think I'll do more of these.

Currently, the sign is hanging on the wall of Maggie's bedroom, but I do plan to actually hang it on her door once I find my other door hanger or buy another one. I want to make one for Will as well, but not sure if he would like it or care....he is almost four. Lol.

Maggie's 1st birthday party- the details- part 3

Activities, Favor bags & Maggie's Outfit

As the trend with this party - and well, life I guess - I thought of several activity ideas and bag stuffers but time did not allow or the idea was just better in theory than practice. Like I wanted to make a bean bag toss or a live ladybug station or yummy ingredients packed in the favor bags (I did banana bread for Will's). But I realized I can't do it all and she doesn't need it all - she won't remember this after all -so simple it is. Just like Will's 1st, I had a coloring station, time capsule and video slideshow.

Coloring station
I printed ladybug coloring pages online, added some crayons and a great activity for the kids is ready. We set this up in the quiet room of the house....because coloring is a quiet activity. :)

Time Capsule
This was a pretty big hit at Will's 1st and I rather enjoyed it, so I knew this would make an appearance at future children's 1st birthday parties as well. I sent instructions with the invitation to write a note or advice or bring an heirloom or memorabilia for place in the capsule (an empty popcorn tin) for Maggie to read when she turns 18. We did provide staionery and pens at the party, but some people prefer planning ahead to thinking on the spot, so I wanted to accommodate both. Some people showed me what they made/wrote beforehand but I'm certain I'll forget in the next 17 years so I'll be excited to see what's in there!

We set up the time capsule on the entry way table with stationery, pens and that cute signable bear we found at Party City-- Will had a blue dog. :)

Video Slideshow
This is another love of mine, which started in high school when I had an idea to make a mother's day video for my mom. Back then, I didn't know anything and only used a camcorder and VCR to transfer footage back and forth. Of course, the quality sufferred so when I was introduced to actual video editing software (probably by Daniel) a whole new world opened for me! I honestly cannot recall why I didn't make one for our wedding (insert sad face) but I did make one for Will's 1st birthday- documenting his first year of life and all the changes he made. I used both still images and footage from our video camera. With Maggie, I just used photos to keep it simple. I'll add the video at the end of the post, hope you enjoy!

Favor Bags
Party-themed favor/treat bags/boxes are really cute and hard to pass up and (I have used them before), but I really enjoy making my own. I bought white paper bags and embellished them with each child's name - cut on green and pink paper with my Cricut - and ladybug stamps on back. The girls' bags got a little extra flair because I had some leftover spots and flowers from the ladybugs and cupcake toppers. I also tried different letter layouts for each child, a few are the same.

I chose pink candy and favors for the girls' bags and green for the boys -- with a little red and some multi-colored Smarties mixed in. I happened upon these ladybug pencil cases one day in JoAnn's clearance bins and couldn't pass them up (who could for $.49?!) so the girls got a little something extra. I also attached a cute little 'thank you for coming' tag to the candy bags, but yet again failed to take a picture.

Maggie's outfit
A pretty 1st birthday girl has to have a pretty, customized outfit, right? Of course! A matching shirt, bib & hat were in order and I thought awhile how to incorporate her name, ladybugs and "1" into the design and came up with this. I purchased very little for the homemade portion of the outfit- party hat, pink boa and pink onesie- all very inexpensive. Then I assembled everything together with materials I already own.

she wanted those shoes!

we didn't expect the hat to stay on the whole day

so she wore her pretty headband in between

I did not make the tutu- bought it on Etsy. I've been told they're easy to make, but I could not have made this much cheaper than I bought it and saved the *potential* stress. Also, the sandals were not purchased for the party, but fit in very nicely. I have one more birthday post coming soon!