All work and no play

I am feeling the need to craft. Actually I am going through withdrawls! Last Sunday I completed 4 CTR towels, worked on my 365 project and a couple other minor projects. It was a good crafty evening. The boys played and mom crafted. Then, I had to work. By Wednesday morning, my next day off, I was getting Matthew's cold. By the time I woke from my 2 hour nap after work I felt like I'd been hit by a semi! I slept most of Wednesday and all night Wednesday. Thursday morning I still felt cruddy. I slept and lounged most of Thursday as well. By Friday I was feeling better but then I had to work Friday night again. Saturday was spent in Pocatello at a baptism. Sunday we had church then a nap, then work again. Now I am on for the next 3 nights, followed by 1 night off then 1 more night working. *sigh* It's nice to have extra come payday but I am tired of working and really want to craft, not to mention my to do list is getting longer and longer. Hopefully this week will be a good week and I will get something done and posted. After all, 2 more months and I will be starting gardening. Maybe sooner if I decide to do my own starts this year. I never have great success transitioning the starts outside when it's time to plant. hmmm, I will have to decide on that one. Hoping for a better week this week......

Organizing dreams.

I have a few things that are VERY therapeutic to me and since this past week has been more rough than smooth I am indulging myself. I have a corner of the house that is just mine. I have a tendancy to see something and think, "wow, that's simple. I can do that" then I start into another project. I do a wide variety of things as you can tell- paper scrapbooking, digiscrap, sewing, painting, home decor, general crafts, scouting etc. This list goes on and on. I guess I like variety. I retreat to my world, listen to the boys wrestle, play 'puffles' or play video games, all while creating something-anything! My mind can work out it's troubles and my hands stay busy and in the end life is beautiful again. I come by the crafting naturally. My mom always had something going on too. She jokes that she would have Christmas for everyone for a couple of years if she finished all her projects. Actually mom, didn't you just give us Christmas for a couple of years by finishing your projects?! ;-) I think the only thing she doesn't know how to do is knit! Literally! Well all this variety can cause a few cliches in the system. How do you organize such a wide variety of supplies? Afterall, my corner of the world is rather small! Well, tonight I am sharing my vision of my crafting area. I am afraid it will take several months to complete as we do ittybitty pieces, bit by bit that won't knock us off budget! Here is what it looks like now.....(drum roll please)Believe it or not it has looked worse. We started a few months ago buying shelves to help organize things. And I have been adding the storage drawers little by little. They are handy and I like being able to assign a place for various items, like all the beads in one, all the posicle sticks and such in another- very handy.
The boxes at the top and most of the drawers are full of scout supplies, beads, fun foam, pompoms, leather working tools, my label maker, etc.....
Since switching to digital scrapbooking I use most of my paper supplies for cards or tags or other various such projects. This table is in need of serious help. It is always piled with odds and ends. I do love my peg board though. Robin put that in and bought the various hooks for me. He is amazingly supportive of my addiction to all things crafty....
This side is still developing. I bought the shoe boxes thinking they would be great.....but haven't figured out just what yet. I think I mostly just need a day to redo and reorganize but when I come here I digress with my projects and craftiness takes over. I didn't dare take a picture of the pile of fabric scraps on the floor- don't worry, they are piled to overflowing in a storage container. Well, in light of all this and my increasing need to organize my little retreat I have come up with a plan. I love clean crisp lines in home decor. I also love organization! A place for everything and everything in it's place is my mantra. Yeah, I know, you couldn't tell from these pictures! That's the problem. So I had to decide to get serious with my current system and finish it or SOMETHING! Well, I have a couple of problem areas. #1 the space is long and narrow. #2 I have ALL SORTS of supplies.

I love to blog. I have gotten so many great ideas for really cheap! Home decor ideas are no exception. Then I found this post here. I love her room. I especially love the cupboards. Everything is put away.I also found a few other craft area posts that got my brain to thinkin'! Some were small narrow spaces like mine too. So, I did what any woman would do. Came running home to dear sweet Hubby and shared my ideas! Just testing the ground at first but being the great guy that he is, he was ok with whatever I decided. THE TRICK! I had to stay within our budget! UGH! That always puts a cramp in things. BUT! Never fear, I had a plan for this too. See I have recently fell in love with another blog- see I told you I like to blog serf- Knockoffwood. Ana is great and makes these projects super simple! So here is my plan. I plan to build something like this:

Photo from Pottery Barn via knockoffwood.

Yeah- we can do it! This is just a series of pieces and with Ana's directions it won't be much at all. So along one wall will be my work bench/table. Along the other will be my cupboards and perhaps counter top. Along the back wall (where my pegboard is) will be open with maybe just a rolling cart. I plan to have a draw or cupboard for everything and labeled. It will take a while but the great part is we can do it piece by piece. What do you think? You can see the plans here.
Robin built a piece for the family room yesterday and had a lot of fun doing it. He was rather proud of himself! I will share those pictures later. I am anxious to get going on this big project but this will be an exersice in patience!!! :-) E.X.C.I.T.I.N.G!!

Project 9 of 52- Valentine Wreath

I'm not sure where I got this idea, I didn't write it down and now I can't find it. They had spray painted the Christmas bulbs red, pink and white but I found these at Real Deals and thought they would work with pink and brown ribbons. What do you think? Really. I can't decide. I go back and forth..... Yeah, I think I like it. I am hoping to do the Valentine chair backers this week. I got the fabric on Saturday. Then I am hoping to have everyone spend a week or until Valentines writing love notes to each other. I am hoping to get us thinking more positively and expressing our love and what we like about each other more. This can sometimes get tricky in a house of boys but they are pretty good most of the time.

Project 8 of 52: Jute wrapped cans

I found this idea on Brown Paper Packages . They were really easy, inexpensive, and green. Nothing beats trash to treasures. I think I will give these to a coworker who gave me the can lids and the empty cans. I think she will like them and enjoy them.

I am excited to go shopping tomorrow. Smiths and Albertsons are having great sales this week. But I will also be going to Lowes. I have found Knockoffwood.blogspot. What a great site! Ana makes simple blueprints for great furniture and gives instructions that even a gal like me can follow. My favorite part is that I can build these pieces in stages which really helps on the budget. And since I have the plans I don't have to worry about the style being discontinued or out of stock. I plan on doing pieces of the Cameron Collection for our family room. I hate having DVD's, Wii games, VHS's and toys all over. They contrast my desire for nice organization and clean lines. We are going to start with the cubby and draw and build from there. Then hopefully the movies and toys will be more neat and tidy. Plus I am drawn to the simetry of the plans. Maybe this year I will get my family room in line and really be able to enjoy it....

I also have plans to build pieces from the Logan collection for my crafty area. Once again I look forward to having supplies closed up in cupboards and drawer. "A place for everything, and everything in it's place" definantly describes me. The cherry on top is that I can do these projects on our current budget! No breaking the bank. Yeah, otherwise I would never get it done.

I am also searching for ideas for our bedroom redo later this year. The challenge of maintaining budget has really sparked my creativity as I search for severely frugal home decor. Dear SIL is the queen with this topic but I'm learning. I usually know what I like I just have to find a way to do it on a budget.

With all this in mind, hopefully I will get the wood to do my first piece. Wish me luck and I will post pictures when I get it done.

I have worked the last 5 of 6 days and I have to work again tomorrow night. Doesn't sound like a lot until I tell you these are 12 hour night shifts. UGH! I feel like I have lived at the hospital this week. Today I was really dragging. The weather was very cold and dreary too which doesn't help to wake you up or motivate you. Thankfully Robin has done an incredible job of keeping up with the housework. Needless to say I am WIPED OUT! Working so many days in a row has made it difficult to remember my project 365 and take a picture every day. I missed a couple but I think I will just use a generic picture. Or perhaps a picture of one of my projects...... On Sunday I usually scrapbook. Check out the slide show for the pages so far this year. I am excited to see it finished. It's gonna be great. I also think that it will help me learn more about picture taking. Maybe I will play with color techniques in PSE this week. How about a week of black and white photos? If I am lucky enough I may find one to use as wall art in the bedroom.......

Project 7 of 52: CTR towel

This is a project I found on Made With Love and Glue. I had planned to make on for Keegan's baptism but my niece's is coming up so I made hers first. I guess I will have to buy another towel for Keegan's but that's ok. I love it. I couldn't decide between red and bright pink, red is my favorite so maybe that's why I chose it. What do you think? It was soooo simple. I didn't have sitch witchery but still worked out ok. I think this would just make it easier to sew on without worrying about the fabric moving. The other day I pulled out my box of scraps which I haven't looked through for a while. It was like Christmas all over again. I had forgotten about some of the great scraps I have. With all the fun projects I am finding in blogland I may not have to go to the fabric store again for a while.....Nahhh, I'll still check it out once in a while.

Our ward is working on school bags and hygiene kits for the humanitarian drive. I plan on making several of the bags. Hopefully, I will get some made this week. I'm thinking I can make several from what fabric I already have. We will see. I also hope to get some organizing done in my craft area. It is suppose to be cold! the next few days so once again, I'll take advantage of the frigid winter time and staying indoors.

I work tonight and tomarrow night, which means sleeping all day tomarrow but Wednesday should be a good day. It's been a rough day today and yesterday, details are soooo not worth it. I am thankful for a loving husband tonight especially. One that loves me for ME- taking the good with the bad, No Judging Just Loving! *sigh*

The school was on lockdown today for about 40 minutes because of an armed robbery in town. Kinda scary but the boys were ok with it. We talked about it at dinner. Danger doesn't bother them. They trust their teachers and enjoy being able to "download" at dinner time. I guess that is why small things make such a difference in our kids lives. They don't sweat the small stuff. They know they have security at home. I can't imagine what life would be like if we didn't have "the small things". Funny how we always return to the basics eh!

Project 6 of 52: suit of armour

I had planned on making this for Christmas but didn't get it done. I collected can lids (the ones without sharp edges) and juice lids to make these for the boys. Robin pounded the holes and sanded the rough edges off. Then I just laces jute rope through the holes and Robin spray painted it gold. Voila!! Ours will be the safest street in the neighborhood! Knights in shining armour on brigade!

I think I have been on a roll lately. All these projects are fun. I am taking advantage of the season. No yard work, no gardening and the boys are still in school. Yesterday we worked really hard and cleaned the whole house nearly spotless. We do have a 1 1/2 yr old after all. It was nice to wake up to organization and clean this am. Now if we can just keep it this way for a few days Mom will be happy! Yes, I am a dreamer.

I have a couple of bigger projects I am hoping to get to this coming week. We have a saucer chair that has a cover tearing out. Tyler keeps trying to sneek it back upstairs to use. I found a tutorial at makeitandloveit on recovering this. I bought the new fabric a week or so ago. I think it's time to do this for him. Also in the works for the near future: Valentines Day Chairbacker mailbox, Wet bag (for Keegan's baptism), CTR towel. I told Robin I was hoping to get some sewing time in this next week. He is always so good to let me have that time. It makes me happy and I guess a happy wife is his reward. In any case he is great!

I have been getting my 365 pages done. They are in the slide on the side. I also did some quick pages the other night. I need to get going on more scrapbook pages so that I don't fall even further behind. I made up several quick pages from Christmas kits I downloaded so now I just need to insert the pictures.

Other projects on my list: Apple topiary, Laundry room redo, Large family photo to go above the fireplace, scrapbook pages!!, throw pillow covers, letter "J" monogram, white board from a picture frame, and some wood projects from knockoffwood.blogspot for the family room. Hopefully I can find some great deals to get what I need for the bigger projects. Joann's had 50% of the clearance price on some of their fabric. I will have to watch for the Valentine fabric to get marked down for the mailboxes. I am getting really good at looking around the house and at my craft supplies to see what I can do. The challenge is to keep it all organized.

What do you do when you have your fingers in lots and lots and lots of projects? And all different type of projects. I am still trying to figure this out. Slowly my craft area is getting better organized. I am needing some bigger bins for fabric next. I hope to sort scraps by color. There is always something to do but since we don't have t.v. and it's snowing......

Matthew had another day of speech therapy today. I told Robin afterwards it would be easy to say, "but you didn't do anything. You just PLAYED with him" but for kids PLAY is learning. The trick is repitition. Getting Matthew to say the same sound or intonation and build on that. He is getting it. Perhaps that is the job Robin should get. Speech therapy for kids. You get to sit on the floor and play with toys all day! ;-) He is just a big kid afterall. I think the S.T. likes it when Robin is there cuz he says things and does things that are exactly what Matthew needs. Robin just 'gets it'!

Robin is training to do financial planning. He is quite excited. He is still looking for a job but in the meantime he is learning new skills that have great potential. I think this could really take off for him. It is amazing how much of a difference owning the phrase "at work" can make. He has more direction for his efforts and something to pour himself into. I am such a lucky lady. I have a hard working husband who loves me and wants to do everything he can for his family. This economy is tough and has dealt some nasty hands but I am thankful for the love of my life! 2010 is going to be a great year. I can just feel it!

Project 5 of 52: Lamp shade redo

Before....
I saw this on Thrift Decor Chic and thought I'd give it a try. I think the shade looks lots better. now if I could just do something different with the black.....
After....
Not too bad. What do you think?