My New Sewing Room

The moment has arrived! It's time to show you my new sewing and craft room. The only thing left to do is to build a new work table but that will have to wait until after summer projects that Brian plans to get done around the house. For now this table suits my purpose. The big cabinet behind the table is actually a Murphy bed. When I have overnight guests, I simply fold up the table and pull down the bed. I hope you like a lot of pictures!

Here it is from another angle. Yes, I do use that file organizer (long thing on the wall) that I sell the pattern for. It comes in quite handy. You might also notice the portable ironing board that I made for my room. If you click on my "Tutorials" tab at the top, you can see how to make your own. After I buy new bed linens, I'll show you the room when it is turned into a guest room.

If you follow my blog regularly, you've already seen this awesome wall of shelves that hubby built for me. The top shelves are covered because it hides the ugly stuff.

On to the details... I have photos throughout the room of those most near and dear to me. I even have one shelf dedicated to display a few of them. I also have a great spot to hang my favorite aprons. It's my new souvenir collection. It's a fun thing to collect while on vacations.

You see the baskets on the bottom shelves of the units next to the Murphy bed (top picture). Those are empty for now, but I thought they'd be handy when the room turns into a guest room. My guests will have little "drawers" to stash things in. The sewing machine table will become a writing desk or a place for my kids to use their laptops when they are visiting from Delaware. Right now you see a blanket next to the sewing machine. That is Punkie's favorite place to lay.

I found these bed risers laying around. They lift my table up to a comfy level for crafting. And these great storage containers have been on sale at Michael's. I'm going to get two more. They are perfect for storing the tiny scraps.

I actually have 4 areas for storing fabric. Here is where you'll find my 100% cottons which I use mostly. I also have a cabinet along the wall by the sewing machine where I store my smaller fabric piles (3/4 yard and under), I also have those storage containers (photo above this one) where I store the tiny scraps, and I use the top shelves of the new shelves to store felt and decorating fabrics.

My cutting tools, pencils, rotary cutters, and decorative edge scissors are so handy in these little mugs and flower pot.

I love the pretty glass jars for storing the colorful stuff! The photo in the left picture is of my grandmother who actually gave me the creative gene. I can remember hours of crafting when I would visit her. This picture was taken in the 1920's but you can tell that by her hairstyle.

And it all started with the plans above! I hope you have enjoyed my tour. I love my new room and I love the man that made it possible for me. A big thank you to my awesome husband!!!

Oh Little Tree Frog...

Last night I was chilling a bit before bed when I saw movement on my glass doors. I took a closer look and found this cute little guy. We must have a lot of tree frogs in the area because I see them all the time. They always end up on my glass doors right before a storm. Do you suppose that they feel safe there? Do you think they know when a storm is coming? An animal's instincts are quite strong. A few years ago they had that Tsunami that killed many people and created unbelievable destruction in Japan. I read an article about how they didn't find animal bodies. They found live animals on high ground instead. Somehow the animals sensed the severe danger and moved to high ground in plenty of time.

There are many stories about how an animal's instincts actually save people's lives. I have one myself which I'll share in a future post. But I just had to photograph this cute little tree frog! Love his little suction cup feet!

Applique Templates

I'm really excited to add a new section to my Etsy shop! I'm now selling applique templates. I got the idea when I was designing my "Mom Cave" quilt for my sewing room, which I'll show you in a future post. Stitching the detail on those little scraps of fabric is so addicting. I've got a nice selection to start but look for lots more in the future because I have a basket full of them that just need to be stitched. I started with my graphic and clipart kits, then added PDF patterns, and I figure these tie it all together nicely.

If you want to take a peek, you can click on the link above or in my menu at the top of this page.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Friday the 13th

Punkie would like to wish all our friends in blogland a very happy Friday the 13th. She would like you to remember this important fact:

When a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going someplace.

Have a happy day!

Hey! Remember Me?

Hello blogging friends! I hope you remember me. I've been a bad blogger, bad pinner, and just bad Internet presence. When that happens it usually means one of two things, life has taken over all my time (which can be good or bad), or it means that I've been on a mad creative streak. In this case, it's the mad creative streak!

I managed to claw my way out from underneath fabric, beads, and buttons long enough to say a quick hi. It seems like I come home from work, do a few things around the house, and then I find my way to my craft room. The next thing I know, it's past my bedtime!

I'm actually working on something new for my Etsy shop and my pattern shop at Craftsy. It's something I've done before but not quite in this way and I'm super excited because it's one of my favorite things to do. You'll all see soon enough.

So, since I'm off today, I'll be stopping by your blogs for a visit, clean house, and work on more crafts!!!

Happy Easter

Short and sweet today. Just want to wish all my blogging friends a HAPPY EASTER! If you don't celebrate Easter then I wish you a wonderful Sunday!

A Visit to the Horse Farm

Brian and I got a really nice treat today. We were killing some time between a Doctor's visit and dinner we decided to stop by the home of a friend of Brian's. His friend runs a horse farm and takes care of the property for a man who only lives here part time. He has a few other homes in other states. This place is actually only a few miles from our house and it's the first time I've seen it other than from the country road that runs along the front of it.

This place was amazing! I honestly don't know how big it is by the numbers but they use vehicles to get around the entire place because it's too much to walk. The property sits on rolling hills and they have about 30 horses that live there. It's divided into several sections by big white fences so you'll have about three or four horses in one particular area. The property goes even further into the woods behind. We had a beautiful walk on the grounds and got see every horse.

We were also allowed to tour the apartment that is above the riding area (not sure what it's really called). But it's a super big arena where they can exercise the horses indoors. The apartment was almost as beautiful as the grounds.

I wish we could have went inside the main house because I've been told that it's one of a kind. It's actually been featured in magazines.

I didn't want to post pictures of the apartment or the home because I wanted to respect the privacy of the owner. But I sure did get some beautiful horse pictures I can share!

This was definitely a beautiful way to wait for the dinner hour!

Favorite Mobile Apps

I am loving my new smartphone! The only thing it doesn't do is wash the dishes. I can't believe that it took me this long to finally get one. I've had it about a month now and I'm still learning it. What else do I love about it? I love the many apps you can download free to keep your life organized and at times, entertained. I'll share with you my favorite apps and what I like about them. If you have any favorite apps, I'd love to hear about them. I didn't include the links because there are different phones out there. If you are interested in one of them, just google the name and the type of app you want and you'll be sure to find if whether you want Iphone, Android, Ipad, or whatever you need.

SparkPeople: This is my favorite of all! I'm using it to record my food and my exercise. I find that if I have to log it, I won't cheat. It's keeping me on track. My favorite part about this app is that it has every kind of food in it's database that you can imagine, including name brands. I can also add my own and keep them in my favorites. It only takes a minute or two to log food, weight, and exercise.

AnyDo: This is a simple To Do list. It has 4 sections from top to bottom are Today, Tomorrow, Next Week, and Later. Very simple.

InkPad: This is a handy little note keeper. You can have as few or as many notes as you want. Great for keeping track of your Christmas gift list, clothing sizes, medications you're on, etc.

WeeklyAds: This is the ultimate! You just scroll to your state, then city, then pick a store. It has all the weekly ads for your area. Great for anyone who likes to see what's on sale and where.

Love my banking apps! I can check my balance, pay bills, transfer funds, and everything. It's also much quicker than using my computer.

PayPal has a great app too! You can do all of the above right from your phone.

JoAnn's, Amazon, & Michael's: Great for shopping. JoAnn's and Michael's have electronic coupons. Just show the phone to your cashier and she'll enter your number into the register for your discount. Used my 40% one today! JoAnn's also has their ad that you can browse.

YellowBook: Great one if you need to find a phone number quick.

SugarSync: This is wonderful! I can store all my downloads for my graphic & pattern business at their site. Then I can send them the file right from my phone. This will be especially helpful for those times that we go out of town. I'll have the laptop if I need it, but this will be much easier because I won't have to boot up the laptop. Plus, we go places (Northern Michigan) where we don't have Internet access all the time.

The Weather Channel: This is another good one. I can keep an eye on the weather when we have storms coming. I can also bring up the radar quickly.

JuiceDefender: This is a great battery saver. It turns off your Internet when the phone is in the lock position among other things. These phones can suck up the battery if you don't take certain steps to save some power.

YouTube: This is just fun. I don't use it too much. It is nice to have though for those times that you are stuck waiting for something or someone. Nice time killer when you can't do anything else.

Direct TV: This is helpful because this is our TV service. I can look up anything quickly that I might want to watch and get information. Plus, when you have so many channels,  you can never remember what is on what number.

Various Recipe Apps: These are great when you are trying to find something different for dinner. Even greater when you aren't home and have to stop at the store to pick up ingredients.

GoogleMaps: This is great! I'll never get lost again. We have a GPS in my husband's car but now I'll always have mine. I did buy a car charger because this thing is a major battery hog.

GoogleReader: I did forget to mention it above, but this is a great one too. I love the way the blogs appear on the phone.

So that's my list of favorites. Do you have any?

Favorite - Swiffer Dusters 360

It dawned on me today that it's been a long time since I've posted about one of my favorites. No, it's not cleaning the house, but I do love the Swiffer Dusters! I first bought this box a few months back but never really used it until recently. When I realized the fact that by the time my craft & sewing room is finished, I will have 30 shelves to dust! That's a lot of shelves! I decided to give this duster and try and I swear it cut my cleaning time by half. It's great for dusting the shelves and the items on them because it gets into the little creases and around the curves. I plan to pick up one more that will strictly used for dusting the tops of the fabric and on my drapes.

So housecleaning isn't fun or a favorite unless I find something that cuts down the work and the time.

My Sewing Room is Coming Along!

I wasn't going to show this yet because it's still not close to being complete, but just I couldn't wait. It's functional and it still doesn't look half bad. My room is coming along nicely. As I show the pictures, I'll explain what will be changed. Remember that this room will also convert quickly into a comfy guest room for when family is in town.

The photo above is what you see when you first walk into the room. Right now my sewing machine sits on a utility table. Brian will be making me a nice, wooden sewing table. It will convert to a desk when my kids are visiting from out of town. I can see their laptops on it now. All I have to do is remove the sewing machine and they have a nice desk.

~We will also be purchasing a TV that will be on a hinged arm. I have another place in mind for the quilted wall hanging when we get that, like on the wall that will be seen when the Murphy bed is opened.

This will be a fully functional wall. The big cabinet that you see in the back is actually a Murphy bed that we built. The bed will pull down when guests are staying and in the closed position, it only takes up 16 inches of floor space. I'm still shopping for some pretty bedding.

What will change:
~Where you see the drawers next to the wall unit will be shelves that will take up the entire space. I purchased large baskets for the bottom shelf on each side so guests will have a nice little stash place to put personal items.

~The 6 foot white table will be replaced with a wooden table that Brian will be making. It will be 4 feet by 4 feet and the top will flip upright on a hinge for storage. It will be on a wheel base that can lock in place when the table is open. When guests are here, I will flip it up, unlock the wheels, wheel it out, and I can then pull down the bed.

~Where you see the picture on the left side will also be a hanging file organizer which I'm making now. Hmmmm, do I see a tutorial in the works?

Here are the first set of shelves my totally awesome husband built for me. I wanted some covered storage but didn't want wooden doors, I wanted something with a softer look. I bought these spring rods for about $3 a piece and made simple little curtains to hide the ugly stuff. I really love the look of this unit!

I've had this cabinet for years. I have it filled with felt squares and felt by the yard. The photo on top is a scrap page of Brian and me. The basket on the right is filled with Yankee candles. My favorite indulgence.

As you can see, it's coming along nicely. I'll post more pics as I add the new furniture. He plans on making the shelves for the other wall next, then I think he'll take a break and do yard work before making my tables.

He definitely is the BEST HUSBAND EVER!

I'm tired, it's been a long day and I'm heading to bed. I'll visit you all shortly.