Craft Room Update

This is what the room looked like when we bought our house. This room was our first renovation project on this house. I was sooo excited to finally have a room! The room measures about 11 1/2 feet wide by 17 1/2 feet deep.

I changed the paint color and painted all the trim white. You'll see a door later that still needs painting. I'm not a fan of honey oak. I also removed the carpet and had a laminate floor installed. I didn't want to worry about losing pins in carpet or spilling paint. I removed the closet doors to make it easier to access the space inside. After painting, new floor, IKEA Expedit building, and without my stuff in place. Notice the sprinkler timer box in the closet. This room is right off the garage so I guess the builder thought this would be a good spot. It is huge! Someday we will move it to a better spot.

Fast forward to Today, March 24, 2011. The view as you walk in. I have tried to create zones in my craft room. I have also labeled lots of drawers and doors. This makes it easy for when friends are over. I have four rolling chairs in this room.

My "Office" space. I keep computer related stuff, cords, office supplies, and music stuff in this corner.
I found the black table at an estate sale. It fits my flutes and drumsticks/mallets perfectly. I was also able to put my printer on top and free up some space on the desk above.

I spy two empty bins!

I have a lot of drawers and doors for my Expedit bookcases. I love that I can just throw stuff inside of them and it looks neat and tidy from the outside.

Just a small note pad and post-it note collection. :)

The inside.....Normal binders fit nicely behind the closed door.

My computer area

What to put on this wall?? Originally I had a bulletin board but it was too hard for me to reach. Now I'm thinking pictures of my favorite people. Any suggestions?
My sewing area. The table top is a laminate countertop you can find at Home Depot. The shelves holding the top up are from IKEA. I had my husband drill holes in the top and I inserted those cord things you find in nice desks. I hate having cords hanging all over the place when I'm sewing.

One side of my large Expedit wall.

The other side of the large Expedit wall.

Julia's corner. See the door? Makes me twitch that it isn't painted. I'm in the process of painting all the doors in our house. This one is last on the list. This corner is set-up for my daughter. However, my son also enjoys coloring a bit here. He is 21 months old.
This is a new addition. I used to have a LACK bookcase in this corner. I was never really happy with it so I gave it to a friend and put in more Expedit shelving and a workspace. Love it now!
I would love to put a gift wrap holder above this desk. Know of any good tutorials?

A few close-ups of the cubbies and drawers.

I have even dedicated some space to Julia. She is able to use craft stuff that is age appropriate at her arms reach.

I saw this fabric organization idea on the blog The Little Green Bean. I'm in the process of converting all my fabric over to these foam core boards which will free up space in my closet.

Rick-Rack and Bias Tape

I used cardboard inserts to keep it neat.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour! Let me know if you have any questions. Almost every piece of furniture/chair in the room is from IKEA. I love the Expedit Bookcases because they have deep shelves that hold 12x12 albums nicely. To see more before pictures check out this post.

I'm linking up to:

tatertots and jello

and

Crafty Storage

Mini Chocolate Cream Pie

My Grandmother made the best chocolate cream pies. At least that's what I've heard. I never actually got to taste one of her pies made with her hands but my mother has carried on the tradition and passed the recipe down to all the girls in the family. I've been dying to try it in mini form. It was pretty easy!

I like to start with Pillsbury pre-made crusts. One of these days I'll be able to make a good crust but until then I use these. Love them. You get two in a pack but I only used one today because I used the other to make a pie a few weeks ago.

I simply unrolled it on my Pampered Chef pastry mat. It's the first time I've used it and I love it. I didn't use any flour and my crust did not stick! I used a rolling pin to flatten down some of the wrinkle edges.

I do not have any circle cookie cutters. But I do have jar rings in two sizes. The regular mouth ring is good for mini cupcake size. The wide mouth ring is better for regular cupcake pans.

I cut out circles and stuffed them into my cupcake pan. I did not grease my pan and I used a tart shaper to help smooth these out. You can definitely do it by hand.

12 little crusts ready to be baked. I baked mine for 10 minutes. Be sure to poke a few holes in the sides and bottom. This helps to keep it from puffing up. I still had a few that puffed.

All Baked! They did shrink up a little so I will be keep my eyes out for a larger circle cutter. But using the wide mouth ring I was able to get 12 mini crusts.
I used a small scoop to fill my little crusts and then placed a dollop of Cool Whip on top. Place them in the refrigerator to cool and set-up. I had some filling left over. I'm guessing that I could have made 24 if I had another crust.
Here is my Grandmother Cook's recipe. If you find that it does not set up you made need to play with your flour/cornstarch ratio or even add a little more. Remember, this was my grandmother's recipe......a dash of this, a sprinkle of that.

Baby Shower

My friends and I had the best time throwing a shower for our friend who didn't really want a shower. Ha! Something about it's a third baby and she doesn't like to be the center of attention...... Well we ignored her and had a party anyway. :)

My friend Kandie does the most amazing Spencerian Script. In fact, I already hired her services for my daughters wedding.......in at least 16 years! Shop early and you get the best discounts right?

Hand addressed envelopes

Please ignore that I have smeared out my address.

The invitation. It looks digital but it really was done with actual paper. We included the buttons on the inside of the invitation as well.

Our friend was not looking forward to opening gifts in front of everyone. In fact she said no gifts. Sorry lady! I had been collecting stuff before she laid down this rule. We did tell her that we would not have her open gifts. But how do you tell people to not wrap their gifts without it sounding ordinary.

We inserted this little card into the envelopes.

Then we had clotheslines set up and pre-made tags for everyone. All they had to do was put their name on a tag and attach it to their gift when they arrived. We loved it! It was fun to walk around and touch/see all the gifts without having to pass them around. It also helped out our decor! I wish I had a pic of the little socks on the clothesline. Too cute! There was even a PJ outfit for mama to wear.
The bib and burp cloth set on the right in the picture above were made out of men's polo shirts. They were backed with fusible interfacing and flannel to give them more body. Samara did a great job on those.

I love these pom-poms. My friend Kristyn created these based on tutorials in blogland. She also set up the cutest small tables around the room for people to place their drinks and plates. The small tables were children's tables that we collected from all of us gals, were draped with fabric, and had a beautiful flowers on each one.
Becky created these cupcakes which I think were actually brownies filled with caramel. Heavenly! Notice the pacifier? She does this for fun!!!

The food! Shannon, Samara, Kandie, and Rebecca put together all this wonderful food! We had a brunch theme. Our shower started at 10am.

(I hope I didn't leave anyone out of the food credits.)

These fruit kabobs were not only great eye candy but the were scrumptious. Our friend Rebecca has a great idea for arrangements.
The favors: Fortune cookies with the most adorable fortunes inside. Baby R will love to surf, Baby R will get a full scholarship, Baby R will......etc. These cookies tasted better than the ones you get after dinner. Kristyn, I would love your recipe please!
The best part of the party was just getting to hang out together before she is a very busy and sleep lady soon.

Keeping Up

I'm really behind on my scrapbooking. But who is not behind? Most people I know say they are behind or maybe they are just trying to make me feel good. For the longest time I just liked to buy the supplies for scrapbooking. I love the papers, embellishments, and tools. But when it comes to putting it all together with pictures I am behind. I've started dabbling in digital scrapbooking which is helping me to keep up with the now. About two years ago I switched to D-Ring albums which makes it really easy to scrapbook in whatever order I please. Adding pages is really easy and does not require me to unscrew an album.

Here are my latest creations for the present:

I'll be printing these on Matte paper through Costco. Another nice plus to digital scrapbooking is that it only requires my laptop. I can take my computer to the living room to watch "The Office" with my hubby and scrapbook all at the same time. :)

Tag/Lovie Blanket Boy Version

One of my former HS students just had her first baby. Does this make me old? I whipped up Baby Cole a tag blanket. I don't think I will embroider names on Minky fabric again. It bunched a little and the "C" almost looks like an "O".

For this one I just used the jumbo ric-rac I had on hand.

The tag lovie below is one I made for another friend who is also expecting a boy. I used jumbo ric-rac, small grosgrain ribbon, and some blue trim.

My daughter picked up a few of my scraps and made this little number. She had my help of course.
You do not have to use the foot pedal on my sewing machine and the speed is adjustable. I place her on my lap and she does the rest. It's never to early to start learning the basics.

What's cooking?

One of my former HS students is getting married! She loves black, white, and yellow. She really likes zebra print but I couldn't find any zebra print fabric at our local Beverly's. It is undergoing a remodel so the whole place is a mess. I did find this super cute black and white print of electric beaters!

Her gift: An apron and 2 matching kitchen towels, a few of my favorite recipes, and a gift card that I'll be slipping into the pocket of the apron.

I simply used an apron I have as a pattern. I used bias tape for the splash of yellow. I also added a loop onto the front of the apron so she could hang a towel from her apron. I wish mine had a loop.
She can hardly wait to call herself Mrs. Wood so I had to add her future name to her apron.

Here's to years of happiness and yummy brownies Mr. and Mrs. Wood!

Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day today. I was sick the weekend before and Valentine's Day. Sometimes it isn't a good idea to plan to create the night before a holiday. I am not a procrastinator just like to plan things late. :)

I made my daughter a simple shirt.

My supplies:

White t-shirt from Target

Plaid Simply Screen Paint in Cosmopolitan (sparkly pink)

Pampered Chef pan scraper

Freezer Paper

Cricut

Gypsy for my Cricut
While sitting on my couch sick I used my Gypsy to put my design together. I love how I can see exactly where I am putting the images and where they will be cut on the mat. First I created a large heart and then filled it with lots of little hearts and the word "Love".

Then I simply hooked up the Gypsy to my Cricut, loaded a mat with freezer paper (shiny side down), and pressed cut. I created a simple stencil that I ironed onto my shirt (shiny side down). Once your stencil is ironed down you can paint.

I squeezed some paint on and used the Pampered Chef pan scraper to "squeegee" it around the stencil. I love those scrapers. They are also great when caulking.

Once you have your paint on very carefully peel away your stencil.

Ta-Da!

I let it dry for a few hours. I didn't do a super thick coat so it dried fairly quickly. Then I heat set it with my iron. I covered the shirt with a thin piece of cotton before I heat set it to be sure that I didn't mess up my iron.
I also used my Cricut to cut out 2 1/2" hearts. I put candy on the hearts and stuck them all over her door. She loved this and the shirt. She is 4 1/2 so she is pretty easy to please right now. :)