Teacup Lane: Craft Room

Showing posts with label Craft Room. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Check Off Red "Buffalo Check" Valances

This has nothing to do with my valances but Hubby has hooked up his Apple laptop for me in my craft area for my use.

And I asked him to hook up our big screen Apple monitor.

I always wanted one of these.

First time using my new cutting table!

My muslin lining fabric is just the right width.

Sewing up a storm on my old "New Home" sewing machine!

It's almost 30 years old and still sews beautifully.

Here I have one valance lined and one to do.

Valances all lined and up in the kitchen!

I bought two valances because I like the fullness of two.

One is just too skimpy.

Sorry for the burry photos (again!) but low light issues.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Dreaming in RED

I posted about the new family room Lazy Boy chairs we ordered last week.

I'm bringing a touch of red with light blue into the family room with this fabric.

Currently I have Country Curtains in the "Cabin Check" pattern....two sets of Austrian valances - one in burgundy and another in tan.

Usually the tan valances are up for spring and summer and the burgundy set is hung for fall and winter.

I love the "Cabin Check" valances because they are washable.

Unfortunately the Buffalo Check shown below isn't.

Susan (Between Naps on the Porch) fame has recently posted about her beautiful yellow buffalo check curtains in her office (here).

I loved them!

And immediately I started dreaming about switching to Buffalo Check valances in our family room.

I got out my Country Curtains catalog to look at the Buffalo Check valances again and noticed (loved) the RED Buffalo Check.

I think I may order two new sets in Buffalo Check - one in yellow (it's listed as "gold") and another in red.

I still like the Austrian valance style but I may go with the Pleated Scalloped valance for a different look for the family room.

I may order a fabric sample of the two colors before I order any valances just to make sure of the color.

Do you like the Buffalo Check?

My craft/sewing room is coming along.

I had to take a break the last couple days when the bursitis in my hip was bothering me.

Last week I bought an OttLite floor lamp at Michaels with a 50% off coupon.

Love those coupons!

And I love these lamps.

I have two now for my sewing table.

Lots of good natural light to see by.

I've been researching cutting table options for my craft/sewing room.

I looked at IKEA tables and even thought about making one.

They run from cheap (make your own) to very expensive professional ones.

I finally saw two Horn cutting tables in person at a local sewing store that fit all of my requirements except for the price.

I bought Hubby back to the store to make sure he felt we could get either one down into our basement. After his inspection and approval I chose the sturdier one... it's well made and has wheels, nice storage and extends to a sufficient cutting area if needed. It's about twice what I wanted to pay but I didn't want to compromise quality to save money. Luckily we got it on sale (20% off) because of a promotion and it's tax free shopping in the state of Delaware. So we saved a little bit.

One reason it's sturdy is it weights almost 300 pounds!

We may have to get help getting it into our basement.

I have to wait until September for delivery.

I love it!

It's worth the wait...after all I waited until I was 65 to finally get a cutting table.

What's a couple more days!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, July 22, 2012

IKEA RIBBA Picture Ledges

Hubby hung four more IKEA RIBBA Picture Ledge shelves in my craft/sewing room today.

He earned huge brownie points today!

I love these teeny, tiny shelves because you can easily change your art arrangement without putting more holes in your wall.

They come in two sizes - large and small.

Guess what this remote controls?

It remotely controls all my electric appliances dealing with sewing; my sewing machine and lights.

Hubby surprised me with this neat remote power strip he found at Home Depot.

Just one click everything comes on or off.

It's a time saving device otherwise I have to turn on/off four appliances separately.

Hubby even attached its power strip on the wall for me.

Because I hate cords laying on the carpet.

I have some 3M Command strips I plan to use to tie the cords up off the ground.

They are cute shelves, aren't they?

We are pooped again - so much for resting on Sunday - so we are taking our break now.

In addition to working in my craft/sewing room Hubby is re-organizing his office too.

What have you been up to today?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Never Ending Story

Now that some carpets have been cleaned here at Teacup Lane I can return to my craft/sewing room clean up project - my Never Ending Story.

Of course we still have to move all the furniture and stuff back into the upstairs rooms. Ugh!

Yeah...this statement about sums it up for my house.

I love a neat, clean home but that doesn't mean that's what we always have here.

One can dream...

I plan to work on sorting through these piles on my tables today with the goal of having a clean, clear surface some day.

Yes, Pammy Sue, I know it probably won't stay that way though!

LOL

Next I have to sort through the piles on the left side of our media room. That is all the stuff that use to be stored in my craft closet.

The wall unit on the right with all the white boxes is where all our photos from 38 years of marriage plus tons of photos inherited from both sets of parents are stored.

Sorting though all of those photos is a future project.

I started stocking the shelves in my craft closet.

I'm so thrilled with the results.

Hubby has put up lots of these over the years.

Now it's fairly easy for him since he purchased a fancy German brand saw cutting table and saw a few years ago.

This is the other side of my craft/sewing room that you haven't seen much of lately.

That's my paternal grandmother's vintage sewing cabinet that houses her vintage Singer sewing machine which still runs beautifully.

My grandma made beautiful dresses on this machine for all of her granddaughters and even a few for my Mom.

Thanks for all the sweet comments you have left me as I make this journey to a better organized craft/sewing room. I'm looking forward to finishing the re-organization so I can cutesy up the space.

We are so lucky to have a finished basement to house our hobbies.

Just a word about my method of blog posting for those who are interested. I have been mostly using the BlogPress app to do my postings since getting my iPhone. It's just quicker to select photos taken with my iPhone and post them through this app with my iPhone. The old way I took pictures with my Canon PowerShot camera, then had to manually download the disc onto my Apple laptop. Once I post on BlogPress I immediately get on my laptop and save the posting as a "draft" so I can "clean it up a bit". I resize the photos to extra large, make any corrections (typing on the iPhone with one finger doesn't compare to fast two hand typing I can do on my laptop) and add additional text if needed. I also have the Blogger app on my iPhone which works well for posting too but I tend to use the BlogPress app more frequently.

Currently I have 2,088 photos on my iPhone camera roll. Every so often I download my iPhone photos onto my laptop and delete them on my iPhone. I'm not very good keeping up with this task - usually my Hubby has to remind me. We store all of our photos on an exterior hard drive for safe keeping. However, I do like to also have them handy on my laptop's iPhoto program. This is my current method there are probably better ways to do photos and posting but this method works for me now that I have an iPhone. I would encourage you to get an iPhone or Smart Phone - they are amazing tech tools to help you organize your life in so many ways!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Happiness Is...

I'm happy today!

For two reasons...

First reason - we have clean carpets!

We finally had carpet cleaners come this morning to clean the carpets in our family room, master bedroom and closets, upstairs hallway and both stairwells.

We have Berber carpet in our family room and it came out beautifully. I should have done this sooner. It wasn't cheap but a heck of a lot cheaper than buying new carpet.

We have to let the floors dry for several hours before moving all of our stuff back into the rooms.

Second "happiness" reason - Hubby finished my craft/sewing room shelves yesterday.

One view...

Another view...

Lots of easy to get at shelves...

Now I should be able to keep my craft tables cleared when not working on a project.

Looking better...

But I'm not finished by any means.

This is the stuff in the plastic bins that use to be piled in the closet that I have to sort through.

Most of it has been boxed away for years so most of it will probably be given to Good Will or tossed.

Unfortunately this is so true - LOL.

I found some free standing Ikea units that I think could function as a cutting table quite nicely.

We plan to go to Ikea Friday to take a look at them.

Hope you are having a day of happiness too!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Cheap & Easy Dry Eraser Board

I'm still working away down in my craft room - reorganizing & de-cluttering my mess.

We moved the big cabinet out and repositioned the craft tables against the back walls.

The cabinet is very heavy but we were smart and left the moving pads under the corners the last time we moved it. Those moving pads are wonderful - if you haven't used them you should. We have several sets on hand to help us move furniture.

This is the "closet" we decided to put shelves in - this space was "roughed in for plumbing" by the previous home owners for a future powder room. Previously this "closet" was filled with large plastic bins filled with...yep, you guessed it...my stuff. I have a lot of stuff. Too much stuff. This "stuff" will probably be given to Good Will or tossed out.

Yesterday as Hubby was putting up the wall thingies (he says they are called shelf upright supports) he happened to wandered into a deep, dark corner of our unfinished area of our basement and found a cardboard box with a front panel insert for our old dishwasher we replaced last year.

As we talked about throwing the panel out since we didn't have that dishwasher any longer - I wondered if I would have use for it. Hubby isn't having an easy time de-cluttering our home with me around.

The dishwasher insert panel wasn't magnetic but as I looked at it an idea popped into my head that it would make an ideal dry eraser board - if the dry eraser pens worked on it.

This is the white side of the dishwasher panel the other side is almond.

Remember when almond was the "in" color to have in your kitchen?

I ran upstairs and wrote on it with one of my dry eraser pens.

Success - the dry eraser pen ink wiped right off with my eraser.

Yippee!

I attached it to my kitchen pantry door with - yep, you guessed it - those wonderful removable 3M Command strips.

Easy, cheap....actually free...my favorite kind of recyclable project.

I have to go through all my stuff that was out on my tables. And under my tables...

And decide what can be stored in my craft closet on the new shelves.

All the shelf supports are up today - thanks Hubby!

We have to determine the boards sizes for each wall and purchase the wood. Hubby just ran out to Lowe's/Home Depot to look at brackets and wood.

I like the openness of my craft room now.

There is plenty of open floor space for my future cutting table.

I like this cutting table I found (here) because the sides fold down and it's on wheels but I would prefer it in a slightly larger size. I'll have to research some more.