it was fabulous

Thank you for all your nice birthday wishes. It was a really wonderful day...week....month!

I'm keeping super busy trying to get this Happy Birthday issue together...it is going to be HUGE. And Wonderful. I can't wait to share it with you.

Alfredo is growing so fast. I need to make a movie to show you because you just won't believe it. And he's saying the most incredible things. Today, he called the grocery cart "a trolley" which is so sweet, isn't it? He picked it up from Peppa Pig, our most favorite show. I just went along with it and called it a trolley too for the rest of the trip and even feigned a little British accent to make the grocery shopping even more fun. In the spirit of that, I bought some devonshire cream just for the hey.

And just in case you're putting together that picture in your mind, be sure to include the fact that I forgot completely to put even a little bit of makeup on this morning. So be sure to picture me extra tired looking with dark circles under my un-masked eyes.

my birthday!

Hello, 40!

sweet little baskets...

These sweet little baskets are getting packed up and sent off for a very special swap with friends. So fun!

I can't choose a favorite...can you?

Amy Hanna shared the how to for making these baskets in the Spring issue of Inspired Ideas (available here). I found the vintage chocolate mold that I used for the basket on ebay. I also won a couple of lot auctions on ebay to get all those sweet all bisque dolls. And I might get more because just look at this ebay auction. Swoon!

I'm working on finishing up those baskets...and just look at these sweet little dolls who will find a home in them. Aren't they adorable? They are for a gift swap. I'll finish them up hopefully today and update you with a photo of how they look put together.

My birthday is a week from today. I'm so excited. I love my birthday. The first full day of Spring. What a happy day! So it feels so great to be working on all this fun birthday stuff for the next issue now...it feels like a happy celebration!

Make it a great day! 

Oh boy! Good news!

Now through St. Paddy's day, you can get a print copy of the Spring Inspired Ideas for 25% off! Woot woot! What luck!

in print: regularly $38.70

NOW $29.85

Click here.

I sent one to each of the contributors as a gift and they all LOVED it in print! I know you will too. It'll be a little springtime treat.

chatter

I'm busy working away on super cute things for the birthday issue. That's me up there on my fifth birthday. It's a detail of something for the magazine that turned out so wonderfully I really can't wait to show you.

I'm working all the time in my freshly cleaned craft room and really enjoying it. Alfredo has a few toys in here and I think he likes being in here too. The best part is that when we spend all our days in this room, the rest of the house stays fairly clean. Except my kitchen sink.

My birthday is coming up in less than two weeks. I am going to be 40 years old. That number amazes me. Just like a 4 year old would declare her age to everyone who'll here, I'm doing the same. When my mother turned 70, she told everyone "I'm 70 years old!" expecting everyone to say "No way! You don't look a day over 50..." Instead everyone just nodded in agreement.

My parents, by the way, are doing great. My father goes tomorrow for a check up and he's fully prepared to hear the news that his cast will come off. We'll see. My mother is great, as always.

making it....

I spared no time at all. Soaked in inspiration from days of organizing all my stuff, I set to work making these baskets for gifts. I used Amy Hanna's instructions (eh hem--found in the magazine) I aged them a bit using antiquing medium that I painted on and then wiped off. Then I coated them in glitter. It was so much fun...I have 4 more to make. I'm dreaming up something really sweet to set in them...

now that's better!

So here's the problem, in a nutshell. I clean my craft room. I enjoy it for a while. Then one day I slip and don't clean it up after a project. Then another. Then I abandon the craft room for the kitchen table. Then the kitchen table craft and all its supplies are relegated to the dining room table. Another day, another kitchen table project and all its supplies are moved unceremoniously to the dining room table. Repeat as necessary until one day in a mad dash to clean the dining room, I dump all of the dining room table craft projects and supplies and anything else that might've landed on the dining room table (which, by the way, is never used for actual dining) into the already messy craft room. Maybe that happens two or three times, to the point where even passing through the craft room is an impossible task. Oh, and then to make that mess even worse, when I go into the room to retrieve craft supplies, I do that in the messiest possible way, all the while shooing Alfredo out of the room because it is so dangerous in there.

I am really hoping this time things will be different.

Here's how I'm hoping to change things:

1. All supplies and tools have proper homes. 
2. I craft only in my craft room. However, if for whatever reason I craft outside of my craft room, I will return the project and all its supplies immediately to the craft room.
3. When a project is complete, I will replace all supplies in their proper homes.
4. Every Friday will be my cleaning day. 

Okay, so do you want to see the fruit of my labors? Here's the tour:

Smack in the middle of the room is my main work area. I bought this workbench from Costco probably at least ten years ago. It's a great height and size. But you know, I would love to get giant casters for it...wouldn't that be fun? It came with a vise on the side but I'm not sure where it is now. For a few years this workbench was in our family room and was the extent of my crafting area. (There's still a paint spill on the carpet to proof it!) Someday I hope to cover all those drawer fronts with vintage wallpaper...

I covered the top with scraps of inspiring papers and had a glass cut to fit on top.

Whenever I'm painting, gluing, and glittering, I pull a piece of paper from this butcher roll to make clean up even easier.

And that blue cabinet? Do you remember when I got it? It was about 5 years ago. I got it from a local ebay auction and I think it was only $300. It's huge! I mean huge! It used to be in a pharmacy in Loudoun county...it even has trays that pull out that still smell of sulfur & chemicals! And you can't really see it in this photo but the whole bottom part is drawers! Drawers, drawers and more drawers!

I love this poster by Katie Daisy...it makes me so happy. 

This is a little cabinet of flat drawers...

I'm using it as a holding place for projects-in-progress and special bits that I want to use.

I found these lockers and file cabinet at the cottage in Leesburg. The locker store glue, paint, glitter, etc. and the file cabinet stores paper.

I have a LOT of vintage suitcases, as you can see. They take up a lot of room and make a tower too tall to be safe. So I decided to "stack" them using industrial shelving. This makes it ever so easy to get to, say, the bottom suitcase. I need to make labels for these so I can remember which holds vintage lace and which wool felt without opening all 9 of them! Mostly these cases store fabric and trim but one holds Christmas crafting stuff. That one and two other rarely used ones are at the tippy top.

One thing that made a HUGE difference in the craft room was putting in these blinds. Previously the windows just had sheers on them and I felt funny crafting at night in my pjs. I was sure the neighbors across the street were looking in and saying "What is she doing NOW?" while eating popcorn. Now I can craft all night long with crazy hair and in my pjs without worrying about peepers.

the home stretch

getting there...