Where Bloggers Create 7/24/09

Karen over at MyDesertCottage has invited us to participate in her "Where Bloggers Create" today and since I have spent a great deal of time creating my own blogging/craft/creative spots, I opted in. Please go visit her to view all the others who are sweet enough to show us where they sit each day to do all the lovely things you see on the blogs. It's fun and exciting to look at each person's space. And it just may spur you on with ideas on how to beautify your home or just a room or a vignette within a room even.
~*~

As I've said many times before we moved 4 years ago from a 5,000 sq. ft. on a rolling hill acre house to this 1800 sq. ft. house on a sub-division lot more manageable. The move necessitated a severe cut in furnishings and space for us. BUT we do love it here. We have 4 bedrooms - master bedroom on one side of the house and the other 3 on the other side of house. Only one serves its purpose as a bedroom - ours. The other 3 are hubby's office, my craft/sewing room and a computer/home office for me, so I really have 2 rooms for such. They are small rooms however.

I've given it much thought though and creating can be several ways under the umbrella of "creative." While I love creating items by sewing, I also create by decorating my home and writing, blogging and photographing many things. I want to do it all—or at least as much as I can—before I leave this earth and I don't have many more years left to do it all. So come with me for a tour.........

We are entering the craft/sewing room from the hallway. This is what you see when approaching. There are very, very few "spaces" in my home that are not feminine, girly, romantic, froufrou or pink.

View of the whole room.

The blue school desk I've had for maybe 35 or 40 years. It's been many colors and has been blue for about 25 years now. I've been so busy with other things I've not had time to strip it and repaint it another color. The little brown vintage school desk was purchased a few months ago and has not gotten the attention it deserves but it will soon. This is where I sew. There is hardly a spot in this room that isn't taken up with something. I doubt I could squeeze one more item in. I plan on giving away some of the fabric and craft supplies to a little girl I know who loves to craft.

Shelves hold a great deal of stuff in this room.

This is where I paint. Several people, my daughter included, have told me to paint, decoupage or mosaic the top of this vintage school desk also. Nuuuuuuu, never will happen. That is the original desktop and I love it, but mainly because it is indestructible! I can wipe anything up from it—paint, Mod Podge, hot glue, anything! I did, however, put a shabby chic roses fabric on the front after I painted the sides and back. It was pretty ugly before I did that. And I got that darling little chair at TJMaxx in Boise and love the look of it also.

Can we say "shelves of fabric" here? Yep, lots of fabric but truly I've seen people with much, much more than this. Some of the shelves DO hold craft things. I plan on doing some more birdhouses and trying once again to sell them. *Sigh*...............

Trust me when I tell you THIS is looking neat for this photoshoot. Usually this room is a nightmare, including the desktop!

We are now leaving this room and traveling down the hall to my home office/computer room. I'm a computer nut! Love them.

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As we come out of the craft/sewing room and head down the hall to the front of the house we approach the my office/computer room.

My view upon entering the room. My daughter gave me those hanging lanterns. They are really beautiful when lit. I made a cord cover for them with some very pink toile. I love my window seat and the view out of that window onto the roses in the front yard and the street.

Also upon entering the room you will see my desk. This is the hub of our home, not the kitchen. I'd eat out 5 nights a week if we could. I'm in here most of the time. I do everything on this computer—skype and chat with kids, pay bills, blog(!), buy things on line, play at being a photographer and editor and generally conduct business. :-) BTW, that desk is a cottage style but I wanted something froufrou on the front besides the white so I velcro-ed it to the desk. When the glue wouldn't hold on the fabric I stapled it with my stapler and it's holding nicely. No one would ever know unless they got up very close to see the staples.

My view as I sit at this desk and work. That is an old wood bench we've had for about 25 years and painted it red. The paint is now flaking off and I just threw a Rachel Ashwell cover over it and a bench pillow until I decide if I want to paint it again or not. Probably not. I like it like this. The little shelves in the corner hold items I made that did not sell on ebay. Their loss. I'll probably give most of it away now.

Close up view of my desktop area.
I bought 3 chair covers from a lady on the web and gave one to my daughter and one to another woman blogger who is a stay-at-home mom and struggling to make ends meet on a budget. She needed a lift-me-up! But this was my favorite chair cover.
My desktop is usually clean. What you see is what is usually on it except for my camera which I was using to snap this shot. The white thing on the left front corner is my JBL Creature with tiny speakers on each side of the monitor. It gives me fantastic sound when listening to music on iTunes. My monitor is an Apple Cinema Display and I run Apple OSX Leopard on it. I can't wait until Snow Leopard OS comes out next year! OSX is the most fantastic operating system there is.

Yes, this dress hangs there all the time. A friend had it and makes pillows and stuff out of old wedding gowns she collects. I got this one for a steal. My motto is "froufrou up"!

If I am selling something or just want to post a blog about it, this is where I do my photoshoot on it. This has changed over the last few years but this works just fine for me now.


This little shelf holds all my computer stuff on the top shelf and just miscellaneous items on the other two. Subject to change, of course. I have done photoshoots on this also.
A closer view of the corner of the window seat and the shelves. There is also a lot of computer paraphernalia on the top 2 shelves. My coffee filter rose is in that vase on the top. My daughter made me the mosaic old sewing drawer and I bought the hand painted one from a woman on ebay several years ago.

We now head out the door down the hallway where I have some Charles Wysocki americana limited edition art prints hanging on the walls. He is one of my favorite artists. That little shelf contains things people have given me in swaps and items I made that never sold. I guess I'm not too good at selling, huh??? ;-)

So there you have my "creating" spaces, chicks. Thank you for visiting. I now have to go check out the other participants.
~*~

Random Thought:

Look at the world around you whimsically. I do and it never ceases to delight me because it gives me such a laugh.

Laundry Room Redo July 2009

The laundry room was painted pink also during this time and if you've looked at my right side bar and clicked on "Laundry Room" then you've seen it before BUT I've spruced it up a bit with a few minor changes. The best part is that it is now PINK!! Squeeeeeal...........

This is entering into the room from the hallway to our bedroom. The decals have been on there for a couple of years now. The border is the same but I had to remove the die cut wallpaper border because the painter couldn't paint around it. Just too complicated. Luckily the same border is still available and I ordered 2 rolls in June but actually I only needed one so I have a spare just in case.

The shelf came down and I lowered it when it went back up. The coat rack was also lowered and the broom, dustpan and dusters are now behind the door on nails.

The curtains that hide all the laundry soap and paraphernalia that goes with housekeeping are hiding it once more.

The little white shelf sits proudly once again holding my shoes. Love Bunny won't put his shoes on it and he wears a size 12 so we know what happens when he takes them off, right? He leaves them where I'll trip over them! Yep, he does. You really can't miss a size 12 mudtracker!

But let me say something here about that Snuggle fabric softener. It's "creme sweet almond essence"scented and smells the best of just about any I've ever used except Suavitel Meadow Flowers but it doesn't last on the clothes like Suavitel. I looooove the scent of the Snuggle but I also loooove the scent of the Suavitel. So for the price and long-lasting ability I'll keep using the Suavitel. It scents my whole laundry room and all my laundry smells like it all the time.

My little hanger holds pretty roses hangers I painted and to which I added decals as it was before I was brave enough to try hand painting roses on them. I made the little clothes pin bag to sell and it never did sell so I just hung it in there. It's kind of french looking and quite adorable so it adds to the ambiance of the laundry. The message board slightly behind the door hides the home's command center circuitry. What else could I do with it besides stick a pretty message board in front of it? I put coupons on there and promptly forget about them until just after the expiration date. *Sigh*.......

The "Laundry Room" sign I decoupaged is back up along with the laundry packets I get from an ebay seller from whom I buy fabric. I use the soap and fun-tac the packets on to the walls. A pretty roses wreath is added also. I didn't know what else to do with it so up it goes! Another little clothes pin bag on a pretty hanger gives me visual interest when doing laundry.

This door, of course, leads to our garage. Another pretty clothes pin bag I made hangs near by for clothes pins I use.

A closer look at the shelf with faux greenery and roses.

This is the back of a wood folding chair I bought at World Market at a ridiculously cheap price for the patio, painted my roses on the back and promptly broke when someone set on it. Not one to waste perfectly good hand painted roses I had Love Bunny take it apart to save that slat, tied a vintage ribbon around it and hung it in the laundry room. I truly didn't have the heart to do away with it after all the trouble I went through. See what you can do with "mishaps"?

In back of the dryer I hung this little board I practiced my roses on and surrounded it with more little laundry packets I get from Susan. Darling! Plus they smell good and the packets are very french looking.

Since this redo, I have added these little letters I made from fabric to this area instead of the little french laundry packets.

Looking into my hallway. Iron is hanging up out of my way and I can't for the life of me figure out how to make it look less like an iron than it does. I hid the ironing board with that yellow and pink cover on the right side but I certainly can't paint roses on the iron so what can I do? Some things are just strictly utilitarian and nothing to be done about it.

So who says a laundry room has to be ugly? Not me! You can do miracles if you put your mind to it.
~*~

You know you're getting old when your dining table has a lazy susan for all your medications and mail.

Wordless Wednesday - Beautiful Ribbons and a Party!

On Friday July 24, 2009 there's a big event happening! Karen is hosting a "Where Bloggers Create" party. Squeeeeeeeal. Yep, you heard that right. I have worked for days cleaning, straightening, dusting, photographing, editing, arranging and "fluffing and froufrou-ing" just for you chicks. No, not really true about the cleaning and dusting stuff; we all know I don't do "dusting", right? Well, you know now, sugars. And I can't believe I'm letting you into my inner-sanctum. I think you'll enjoy it as I have many photographs for you so come on over and enjoy.

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Master Bedroom Redo July 2009

We now come to the new painted bedroom. As I said before I had the walls filled with "fluff" because I didn't like seeing the beige color but with loving the pink so much I've pared down the wall "fluff" this time.

I took about 20 yards of pink tulle netting and draped it above the bed swagging down with bouffant poofs tied with organza ribbon and topped off with pink paper roses. Lovely I think but then it's MY bedroom. :-)

A closer view of the wall behind the bed shows you a canvas painting I purchased and what I did with it. It isn't very big at 8" x 10" but when I saw it on Gail's website I knew it was mine. I snatched it up surprisingly quick! I didn't want to frame it because the last picture I had framed was $350.00 after a 50% discount. Love Bunny almost passed out from that experience. So I decided to be creative. (Shopping at my own house again.)

I couldn't find a mat in a 22" x 28" without getting a costly custom one so I decided to just put another picture frame around it inside of the larger frame to "frame" it. Then since Gail sent me 2 printed pictures of more of her art I "fun-tac-ed" it to the wall. A snippet of leftover pink garland and it was finished. Then a sign I bought last year from Catherine was put on one side and an embroidered piece I did about 25 years ago went on the other side.

I had 5 pom-poms in the bedroom but only hung 3 back up. One in this corner and 2 on the other side of the bed wall. I added a pot of violets on the little corner cabinet I confiscated at my daughter's last year and painted shabby white. Instead of the Paul deLongpre prints thumb tacked to the walls in this corner, I added 2 cottage prints. The roses curtains are some that I had in the family room but replaced with white ruffle-y ones in there now. (See post from a few days ago.)

Decisions for this wall were the hardest to decide on. I have several message boards on which I display tags and gifts from my sweet ebay group and I wanted them in this room. Also my wedding dress, the news clipping from our marriage that my sister had framed and gave to me many years ago, some vintage baby clothes (mine!) and my doll clothes from when I was a child are hanging on that wall. Boxes of ephemera, photos and stationery are stacked in here and on the chair I refurbished a few months ago.

A shelf remains but the vignette is a tad different. I added a scarf, poofed it out, added the faux greenery, 3 crowns I made and some cards my hubby gave me. The letter "C" was a gift from another woman on my ebay group. I love that hand painted wood letter and since my initials are both"C" it can be used as a family initial also.

My side of the room with the 2 pom-poms in pink.

And lastly, a close-up of the painting over the bed.

I've decided to show you my message boards up close. Birthday greetings, tags from sellers, pretty calling or business cards, "just because" tags, beaded fripperies from Berrtie, tags that simply say they love me and cute pictures I've collected from various places, just anything I think is beautiful and worthy of being pinned to my boards. I even have special thumb tacks on which I've glued ribbon roses onto their heads. Nothing and I mean nothing goes on there that isn't beautiful!

Middle message board. Embroidered and painted hearts from my sweet ebay group chicks. There is so much love and support in there it's a miracle. I love them all and I think the feeling is reciprocated. ;-) We truly do lift each other up above the fray and hard times in life.

Third message board. Old ephemera, hand painted cards, note cards collected over the years, a little hanging heart hand painted by Celeste, just lots of flouncy stuff.

And this. You wonder what it is? Well, it's a bath "puff" that has come unraveled. It is such a bright pink fuchsia color that I can't part with it and besides, I use Oil of Olay bath/body wash and it smells so wonderful that it fragrances up the entire area in which it hangs. Yummm...... Sigh........

Family Room Redo July 2009

The week we had the rest of the house painted was a blur to both of us. We sank into bed each night in total exhaustion from moving things from room to room for the painter. Although I'm not completely done with this room, there isn't much more to do. This is how it looks viewing it from our dining area. Soft lace curtains are tacked up over the entrance into this room for the soft romantic feminine feel I want. Love Bunny is going to make me a fireplace screen so I can paint it and put roses on it. I think I'll do decals until I get better with my roses painting. *Wink*

I left the border up for two reasons:
1. It is very expensive and
2. I can't find it anywhere anymore!
But he painted around it and I have 3 small patches to fix where I had to take down the curtain rods. But I do have a few feet left over to do this. I wish I could find it again but I've looked and looked. I bought the border many years ago because it is truly just scrumptious with roses. When I bought it I told my friends that I was buying it for my "forever house", which meant the last house we would live in until we were carted off kicking and screaming to the old folks home! I've kept that promise and never put it up anywhere until we bought this house. The pink chair I decoupaged came out of my bedroom into this room. As I've said many times, I "shop" in my home.......and daughter's home and storage shed. ;-)

I decided to go with "less" mostly because I love seeing so much pink. It's my favorite color, makes me happy, and I love being around it. I'm very, very visual. The beige color originally on the walls is my least favorite color for walls and I think I tried to cover it up with so much stuff. I love the new look, although, I'll be putting just a few more things up there..........maybe. I replaced the shabby chic roses curtains with plain white ones with vertical ruffles. They aren't very visible in the window because of the light but they are lovely curtains.

Of course, you can't see what's behind the chairs in the room or the end tables! I love the green ticking stripe slipcover and have had many, many requests asking where I got it. I bought it online at Touchstone but they aren't selling online anymore and I haven't seen it for a couple of years in their online store. I wonder where it could be found now. It truly is very shabby chic! But I also love blue so I found those 2 toile pillows stuffed with feathers......squeeeeeeeal..........at TJ Maxx for $25.00 a pair and snapped them up so fast I caused a whirlwind in the store that day. Then the plaid pillow I found at JCPenney and I made the other one out of a quilt I had. All in all this room has turned out well for me. Just needs a bit of "tweaking" and I'll be done!

A friend, Holly, painted that little picture for me over the sofa with the roses and birds looking down into a valley. I never framed it so I just hung it on the wall and put a bigger frame around it and it turned out just fine. I like the look and tried it again in the bedroom. Those pictures are for another blog post but I think you'll be delighted with that room if you like this room.

Here is a close up photo of that wallpaper border:
~*~

Random Thought:

A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something. Be quiet and listen; you'll learn more and be considered very intelligent by all around you.