Time flies when you are having fun????

I have been the world's worse blogger.  I have been the busiest in my work life that I have ever been in the 15 years I have had my business.  I have literally worked from 10 am to 2 am for over 5 weeks and then from 10 to at least 8 pm since.  24-7.  But the end of the tunnel is twinkling and I can see it. I think that I will be able to post some good /interesting posts soon..stay tuned!!  First up - my powder room reno.
It'll be worth it.
By the way - I have had over 3300 visits/views to my blog - WOW!
Deb

I'm Excited - I am Featured over at CRAFTY STORAGE

Wow this is exciting - check my feature on Crafty Storage's blog.  She is highlighting my little craft space.  You will love her blog as she features different storage ideas and craft rooms from around the globe.  I am happy that she picked me!

http://craftystorage.blogspot.com/

My Hideaway Craft Space

 All my life I have been crafty.  I never had a dedicated space to call my own.  I always worked in a corner of the kitchen, or bedroom, or laundry room.  Wherever there was a flat space.  However I would always have to totally tidy up as I had young children and was worried about them injuring themselves or ruining a project. A few years ago when my oldest 2 children and moved out on their own and my younger two were teenagers, I started to crave my own space.  I was looking at a small room (7' x 12') that we had built as a bedroom for my oldest son and then my youngest had claimed as his media/computer room.  I struck a bargain with him to let me have the basement space if we renovated his bedroom.  The following is now my hideaway, my mom cave, my sanctuary.   Come on in...

This is the entrance, the curtains were 4.00/pr from Sears Outlet and an Ikea curtain rod.  The windchime is my doorbell.  My family must ring the chime when they come in so I am not startled by them appearing behind me.

This is the view from the doorway showing the left side

This is the right side of the room from the doorway

The middle

Inside the room this shows the 2 bookcases repurposed from my son's room.  On the far left one are all my magazines for paper crafts as well as miniatures and dollhouses, also i store envelopes.  The near bookcase has a few boxes of embellishments, my flower collection, my Riley stamps, 2 small plastic drawer holders with cats eye inkpads, glitter, flocking, luminarte,  extra pens and markers, underneath that is my copic marker papers, art pads, photos and another small plastic drawer holder with my cricut cartridges, overlays, booklets and accessories.  Also one shelf has a hanging file system with reference papers for miniatures and my jukebox as well as finished cards.  My bind it all and circle cutter are on the top shelf.  On the very top are some storage boxes, a few little dolls, a picture, my daughter's 1/2 scale dollhouse and some embellishments.

My desk area is an L-shape consisting of a folding 4 x 8 table and a small piece of laminate on top of a pair of Ikea table legs.  On that sits my laptop, my wireless photoprinter (love it!) .  On the wall behind it is my bulletin board with family photos and memories, a magnetic board and peg board (Micheal's bought with coupons) that hold small embellishments in magnetic holders from Micheals and the dollar store.  The peg board holds my scissors, a few stickers and some hole punches. Above that is a piece of slot wall (road kill) that holds a bunch of different tapes, glue dots, tape runners, stickers, heat gun, a couple of stamps, monogram stamp maker, 2 dremels.  There are small plastic shoe shelves that hold my dremel bits, embossing powders and paste, stickles, alchohol inks & the pads for them, a few specialty paints and armour etch.  Above all that is a larger wooden shelf with a roombox that I am working on, a stand with a layout of my grandson (1st!) and a few other little miniatures.

The is my main work area.  As you can see it is well stocked!  I have a cutting board work surface.  In the corner is a corner cube (Micheals) that holds my tv, dvd player, some inkpads, scrappy glues, Making Memories toolkit, my quickcutz, xyron sticker maker, current clear stamps I am working with.  Beside that is my rotating tool holder from Micheals that holds glues, misc. tools for the cricut, rulers and my ATG. To the left of that is my copic storage that I made today from some foam board, a cardboard divider from a box of new glasses and some modpodge paper, one of my light sources beside that and the pink file holder has plain coloured cardstock.  My gypsy is also on the table.  On the wall above is another piece of found slot wall with a myriad of tools for miniature making.  The shelf above that holds some glues, miter boxes, my thimble collection, some dvds & cds, a few pictures of family and in the corner a video player and a radio/cd player.

To the left of the main desk sits 4 cubes from Micheals (coupon) that holds my paper collection in cropper hopper organizers, in the drawers are clear stamps in cd cases, vinyl for the cricut,  grommet and eyelet tools, watercolours, overflow rubber stamps and the monogram maker. Also in the 3 drawer section are all my various cables, extra punches, and a drawer of bits and pieces.  The clear drawers under the table hold my ink refills for the printer, wallpaper for the dollhouses, misc. electrical cords, glue gun and some craft coasters.  On top is my Cricut Expression (<3) and my new Yourstory laminator and binder.  Behind them are 2 peg boards with cricut cutting boards.  Above that my spoon collection and 3 small wall shelves (bought at Goodwill and garage sales)  that hold some of my miniature collection.

At this end of my room are my wall units that my mother in law gave me when she downsized to her apartment.  They just fit in the space.  I love them as they give me lots of storage and display space.  They have lights in them too.  The right one has a collection of miniatures from things I have made to things I have won or received from friends.  These are in the glass section.  Beneath that is a display of rubber stamps on stepped spice shelves from the Storage store.  Beneath that is my paint carosel (Micheals) and my albums as well as albums my daughter has made.  In the 3 large drawers underneath are all my building supplies and misc. miniatures for future projects.  The left unit has a larger display glass area with room boxes I have built and furniture I have collected and/or built from scratch.  The cupboards underneath have boxes with all our photos, boxes with furniture to go into my big dollhouse when it is done, my golf balls,  (so they dont disappear).

Another view of the display cases, to the left of that is some plastic drawers with more miniature tools and electrical works, and above that a smaller one that holds rubber stamps, scrap paper and off cuts or left over die cuts from the cricut or quickcutz.  In front of that is my cutting station on a mobile cart (Micheals - 40% off).  On the top I have my purple cow and another cutter from Provocraft, my ribbon collection, my bind it all supplies, quickcutz dies, 8x8 papers and albums,   You can see the heater I use in the winter and there is a small mirror propped up from the dresser we are refinishing for the powder room as a vanity.

The shelf above the cutting station holds a myriad of things, from spray cans, to glues, cleaners, our old baby monitor, some things I will use for miniature making, my apron, my hat from Miniature camp, a small tool holder for crops or mini meetings.  There are some family pics on the wall above the light switch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So you can see that I have made use of every inch of space and yet I still have plenty of room to create.  Everything is at my fingertips and there is even room for one person to craft with me.  I have spent very little on the room and dream some day of opening it up to the laundry room and making one very large room.  Someday!  Thank you for visiting and please leave me a comment to let me know what you think.

Debbie

victory is sweet.: Homemade Love

victory is sweet.: Homemade Love

January Copic Challenge

Hi Everyone - Happy New Year!!

I have not been a very good blogger, and to promise that I will be in the next few months is not a good idea as we head into a very busy time for me both business wise and personally.

I am entering a card making challenge for the first time ever.  This is the card I have made for the iCopic Lover Color Challenge:

The recipe for this card is as best as I can remember


Paper - Bazzill Pink glitter
           Card stock, Micheals value pack, white, yellow and rose pink
Stamp - Tilda as a Butterfly, Magnolia
Sentiment - my own printed with a stamps by judith heart
Copic Markers - hair, y11, y21, e55
                      skin e00, yroo, rv21
                      dress and socks, rv21, r 43
                      panties, shoes - left white shaded with c1
                      wings - v17, bv00,y11,y21,rv25
                      accented with pink glitter gel pen and clear spica on wings

card flowers - from a package purchased at the Creative Craft Festival accented with a gold heart brad.


Thank you for taking a look.


Debbie

Ok - Who turned Off the Heat

Just cause it is fall, and just cause it is October already does it have to be cold? And Wet?  Yuck.  Our parking lot at the shop is a complete and utter mudhole.  The one week paving job is now going on week 6 and we still have nothing but dirt - right up to the door now - no sidewalks even.  My carpet is a disaster, my car looks like it went off roading and I am weary of it.  And everyone is sick.  I have a cold and in my mini group (BEST) which was to meet last night, all but 1 person had cancelled due to sickness or other obligations popping up.  First time that has happened.  So I was hoping to get home fairly early and pop into bed with a nice neocitrin and  watch some educational TLC but no - HH called and asked to meet him at Home Depot for colour selection for the cottage bathroom.  So that took awhile.  And a new vanity light. Can't wait to see the finished product.  Next on my agenda for that room is finding a new mirror.


On the family side,  I am pleased to announce that my daughter is having a boy!  That is so nice for her and Andre.  Now the nursery planning is in full force.  Colours are mostly selected - we just have to pin down the fabrics.  I think my cricut will definitely be used and now I have to sit down and learn how to use the gypsy properly.  Why can't I get my head around that I really don't know.  Should be easy enough.  Others use it quite successfully so bring it on!  Maybe if I lay in bed with my neocitrin and my laptop and my gypsy I will figure it out.  Maybe...


My lovely ex-niece (does that make sense to you?) had a baby girl (Lola Jayne) just over a week ago.  I have to say she is probably one of the most precious little babies I have seen in awhile - ok I am a tad prejudice but it is true.  The ex-niece seems deliriously happy and I am so enjoying following her blog as she learns about being a mom for the first time.  I wish all three of them lots of love and joy.  The bonus to all of this is that my daughter lives in the same town as my ex-niece and they can go through all of this together and learn from each other.  That is a big bonding experience as anyone of us can attest to having kids at the same time as a close friend or family member really cements the relationship for always.  I was lucky as I had my own sister and a SIL having babies at the same time as me.  The order goes something like this SIL 1 girl in Jan., 2 months later my boy, 2 years later SIL 1 girl in Feb., Sister 1 girl in March, me 1 girl in June.  And in between my other SIL had a girl as well.  So between the 4 of us we had 9 kids in 4 years.  As both my sister and the other SIL had another baby roughly around the same time but 4 years after their first.  Confusing to you but it made for a lot of babies getting together at the cottage and family functions and they are all incredibly close cousins.  How wonderful that all is.  So I wish that for my daughter and her cousin.  Much closeness - forever!  Just a note - out of the nine babies - 3 are boys and the others are all girls - how about those odds.  I have added a few pics of my BB and 3 of her close cousins.  I will post more of the others when I can access those pics.


So I am feeling nostaligic and warm and cozy about babies and cousins and family....so I guess that turned up the heat.  


TTYL - should be sewing.




  

Hayley & Tori fooling around 2004

Hayley & Jill 2008

Hayley & Lindsay 2008

October Has Arrived I Smell Turkey

Ok, so it is here. Fall. Without. A. Doubt. Crap I hate winter and it is just around the corner. How do people enjoy this time of year. Yeah the trees are heading towards beautiful but right now everything is just grey and blah and cold and wet. Yup, don't like that. But there is Halloween just there at the end of the month. Waiting. It is not like it was when the kids were small. You would anticipate Halloween. Plan costumes, sew costumes. Buy candy. Plan the pumpkin carving. Add to the Halloween decorations for the scary front porch. But now that the Beautiful Butterfly (BB) is 18, does it really matter any more? I feel like just sitting inside watching Rocky Horror Picture Show and having apple cider with a bit of kick to it and cuddling with my Handsome Hubby (HH) Let the door bell ring. Let the furkid go ballistic. I can enjoy that. I can get my head around that. Let's do that. But nope....BB will not let that happen. She still wants all the trimmings. Not that she helps or anything. Or even stays for the whole night and hand out candy - nope. Well I have 26 days to work up to that.

However, in the mean time we have Thanksgiving. Now thats a holiday - yeah right. Usually we spend it at our lovely cottage. What do we do there? We close up. And in between all that closing up entails I make a 20lb turkey with all the trimmings and try to figure how to get the left overs home. This year we are hoping to make it a big family weekend. My mom and dad are on their way here from their home in Nova Scotia to see BB get her diploma on Friday (why the h do they have to have that on a Friday at 1pm - cripes) and spend some time with the Tutu Much Family (TTMF). I am looking forward to seeing them - havent seen them in 1 year! Also my darling sister and her 2 kiddos will be joining us so the cottage will be full and happening. What a great idea right? Well throw BB's boyfriend into the mix and it suddenly gets complicated. He wants to spend turkey time with his family, BB wants to spend turkey time with his family & our family - which will be at the cottage. Coming from NS & Ottawa to see her get her diploma. And have Turkey. Not sure how this is all going to go down. Have 2 days to figure it out or convince BB to abandon said boyfriend to his family and join all of us at the cottage. Wish me luck!