The other day I discovered you can get the IKEA catalogue for your iPad and so I was all over that. While flipping through it I saw this little gem and thought of the little red cart right away.

If I had my own room for crafting I think I’d be all over this, but as it is I’m sort of squished for space. But for only $30 it’s not a bad deal. If you planned on using it for heavy duty stuff I’d recommend ULine, IKEA is nice and all but often it can’t take a beating well.

I went to my little corner of the basement fully intending to sew up a storm. But then I didn’t really feel like it, so I puttered around, and I tidied up, and I organized . . . in the end it left me with a really nice tidy space and I did eventually get to work.

Some fun handmade cards and posters.

Craft swap goodies and my favourite picture of my Dad. I have an unusual family tree.

Us at Stonehenge and my creative inspiration embroidery hoop I made.

More favourite pics of me and my parents. That black eraser says ‘Stonehenge ROCKS!’, makes me giggle every time I look at it.

Well this has been a great week.   Sadly we’ve been basically internetless, we got texts yesterday that we had hit the limit of our data plans, thanks to tethering to our phones while here in the bustling metropolis of Kearney, Ontario. It was sort of nice though, I was really conscious of what I *had* to do before I hopped on my lappy and set to work getting things done and then walking away. It was a bit liberating, even if I did miss tweeting late at night.

So here’s a peek at my week in instagrams, since those are small enough to sneak through on my phone.  
Hope you enjoyed my guest posters, thank you so much Amy, Molliehttp://wildolive.blogspot.com/ and Janee!

My tapes are in a little tin bucket I got for $1.50. That holder is way prettier. Of course I’d need some more desk organization items to match it, like this

Oh and this too

Click the images to be whisked away to their shop.

So here I am getting my first bit of homework in with less than an hour left in August 1st. Self portrait, complete with messy hair, jammies, sunburnt face, sewing and Netflix in the background.

I sense things will go well.

Whew, what a crazy time. I spent most of last week staying up waaaay too late making things and getting organized for my table on Friday and Saturday. Friday morning was all busy with getting ready, taking the kids to the sitter (which we were out of practice on) picking up my friend and getting up before the show. It was a hot hot day and we were thankful for being in the air conditioned library for the day.

I went home Friday night and like a mad crafty woman stayed up until 1:30am making some more things. Most notably this cutie.

Saturday was absolutely perfect. There was a lot of scary talk on Friday about how hot and humid it was going to be but it turned out to be beautiful. I decided to be brave and move out of tent sharing with Joanna and set up beside her. While my table was in the sun at times, I was under the shade of the tree branches all day.

Between talking to other vendors, who were such great people, and chatting away with people who came to my table I was sewing coin purses on frames for both days. My poor fingers! In the 10 hours I spend sitting at my table for 2 days I got 4 finished. I also sold 2!

The 2 days were filled with such awesomeness – great weather, sales, my friend, compliments, pictures for SNAP, media attention from the local TV station, live music from local bands, some great food and mostly just awesome people stopping by to support local artists. I had a great time. Thanks to the organizers Broken Arts for all the fun.

If you live in/near Toronto The Workroom is a craft and sew place that lets you make use of the studio by the hour. They’ve got sewing machines, sergers, cutting tables and other crafty people hanging around. The exciting part for me was all the pretty fabric they have for sale. Oh and sewing books, and Japanese craft books. They also have Amy Butler patterns, Colette patterns and some other goodies I can’t remember now.

They sell some lovely fabrics and have a whole pile of shelves full of fun fat quarters. Of course I left with some goodies.

There’s also a blog if you want to check out some of the things they’re up to.

Images stolen from here, here and here. I felt silly asking to take pics with my iphone.

So if you look down our basement stairs you can see my little nook.

Our basement was previously a Man Cave but I invaded it. My hubby’s hobby is fish, he has salt water tanks with coral and fish and all sorts of neat things. We have an anemone and clown fish who live in it. It’s all really cool.
So our basement is quite taken up with tanks and pumps and then a desk for my hubby . . . so I’ve got a little corner set up, 2 tables pushed up around the freezer. It works.

We had an extra monitor and my hubby said I should use it but it’s really silly and excessive. I usually watch shows in the one on the right and work between the 2 tables.

There’s the freezer that I usually end up piling with the things I’m working on. Until my hubby comes down and needs the fish food.

I’ve hung things up, Christmas lights are something I started in university and keep hanging up in whatever space is mine. I prefer lots of dim lights. I never turn on the overhead basement light. All my lights are plugged into a power bar so I just flick the switch and about 4 lights come on.

I’ve also filled every space I can with something fun on the walls. I really need to finish that incomplete drywall job the previous owner left us, but who’s got time for that when they’re busy crafting!?

I’ve debated putting the kids into a shared room, then I could have a nice sunny room to work in . . . *sigh*. But then I feel like I’d be a bad mom or something so I’ll make due for now.

In my poking around I ended up at the Vintage Cabin Blog (which is hillarious and local so I love it).  In one of her posts she mentioned a shop in Toronto, SMASH that seems super awesome, but has wacky hours *sigh*

She mentioned her love of industrial inspired stuff and said Three Potato Four was a favourite, so then there I was on that site.

Vintage Cabin was also featured in N.E.E.T magazine, which is awesome and full of all sorts of cool stuff.  I can’t even link all the neat things I found in there, just go check it out for yourself and you too will be playing Interwebs Dominoes.  Yeah, I’m making up a new term.

Somehow I’m getting stuffed up again.  It’s so not cool.  We all just got over some hideous cold.  I don’t want a new one.  I saw this printable linked  and had a great idea for it.  It’s from yoursecretadmiral and she’s a superstar for sharing such a fun little printable.

I wanted to make something to help me plan lunches during the week.  I teach in the afternoons, which at my school start at 12:25, but I have a 10 minute yard duty everyday from 12:15-12:25.  So I have to start lunch for me and the boys at about 11, especially with all the winter gear.  If we go out in the world to do something in the mornings I’m usually rushing to get a lunch ready and I’m lucky if I get to eat before we have to run out the door and across the street to the sitter.  I *hate* feeding them quick convenience food and really make an effort to prepare from scratch.

I printed out the file, cut the days apart and laminated them.  I have the cute little “My lists” house set aside for a notebook or something, I didn’t laminate it.  Then I cut pieces from a roll of magnetic tape and attached a little bit to the back of each day.  Then you have little magnets that are also write off/wipe off boards!

You could put them on your fridge or anywhere else magnetable.  These are on one of the handiest things in our kitchen, that isn’t used for cooking.  I’m a tad embarassed to show the inside but it’s such a wonderful little thing I’m going to share.  Magnetic front, builiten board back and storage compartment, all in one handy good looking thing!