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.

Last weekend I procrastinated from completing some last minute orders by organizing my craft area. Time well spent I must say.
When Nate was born I gave up my sunny upstairs craft room to move down into the basement, known as The Man Space at that time. First I had 1 table and my IKEA computer desk/wardrobe thingie. Then I had to buy another table . . . Then piles of things started to form. Then because my husband wasn’t using his desk down here I sort of started to rely on that space, ironing and such. He wasn’t happy. So I’ve been hard at work purging and tidying and cleaning up so we can both have a much more workable space that isn’t an eye sore.

These are the pretty parts. I can’t show the rest of the inside of the wardrobe, it’s a bit of an avalanche of disaster. I took this advice and folded and wrapped my pretty and larger pieces of fabric onto comic book backings to make these little mini fabric bolts. It was $10 for 100 so they went pretty far. For some I used 2 pieces of cardboard just to give it a bit of added stability. Definitely one of the best little pieces of advice I stumbled upon this year. Beats stashing them in a fabric crush drawer!

Now when you look through the little windows in the top of the doors to the wardrobe you can see my lovely fabric, books and the basket looking all ready to go. Luckily the windows end before the messy madness can be seen.

Sorry for the less than stellar photos, I really need to crack the code about taking pics in my gloomy basement.

I picked up this fun little basket hamper thingie from Lovell designs. It’s super handy for all the ‘on the go’ crafts I’m constantly toting upstairs when I go to bed in the wee hours so I have something to craft while the kids are around in the mornings.

I also got this fun little button from Sister Sister Buttons. They had many silly buttons that made me smile, but I limited myself to this one.

The best find of the day was this old wooden tool box thingie that’s been refinished and makes an awesome display for my cup cozies in action! Can’t wait to use it on the weekend.

On Sunday, if I’ve recovered from the inventory building blitz, I’ll be sure to link some more of the fun, creative and handmade things I came across at the show.

I still need to play with the design a bit, I’d like it to roll up and be portable so you could grab it and go, in the van, to Grandma’s off to the park, whatever. I’m hoping to make it fairly universal so it would fit almost any kitchen or dining room chair. It attached with ribbon that I just tied, thought that was more universal than sewing loops. The fabric is from IKEA, I wanted something kid friendly but not too loud and obnoxious for the kitchen. I have no idea how one is supposed to make a pattern but I relied on my trusty chart graph paper and sketched and cut a template out yesterday while the kiddies ran about.

It’s a very high tech process. Hopefully I can get to making a second one tomorrow.

In unrelated news, every other Tuesday I have my ‘night out’ with my bff! Lately I’ve taken to dragging her to thrift stores. Last Tuesday I found this and loved it!

It reminds me of my Nanny and all my summers spent at the trailer at the lake. Trailers and cottages always seem to have random vintage/retro stuff in them like this. Plus my Nanny, like most Grandparents, was happy to keep things around as long as they still worked, even if they were older than me. My favourite was the avocado green electric knife she had that didn’t actually turn off unless you unplugged it from the wall . . . because that’s safe!! I miss you Nanny, thanks for teaching me to knit and showing me how to cook a turkey, love you.

This flickr group has me inspired and in awe. Seeing everyone’s craft spaces is so fun.

Now I’m so excited about it but when I took some pictures I realized that the electrical box looks pretty hideous on film. I know nothing about drywalling but I’m either going to beg someone who does to help me, or I’ll be learning! So pardon that tiny eyesore while I tour you around my happy little creative space.

I still want to attach the powerbar to the underside of my computer desk and get all the cords off the ground and tidied up.  That thing in the corner is our freezer but it really can’t move anywhere else in the basement so for now I just covered it with a cool storage basket. The white cart under the table on the right holds all my papercraft tools and supplies.  The blue bins beside are my fabrics and yarns.

There’s my scrapbook for our trip waiting to be filled.  Along with some favourite pictures of me and my mom and dad, my Style School binder and my Jayne, “Time for some stunning heroics” and Marv the Martian mugs I use to store things.

I picked up the red, blue and green collapsible buckets at IKEA.  I’ve got juice pouches in one, buttons in another and rick rack in the last one.  At least one was supposed to be a little garbage bin on the table top but my supplies took over.  There’s my cute new sewing box, contents all organized, my fun sewing books, and my Style School wreath project in progress.

In attempt to hide the eye sore I’ve filled the space up with some fun things.  An owl from Cuba, a cute postcard, my inspiration hoop, silly faced Happy Bunny, a Beatles souvenir from London and yet another Style school project, the Polaroid art frame.  For the Polaroid frame I used pictures from when I was a kid to add to the vintage feel (wow I basically just called my childhood vintage . . .) and I love those shots.

These are some completed things I have sitting around.  I’m hoping to make a few more things this weekend and make my donation to the Craft Hope store.

Fun new fabrics.  I fell in love with the wood grain fabric used for a book cover Style School assignment so I searched some out on Etsy and found it at uberstitch. I’m going to use it with the little woodland creatures print. The cursive writing practice one was just cute, and hey, I’m a teacher, I can print! The funky red one was on super clearance at Fabricland because it’s a Christmas print, but I thought it was just neat.

So now that I’ve accomplished so much there I can focus on my Style School assignments, do my own creative things and figure out how to put my sewing machine into this neat little table my mom gave me then paint it some cool colour.

Wow, looks like I’m going to be a pretty busy bee for the next little bit. Yippee!

Snazzy storage.

So I came up with the idea to make myself a little storage bucket thingie.  I toyed with embroidering it with some complicated paisley pattern, copying the fabric, but whimped out for a faster and wittier approach.  Here’s how I went about it . . . ish.

Fabric selection. I used some black felt to save on interfacing.

The professional and highly technical template.

The trickiest part, pinning and sewing on a curve. The hand of my little helper.

Witty caption.