where every single thing has a place…

BEFORE

I was massively inspired to do a sewing room re-do when I recently went into my stash closet and found this:

AVALANCHE!!!!!!

Can you believe I would even share that mess?

Don’t get me wrong, I am very grateful to have a room at all the sew in, even if it is tiny AND messy.

But.

I was sick of trying to find fabric in that tiny closet.

I was sick of my cutting table set up too, with the whole skirt thing that I had to lift up to rummage through boxes that held fabric scraps, paper scraps, crafty scraps, you name it…it was shoved under there.

Very unorganized.

I wanted everything out in the open, labeled, and ready to use.

ENTER SOMEONE”S BRILLIANT IDEA!!

I was poking around on Pinterest when I saw this woman’s genius idea. (click here for source)

That is just what I needed!!!! I made The BG take me to Target as soon as he got home from work so that I could shamelessly copy her idea.  I found some white bookshelves that I thought just might work.

We loaded up 4 and I put them together that night.  That was the easy part.

It took me 3 Days to tame all that jumbled up fabric you saw in the closet above.

A trip to Meijer’s netted a really great deal on some scrap book boxes, and a 2 trips to the dollar store ( I underestimated the amount of scrap fabric I had) supplied me with lots of cheap storage bins.

One last trip to Salvation Army for a great deal on a this  hutch and I was ready to ORGANIZE!

AFTER

disclaimer: pay no attention to  the hideous yellow paint that lives in every room of my home, or the trim that needs to be painted, or the wood floors that need refinishing, etc

The craft desk/netbook spot:

New cutting table (which is just 4 book cases placed in a square shape) and fabric storage. Fabric RIGHT where I can see it and grab it when a sewing frenzy begins!!

Trims and paper and embellishments in nicely labeled boxes!!

New hutch to store cute things I find in my travels (I’m sure it will fill up in no time hehehe)

Sewing area.

And an organized closet with color labeled scrap bins!!!

Glad to be done and glad to have a better more organized space!

Later Gators,

melissa

Dog days of summer

 

Even as our beautiful summer days are winding down, I find myself unable to embrace the signs of impending autumn this year.

If you have been a reader of my blog for awhile then you KNOW I love fall, it’s always been my favorite season!  Our home is usually  decorated with all the splendid colors and shapes of autumn by now.

But for some reason I cannot let go of summer. AT ALL.

I want to keep camping.

I want to keep swimming.

I want to keep my kids home (this makes me KNOW I’m crazy LOL)

I want to keep sleeping in and having lazy days reading.

I’m sure I will enjoy all that autumn has to offer:  School clothes shopping, apple orcharding, football watching, digging out sweaters, leaf touring, trick-o-treating.

As it stands now I am very reluctant to trade in my flip flops and tank tops for sweaters and boots.

I know I have been VERY bad at answering comments and emails, but I will be better once the kids are back to school and it’s too cold outside to do anything but inside activities.

I’ll be back later next week to share my new sewing room, I have been working on it for 3 days!!!! Man did I have a mess.

Hope you are enjoying your last few weeks of sweet sweet summer!

Everything that has been happening since the last time we met…

I started to realize that I am going to have to make a MAMMOTH post at the end of the summer if I don’t make a mid-summer post soon!  Someday I plan to have this journal printed out and I don’t want to think nothing happened to me in the summer of ’11 (hehehehehe.)

My college roommates and friends all went to the WORLD Expo of Beer in Frankenmuth Michigan again this year.  Many delicious mugs of spirits were consumed! I wore a white dress and didn’t spill anything on it the whole night! WOW, I must not have sampled enough beer.

I went on my oldest daughter’s field trip to Henry Ford museum:

Then June 17th the girls got out of school. That seemed super late to be getting out of school (at least it seemed that way to me!)

Here are their first and last day of school shots:

awww growing like little weeds huh?

We took an amazing 5 day camping trip WAAAY up north where the girls caught their first fish, we celebrated The BG’s 39th birthday,  and the Shasta had her maiden voyage.

Then off to Mom and Dad’s house for the 4th of July festivities.  This year the party was at my Aunt Donna’s house:

Then we were off to the lake at my college friends’ Alicia and Chris house to celebrate…..wait for it……my 40th birthday. yikes

I have been sewing here and there too!

I finished up the cross stitches I shared last time into two pillow tucks:

And I just finished stitching a little flower pocket by Stacy Nash…a little late for the 4th but it will be ready for next summer =)

I used up almost all the rest of my Darla fabric to make some pillows and a huge quilted comforter for the Shasta.   It was so much fun trying the scalloped edges on the pillow…not bad for my first try!

Here they are inside the camper with the bed all made up:

It’s kind of too match-matchy now with the curtains matching the bedding, but I am too lazy to make new curtains! LOL Maybe next year.

I found another set of  really cute vintage pillow cases too!

My second attempt at making scallops and my first with putting a bias binding on scallops wrapped up yesterday with the dresden plate I finally finished.

I did a little re-frame job on the stitchery gifted to me by Kathy:

And here it is on the little shelf in the camper:

Oh my goodness, congrats if you made it all the way through this post. JESSSH!

Hope your summer is AMAZING too!

Later Gators,

Melissa

Summer Greetings! Shasta Update

Hi Bloggy friends!

I have to say that this will probably be one of the few posts I make this summer. So I am just stopping in to say hello, and that I will be around but probably sporadically for the next month or two.

  We’ve just been so busy with end of the school year field trips,  summer soft-ball for the girls, and fixing up the Shasta camper.  As Sue was saying earlier, Michigan summers are just so dang short you really have to enjoy the heck out of them while they last.  Our girls still aren’t out of school for the summer yet, but we are itching to get out, travel, camp, and swim.

We aren’t done with the complete Shasta renovation, but we are as close as we are going to be with the bigger things waiting until the fall.  OF COURSE with the exception of the FUN PART: finding/making cute decorations for the inside,  we will continue with the outside painting and wings this fall.

Here’s were we started:

We actually had so much fun working on this camper together.  We would just get a six pack of beer, turn up some great music and hang out.  It makes me wish we had another one to fix up! LOL

Then after new screens, new birch to patch water damage, new paint, new floor, new cushions….

Here’s the after so far:

We will still put new Formica on our table and the kitchen counter, but we just want to go CAMPING!! (GRIN)

Sending you all big hugs and wishes for a fabulous summer, we’ll check in when we can!

Later Gators!

melissa

edit: Kathy your awesome picture is going in there!! I forgot to put it in before I took these pic’s =(

sweet, sweet gift

We just got back from going out to dinner and I had a package sitting on my front porch.

What could it be? I hadn’t ordered anything.

Then I saw it was from my Mom’s best friend Kathy whom I have connected with lately through email and facebook.

She is a very busy lady but also finds time to be a  crafty, creative woman too.

Look what she made for the Shasta!!

pure.love.

I’m still grinning.

Thank you so much Dear Sweet Kathy!

needles

Hello!

I’ve been working on some patriotic stitchies for summer.  Isn’t handwork the best?  I’ve been stitching away while watching Mad Men with The BG.

I know we are always 5 years behind on television fads!  But really it’s the best way to watch…you have no commercials and no waiting!

I love the late 50′s/60′s sets and costumes, but JEEEESSSSH am I happy that men aren’t allowed to go around talking to us that way in the workplace anymore.

Crazy.

Here’s what I’ve gotten done. The “freedom” is a Stacy Nash I ordered from pattern mart.  And the eagle was a freebie download. I’m going to add  a word on the side ..maybe Liberty??

I had a very Ouchie moment yesterday while working on the camper cushions.

I sewed right through my finger!

  I was trying to turn the corner with all those layers of fabric and piping and such,  pushing, pushing and BAM my finger went right under the needle.

Of course your first reaction is to pull your hand away, and when I did  I broke the needle. Talk about hurt!! Yikes.

Thank goodness I only have one more cushion to go today!

Later gators~!

Melissa

Shasta compact update

The BG is coming along on replacing the water damaged wood in the camper.

AS SOON as he is done I am going to paint the interior a fresh coat of white, we’ll install a new floor, and then the sewing of the curtains and cushions shall commence.

We’ve pretty much decided on painting the exterior red on the bottom, white on the top, with the signature Shasta Z stripe being silver.

Here’s the cushion fabric I ordered.  I picked it up last night.

While shopping around I have been keeping my eye out for camper goodies!

I found a cute red polka dot rug at walmart,  some awesome melamine dishes at target,  and some adorable vintage pillow cases while antiquing with Mom.

I think I have decided to use my Darla fabric for the curtains??

It’s so fun! =)

Later Gators!

Melissa