When my young daughter made the transition from a booster chair to a "big girl" chair at the kitchen table, she had such a hard time sitting still long enough to eat. I suspected that it was the hard wooden chair and in a pinch, I had her sit on a padded metal folding chair. It really helped, she was able to sit still a little longer and let us all get through the meal.

After sitting on that chair for each meal during the past year, the fabric was getting really disgusting. So, I replaced it. Here is the before picture:
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The seat on my chair is attached with these plastic screw things. I just gently tapped them from the bottom with a hammer and the came right out.
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The upper cushion was attached with three metal screws. I used a flat head screwdriver to pull out all the staples. Hundreds of 'em. I couldn't believe how many had been used to hold the original fabric in place.

Since this was my first re-upholstery project, as I removed the staples,  I paid attention to how the fabric had been pulled and placed with the staples.
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I stapled the new fabric down and trimmed it up next to the staples to get rid of the excess fabric.
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Repeated the same steps with both cushions.
The finished product. It went pretty quickly, once I got all the staples removed. The fabric I used is called So Sophie, designed by Riley Blake. It is laminated cotton, so that all the spills can be wiped clean after each meal. Now that I've got the chair put back  together, I am really tempted to spray paint the chair. I am thinking either the dark teal or the mustard yellow would look really good. We'll see how ambitious I get. :) And whether or not I could find the right color of spray paint. hmm....

I am happy with how it turned out and it was easier than I expected. I've got another identical chair, which I plan to do the same re-upholstery with. Guess I better decide if I am spray painting them first. :)

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_Hooray!

We completed the laminate flooring in the craft / hobby room (you can see more about the whole process here). We are so happy with how it turned out.
As I mentioned before, the two doorways were the hardest and gave us the most grief. They took pretty much a full day.
Now we get to move all the furniture back in, and figure out the arrangements of the room. And it will be time to continue my organizing!
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It has been a busy week - for both working on the craft room and also for everyday life.

After painting the ceiling and the walls white, I painted a lower portion of the walls in "Chameleon" by Valspar. It was my husbands first choice, and I love green, so I went with it. I wish I would have taken a picture at this point, but I didn't. The vibe of the room was a bit dull. My husband said that although he liked it, it did reminded him of camouflage green. A hobby / craft room is supposed to be a fun place, so I added a stripe of vibrant blue Behr paint that I had leftover from the twins nursery.
The blue really adds so much energy to the room and makes the wall color "pop". I am very pleased with how it turned out.

I've also painted all the trim. I had to scrape away some caulk in the windows and put down some new caulk. Scraping it away is so hard. After attempting it with many different tools, I finally remembered a hobby knife set that I had. A new blade with a flat tip allowed me to cut through the caulk "like butter". I found the best tool for smoothing out caulk beads. In the past, I'd always used my finger to smooth out the caulk, but... never again! This tool is amazing. (I put links to these tools for anyone searching for help. Tools were purchased by me, and not given to me by these companies to review.)

Day one of laminate flooring. We had high hopes and expectations that we could get this done in one day. Didn't happen. :( Thankfully, we did enough research and planning to do it properly. And we started with the most challenging spots first - the doorways.

The room has a closet on the same wall as the doorway. The doorways gave us much grief and took up an entire day! In fact, the piece that goes into the doorway into the room isn't finished yet.

And so, this is where we left off for the day. I am pretty sure that the rest of the floor will go very quickly once we make it past the doorways.

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Over the Christmas holidays, I was able to participate as a vendor at two boutiques. They were both lots of fun and I want to tell you about part of my displays.

I purchased these great shutters from the McCammon Country Farms vintage shop on Etsy last spring.
They are approximately 16"x20" in size. I figured they would make a great earring display. They were in great condition and full of character in the state I received them. However, to use them as a jewelry display, I needed to create something that would catch a customers eye and draw them in.

I also found some much larger plantation shutters at a local thrift / second hand store. One of them is almost the size of a door (I did not have a chance to do anything with those yet) and one is approximately 5'x2' in size. Here is the before picture:

_At first I considered painting them in a really bold, fun eye catching color, but I didn't want to be limited or dated ("that is so 2010") a few years from now. I decided it was easier to switch up the tablecloth color than to keep painting over these shutters. So I decided to paint them in a creamy off white color and accent them with gold paint. I wanted to create something classy and shabby chic at the same time.

I also added (glued) fancy wood carving / cutouts on each piece of the shutter (purchased from Michaels).   
_And here is the end result:
I used faux glaze mixed in with gold paint to accent the details. It added so much character, yet keeps the focus on the items for display.
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What a busy weekend with our home improvement project. We are making great progress though! Our Friday night date night was spent picking up the laminate flooring, followed by dinner at a chinese restaurant.

Saturday we moved all the furniture and my crafting stuff out of the room. My husband kept saying he couldn't believe how much crafting stuff I have. I can't believe it either. That is one sign of being an OCD crafter. (but hey, the first step is admitting you've got a problem right?)
Also on Saturday, we ripped out the carpet. And the carpet pad. And the staples from said carpet pad, plus other carpet pads ripped out who knows how long ago. And we also ripped out the nail strips that hold the carpet in place.
So, guess what we found underneath the carpet? Wood flooring! I always wondered if there was hardwood floors underneath the carpet (the house was built in 1949). We aren't sure what kind of wood it is. Our guess is fir. It is pretty soft as we dig out the nails and staples in it, so we don't think it is hardwood. But it has so much character! I wish we could restore it. But we estimate that it would take longer and cost more to restore the old floor than to put in the laminate. So, we will proceed with the laminate.
Monday, we did some painting prep work, and I painted the upper 2/3rds of the wall with Behr Ultra Pure White Satin (LOVE that paint). While I painted, my husband carefully removed the baseboards.
Tuesday, I painted the ceiling (also in Behr Ultra Pure White - Ceiling Paint). Because I was lazy and didn't change out the messy paint filled roller, I got splattered with paint freckles. Including several dots on my contact lenses. Good thing I wear disposables!
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_
What started out as a craft room organization project has now become a complete hobby room revamp! Wahoo!

I say craft room to hobby room because I am going to make some room for my husband to move his violin making workbench in there. Right now his workbench is in a little cramped space. I decided it would be nice for us both to be in the same room working on our separate hobbies together. And I say revamp because violin making involves lots of wood shavings and dust. So, we are going to put in a laminate floor! Exciting! This evening we picked out a maple plank laminate that we like.

I just can't put new flooring in the room without giving the walls a fresh coat of paint. So, that looks like my next project. Gotta get that done so the floor can be put it. The walls are currently white. I am torn between doing a fun bright color, and leaving the walls white, which actually helps create a light box for photographing my jewelry. So, I am gonna try the best of both worlds - two colors like the photograph below (found on apartment therapy).
Although as I type this, I have second thoughts - Should I just paint the whole room? Or should I paint one focal wall? Any thoughts?
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My New Years Resolution

to make this...
Look more like this....
Okay, so maybe I am dreaming! I know I am not Martha (but I sure wish I had her craft room and her resources for crafting! Can you even imagine crafting in that room? Six desks!). Seriously though, I've got to do something with my craft room. Although that picture was taken the day after Christmas - after two months of hurriedly crafting for the big day - it often looks that way. I've got to do something about it before my husband tries to get me on the show "Hoarders". 

I've tried dealing with the mess before and I can usually clean it up a bit, but it never stays that way. So I am trying to figure out why I can't keep it organized and how to prevent this kind of a mess in the future. Also, in order to not feel overwhelmed by the mess, I am breaking my goal down into smaller chunks that are easier to deal with.

1. Everything needs a home. 
2. Stuff needs to be easy to access and easy to put away.
3. Must have a rule to pick up at the end of my craft time, or the beginning of the next crafting session. With young children, I often have to leave my projects at a moments notice. I don't always have time to clean up before leaving the room. The next time I have crafting time, the last thing I want to do is waste it on cleanup. I just dive right into the next task.
4. If it isn't working, re-work it. Try something else. I've got to remember that organization is going to be a continual process. I've got to work on it daily.
_5. Take the time to do it right. One website I read said to plan on taking 3-6 months to get the room organized. Maybe that is why it hasn't worked out so well in the past. I get too impatient to do it right.

So, stay tuned. This is gonna be a work in progress. I would love to hear about what works for you and how you keep your craft room organized.


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Cloth Baby Shoes 12/21/2011
 
When my first daughter was a baby, I made these cloth baby shoes following Stardust Shoes Tutorial and pattern, found here. My fabric choice was kinda plain jane. I wanted something that would go with anything. I intended on making more, but it just never happened - she was walking before I knew it.

_
Three years later, when my second daughter was about 6 months old, I purchased this pattern by Ashley Johnson of Make it and Love it. Unfortunately for my daughter, I didn't get an opportunity to make the shoes until she was close to walking (my excuse? three kids under the age of three!).
_I finally made three pairs of these and gave them away as baby shower gifts. Sadly, I only got photo's of this pair (kicks self). Hopefully soon the other two little ladies will be wearing their shoes and I can get pictures.

These were fun to make and are a great nap-time project. The hardest part was being patient as I cut out all the little pieces of fabric.

Always fun to try something new!

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I've been making these anti-tarnish jewelry storage bags for a few years now. Just a cute little bag, lined with anti-tarnish fabric to help keep your favorite jewelry from tarnishing. Great for traveling or just organizing at home.

_After a few requests, I came up with another style - more of a jewelry roll, lined with the anti-tarnish fabric. Inside, these each have two large zippered pockets, and either a ring roll, more pockets, a place to attach necklaces or to hang earrings.

Click on a picture or visit my Etsy shop  to learn more. Each organizer is slightly different - crafting isn't near as much fun when you are duplicating as it is when you are creating something new.
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Need a reason to run up to Park City? This should be a great event! It is a fundraising boutique for The Park City Day School. Grab your girlfriends, head up to Park City for some shopping! Hope to see you there! 

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