It's just the thing!

When I got my new camera, I also tried to find a camera case that would protect the thing without being too big and bulky.  I really wanted something I could just slip into my purse or tote bag and everything I saw in the stores or online was either too small or too big with lots of straps and extraneous stuff I didn't want or need.  Etsy to the rescue!  One day I was just wasting time looking around on Etsy and I happened to find a lady who makes custom wallets and cosmetic bags.  I did some measuring and realized that her cosmetic bag was the perfect size for my camera.  I was also crazy about this green Japanese teddy bear fabric - so I contacted her and ordered one.  In a few days, my new camera case arrived by priority mail and I am thrilled with how it turned out.  It is very well made - sturdy and just enough padding to protect my digital camera.  And it fits very nicely in my handbag!  Isn't it great when you find just the thing you're looking for?

Have you ever just needed to turn your brain off...

for a few minutes?  Well, it's not that I think that knitters are a mindless bunch - on the contrary, I think knitters are very creative.  Although I am not a knitter by any means, I do, however, very much enjoy the mindless calm of knitting.  I haven't done any knitting in years - but the other day I bought a couple of skeins of yarn and decided to just do some simple knitting throughout the day, especially when I am in need of a short break.  I've never made anything complicated, as you can see by the simple whatever-it-is I'm working on, but I was amazed how quickly the rhythm of the needles and yarn came back to me.  As you might imagine, I don't expect to make anything particularly grand - but it's very soothing to just stop thinking for a few minutes and knit a couple of rows.  Especially when I've just spent an hour or so trying to explain the correlation between the amount of income earned and the amount of income tax due on that income - to people who have absolutely no clue what I am trying to tell them.

And it beats poking one of them in the eye with a knitting needle...

Making progress...

on the Christmas cards!  The envelopes are decorated (from cheap to cute with one roll of the stamping wheel!), both the address and return labels are affixed, the postage stamps are on and the card stock is about half cut for the cards.  I had hoped to be at least half finished today, but I spent a little while this afternoon cutting fabric for another small holiday gift project.  It just feels good to accomplish something tangible in a day's time!  Of course, my associates are not really much help - but they are good company.  Considering my recent culinary failures, I decided to lay off any attempts at baking today; I don't know if it's the oven that needs a rest or me.

Tomorrow - mini-loaves of banana bread!

And on the second day of Christmas...

my fresh Christmas wreath arrived!  My friend's daughter was selling them as a fundraiser for her school - and since I didn't make a wreath for the door last year, I decided to order one.  Now I just have to make a fancy bow for it.  I just happen to have a spool of sheer wired ribbon that's printed with Christmas ornaments.  Target - a great place for snappy, not-your-run-of-the-mill seasonal decorations.  I also happened upon a beautiful copper wreath hanger on sale when I was at Target a couple of weeks ago - and I'm planning to use it year round.  It has a Welcome plaque on it above where the wreath hangs, so I took down my all-purpose, seasonal welcome sign from the door and when the holidays are over, I'll make some sort of wreath for the spring - maybe eucalyptus.  Now, to make that bow...

Inspiration has struck...

You know, I can't help but be inspired when I pick up one of Alexandra Stoddard's books.  Her Book of Color is one I don't look at too often, but when I was dusting the bookshelves the other day, I hauled it back to my desk to browse through again.  Admittedly, I did it because it was too big for the stack it was in - and didn't belong with those particular books anyway, but I digress...  Paging through the photographs of glorious color, I looked around and realized that I haven't made much use of color myself lately.  I've been in this condo for a year and a half, and while I have lots of stuff on the walls and well, stuff everywhere, there isn't a lot of actual color.  The walls are a light taupe and the carpet is a nondescript beige.  So I've come up with a couple of ideas to inject some much-needed color into my world.

See this little wall that separates the kitchen from the living room?  I'm thinking of either painting it a sage green or covering it with white beadboard paneling that will match the kitchen cabinets.  I'm leaning toward the beadboard, painted with glossy white paint.  And there is a method to my madness here: for some reason Aggie thinks this is a great spot to rub her face on the wall - and no matter how much I wash it, it still doesn't look clean.  I could remedy that situation and add some interest at the same time.  The living room doors need a valance, too, and I have the blue fabric I need for that project - I just have to find a coordinating red print with some sage green in it for the contrasting lining.  Oh - and I have to get my friends to build me a wood cornice to drape the valance over.  But they're nice that way.

My other color idea is for the bedroom.  I love my antique iron bed and I really like the greenish blue quilted toile coverlet.  I do not, however, like the khaki bedskirt.  It was a sale find at Target when I was in a hurry to put the bedroom together - can you believe WalMart didn't have bedskirts to match the coverlets and shams?  Anyhow, it has served its purpose - but while studying the color scheme the other day, I realized how nice a black gingham bedskirt would look - sort of pulling the bed and the other bedding together.  I got one from Country Curtains in a very small black and cream gingham - and I just need to get Ariela to help me put it on the box spring.  I've also decided that the bedroom has gone without window treatments long enough - I'm going to order two yards of the bedskirt fabric and make a simple valance to further tie the look together.  I'm still pondering a couple of black gingham pillow shams or accent pillows for the bed and maybe a chair pad for the blue chair.  I've already replaced both of those ugly chests on either side of the bed - having moved my round Singer sewing table from the living room to the left side and a cute oak table with a drawer and shelf on the right - both inexpensive craigslist finds.

I do love it when a room comes together!

Isn't this just...

the most creative thing you have seen in just about forever?  I saw it on Etsy and I forgot to get the name of the artist - but what a great idea.  Of course, I have altogether too much stuff already and no place to put it if I did get up the ambition to make one, but it's nice to admire a photo of a quirky idea, isn't it?  It looks like it might be a bit top-heavy - I'd probably go for a bigger base on the candelabra - but it's charming all the same.

New old dresser...

You’d think all I do is look on craigslist for used furniture to feather my nest.  Well, I admit I do check the ads every day, but it’s mainly for the entertainment value of weird stuff and misspelled ad headlines.  But occasionally…  Remember my closet with the rubber stamps in the rolling carts?  Well, it might have looked nice and organized, but getting the carts in and out of the closet and finding anything was not as convenient as I had imagined it would be when I came up with that particular plan.  So – guess what I found on craigslist for a mere $75?  This lovely antique oak dresser which fits perfectly in the space between the sofa and my craft desk – and it provides a much better place for my rubber stamps.  Easier to access, easier to find what I’m planning to use – what more could I ask for?  And it’s pretty too!  Al & Tom picked it up for me – furniture is, after all, their business and delivered it a few days ago.  Tom even tightened up the drawers and polished it up for me.  I have since filled it to the brim with stamps and other tools – and sorted out some more stamps that I don’t want for donation to someone who might – and I am loving it!  I used little plastic trays in the drawers to separate the stamps by category and amazingly, everything fit.

And – the bonus here – it’s the perfect spot for my dragonfly lamp, some framed photos, my small Harmony Kingdom box collection and my white hyacinth.  I love it when a plan (and a room) comes together!

Lately, I feel like...

my living room has exploded.  I'm in the process of transferring my rubber stamps from these carts in the hall closet (which were a pain in the butt to get in and out) to the old dresser I got for a song on craigslist.  Where else do I do my shopping for home furnishings?  The guys were kind enough to go and and pick it up for me - and it's lovely.  I promise I'll show it to you as soon as I put everything away and come up with a suitable tableau for the top of the dresser.  It is the just the thing that I needed for between the end of the sofa and my office area.  Just the right height, too.  I didn't need to move any of the artwork on the wall - which is a good thing because I can't reach it by myself anyway.  I'm thinking it's the perfect spot for my dragonfly lamp - but that remains to be seen.  Oops!  Time to get back to some meaningful work...

It's beginning to look...

a lot like Christmas!  There's no grand tree in the living room, but I'm making use of my small trees and my little Longaberger sleigh baskets.  These bears were hibernating in the basket with those miniature cats and they've decided to take a sleigh ride for the Christmas holidays.  I can't remember any more who the teddy bear artists are, but they are still a delight to me.  Muffy VanderBear has lent them her New England Christmas tree.

What's left of my Santa collection (everything got downsized!) has taken up residence on the shelf in the entry way with a couple of miniature trees and a cute wooden Happy Holidays sign.  I love the figure on the right which has Santa offering Frosty a steaming cup of hot cocoa.

I wonder how that will work out...

And welcoming guests is my Noah's Ark cross stitch which I made years and years ago - I still have to find the stocking I made to match.  I love this thing and I'd leave it up year round if I weren't afraid people would think I was crazy!

Back in business...

and getting ready to ship some rubber stamp sets I sold in my Etsy shop.  I had to get a new 9-volt battery for my postal scale.  Yes, I put my tongue on the old one and got a bit of a shock, but it apparently did not have enough juice to power the scale.  I have been going through my rubber stamps and stamp sets and culling out the ones I am never going to use - or use again.  I've sold six sets so far and I have more to list.  When I moved into this condo, my friend put shelves in the entry closet for my seasonal decorations and office supplies.  We left room under the bottom shelf for my rolling stamp carts - but I ended up cramming four jam-packed carts in there and I practically have to unload the whole closet to get at what I want.  Not a good thing, I discovered when I was looking for the Thanksgiving theme stamps.  So...  I did the unthinkable and broke up some Stampin' Up sets to keep the ones I like and will use and I'm going to make up some oddball lots of stamps to sell.  I also listed about fifteen full sets on Etsy - most of which I had never used.  

Will this downsizing ever end?

Gotta love Etsy...

where you can browse through thousands of interesting handmade and vintage items until you find just the thing you didn't even know you were looking for.  The very thing, as my grandmother used to say.  As I have admitted on previous occasions, I am a lover of all things holiday - Valentine's, Easter, Independence Day, Halloween, Christmas - and I love holiday-themed shirts, sweaters and jewelry.  I have been wearing my old faithful Halloween shirts and while browsing on Etsy one evening when I couldn't sleep, I realized that I didn't have any really suitable autumn earrings.  Like anyone really sees me on a daily basis, or that I even needed any, but nevertheless - I had apparently found the very thing.  The best part is that you can get adorable handmade earrings with glass pumpkin beads for under $10 - a steal!  While I was at it, I bought a pair of cute, cute, cute art glass pumpkin earrings for my pumpkin-obsessed friend, Marie.  With free shipping!  I haven't spent much money frivolously over the past year, but finding these two great bargains - pumpkin earrings! - just made my day.  If you have never checked Etsy out, you should take a few minutes and have a look.  It's like eBay only less commercial - wonderful hand-crafted things!  In fact, I'm going to be listing some of my sewing projects on Etsy soon.

At home in my office...

Finally!  I've gotten my home office put together - and it only took me two weeks.  I'm using my desk and computer extension for work and the second desk as a craft credenza.  This was a serious consolidation project, let me tell you.  Fortunately, my enormous printer/scanner/fax fit inside the computer extension so I had more desk space to work with.  The only thing I'm not pleased about is the cable/VOIP modem disaster to the left of my monitor, which you cannot see in this photo - thank goodness!  One of my clients is a cable guy and he has promised to come and make it disappear for me.  Honestly, I should take a picture of it - it looks like a construction demolition site wired to blow up - there is wire everywhere - all hooked together with hideous black cable ties.  But I digress...

 There's my favorite lamp - and as you can see, we are heavy on the Mary Engelbreit in this space.

I got my wall shelves all put together - more ME and my scaled-down collection of Boyd's Bears.  I kept my tea-drinking girls and, of course, the bumblebee and sunflower gang.  My clients get a kick out of the ME print on the bottom which says: "We don't care how they do it in New York."  And we don't.

The baker's rack is finally arranged to my liking with most of my Longaberger May baskets - the rest are in use in the kitchen in one way or another.  More Mary!

Here you can see that I've replaced the dining room light fixture - it was okay, but not really me - with one of my pendant lights that match the kitchen lamp and the living room floor lamp.  The other pendant light is in the kitchen in place of one really hideous fluorescent light fixture.  The purple lights go well with my purple-framed May basket poster and beehive cross-stitch.  The other lamp on my desk is mainly red - but I like it, so there.

My craft credenza faces the living room window - all the better to converse with Aggie while she's trying to nap in the sunny spot.  I was glad there was room for my Cricut and

all of my stamping supplies.  The bottom right cupboard is chock full of these lovely yellow storage boxes and the left hand drawers are full of embossing powder, tools, glue and paper.  Like I said, serious downsizing!

 

 Almost forgot - here's the view from the kitchen - and my window on the world.

I love Etsy...

I was looking for a unique handmade gift for a friend and happened upon these lovely (and inexpensive!) glass tile pendants.  Well, I ended up getting a free one because of a holiday weekend sale - who knew? - and the little bear who keeps me company at my desk has decided to wear it.

Keep calm and carry on.

I need to be reminded of that sometimes.

Oh, and I almost forgot...

I did accomplish something during this lazy Sunday.  I framed a little project I had made a while back.  I finished the stitching and put it away because I didn't know what to do with it.  This morning I was cleaning out the drawers in my bedroom desk to make room for my sewing supplies and I found this little frame with a calligraphy quote in it that said, "One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius."

So it would appear.

More serious cuteness...

My friend and client, Denise, who owns a consignment shop in Lakewood Ranch, made me this adorable beehive for the center of a patchwork pillow I'm making for my home office.  She's the one who did my work shirts with the beehive logo.  I just love this - it's different than the other logo, but I love the sunflower and the bigger bee!  I have some Mary Engelbreit bee fabric that I am going to incorporate into the pillow, but I haven't decided what other fabric to use just yet.  I am too excited for words!

Isn't it strange...

how satisfying being able to cram a whole bunch of rubber stamping supplies into one small cupboard can be?  This spot is originally where the color laser printer was going until I had an epiphany and passed it along to Richard.  This would have been wasted space - but thanks to these lovely (and cheap inexpensive!) storage boxes of various sizes from Wal-Mart, I have stored patterned paper, card-making supplies, ribbon, envelopes, Cricut cartridges (out with those bulky boxes!) and the stamps I use most in about nine cubic feet.  Now the top of the craft desk, which I will photograph tomorrow, won't be an eyesore right behind my work desk!  I love organizing - too bad I don't really like organizing other people's junk.  I have two more bags of stuff for Goodwill, a box of school supplies and stuff for Ariela's kids and two big bags of trash.  And - I am proud of myself - the boxes Al & Tom brought over from the office yesterday are all empty save one.  I haven't quite figured out where to put my flatbed scanner yet.  It's fairly compact - it stands up - and I like it for scanning photos.  That's another project I am going to undertake this summer: scanning two big boxes of photos so I don't have to keep everything.  I know, I know - I will keep the oldest ones, but Christmas tree pictures and stuff like that I am going to scan and store digitally for posterity.  Not like I have anyone who will care, but still.  Less is more, less is more...

Lunchtime project...

I've been working on this project for what seems like forever; I get down to the outlining and I keep putting it aside. I decided to get into craft mode - while I'm waiting to get my sewing machine out of storage - so I thought I'd try and finish this. Some of my framed artwork was water-damaged during my move and I have a frame that I can re-purpose for this project when it's done. All I'll need to do is have it matted and mounted. I have just the spot for this, too! It's hard to see, but under the menagerie of pets, it says Welcome and There's Always Room for One More! Truer words were never spoken - uh, I mean, stitched.

Mary Engelbreit is right...

arts and crafts do keep you sane. I only wish I hadn't put my sewing machine in storage! It's my grandmother's ancient black head Singer and it may be old - but it works great. Tim got me a serger one year for Christmas and I like it, but there's nothing like Grandma's trusty, well-used and very loved Singer. During the mad rush and confusion of moving, I decided that there was no room in the apartment or the office for my sewing stuff, so I packed it all up and it's miles away inside a seriously (and perilously) packed ten by ten storage unit. I hung on to a small amount of cross-stitch stuff - but that's it. And anyone who sews will understand this: I'm in the mood to sew. There's just something about creating something from a pile of fabric and thread that is both relaxing and satisfying. Sure, I like to make cards and cross-stitch, but sewing is the first real craft I ever learned and nothing else quite measures up. I was never much into making clothes - I could never master a set-in sleeve or lining anything, but I have made probably hundreds of Christmas ornaments, bermuda bag covers and quilted pillows over the years. I made all the window treatments in our house. I even went through a doll-making phase: Holly Hobbie (I'm showing my age!), Raggedy Ann and Andy... One of the first things my grandmother turned me loose on (after I mastered sewing straight lines on notebook paper) was Barbie doll clothes. At first I followed the patterns, but after while I was like a ten-year-old Barbie designer with a spring and fall line of evening and casual wear made from scraps left over from Grandma's projects, complete with beaded trim and braided frog closures on the jackets. Maybe that's why I could never make people clothes - I was used to working on a much smaller scale! Anyhow, I was thinking this morning about how it felt like a great day to sew something - but I don't even have a spool of thread!

I love to cross stitch!

I only wish I had something at home to work on! I woke up yesterday morning with the worst sinus headache - it's probably the weather and the heat - but I was dizzy and sick to my stomach and there was no way I wanted to drive. Aggie & Monty were happy to have Mom at home - but one person can only sleep so much without making a bad headache worse - so I did laundry, putzed around the apartment and then I realized what I really felt like doing was cross-stitching - but alas, the small projects I kept out of storage were at the office! I am working on finishing a cute picture for Tim with a bunch of cats and dogs in it that says, "There's always room for one more!" If that isn't Tim to a T! I also have the dreaded rainbow trout on my floor frame - but it's literally been years since I put a stitch on that thing. I switched two colors when I was working on the pinkish part of the trout's body and I have since misplaced the chart and the floss (it was a kit - hence the color confusion) and well, there it is in the frame, taunting me. I have been going to search eBay for the same kit - but I guess my heart just isn't in it. I should - the fishing flies around the perimeter of the picture are done and I am halfway finished with the fish. And it would make a nice addition to Tim's man-cave walls with his trout chart and other fishing related prints. I stitched the picture with the beehive for our anniversary several years ago. Tim was enamored of it as much as a man can be, I guess - but I get to enjoy it on the wall above my desk in the office. I also ran across this cute raspberry picture I did - there are three other small patterns that do with it: grapes, blueberries and a butterfly. It was one of those free charts from DMC that comes with new floss colors - and it also has a large picture with a basket flowers, but I've never been that motivated. I have a kit for the Mary Engelbreit print above with my motto on it: Bloom Where You're Planted. Maybe I'll work on that when I finish the pet picture for Tim. I just put my project in my bag so I don't forget to take it home with me!

Three things today...

I've been working on sorting out my craft supply mess today. As you can see, it is steadily encroaching on my workspace - and has been since we moved from the house to the condo. All of my sewing stuff - sewing machine, serger, fabric, patterns - went into the storage unit, but I brought all of the rubber stamps and card-making supplies to the office to join my Cricut, which I have been unable to get to for the past couple of months! I've made a lot of progress - although it's hard to tell from this picture!

So as a reward for finally putting my nose to the grindstone, I ordered pizza for lunch from A Taste of Philly - a great little restaurant three doors up from the office. Cari makes wonderful pizza and Ariela and I finally availed ourselves of the vegetable pie during tax season - practically orgasmic! Okay - I don't get out much, but it was good. I have since moved on to the italian pizza with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onions and olives. Excellent! And, if I have pizza for lunch, then I am still full at dinner time - much to Aggie & Monty's chagrin.

And finally, and most importantly, an update on Monty. When I got home last night both dogs were happy to see me (as usual) and I was pleased to find that Monty was still wearing his e-collar and his incision looked good. His pain med-induced buzz had worn off and he was a little frisky, once again barking at anyone who walked by the window, so I slipped his pills into a treat and he was calm again in no time. I actually prefer the frisky Monty to the calm one, but I don't want him to get too rambunctious just yet. Aggie seems to be laying low, too - almost like she senses that Monty needs to take it easy for a few days.