Where the Magic Happens

Some day, when I'm rich and famous and have a house with two working bathrooms, I will also have a lovely craft room in which I can create marvelous works of artistic beauty that will dazzle the senses.

I might mention that this will also magically coincide with my ability to keep the house spotlessly clean.

One can dream.

Anyway, for now, this is my craft room, where for a few precious moments a week I closet myself away from the rest of the house (and household). As you can see, it's also my laundry room and mudroom, so a lot of excess debris gets trapped in my tiny space. Handyman's 9 pairs of size 11 shoes takes up a good percentage of the space, much to my annoyance.
In Handyman's defense, however, he has tried to make the room as user friendly and space efficient as possible. He hung up several rows of shelves, on which I've managed to cram quite a lot of crafting possibilities.
To save table space, I glued the lids of these jars to the underside of the shelf. When I want something from the jar, I just twist it, and the glass part comes free. I can see what's in it, but it's not in my way.

These little storage boxes were one of my favorite ideas. Walmart and Dollar Tree sells these little pencil holders for 3/$1. I just put two screws in for each box, and hung them on the wall. Again, it's nice to have things where I can easily see them, but aren't on my small table.
My Mum picked this up for me at Bed Bath and Beyond. It's a jewelry organizer, but I use it for ribbon and trimming, since it's not easy to keep those things organized yet visible.
One good thing about such a small space is that it forces me to focus on one project at a time. I can't work on both scrapbooking and sewing, since that would quickly overwhelm what little space I have. I have to finish what I'm working on so that I can put it away and get out something new.

At least, that's what I tell myself.

Rosette Headband

~1 Rosette Headband - finished price $.35~

I had about a yard of black satin ribbon left from refashioning my black shoes, so I decided to use it to make a hair band.

After making the rosette, I hot glued it onto a hair band that I'd bought from the Dollar Tree. (5 for a dollar - great bargain!).
I used a small square of ribbon to glue on the underside of the hair band to help hold the rosette onto the thin head band, and to ensure the rosette didn't feel lumpy on my head. I might have lumps in my head, but none on, thank you very much. One must have one's limits, after all.

It still didn't seem quite right to me with just the black rosette, so I rummaged through my small collection of beading bits and pieces and found a short length of a necklace I had taken apart for another project. Perfect!
Using some needle and thread I sewed the necklace bits onto a small pile in the center of the rosette.
I'm so happy with the way this came out! Best yet, the headband, along with being cheap, is flexible. I don't care for plastic headbands because I can't adjust them if they're too tight, but these little metal ones can hold their shape!

Spring Buds

I got my very first Pottery Barn catalogue a few weeks ago (yes, my friends are all shaking their heads at my lack of shopping panache), and I was delighted to find so many great ideas in there! Just about everything in the catalogue was outside my price range, but a lot of the decorations were things I could make myself for lots less money!

One of the things that I knew right away I wanted was the spray of twigs table arrangement.
Now, I know that you can get the real thing by bringing the stems inside and "forcing" them to bloom, but that takes time and I'm too impatient. My way allows me almost instant gratification combined with being able to reuse the stems.

To start, you'll need a small selection of branches. If your branches are to thick and woolly, thin them out a bit. We want the airy and delicate look, not the "I-haven't-shaved-in-weeks" look.
Plunk or place your stems into the vase of your choice. I secured my stems into a glass hurricane vase with a judicious amount of rocks, but you can use whatever you like. It's easier to glue on the flowers artistically if you know exactly where they're going to go on the stems. That way you can burn yourself in a more exciting way. (I have a love/hate relationship with my glue gun. It's a phobia of mine that I've never gotten over.)

Get about two bunches of flowers (I found Dogwood blossoms, yay!) from the Dollar Tree or wherever you want, and cut off the bottom nubs.
Insert rant here: For my sake, stick to flowers that actually grow on tree branches. Daisies are pretty, but I dare you to show me a horticultural example of a daisy in a tree.
Then you just start gluing the blossoms wherever you like! Don't make them too close together, and don't put them all at the end of the stems. Also, it's a good idea to rotate the arrangement to ensure that the blossoms aren't all facing the same direction.
If you have a few extra blossoms, scatter them inside your glass vase or around the base of a vase that isn't clear.
Finally, place your beautiful new spring arrangement on top of your piano that is sadly in need of a good dusting. Enjoy how sophisticated it looks with the echoing repeat of itself in the mirror. Feel smug. Then go bandage burnt fingers.

Flower Power

Poor Miss Boo. She has such a funny little personality, but when it comes to her personal appearance . . . let's just say that she inherited her mother's hair.
Her hair is too thin to hold a hair clip. (Believe me, I've tried every one out there!) So, I came up with a nice easy solution that looks super girly and cute on her - flower headbands!
These were so easy to make it's ridiculous. I bought a five-pack of multicolored stretchy hair bands from Walmart, got a nice silk flower to match the color of the hairband, and glued the flower onto it!
Once the glue was dried, I cut the back of the flower (that was sticking through the hairband) a tad shorter so it wouldn't dig into Miss Boo's head. Boo likes fashion, but she's not willing to suffer for it!

She has a few more in other colors, but I couldn't find them in time to get the photos in this post.
(If you're going to try to make some for yourself (or your baby), I'd stick to flat flowers like dahlias or daisies. Roses look pretty but they stick up too far from the base and look odd. Also, you can use a hot glue gun if you're impatient, or regular Elmer's glue if you don't mind waiting a bit for it to dry.)