Things have been crazy around here! But good crazy.

See that art room? Yikes. I’m getting my table set-up figured out for the craft fair this weekend – I think I’m almost done.

We are excited for a visit from my brother and sister-in-law who come tomorrow. But since the art room is also the guest room, [...]]]>

Things have been crazy around here! But good crazy.

See that art room? Yikes. I’m getting my table set-up figured out for the craft fair this weekend – I think I’m almost done.

We are excited for a visit from my brother and sister-in-law who come tomorrow. But since the art room is also the guest room, I have a lot of cleaning up to do before they get here. No one wants to sleep on journals.

My sister and her family moved a few hours away. Hooray! She is painting her bedroom gray. I can’t wait to see it.

I’m feeling betrayed by the weather man who promised rain today (but we got nothin’).

I love this patriotic party.

Wish I had a ruffly apron with pockets to wear at the craft fair. There’s still time to make one, right?

And now it’s time to make the french toast for dinner.

Our home is featured on Bloom today! Thanks to Anne and Emily for all the nice words.

Go take a peek!

(Although I can assure you things aren’t as tidy right now as they appear in the pics. Today I’m finishing some projects so I can turn the art room into a guest room for the weekend. [...]]]>

Our home is featured on Bloom today! Thanks to Anne and Emily for all the nice words.

Go take a peek!

(Although I can assure you things aren’t as tidy right now as they appear in the pics. Today I’m finishing some projects so I can turn the art room into a guest room for the weekend. It’s going to be a busy day!)

Recently, I received this apple box in the mail from my Grandpa. He is the master of letter writing and package sending.

He sent me two cranberry crates from his father’s grocery store (Dan’s Foods). I’m such a sentimental girl – I love having these pieces from the old store. Of course, he included a letter [...]]]>

Recently, I received this apple box in the mail from my Grandpa. He is the master of letter writing and package sending.

He sent me two cranberry crates from his father’s grocery store (Dan’s Foods). I’m such a sentimental girl – I love having these pieces from the old store. Of course, he included a letter about what they used the crates for at home. Mostly his mother used them as shelving in the basement.

The boys helped me open the box and were delighted to find this:

I love that Grandpa used these non-conventional packaging materials. A big bouncy ball. 5 hot wheels. Markers galore. Granola bars, cookies, tiny cereal boxes. Even when I was a little girl, he sent packages this way. And it still makes me smile!

Thank you, Grandpa!

This kiddo prefers to work on the floor so he [...]]]> I have two little buddies who work along side me in the art room. They both love projects. They have their own bucket of supplies – tape, markers, crayons, scissors, glue. We like to listen to our Elizabeth Mitchell radio station on Pandora while we work.

This kiddo prefers to work on the floor so he can spread everything out.

This kiddo must be on a chair. Most of the time he wants my chair.

I love what they come up with.

Back to organization. I love how spring makes me feel like cleaning. (If only it was spring all year…)

My kitchen counter space is limited. I got so tired of phones on the counter! So I solved the problem with this fabric phone organizer. I hung it on the wall next to my fridge, inbetween my [...]]]>

Back to organization. I love how spring makes me feel like cleaning. (If only it was spring all year…)

My kitchen counter space is limited. I got so tired of phones on the counter! So I solved the problem with this fabric phone organizer. I hung it on the wall next to my fridge, inbetween my cork board and chalkboard (notice the lovely drawing from the kiddos…)

My one disclaimer is: I’m not a sew-er person. So don’t laugh. I like to sew for fun and I know enough to use my sewing machine to do most things, but I’m sure one of my sewing friends reading this could come up with an actual pattern. Any takers?

Here we go.

SUPPLIES

+ fabric for the outside (I used muslin I had on hand)
+ a scrap of accent fabric (this is from the curtains I made for our living room)
+ sewing machine
+ heat n’ bond (or other heat adhesive material)
+ 2 eye hooks and a dowel rod (I actually used a wooden BBQ skewer)

HOW TO MAKE A FABRIC PHONE ORGANIZER

STEP 1: Lay out your fabric and all the gadgets you want to organize. I wanted a 4-pocket holder. Cut your fabric out to your desired length. The height should be long enough to fold up part for the pockets. I just eyeballed it.

STEP 2: Fold up the bottom for the pockets. Press with your iron. Fold down the top about 3/4″ for the dowel rod to go through. Press with your iron.

STEP 3: Attach your accent fabric to the heat n bond and then cut to size so it fits the back of the organizer. (Side Note: You don’t really need to use the heat n bond – you could just line the fabric – but the heat n bond makes it a little more stiff and so the organizer keeps its shape better). Iron the accent fabric and and muslin together.

STEP 4: Hem the edge of the pocket. Don’t sew through all the layers here or else you will sew your pockets shut. The pic makes it look like I sewed through all that. Nope. Just the muslin.

STEP 5: Fold over and hem the dowel rod pocket. Sew through all the layers here.

STEP 6: Pin and sew the pockets for your gadgets. I wanted 4 equal sized pockets so I used my ruler to measure them out.

STEP 7: Hang it up. Twist the eye hooks into the wall far enough apart to hold the dowel rod. Insert the dowel rod through the pocket at the top of the organizer and then into the eye hooks. I spray painted my eye hooks and dowel rod white before doing this part.

And Wha-la! You have a fabric phone organizer. No more phones on the counter!

Email me or leave a comment if you have any questions.

I actually don’t know much about St. Patrick’s Day. But I do like rainbow cupcakes–even though I’m not sure food is supposed to be such bright colors…

There’s still time to enter the giveaway down below.

A few things I really should be doing: + making the beds for Katie and Will + cleaning the bathroom + [...]]]>

I actually don’t know much about St. Patrick’s Day. But I do like rainbow cupcakes–even though I’m not sure food is supposed to be such bright colors…

There’s still time to enter the giveaway down below.

A few things I really should be doing:
+ making the beds for Katie and Will
+ cleaning the bathroom
+ getting Kristina’s guest book ready for the book press
+ filling my shop with butterfly notebooks
+ ironing Chris’ shirts
+ taking a nap

It’s spring cleaning time around here. The trees and bushes are on the verge of full bloom and so I’ve got a serious case of the cleaning bug. The next few Tuesdays I want to share a few of my favorite DIY organizing projects. First up: the easy envelope organizer.

Cathe Holden thought up this great [...]]]>

It’s spring cleaning time around here. The trees and bushes are on the verge of full bloom and so I’ve got a serious case of the cleaning bug. The next few Tuesdays I want to share a few of my favorite DIY organizing projects. First up: the easy envelope organizer.

Cathe Holden thought up this great project. The full how-to can be read here and you can download the images for the labels here. All you need is a handful of no. 10 envelopes, glue and labels! How easy is that?

I followed her directions with a few personal twists:

+ Instead of attaching the envelopes to each other, I glued them to a few sheets of cheerful Amy Butler paper.

+ Since I don’t have a color printer handy, I used a different label border (also one of Cathe Holden’s free downloads – you can get it here).

+ My envelopes are hanging in my studio.

+ I used part of  one of my favorite scriptures at the top.

Happy organizing! Don’t forget to enter the giveaway in the post below…

I know I’m a little late on this post, but I’m still going to share! For Valentine’s Day this year, I kept it simple. I drew a few cheesy valentines on smallish pieces of paper (I think they were about 2.5″ by 4″) with my trusty Sharpie. Then I left my almost-four-year-old with his markers [...]]]>

I know I’m a little late on this post, but I’m still going to share! For Valentine’s Day this year, I kept it simple. I drew a few cheesy valentines on smallish pieces of paper (I think they were about 2.5″ by 4″) with my trusty Sharpie. Then I left my almost-four-year-old with his markers at the kitchen table and this is what he came up with! Notice how some of the names he wrote have the letters scattered all over the paper? He wanted it to be a game so the person would have to hunt for their name. How cute is that?! Oh, I love this kid.

So, Happy Valentine’s Day.

(better late then never…)

I’m having a hard time believing it’s March. Where did February go? I totally missed it! Oh well. Things have been crazy busy around here – hence the lack of blogging on my part. Sorry! I promise there will be a tutorial this Tuesday (I’m such a slacker!).  I had my first sinus infection since [...]]]>

I’m having a hard time believing it’s March. Where did February go? I totally missed it! Oh well. Things have been crazy busy around here – hence the lack of blogging on my part. Sorry! I promise there will be a tutorial this Tuesday (I’m such a slacker!).  I had my first sinus infection since high school a couple weeks ago and it wiped me out. I really hope that doesn’t happen again. Ever. (I can hope, right?!)

Anyway, I’m back on my feet and back to my usual business.

A few nights ago, I was working on some new notebook designs in my studio. The boys were all in the back yard playing some baseball so I had my window open (to listen in on the fun). I heard a really interesting bird call so I turned to look out the window. Right then, I see a bird coming full speed toward me/the window. Yep. You guessed it. He hit the window and dropped to the ground (my studio is on the second story). He hit so hard he left feathers on the glass.

I ran downstairs and outside to find the bird. Sure enough he was in the grass – alive. He flew away a few minutes later. Chris took this awesome photo of the bird before he flew away. The bird had two bright red markings on each wing and bright yellow markings on his tail feathers. Really beautiful bird! I’m glad he’s ok.

Now, I just need to find out which kind of bird he is! Any ideas?

***********

ps – Thank you, Julie, for the Book Bound Bindery feature on your blog!

I’m getting Valentine’s gift card holders ready to stock in my shop (should be there before the weekend).

The weather has been perfect lately so most mornings have been spent at the park. Life couldn’t be better.

Filled a custom order for 45 bird and butterfly notebooks. Loved [...]]]> Here are some things I’ve been doing instead of blogging:

I’m getting Valentine’s gift card holders ready to stock in my shop (should be there before the weekend).

The weather has been perfect lately so most mornings have been spent at the park. Life couldn’t be better.

Filled a custom order for 45 bird and butterfly notebooks. Loved working on this project. Pics soon. Promise.

Cub Scout Pinewood Derby is this weekend and I am on the decorations committee. I’ll post pics soon. Can’t wait for this!

I’m working on landscape sketches for our side and back yards. Now that the sprinkler system is complete, we can lay the rock path and get the bushes planted. Hooray!

My inspiration board for our master bath is almost complete. I’m itching to get that project finished.

I spent all morning cleaning the kitchen (the kind where I sent the boys outside and they were not invited back in until I was finished). The sparkling clean didn’t last long – we decorated sugar cookies for our Family Night treat. Icing and sprinkles everywhere. Oh well.

Discovered this little gem via whatever. Enjoy.