Organizing, Needlefelting, and an App…

First of all – how creepy is this plant! It’s called “Living Stones” and I can’t stop looking at it and being grossed out. Of course I bought it – it gives me the shivers!

 

Simple organizing…I took two mushroom cans, cleaned them, covered them with double-stick tape and some scrapbooking paper. They rest nicely in my medicine cabinet…all clean and cheerful in the mornings!

A started snowman. I was going to make something else but when it didn’t turn out a snowman was born. I think it’s funny that the first snowman I made took hours and this much bigger snowman takes me a fraction of the time. Practice, practice, practice!

A started bird…the reddish color on both of these is made from Kool-Aide. I can’t even remember all the colors I used. I went into a dyeing frenzy last week and dyed a good half pound of roving. And I’m not thrilled with the results but am determined to use it up anyways! I have to say the color is starting to grow on me and was one of the better results…

OK now for the app. I spent HOURS on this last week. Having a child with special needs is time consuming. Not in a bad way. The time consuming aspect came into play for me when I wanted an app to use on her iPod Touch that would break down tasks and keep Abby on track while working. For instance if I tell Abby to clean the front entry I never know what to expect. To Abby that is a huge job! There’s shoes, coats and mittens everywhere! Seems simple to me because I know what to do…Abby just sees a big mess and where to start? Then what’s next?

There are many fabulous apps out there for kids with special needs, especially for kids on the autistic spectrum. But they can cost big bucks and there is no guarantee that they will even work for your child. Every child is so different! What works beautifully for one may not for another. So after cruising the autistic websites for a few hours I had a good idea of what I wanted. And I think I found it in this app – Note It Do It

This is a free app kinda like Evernote or OneNote.  After installing this app I very quickly cleaned the front entry and took pictures of the entire process so I could record the steps. Please excuse my pictures…geez this is almost embarrassing…but this is what I ended up with- and what it looks like on the iPod touch screen -

 

 

Part of the beauty of this app is that I can email the list to Abby. Abby has a tendency to mess around with her iPod. Her fingers get busy! She can delete things almost faster than I can enter them. Well, she can delete this list all she wants, cause I can keep sending it to her! lol! And, I can install this on her touch and I believe I can password protect it. I can’t remember exactly right now, I looked at so many different apps…I still want to try OneNote…it seems pretty awesome but to be able to share the notes you have to be able to get into “the cloud” and I have an earlier version of Windows Live Essentials installed on my computer. Have to uninstall and reinstall. And that kind of stuff scares me. Why in the heck they can’t just offer an “upgrade” I don’t know…or maybe they do and I haven’t found it yet. Sometimes all this stuff makes me feel stupid. But there are some wonderful tools out there that as a parent of a special needs child I need to take the time to figure out!

Happy Crafting!!

Paper cutting, Needle Felting, and Modge Podge

I love my local library…when we first moved here it was the first place I sought out and visited. Over the years I’ve grown to love and appreciate what a fine library we have! When I saw the book Creative Paper Cutting blogged about I really wanted the book…and sent a link to our awesome librarian, Peggy, and she ordered it!! Woo-hoo!!! So the first things I’ve cut are projects that I will be bringing to the library later today to say thank you…

Aren’t they cute! There are several other projects I have bookmarked and will cut asap!

The other night I sat down and needlefelted another chair…there is just something about chairs…I sketched this chair based on a chair I saw on chairblog …there are blogs about everything out there! One reason I like sketching chairs is because you learn a lot about perspective, and perspective is something I need to practice!

So then I loosely needlefelted this chair…holy demon dog batman!

Oh, and by the way “Hello-my name is Kim and I am a recovering hoarder”…I came to this conclusion after cleaning my office again, cause I had piles of stuff in my way again, and I ended up throwing away a lot of  junk again, I even gave a few things away…again…how and why does this seem to happen over and over again!!

In using what I have I took a plain old box and mod podge’d pattern pieces all over it. The end result is a very sturdy box to hold my (what I’ve gathered together so far…there’s more) notebook collection hoard.

Have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!!!

PS: If you want to leave a comment click on the time stamp at the bottom of this post…weird…I know!

Holiday…

Did you have a Merry Christmas? We really, really did! Now we are gearing up for New Year’s Eve which is always fun! I’m not going to do a long post today I just wanted to quickly share two links…

#1. If your New Year’s resolution is to tidy and clean your house go visit organizedhome.com/ . I just found this site and can’t wait to dig in and see what they have to offer…I especially like their printables.

#2. If you are going to be having or are attending a New Year’s party check out all these cool Jell-O Shot recipes! Wow – who knew you could get so creative with Jell-O Shots!

Crafting has pretty much stopped over here-I have a house full of kids, a head cold, and a Christmas mess to sort and organize…have a happy and safe New Year!!!

Happy Crafting!

Felted bowls and organization tip

First the organization tip. Remember this white cabinet I found? Well, in the summer I clear out all the winter gear and put summer supplies in it and in the winter I clear out all the summer gear and put winter items in it. Here it is. The box labeled “bags” is full of library bags. The middle basket holds Abby’s hat, mittens, and scarf. The box on the right is stuffed with scarves and gators. The green basket on the bottom is labeled “hats” and the wooden bin is full of misc gloves and mittens. We have that many hats and mittens! The teal tub on the top of the cabinet holds library books. We get so many we’ve outgrown the bags. (Guess I’ll have to move them!) So aside from labeling everything better this is a system that works! Well, it’s worked for about two weeks…but that is a HUGE improvement. If the outdoor gear is wet it gets hung up on this blanket rack which is then stationed over a heating vent.

The bin on top of the dresser that you can just barely see holds dog leashes. The drawers hold my winter gear and my husband’s winter gear. Then in the spring it will hold all the winter gear. I don’t want the drawers to be opened and shut 50 times a day because it is a very old dresser – and the drawers were always hanging open and pushed in wonky. It was just easier to move the stuff than to deal with it all the time.

And here is what I’ve been working on over the weekend!!!

These felted bowls were fun to make! Then I dyed the green one and the blue one using food coloring and the microwave. I’m addicted. Functional art is always a thrill! I want to further embellish them but will have to wait until they are thoroughly dry and I can come up with an idea. I’ll link up to the tutorials I used some other time.

Happy Crafting!!!

Craft Room Storage Ideas

I got a shelf thingy at a garage sale this summer for a dollar. I painted it up with some left-over spray paint and hung it in the basement for craft supplies – see:

Well, I loved it soooo much I decided to make another one –  see:

I used old scrap lumber I had laying around. Some of the boards were/are even twisted but it still came together nicely! I have since hung it up and started organizing – see:

I made sure the bottom shelf would hold my big bottle of glue and the next shelf would hold those other bottles of glue…and just kind of winged the other shelves. I’m sure I’ll paint it eventually but at the time it was soooo humid here the paint wouldn’t have dried. I hung each shelf a different way and will show you another time. I’ve been playing around with ways to hang stuff in the basement without going through the concrete.  Oh – and I’d like to say that the crookedness is an optical illusion…but it isn’t. Stuff is crooked in my house. Since I hang stuff myself and haven’t grown an extra arm it is what it is.

PS: See all those ink pads on the third shelf of the blue unit - up on the left – 12 of them? Well, I scored them at a garage sale on Friday for $6.00 – and many of them were still wrapped in packaging!!!! So then I inked up a hole protector and stuck them on the ends to show what colors they are.

Happy Crafting!!!

Cord Organizer

Do you have a million little cords to hook up your gadgets to the computer – or to charge them? I do! They are/were always a tangle on my desk and finding the right one was frustrating! So, I came up with this. It isn’t pretty. Someday when life is less hectic I’ll aim for pretty – right now functional is the goal.

Basically I took a couple cereal boxes and some packing tape and started cutting and taping. It works great! Someday I envision pretty dividers with little tabs telling me what is in each box…well… we can dream. I have it in this wooden basket and it sits on a shelf very near the computer. As I find cords I coil them up and they now have a home!!!

Happy Crafting!!

Wooden Spool Peg Rack

I saw this project and knew it would be my next one…I love, Love, LOVE how this turned out and plan to make some more!! You can find the tutorial at Design Sponge. I’ll try to take a picture on a nice sunny day so you can see it better…but this was just too good to wait! Thank you Grannie for all your old wooden spools!!

PS: I didn’t want to hang each spool directly on the wall so I mounted them to this piece of plywood first. Less holes in the wall to fill later! Happy Crafting!

Last day!

Today is the last day of school! That means it is the last day of peace and quiet for me for the summer. One part of me is sad about that – but a big part of me is glad to be done for the year – and we are so looking forward to a schedule-free summer! I made the last peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the year yesterday. YES! Geez I get tired of that.

I finished quilling my picture and will show you next week – I got a frame yesterday and I still need to paint it white. But I did want to show you the table I got last fall. It was sitting on the side of the road. Free! Does this count as dumpster diving?

It’s in my craft area in the basement. It has a leaf so it could be longer, but it needs just a bit of repair work before I use it. Isn’t it pretty?! It’s oak. This will be the perfect fabric cutting table/scrapbooking table!! The plumbing you see under the table is where I could have a sink…and wanted a sink…but since there is a bathroom 10 feet away I decided this would be a better use for the space.

This is what I’ve been using to hold my works-in-progress. I got together everything needed for the quilling project and keep it on this cart. When I’m not using it I wheel it into my office. This is working really well. When the quilling-fever has died down I’ll empty it and fill it with the next project. I got this cart and several others at the dump. I think I need to spray-paint it to jazz it up – and suggestions on colors? Light blue? I dunno…

This is the “junk drawer” in my office. Since there are no drawers I’ve been repurposing jars that once held candles. I like it!

Also, thank you to everyone who has commented on my posts and/or given me an award lately…I haven’t forgotten…and will post on that. I’ve been such a bad blogger lately…at one time I just couldn’t get enough of the craft blogs and lately I can’t seem to concentrate on the computer…I dunno…

Well, have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!

More boxy pouches made -

I have nine pouches made, filled, and shelved. Um…I have a lot of felt! I’m looking for ideas now. I have some floating around in my brain and just have to get busy I guess.  I didn’t want to use up my keychain stash on these so I twisted some wire into a loop on the last ones made. That worked just as great!

Now here is a recipe for Julie’s mom – who LOVES baking powder biscuits. (Me too!)

Easy-Peasy Tasty Biscuits

Cut together (as you would a pie crust):

1/3 C Butter Flavored Crisco

1 and 3/4  C Flour

2 and 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

3/4 teaspoon Salt

Then stir in 3/4 C milk until a soft dough forms. Plop down onto a baking sheet (not greased) and bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes. I plop down roughly 6 biscuits.  You can add anything to these – I’ve added chives, bacon, cheese…you name it!

I hope you all have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!!

Storage Solution Version 1

Last week I was lucky enough to hit a fantastic garage sale and I picked up a lot of wool blazers, coats, skirts, etc…Anyways, after felting them and taking them apart so I have nice big chunks (thank you Carmen!) I had a laundry basket of felted wool that had no home. Hmmmm, I’d love to put them in clear keepers with a lid…but that could get expensive…it sometimes seems as if I spend more on ways to store craft supplies than on the supplies themselves…I could sew a fabric box! No….I store everything in the basement now and while there aren’t a ton of spiders – spiders do happen – and dust happens.  In the end I decided to make these boxy pouches and because I can’t see what is inside I added a key-chain ring to the zipper and tied a bit of whatever felt was inside. Ahhhh, this works GREAT! And because they are so easy and quick to make I whipped up three of them in 30 minutes.

These are roughly 7” tall, 6” wide, and 10” long. I used a thrifted white sheet to make them. Out of one good sized flat sheet you could make 9 boxy pouches. It would take roughly an hour and a half. To measure and cut the sheet I held a section from my fingertips to my bra strap and ripped from the short end. Then held that ripped piece from my fingertip to my bicep and ripped again the short way. Repeat until you have 9 rectangles and get sewing! (Oh I cut a three inch square to box the corners) - (Do you craft this way too? The part I hate the most about sewing is the cutting and getting everything ready – this, though, was just too easy!) Don’t get too hung up on the measurements – if you want to know how to make a boxy pouch go here – this is a great tutorial. Happy Crafting!!
PS: Full disclosure – I didn’t add any interfacing or a lining to my pouches – but I did serge the inside seams…just cause I could…you wouldn’t have to…they aren’t exactly going to get hard wear and tear…but if they were I would add a lining.
For more storage solutions go here - Organize and Decorate your Life - there's lots of good ideas!

Cereal Box File Folders

Here’s how you make them – ready for this? Get pen and paper handy to take notes…you lay your manila file folder over your opened cereal box and trace it, then cut it. hehe. Do you think you can handle all those instructions? hehe. Mine will go undecorated because they will be in a file drawer. There are so many darn uses for cereal boxes we may never eat oatmeal again! Especially since we’ve been getting so many hot cereal deals – a dollar a box! woot woot!

Otherwise I’ve had a frustrating couple of days. My kitchen sink faucet has been running at a trickle. A very slooooooow trickle. So yesterday I took it apart. Nothing is wrong with the faucet…today I hope to start in the kitchen and work my way back checking all the valves.  It’s gonna be a long day. When I’m not doing that I’ll be recaulking the trim in my office. I already caulked it once…and when I went to prime it the paint beaded up on the caulked areas…I used unpaintable caulk! I had grabbed the wrong tube the first time…pure frustration! I hope all of your projects are more satisfying!!

Happy Crafting!!

Progress…

Remember this picture?

Here is the update…

Not done – but getting there… I will be spackling so many holes I wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to put up new walls instead. But that wouldn’t be thrifty…so spackle away…I am pleased. This room will be used for an office and a craft area. The bulk of the supplies just won’t be kept here anymore. I can’t believe how much brighter the room is!! What’s next? Spackle, paint, paint, paint…and I have to decide on a flooring…maybe…paint!

Otherwise I have a pretty awesome give-a-way that I plan to announce later this week. If you are a “friend” of this blog by the time it is announced you will have two entries automatically... I can’t wait to show you!!!

Don’t hate me…

Don’t hate me cause I’m so lucky!! Hubbie went dumpster diving and came home with this for me – yay me!!

It’s about 4 feet tall and will hold a lot!!! I can’t wait to get to the basement and load it up…

Brace yourself…

This is gonna get ugly! Let me start by saying I haven’t been very creative lately. I still have lots of ideas, but no desire to wade into my craft room to get them made…I can’t believe I’m showing you this…but this is why-

Want more?

This is what I encounter when I open the door to my craft room! I get a headache just looking at it – there isn’t enough ROOM and I just can’t do it any more! So I am going to move my craft room to the basement…where I get to look at this-

I think this will be enough of a challenge to keep me busy for a while. hehe. See that shelf on the left – the tall one? That is full of my canning – applesauce, tomato sauce…and I have to MOVE it! So we’ll also be getting a work-out. This area of the basement used to be a kitchen. When the former owners were very, very badly renovating the main floor and the upstairs they lived down here! Yuck. The good news is that there are plenty of outlets, another bathroom 10 feet away, three overhead lights, and plumbing for a sink in this craft area. It’s just so…ugly right now. I think I’ll keep the walls white because there are no windows in this part of the basement – but it was windows or outlets and outlets won. The ceiling will remain unfinished cause of the duct work and it’s an old house (100 years) and is, to put it politely, quirky. Well, I’m short – I just won’t look up. So stay tuned if you want to see the transformation in real-time. Meaning it could take years. I hope I’m happy. I’m going to turn the current craft room into a spare bedroom/extra TV/reading room. Maybe move the Wii in there – that would be nice! As the kids get bigger the house is getting smaller. Sometimes I’d like it if we would spread out a little more. Well, Happy Crafting!

Organizing the thrifty way!

My first tip for organization is to put like with like. That is organization 101. My next tip is not to go buy “organization containers” until you are all done. How can you know what you need until you know what you have? Use what containers you have on hand first. (Like a pickle jar) I love to use these Red Vintage Labels from Just Something I made! I think it is important to keep your labeling uniform. That way there is less “clutter” for your eye to see and you can easily recognize the label – and then know what is where. Example:

See how easy it is to know what is where? I just stick the labels on with a little scotch tape. I’ve learned the hard way that I like to organize and switch things up – I keep a bunch of these labels handy and can redo the label whenever they get torn, dirty, or moved.

Here is another tip – I like to keep the Tupperware with the container it belongs to and I keep some of them in a lazy susan cabinet in the corner of the kitchen. Well, the lids kept spilling out – duh – the cabinet spins – and the kids like to give it a good hard spin when shutting or opening the cabinet. So here is what I came up with:

I attached a piece of elastic with upholstery tacks to one end of the cabinet. The lids stay in one place!! Yippee!!! Happy Crafting!

Covered Jar Lids

I’ve started cleaning and it isn’t pretty. I tackled my closet and bedroom yesterday and spent hours cleaning and sorting – and I still have hours left. Good news is that I found the winter boots I bought my daughter a couple years ago! Really. Yes, it was messy – but the biggest problem is that I just haven’t gone through things for so long - the boots were in their original box – and I thought something else was being stored in it! You know – when you live with something for so long you quit seeing it? Well, it is time to look at everything!  But since it isn’t the first of the year yet I figured I can still clean in a haphazard way. One thing I’ve done is cover some jar lids. Click on that to get to a great tutorial by Folding Trees.

I’m sure she mentions this but make sure you use a thinner paper – double sided card stock just won’t cut it. I hope you have a great day and Happy Cleaning!

What I do with my bits and pieces. . .

I’ve been making lots of different things lately. Can’t wait to show you – in time. (Can’t spoil Christmas surprises!) Anyways, there is always some scrap of a supply left over that I just can’t get rid of. Or even – the templates for the mice that I cut out? Well what do you do with the pattern? I just can’t throw it away! I might want to make another! Well, I've been making some of these – picture and directions via Leo on the loose – Thank you!

I haven’t actually used her templates or anything – mostly I’m just using the idea! Frankly, mine don’t have to be cute. And they aren’t. I just cut some little folders to fit a shoebox and then I organize my heart out! It is a great way to use up that cardstock you bought and now wonder why – cause it’s ugly and nothing you’d really ever use! ha ha! You can validate your bad purchase with these! heh heh!! But, if I do need cute ones – these are the ones I’m printing out!!!

Have a good weekend and happy crafting!!!