Ribbon Storage

 We're still working on getting Mum's sewing room completely organized. This last weekend I made her get rid of her old ribbon storage ... it had no where to go in her new room. So I came up with this fast solution that uses the space behind her door 

Here's what we used

 Mark the center of each finial tip

 drill out a guide hole for your hook 

 screw in the hook

 I used a piece of fabric to protect the hook and pliers to make the job easier

 Using a level mark 1 to 2 inches in from either side of your dowel 

 Drill, insert anchor and screw in your finial

 fill up your dowels with your ribbon collection and hang

 The supplies for the two rows ran only $12 (she will be needing more rows)  

 Which seemed like a good deal to me since I paid more then that for half the storage for the system I bought from Michaels

Now if we could just get the rest of the room organized that fast!

elephant baby quilt and OCD-ness towards bobbins...

I have been having the urge to make a quilt so I finally gave in ---

It's baby quilt size 35"x24" 

And it's now in my shop.

Here's Micah modeling 

When Heather posted about needing bobbin storage it reminded me how unhappy I am with the mess of thread currently in my sewing box so I did some goggling and found this idea and decided to try it out

It's fantastic!

 I actually bought 3/8 tubing because they were out of 1/2 and to me the 5/8 looked too large. It was only $.38 per foot and out of the 1 foot I cut about 40 rings... super cheap and awesome... it's sad how happy this makes me!

Consolidating

Since I've been back I have started the process of consolidating the office and guest room down into one room so that I can start getting the nursery together - I only have 99 more days until my due date! I can't believe that it's approaching quite so quickly my to do list is a mile long... not that it all has to be done before the baby arrives - but it sure would be nice!

The Guest Room and Office are for the most part completely unused spaces for us. I did the bare minimum for each room knowing that in the future we would be purging most of the stuff in them to make room for kids. Below is the before picture of the guest bedroom corner/closet that is now going to house our home office. We actually just bought the desk a few months ago it's been completely bare in this corner for the last 4 years.
After some slight reworking of my original plan here's what we ended up with.

The details--

Desk - Is from World Market, I chose this one because it was reasonably priced, solid wood, and on the small but not too small side.

Shelf - Is from Ikea I put little feet on the bottom of the shelf to allow it to sit closer to the wall.

Storage containers -

The aluminum storage bins are in the heavy duty garage storage at Lowe's, they are slightly to long for the shelving unit, but since it's in a closet I just kept it about an inch from the wall and it worked out perfectly.
Ribbon and paper storage are from Michael's

Magazine storage is from Ikea

Floating shelf - from Lowe's. Originally it was black I painted it white.

I'm really happy with the way that it turned out! I have some finishing touches and things I would still like to do in here but it's completed for the time being... the nursery sounds like a lot more fun to work on! The crib and chair have been ordered so I will start making final decisions on the the nursery soon!

Randomness and a few completed projects

I walked downstairs yesterday evening to see this. The lamp is not on, the sun coming through the kitchen window hit it just right it was gorgeous (far more colorful in person) and only lasted about two minutes... I hope it does it again!

So I got this idea a few Sundays ago when we were having the crazy storms and have been slowly working on it since when ever the weather agreed. I don't have a lot of jewelry and most of it I don't wear often. I love it all but mainly I have a few pieces that I wear constantly and the rest I just store in various jewelry boxes that never seem to have enough room. After untangling my necklaces for the hundredth time I came up with this idea.... I don't think I have ever seen anything like this out there before. But I am sure someone else has probably done it already. I searched the craft stores and came up with what I was looking for at Michael's ... of course in a terrible color. It is a front opening collectors cabinet it was on sale so it ran about $25. Here it is in pieces-

I didn't like the light wood color so I sanded it down and spray painted it in a semi gloss white. This took two cans... very annoying they really should have more paint then that in a can at $8 a pop...

I had a very clear image of how this was supposed to look and I wanted to use these hooks I searched everywhere for them and finally located them at Office Max... of course they don't carry them in store and they wanted $8 for shipping which I thought that was outrageous so I bought 16 gauge wire, pulled out my thing-a-ma-jig and made them myself... here's a quick example in case you want to make some:

I think they turned out pretty well....and they want $2 for 6 I made 13 for roughly $2.50

This is the backing for the collectors cabinet which I recovered in a pretty natural linen. Then I slid in all of the hooks spacing them out for various items I knew I would want to hang.

Here it is all put back together.

I tucked it away behind the door so people shouldn't really be seeing it... which is perfect. It's on my side of the bed though so I get to see it everyday and it makes me smile

A lot of this stuff I haven't worn in years and is just for sentimental value. My mums charm bracelet, my class pendant, a necklace my grandma gave me when I was maybe 6... and other things like that

My OCD tendency's are very obvious here. Everything has it's place.

Oh I also stuck broaches right into the board - I can't tell you how long I have been looking for a way to display these! I just love looking at them they are so sparkly. Joan and Mum should recognize them. They each gave me one of them when I was 9 I think? I don't know why they did I don't remember it being a special occasion or anything but I just remember feeling really special and loving them. I have no idea how I have held on to them for this long, a lot of my stuff disappeared during moves.

The invites came in! Kodak said to estimate 5 days printing 5 days shipping. They were printed the day after I ordered them and we got them in the mail just a few days later, less than a week for the turn around! Love that!

I think they turned out pretty awesome... even if I do say so myself. I've had wonderful feedback so far. Judy (who they were made for) about fell out. She said 'She didn't like them, she LOOOOVVVVEEEEDDDDD them!' (said with southern accent) And then I got a very long hug. Really you can't get better feedback then that I am thrilled. Now I just wish I could find people that want to pay me and that I would feel comfortable charging (just to note I was offered payment for my time on these but Linda and her family are incredibly good to Uber and I so I only do things for her if she accepts them as a gift)

My photos are lame sorry about that but I wasn't really sure how to photograph it.

More swaroski bracelet's for Ubers Mom (I've created a monster) She mailed me these beads so I could string them up for her. I am mailing them back to her tomorrow.

So I have been contemplating selling graphics that people can buy and then use to print up their own invites at home. I dont really want to go in the scrapbooking direction I am more into invites and party things. I have seen some people doing this - any feedback from you guys?? I would love your thoughts/suggestions!

Well I hope you all enjoyed my rambling! Not sure what I am going to have to show you next.... Ive got a million things started and not much even close to finished.

Quick Dinning Room Redo

So I mentioned this last week after the Orlando trip and never got back to you about it- mainly because I am not done... but what ever I am really busy and who knows how long it will be before I'm 'finished'.
Here's a reminder of the dining area before:

I LOVE my James Christensen painting but it is WAY to small for this wall. I really felt like the dinning area felt claustrophobic and tiny because of it. But was hard to find something to go there because I didn't want it to compete or clash with the living room art.

I have been stalking really neat shelves for a while now you should see my folder of ideas I have pulled from decorating blogs and magazines. But there were two problems 1) I can't afford any of the store bought ones that I want and 2) I can't find any corbels large enough to make my own (plus Uber is REALLY busy with school.

I think this one was pulled from simple song:

Don't remember where I got this one but it is by far my favorite I LOVE it!

Hmm... this one either oh well thanks who ever posted them! (I suck at sourcing!)

Then I ran across this picture, it is from This Young House which is a totally fun blog and the couple who runs it completely sources everything in all their rooms so you know where to find it (I mean everything people) Can anyone guess where they came from? IKEA that's right! They are 75 inches long and only $25 a piece can you believe that? Just the deal I was looking for.

I was originally planning on beefing them up with molding and corbels but after getting them up I am actually happy with them just like they are for the time being ... this has NOTHING to do with the thought of having to paint them... hahaha

I'm not done accessorizing yet. The second frame still needs art work that I will get to...someday... mainly I want to keep this shelf light and airy.

Here is a close up of the left side I am totally digging the green pitcher it is from Crate and Barrel it is recycled glass which explains my immediate attraction to it I love the color. I almost didn't get it I was worried that it would be to dark - in the store it sparkled but you just never know if it is the display lighting and the nearest C&B is 2 1/2 hours away if it didn't work out. But Uber of course told me to get it, so I did and it is perfect.

The rhino is from Zgalleries something I also saw on the TYH blog. Most of you probably don't know but I have ALOT of animals tucked around my house... I try to keep it classy though, not so much of an in your face animal obsession... I hope, oh dear...please don't send me them I do NOT collect them they are carefully chosen and adopted! ...just saying

Hope you had fun. I have some more really neat Ikea ideas up my sleeve but since we live to far for a quick trip (in my opinion) they will all just have to wait until the next time we happen to be in Orlando. Uber is sighing in relief, I think he is sick of hearing about them!

Also they are having a giveaway at This Young House and it is all Zgallery booty! It's open until Thursday so go check them out.

When it rains, it pours.

What a CRAZY weekend! It went from being crazy booked ...to not booked because I was getting sick so I was laid up on the couch all Saturday morning trying to feel better. Then we get a phone call that Ciarra (Uber's niece) had been burned when a kid decided it would be funny to throw gasoline on a fire at a party she was at the night before and that she had been medi-evac'd from Pensacola to Shands in Gainsville. So we took off to see her (Gainsville is about an hour and a half from our house) she is doing pretty well. They were initially worried her lungs were burned, but they aren't. She now just has to deal with being 18 and having 1st and 2nd degree burns on her face. They are keeping her in the hospital until at least Tuesday to make sure that she wont need skin grafts. We are very thankful that it wasn't worse and very hopeful that there will be little to no scarring. So if you can also remember her in your prayers we would really appreciate it.

And once again with no good way so segue... I am really hoping these types of posts are over.

We did manage to get the garage completed... FINALLY!!! And I LOVE IT! (hopefully Uber loves it too... though I am not sure because I am so loud about the fact that I love it! )

The dark grey area of the floor is an 1/2" thick floor mat that is really comfortable to stand on while you are working or just hanging out.

You can now see where the flag is hanging...

This is the shelf we have been waiting on FOREVER it's from costco (lesson learned - GRAB IT WHEN YOU SEE IT... we have been waiting 2 months for this to be restocked... and they aren't great with giving dates because is has been supposed to be in tomorrow for the whole of the two months....) We looked everywhere else and no other shelf was this nice. It holds up to 2,000 pounds on each shelf, the shelves are wire so the dust can drop to the ground (I REALLY like that!) All of Uber's tools go on this shelf. I only took over the top one to store the extra shelves from the house and our xmas tree.

This work bench is AMAZING it is also a costco find and is SUPER heavy duty -8 ft long and is just pretty to look at.
Uber built the peg board and has it all framed out and pretty, which just thrills me to no end! I always loved seeing framed out peg board in magazines.

The cabinets are our old kitchen cabinets that the builder accidently destroyed (as far as being used in the kitchen goes) while trying to do a quick repair. They look great in the garage!

Getting the bikes up off the ground is great, it gave us alot more floor space. Uber built the little shelf by the door which is just adorable it holds all of his screws and nails in yummy jelly jars : ) I can't wait to hang cute things off the hooks!

Oh and note the hot water heater in it's cute blanket (I really dont think they help...darn you oprah... hahaha)

Ubers birthday gift which we will finally be getting more use out of now that the gargage is clean!

I hate storing things I managed to get all of our storage down to these containers and actually the top rack is all sports and out door stuff the middle rack is all christmas and the bottom rack is ... well packing popcorn because I hate tossing it so it is accumulating with a vengance... So I think I am doing pretty well if I could just part with the popcorn...

I hope you enjoyed the tour of the garage... sorry it took so long. I am off to bed now 30 minutes late... Uber is definately over it!