Sewing Room Tour

One of my best girlfriends is coming out here this weekend to have a sewathon, and I couldn't be more excited! Of course I had to organize my entire sewing room for the big event, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to share my sewing space with you all. I get a lot of questions from friends about my sewing room. I think the fact that I'm a 25 year old active person always makes people question how I sit down and sew for so long. The truth is, I have so many projects, and so much stuff that I NEED a whole room dedicated to sewing. Sometimes I look around and wonder how much money I've invested into a hobby, but then I realize, a lot, if not most of my stuff, is second hand, was free, or thrifted. Some people may think it's tacky, but that's my style (yes tacky!), and it made my hobby affordable. :)

Anyways, I apologize for the quality of these photos, my sewing room is so damn bright that I couldn't take good pictures with my iPhone or real camera. The lighting is great for sewing, not so good for pictures, but you can still see what I have to offer.

--------
This blue peg board is from Home Depot, they come in brown, but I wanted my whole craft room to be red and teal, so I had the husband spray paint it for me. It is probably the handiest damn thing in my whole craft room. It sits right next to my sewing machine so I can easily turn and grab whatever I need. I saw the idea on Pinterest and copied it immediately, like usual.

Here is my gorgeous little sewing table and do you see what I mean about the light? I love having my machine right up against the window to watch the people walk buy, but it's extremely bright! Anyways, I got this sewing table at the Salvation Army back in California. It originally was one of those hideaway sewing tables that the sewing machine collapses into and the table folds up. When I saw it, it was an ugly dark chocolate poop of a color, and had a sewing machine in it. We convinced the Salvo manager to take out the sewing machine, and sell us the table for $20! HA! My husband had 2 months off at the time (lucky right!?) so he sanded this whole thing down for me, and painted it at as well. It also had a huge gap in the top from where the old sewing machine was, so we covered that with a piece of plywood in my cherry print fabric that was real and teal and slapped it in there for my sewing machine to sit on. I'm embarrassed to admit that it was my husbands idea to cover it with fabric. He's more creative than I thought!

I can't believe I've never posted a picture of my sewing machine before! Here it is! My mom got it for me for Christmas - 2011, and it's probably my most favorite gift I've ever received. This is a great beginner machine because of the drop in bobbin. I will never sew on a side loading bobbin machine, ever.

I bought this lamp for my old sewing room because it was a lot darker than the one I am in now. It's an old school sort of California hipster lamp, I love it! It really serves n purpose now, but it's a friendly reminder of "home."

At the Long Beach Flea Market, I bought two of these crates and hung them on the wall as shelves. They're neat, and I can't remember what vegetable they say on the side, but they have something branded into the wood.

I love this little display! The old Kerr jar full of wooden spools is one of my favorites, and I made a ton of those pin cushion holders once, which are very handy! I keep my quilting safety pins in them! I think my mom scored that Jessup ruler on ebay, and I love the colors and it ties in perfectly with the Singer button holer that is on the right.

Here is my sewing chair. This chair was acquired from my old office... We had an old set of chairs laying around, so I brought one home, had the husband sand it, paint it, and redid the seat cushion into my cherry blossom print. I have two of these old California pillows in my house, they are also from the Long Beach Antique Flea Market, and the guy who made them told me they were made from old tablecloths (or so he said, most of those people are full of shit I think.)

Here is my handy dandy Cricut holder! I know I don't talk about my Cricut that much, but I DO use it. I cut out a lot of letters with it, and solid prints! It's the most amazing tool, I swear. I'm thinking about spray painting some furniture legs and adding it to this, but I'm not sure about that yet...

I took this picture before I cleaned up this area, so please disregard the mess! EEK! I always judge people who post pictures of their filthy homes on IG or FB, and here I am putting my dirty laundry on blast. BUT this is my cutting table, and it's fucking amazing. Once again, it's from the Long Beach FM, and it's on castors so it moves around, and the top part is actually from an old desk at an elementary school. It was a steal for like $30! The bottom area is what I call my "to do" pile. I throw stuff down there that I need to do, but I hate seeing messes, so I like to try to hide them from my line of crafting vision...

If you want to quilt, and no gouge out your eyes, you WILL invest in one of these. I LOVE IT! I usually fold my fabric into thirds, and then slice away like a mad woman. You can seriously cut like 24 squares in 30 seconds. This is probably the best thing I ever ordered from Joanns.

This was my Grandma's hoosier cabinet that she kept her fabric in. My grandma was the ultimate sewer, quilter, crafter, you name it. Her crafts make my crafts look like I'm in Kindergarten gluing macaroni to construction paper. Before we moved, my grandpa gave me this cabinet and it's probably the most sacred piece in my sewing room. I was SO worried that it would get damaged in the move, and it's probably the only thing that came out unscathed.

Hoosier cabinets were for baking, so this was for where you stored your flour. There's STILL flour in this thing, and from time to time, it falls out of the sifter, so I just leave it there because it makes me smile.

I have fabric in both of the top cabinets, and all of the pull out drawers are full of scraps.

This is one of my moms favorite quotes, and also one of mine. If it wasn't so long, I'd probably have it tattoo'd on me by now. How I made this was by using stencils and acrylic paint. I could actually swipe it all off and do another quote if I wanted, and I love that it's temporary. I used a sponge brush over the letters and used glass markers to mark off some lines so that I knew where I was going.

Here is my little sewing decor wall. I love that little embroidery hoop that just has simple fabric in it. My husband painted me a picture of a sewing machine, so I still have one more piece to add!

And of course the babies also have a custom bed for them in my room. If I didn't have that, they would lay alllllll over anything I lay down on the ground to measure or cut.

And that is my tour! Hopefully next week I'll have pictures of what it looks like right now! Side by side sewing machines, coffee, and wine. Sounds like some FUN this weekend!

Guest Prep & Vacay Pictures

This is a little late of a post since my fam-damily was here visiting this past week! I was cleaning the house like a mad woman, and didn't get a chance to post my last minute decor ideas. Initially, I had a cleaning schedule planned, but then I decided to not even ask Dustin to help me clean, because it wouldn't be clean enough. You know HOW I know this? After he shaved his head, face, and god only knows what else in our extra bathroom, he came out with a wet towel in his hand and said, "Do you want me to knock out the bathroom, and just wipe it down?" God bless him. First, how is "wiping down a bathroom" sanitizing it?? AND sweet Mother Mary of God, how is wiping down a bathroom with a towel you just used to dry off your nether regions a good idea at all!??!? MEN. I hate to think of how the barracks on base are being cleaned if my husband was supposed to have taught marines all they know last year at boot camp. There's probably marines all across the country "knocking it out" and wiping down their entire rooms with wet, ball-sack ridden towels!!!

EEK....

Anyways, I cleaned my entire house, by myself, and little Guido hid upstairs in the F.R.O.G. waiting for my madness to end. You see, I can be a tad bit crazy when I clean. I like to quote my psycho father-in-law and claim that rooms are "closed." So once I've cleaned the kitchen, that shit is closed, don't even think about going in there for a snack or a glass of water. It's closed! I'm the cleaning nazi, honestly.

Anyways, here are some more pictures of our extra bedroom. The decorating is as good as it's going to get until I can devour another antique store. I really miss the Long Beach Antique Flea Market.

I have so many old suitcases lying around the house, so I decided to prop open this green one on the nightstand and fill it with stuff. I put my guest towels, their itinerary (yes, I know), and their welcome gifts. I made everyone mason jar cups, and mod-podged the tops with left over scraps from the quilt, so everyone got to take a piece of our home with them. I also recreated these mugs for them, so they have their own little NC souvenoir. My family is full of coffee drinkers, so the gifts were perfect!

We found this little shelf at a flea market in Murrieta, and I need to start collecting more teacups! It's hard out here because they sell them in sets, and I just want one!

This dresser was my dresser from high school! When I was in high school, my mom and I redid my room into a shabby chic type of room, and I painted my brown dresser green, and my closet for some random reason. I think originally I painted it with that crinkly white paint, and had an epic fail, and then decided to just paint it straight green. When we were moving my mom asked me if I wanted the dresser, and I said HELLS yes! I literally came up with all the decor and quilt on the fly, and it ended up not looking too shabby...chic!

These curtains are hard to see, but they're actually a super cute sage green color, with polka dots! I've never had a curtain in my life, but all of our asshole neighbors leave their outside lights on at night, and they shine directly into our windows, so we sort of need them.

We took my family errrywhere while they were here. I was excited because even though I've been living here for 3 months, I really don't know much about the area still. We went into New Bern, and took a trolley tour, went to the cemetery, Tryon Palace, the whole sheebang.

Cedar Grove Cemetery - New Bern, North Carolina

We laughed our asses off while Dustin played the guitar.

Tryon Palace with my favorite (shhh don't tell anyone) cousin Amanda

New Bern has 52 of these bear statues! We only conquered 6 of the 52, but when my girlfran Sevi comes out, we are going for all 52!!!

The Old Burial Ground - Beaufort, North Carolina

Google this place, AMAZING

I also hit up some antique stores with my mom and Aunt, and look what I got! I'm smitten! I have been eyeing some Pyrex/Corelle plates for far too long on Etsy, and I picked these boys up at the antique store, and my mom swooped in and got them for me. They're the beginning of my soon to be new plate collection. I really want to switch over all my plates and bowls to these!

I also found what could quite possibly be known as the best looking quilt of my life. This thing is in PERFECT shape, and the backing is white. It looks like it was for maybe a girls twin bed, so how it stayed pristine after all these years is beyond me. It's gorgeous, it's perfect, I love it! Thanks mom!!

My aunt told me an idea about getting an old ladder to hang my quilts on display, and I think that's a fab idea! I've also decided to recreate any quilt I buy, so I'm going to attempt to make this quilt this year. It's on my list with all my other projects!

That's it for now, for a while! I am going on crafting strike! Haha! But no, seriously, I have a few more projects up my sleeve, but I need to plan them out and get some fabric. I've also got a few baby projects to make for friends, WINK WINK WINK. You biotches know who you are!

Spring has sprung! Outdoor space revamp.

Nicer weather has finally arrived in North Carolina! One of my favorite things about our new home is the screened in porch. Coming from California, I thought that screened in porches were the epitome of southern living. Random side note, in California, all the southerners I knew would set up shop in their garages. Seriously. They'd have couches, tables, BBQs, and would almost set up a second living room in their garage. It makes total sense to me now, they were just looking for their screened in porch! That has to be the reason because I haven't seen a single person in the dirty south hanging out in their garage like the people in California did...

So, this post is a little bit about a DIY gone wrong, but has a happy ending (no, not THAT kind of happy ending :) See, we have four chairs with seat cushions and back cushions, that looked like this...

Gross right? We bought this patio set at Lowe's probably 4 years ago when we moved off base and into our little beach house. We wanted an outdoor space and paid a hefty penny for this set. I'm disturbed, shocked, and disgusted with how much outdoor patio sets can cost. Even the ghetto ones from Wal-Mart are expensive! Anyways, we left them outside, year round, for 4 years. I'm pissed at myself for letting this happen.

Anyways, what had happened wasssss, I had an idea to just remove the old covers, dye them a darker green, and slap them back on, and laugh at how much replacement cushions would have cost me.

Well, I def messed up, two things:

1. I thought the cushions had zippers, they didn't. I know. I know. I should have looked before I left the house, but this epiphany came to me in the middle of the laundry section of the store, and I just went with it.

2. The covers didn't dye. I'm an idiot. Patio furniture cushions are waterproof, AKA they ain't soaking up shit, Tina!

So, there was I was. With all these chairs, and all these cushion insides taking up valuable real estate on my porch, and no cushions. If you've ever looked at replacement cushions, you know those can be pricey. For instance, the ones I wanted, and didn't even like that much, would have been $300 after all was said and done. Yeah, screw that.

So, I was walking around the store, and saw this rug, and the sky parted, and the angels starting singing, and I KNEW what I was going to. I grabbed this rug, and headed off to the sheet section. I ended up buying two King sized flat sheets in two colors, and came up with my replacement idea. See, since it's a screened in porch, I didn't need to have fancy water proof ish, that stuff isn't going to get wet. In a few years when we move back to California, and have had this set for probably over 7 years, I'll just get a new one. But, for now I needed a quick fix.

So,  I just reused all the old stuffing, which was like brand spanking new due to those fancy waterproof cushions! The old cushions were sewn insides out on three sides, turned to the right side, stuffed, and then sewn closed on the forth side. So, I just measured out the old pillows and cushions, and sewed my own.

As you can see, the dog loves them, that's his chair, but I thought that the chairs just looked too plain, that they needed a little throw pillow or two...

So, I had some leftover red from the pillows and canvas material laying around the house. I drew a paisley print on the canvas material with a pencil, and then went over it with some acrylic paint.

Then I pinned it wrong sides together with the sheets.

Cut it out, and sewed around three sides, turned it inside out, stuffed it, and then used this video tutorial on how to do a closing stitch. I think it's the best sewing tutorial I've ever seen.

Then I was happier with the outcome of the cushions! I think it just makes it look a little less homemade, and ties the colors together.

Here is the whole set! See that weird little metal thing? It's from the fireplace in the house, it vents onto the porch to heat the porch as well. Weird, right?

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, overall it only cost me $30 to completely redo the cushions and create a happy new outdoor space area.

And last, but not least, who's the cutest cattle dog you've ever seen?

That's right Smokey.

Hobby Lobby ain't got nothin' on this girl!

When I first found out I was moving to North Carolina, I was excited for crafting possibilities! In the south, they have Hobby Lobbys! Now, HL's are now slowly making their way out to California, but the nearest one to me was about an hour away when we still lived there.

So, we get our orders, I start googling everything that I love to see how close by it will be to our new house. And guess what I find out? There IS NO HOBBY LOBBY NEARBY. I was so sad. There wasn't even a Joanns, the nearest place that had fabric? Wallie World!! Which I hate and despise, and secretly sanitize my hands about 10 times when I am forced to go there. Fast forward to a few weeks later, and someone posted online that a Hobby Lobby was in fact opening near our new base. I was tap dancing on my table tops for weeks. Well, I found out about 3 months ago, and guess what?

Hobby Lobby opened last week!!!

If you've never been in a Hobby Lobby, try to think of it like if Michaels and Joanns had a threesome with Home Goods, and could produce offspring, that offspring would be Hobby Lobby. It has fabric, crafts, furniture, decor, etc. etc. It's seriously amazing, and seriously overwhelming. I forgot how hideous some of the stuff there can be. There is one aisle in particular that I've deemed "baby hooker" where everything is hot pink, zebra print, and feathery. Not cute.

Anyways, I went opening day, and bought a ton of stuff. I went up and down every aisle, and just liked to look around at what they had. One thing in particular, caught my eye. It was a piece of old wood that had some wrought iron decor mounted onto it. I seriously considered buying it for $100, but I thought, screw that, I can make that!

I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but it looked something like this:

Hobby Lobby

Anyways, the husband came and found me just as I was pondering the metal decor, and I asked him if he thought that we could make something similar, and he said of course. That man is always up for a challenge, even a crafting challenge! So, we went through the metal aisle, and found one that we liked, and since it was their opening day sale, we got one 50% off and ended up spending an entire 7 dollars on this project!

On our way home, I was staring down the roads trying to find a good pallet. Weathered pallets are hard to find. Someone once told me they get theirs from the backs of stores, but those are just too new, too wood looking. So we are driving along the "freeway" here, and I see an abandoned field next to a church and scream for Guido to pull over.

We had hit the jackpot. There are old white picket fences, bricks, and various sizes of pallets that have been there for what seems like forever. We picked out an extra long one that I haven't seen before, usually they're pretty square, this was one totally rectangular. We grabbed it, and took off before the 5-0 showed up, because honestly, we have no idea whose property we were on.

We removed the pallets from their backing, and actually attached them to some leftover wood. To get the pallets off what originally holds them together, just hit them with a hammer against the opposite side. Usually they pop right off, this one was a little hard because it was seriously weathered.

We attached them to three different pieces of wood. Originally, I wanted to reuse the nails, but this wood was messed up, so we had to add some of our own screws into the new wood we had left over.

We hung up the pallet, and once we thought it looked level, we took it back down, and added the metal piece.

Finished Product

I am so happy with how it turned out. My house is already pretty much completely decorated, except for our master bedroom. No one goes in there but us, so there is literally nothing on the walls. This is the only thing on our walls right now. My mission is to spruce up that place! We have family visiting very soon, so I need to get my ass in gear!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my Hobby Lobby inspiration, not bad for only 7 dollas! 

Dwight, get out of my nook!

That's what she said! That's what she said! If you know what this is from, you get two thumbs up from this girl!

I, the librarians daughter, have created a reading nook. 

When we first looked at this house, I loved it, but I kept thinking, "What the hell am I going to do with THAT area?" "THAT area" was the formal dining room. I don't understand formal dining rooms. They must get used what, three times a year? I understand some people like big, giant dining room tables to sit and enjoy a meal with their family. But for me, I would get so much more use out of a reading nook. There is nothing more that I love in this world, than a good book. Okay... maybe Petey, but books are a close second, my husband is third. ;)

This reading nook opens up into our living room so I couldn't go too crazy with the color scheme. My living room is pretty dark, with reds, and burnt oranges, so I thought brown would be a great color in the nook, and then that vintagey mustard color to make it pop a bit. I am so happy with the results, here is a looksie!

The anchor pallet I made, finally found a home. I also made that pillow, I painted canvas and sewed it into a pillow. There will be a tutorial later because 

I'm making a few for friends.

Other side of the nook

Other side of the nook, my grandmothers sewing machine on display

I've mentioned this on my FB and Instagram, but my husband has challenged me to "30 Days of Vegan." We are going to give it a try the day after the SuperBowl because let's face it, I want to chow like a pig. So we are going to give it a shot, with one break for the weekend that we're visiting my brother and his family. If you know my brother, Ethan, you'll know he won't stand for fussy eating. If I told him I could only eat Vegan, I'd wake up with a chicken wing stuffed into my mouth while I was sleeping!

So, I tried this salsa recipe off Pinterest and sweet mother, Mary of God! It was so good!!! I made it yesterday, but let it sit overnight in this super cute 70s mushroom Pyrex dish, and I ate it with my husband tonight while I cooked some chili, soon to be vegetarian chili! The salsa is so good that I'm making two servings of it for the marines on Sunday. I bought all organic ingredients too! I finally found what I think is the North Carolina version of Whole Foods - Harris Teeter. It's my new favorite store, I've already been there twice this week and it's 25 minutes away... I also bought those bright raspberries in my red Pyrex dish there as well. I love that Pyrex dish, because well, three Asian ladies were at the flea market debating about buying it for 5 minutes, and then I finally swooped in and took them out from underneath their noses and bought them.

I was making my Target list today, and fat Petey was crying at my feet the whole time. I took him outside, he didn't go to the bathroom. I gave him water, he didn't drink it. I didn't know what his problem was, so I picked his ass up and threw him on the counter in front of me. Love. He wanted LOVE. SO I drew on a blue eyebrow (you can see it on the upper right) and said "F IT" and let my dog lay his pee pee down right where I cook dinner. (The counter has since been disinfected since before I made chili.)

Petey Baby

The next few days shall be busy! I bought fabric for the chevron quilt I am going to attempt to start cutting tomorrow. I also need to make a decision on these unfinished throw pillows I have. My sewing machine is not cooperating in the ruffling department!