Category Archives: closet

I just had the best blogday ever!

Posted on by
1

I got an email a little bit ago. It was from Joanne of Joanne Inspired (isn’t that an  adorable name?), and she just told me that she had given me the Liebster Award! It is an award given to blogs with fewer than 500 followers and is designed to help recognize and promote lesser-known blogs.

What the wha!

She chose me?!

I’m not sure I didn’t faint for a couple of seconds when I read that. I mean, I have been so busy and neglected my blog for almost three months while work and family obligations, not to mention that pesky dissertation I have to write, have consumed me. This is a shot in the blog arm if there ever was one! Thank you, thank you, Joanne!

b4765-liebsterawardThe rules for accepting the award say that I should post five random facts about myself and answer the questions Joanne proposed and then share the award with other bloggers.

Here are random facts about myself:

1. My first professional job was coordinating developmental education. I took it because it seemed like a good “foot in the door” to securing a job teaching English at a community college. Seventeen years later, I am the vice president of the college and have never had a full-time job teaching English. I do, however, get to teach part-time.

2. I love french fries. I should marry them. If there was only one food on the planet and it was french fries, I would be perfectly fine with that.

3. I have been in school for all but seven years of my life. I don’t know how not to be a student.

4. I have never cooked a whole meal in my life. I once fried an egg, put it on a styrofoam plate, and watched it melt the plate and fall to the floor. And that was probably my best cooking day ever.

5. I wrote my master’s thesis on Anne Tyler’s body of work and never, ever tire of re-reading her books.

So here are Joanne’s questions . . .

1. Why did you start your blog?

My husband is incredibly generous and has done an amazing job of renovating our home. I wanted a way to share his work and have a chance to talk about the spaces he has created for me. I found that blogging about our home also allows me a chance to talk about life in general.

2. Who has been the biggest influence in your life in terms of creativity?

My whole family. My husband is an incredible woodworker, and he taught me the value of taking my time and doing things right. He never takes short cuts or does anything half way, and as a result, his work is solid and lovely.

My mother is the best storyteller I’ve ever known, and she made me love stories, which turned into a passion for reading and writing.

My daughter made me fearless. She just finds something she likes and recreates it with her own s128ignature style. Her ability to love her own creations gave me courage to try and tenacity when I fail. Her passion for creating is incredible. She’s a science teacher, not an artist, by vocation, but you should see her classroom! (She made this adorable pin cushion for me.)

My son is a musician. He taught himself to play the guitar and ukelele, and I’ve never known anyone with as much raw talent for music as he has. He saved money and took a year and a half off from work to work on his craft, and SMEnow he plays in a band in Dallas/Fort Worth. He turned me on to the value of YouTube as a teaching tool.

3. What was your favorite DIY home improvement?

Oooh, this is really tough. I think my closet and my craft room are dead even. I mean, the two things I love, shopping and sewing, are all tied up in those two spaces. Plus, they were created by my husband just for me, so they both have a sentimental value to me.

closet 147new craft room 2 011

4. What is your favorite post you have written?

My favorite post is the one about taking our honors students to see To Kill a Mockingbird. It doesn’t fit in with the home dec theme of my blog, but it is probably the most reflective post of who I really am.

I can’t believe I get paid to go to college and hang out with these kids every day. No matter what else is going on in my life, when I step into the classroom, I get an hour and fifteen minutes off the beaten path where life is always good.

5. What is your favorite color to incorporate in home decor/design and why?

My favorite color has always been pink. But . . . I don’t decorate with pink because it is too feminine and can be too cloying at times. Blue is my favorite color for decorating and is part of my home in almost every room. It can feel rich and leathery or light and airy, but it always makes me feel cozy and calm.

6. What’s the one place in the world you would love to visit or return to?

Florence. I want to see The David. I want to stand at the feet of the statue and feel the vibrations of its power.

7. What is a favorite childhood memory?

I had a wonderful childhood with a great family, so it’s really hard to choose, but I think one of my things was in high school.

I was the feature editor for our high-school paper, and I did a layout on what it mean to be a Rebel (our mascot) that talked about how you could tell the sophomores, who walked in clusters, and the juniors, who walked in pairs, apart from the seniors, who had the confidence to walk the halls alone, but at the end of the day, we were all the same. We were all Rebels.

The principal read that piece to the entire school one day during announcements! It was so thrilling. Except that I was sick that day and had to hear about it second hand. LOL

8. What is one thing you’d put on your bucket list?

I want to publish a novel. I have one in progress that is about people who live on the same street on the weekend that JFK was killed. I have six of the stories finished, but it had to be put on hold when I started my doc program.

9. If money were no object, what renovation/design project would you tackle immediately?

I would love to open up our kitchen. We have a separate dining room, and the wall between the two is load bearing, so it is going to take some planning. However, everyone wants to hang out in the kitchen when they visit, and there isn’t enough room.

I have chosen the following blogs to recognize with the Liebster Award:

Teach Your Ass Off

D.D.’s Cottage and Design

Designing Dee

Start @ Home

A Little Lagniappe

If you’d like to accept the award, here are my questions for you:

1. How would you describe your style as it is reflected in your blog?

2. What is your favorite thing about your blog that you hope others can appreciate?

3. Who would you be most thrilled to have following your blog and why?

4. What is your profession (and I include anyone who works at raising a family!), and how is it related to your blog?

5. If you could take any class you wanted for free, what would you learn how to do or how to do better?

6.  What is your signature piece of clothing? Why is it your signature?

7.  Who (band, artist, lecturer, etc.) would you most like to see on stage?

8. If you had to choose one character from a book that you feel is most like you, who would it be and why?

9. What is the most creative thing you’ve ever done?

10. If you were to start another blog in addition to this blog, what would it be called? What would be the focus?

I’ve copied the rules from Joanne Inspired to make sure I get them just right.

“Official” Liebster Award Rules:  Once a blogger is nominated, and they choose to ACCEPT the award, they should:

1. Thank and link back to the blogger who nominated you

2. Upload the Liebster award badge to your blog

3. Post 5 facts about yourself and answer the 5-10 questions from the person who nominated you

4. Nominate and add a link to 5-10 blogs with fewer than 500 followers

5. Notify the nominees by email or leave a comment on their blog, include 5-10 questions

craft storage ideas

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been lucky enough to have three different craft spaces, the last of which is a custom built space by my awesome, awesome husband. My first craft room taught me a whole lot about storage, and I thought I would share some of my storage ideas with you. I am working on getting my new craft room cleaned and reorganized to get some pictures together for a post, but in the meantime, maybe something I’ve done can help you organize your space. I love looking at pictures of people’s storage, so I hope you enjoy these.

This is a cabinet that my husband built me for sweaters. He built it around these baskets, but then we remodeled our master suite, and I had a great space for sweaters, so I used this for crafts. The first picture is the inside, and the second is the cabinet closed.

100_1451100_1377This is an old television cabinet that I used. It was great for paper storage, and I used to do mostly paper crafts, so I had lots to store! Now it is a cabinet for linens, and I’ve painted over the green.

100_1413Here is a closer view. This cabinet held so much, and it makes me realize I probably deserved a guest spot on Hoarders.

100_1409Since my craft room was in my daughter’s former bedroom, I was able to use the closet, so I filled it with more stuff.

100_1387I took my old containers for shoes after we built the new closet and made these little boxes out of cardboard. I was so proud and thought no one had ever done this, and then I saw that someone had actually made boxes of wood. Wooah! She is way better at this than I am.

100_1389I made a place for all of my letters. I first kept them by sets, but I was always running back looking for a missing letter. This worked out much better for me.

100_1402I bought this little library drawer at a thrift store in town, and it fit my cuttlebug folders and dies perfectly.

100_1456I put all of my eyelets and brads into these little wedding favors from Michaels. I got them with a coupon, so they were a pretty good price, and they are really cute. Now I use them for small bottles of glitter.

100_1432I found this shelf at a thrift store, too, and I used jars I already had. I made the tags from my Cuttlebug with a Tim Holtz die and folder.

100_1364One of my teacher friends found two printer trays for me at a quaint little town north of my hometown, and it stored distress inks and wooden stamps perfectly.

100_1414I have a music cabinet that these craft boxes fit into perfectly, and I still use it for the same purpose. It is full of these boxes, each in its little slot. It is dreamy for people who like to organize.

100_1406I have way, way more fabric now, so this little dresser got a paint job and now holds party supplies in my den. However, I still think these rolls of fabric look so cheery.

100_1443This is a storage shelf I got from Michaels with a coupon and my teacher discount. I love these and now have two of them.

100_1366I made this little box from a kit, and it held rubber bands, sewing needles, thimbles, and other little notions.

100_1386My last picture is of my yarn storage, and this was so cute when all the yarn was rolled into balls.

100_1393I hope you enjoyed this little tour. I know I love looking at other people’s craft storage because I always find a new idea that I can use.

Have a happy day!

Shannon

 

cushions, curtains, and pillows for my closet

Posted on by
2

A few weeks ago, I finally finished making the curtains and cushion for my window seat in my closet, and I decided to go ahead and make a few pillows. This window is an outside window that faces the highway, so it really needed curtains.

I found the fabric at JoAnn’s and found a tutorial online that showed how to make the corners and use only two pieces of fabric.

You’ll have to excuse the imperfect sewing. I had never made a cushion before, and the next one I did used a different technique because I cannot sew a straight seam. I really can’t.

I think I was the only girl in seventh grade that had to sew my first bag three times before it passed. Then I made this sun dress . . . well, if Al Gore had invented the internet in 1977, that dress would have been pinned all over the place as the perfect craft fail.

But, I’m a pretty good problem solver, so I usually find a way to fix my own flaws, and I’m thinking of attaching ribbon around the seam to cover it, but that is for another day. In the meantime, here’s a look at my updated closet.

346This is the window seat, and it is a great place to put on shoes. That little bird bath to the right is to hold my watch and pearls. I have a habit of losing them. I just haven’t actually developed the bird-bath habit yet.

347I really love this fabric. It is one of the home decor fabrics (Waverly, I think) at JoAnn’s, and they put these on sale frequently. I used five yards with some left over. The other pillows are made from scrap pieces. I bought inserts at IKEA for just a couple of dollars each, and it was nice to have them already sized and stuffed.

348These two pillows are made from fat quarters that I got at JoAnn’s. I love the little bird’s nest. Honestly, I don’t have a thing for birds, but these seemed like such happy patterns. I think your closet should be a happy place. It’s where you start your working day and where you should feel good about yourself.

Have a happy day!

Shannon

the dream closet

Posted on by
Reply

We moved into our corner farmhouse about fifteen years ago, and it was love at first sight for me. I, of course, agreed to look at lots of houses, but I knew the moment I saw this house, it was the one. When I called to inquire, the realtor told me they had put the for sale sign up that very day, and it was listed below our budget. Below. That never happens to me. I knew it was a match made in heaven.

The upstairs was a converted attic space that was usable, but by no means premium. One summer we gutted the entire thing, insulated it, and built a master suite. I am sharing a couple of pictures of the finished closet because it is amazing. A. Maz. Ing. A dream closet. I’ve purchased a good camera and a camera class, so I intend to take new pictures, but for now, let me share what was one of the nicest things my husband ever did for me.

This is the bedroom side, with the French door leading into the closet. We left the beams exposed and put a wonderful ceiling in.

closet 002closet 088closet 091closet 092closet 145closet 147

It’s hard to tell, but each of the racks running down the middle has a rack on the other side, so we have approximately 72 feet of hanging racks. The window seat is surrounded by shoe shelves, and each side has shelves for purses and sweaters. This summer, I sewed cushions and curtains for the window seat, and I will show updated pictures when I post pictures of our bathroom redesign from this summer.