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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Can you stand a little more Christmas???

Yes, I know Christmas was more than two months ago, but I love Christmas, and my recently finished craft room (dare I say "studio"?) is all decorated in Christmas - year round!  I have never had a full room all to myself to set up for crafting, and when I found myself with an empty bedroom when our oldest daughter moved out, I jumped on claiming it for me!  As Christmas was just around-the-corner when I first started setting it up, naturally I decorated for Christmas. After the holidays were done, and I (sadly!) took down all the Christmas decorations in the rest of the house, I thought, "why not leave them up in my craft room all the time!?"  Now I can go enjoy Christmas any time I want to, and it'll be a great inspiration for all my Christmastime designing!


I painted up an old dresser that's been around for a long time (it was my Mother's-in-Law when she was a little girl!), and added some cool rusty star drawer pulls.  I made a fun sampler by adapting a great pattern I found here.  I learned how to make these primitive Christmas trees on this tutorial.  


This built-in bookshelf was already in the bedroom, however, I painted it black.  Was a bit of a sore-spot between my husband and I, since it is made from maple that was harvested and planed by my husband from a tree off our place. When we found out twins were on the way, and we didn't have enough bedrooms, we decided we'd better finish our basement.  We only had a dark and dingy narrow stairway leading downstairs, so he cut down some maple trees, had them kiln dried and planed and made a beautiful open stairway and used some of the wood for things like mantles and this built-in bookshelf.  I guess I wasn't supposed to paint it, but I love black.  He's forgiving and things are cool now, though! :)  

Anyway, back to my craft room tour. . . 

You can see how I made the burlap banner here.  


Behind these doors I have lots of craft stuff stored tidy in tubs.  So glad for more space!  The dressers and cabinets shown hold lots of craft supplies and fabric too.  Here's my sewing machine (one of them) on a drop-leaf table I picked up for $35 this winter.  My chair was $5 at a rummage sale.  Did you notice the tree in the corner?  Yay!  A Christmas tree in my house year-round!!!


I painted a couple more dressers black (I told you I like black!) and pushed them together.  The dresser on the right has room for my printer inside, and I can print my patterns out.  I put a bunch of Christmas music and some not so Christmas on this computer (my good computer is upstairs).  Yesterday while sewing I rocked out to ABBA!  (Mama Mia!)

My "C-R-E-A-T-E" signs were made by gluing wood letters onto fabric and framing them.  When our son was home over Christmas, he slept in here on the futon shown in the next photo, and he thought he was being pretty funny when he took down all the letters but the ones that spelled out "E-A-T"!


This futon folds down into a fairly comfortable bed, and makes a great place to sit and stuff dolls or whatever!  The pattern to my snowman shown is available here to purchase.  I made the lighting in the upper left corner from canning jars and a canning wire rack.  Pretty cool!  I first saw it here on Pinterest.  (Speaking of Pinterest, my girls got me into that a couple of months ago.  You can find me here.  Lovin' it!)


The shelf above the futon was in my son's bedroom before he moved out, and it holds some baskets and boxes I've filled with supplies.  Also works great to hold some of my Christmas decorations.  


I picked up this rug last summer at Value Village for only $12!  I was so excited to find it!  I took it to my big show in Portland for my booth, and everybody wanted to buy it!  I could've sold it 25  times over!  Actually, this rug was one of the big reasons I decided to decorate my craft room in Christmas, as I couldn't bare to put it away!


I covered this antique oak chair's cushion with black wool and red buttons.  I made the pillows on the futon and the chair.

This bedroom was a double-bedroom with my daughter's next door.  It's downstairs and has no windows in it (the adjoining room does), so they had a walk-way between for fire-safety.  I put up a red curtain between, and I can throw it open for more light.  Fortunately, my daughter on the other side has her room decorated in red vintage quilts, etc., so it matches very well with my theme.


Well, that's it!  This is the view when I walk into my craft room!  I'm so happy with it!  

So, back to the current season. . . I spent all day in here yesterday working on a couple of rabbits for Easter, and will have the patterns ready in a day or two.  So, be watching for those, and if you're on my e-mail list, I'll be sending out a newsletter within a week.

Prim blessings,

Laurie







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