Damask B/W Office Mood Board

Disclaimer: None of the furniture pictured here is the exact thing I'd like to own. I took pictures of pieces I liked the look/color/feel of and added them as my inspiration. The exact items I like and want nearly identical will be listed in the break-down of the mood board.

I may eventually add actual color swatches to show the theme and although not pictured, I'd add pink/green embellishments to give color later on.

When B saw my mood board and ideas, he announced that he'd be having a masculine office separate from my own as he felt mine was too feminine.


This is my first mood board. I believe you should be able to click it to enlarge the photo. If the text is too hard to read, I'll make it larger in the future.

Library Nook:

1. Black Bookcase - I love the flow and elegance of this piece. I want almost all furniture to be black. I'd prefer real wood pieces that are just painted black. I also need multiple bookcases due to my book collection, so I'd like that this bookcase is three that belong together. Very simple, while being elegant and meeting my needs.

2. Cozy Armchair & Ottoman - I would like my bookcase wall to have a cozy corner for lounging around and reading. I'm a big-time reader (as evidenced by the bookcase needs!) and have always wanted my own nook for relaxing in comfort and just reading. The armchair would have to be in white or cream.

3. Floor Lamp - This floor lamp is beautiful (although the picture is small!). It's black base with a creamy white lampshade. The base is wrought iron and scrolly, while not being overly so and changing the tone of the room. A floor lamp is necessary for the cozy reading corner.

4. Cream Damask Chaise Lounge - Big fan of the color (although I'd likely try to match to the Armchair/Ottoman) and the print is beautiful and elegant. I especially love the old fashioned wooden feet. I've always wanted a chaise in my library so this room is no exception!

Room Basics:

5. White Crown Molding - To attain the elegant feel I'd like for my office, I want to do crown molding around the top of the wall/ceiling of the room. I'd have to search patterns and see what my actual furniture looks like to determine the actual pattern of molding I choose.

6. Damask Cream Wallpaper - I love wallpaper. I love it even more when it's not OLD OLD looking wallpaper. I really would love for the upper portion of my room to be done in a creamy damask pattern. In this way, it wouldn't be over-whelming but accented.

7. Wainscoting - I want to have at least the first four-five feet of my room in wainscoting. I think the look of wainscoting provides such an elegant touch to a room. It fits into my room picture.

Traditional Office Elements:

8. Filing Cabinet - I love that this filing cabinet is also shelving for decor, photos, extra storage space, and that it has a smooth top to decorate with decor or photos.

9. Desk - This desk is beautiful. It's simple while fitting my desire for extra storage/filing space. There's a large surface to work on. I'd likely use one half of the hidden cabinet storage for putting away my craft supplies so they're out of sight. I use a laptop, rather than a modem, which makes for convenience when crafting on that large desk surface!

10. White Parson Chair - I wanted a Parson's style chair for my office for as long as I can remember. I just love the simple clean look of them. I'd like a white covered chair with black legs. It's a personal dream.

11. Desk Lamp - Every desk has to have a lamp! I love, love, love this lamp as it's a perfect decor item or embellishment to a room that is going to be low on them. Beautiful black base with style, white lampshade with gorgeous embroidered flowers on it. Perfect touch that isn't matchy-matchy but coordinates perfectly.

Extra Decor:

12. Bulletin Board - I love this bulletin board. It's damask fabric in small print, black and white, tacked to a board and framed with a simple but elegant black frame. Beautiful way to accent my black furniture on my walls! I'm in love with it.

13. Bulletin Board Revamp - I would DIY my bulletin board just like #12, but I'd add the cute silky ribbon lines as seen on #13.

Window Wear:

14. The office window would have thick white sheers for curtains, with beautiful black lace (barely embellished damask!) sheers to go over them for embellishment.


This board doesn't include throw pillows, but I'd likely add colored ones to give bursts of color. Such as pink accented with green. :)

Jungle Barrettes

When I was planning somewhat personal party favors for Cole's birthday party guests, I came to a stumbling-point. What party favor could I possibly offer to a nine month old that was reasonably priced and not a gift?

I finally decided on getting her some hair accessories that were jungle print (but the thought had never crossed my mind to MAKE them), perhaps a print piece of clothing or baby picture frame.

The other day, I realized I could MAKE Kyleigh her party favors. Or even make a set of print barrettes to wear at the party. I found some orange and black felt and set to work. Here's the results:
The top barrette was my first draft. While it came out cuter than anticipated, it was harder than expected. I had to tack those little strips down good and that took time and cramped space for sore fingers.

I don't like how close the two far left stripes are. Attempt #2 is the bottom one and I'm in love with it! I cannot wait to gift them to her Momma.

I'm in prep to make a zebra stripe set as well! Here's to hoping those come out as well. :)

(ETA: I found out that Kyleigh's room theme is jungle. How convenient!)

Critters!

These are my critter barrettes. I wish I could post a pattern but I just eyeball what's in my head and cut. If I'm satisfied with the result, I use that piece to measure the others needed. This is Ladybug Take #1:
Overall, I'm satisfied with the result. This is Kyleigh's set. As always, there are two barrettes that match, I only photograph one.

This is Ladybug Barrette #2:
As always, I try to do minor improvements as they come to me. I changed to one bead spot rather than two per spot as seen in Kyleigh's version. I also added a little black tacking up the split in the wings to highlight them better and a split in my leaf with light green tacking. I absolutely love this barrette.

This is my Fish Barrette #1. You can barely see it, but I added two small blue beads for bubble by the fish's mouth. I drew inspiration for this, but did not use her pattern, from this blog by Pink Tea.
This is Frog Barrette #2. Frog Barrette #1 had the tongue attached visibly by sewing the bottom lip. I didn't like that result as I'm still learning to be neat and tidy on hand stitching. This guy was completely in my head and came to life. I made adjustments as I worked him over. I'm incredibly happy with this guy in person. This picture doesn't do his colors justice.

Future Critter Barrettes will include a Butterfly, Panda, and possibly Dragonfly. We shall see how those turn out. :)

Special Event Barrettes?

My best friend (Kyleigh's mother) recently announced that she's planning her wedding. She's said that she wants to do a classic but modern, bright and happy wedding, with white as her main color but accented with bright pink and orange.

I randomly checked my felt stash and happened to find a lot of hot pink and orange. Here's the result:


I'm not confident enough to think she'll use these for her daughter at her wedding, but I'm really happy with how they came out. I love the polka dots especially. Before I tacked them down, I wasn't happy with them at all.
The flowers barrette was a hassle. They were laying flat and I didn't like that. It was too blah for me. So I used thread and pinched two petals together and threw some thread between before pulling it taunt until I was pleased with the height. They came out really cute. Although the picture really doesn't do that justice.

(ETA: There may be more flower ones coming soon. Although they won't be event special.)

Rainbow Barrettes

These are my rainbow barrettes. I'm happy with how the camera captured the colors of the beads. I was concerned it wouldn't be true to color, but they look pretty accurate.

On my first set, I used white thread to close the barrette. On the second set, I used color coordinating thread to close the barrette in. I prefer the color version. :)

Barrettes

I finally got around to photographing a bunch of the barrettes I've made recently. Since taking these pictures and getting them uploaded, I've completed a few more that I need to photograph!

I'll likely end up organizing these guys to groups that seem relevant but until then:

I've been using small glass beads on some, some mini buttons, and just colored felt with regular barrettes.


I've been making two sets of the ones I love. One for my future "planned" daughter (let's cross our fingers on that!) and one for my niece, Kyleigh.

I cannot wait for Kyleigh to get a little more hair since I'm having such a good time making these.

Kyleigh is the lucky (or perhaps unlucky) trial runs. You can definitely see which pieces were my first by the poor stitching. :)

Craft Hope: Project 9

Craft Hope has issued the new crafting challenge.

You can read about it here: Linky

This challenge is near and dear to me due the fact that it involves cancer. I think everyone can relate to cancer in some way, since it seems to affect so many!

My older sister had leukemia at the age of 2. She has thankfully been in remission for over 20 years now.

A boy we knew developed leukemia while we were in middle school. He was around the age of 10. He died a year later after a long and difficult battle with what turned out to be two types of cancer.

My beloved grandmother had a bout of breast cancer four years back. With chemo, radiation and a double mastectomy, she has lived to tell the tale. :)

Anyhow, the project is simple: Make standard sized pillowcases in happy colors to give this organization: ConKerr Cancer. They'll be distributing these happy pillowcases to children suffering from cancer and other potentially fatal diseases, to try and cheer them up a little in the midst of their difficult time.

I like it. :)

I also happen to know my Mother is a bit of a fabric hoarder. Pretty much any type of fabric you could take an interest in, she's got. She's a big time crafter and ironically, she recently asked me to start unloading them from her storage to pull out and sell off. There is, quite literally, a good fifteen 10-gallon tubs full of fabric and half finished projects.

I'm starting to think perhaps I've inherited her laziness in crafting. This is something I should probably address. :)

Address Book

So I've been meaning to go ahead and add this. I'm a slacker at blogging in addition to crafting, so it would seem. :)

Here's what it looked like before:
And after:
We picked up this address book in the dollar bin at Ben Franklin Craft. We also picked up both packages of green/pink pearl adhesives from the dollar bin as well. I have over half of each pink/green pearl adhesive packs left, so I virtually spent $2 on this address book and it's somewhat custom.

I love it anyways. :) Very elegant. And the best part? It's made by me! And it will match my library to be. I'm a happy camper.

Fun, Fun!

I spent the day out and about with my best friend. We went browsing and shopping at four places across the city. :) I did happen to get a lot of my paper products for the invitations.

My bestie suggested a really cute idea that I'm going to use. I found very cute jungle animal beads and couldn't think of anything to do with them. She suggested using natural hemp or twine to create a tassel to attach them to the invite.

I think I'll use the spine of the card to wrap them on. Now to display them inside the card or the outside is the real question!

I'm also seriously considering whether or not I want to have Cole in safari (khaki) garb when the day of the party rolls around. Khaki pants and a button up shirt with safari cap.

We shall see!

Before the fun of today, we had a much stressful day. Before the much stressful day, we had a nice present.

B and I went browsing at a craft store called Ben Franklin Crafts in Grass Valley. They had so much more product/craft suggestion wise than I've ever experienced at Michael's and Joann's! I loved their store. Sad the only one local is 45+ minutes away.

They kept a lot of already completed crafts and I fell in love with two bead bracelets. A periwinkle colored one and a clear one. The beads are the kind that have the rainbow sheen (aurora borealis?). B surprised me by dropping the clear one on the checkout counter.

Pictures don't do it justice! It's reversible.

B went on to injure himself at work the following day. He had to get six stitches at the clinic. And his finger is badly sprained, possibly broken. Poor guy. Picture to follow of the "gore".

I'll post a fun and quick (cheap!) craft after this.

Party Planning!

I've been working out the details of (read: planning) my son's third birthday party. I'm having a really fun time with it. I love, love, love planning events.

I absolutely adore planning it as if I had no budget whatsoever. Unfortunately, I definitely do have a budget here.

My son really loves a vast variety of things so it was very difficult to settle on any one theme. But we did. We chose to do a Jungle Party! I'm very excited because I love to craft and I'm always itching for a quick project that has nearly instantaneous gratification.

By planning his party, we'll get to do a lot of small crafts that are almost instantly used. B and I will also get to be very creative!

We'll be using a classroom with fold up- wall-mounted desks at my parent's church. We're taking measurements of the portion of the room we'd use this Sunday, as the classroom will be "broken down" in order to run Sunday School.

Our colors are going to be jungle green, lime green, chocolate brown, and orange, with the possibility of yellow.

I'll make another post full of my planning ideas so as to not bog down this one too much!

New Craft?

I've been coveting the ability to make my own clothing for a long time now. I landed on a craft blog where the blogger actually used the weirdest combination (sports bra + sweatshirt) to create an adorable and incredibly form flattering dress. For $6.

It's no secret I'm a huge dress nut. If I could wear cute, casual dresses every day of my life, I would. So the appeal of a $6 dress that's cute, casual, and just my style/color combination is amazing.

I browsed my way onto a blog called crafterhours (cute!) and found a whole load of free skirt patterns complete with tutorials.

I think this is the first skirt I'll attempt making. I have a store bought dress skirt like this and love how sophisticated and professional I feel in it. Not to mention girly and old fashioned dance worthy. :)

If all goes well, I'll practice making a couple in cute patterns and possibly considering adding an adorable embellishment like this to one so that I have a variety and a cheap, easily-filled wardrobe. Fist pump anyone?

I think the second easiest trial run to make is this! Which I also love the look of. I'm not expecting my first few drafts to come out well, but my mother has an amazing sewing machine (she's a quilter) so I can hopefully practice quite a bit and improve my sewing all along the way.

Who knows, I might be able to raid her old fabric for test runs before I go all crazy and buy tons of supplies as I tend to do in crafting.

Blast From The Past & Story

So I decided to go looking for my old art. I used to be pretty heavy into drawing and writing fiction. I stopped. I perhaps completed one story but had literally a good thirty-forty ideas or beginning chapters. Some stories went up to six chapters long before I stopped.

As for art, I have all sorts of inspirational scraps. I raided my high school filing cabinet (which served a dual purpose de-cluttering) and found a huge stack of printed stories. I found very few actual drawings. Plenty of old receipts from high school or college. Lots of college essays and the like, graded. High school/college notebooks. YM magazines from early 2000's!

In hindsight, I wish I had taken a picture of all the mess. I had 3-4 huge piles of paperwork to go through! And read through.

This is definitely not me and my mess wasn't nearly this bad (I would seriously cry!). But you get the idea. ;)

It was a lot of fun to find all my old stuff and read through it. I'm always amazed to see how much I've matured as a writer and remember how awesome I thought I was back then when I looked at it. Make sense?

So, the point in this drastically long post: I decided to start revising and fixing my old stories up. This requires re-typing all the bits and pieces I have which is a time investment, but would be rewarding to look back on later on. I'll keep a typed original copy with a circa to it, then make a separate revision to show progression. Fun!

My cousin and I were best friends in high school and co-wrote two stories. The second story we only made to Chapter 8 before we had a split up. Childish high school drama. We've been close again for years now. We've began e-mailing each other revisions to revive our unfinished story and make a more realistic approach to it. I'm very happy and will likely post some sort of teaser here just for the heck of it when we start moving past the planning stage. I'm excited about the little details. :)

In closing, I should make a totally crafty place to store all my mess of keeps. I promise I downsized over 75% of it. I have a half pile left, if that, including the mess of stories. Pretty great.

First Big Accident

My baby had his first big accident. It was a very scary event for all involved. At least that's what I'd like to pretend since I was easily the most panicked, short of the baby himself.

He has a night-time routine involving brushing his teeth. When he's finished with brushing, he grabs a large green cup kept in the bathroom and will fill it with the running water to spit like Mom and Dad do.

Well, we have a mounted mirror/vanity cabinet. Daddy was opening the far left panel as baby leaned down to fill his cup. Collision. Baby fell backwards jerking from getting a face hit and fell off the step stool.

I came to see what was taking so long to hear a crying baby. Well, he cries over just bumps and bruises so I figured that it'd be nothing too bad as I opened the door. I walk in to see Dad trying to hold his face and soothing him and baby whips around to look at me.

Blood. All over his cheek, dropping from his eye! I'm horrified. I can handle a little blood. Scraped knee? No biggie. Bring it on! But fat drops rolling down his face from what appears to be his EYE? Not so much.

Baby sees himself in mirror and screams louder, but will not let Dad touch his face or hold a tissue up to staunch the flow. I'm thinking about how much blood there is and whether he'll need stitches or an emergency room visit.

I end up getting my Dad (Poppa) because he's a pro at calming Baby. I lose it in Dad's room after a warning not to let Baby see me upset. I spend a good twenty minutes in Dad's room composing myself but freaking because he was hurt so bad and I was helpless to make it go away.

He had a smudge of blood left but wouldn't allow any more cleaning without breaking into hysterics. We ended up waiting until he fell asleep (two hours later than bedtime) to finally dab the welled up wound and add some neosporin.

The wound itself is very small in length but has enough width to potentially scar (albeit small) but doesn't need a stitch. Not to mention, we could get a stitch, but I don't want to hold a two year old down while they stitch right next to his eye. Not to mention stitch removal!

We had no butterfly bandages on hand so put a large band-aid on for the night. I didn't want to have to rip a band-aid off his face on the raised sore spot of skin. Today, we picked up butterfly band-aids and he's not good about putting them on but he's happy to help put on medicine (children's neosporin) and he's nervous about taking them off but learning they don't hurt like regular ones.

Here's the morbid from the night of after we'd semi cleaned him up. Little blood warning: