Hard, hard work.

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time working on our ever-evolving house plan.  Things are coming along (sorry, but I'm not going to post floor plans online . . . that just weirds me out for some reason), and I got to spend more time than was probably necessary "researching" studio/craft room layout and renovations.  I discovered some very definite trends in the images that drew me.

1. Even though the decorating fashionistas say colored walls are going the way of the dinosaur, I love clear, clean, bright, airy blues and greens with white, ivory or black cabinetry.

2.  I must have concealed/restful-to-the-eye storage.  Kitchen cabinetry, closets, workstations with cabinets and drawers, etc.  In order to feel creative and peaceful, I can't be looking at every craft item I own.  I've discovered I'm a very visual person, so while it's really important for me to be able to see what I have at a glance, most of it simply must be behind closed doors.

3.  At least a 10' x 12' room for the work surface necessary for really thorough scrapping/crafting/sewing/etc, and for friends to come over and "play".  12'x 12' would be wonderful.  (I know a lot of you are probably thinking "Only 12' x 12'? That's tiny!", but when we've got five children to house as well (and Vern really needs an office to facilitate pay for all of this) I find it hard to insist on a room that's as large as one of the childrens' bedrooms.  (It'll probably end up being larger than the master bedroom, though! lol)

Here are some of my favorites . . . (now, if One Pretty Thing would just post another Craft Room Redo roundup!)  I'll start with the rooms who have elements I really love.

Cathe Holden's creative space, from a profile at Craft.

I was kind of surprised that I liked this one, because it's definitely the busiest of my favorites.  I just love the color, and the way she uses vintage mail sorters and card catalog files to provide homes for everything.

Yvonne's Bright White Sewing Room, at Apartment Therapy.

I've discovered that I just love bookcases with square cubbies.  I can hardly bear it. lol  I'll have to make my own out of green plywood (no voc-glues are a must around here).  I won't have a basement space (her transformation is incredible!), but I love the way she makes things large, clean, and bright with lots of white.

Here's one from the Handmade Spaces Flickr Pool, belonging to Lavender and Limes, featured on the Modish blog.

Pink walls and another Ikea bookcase.  Sigh . . . lovely.

And now, onto the winners in the "Overall Look and Feel" category.  In no particular order:

HGTV had a great little collection of rooms I adored.  Here's the first, from Ingregory, whose photo was on Rate My Space (HGTV sure made it hard to link to these! Sorry I couldn't give better attribution):

The incredibly blue, set off by the restful black cabinetry and desk, are simply lovely.

Next up is Nichole's efficient and excellently-designed small-room makeover.  (This was a 9' x 10' bedroom!)

You need to head over to her blog to see more photos . . . she posted tons of them, and showed off her excellent use of cabinetry, keeping a very small space feeling open and uncluttered.  I simply <3 her arrangement here.

Wookiemouse had a photo on HGTV, with more cabinets.  I love the shiny chrome-topped jars in her glass-fronted cabinets.

And Valentine's Stampin' Space gave me some excellent ideas . . . the banks of Very Useful Boxes, and slim shelves with chubby little spice bottles filled my deep inner need for abundance in a most satisfying way. ;o)

I found Valentine's craft space at the Crafty Storage blog . . . and I could get lost there for days . . . 

Vanessa Coppola's space really profiled over at Craft appeals to me, too.

 (Although I must admit that her glossy green songbird and macro shot of pinchable-chubby Ikea spice jars were home runs. :o)

And finally, I've saved my absolute favorite for last.  Kari's lovely room at her blog Spring Chick Designs.

Some of you may recognize that photo . . . it was on Ikea Hacker, Apartment Therapy, and probably a few more.  You need to go check out her space, and see what a wonderful place it is . . . and all in a 12' x 12' room, too.  (She gives me hope.)

And finally, what started all of this was an old article in a Creative Home Magazine (sadly now discontinued, sniffle, sniffle), of a living room makeover that included a crafting corner. I've got this one filed under "Craft Room of my Dreams". :o)

It's a smallish-scan, but it gives you an idea.  While it's no longer my all-time favorite (Kari's and Nichole's are my top two.)  And, while I won't post a floor plan, you can bet your bobbins I'll post photos of finished spaces in a year or so when the whole thing is done!

So, with these percolating in my head, I'm off to try to make something of my Saturday morning . . . wish me luck!

Farmhouse Dreaming: Dining Room Inspiration

So, as I've begun to work on home plans, often wanting to bang my head against a real brick wall, instead of an energetic/emotional one, I've started collecting images for inspiration, to remind me what I want to plan for, and why this whole process is going to be So. Worth. It.

Here are two of my favorite contenders for dining room storage, images scanned from an old Pottery Barn catalog that fell as one of the casualties of one of our many moves.  (And Pottery Barn should thank me for posting these, as it's free advertising for their Logan Collection.)  I absolutely looooove the robin's egg blue china in the first one . . .



I love the simple lines, and the way that the monochromatic dishes turn into sculptures on the shelf.



And, thanks to Ana* over at Knock Off Wood, I'll be building this myself . . . either from her plans, or ones I modify from coordinating plans she has already done, if she doesn't have all of these components planned out by the time I need them. :o)

(*Why is it that a couple of my favorite bloggers have names similar to mine? Hmmm? I think it's a sign. We of the clan of An(n)a are pretty cool. ;o)

I Want to Cry

This morning, a 6' torchiere floor lamp was knocked over in the bonus room. The "catch all" room where the toys are. Carpeted. The lamp shade wasn't broken, but the top portion of the lamp that held the shade on was knocked into pieces, and the shade shattered the bulb as it came free, sending fine shards of glass who knows how far into the room. From where I sit, I can see glass more than ten feet away. There are boxes of blocks (tossed in willy-nilly, with plenty of cracks and crevices for the glass to settle into--boy, is this going to be an object lesson to remember), toys, blankets, open cardboard boxes from the move, clothing, shoes, stuffed animals, and who knows what else in the path. Yet another reason why I should let my OCD run wild and keep everything clean.

So, if you need me, I'll be in the bonus room. Probably until Wednesday. {Wry smile}

The Great Laundry Clean-Up

Last Saturday, after the kids were in bed, Vern and I were doing something a lot of fairly well-established married couples do on a Saturday night. He was paying bills, I was cleaning the house. . . although, like most cleaning, I can't remember what it was now that it's over. (It all has this mystical aura to me. Somehow, because I can't remember each and every step, it seems impossible both before and after the fact, while as I'm in the midst of it, it's all a blur. ;o)

Then my eyes fell upon something I had picked up earlier that day at Home Despots: a bag containing two 4" 90-degree vent elbows for the dryer.

Earlier this week, the children and I went to Ikea. We had a ton o' fun, and sadly have no photo record. I took quite a number of shots with my nifty new-to-me Palm Treo, but as it is very new to me, instead of saving each one, I managed to discard them right after I took them. Sigh. We have our memories.

Oh, but back to Ikea. While there, I bought a changing table on sale. (Hooray for Winter Madness!) On Friday I assembled it (straightforward and enjoyable as far as RTA furniture goes), and tried to install it in the laundry room where the old changing table had been. Being within 1/4" of the same size as the old one, I figured I only needed to move the dryer a teensy, tiny bit in order to squeeze the changing table in past the door molding. Well, I guess I moved it a little more than a teensy, tiny bit, because I managed to put enough stress on the flexible 90 between the dryer and the floor that it popped all three of it's seams.

In case you're wondering, this is what a flexible 90 looks like:



The one I destroyed was very close to that.

So, on Saturday I bopped on down to Home Depot with MissE, picked up a couple of replacements (if you've ever worked with rigid vent pipe, you understand why), and then had to set them aside to jump back into the fray of everyday living.

Fast-forward a few hours to post-bedtime peace, and we've surfaced from the flash-back. I'm looking at the bag with the 90's in it, and thinking to myself: "If I don't want to be buried alive in laundry, I need to get this thing fixed."

About 30 minutes later, Vern comes downstairs and is thwarted in his efforts to gain the kitchen:



Upon closer inspection, this is what he sees:



Except I've just popped my head up from behind the washer, where I'm hunkered down, gently coaxing various pieces of venting together in such a way to allow me to switch the relative position of the washer and dryer.

You see, we have a rather disturbing pattern when we move. The truck arrives at the new place (after much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth for the preceeding week or six), it's unloaded in as careful a manner as possible, and no matter how hard I try (I've had eight shots at it now), most everything is almost, but not quite, entirely in the wrong spot. (My apologies to Douglas Adams.) The dresser is on the wrong wall. The washer and dryer are backward (we didn't have the vent pieces to put them where they should have been, and for some unknown reason, having the dryer hooked up Right. Now. seemed more important than calling up one of the multitudinous helpful familiy members who helped us unload the truck and say: "Hey, you know how you offered to help if we needed anything? Well, would you mind picking up a couple of pieces of vent pipe at the Home Despots and dropping them by sometime soon?" Add to that the fact that I didn't realize I could switch the darn things without taking one of them out of the room entirely, and I was stuck.

(This is turning into quite the rambling essay, isn't it? I hope you're all feeling patient, because I'm not done yet . . . feel free to just skip this one, if you're getting bored.)

Where was I? Oh yes, Vern was peering into the laundry.

I smiled, waved some greasy fingertips at him, and tried to offer an explanation that would ease the slightly-worried-that-my-wife-might-be-up-in-the-night look off of his face. It sort of worked. At least he didn't make me stop. (He does like the hallways to be rather un-blockaded, so I can see why my explanation might not have had anything to do with it.) He helped me ease the dryer back into position, carefully and breathlessly attaching the vent to the exhaust on the back of the machine. (No slip-ups, and no bent edges. Hooray!!!)

I walked the washer back into position, and felt much as I would imagine Atlas himself does as he turns the world on its axis. Rotating a several-hundred-pound washer on one of it's feet is something every housewife should do once in her life. Nearly as empowering as childbirth.

I snuggled the changing table back between the washer and wall, and nearly dissolved in ecstatic relief. Not only did I not have my appliances fighting with each other (now the washer door opens away from the dryer!), but I have actual drawers (did you see em'? did you see 'em? real, live drawers!) for the baby's clothes. It's so much nicer than them living in a pile on top of the dryer. I've found that drawers lend themselves to cleanly-clad munchkins.

And so, when I venture into the hallway that offers itself as a laundry room (I'm grateful to have it, btw), I'm no longer greeted by teetering mounds of clean laundry on the dryer, piles of miscellany on the washer, full hampers of dirty laundry threatening to take over the narrow space in front of the door to the garage, and mounds of other household laundry waiting its turn on the floor.

I'm greeted by this:



A clean slate. :o)

Next time, tune in for the Great Laundry Spiff-Up, where this intrepid housewife decorates where no one has decorated before . . . (suggestions welcome!)

A quiet day.

Today was interesting. Yesterday was really busy, and today was planned to be much quieter. And, really, it was. There were just a couple of surprises I hadn't planned on.

This was the most notable of those:



Yep. Turquoise crayon.



The entire length of my bed.

Boy, did I do some hard thinking when I saw that. First, I carefully and surprisingly calmly explained to the baby (22 months old and talking up a storm) that we don't draw on mommy's bed. She was very quiet, and said "Oh". She's a sharp one . . . I'm guessing it's because she's always tagging along with her older siblings, and really stretches to interact with them. But anyway . . . back to thinking hard. This is literally what went through my mind:

Crayons are made of wax.

Wax is like grease.

I wonder if this will work . . .




And it did. The nylon mesh really helped work the crayon out of the cream cotton. It's a good thing it's high quality cotton tightly woven of durable yarn. It pilled a tiny bit, but it's not noticeable now that it's dry.

With significant elbow grease, this:



and this:



turned into this before fading completely:

You can see in the middle how it's pretty much gone. Thankfully, that's how all of it is now.

Believe me . . . I'm seriously contemplating a multi-hued, darker bedspread. Yesterday. The kids love to play on my bed while I knit at my desk in there, and it would be nice to not worry about them dirtying my coverlet.

And so, one surprise down, one to go. ;o)

Tonight

I've decided that instead of blogging, I'm going to actually go knit on my MS3.

So, here are some fun things to look at while you're dealing with the disappointment. ;o)

Pansies at sunset . . .

Coral bells and Aquilegia . . .

And Home Depot's contribution to my daily recommended allowance of gaiety. :o)

Have a great night!

It's all her fault.

DH's aunt, that is. A short while back, she asked to see photos of the family's home improvement projects. When she asked, I didn't really have any (other than weeding the interminable flower beds, but that's a story for another day).

Well, things have changed.

Before:
(Well, mostly before. I forgot to take pictures until after I had the brackets up.)



During:



Quite the helpers, actually. They made it a lot of fun, and the big guy was an excellent gopher. (And this shot just cracks me up.)



After:



(Baby included for scale. :o)



There are further plans for the living room, including the permanent relocation of the entertainment center, TV, VCR & DVD Player to a place as yet undetermined; (the only criteria is that place will not be our home). We will be painting, and eventually furniture better suited to a family will be coming into the picture. (Costco had The Perfect Sectional a few months ago, but like most Costco items, it's long gone now.) Before winter we will install a wood stove in the center of the wall to the left of the photo, and I'm hoping for some built-in bookshelves for the piano room, but we'll have to see. And to add a pie-in-the-sky item, we'd love to replace all of the uber-cheap builder flooring with something that's actually beautiful and comfortable (hardwood with wool area rugs, most likely). But what we've got now is working alright, and replacing it would be a Major Pain, so that's a low priority item.

With it's new duds, the living room coordinates far better with the kitchen, which got new curtain hardware about a month ago:



Previously, the white panels in the dining room were hanging lazily on copper wire wound around finishing nails. I wish I had a before photo to show you. It was pathetic.

I'd rather not talk much about the other works-in-progress just yet . . .



The photo speaks for itself. I'm working on it. Let's just say that paint chips are filthy little liars. . . .

Knitting content coming tomorrow. I've been having too much fun to not blog about it. :o)