office inspiration: fabrics

I still haven't done anything with my identity crisis office...but I have been thinking about it. 

That counts, right?

One of the biggest things for me was figuring out what I wanted to do in there, colorwise.  I knew I could make it as girly as I wanted (since the Man has no interest in a craftroom/storage room/home office).  I was sorting through my craft supplies a while back and found what would become the centerpiece of my office "design plan."

I picked this up about 10 years ago while fabric shopping with Dear Mother at the fabric barn in Eclectic, AL.  I'm not even sure if it is still open... or how to get there, but I remember falling in love with this fabric and knowing I had to have it.  Dear Mother conceded, even though I had no project or purpose in mind, and bought about a yard of it. 

During college, I used it to convert a thrift-store baby mattress, some MDF, and casters into an oversize ottoman.  After graduation, I remember planning to throw the ottoman out... but I couldn't bring myself to let go of it.  I had no room or use for an ottoman, so I just ripped the fabric from the bazillion staples I had used and tossed it in a bin of my other craft supplies.  This poor fabric has been lost and found many times over the years, but I still love it-- the pattern is classic but fun, the colors bright but not too bold.  It's perfect.

While rummaging around, I also stumbled upon two shower curtains I had bought at different thrift stores.  They are the exact same pattern as the curtain I have in my guest bathroom.  This is another "can't let go" thing with me.  I have had the same shower curtain since my freshman year in college.  It's been washed many times (don't worry) and I've put it in storage a time or two, but I always gravitate towards it. I love it enough to buy two backups (and a third which I made into matching pillows -- when I used the shower curtain as a bedroom curtain instead).  Once again, I love the colors...and the simplicity of the stripes.   I think it works with my Eclectic fabric:

I think it's all starting to come together... they even coordinate with an embroidered piece of fabric I've been holding on to (removed from an IKEA lampshade about 5 years ago),

 a colorblocked desk set I picked up from HomeGoods during my senior year in highschool,

and I even think it works with the paint color I'll be using

 (the same as our living room and hallway to keep things cohesive and on the cheap!)

So there you have it!  The start of my office inspiration.... now to figure everything else out,

oh and save up the money to do something about it,

and find some time to work on it,

and the energy to actually start painting....

... maybe I'll just stick to finding more inspiring photos... and then blogging about them. 

 That's progress, at least..

nothing about cookies is fun...

Not really. 

I love cookies. 

I also love the origin of this quote-- Hannah Hart's "My Drunk Kitchen."  I saw her first episode and it cracked me up.  You need to watch this:

Warning-- some adult language, okay.. more than some. 

Video from YouTube

She has a website that includes all the different episodes. 

Her attempt at cookies (or biscuits) is in episode 4. 

Cheers!

stick a pin in me..

I'm done! 

That's what I thought when I first heard about Pinterest.  As if my normal blog reading didn't provide enough inspiration, now there is a site dedicated to just that!  Pinterest is essentially an online bulletin board where you can "pin" pictures from all over the web into different categorized "boards."  Not only can you share, comment, and like these pins but they also include a linkback to where the picture was intially found.

Genius, I tell you!! 

I've found so many great ideas on there so far.  I haven't pinned much, but that's mainly because I haven't had much websurfing time.  Still, I love it....  here are a few things I've pinned..

Come check it out, see what inspires you!

tomato tracking-- our first!

Our first tomato was finally ready to be picked this week. 

We have quite a few green ones still on the vine, but we were so excited to have our first successfully home-grown tomato.

.

.

.

.

Though it wasn't exactly what we expected....

It was still delicious.  All two tiny bites of it.

How is your garden going?

glorious glossies

One of my favorite indulgences is magazines.  I was given a few subscriptions this past Christmas, earned one using kitty litter points (yes, kitty litter points) and Dear Mother is kind enough to scavenge the free bin at the local library and bring me the promising ones on occasion. 

I used to keep a basket full (me, a basket? no..) of unread issues in my office, however over the course of the past few months I finally went through them pulling out ideas, recipes, and articles I wanted to keep.  I finally made it through my backlog this weekend and thought it might be fun to share how I organize all those torn-out pages. 

This system works for me because it's pretty simple and low maintenance. After I read a magazine, the pages I want to keep just get tossed in this little guy in my craft room/office closet:

He holds my magazine pages in the top drawer, printer paper in the second, and large scrapbooking papers in the third.  I think I've had this container for about 8 years now.. I can't seem to ever part with it.

The pages aren't in any order, yet.  Sorting through them and trimming the rough edges is saved for one of the Man's game nights.  He plays video games, and I watch something cheesy on the laptop while I scatter little slivers of paper all over the carpet after trimming the brimming bin of pages.

Once I've trimmed the pages, and somewhat sorted them into the loose categories of "to eat", "to decorate", "to think about," and "tips to remember" I slip each pairing of pages into clear page covers.

A while back, I just grabbed a simple white binder and used some pretty leftover papers to decorate the cover. I keep the binder right next to my inspiration bin and craft supplies--

 in easy reach, but still out of the way.

Hopefully soon, I'll have time to tackle some of the awesome ideas that live in that three-ring binder.

How do you keep track of things that inspire you?

what a lovely crafternoon...

A while back, I had some of "the girls" from work over for a crafter-noon

(which later turned into a crafter-night.)

The goal was to make coffee filter wreaths, and I think we all were successful-- after many glue gun burns, curse words, tales of woe over low-carb diets, much comiserating, and a little help from a sugar rush.

It wouldn't be a soiree at the nerdy nest if sweets and copius amounts of snacks (and the occassional spirit) weren't involved.  Meet the cake for the occassion-- a neopolitan cake with buttercream frosting:

I tried another technique with the frosting.. there's something about messy repetitive patterns that just seem to work well in buttercream.

It was a potluck, but I couldn't resist making a few of these:

We also had chicken ranch dip, rotel, sausage cheese balls, mini-sausages, shrimp cocktail, and meatballs... needless to say, these crafty chicks know how to throw down.

Now to plan the next crafty adventure... I have a few ideas, but not enough time. 

 Have you been crafting lately?