So then I started browsing Candice's blog just for fun. Lots of cute stuff, but then I fell in love! I found it. Oh my gosh. Look at this:
HER CRAFT ROOM! Agh! Oh my gosh. I'm in heaven right now.
You can go here for the rest of her pictures and a list of resources for where she got most of her cute stuff. Ohh...
**O.K. bring yourself back down to earth, Amber.**
So, I am sitting about about 12 feet from a doorway that leads to this empty room.
With this closet, with these built-ins.
This room measures about 15'x14'. It's pretty good size. Especially for a craft room. All it's waiting for is some paint and some tables (o.k. the list could go on and on here, but I could definitely have a good start if I just had some paint and a table.) It's just sitting here empty, except for the occasional mess that the kids make when they decide to play in the basement when both Mommy and Daddy are working on the computer. Oh, the possibilities...
But, it's tiny! If there is a laundry basket in there, then I can hardly walk through! That make-over was when we had family living in our basement, but they moved on to bigger and better, so now the basement is empty and the master bedroom is calling my name!
It's always good for me to pull my projects out of the cupboards & out from behind the curtains to take inventory of what I want to accomplish. Making a goal or a deadline helps me too. I'm not sure if this is feasible to get all of these done before Christmas, but I'll give it my best try. If you want to join in on the challenge, head on over to Tallgrass Prarie Studio to sign up! Have a wonderful day!
I was thinking about how I have done quite a bit of trading in the last few years. I enjoy a lot of nice things in my life, but I am definitely a girl on a strict budget. It's a little hard when you have an addiction that is somewhat expensive. I go without a lot of new, trendy clothes, the high-tech electronics, we don't eat out and go on dates every weekend because quite honestly I would rather spend my money on fabric and quilting (for some reason it makes me feel better, because I know my quilts will LAST and well, I just love doing it!) So, it's nice to take advantage of people's services when money is tight for a lot of people. A lot of times you end up getting some extra pleasures in life that you normally might have to go without. So thinking back... I've traded scrapbooking for a haircut and color. I've traded babysitting for yoga classes. Babysitting for make-up. The most recent thing I've traded is "piecing" for machine quilting. I was so excited when I told my quilter that I was having withdrawals because I wasn't working as often and therefore didn't have much money to spend in the quilting department. She told me she'd be willing to trade. I said what do you trade for? She said, "sewing for quilting." I said, "I can sew!" So this is the second project I've done for her lately. Isn't it fun? I love all the fabrics she purchased. Most of the line is Whimsy by Michael Miller. There is a little bit of Mezzanine by Michael Miller and a little bit of All-Star by Riley Blake. In return I will be having her quilt my Fig Tree quilt (I'll post pictures as soon as I get it back) and maybe another project or two. It's a good way to "make do with what you've got." Doing this for someone else was mostly fun, but a little bit nerve racking too. You want to make sure it's perfect! It was very satisfying at the end to know that everything came out swell (gosh, I'm in the Annie mode still) and that I figured out all of the measurements by myself to ensure that the entire quilt would lay flat. I had to make the quilt bigger than the pattern gave instructions for, so figuring out the 3 outside border lengths was a little daunting at first, but I feel like a pro now :) I hope that those of you that are interested in quilting (but are a little scared to try it) will just give it a whirl. It will give you a great sense of accomplishment when you are done. I guess trying anything new will do that. But anyways. Trading can be a really good thing sometimes.First, let me just add one more reason to the list of why I love my husband. Last night we (as in me, RJ, Thing 1 and Thing 2) had about a half an hour drive to a friends house ahead of us. We decided we should sing songs to make the time pass faster. [My kids don't know what a REAL road trip is. A half an hour is a long time to the 4 year old, who has absolutely no patience whatsoever.] Anyways, we're big fans of the movie Annie. We tried to sing a bunch of the songs as best we could, but they were all really choppy because we only know the key words. We had fun with them anyways. But I mentioned in passing that we should have that soundtrack in the car. Came downstairs this morning and (bam!) there was a CD he had copied for me sitting on the counter! He often does things like that. If I just mention something (I don't even have to ask him specifically) he is so good to remember and to do it. I usually don't have to remind him a bunch of times to do something and I know that he is usually listening to what I say even if I'm just thinking out loud...now me on the other hand? I wish I could say I had that quality in me. I'm a little more scatter-brained. But, I love that he's a good listener and do-er (is that a word?) It's just one more little reason...
Anyways, as I was listening to my "new" soundtrack on the way to taking my daughter to Pre-school today, I got so excited about it! Can I just say that I LOVE this movie? Whenever there is a list that you're suppose to fill out about favorite movies, books, etc. I always have to leave it blank because how could you narrow down your favorite movies and books into just one or two picks? I surely cannot. I'm not in love with anything that much to call it a "favorite". But this time - I am sure of it. Annie is my all-time favorite movie. I grew up watching it and I still (20 years later) can't get enough of it!
Now I've got the music on my Ipod so that we can all have fun in the kitchen when I'm making dinner and I've got the soundtrack in the car so we can further enhance our Annie sing-a-long talents. The movie and soundtrack are classic. The songs are catchy. They make you want to attempt to keep up with Aileen Quinn (Annie) in her rendition of "Tomorrow" (when you know you don't have a chance). The girls' voices are incredible. The group dance performances (like in "It's a Hard Knock Life") are so fun (why didn't we do an Annie theme for Dance Team one year? That would have been awesome!) And Carol Burnett? She is perfect in this movie. Who else could pull off that role during her performance in "Little Girls" like she did? And, I will admit that the last time I watched it I got a little choked up at the end, when Annie and Daddy Warbucks were dancing at the carnival. What a special, timeless movie. I could watch it over and over.
Cream together:
Now, all that talk got me hungry. I think I need to go get another one...
(Me & my two brothers)
