Decorating the Dorchester Way

On an organizing roll...

2012-02-27T17:41:00.011-06:00

Since we have only lived in our house for about 7 months I never really went through and ORGANIZED everything. Everything was decorated and put together, but closets were not really organized. A month ago I stumbled on the 29 Day Organizing Challenge were I decided to organize my craft room. In the process I have organized my entry closet, under my kitchen sink, my linen closet, Little Man's bathroom cabinet and have started on Little Man's closet (29 days is not a lot of time...)

My trusty label maker has been my friend through this whole process!! Thank you label maker! I could not have done half of my organizing with out you!

Linen Closet

I do not have a before on our linen closet, but it looks so much nicer! And I have SO much more space for more organization!!
I picked up the small clear plastic containers with green covers from Target for 85cents a piece. This closet is not very deep so they are the perfect size. I picked up 2 packs of 5!! On the upper level (out of little man's reach) I have our medicine cabinet and gifts.
The best part of organizing this closet is that I was able to clear out some of my "junk drawer" by putting them into containers in this half empty closet!

Look at how much more space I have for organizing!
I have too many spare sets of curtains!! One of these days I will post them on Craigslist (after I am sure I will not need them)!

The Entry Wall Closet

I can't believe how insanely messy this entry closet was! So much crap on the floor, random stuff on the shelf...

Random crap on the top shelf!
Way too many coats in the closet that have not been worn in years...
This is all of the stuff that was on the shelf and on the floor...... can you say HOARDERS!!!!!
I bought the extra shelf things a while back at Target which allowed me to put in a few baskets! The large basket still holds our hats, mittens and scarves.
I donated about 5 coats from the closet, which is not bad for 2 people!
Removed some shoes, organized the ones that stayed! I also moved our re-usable bags that were in the big white tote and put them on a hook by the door in the garage, so I REMEMBER to use them next time!!! So the white tote is now my donate, return, or catch-all bin!
Look a clean floor!
My donation bag! Which about 3 minutes after I took this picture, my hubby took the bag thinking it was a garbage bag and used it to remove some diapers from little man's room....
Organizing everything and under the kitchen sink

Here is the nice before of my kitchen sink... again a mess!

The after. The best think I did was to put up a hook on the door and use one of my fabulous Target Dollar Isle plastic tote for a kitchen laundry basket!
Thanks 29 Day Organizational Challenge for inspiring me to tackle other areas of the house!!

The Cat in the Hat lost his head....

2012-02-24T12:10:00.005-06:00

I have had a few days of very VERY productive organizational time in my craft room this week!

So that means I am ALMOST DONE!!!! I am SO happy!!!! Thank you 29 Day Organizational Challenge!!!! This was a great challenge to participate in!!! I am already a winner for being so close to having an organized craft room!

Look I have carpet on the floor!!

There are just a few odds and ends things that I need to organize.

When dealing with this craft room things that were important to me was

1. Everything had a place

2. Things I used frequently were within easy access

3. It would be easy to get what I needed AND easy TO PUT BACK after I was done using it.... (AKA keep things CLEAN!!!)

4. Everything was labeled

5. It looks somewhat pretty!

I am VERY close to meeting these goals and can't wait to share the finished room!!

Sometimes when you are trying to decide what to do with something fate (?) figures it out for you. This guy was on the "what do I do with this??" pile. Well something fell on it, so that was now an easy decision.... it's in the trash!!
A few things I need to figure out.... ribbon storage!! Look at this pretty mess!
And scrap fabric storage!

After figuring out these few last things and organizing a few last things, I am pretty much done!!!

I can't wait to show the finished room!!!

Craft FAIL to a fancy Silhouette design!

2012-02-24T11:43:00.004-06:00

Before Valentines day I wanted to make a stencil for a heart shaped chevron pillow. Well the pillow was a huge CRAFT FAIL!!! But as I was removing the extra chevron pattern vinyl I decided I could not throw away all of that cute chevron cut vinyl..... (see previous posts on craft hoarding....) WELL that pillow craft fail turned into a new fancy design for my Silhouette Cameo!!

Isn't she so pretty! I just took my vinyl and directly attached it to the top of the Cameo.

Easy Scrabble Artwork

2012-02-21T08:20:00.000-06:00

I LOVE easy art work projects!! How many people scored these cute red frames from Target after Valentines Day like me for $2.49 a piece! I ended up getting 5... see my previous post about being a craft hoarder...

The mat is a bit girly / Valentines Day, so I simply flipped them over and used the white back side!

Then I cut pieces from my Target dish towels that I hoarded previously.
Taped them down... and put them back in the frames!
I then used pieces from my thrift-ed Scrabble game to create the words create, dream, live. I used glue dots to glue them to the outside glass.

Easy 5 minute art work!!! MY favorite kind!!

My last 2 red frames I just hung cute pictures of little man in! I added my scrabble artwork I made for Valentines Day with the word love! I also covered the lamp shade with that same Target dish towel!! I LOVE the patterns of these two target dish towels!! So inspiring for other projects around the house!!

Large Alphabet Wall Art

2012-02-20T10:16:00.006-06:00

After re-arranging my little man's nursery I had a very large blank wall so I created some large scale alphabet wall art!

This huge 36 x36 inch canvas that I painted for our first house while I love the colors, does not really fit into the colors of any room in our new house. And since this is a huge canvas I wanted to re-use it! I repainted the whole thing the same dark chocolate color for my new project.

I designed my "design"out in InDesign first before creating the letters in the Silhouette Studio software. I ended up using Arial Bold font size 530pt (so the letters were HUGE)

I then went used way too much vinyl to make this! Luckily I scored 2 rolls of pink vinyl when my favorite local craft store was going out of business for $2.30 a roll, because I used one whole roll and at least half of the second. I tried using contact paper but that's a whole other issue :)

I will admit it was not easy to transfer the vinyl to my canvas because I was working with such large pieces. I found it did help to cut the row in half and work with smaller pieces. Also going back to my being a craft hoarder I saved all of the inside pieces of my vinyl alphabet for a later to be determined project!! The key to laying the vinyl is to GO SLOW and BE PATIENT!!!

To prevent bleeding I then painted with my original bottom color and let it dry!

Then I gave the letters a coat of my Behr Color matched Restoration Hardware Baby Silver Sage Paint.

Since I was pulling up such huge pieces of vinyl I let it dry longer than I normally would. I didn't want to pull up the vinyl with wet paint still on it and have it accidentally land on the print and ruin it!! I also did have to do some touching up on the letters.

Here is the finished product and it nicely shows the size of this canvas!!

I am happy with how it turned out! Little man likes to point to the different letters and it fills the space perfectly!

Stationery card

2012-02-19T20:10:00.002-06:00

I just ordered our St. Patrick's Day card! If you think you might be getting one please ignore this!! :)

How Lucky Green St. Patrick's Day Card

Cheerful Christmas invitations for your friends and family.

View the entire collection of cards.

I am a craft supply hoarder...

2012-02-17T11:42:00.001-06:00

My name is Ange and I am a craft supply hoarder...

Well week two of the 29 Day Organizational Challenge is over!

I feel like I have made great progress but I also feel like I have so much more to do!!! AND this challenge of course has inspired me to want to organize EVERYTHING in my house!!! A bit more of a challenge for ONE short month!!! Here is an example, look at all of these clothes that are going off to charity!!!

But back to the craft room...

So I have decided I am a craft hoarder!!! I have WAY too much crafting crap (I am sure just like everyone else!!!) And it seems like it just keeps multiplying... ok maybe if I would stop buying it.... but that's another challenge!!!

An example of my hoarding...

This is just small pile of vinyl scraps I CAN'T throw away... you just never know when you are going to need a scrap piece of vinyl and it's REALLY kind of expensive.... You can't see in this picture but the large pieces already have cuts in them from where I had trouble using my Silhouette.... so they are pretty much useless pieces of vinyl...

I ended up throwing away all of the pieces that could not be used and kept only a few of the scraps and organized them into their own separate bin. That allowed me to organize the bin that contained the rolls.... look so neat and organized!

Another hoarder example...

I also can't seem to throw away craft fail projects. This was supposed to be a pillow but it didn't turn out so well, and I did not have the correct fabric medium to paint ratio so it was REALLY stiff... this should be thrown away, right? Well its finally in the garbage!!!!

The Wedding Pictures

An update on the wedding pictures.... I threw away almost all of the 4x6s in my proof book!!! I kept a VERY small stack (maybe 20) and tossed the rest and added the album to my garage sale pile! I also cleaned out a second wedding album and kept again a small stack and tossed the rest!!! 2 HUGE ALBUMS GONE!!!!!! SOOOO HAPPY!!!! I did keep all of the pictures in a separate garbage bag and won't actually toss them in the trash until next week when its garbage day again in case I have a change of heart about throwing away wedding pictures!!!

So my big progress for the week... the CLOSET!!!!! I removed all of the clutter, and organized, organized, organized and organized all of my totes.... sooooo much work, but its so organized in my closet now!!! AND I used my trusty label maker!!! I LOVE MY LABEL MAKER!!!!

My closet has two levels of wire shelving so I took advantage.

The floor level holds a plastic drawer with all of the heavy paper, the tote holds some fabric and the ugly black file cabinet (that only fits in side ways... boo) which holds important files. To the left of the plastic drawer I have large canvas and picture frames neatly placed behind the door.

The top shelf holds lots of labeled plastic tots. I love the cute packaging of the Cameo starter kits, so I store the labeled items in the box - except for the vinyl, I have too much vinyl and that's in the tote to the left and in the starter kit I have all of my cleared out vinyl scraps!!
The middle level.... LOTS of labeled storage!!!! And I LOVE the idea of using skirt hangers for fabric... I just headed to my closet and found a few skirts to donate and then I have a nice and easy way to see SOME of my cute fabric.
I also mostly have these two shelves cleared off!!! These shelves held our books we did not read and the wedding pictures. I am not sure if these will stay in the room or not. And I am still not 100% sure what I will do with the books I plan to keep.

So that is this week's update. I am getting there.... but its a slow process (and it doesn't help that when I look through pictures I have to look at them all :) ) But I am SO excited about the progress that I have made and I LOVE that this is making me want to organize more in my house! I don't want to feel like a hoarder, I want to feel inspired in my craft room! And I will soon be there!!!!

How to take a picture inside at night... a-ha moment!!

2012-02-15T22:37:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend I took a photography class with an AWESOME local Photographer.

I have had my DSLR for almost 2 and a half years now and I have taken a few classes on how to take pictures with it and I had learned great things. For the most part I could take great shots of my soon to be two year old in the daytime, but I could NEVER get good pictures at night inside our house....

Last year for my birthday when I got a gift card to a local Camera Company, I bought a Canon Speedlite 430 EX II. I used it pointed straight up to bounce the light off of the ceiling. It worked great but I was bad about replacing the batteries in it.

So over the weekend at my class, I brought up the issue I had with taking pictures at my house, at night. They were so YELLOW looking.

Here are a couple pictures I took last week before my class. Blurry and yellow! Could be cute, but they are not.... sad mama!

Then enter my class!! I learned that in this situation I should change my white balance setting to the Tungsten setting and up my ISO to at least 1600.

TWO SIMPLE CHANGES!!! But wow do they REALLY make a difference!

The next two pictures were taken in the same spot of the house, similar time, same lighting... etc... I just changed the ISO and White Balance BUT they aren't yellow like the first ones!!!

I love this last picture! It looks like something I could have taken in the middle of the day!
Once again the side by side comparision! Look at the difference in the picture on the right! The color is SO much better!!! I am SO excited to have finally learned this tip! Two simple things and my pictures look so much better!!

Happy 1 year blog anniversary Crafty, Scrappy, Happy!!

2012-02-15T11:04:00.000-06:00

I am so excited to be a co-host for the Crafty Scrappy Happy first year blog ANNIVERSARY linky party!! Congratulations Jaime on 1 year of blogging! I recently discovered Jaime's blog and was excited to find out we live in the same city.

I am a huge fan of Jaime's dinning room table! (Probably because I experienced how much work REALLY goes into a table re-do!!)

Help me wish Jaime a Happy Blog Anniversary by checking out Crafty Scrappy Happy Link party! Also check out the other co-hosts of the Linky Party!!

Our Barker Bunch

Northern Cottage

Decorating the Dorchester Way

Renewed Upon A Dream

Little Lucy Lu

Craftberry Bush

Decorating the Dorchester Way

Farm Girl In My Heart

Busily Spinning Momma

Design, Dining and Diapers

Creative Carmella

Feel free to link up anything and everything Crafty, Scrappy and/or Happy! No giveaways or etsy shops please.Check out other links, be inspired and make some new friends!Grab a button if you would!And check Crafty Scrappy Happy for features all next week!!!!

ABC Artwork

2012-02-12T17:17:00.007-06:00

I wanted more artwork for the playroom and originally wanted to for the 3rd time re-do the cardboard ABCs I had in my son's room. (Which originally were bright red, blue and yellow for Little Man's Dr. Seuss first birthday!!!) After realizing how much work I had already put into that set, I decided to just buy a new set and keep them original set matching Little Man's room!

So I again painted a red A, blue B and yellow C. I tried and tried to think of something that started with the letter A to cover the A but I could NOT think of anything --- so if anyone has any suggestions PLEASE let me know!!!

SO I covered the A in fabulous thick red yarn, the B in buttons and the C in Crayons! I was surprised how long each letter ACTUALLY took!!!

The A was easy but it just took more time than I thought it would. After hot gluing a tiny piece to the back, I started wrapping the right side of the bottom of the A. The perpendicular parts of the A I just cut small pieces and glued several rows of yarn and covered up the rough edges with the main run of yarn. Sorry for the horrible pictures!!

Example of what I did for the top. And then just covered up the edges later.

The B was probably the easiest! I just glued a ton of buttons on my B with hot glue!! (My first time using my new hot glue gun with the "low" setting and (YEAH) I did not burn my fingers this time!!!!!!! ) In some sports I added 2 layers of buttons for some extra details! Super easy!

The C was easy enough but cutting the crayons was a bit challenging. I found that warming my sharp pairing knife up with hot water worked best and using the back part of the blade (closer to the handle) allowed more force to snap the crayons in half. I had a problem with ripping paper but it got easier as I went a long. I eye-balled where to cut the crayons. Once cut, I just glued them on! The easy part!!!

I am happy with how each turned out. I was hoping to put them on these painted shelves I have in the play room but they are heavier than I thought they would be so they need to be on a flat surface (that my cheap shelves do NOT provide!)

I made the bunting in the background! I will post that later. I am sort of obsessed with bunting lately!!!

Little man is going to love them!! He is very into the alphabet right now!!!

Thanks for Reading!!!!!

2012-02-11T22:47:00.006-06:00

I love blogging!! I am a sort of new blogger (in my mind anyway!) My first post was May 15th, 2011 saying that we just had an offer accepted on our house so I was starting this blog. Last year I only wrote 42 posts, and this year I am already up to 24 including this one!

On January 13th I was so excited to notice that my blog had finally hit 10,000 page views. I know compared to some that is nothing, but I was pretty happy.

WELL, A couple days ago I realized that I was already at 8,254 page views for the month and that I COULD maybe hit the 10,000 mark by February 13. That's doubling my page views in ONE MONTH that I had up to this point in 9 combined months!!!!

WELL I made it! (With a day to spare!!!)

I know it's still insignificant to many bloggers but I started this for fun! Being a stay at home mom I wanted something that still kept me connected to the working world and this has done that! It's such a great feeling knowing people are actually checking out my blog!

Thanks for reading!!!!

Linky Followers Blog Hop!

2012-02-11T01:49:00.002-06:00

I am finally going to join the Linky Followers Blog Hop! I can't remember where I originally found this party but it's an awesome idea and all over my favorite blogs! It was started by It's So Very Cheri. Now is the time especially since Google Friend Connect will go away for some on Feb 29th! Only a short 18 days!

Here are the RULES as stated on It's So Very Cheri's website!

GOOGLE Friend Connect will go away

on Feb 29 for any one that is not with blogspot

but rumor has it that it is being completely phased out for everyone soon

BUT

there is good news

There is a NEW awesome tool–Linky Followers

It has so many amazing features (that GFC never had). If you have not signed up you should. (yes you can have both.) I love the new tool so much and want everyone to enjoy all the new features.

…and did I tell you its super easy and FREE!

What better way to celebrate a fun new blogging tool than to have a party

so break out your poodle skirt and saddle back shoes cuz’ we’re having a LINKY FOLLOWER PARTY HOP

1. you MUST have the LINKY FOLLOWERS tool on your site to participate.

{You can have both the LINKY FOLLOWERS & GFC on your site but you must have the LINKY FOLLOWERS to participate in this party hop.}

2. You MUST follow the person who has the party on their site as a thank you.

3.Just add your blog button to the LINKY PARTY below.

4.Then grab the BLOG HOP code

You will find the code right under the Linky Party where it says CLICK HERE TO ENTER–

just under that it says: WHAT IS A BLOG HOP? GET THE CODE HERE

Click on GET THE CODE HERE and enter it into a post on your site.

You can grab the party button code in the FOOTER at Its So Very Cheri

You can grab info from my post if it helps you with your post.

5. Then you follow other bloggers–(as many as you want)
–leave each one of the blogs that you follow a comment letting them know you are following them and ask them to follow you back.

If you want to add the BLOG HOP to your own site you will get lots of new followers–(see rule #2)

Week One 29 Day Organizational Challenge

2012-02-07T23:27:00.007-06:00

I am very excited about the Org Junkie 29 Day Organizational Challenge where I am organizing my craft room. Technically this started out as an office, but we don't really need an office and I do need a craft room!

So it will still have to hold those things that would have gone into an office - which is not all that much but includes printer, office supplies, lots of books, and my husband's law diploma.

The printer and office supplies are not a big deal and work with a craft room. The books we will talk about later! The law school diploma works great in an office but maybe not so much in a craft room, but we really don't have any other place for it... unless we put it up in the basement family room part.... We could put it some place were everyone coming into our house would see, because I am so proud of my husband for going back to law school after being away from school so long! But he would never go for that! And it might seem a bit bragy to have it in your living room! So for now it will have to go in the craft room...

I started asking myself a few questions about how to organize the room. The first one was should I take things I don't know what to do with and move them to another spot, or should I really figure out what to do with them... meaning all of those photo albums including the wedding photos. What do I do with them?

I already bought the negatives from the photographer for our professional pictures, paid to have them scanned and made my own 12x12 photobook which I love. But I still have the large proof book and the 8x10 formal picture book in this room, and a photo album from our honeymoon, our shower, my bachlorette party, my graduation, and a few more...

I am thinking I will make photobooks for our honeymoon and maybe our rehearsal dinner / showers.... but we will see. I have already started a honeymoon photobook. (YEAH ME!!!) Photobooks take up a lot less space than big photo albums - as you can see in this picture!!

Question: Can I throw away the original proof book from my photographer, even though I have the negatives in a fire proof safe, I have the digital files backed up and I have the nice 12x12 photobook I created?? Opinions, pretty PLEASE!

My progress so far

I started a garage sale box...So far it mostly includes books. I cleared 2 book shelves of books we have not touched in 4 years... Ok we touched then.. They were packed and unpacked at least 2 times in those 4 years! I did keep some books I do eventually want to read and moved those into our guest bedroom, but I still need to figure out what I will do with the books I want to keep that don't work in the guest bedroom. But I did put more than half of my books in my garage sale pile (and I know books never sell at garages sales, so maybe I should just donate them now!!!)

I started a plastic tote for "Memories" that I will store in the basement. So far this includes scrapbooks I made in my teens.It also includes planners from the year I was married and the year I had my son. I can't get rid of these 2 planners. Sometimes I think I hold on to too many things, other times I don't think I keep enough things. I am not sure if keeping planners makes me a hoarder or a normal person :)

I have made progress on clearing the floor of clutter by moving some of it out of the room... so you can see the floor again!!! I moved a pile of photobooks I already made (AND LOVE) to our living room so we can ENJOY them and anyone coming over can look at them! (Isn't my little man so cute!! He was only 4 months old!!)

I threw away most of my Honeymoon pictures. I did keep a stack that went into the Memories tote in a picture box. Pulling pictures from photo albums is a lot of work... but worth it to remove the clutter!!!

Now just to decide what to do with those wedding pictures... and the broken album!!!

I am excited with my progress!! Can't wait to see the rest and be organized!!!

29 Day Organizational Challenge - craft room addition

2012-02-07T20:25:00.007-06:00

My craft room is in DESPERATE need of an update! So I am participating in on the Org Junkie 29 Day Organizational Challenge!

My craft room is a mess! Plain and simple, a mess! Unorganized and a mess.

Taking these pictures I was thinking how I REALLY wish I had just taken everything and thrown it on the floor.... because that's sort of how this room looks right now. There is no organization and its SOOOO uninspiring to create in this room. So this room NEEDS help!

Last week against the window I had a toddler bed! So that added even more junk to the room. I brought up the black shelf against the window in attempt to start organizing.

Goals for this room:

1. Organize

2. Remove extra junk

3. Remove books that have not been read in over 3 years

4. Create a way to KEEP organized

5. Create a gallery wall

6. Add some style to the room so its inspiring and feels creative

7. Organize!!!!!!

This room makes me feel like I should be on Hoarders!

I already made a little room on the floor! - if you can believe that! I hung my stencils behind the door! Yeah to an organized behind the door - a place no one sees.....

22 more days to go and this room will be organized and STAY organized!!

No more stencils on the floor...

2012-02-07T16:42:00.003-06:00

This may not be a brilliant discovery, but my large stencils were driving me INSANE! I did not know where to store them, my smaller stencils I store in a magazine rack, but I have a few that are WAY too large... last night I had the brilliant idea to hang 3 command adhesive hooks behind more door and hang my stencils...
They fit perfect!!

YEAH! No more large stencils taking up valuable floor space in my INSANELY messy craft room... Just open the door all the way and they disappear! Like I said... brilliant or not brilliant I am not sure, but anything to organize a bit is always an awesome thing! And it again goes to remind you to use those random places you sometimes forget about!

Little Man Car Shirt

2012-02-02T16:30:00.006-06:00

While shopping online I found a child's shirt that held 8 little matchbox sized cars that was around $38! It was so simple and I figured with my limited sewing knowledge I could easily re-creative the look. Here is the original.

I started by making a template out of paper to make sure it would fit 4 cars across and still fit on the t-shirt I purchased from Target.

I ended up leaving 1/2 inch seam allowances on each side, and the bottom and then left 2 inches for each car, so my pocket was 9 inches long by 3 inches wide.

I then cut my fabric with extra for creating the folded behind pocket.

I sewed the top portion of the pocket twice for something different.

Once the top was finisihed I pinned the entire pocket to the size of my template card.

The first pocket I pinned I pinned the pocket on the wring side (the side that was placed on the t-shirt, so it was hard to remove the pins as I sewed, so I learned for the second pocket to pin on the right side!!)

I then pinned the pocket to the t-shirt and sewed around the sides and bottom of the pocket. Again I did a second row of sewing because I liked the look.

Then I sewed every two inches on the pocket to create the 4 smaller pockets for the car. And then repeated for the second pocket.

I then used my Silhouette Cameo and cut out "Liam's Cars" onto the Heat Transfer material. I REALLY had to iron this on and I hope it handles the wash...

The shirt is even fun to play with while not on!
Getting a two year old to pose for a picture is very difficult! I believe he was into a Curious George episode while these were taken....

My Current TO-DO list

2012-01-30T16:22:00.006-06:00

To try and keep myself honest and ACTUALLY get things DONE, I thought I would post my TO-DO LIST to be completed by April 1. And cross them off as I do them!!! Why April 1, well we have a big birthday in April so I figure that's a nice time frame. It also gives me time before my sister's wedding in May and then doesn't put the pressure on to have a million projects to do over the summer!

1. Finish Little Man's room

This was done before, but I made some changes, so its no longer "done" I don't have too much left in this project. Just some new art work and things for the wall. Super EASY! I should be able to cross this off of my list in a week.... right??

2. Re-Do Wall of Guest Bedroom

I love my guest bedroom, but I don't love this wall of the room. It just doesn't quite cut it. So I have plans to re-do it. Not 100% sure yet what it will look like, but it will include the Red Envelope "You make me happy when skies are Grey" artwork.

3. Organize Craft Room

OMG this room is a disaster!! Trust me it's a mess and is in desperate need of organization! Some days it looks better than others... but most of the time its a stressful place to work on projects. I have started a gallery wall in this room, which I love, but need a few additions.

4. Add Some Style to the Master Bedroom

I love our end tables, headboard, the lamps, the sconces above the bed... BUT this room just needs MORE. Besides what you can see in this picture, there is one photo on the wall, which is directly opposite of the bed. To the left is a big blank wall, to the right is a nice big wall of windows with white curtains. I love the start of this room, but it just needs MORE! Like another gallery wall, and maybe a stenciled wall behind the bed. We will see! Check out my Master Bedroom Pinterest Board...

5. The Living Room

We have lived in this house for six months and I still have not gotten around to this room. And of course it's the first room you see as you enter the house! When we moved in I put those black shelves up but I don't like them. The empty room has been a 4th playroom for my son... and worked out well for our Christmas tree... and currently holds Little Man's train table... but it's time for this room to at least have a place to sit! A while back I bought 2 chairs on Craig's List that need to be refinished, so I have to tackle that project! A while back I started pulling staples... I didn't get very far because it was hard work! ... and I have upholstered easy chairs before like these and this... but never a big chair... Then of course I want to paint and curtains, artwork... oh the possibilities.... check out my Pinterest living room board...

6. Paint Guest Bathroom Vanity

Just because I have the paint and I want too... and I think it would look fabulous with the Dr. Seuss decor of the bathroom!

7. Paint the Main Floor Bathroom

It's a pale green, and its fine, but I don't like fine in my house! I am thinking white and turquoise!

8. Finish Little Man's Photobooks

When Little Man was born I had the brilliant... crazy... something... idea that I should make one photobook PER month for him... Little man was born in April and I think I did the first month pretty quickly... and then things slowed down. As of 2 weeks ago I had only finished the first 6 months (which is PRETTY good considering my insane idea) then 2 weeks ago I completed 2 more books. So I am ONLY a year behind and need to complete January of 2011 until April 2011. THEN I need to figure out how I am going to do year 1... Obviously I should NOT keep doing this insane idea of one photobook per month for the rest of his life... too insane, plus any additional kids we have. I am debating either one for the entire year or maybe 2 for the year... we will deal with that when it happens... hopefully before his second birthday!!

9. Lose like 40 pounds

I ordered my bridesmaid dress 2 sizes too small so I need to make sure it fits!! Even though my son is almost 2 years old, I still have not lost the baby weight... but that's a whole other story... so it's time to lose it and get on with my life!!!

So there we have 9 super easy projects that I can easily get done in 2 months... right?? Time to get off the computer and get doing... something...

There is no thing as a "finished" room...

2012-01-30T14:40:00.000-06:00

There is no thing as a "finished" room in my house (and pretty much every other DIYer)!

A few months ago I said Little Man's nursery was done and finished! Conveniently right before our house warming party... well then I had to go and buy a new glider (we had one in our Michigan house, but I didn't LOVE it and when packing decided to sell it on Craigs List... then when Little Man was sick with croup I REALLY wished we had one again... ANYWAYS.... I bought a new glider) SO I had to re-arrange his room to make it fit... which meant this weekend I had to move shelves, cover holes, re-think artwork.... etc... so we are on to version 2 of Little Man's room at this house...

Shelves down... and a big hole where I painted around the shelf... OPPs!

Then I had to start re-working the guest room... a room no one has slept in during the 6 months we have lived in this house ... even though its one of my favorite rooms...

I am working on some new artwork for the new rooms and then I will show the new versions!

HP Photo Creations

2012-01-29T20:52:00.000-06:00

HP created free software - HP Photo Creations which lets you create custom collages, cards or calendars that you can print directly from your own printer. The software also allows you to order things from them as well.

Check out the collage I made of Little Man on the beach. I printed it on textured paper on accident, so up close it looks a bit funny, but I was impressed with how it turned out!

HP is giving away a $6,000 vacation which you can find out more on their Facebook Page

Valentines Day Decor

2012-01-28T11:15:00.004-06:00

I love Valentines Day, its always been one of my favorite Holidays. I love the pinks, reds, hearts, cookies, candies.... or maybe that's because its close to my birthday!

Even though I love the Holiday I have not decorated much for it this year.

I finally got around to putting away my Christmas pillows and made a new Valentines pillow. For some reason I didn't take any in between pictures, but this one was pretty straight forward. I cute 9 hearts by hand (no Silhouette this time, I know!!!) I used some Under Wonder and ironed them on, and then outlined the hearts with my sewing machine. (Don't look, but I am learning how to sew so my lines aren't great!!!) The 3 middle heart's are made from a Target dish towel.

I also put together a little valentines day decor on our mantel. I really like the simple love frame (made with the same Target dish towel!!!) and I think its going to have a permanent place in my craft room - since my craft room colors are red, black and turquoise!

Cheap toy storage

2012-01-25T16:41:00.005-06:00

Like so many people with children, our house is overrun with toys - and we only have one little man... Last week while at Target I ran across these great canvas totes on wheels and knew these would be a great addition to our playroom. They are great because they are large and hold a decent amount of toys and I like that they are on wheels! I am sure Little Man will love that too, and will push them around... Target has two sizes of these canvases. The smaller was $15 and the larger were only $5 more, so I went for the larger size - more toy storage!!

I like any DIYer had to personalize these nice canvas totes! I used my Silhouette to make a stencil and some fabric paint and a short dry time we have a happy momma with a slightly cleaner playroom -- for now....

Personalized Foot Print Stool

2012-01-21T23:02:00.005-06:00

This was included in my little man's nursery post, but I love it so much that I thought it deserved it's own post! Little man's nursery has a higher window ledge than other rooms in our house and he loves looking out the window.... so he needed a foot stool!

I found this simple stool at Micheal's. I painted it with the Silver Sage paint I had color matched at Home Depot to match Restoration Hardware Baby and Child's Silver Sage paint.

I then taped off a boarder using blue painters tape and painted a nice dark chocolate boarder. Then I had little man help with his foot prints! I then used my Silhouette to stencil on his name - in case we forget whose feet they are! I still need to add the date - because that is WHAT I will forget!
Perfect for looking out the window!! And perfect size for little feet!

From dish towels to pillow in 5 minutes....

2012-01-21T22:28:00.003-06:00

Thursday night when I was having craft fail after craft fail I needed a project that I knew I could not mess up on.... a few weeks ago at Target I picked up two of these awesome dish towels - I was not sure what I would use them for but I knew they would not be used in the kitchen...

I folded the dish towel in half and cut a bit off of the bottom - I wanted a smaller pillow - I then sewed the pillow leaving room for stuffing! It took 5 minutes and it turned out EXACTLY how I planned!! The colors match my craft room perfectly so I thought it would be a nice pillow to keep on my chair for my hour and hours of crafting!
When Little Man found this pillow he instantly thought it was for him and moved it into his room and curled up with it and his blanket... so I might have to make him another small Little Man sized pillow!

Scrabble Pillows

2012-01-20T17:45:00.006-06:00

I saw these cute scrabble pillows online a while back and thought they would be perfect to make for my friend and her husband who love scrabble and just moved into a new house! The perfect house warming present!

I used my Silhouette Cameo and made letter stencils for a 12x12 pillow. Since I was making 4 pillows I didn't want them to be huge! I double checked the award amount on Google - for Scrabble fan's I didn't want to have the wrong point values! I used the first letter of their first and last names for the pillows.

Tulip fabric paint!

It was hard to get the vinyl to "stick" to the fabric so I was a bit nervous that it would bled, but it didn't! I did let it dry over night before I removed the vinyl.

Then I sewed a pillow and stuffed it!

I know they love Scrabble so I hope they like these pillows!

Not my night!

2012-01-20T00:02:00.004-06:00

Tonight has just been one crafting fail after another!!

I still have a love HATE relationship with my Silhouette Cameo. It has a mind of its own, and I am thinking that is how its going to be. I have learned tonight not to cut vinyl with very skinny letters and expect to stencil with them... ... my word became a jumbled mess. Most of the time I can't get the transfer paper to work and am finding it works better to NOT use it.... but again that's a hit or a miss....

My fault - not the Silhouette's fault - but I removed the portion I wanted to keep instead of the stuff I didn't want to keep... I am saving this, it might come in handy in the future, but it's not going to work for what I want it too now...

You can't really tell in this picture but I can't even sew a straight curved line right!

Then to top it off, I got paint on my laptop!

Tomorrow it will all work out and I am sure I can salvage most of these projects, but isn't it frustrating when it seems like none of your brilliant ideas want to work out the way they should???

Decorating the Dorchester Way

On an organizing roll...

The Cat in the Hat lost his head....

Craft FAIL to a fancy Silhouette design!

Easy Scrabble Artwork

Large Alphabet Wall Art

Stationery card

I am a craft supply hoarder...

How to take a picture inside at night... a-ha moment!!

Happy 1 year blog anniversary Crafty, Scrappy, Happy!!

ABC Artwork

Thanks for Reading!!!!!

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Week One 29 Day Organizational Challenge

29 Day Organizational Challenge - craft room addition

No more stencils on the floor...

Little Man Car Shirt

My Current TO-DO list

There is no thing as a "finished" room...

HP Photo Creations

Valentines Day Decor

Cheap toy storage

Personalized Foot Print Stool

From dish towels to pillow in 5 minutes....

Scrabble Pillows

Not my night!

5. Then you follow other bloggers–(as many as you want)
–leave each one of the blogs that you follow a comment letting them know you are following them and ask them to follow you back.