Matchy-matchy

I'm "one of those women" that always wear jewelry that coordinates with her outfit. It's almost a sickness. I feel naked without earrings, and at least one necklace and bracelet. I wear, bear minimum, my watch, wedding rings and earrings every time I walk out the door, even if it's just to run to the grocery store or drop something off at a friend's.

On a really good day, my shoes and bag coordinate, too. I also choose my makeup pallete based on what I'm wearing. If I'm wearing cool colors and silver jewelry, I wear gray eye shadow, pink blush and pink lipstick and gloss...if I'm wearing warm colors and gold jewelry, I wear brown or gold eyeshadow, peachy blush and brownish lipstick. It's how my mother does it and how her mother does it. I think it might actually be genetic.

So. I like things to match. Or at least coordinate. In the South, you say it "goes." As in, it's not a perfect match..."but it goes."

I also like to adhere to the "waste not, want not" philosophy so when I make my decorative file folders, I use the scraps to make other things like bookmarks or gift tags.

Well, now I've really hit on something. Introducing...

MATCHING FILE FOLDERS AND MARBLE MAGNETS!!!





I think the set would make a great gift for "one of those women" who likes things to "go." More sets are coming soon!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5509271

The tale of the craft room makeover

FINALLY!!! My dream of a dedicated craft room has become reality!

And here's the story.

My husband's sister, the one who introduced us eight years ago, bought her own home a week ago and moved out after living in our back bedroom for six years. When she started house hunting six months ago , I started dreaming about what I'd like to do with that room. I knew right away: craft room! We also need a place for guests to stay so we knew it would have to function as a guest bedroom, too.

Here's my craft table in my Morning Room. It worked well in there but did get messy, which made the whole room messy. Once I knew it would be moving out of the room, I didn't even bother cleaning up after myself--which results in this amazing disaster!



So after Sarah moved out, job #1 was painting her former room. I had two inspiration pieces:

This bird...



...and this piece of "Joom" artwork. I later realized it was loosely based on my favorite coffee mug, too. No wonder I liked it!



Here's the final (tentative) color scheme. I was going to do the walls in the middle aqua color called "Serendipity" and accesorize in the orange and green.



I hung the aqua paint chip in the room and looked at it throughout the day and realized that it was a little more washed out than I wanted.

So back to the drawing board. I headed to a different home improvement depot, er, store...the one that carries my dad's favorite paint brand. They had a chip I fell in love with called "True Turquoise" so I grabbed it and a few coordinating green and orange chips, too.

On the spray paint aisle, I spotted "Apple Green," which was strikingly similar to the green in my hand so I grabbed a can and told my hubby, "I should spray paint the table!"

I placed the chips in the room again and watched them during the day. In the meantime, I also went to Glidden's web site (oops, I gave it away!) and played with their cool program that allows you to "virtually" paint your room. That's how I came up with my final color scheme!

This was it.



Picturing my green table, I thought it would look super-snazzy against an orange wall so when I called to beg my dad to come paint the room, I said, "And by the way...can we do an orange accent wall??? Pleeeeeeease??" Good thing I'm a Daddy's girl!

So the plan was born. Three "True Turquoise" walls, one "Orange Slice" wall and one "Apple Green" table.

My Dad, The Happy Painter, arrived on Friday morning and was susprised to find my SIL's former room to be so...well, "painted." She had done an amazing job of hand painting her walls with several cool motifs.

Vines and flowers...



...a castle...



...lamp posts...



...and a forest.



So after he painted the ceiling bright white, he did a layer of white on all the walls.



In the meantime, I moved the table out to paint it, leaving the room like this.



Here's the table BEFORE, painted in a sort of shabby chic off-white...



...and then "Apple Green!" It really makes the lines on the table stand out!



I was loving the turquoise as it went up!!!!



And I could tell the orange was going to look perfect! Yes, that's my SIL's Orlando B. poster on the back of the door! :)



The Happy Painter



That's some serious precision. That's why he makes the big bucks.



And then it was time to move the furniture in!!!

Here are the three colors together!



And with the bookcase and futon in the room.



Then the fun really got started!! I moved all my "stuff" back...



And got to work!

I covered the futon in a pretty quilt. It'll work for now. Eventually I'll get a proper cover.



Then I put everything back on the bookcase...



...and back on my table.



It'll need some tweaking as I actually work in there, to see how it all functions. But at least it's all IN there!

And now here's a good BEFORE:



...and AFTER.



Another AFTER.



And now my Morning Room is looking more like its usual self! My dream is to have a whicker love seat and chair in there someday.

For your reference, here's the before...



...and after.



My favorite spot in there is My Chair, where I do my morning Bible reading and praying. Now I don't have to sit there and feel guilty about the mess across the room!!



And there ya go! Now we're got all this empty space in the living room where the futon use to go so we may be moving more furniture around soon.

For now, I'm thrilled with my room! We still have several more projects to do in there, including hanging shelves and putting up curtains but for now, I'm excited to have my own space to CREATE in. And my mom has a private place to sleep!!

Stay tuned for more soon...

New paper, new project!

YES, I do manage to find some time to craft these days, usually when the baby is napping. It's a great creative outlet for me and very necessary, in fact, to keep my sanity!

I looove finding new paper to make folders with!! My theory is that if I like them, other people will like them, too.

Here's "Ozone." Kinda manly!





And "Serenity." I love the colors and the design--almost Asian.







"Penny Lane" with purple and green, one of my favorite color combos.



Another current favorite, called "Cosmo." I love these colors and patterns!



Naturally, these are all available in
My Etsy Shop

I also just completed a large custom order for a friend, of 20 "pleasantly mismatched" folders. I adore how these came out. Fun shades of blue, purple, green and raspberry.





COMING SOON: My craft room/guest room project!!

My dear sister-in-law just vacated our back bedroom after 6 years and I'm daydreaming constantly about my new room! First item on the agenda: PAINT!

Check back soon!