My Space

Inspired by the entry over at All Buttoned Up I decided to post about my craft space. Although I would love to have a room dedicated just to crafts (with a door that I could shut on all the mess and chaos and not have to look at or think about until I was ready to!) I am lucky to have this space. My husband made me this table using the top of an old desk that his mother had lying around. (The picture above was taken last year when he first made the table- the one below is from today.) What I love is that my machine is always out. If I had to put it away then I know I wouldn't do even half of what I do get accomplished- which isn't much to begin with! I find little snipettes of time here and there and that's how I work... and I stand up when I sew! Which makes my MIL crazy. She just can't imagine it. But it works for me. Seriously, I can just walk away when I'm done without even having to make the extra effort of standing up first! Yes, I am that lazy. (The table space is limited, so I cut out fabric on the floor and do my ironing in the kitchen.)

The table is in the corner of the former dining room. We still call it the dining room, and I think it confuses my kids. They'll ask where something is and I'll say, "On the buffet table in the dining room." The what??? We don't have a dining room! Well, actually for a time this was a real dining room, with a real dining room table, eight chairs, china hutch and a buffet table. The set was the first set of "real" furniture my parents owned. My mom spent a lot of time refinishing the pieces, and they were always in own homes when we were growing up. In our home (which by the way was my great grandma's home and four generations of my family have lived init) we never utilized the dining room. Our kitchen has a large table and we just have always eaten there. Also, the table was really wobbly and it made me crazy, AND it was basically a dumping ground for all the piles of crap that you can never seem to find a good home for. So when my cousin was looking for a dinning room set I told her to stop by and take mine. I wasn't home when she and her dad arrived with his truck, but I guess they could only fit the table and not the hutch or buffet table. The hutch is on my back porch waiting for them to return (it's been 2 years) and the buffet table is where it has always been, and now I like it and it can stay. So our table-free dining room became our computer/craft/dancing/play room. We spend most of our time in here. All of our music is on our computer, we don't even have a stereo system, so lots of listening and dancing happens here. We'll roll up the carpet sometimes so the kids can tap dance. Daddy wrestling matches take place in here. There are bins of toys under the buffet table for the kiddos I babysit for (this also keeps them out of my daughter's room- she is ten and is starting to have some privacy issues). This is also the only room in our house besides the kitchen that has a southern exposure- so sometimes we just enjoy the sun in here.

I found the awesome sturdy Danish designed oak table at an estate sale for $50 to use as a computer desk. You can see my niece playing on the computer, my fabric stash spilling out from under the sewing table, the new printer that we need to hook up still, the edge of the buffet table and the little kids table that was recently taken out of my daughter's room and I am trying to give away (I am in a paring down mood).
This is the shelf/ ribbon holder that my husband made for me. I found a picture somewhere (I think a Martha Stewart magazine) and he sort-of copied it. It hangs above the buffet table. I love it and I love that he made it for me. In this picture you can also see my kids' school pictures, two giraffes (can you see themboth?) and the kidlet-in-process that nearly killed my sewing machine. Um, I need to put that snowman away, don't I? This is a picture of the antique cabinet in the kitchen that holds all the kids crafty stuff... paper, markers, pencils, paint, feathers, beads, glue, plastic tubs from butter, toilet paper rolls, and more and more paper. This piece of furniture was found in my great grandma's "carriage house" (a different great grandma than the one who used to live in this house) and I think it may once have been a home to rabbits or something equally disgusting. I scrubbed the bejesus out of it and replaced all the screening. I love the funky paint job.