Crafterjann!!

I should rename my blog--I am in a very crafty mood these days! Ever since I discovered Pinterest, my creative juices have been flowing like crazy.  I can look on that site for hours, and it helps me decide what's my style and what's not. Yesterday, I spent a few hours scouring the antique stores downtown, looking for a lazy Susan.  Well, I started at Walmart, no luck.  Then I went exploring.  I found two of them; they're not exactly what I was looking for, but with a little spraypaint and creativity, I can make them into something I like.  I'll post pictures when that project is finished.
Meanwhile, I worked on this cute little decoration for the sewing room. The chipboard "J" was $1.99 at Hobby Lobby, my favorite craft store ever.  I just started hot-gluing buttons until they covered the whole thing.  I love it. It's about nine inches tall, I think. It will look cute on the wall in the sewing room.

I am still in the middle of a curtain project for the sewing and laundry rooms.  I got the idea for these valences from an old scrapbooking magazine that I was going through, and I went through my fabric stash to use up some bits. I am so in love with the valence!!

You can click on the picture to see the whole room and lots of great storage ideas.  That's Erikia Ghumm's stuff. Here's the inspiration:

from bhg

Here's my version--the before and after.  I am going to paint the room a light grey color and paint the trim white, so it's not totally complete yet, but I already love, love, love it.

The before--denim tab-top curtains.

The after--how darling is that?

That was a fun project.  My sister helped me go through my stash and line up the fabrics, and then I cut out the pieces and used the serger to put them together. I've never used that kind of trim before, and I hemmed the curtains with it--I love the white trim against the denim curtains--it will look great once the room is painted, too, with white trim (instead of that god-awful contractor off-white everything).

OK, the last project from yesterday was this cute little footstool for the scrapbooking table.  I like to prop my feet up when I'm working, and I've been using my scrapping tote since I moved the room downstairs.  I realized that I was ruining the tote, so I set off to find a footstool.  I made this awesome find at Hobby Lobby.  It was listed at $27.99, and it was stained.  When I took it to the cashier, I pointed out the problems and asked if the manager could maybe make me a deal.  A deal she made!! She asked me if I'd buy it for $2.79.  DEAL!!!!!!!!  90% OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So it was hideous to start with:

Picture this in black and white vinyl.  Ugh.

Here's the after--now it matches my fabulous bulletin board I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.  I added a layer of batting under the fabric because I could still see the cowprint coming through under the new fabric. 

Frida Kahlo fabric footstool

I made sure to center the Frida image at the top of the footstool, and it looks great! I love the way this turned out.

I have a few more Pinterest-inspired projects to get to this week--laundry room painted a sunny yellow, finish up the valences, print out a couple of cool pictures for the laundry room, work on the lazy Susans for the scrapbooking space (sanding, painting, embellishing), and create an ironing board from a TV tray table.  Lots to do!!