Thankful

We had a great Thanksgiving day.  My sister and niece came over the night before so we could get up early together and cook, cook, cook with just us girls.  We had a lot of fun, and finished one planned project as well as one spontaneous project.

I found instructions for this adorable pineapple turkey centerpiece at Crafty Chic and knew I had to make it.  It's super simple and requires only a few pieces of felt, some cutting and sewing.  My niece helped cut out the pieces and she wanted to help sew him up on the machine too, so we gave it a whirl.  Her foot is in a cast right now, so I put the gas pedal up on the counter with the machine and she ran it with her hands while I made sure the fabric mostly moved in the direction we wanted.  He's not perfect, but he's full of happy memories already!

For being only 6 years old, she did a fabulous job and wanted to start another sewing project right away!  Who am I to argue with that?  So she decided we needed a welcome sign, and we cut out a turkey with lots of feathers from the remaining felt.  I grabbed a hunk of cotton and we sewed him on his wall hanging together too.  She had a great time and was so proud of it!  I think I'll add a border, a binding and a label for sure and tuck him away for next year.

Gobble, gobble!

Dragonfly Luminaries

Haven't had much time to get crafty at home, but I got crafty at the shop. Saturday night was Wines the Blues in Dunedin with music, food, drink and thousands of people. Yes, thousands!!
I've been trying real hard to get people around the corner and into the shop, but the street there gets kinda dark at night. Why not light it up with some cute dragonfly luminaries? I took my logo & simplified it to create a stencil template. It was super easy - I just traced it with pencil & cut it out. Cutting the wings so wide created some cute wing-like holes in the sides of the bags too, so they really let out alot of light.

Add a cup of sand, put a candle in a small mason jar & voila! Dragonfly lights to help you find your way to Dragonfly Garden.  My sister worked in the shop while I worked out on Broadway at a booth-type table with a few sample items, just to give people an idea of what's in the shop.  She said one customer asked if she could buy the luminaries because they were so cute! How is that for a compliment?

Fresh!

There is something terribly rewarding about finding an item and giving it a new lease on life.  Even when it's as simple as a fresh coat of paint.  After much internal debate on whether to go with colors that are predictably me or strike out into new color territory, my heart finally landed on a color for the new-to-me dressers that will be part of my guest room craft storage.  Although I was open to fate leading me down her path via the oops paint, I didn't find anything inspiring so I went to the paint chips and chose a color called Pink Grapefruit.  I must admit that I am intrigued by how many gallons of black or almost black paint that had been returned to the store.  Don't you wonder what colors those DIY'ers ended up with instead?  Oh, if a gallon of paint could talk.  But ... I digress.

To me this is a rich coral and will add a lovely, almost bold pop of color to the white room.  Its not bold in the sense that designers use the term these days (its not orange!) but its bold for me since I normally choose pale shades.  Here we have the tall dresser with two coats of fresh paint as it waits patiently for some new drawer pulls.  Shucks - I must go shopping!

As I painted the second coat this morning, I was listening to An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon - the latest in the Outlander series.  I have loved it from the beginning, and its very easy to get lost in the story.  She does a wonderful job of describing everything from the signs of the times to some serious character development and Davinia Porter brings the characters to life with her narration.  I can't recommend the series enough to everyone I meet!  Ms. Gabaldon must do an incredible amount of research - I feel like I have learned so much about life in the late 1700's as she takes us from Scotland to France to the Caribbean and finally to America.  No spoilers here, but I will tell you I'm listening to the events of mid-1777 and oh, how intriguing they are!

Unfortunately I was enjoying the rhythym of painting and listening to the audiobook so much that I ended up an hour late to work.  Oops!  More to come.

Crafty Cabinets - before

I love my new little house, but since I don't have all of my furniture with me yet I went out in search of some cabinets or bookcases to use in the meantime.  I'm going from a 3 bedroom plus office home into a 2 bedroom plus sunroom home so there is obviously going to be some downsizing and consolidating.  Another big challenge is that my bedroom storage is reduced closet space - horrors!  Instead of whining, I'm off to the races with this adorable set of dressers that I found at a local consignment shop for peanuts. 

Since I'm renting, I'm not going to paint the walls in the guest room so I will need to add some fun color through my 'stuff' - the comforter, artwork and furniture!  My old guest room was in a soft peach with a gorgeous floral comforter and a general sea shell theme to the room and guest bath.   I've chosen a pink flamingo theme for the guest bathroom, but I really think one room of that is sufficient, don't you?  (And yes, I realize most people would say one pink flamingo room is one room too many!)

I'm thinking a brighter peach, or perhaps coral?  Coral would be girly but a little more tropical.  If I want to use the space as my studio for HotPinkPeonies, then I might want to go with a sky blue with hot pink accents.  That would be cute, but not a very good 'welcome to the beach' color scheme.  Decisions, decisions.  I've thumbed through some photos of beautiful craft rooms online and on Ravelry (because of course one must go there first), but mostly I see where people have added color to their craft rooms or studios on the walls, and used or created white furniture.  I'm sure sure which direction I'll take, but its fun to have a new project!

Anyway, here's the "before" photos :