Where Bloggers Create 2014

 
Today I'm so pleased to be participating in the Where Bloggers Create blog tour hosted by the wonderful Karen over at My Desert Cottage.

MY DESERT COTTAGE

 

My craft room is my favorite room in our house. I planned it carefully for months before creating it from a spare bedroom. It's my own personal space; a little room full of my work in-progress, arts and craft supplies, and little bits and pieces I've collected over the years just for me. It has a long L-shaped work table made from two solid core doors supported by an old desk cut in-two along with an old spray painted filing cabinet. There are two steel storage cabinets and a closet outfitted with shelves. A little sewing table sits just inside the door. Underfoot is painted sub-flooring. During a project my craft room can look like a tornado has touched down in there, but with all the storage and a place for everything, I'm able to put things straight in no time.

I hope you enjoy this tour of my creative space!

I hope you enjoyed my craft room tour.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Don't forget to visit Karen's blog over at My Desert Cottage to see many more creative spaces.

My Desert Cottage

 

I'm also hanging out this week at:

DIY Showoff

Between Naps On The Porch 

Mod Vintage Life 

 

 

Happy May Day!

Happy May Day to you! 

To celebrate the first day of May I'm sharing my favorite part of my spring garden. 

  

This corner of our garden is always the first to show signs that spring has arrived. My daughters gave me this Bleeding Heart, so of course it's my favorite flower in the garden.  

 

   

These are our very first blossoms from our new little Eastern Redbud Tree we planted last summer.

  

This corner has always been pink and white in the spring.

 

Next to the Redbud Tree and the Bleeding Heart is a lilac tree. 

 

For years this lilac has been struggling under the shade of our big locust tree. 

 

But since we had that tree cut down last year, it's happily basking in the sun it needs and putting out lots of new limbs. 

 

I never wanted to rob it of its few blooms in years past, but this year there's more than enough to cut and bring indoors.

 

As I sit here writing this post in my studio, I'm surrounded by the sweet scent of lilacs. 

 

Tucked into a mason jar high up on a shelf with the birds.

Nothing says May Day like lilacs!

I'm so happy to announce that my good friend Sharon is hosting her Elizabeth & Company Garden Parties again this year. I'm heading over there right now, and I sure hope you'll join me!

  
Happy May Day!

Don't stop partying! This week I'm also over at

 Common Ground

 French Country Cottage

Fishtail cottage 

 From My Front Porch To Yours

Rooted In Thyme

 

 

Craft Room Stool

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine went by so fast! My husband and I took a long hike up in the hills for a spectacular view of the valley. It was cold, but the sun was shining and I got my first sunburn of the year. It's a rite of spring for me. 

Today, I'm sharing another craft room project. 

 In my old craft room, my stool was covered with bright ruffles of fabric that felt too colorful for my new neutral craft room. 

Ruffled Slipcover

So I removed the ruffled slipcover and was planning on painting the stool with some green chevron stripes to match my window valance.

Then I saw this cute red and white checkered stool painted by Anne at Design Dreams by Anne and fell in love with it.

Design Dreams by Anne

Since I love to mix patterns, I decided to go with checks. 

I sanded, primed, and painted my stool white and let it dry overnight. Then I mixed a few drops of gray, blue, green and black craft paint into some white latex for the checkered squares. I followed Anne's tutorial and photos for taping the checkered pattern with painter's tape and used a short piece of the one inch tape to space the rows equally apart.

I painted the first squares and took the tape off without letting it dry. I'm a cutter-inner, not a taper, and I'm never quite sure if I should take the tape off before the paint dries, or after. Either way, I'm never very successful at having clean edges, and this was no exception. Good thing I was going for a shabby chic look with the emphasis on the shabby!

 I let the paint dry for a few hours, then taped over the first part in the same way and painted the rest of the squares.  

After that was good and dry, I distressed the seat and legs with medium sandpaper and waxed everything with two coats of clear wax. 

Here's my little checkered stool in my craft room. 

One of these days, unless one of those awesome Pottery Barn wooden office chairs with wheels falls in my lap, I'm going to try making a slip cover for my big ugly office chair.

But you know how it is; so many projects, so little time!

I hope you're having a great day, and thanks for spending a bit of it with me!  

It's party time! C'mon along!

Coastal Charm 
Cozy Little House 
Elizabeth & Co. 
Homework 
Our Home Away From Home 
Stone Gable 
Beyond the Picket Fence 
French Country Cottage  
My Romantic Home 
Miss Mustard Seed
My Repurposed Life