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In regards to your questions from last week’s questions…I know there are still some left to be answered. I’ll finish answering those next week!

Here are a few answers to yesterday’s post: I tried Snapfish & Shutterfly, but was not pleased with the quality. I have considered using a Blurb book – I like the feature of it being able to be larger than 100 pages. Ultimately I went with MyPublisher because of price. The Blurb and MyPublisher books seemed about equal in price until you factor in 50% off or a Buy One Get One Free coupon (which is a big deal when you are ordering around 400 pages total). I always wait to order my albums until I have one of those coupons. They email me one each year around this time. MyPublisher works like Blurb in that you can pull in all the pictures off your computer, but just use the ones you want. I go through and select my pics because I want to tweak the post processing on them before I pull them into the MyPublisher program. I pick the pictures I want based on what I like and what I don’t want to forget. I probably only end up using 25-50% of the pictures I take. (I’d like to use them all, but my wallet would not like that). MyPublisher does allow for different themes…including text. I choose not to add text because I like the ‘pictures only’ look and I would never get the books done if I added text! We keep journals for the kids.

Here is a link to what I do in regards to saving and backing up my pictures.

So the other day I was thinking…

I am 30. I am a mom of four. Maybe it is time to change my wardrobe to something that reflects this stage of life a bit more….

I went to the store and can you believe for $5.00 I found the PERFECT outfit?!

Perfect for two new pillows that is.

The ability to remove pillow covers is VERY important in my house. Messes happen. Messes happen a lot!

I kept the skirt slit on the houndstooth one and added a vintage button…to allow me to remove the pillow cover.

On the white one I added a flap with vintage trim…to allow me to remove the pillow cover. I like mine better than this $39.00 one.

For those wondering why I didn’t do a tutorial on this…I don’t really know how to sew. I make things up as I go and I usually make a lot of mistakes in the process. I should have done a tutorial on what not to do. For instance, when adding a flap to fold over make sure before you sew it that the flap is on the outside not the inside. Otherwise you have to remove a lot of tiny stitches and that is not fun.

Since I didn’t do a tutorial, I did think I’d share a few outtakes from my pillow making process. Looking at the chaos surrounding my projects it makes it seem worth it just to buy stuff sometimes!

I know this is blurry. She was jumping so fast I couldn’t get any of her in focus. She likes to jump.

And even now as I try to write this post I have a little one trying to crawl off my bed. I’m tired…

And for my Friday etsy finds….in honor of Valentine’s Day

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A conversation with my 3 year old (when his best friend/big brother wasn’t home)
Him: “Let’s do something fun.”

Me: “What do you want to do?”

Him “Play the wii.”

Me: “No, we could make cookies.”

Him: “No, that’s boring.”

Me: “You could make a painting for your room.”

Him: “No, that is boring.”

Me: “We could make playdoh.”

Him: “No, that’s boring.”

Me: “We could melt crayons and make hearts for Valentines.”

Him: “No, that’s boring.”

Me: “Okay, what is not boring?”

Him: “Playing the wii.”

I got out the crayons and decided to start shaving crayons and melting them anyway. This the face sitting across the table from me as I played.

He watched me shave the crayons (with an old cheese grater).

He watched me lay out a towel, then wax paper, then pour the shavings on top, and then cover it with another piece of wax paper and another towel.

He watched me iron it just until the crayons melted.

And his pout turned into a grin and my idea wasn’t so boring anymore.

This is a bit messy of a craft, but fun nonetheless (the towels I used did get stained just fyi). Several people have asked me about how I get my kids to do craft projects. Well, sometimes it is easy. Sometimes it takes me starting it out by myself before they realize how much fun my idea is.

I will say my initial idea was cute hearts in various shades of red. Big Brother wanted to add blue. I’d like to say I agree without hesitation, but I usually hesitate. I told him, “Hearts aren’t blue.” He responded, “Mommy, hearts are whatever color you want to make them.” I could stick to my guns and have cute hearts hanging in the window or I could give in to the blue. I gave in. Encouraging his creativity and imagination are more important than picture book designs.

I cut out hearts to hang in the windows…he cut various shapes, strung them and wanted them hanging in his room.

And on a totally random note…look what I found online!

Yep, my quilt for the Margaret’s Hope Chest Craft Hope Project. It was my first quilt ever and I am pretty proud of it…even if it looks a bit sad and ugly in this photo among all the hard core quilts! Some little guy or girl is warm today. Pretty cool. The next project is making scarves for college students that have aged out of the foster care system. I don’t know how to knit, but hopefully I can figure that out soon to get a scarf there by the Feb. 14th deadline. Check it out here!

So I have gotten a lot of emails asking questions about my ’studio’ space and wanting a photo tour of my craft room. I smile whenever someone asks about my craft room. If there is one thing Chris could add onto the house right now, he’d probably add on a creative studio space for me. He knows how much I’d love it and I think he’d kind of like to sit down for dinner at a table that doesn’t have paint and Mod Podge splattered all over it.

My kitchen craft room

A bit scary, huh? Typically I am picking up so fast that everything just gets shoved in and the curtain closed. This is actually a bookcase we bought at a garage sale for $5.00 about 6 years ago. We added molding to the top and I made a curtain out of a vintage tablecloth to hide the disaster on the shelves. I have good intentions of keeping it organized, but obviously that isn’t happening. A creative mess. Someday it will be a cutely organized creative mess. Someday as in when the boys are older.

So half my creative stuff is downstairs in the kitchen. The other half is upstairs in my daughter’s room my sewing room.

My grandpa built me a craft armoire like this one several years ago. To fit it into this space we had to remove the crown molding and take off the doors. A table pulls out for sewing, but to sew I have to move the ladder with the quilts and the crib. The sewing machine is about a foot from the crib which means I can’t sew during naps or at night when she is sleeping. Needless to say that is why I Mod Podge more than I sew! I keep everything fabric related in this area.

Is this an ideal set up…no. Is it convenient….no. Does it work for what I have available right now…yes. I think in most areas of life we make it work for what is really important to us. I’m making it work….and dreaming of having a space like one of these someday. (I am a pretty content gal, but I have to admit there was some major coveting going on seeing these beautiful craft rooms!)

Apartment Therapy’s motherload list of Creative Craft Rooms

Apartment Therapy’s second motherload list of Creative Craft Rooms

Soule Mama’s Studio v.2

Heather Bailey’s Studio

Karen Russell’s Scrapbook Room/Office

Meg’s Craft Room

There are so many more, but I am trying to stay on task with some projects this week, so I better stop. Do a google image search for “craft room” and just look at all the beautiful spaces that come up.

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