Improved Art Studio

Could you create in this? What a mess and totally uninspiring!! One of my New Year's Resolutions was to FIX it! The following pictures show the transformation. Of course, a lot of it was just putting things where they belong! Ha. I thought I would share my make-over with all of you at Jen's Make-over Open House.

After painting most of my furniture, nothing good, mostly lamintate stuff, it made such a change.

Still trying to decide to paint my sewing machine cabinet also. I'm thinking, yes.


Made skirts to cover up the messes under the tables. $1.00 a yd. at Walmart.



A recent find at the Goodwill, $2.50. Needlepoint and brown velvet. Beautiful!!1




This my storage closet. I need to re-organize it a bit, too.


I decided to use a spool cabinet I had been using as a jewelry box to store other small items as well. I have almost filled it up! Amazing how much I got in it, though.

I cut wallpaper strips and pasted them on the outside of these plastic drawers. I looks pretty good. There are more pics on the next post also.Thanks for visiting. It's so fun to see all the other make-overs !!
Be Blessed, Linda

My Re-decorated Art Studio

Hi everyone, Hope you are enjoying these first few days of Spring. We are finally getting to see glimpses of Spring around here. It seems like it has been a long winter to me. I decided it was time to get my art studio looking more like "Me" as opposed to just a room with my worktable and supplies in it. When we moved into our house in late 2004, I was lucky just to get it all in one room without it looking pretty, as there was still a lot of finish work to be done (our job) and I couldn't justify taking that much time with my room. Anyway, in January I started moving out furniture one wall-at-a time and repainting a Spring Green and at the same time, painting the furniture, mostly laminate stuff from the eighties, off white. It was really tight quarters as my room is not all that large. I do however have a wonderful walk-in closet to store all the ugly stuff! ha! I suppose I have way too many interests, but it keeps me happy and on track emotionally if I can just go somewhere and "make something" . I'm sure you all know what I mean. So, this is the first wall as you come in the door. It is a laminate countertop sitting on two old sewing machine stands. Since this picture, I have made a skirt to fit under the lip to hide the unpresentables. My rack for the scrapbook paper was found at the Goodwill-2.98! SCORE! This surface is great to paint or glue on because you can easily wash it all off.

This little cabinet is a curio cabinet I bought from a good friend when she had to move her parents out of their home. It is perfect for my miniature stuff that has yet to find a permanent home. It is sitting on a little chest end table.

Then I have a stack of three drawers with various materials beside my sewing machine cabinet. This is the one piece, I still need to get painted. Then, the closet door. The clock I made from the plastic top from one of those cardboard table thingies, (from the seventies probably) I painted it and decoupaged wrapping paper pieces on it, then crackled it. The clock fit easily inside the back lip. The beautiful quilt was given to me by a special friend when we moved away. It is a treasure and she picked the very colors that I had in mind for my room. Coincidence? I don't think so. Thanks, Gayle!

A painted plastic thing with velvet glued on and painted plastic cherub (from the cake decorating shop.

This is the facing wall of the room. My husband made shelves to hang over top of this 3 drawer chest, from a hospital sale. On top, my little glass house of miniature dolls, a beaded lamp, an apothecary jar with white shell buttons, and three stacking boxes from Hobby Lobby.
My miniature General Store and Victorian Bedroom Room boxes sit on the shelves.

Then, this is my favorite workspace, sitting in front of two large windows that face southwest. It is wonderful to bask in the sunshine there on a winter afternoon. I love it. My work table was a find at the Goodwill. I has a laminate top somewhat messed up but I can deal with it and most everything will clean off that I get one it. I made a skirt for this table also. The table cost me $25.00.

I have white blinds on these windows, but I like them all the way up and decided to use some of my vintage hankies as a valance. They are just clipped on . May do something different in the future, but for now, it suits me just fine.

Oops, this pic is out of order. Anyway, one the other side of my worktable, I have an old thread cabinet. ( I'll show you it in more detail in a later post). Then, another white 3-drawer hospital chest. My TV sits on this and a stack of wallpapered boxes as well as a wicker mannequin a friend gave me. Then, those eighties bookcases on each side of a butcher block table holding my sorely neglected dollhouse. I really need to get it finished up. I did decide to paint it a plum color. It looks lighter in this picture. The bookcases hold lots of stuff as you might imagine.

A few dried roses from a recent bouquet. They are Sterling Silver, we used that kind in our wedding. They are so beautiful!

The little red box is my collection of miniature Santas. I make Santa Dolls also.

This is back to the counter where we began.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. It has been fun to fix it up like I wanted to. I will show you some more pictures later. This is Sunday. We had such a good lesson this morning about how the Lord is leading us all through the desert to the Promised Land. We have His Word and His Spirit inside us to show us the way, so be brave and take the next step, He is there to help you.
Be Blessed Dear Friends,

Linda

My Collections

Yvette ~ The Charm House is hosting a day of collections. So I thought I would share a few of mine. First , I love miniature dolls. Some day I have in mind to do a miniature doll shop to show case them all. In the mean time, they are happy in this terrarium.

I also love mother-of-pearl buttons and found a pretty jar to put them in, so I could look at them all the time. They are wonderful for collage projects, jewerly, etc.

These satin white cherubs are something I have always enjoyed finding at thrift shops and garage sales.

Next, I have quite a few cottage type prints. Most have thatched roofs . They are hung in the guest room.

These are a few of my "Mother plaques. I have quite a few and have most of them in the master bathroom. They are so charming and have beautiful verses.

Next up, my blue and white dishes and cobalt glass.

Isn't it fun to see all the different things we find that touch our hearts in some way? Thanks for stopping by. Have a blessed Monday.

Linda

Fabric Collage Bible Cover

Happy March everyone!! I thought I would show you my latest project. For many years I have intended to make a cover for my Bible that was more to my liking than the commercial ones available today. They just didn't seem to be ME. So the other day I decided it was time to do it and forget about the laundry, house cleaning, etc. that is all around me. It seems I usually pick work instead of fun. I NEED TO GET OVER THAT!!! Ha. Anyway, I used some cream-colored twill that I had. It was fairly heavy and yet soft enough to sew through by hand with a needle and thread. I measured my Bible laid out flat for the dimensions and added about 1/2 " around the edges, plus another about 1/2" to the width dimension so it would have a little ease to fold closed. Then I decided how big I wanted the inside panel to be. It can only be the size of the top and bottom of your Bible. Then add enough another inch for seam allowance and hemming on one side. Then I added pockets for the inside also. They went up a little beyond half-way. I hemmed the tops of these and added a piece of old crocheted trim I had. You could use so many things for this.

On the front I used a old gold-lace border from something I had. I stamped a scripture on a smaller piece of fabric and glued this inside my gold frame and trimmed it out with small braid trim and small lace. I glued 4 velvet leaves to each corner. On top of these, I stitched 4 large mother-of-pearl buttons and a smaller lavender bead.

Down the spine of the cover, I wrote another favorite scripture on twill tape and stitched it on.
Then I sewed all the layers together and included a strip of another crochet trim to use as a closure to button on the back. After I was sure it all fit my Bible, I started whip stiching the rest of the crocheted trim around all the edges. I did this with the Bible in it so I would be sure to only get one thickness of fabric in my needle. It was stitched down the midddle so it was half on the book and half off.

Another large button, a pin, a cross and a locket were then added as well. I wish my picture had turned out better. Jewelry findings and charms were added at the top. It wasn't hard at all, but did take a little time. I think it turned out pretty well. OH, do you see that the trim in the left hand side of the "V" at the bottom doesn't line up? I fixed that later! Ha. It was fun to do something for me for a change and not for an order or a gift. Maybe you could come up with ideas too. I would love to hear from you! Happy creating, I have pictures coming up soon of my newly organized art studio.!!!

Enjoy the creative talents God has given you.

Blessings to you all, Linda

Yellow, White and Blue Dining Room

Hi Friends, I thought I would show you all pictures of my dining room and all my blue and white. Most of the dishes are from thrifting and garage sales, however I don't find as many pieces as I used to. I have loved cobalt blue since I was a child and got a box of oil paints for Christmas. It was one of my favorite gifts. Anyway the tube of Prussian blue just won my heart and I think every painting I did then always had some Prussian blue in it somewhere! Ha. My dad, one day brought home a place setting of Blue Willow dishes he had received from the gas station with a fill-up. I claimed them right then and asked for them for my someday hope chest. We have used them eversince . It was a Willow Ware set. I had enough for eight place settings. Along the way I picked up other dishes when I would find them as well as cobalt glass. Of course we all remember the Vick's vapor rub jar, noxema skin cream, Evening in Paris, and Milk of Magnesia bottles too. Those were the good old days! Anyway most of my collection is in the dining room. There is still work to be done, but I thought I would show you around. The little window above is a dormer window on the outside of the house. The little landing was a happy accident from the builder. We loved it! My DH goes up the ladder at Christmas and replaces the lamp with a little Christmas tree. We did have the foresight to have it wired so we could turn it on at the switch below!


This is our buffet, from the trainstation flea-market. I stripped it down and then one day had the idea of taking an oak footboard we had and attaching it and the mirror to the back. It matches perfectly. I have a white shelf above this that needs some attention! The cobalt blue bowl was from a garage sale and the cup and saucer are missmatches. I added the little blue cornflowers and the white flowers.

More garage sale finds

The blue band around the top was originally going to have a smaller blue basket border in it, but since I could see that borders were on their way out, I thought one day, why not just hang different blue and white plates? DH went up the ladder and measured for each one. How I love that man!

Our English Sideboard. Found at an antique mall at a not to be found again price in the 90's.

It holds a lot of stuff inside too!

Cloches from the Goodwill. A couple of pieces of flow-blue from my long ago garage saling.

An old music cabinet,(these are great) A small wall curio with a child's Blue willow set.

Oops, I deleted the full length picture of this cabinet. (also from a garage sale) It sits on top of a gate-leg table that was my husband's grandmother's. The tall cobalt vase was a recent find at the Goodwill! $5.00!!

Also the other day, found these two candle cups at the Goodwill for .75 each. Hope you enjoyed the tour. I realized I didn't take a shot of the table. It was also a antique mall purchase, but had no leaves, so my DH made four matching ones, We can seat 8 to 10. The chairs are new but matched the turnings on the table and buffet so well we couldn't not get them a few years ago.

Have a blessed day! Remember God is in control.

Linda

Valentine weekend

This has always been one of my favorite old valentine postcards. Isn't it sweet? It's a little ragged aroung the corners but I still love it. We had a great valentine weekend with three of our local granddaughters. (wish we could have seen them all) Mom and Dad were out of town on a romantic get-away so the girls stayed with us. My DH brought me beautiful pink roses! some of the prettiest I've seen and they all bloomed out instead of nodding off and dying. Don't you hate when that happens? I arranged some of my older valentines around the mirror on which I place the roses with some of my crystal candelsticks. Not a lot of effort, but it was pretty.

On Friday afternoon the girls and I worked on Valentine pages for their scrapbooks. They are all fairly new to this hobby, but are doing so well! This is MissyK working on her masterpiece. I just spread everything out on a table and let them do their own thing.

"Tinkerbell" worked hard on her page, taking great care with everything and had a special message for her parents. We worked together on the glitter part. ha

The divine Miss M took great care with her page also. Trying different patterns and pictures. She loves to create and also paid tribute to Mommy and Daddy. So sweet.

It was fun to spend time with the girls creating, my favorite thing in the world. We ate plenty of chocolate and ice cream all weekend. What could be better? Hope you all had a great weekend too.
Wishing you all the love your hearts can hold,

Linda

Is it Spring yet?

I am so ready for Spring! Am I the only one? I so doubt it! We've really had some cold weather this winter, though not as much snow as usual. And so far not a lot of ice, but that could still happen I suppose. I made this wreath for a doorprize for our women's retreat at church next month and really like how it turned out. It has purple blue hydrangeas ( I love hydrangeas!) , yellow tulips, white lilacs, yellow berries, ivy and a little lavender stem, I'm not sure what it's supposed to be. Then I filled in with some chartreuse stems. I hadn't done any florals since before Christmas and it felt good, I really need to clean up my floral room. It's in the basement and we are in the beginning stages of finishing off a portion of it. Can't wait to see all the sheetrock dust all over my flowers! ha. I will have to figure out a way to cover everything with plastic or something.

I have been very busy working on my art studio. I repainted the walls to a cheerier shade of green and have been painting all the furniture white. ( my husband said it was okay as most of it was not the good stuff. I am really excited about how it is turning out. Rearranging the furniture has made a big difference, and I've been going through my magazines and tearing out things I wanted to file in notebooks. It takes up a lot less room that way. I have trouble getting rid of my magazines, does anyone else have that problem? I have found that I go back and read them and get just as much as the first time. I always see something new! But, alas I can't keep everything I guess. All the magazines going out of business makes my so sad. Our world is changing and sometimes I don't like it at all. I have noticed though that so many of the magazine have much less content and more ads, which is so frustrating when you want to spend a leisurely afternoon pouring over favorite magazine and it takes 5 minutes to read it. One magazine, I had to let go after subscribing for over 20 years. It was so sad.

Back to my studio, I will post pictures hopefully soon when I get it all back together. Our granddaughters will be staying with us a few days and they want to scrapbook while they're here.

I put this arrangement together for an order I received. The container is a semi-circular sewing machine drawer. It was really a neat looking drawer and I am pleased with how it worked up. It was to represent the state. Can you guess which state? It is made to be displayed on a table and also can be hung on the wall as I attached saw-tooth hangers on the back. It has sunflowers, green hydrangeas, and viburnum stems along with various grasses and twig-looking stems. Then some cornflower stems. I really like the way it turned out.

So keep the faith, girls, Spring is coming eventually!

Be Blessed, Linda