Just When I Thought It Was Safe to Craft Again… We Nuked the Craft Room

I was so proud of myself for having cleaned up and organized the craft attic into something where I could be productive and creative again, just in time for Halloween and Thanksgiving crafting.  Behold! Lovely space that’s all ready to work in:

Alas, it was not meant to be. We had energy audit folks come in last week and we are losing 90%, NINETY PERCENT of our heat through the un-insulated roof and walls. We get the biggest bang for our buck by a) blowing insulation into the walls, some of which can be done through the attic due to how the house was built. Seriously, in MANY places I could drop a penny in an open area in the wall in the attic and it would land in the basement walls, 3 stories down. b) there is no insulation in the attic, ZILCH.  Behind those gloriously purple walls is bare wood with roofing over it (and old, rusty nails jutting out perilously.  There are a few places where you can see daylight, which explains the bird poop. Lovely eh?

So, as timing would have it, a good friend of ours is available for a week starting NOW.  He happens to be the awesome craftsman and union construction/carpenter guy (not sure what it’s officially called) who helped us tear down and rebuild our back deck this summer. But it had to be THIS WEEK or who knows when and “Winter is Coming”. Yesterday he agreed to start working this Monday (tomorrow), so today we moved everything either out of the room, or into the center of the floor to be tarped over for the partial-gut and rehab.  :: sniffles:: 

Old walls are coming down, new walls are going up over some nice new insulation. We’re also going pretty much to the edges this time, so imagine that room is now a giant triangle instead of a pentagon.  So space like this, currently behind the wall where the Cricut/Sizzix table is, is getting reclaimed:

We’re going to have to figure out how to use the new low slanted edges of the room for storage long-term – any ideas is appreciated here – we already have some fantastic dreams of cool built-ins and hanging sconces or track lighting. For now I just want a safe, warm place to craft again next week.  We’ll work the rest in slowly.  So this is what I have now…

With most of my crafting stuff under the table, and soon a tarp.  I kept some of my crafting stuff kinda available in the little room just outside the craft space. I did say kinda:

Stay tuned! I’ll keep you posted with updates on the construction and rehab.  Hoping no more surprises come along to make my craft space unavailable for more than a week.  I have Christmas gifts to start!

My Craft Room... OK, So it’s More of a Crazy Craft Attic

Now I won’t pretend that I have ALL the answers when it comes to thriftiness, but I am pretty good at finding deals.  On the one hand, a part of me wants my craft room to be organized to a fault, always looking like the magazines with fancy, expensive Martha Stewart Craft furniture (it’s a thing, I have seen it). But that ain’t real life is it?  The minute I start a new project it looks like a tornado went through the place and all that matters is a) being able to find what I need and b) not worrying about spilling glue/paint/glitter/etc. all over the furniture I have up there.  I also would rather spend my money on craft supplies and not fancy furniture that is likely to get burned by my cheap hot gloue gun and bedazzled with cheap acrylic paint spills.

So, let’s get down to business.  When we bought this house, I saw the awful purple nightmare of an attic and thought “GIRL CAVE!!”  a.k.a. “Craft room!” a.k.a. “OMG Craft Attic”. It’s about 15 feet wide, and 30 feet long.  Here is a pic (cameo by Mr. Crafty Diva Wannabe):

 

Eventually it’s gonna get painted, but life gets in the way and even nasty purple walls and glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling can’t stop this woman from her crafts! Moving right along, it looks like this now:

Much better right? And you know what? Cost FAR less than you think to get that way (not counting the craft supplies themselves.)  Some of it is new, some of it was just creative re-use.

The huge table in the middle is a workshop table we salvaged from the basement ($0) on top of 2 Ikea adjustable saw horses ($40). The White table/chairs on the right is a Pottery Barn bistro set we brought from the previous place that we had got on Craigslist 4 years ago for $100. We were going to get rid of it, but it’s a cute place to craft so I decided to keep it (I’m calling that $0).  Every bit of cabinetry and shelving in the room was left in various rooms of the house when we bought it so we just brought it all upstairs($0). I nabbed a couple of nice wooden folding chairs at a thrift store ($12). I then picked up 4 more folding tables and a 2 more chairs at Home Depot ($90).  The blue rug was there, the flowered rug came from CraigsList 7 years ago and moved from our previous place too ($0).  So for under $150 in NEW furniture, I have room to hold 8-9 crafty women.  5 if people need to spread out a bit and do something big like scrapbooking.  

Of course, I don’t even want to think about how much I’ve spend on craft supplies, or all the stuff to organize those supplies, but I did some cool, cheap things there too.  But that’s another post. Hope you enjoyed this one! And if you live nearby and wanna craft sometime, I have plenty of space, LOL.

I Sure Love Pottery Barn Halloween Displays, but Not the Prices!

My first attempt at a Halloween table display was this:

PA-THET-IC! I mean really, a sunflower? And that’s the runner and straw placemat thing I used for my summer display. And a hand stuck in a vase?  Ooh, how creative, spooky, and original ::rolls eyes::  Yes, I absolutely roll my eyes at MYSELF.  At least I stuck a skull and a plastic rat in there.  I guess it was a “fall harvest medley” meets “Dawn of the Dead” thing, but still, I could do better.

So a couple of weeks ago, I was wandering Oak Brook Mall and being mid-September, Halloween displays were already  out. I was in love, especially with these displays at Pottery Barn:

GOR-geous! All of it! Then, I started lifting things off the table to see the prices and about had a coronary, and backed away slowly. Don’t get me wrong, my bed is from Pottery Barn as is my dining room table, but in both cases I waited for a good sale. I even used my rewards from the dining room table to buy the bed frame. I do believe in paying for quality, but I don’t need my Halloween display to be family heirlooms. Do you? Well, maybe TNM does.

With the P.B. Halloween display, well let’s just call out a few things:

• Small box of fake spider webs (yeah, I know): $9
• Small bag of Spanish Moss (3 or 4 were used): $9.50
• Iron owl lanterns: $59 for large, $29 for small
• Mercury glass votive holders: $3.50 <—actually reasonable!
• Glass apothecary jars: $39 – $69
• Mix leaf vase filler: $14.50
• News Text candles: $16.50 – $29.50
• Various pillar candle holders: $19 – $49 each

I couldn’t resist the owl, I wanted both but just couldn’t spend almost $100 on them.  I did use my $25 PB cardholder coupon to bring the large owl down to $37 out the door. Steep, but it was a seriously heavy piece of metal and will last a while. And once in a while I don’t mind splurging a bit. I also grabbed 2 mercury glass candle holders because really, I don’t think I can make them for much less than $3.50 each anyway. For the rest, I was off to Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, and the local thrift store.  Now, I wasn’t looking to completely recreate the PB scene above, but it inspired me to do some cool things. Here’s a quick peek, I love that owl!

I stopped at Michael’s and picked up some foam pumpkins, I have a problem with squirrels attacking mine. I’m done chasing them away from my beautiful hand-carved jack-o-lanterns that are barely recognizable as anything except pulp, seeds and a withered shell.  I then spray painted them to get the colors in line with my overall theme. I picked up some black, silver and deep purple floral pieces, twigs, and large feathers at Hobby Lobby for between $0.49 and $1.99 each. Also nabbed a HUGE bag of spider webbing for $0.99 and a grocery sack size bag of Spanish moss for $2.49, FULL PRICE. You hear that Pottery Barn?!? $2.49 for about 10x the amount you wanted $9.50 for. Geez.  Found a few cute pumpkins and gourds in various shaped and sizes for around $3 each.

My stop at Dollar Tree netted me a ton of creepy cloth, severed limbs, eye balls, and a few other novelties for about $7 total. I lastly stopped at our local thrift store and picked up some brass and pewter candle sticks, a couple of glass jars, and some really nifty old plastic prescription jars. I have ideas for those later!

As I started to set things out, I realized my summer table runner would NOT do, but I didn’t have anything Halloween-ish. Even the cheesy spider web ones are like $10 and they fall apart if you wash them. Then it dawned on me, I have a TON of creepy cloth, only mine is from the Dollar Tree.  That’s right, $1 for a spooky Halloween runner.  Looks pretty good on my expensive Pottery Barn table huh?  I added some tattered leaf vase filler, only mine wasn’t the Pottery Barn kind, it was from Pier 1 and I paid about $4 for a large box of it.  Looks the same, only $10 cheaper.

 

Next, I tossed a pillar I grabbed on clearance after Christmas last year into the owl. It was $3, smells like vanilla, and is the right size and color.  I filled a free vase that I sprayed glittery black with Hobby Lobby black roses, a black feather, and silver berry branches costing about $6 total.  Added some bulk bagged tea lights to the mercury glass holders, stuck a skull on top of a $4 pewter taper candlestick from Goodwill, garnished with a black and cream patterned gourd I grabbed at Hobby Lobby for $3.50, added a dash of farmer’s market mini pumpkin  ($0.75) and topped it off with my hammered pewter spray painted pumpkin from this previous post.  Oh, I also grabbed the plastic rat from the sad, original display. Since my table wasn’t as huge as the PB one, it’s definitely not as ostentatious. But it’s adorable!

Here is a brighter photo so you can really see everything I used:

A more realistic image of what it will look like at night and during the Halloween party. Spooooky:

I have a lot more in the hopper, but I am pacing myself.  Stay tuned, I just picked up some cheap but architectural looking wooden candlesticks and old pie tins (remember Pop n Fresh?) at the Brown Elephant for a song. Going to be painting and gluing them together to create some cool tiered stands for Halloween AND my craft room!  Thanks to brilliant folks on Pinterest for giving me the idea

Spray Paint is my Friend

When I was little, I remember my mom having a LOT of spray paint. Any time she wanted to refresh a room, make something old new and shiny, she’d whip out her spray paint and *poof!  We didn’t have a lot of money to be buying new furniture every few years, but it was amazing what she could do with a fresh coat of paint and some new rugs.  I remember doing that with an old bedside stand. I must have spray painted it 7 or 8 times.  I had forgotten about that. I was reminded recently while reading this great DIY mercury glass pumpkin tutorial by someone I met briefly at BlogHer 2011 this summer.  It made me remember how much I loved making something old, new again with a $4 can of paint. 

It occurred to me that I have LOTS of stuff in the garage and basement that is cute, but was from my “everything white and sunflowers days” and doesn’t fit the darker new house, or it’s prairie style.  Then I went “DUH!” and smacked myself in the forehead, I can fix that with SPRAY PAINT! It can be any color I want.

Maybe using spray paint on old stuff rather than paying out the nose for fancy new stuff is pedestrian, but it’s me.  Yes, I have a job, I work for Microsoft, and I get paid very well for what I do.  But it’s the principal of it.  Why throw things away, why WASTE all the money I make?  It’s also fun to turn something meh into something awesome! If it’s something you think is lame, or cheap, or too pedestrian then my blog isn’t for you so I’m warning you right now… 

Anyway, I’m not ready to share any of my big projects yet, nothing feels quite polished enough to post yet. But here is a quick DIY makeover you might find surprisingly fun.  Now I’m new to this who DIY blogging thing so bear with me… I didn’t always remember to take before pictures, boo. It’ll get better as I learn. So here is some “before” images of OK things that definitely needed a Halloween makeover.

Cute wire basket I got at a fabulous little 2nd hand store (if you live near me please visit them, the place is awesome!) for about $7. Cream colored, good shape, not really a good color for me but it had *potential*.

Cream colored pumpkin from Michael’s Arts & Crafts.  Normally these go for about $13, but with a 50% off sale, and a 20% off friends & family coupon, I scored it for about $5.50.  I grabbed a few in black, and some smaller ones ($4 after coupon) too while I had the great discount going on.  As is, they look fake and kinda cheesy.  If it’s gonna look fake let’s have it look COOL and fake!

Lastly I had a simple, clear vase that came with some lovely flowers from a good friend.  Probably wouldn’t use it again as-is, but hmm, maybe in a Halloween display in another color? No picture, but you’ll recognize it as familiar when you see it.

I removed tags, didn’t bother cleaning anything too well because “HELLO, HALLOWEEN”, and grabbed some spray paints that I nabbed on sale at Home Depot for about $4.25 each.  I picked up black and orange, but also found the hammered pewter and shiny metallic black pretty interesting.  They both looked even better than I had hoped. The hammered pewter has a liquid quality to it that’s very cool!

Aaaaaand :: drum roll:: Voila!  A few more items to incorporate into my Halloween displays in far more appealing colors. 

Stay tuned to see how I was inspired by a Pottery Barn store display to create a fabulous little dining room table scene for a fraction of the cost, using the items above.

It Began With a Whisper…

Yeah, so while I’d love to be the next Martha, it ain’t happening.  Now, you might be thinking, well NOONE could be Martha Stewart, she has a full staff and gobs of money!! But that’s not who I am talking about.  I’m talking about THIS “Martha”. Yeah, she’s pretty awesome. I wish I’d realized it 8 or so years ago when I first met her, cause there was some quality snark time I missed out on there. Anyway, moving on.

TNM has a thing about Halloween.  No, wait, I don’t think you understand… she has a THING about Halloween.  It’s humbling, impressive, amusing, a bit intimidating, and I am accepting that I won’t ever have enough free time or mental stamina (or skill with a compound miter saw) to do all that. And it’s OK.  But she does inspire me to be creative, do what I can, and enjoy the process.  She’s probably reading this right now going “Whaaaaat? I didn’t do that! Did I do that? WOW!”

I never really had big Halloween parties before I met her, through her husband.  He invited me to their house for Halloween one year, many moons ago. I remember being in AWE, and giggling like a little kid as we tip-toed through their front yard cemetery. After a few years of watching their display grow, and having a blast at their parties, I knew I wanted to start having annual Halloween parties of my own. Those parties started about the time they slowed down on their own party circuit, cause c’mon, I wasn’t going to miss their party for any lame-ass thing I had going on.  And so it begins…

I’ve been having parties for about 5 years now in the various places I have lived, thanks in part to a husband who humors my 13-year-old-on-pixie-stix enthusiasm for Halloween.  We had parties in both of his apartments, as well as a few in my little condo.  They were always fun but my options were limited in terms of ghastly décor given my limited space.  But this year…muwahahaha.  Now we have a big, 101 year old, prairie-style home in Oak Park. This year, I am hoping to outdo myself!  The house is just perfect for making creepy, and it has cobwebs and creaks all it’s own, 365 days a year.

I’ll be adding another post soon, and show off some of the great tricks I came up with using spray paint and Dollar Tree and thrift store finds to mimic those $1,500 Pottery Barn displays.  Cause really, if any of you pays Pottery Barn $9 for a box of cheap spider webs, or $15 for a small bag of Spanish moss, we can’t be friends anymore.

Here are some pictures from last year’s Halloween, our first in the house and not my best. The previous month I’d lost my father to cancer, so understandably my heart just wasn’t in it.  Hoping to really step it up a notch this year, but I’m no TNM.

This room looked awesome, but needed more creep. I have ideas…

 

The mantle was mostly just cute, but I have some cool ideas here too. Definitely doing the glow stick flames in the fireplace again!

Front of house was more cute… But we redid the landscaping and I plan to leverage the empty rocking chair on the front porch. “Oh Mother….”

My cob web application skills suck, and we did this the afternoon of the party in a rush, so just kinda flung stuff everywhere.  Plan to do WAY better this year.

What Halloween party would be complete without the Mad Hatter spinning tunes! And yes, of COURSE we had lots of fog machines going, and a laser show, duh!