A pinterest-inspired jewelry rack

In the process of moving my two girls into one bedroom there were some organizational issues to be addressed. One of them was our crazy collection of sparkles and spangles, bows and bracelets, necklaces, rings, and other such things. All the jewelry and hairbands were not in the least bit consolidated and things were out of control. I turned to our dear friend Pinterest for inspiration and found exactly what we needed!

First off, we created a great jewelry holder from one of these old frames already filled in with plywood for a previous display. I was inspired by a cork board and tack combo but thought I would just go ahead and use the plywood and put nails in it. Sounds simple enough – right? Well, yes and no. Stapling the fabric to the board didn't work since the staples showed through. And attaching some kind of hanging hardware to the frame turned out to be more challenging than expected. I ended ups scavanging a piece off of another thrifted frame. Dear husband built this thing like 3 times before it was actually functional. All I can take credit for is painting the frame and cutting a piece of fabric.  And having the vision, of course!

Here's the back for those who want more details:

Things to note:
• Fabric is glued to the back
• A piece of shower door stripping snugs up the fabric covered plywood and grame
• Felt pieces were added to the frame so it didn't mar the wall

Hanging next to the jewelry rack we've got a long piece of ribbon with barrettes clipped to it. Once again, thank you to Pinterest. And I totally used this idea of putting hairbands on a carabiner. It's nice because you can shift them around the loop so the one you want is near the opening. I've got two of those going stored in a bin in the girls' bathroom. Other bins store combs and brushes and small barrettes and bobby pins in clear plastic bins. Amidst my organizational frenzy my husband commented that maybe we just needed to own less barrettes. I suppose that would be an option! :-)

Chalkboard labels for toy bins

When my girls combined bedrooms they also combined toys. This motivated me to label the bins on their IKEA toy storage containers. I also went to the further unnecessary step of labeling the toy bins in the baby's room. Chalk it up to nesting, I guess!

My main challenge was that I did not want to make the labels out of sticker paper or anything too permanent. I settled on cutting apart an old corrugated plastic sign, coating it with 3 coats of chalkboard paint, and then adhering it to the bins with hot glue. It's been a few weeks and the hot glue seems to be holding up as an adhesive. I imagine they could be picked off of the plastic bins pretty easily.

Craft closet clean-out!

Last week I mentioned the dear friend who is gifting me with her fabric collection. Well, I had a grand total of three paper boxes to hold my fabric. I had labeled them "scraps," "small fabric," and "large fabric." Well, once the bags and boxes of fabric from this lovely woman started to trickle in it quickly became clear that I was outgrowing these three boxes!

So I cast a critical eye on my craft closet and decided it was time to shift my storage to match my current craft interests. If I needed more space for fabric, then I needed to remove something!

This led to a range of other projects: photographing and removing* old student work and portfolios, sorting through design samples (three boxes whittled down to one archival quality storage box), selling stuff on Craig's List, sorting out files, and finding new homes for various crafty things I no longer need. Needless to say, this project creep created a mess in rooms all over the place!

*removing as in: framing, gifting, and even recycling!

So, closet before:

And, closet after:

In the spirit of "use what you have" my system is built from paper boxes and sheets of colored paper as labels held on with clips. I did have to scrounge a bit to come up with the paper boxes but everything was free!

Then I took the organizational sweep through the rest of the room and re-did my shelves. I framed more photos and I displayed some childhood treasures.

I was especially happy to frame the photo of my great-grandmother and have it with me in my sewing space since I use her machine.

And in one last happy project, I hung a wide ribbon on a doorframe to display a collection of buttons and pins. I know I saw this idea somewhere else so I can't take credit for it myself.

storing your natural treasures

This is not exactly a craft post and not exactly a home decorating post and I doubt the results are anyone's definition of "art" but I am so excited about this reuse of clementine boxes I just had to share it with you! Besides, all my posts detailing the Christmas gifts I have been crafting since summer cannot be published until they have actually been gifted!

As long-time readers will know, I am a big fan of nature. And this comes through in my home decorating. I think a bird's nest, a seashell, a rock, a piece of coral, some feathers, and some cool driftwood are equally as lovely as some antique milk glass, framed art, or great-grandmother's handiwork.

So, along with my observant and curious little ones, I am often collecting little bits of this and that and rotating which ones are on display. For a while I had things stored in some small plastic containers and stacked in my decor closet. This was a decent solution, especially considering the containers were clear. Then we collected a whole stack of awesome pinecones and I began running into some storage issues.

I know, I know, I could downsize my pinecone collection but look at this garland by Martha in her book Handmade Christmas: The Best of Martha Stewart Living. Pretty sweet, right?

Anyway, I had a stack of clementine boxes saved for unknown reasons, or perhaps my faith they might be useful. And then we had some fresh ones that I dumped out. And being that they are made to hold a mound of objects and stack on top of each other, well, they are perfectly suited for storing natural treasures! I still have the clear containers holding smaller items inside of some of these. But larger fragile things, like bird's nests, have found a perfect home in these boxes.

And while I know there are many cute ways to label (I am a graphic designer after all), I was just as happy to use an index card and a stapler. Job done.

modge podge mania

In a sudden burst of energy that I will attribute to nesting, I have been devoting my energy to organization projects that will in no way affect the well-being of anyone else in the family, especially not the awaited baby.

One of those projects is the art room. It recently lost its function as the home office. After it lost its desk to the daughter's big girl room, I was left with a box of office supplies. The box is still waiting for attention, actually. With no computer down there it didn't make sense to leave the printer I haven't used in years down there. With the printer gone, it made little sense to have a dresser full of paper for said printer. And since I am going to be doing more sewing than scrapbooking, it makes sense to shift which supplies are most readily accessible and think harder about how to store and organize fabric. Plus, I have that sewing machine to locate in a new home. And so on.

So I have been quite busy moving and rearranging and re-purposing furniture. And sorting and recycling and Goodwill-ing and trashing and Freecycle-ing. I am finding it quite refreshing to purge and organize.

Part of all of this has been to attend to a project that has been on "the list" since I made it in July. And that was to modge podge some storage boxes and create labels for them. So for the past few weekends I have been working on covering those boxes with leftover posters from the Library. A fun new purpose for my old graphic design projects.

 An introduction to my chaos! In my defense, the contents of the boxes had to be dumped out before I could mod podge them.

In the closet (special thanks to the husband for adding more shelving a while back!)

On the shelf (once part of the office, now for sewing supplies)