rAnDoM fabric, buttons and monkeys.

rAnDoM thoughts about fabric, clothes and buttons.

I’ve got fabric. LOTS of it. NOT from a store mind you. But from my closet. I can’t afford fabric, (maybe a few fat quarters here and there) because I’d want to spend the money on scrapbook supplies or coffee. So I’ve learned to hoard clothes.

In the process of TOO much clothes purging. I’ve accumulated about 4 garbage bags. 3 laundry baskets, and 4 other random containers FULL of clothes of some sort. Holy hell. AND note that the sewing area is the LAST to every get cleaned. EVER. Since it’s the last on my list of art to do, it’s often the dump room, and disaster zone.

Today’s project, and for the last few days is pulling OUT all that fabric, covering my washer and dryer in folded piles. AND putting on the shelves.

Now I need to go to Pinterest to find out WHAT to do with my kids adorable clothes I can not part with. How to create a blanket of my old t-shirts. What fun I can create with Ed’s 8 pairs of old corduroy pants and his 42 blue dress shirts.

I’ve taken the painful process of de-buttoning ALL the clothes. Men’s dress shirts have approx. 10 buttons per shirt. I’ve got a little glass jar, JUST for these things. For future mending! Brilliant I know. The fun kids buttons go to the scrapbook area.

I’ve got some fun pajama’s that have cute prints on them. I’m thinking holiday ornaments? Garland? Either the Whimsy Christmas trees or the monkey ones.

I did a post way back, “What do we see here” on cutting off the super cute (unstained) parts of kids clothes for scrapbooking. I’ve got a basket of those to cut up.

Stupid Sock Monsters were a thing I did a few years back. SUPER fun. I like to make ugly messy funny monsters. Alex STILL has his, and loves it. That weird red mess became Mia’s. AND I did make a super cute one (when I got much better at it) for my sister Susie’s 30th Birthday.

 

 

 

 

I have learned that I like to sew with reckless abandon. I think I learn best this way. And it helps that I’ve got 5 shelves FULL of clothes to cut up and tinker with. I’ve got to post some pictures here when I’m done organizing my sewing space. Here’s before… now this is somewhat clean. As in, I can sit in the chair clean.

It’s even cleaner then this now. I’ll keep you all on your toes and post when I’m all done! Oh, maybe a video tour!

JCat McGack

EVOLUTION OF A SCRAPBOOKER

"CUT a picture? You've got to be kidding!""Well those sure are cute pages. I'm not that creative." "You have IDEA BOOKS? Let me see.""I guess I'll need an album, some adhesives, and paper."
"Oh, and I'll also need some templates, stickers, die cuts, and one of those trimmer things."
"I can't get my page to look exactly like the one in the book!"
"You mean I have to write in my album? I will need some pens. What should I write?"
"I finished my first page. Do you like it?"
"You know I have a ton of zoo pictures, and Jr. needs his school pages done; I need another album and some more paper."
"You have printed paper? And precut paper? I'll take one of each!"
"NEW STICKERS? I'll take some!"
"NEW DIECUTS? I'll need those!"
"A NEW TOOL! I NEED THAT!"
"A NEW IDEA BOOK? GIVE ME THAT NOW!"
"Wow - even bags and binders to get my supplies organized? I definitely need those!"
"Sorry honey, you'll have to make dinner - I'm off to a crop!"
"Clean socks are in the dryer!"
"HOLD IT! I HAVE to get a picture of that for the scrapbook."
"Would you please wear this shirt? I have the cutest paper to use in my layout and it will match perfectly!"
"YES, I came up with the idea myself."
"YES, That is my own handwriting."
"YES, I make time to scrapbook."
"Honey, we need to add a room to the house for my scrapping room."
"Life is crazy. I just need to crop!"
Tax Time: "Yes, scrapbooking in a medical deduction - it's my THERAPY!"
By Nicole Humphrey

Had to share it, I swear I KNEW going into scrapbooking I’d never be able to turn back. Happy I started, and I LOVE telling my families story along with mine.

JCat McGack

I give up… here’s some wall art!

I’ve given up on walking into a spotless art room every time. Silly me, so this New Year it’s resolved. Much less days cleaning, and organizing my room. More making.

And speaking of making… well this isn’t too far out there on the creativity reach there. BUT I did think up to tear this out of Better Homes and Gardens, (BHG magazine does this where they put a very cool image with a quote in it. I’ve got a Halloween one to do as well) mat it on Chocolate and Summer Sun paper (by Stampin’ Up!) and frame it.

I’ve got it right in my kitchen, and it’s nice to read every day. And to treat every day as such.

THIS next project is ALL over Pinterest. I made it for Ed for Christmas, and I didn’t say what it was. I just wrapped it. Gave it to him, and was pleasantly surprised at how much he liked it.

Looks like a big frame of numbers, and, well that’s what it is, but it’s our numbers… his birthday, mine. Our first official dating date, the day we were engaged (yes 5 months dating!) Married is the red number, and Mia and Alex’s birthdays.

All those dates are what made us. Us.

Easy peasy. If you’ve got a Cricut cutting machine, or a die cut machine. glue them down to white paper, mat it, frame it!

I’ve been tinkering with some clay, that’s a first in over 10 years, thinking that tomorrow will be an art room day with me and Alex!

Happy Creating!

JCat McGack

Disaster

My art room… is NO art room.

It’s a cluttered, cat hair covered, throw it all in there for the Christmas Eve party, wrapping paper, photograph disaster.

It’s almost depressing to go into. I’ve got my sewing nook that is clean and cleared. My laundry area is all good too. And I’ve managed to find a 2x2 little counter space on my main desk to work… sigh.

I have been going online to Pinterest to search ‘Craft Rooms’ to see what my room used to look like, colors lined up, glitter bottles lined nicely (before my cats knocked them all over)

I’ve started part yesterday, and tried again today to really get some cleared space. I’ve got SO much table space, and counters, it almost works against me. Because the more space I’ve got the more crap I load up on there.

Thinking about hauling half of my stuff to Gigi and my booth to sell. I’ve been doing well selling my old Stampin’ Up! catalogs, and some older stamps.

I NEED a clean room to be inspired to create, so I can create so I can SELL! Needed to blog this out of my head. I’ve got the house back to normal after the Holiday’s, now it’s time for my creative dungeon to get back to it’s normal self!

Happy Creating, or organizing!

JCat McGack

Catching up

Yikes it’s been over a month! Sorry I had Bronchitis and was a hot mess all of October!

What’s new…

Well the art room that you all remember from this post back in January that was a tour of the whole room… well through that one out the window. I spent ALL last week dedicated to resetting my art room.

The reset is something this room needs… I originally had my dad build me a table so big (it was built in the room it was so big) so I could seat 6 comfortably for my card making classes. Awesome, but after 6 years of teaching, I no longer need THAT big of a table in the center of my room. It’s a room just for me. (and sometimes the kids!)

The fact that I’m not teaching in here, the functionality and the flow of the room, well they just were not working for me. I went to Better Homes and Garden’s website, they have this really cool ‘Arrange-a-room’ feature, that you can use, for free. To plan out how a room will work. I mean these tables in here JUST fit… while I seem to be a bit of a fan of moving rooms around just by guess-timating the fit this one was going to be tight!

While moving the room around, looking for what should go where, I had a genius ‘AHA’ moment, and I mean I yelled “OH MY GOD! I HAVE THE. BEST. IDEA. EVER!!” followed by a running man dance combined with some walk like an Egyptian and butterfly moves. (scaring my cats to their cat tower, and my children to flee to their toy room. Dancing sometimes works wonders that way!)

The AHA moment… well I’ll just have to have you wait till it’s done… (cliff hanger!)

AND, since I’ve been moving ALL my desks, tables, and art supplies ALL over, I had to stop. Pack them up. And take them to a crop!

It was a much needed break, and to get out with the girls. My mom, the Queen and I love to do these scrapbook weekends, she’s not so much a scrapper, but she does ATC cards (Artist Trading Cards) and paper crafts as well. We had our good friend Pipe, and Lisa go with, stayed at a local hotel (it’s a 45 minute drive back home) and took over the local Archivers! (if you’ve never been be warned. It is addicting. It’s full of fun things, glitter, shiny, and pretty things, all that will make you say ‘ohhh… I want that’)

(This is Maureen and I, she’s an employee there and treats me like an old friend. So much of the staff at the Orland Park, IL store are so great!)

We showed up at Archivers at 10 am (doors opened!) on Friday, and stayed till they kicked us out at 11 pm… went to the hotel, and were back again on Saturday for another 13 hours of paper crafting heaven!

It was awesome to get out, and get some work done, I sadly only did 12 layouts. I blame the dinner out to Buffalo Wild Wings, and Texas Road House, and the shopping around us well… there is also the fact that I LOVE to chat with all the other croppers… I mean counting us each day there were close to 40 women in the work rooms. And being the social butterfly I am… sigh, THIS is why I try to do most of my cropping in my art room, alone with my music so I can focus!

My good friend, Lisa was smart she brought ALL the stuff to work on her trip to Florida… I don’t have that kind of attention span to work on the same project for two days, little alone 2 minutes.

Above is pictured my stuffs I bring. OH it’s a whole lot of everything. I have to say I am pretty organized, I know where EVERYTHING is that I brought…

Here is my work space, this was my last page (not quite done yet here)

My mom got a hold of their die cutting machine, and never sat down! They have a WHOLE wall full of dies to choose from, and 3 machines, and they were always busy!

She found a box die cut, and was cutting them out for a party favor (she needed 60+ of them!) Not to mention all the other cute one’s she found!

I have to tell my mom there is a new rule with taking pictures together… she slouched down, and I was sitting up super straight! Bah, I look silly! Either way the two of us had a blast together… as always. We make our own fun and have the best time we possibly can!

Oh and not pictured is Piper… I’m just learning to accept that some people refuse to have their picture taken… as much as this annoys me for the sake that my ONE friend is not documented… I am trying to respect the fact that she just doesn’t want to be seen on camera. (now my husband Blue? He doesn’t get that pass… it’s not an option)

So I’ve been busy, trying to heal from my bronchitis, from my foot issues (planters warts removed) and finally getting to the art room. I will be posting when I get the room all done, I am SO close!

Until then you can read about my daily ramblings at Unconventional Randomness! Hope your all doing well!

JCat McGack

The kids? What did I do with them these last 3 days?My beautiful babies were with my In-laws from Friday morning till today! (Sunday, lucky me!)

Green with Inspiration.

Creating Spaces? Where Women Create? Creating Keepsakes? ALL too much inspiration for me!

I LOVE the new Creating Spaces magazine. It’s an annual issue by Creating Keepsakes that covers 146 Inspiring Rooms, Ideas and Projects. From people who craft in a closet, to a studio size space. LOVE it. It was $14.99 but SO worth it.

Always an issue of Creating Keepsakes nearby, love scrapbook layouts and tons of inspiration there too.

Where Women Create… OMG. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE it. It’s not so much a magazine, it’s like an artist book, it’s a $14.99 a copy. It’s published 4 times a year. I JUST picked up the Aug/Sept/Oct 2011 issue. A girl named Heather Bailey is on the cover and she just SCREAMS creative! Susan Branch is in there, LOVE it. AND they started a Man page, and who else besides the talented Tim Holtz to have in it? The whole thing is PACKED with great artist, you just have to go get your own to read them all.

I have to say sure the fact that it’s $15 a book is a lot of money. BUT if you want to be inspired. And NOT just for how to set up a space, but there are quotes, and ideas, and how they started, and what inspires them to keep creating. How they had regular jobs and just did what they loved. Then I say it’s SO worth the money to just stir up some creativity in you.

I try to use their inspiring stories, pictures, quotes and ideas and use them in my art room, designs, and everyday use.

Amazing how one grows as an artist. From cutting and pasting my Sesame Street magazine at the age of 4, to paint by numbers. 4 years of art classes in High School. And 6 years of independent demonstrating for Stampin’ Up! (stampinup.com it wouldn’t let me link?!)

I’ve grown to love sewing, even though I often stab myself with the needles. I’m a rubber stamp hoarder. Scrapbook almost daily. And JUST reminding myself that painting, sketching, clay, and paper Mache’ need to be part of my routine too.

I have to say, I once was jealous of all these people in the magazines, some my age or younger who have LINES of their own, IN stores, or have their OWN stores like I want. So instead of being jealous, I’ve turned to them to help me create my own. My own every day art. My own thing. Do me.

So today I’m just playing in my room. May sound pointless to some. Why not create something you ask? Well I may, or not. I did cover a notebook for my best friend. Just for fun.

Thinking about moving my ribbon out of the drawer its in and hang it over my ceiling… we shall see! Until next time I leave you with this quote from Tim Holtz’s teacher…

“Class- Art is everywhere. Remember you can always create something from what at first you may see as nothing…”

JCat McGack

Where do you find inspiration? Leave me a comment and tell me!

Paint & Scrapbooking

Since the garden walk on Sunday inspiring me to paint, and my want to combine it with scrapbooking I did a bit of both today, now it’s more of a coloring book style, nothing free hand painting. But still painting with a brush and fun at that.

This is some older paper by Rusty Pickle company (sadly out of business) called Pop Star, I have a bunch of this line, and it’s literally black and white, doodly kind of scrapbook paper. NOW it is regular paper, so if you water color on it, you can’t get too wet, or it’s, well a mess.

AND since I had my two assistants with me…

Mia chose to take some of her unfinished art work, up into the cat tower and work. While her brother, Alex chose to meow like a cat for 20 minutes.

I did have my other two assistants, Jordan who is not pictured was busy catching Bob, the fly who is trapped in the basement art room, and catching Bob meant sitting on my work, nothing says water coloring like cat hair.

AND there is this princess Chloe, who was ALL in my business.

Reasons enough why I chose to work on a easier piece…

I had a cute picture of my mom with her Mother’s Day arbor that we got her, and though this BIG flower would be cute to go with. This is after I added the water color crayons.

 

Yes they are amazing and they are by the company Stampin’ Up! I demonstrated for them for 6 years and LOVE their product. (there are also water color pencils out there, same idea, but the crayons to me are softer, and easier to work with)

 

They are that simple. Color your picture, and it doesn’t have to be ALL colored in, you can kinda sketch it. The water coloring part will blend it.

I use an Aqua Painter (again by Stampin’ Up!) but you can buy them at retail stores. Simple, fill with water, squeeze and water come through the brush. Just eliminates the cup of water. (see small children and cats above if you question my reasons)

 

Once ALL is blended, you get a much softer look. I did the dark pink first,wiped of excess color onto my hand (yes I do this out of habit. It’s the way I’ve been doing it since I was a kid) then switch to a different color, be cautious when doing lighter colors by darker, they may run together. But it’s water color so a bit of mess is good.

AND there you have it. A quick scrapbook page, that took me about 35 minutes to create!

JCat McGack

A Garden walk of creativity

The Annual Minooka Garden walk was yesterday, I go each year with my mom. Just the two of us. It’s fantastic to walk among some one else’s garden. To get to see what they create and labor over. To chat with gardeners, to really get a feel for how they love their yards.

So the first house has this in the front yard. My heart is happy already.

Then I see that they have these empty stations set up all over the yard, under pine trees and then tables with women painting in the garden! I chat with them for a few minutes, finding out that on Thursday nights at the local library they have open night. It’s free, you can sketch, paint, and do what every creative art you are in the mood for. Now I love to go and scrapbook but as of this year I am pretty set on cropping at home. I have a HUGE space for it. And cropping is a bit involved when it comes to the packing process (I have to take EVERYTHING!)

But painting and drawing? Simple. Sketch pad, paints, pencils, WAY less supplies. I could do this. AND make new friends? For free? Down the street? THEN they asked me to join them… right now! And paint!

So I did. OMG it was so much fun. We chatted and painted, I stayed for 40 minutes, and my wonderful mom, stood and watched. Thanks mom. She knew how much that meant to me.

 

I did what I do best, and that was a tree. I picked ONE color, and with watercolors the amount of water you use changes the darkness of the paint. It was fantastic. And this was just house #1 of seven!!

 Oh AND they had a canvas under a tree, and it was for anyone who came through to paint on. They wanted it to be the Garden Walk painting. So mom and I added a little ourselves.

The next house was just whimsical, and random, SO my way of gardening.

Lots of shade, lots of art too. She had paintings

from a local artist, plates hanging on the fence and half in her dirt. She had shown me her label maker, and her tags, she labels EVERY plant in her yard.

And old wooden play set is now a bird/squirrel feeder, she had a pond. BUT not for fish, for birds. Very shallow and clean.

 

Then there is this house… this is a combination of my mother and I. Both cute, a dash of country, but again the random whimsy look I love.

I mean WHO nails ALL these signs to their house?! I was in love!

And the details! Look at these mini lanterns! LOVED it!

 

And below check out the sink! How cute is that? NOW I know not every yard could pull that off, there a close line between cute as hell and hillbilly heaven

 

Oh and there are these all over this yard! They were glass bottles tied to stakes, with a note in each, usually about where the flowers came from, or what they mean to the family. This one was sweet. And they had a HUGE section of beautiful daisies.

So this shot did exactly the opposite of what I wanted, (Still getting the hang of my dad’s SLR) and I wanted to get the cupcake. It had a violet on top, and I ate it. (most flowers are edible) the cupcake too was amazing, and the home owners daughter was starting a baking company, and who better to try it out on?

So I was freaking excited on the front porch and even MORE excited when I started to notice the name of the home owner. OMG it’s THE preschool everyone talks about.

Sure enough, there is THIS one preschool that is RAVED about, by everyone in town. And you have to know some one to get her info, she is not on the internet, or in the phone book. AND there is a two year waiting list. SO MAYBE I could check it out because NOW I have her info! Wee!

Right so, there was so much to see, the yard, the play area, ALL of it was amazing, AND they let you go through the house to leave! Very cool.

And THIS was just house #3… well house #4 was a repeat from last year, and well it was about 95 in the shade, so we skipped it, then houses #5-#7 were cute, but nothing like the first three houses.

SO much fun, SO inspired, hoping for all this rain to make my garden happy, then make my dirt soft, and Wednesday it should cool down and I can go out and garden! Till then it’s house work and hoping for some art room time! Happy creating!

JCat McGack

Shut the front door... for a tour!

Welcome to the 'art room' as we like to call it here. It's MY happy place, my getaway, my BIG purple and green room. I've been working since the first of the year to get it just so, take pictures and share it with you, so I can go and mess it up again!

I'll give you a heads up, my art consists of mostly paper crafts, so scrapbooking and card making are my favorites. But I'm getting into sewing. And my heart has always loved sketching, painting, drawing, paper mache' and well anything that involves glitter and glue! So on with the show!

SO next to the door is this. It's an old desk my dad put up on little box like crates. 1. So it's up off the floor (BTW this room is in the basement, so everything is at least 6 inches incase the ol' sump pump stops working!) AND so we could fit the mini fridge under there! 

The shelves have plastic bins. Each labeled for the kids stuff. Works great. They work with a bin, and put it away before another comes out. The old CPU cabinet (with pom pom on it) is for the kids papers, coloring books and slippers)

I call this the 'Color Station' filled with, colored pencils (see my precious Prismacolors there on the left, my art teacher, Mrs Henize taught me about them!) watercolor paint, and pencils, glitter pens... and speaking of glitter...

THIS is a shelf from Archivers (serious sale price too) I keep my glitter, stickles, Tattered Angels spray, paints, Smooch paints, more glitter, some paints, flock and pastel crayons! Seriously just the array of color is enough to get you going!

Next is the 'Cardstock table' 

This is where all my solid card stock is, either 8 /12x11 or 12x12 size, up above is my stencils and Bazzil stictch mats. Oh and the black cart with the drawers underneath is more kids stuff, stamps, paper, and play dough. The green cabinet houses ALL my ink pads, right around 100 of them. Mostly Stampin' Up! ones. And at least 20 of them are a shade of some sort of blue! 

My Cricut lives below there, snug as a bug, and the cartridges are all above the cabinet.

So we turn the corner for the BIG storage in the corner. That blue bottom drawer tips open for ALL my organized 12x12 scrapbook paper. It's in Cropper Hopper files, by type, color, or theme. (So for example I have some labeled... cat, dog, Ed, Zoo, Birthday, some are exact like P!nk concert, or Disney.)

The 12x12 paper rack is for my two favorite companies, BoBunny, and Cosmo Cricket, and some Stampin' Up! too. 

The Big Shot die cut machine (yes I have BOTH the Cricut and Big Shot and like my children I love them equally) Dies, folders, are all there too,

BELOW is a rolling tote on the right, full of BIG files for 12x12 paper. So Mia and Alex each have a HUGE one. And my Christmas and Halloween too. (yet I have Neither holiday scrapbooked at all!!) photo boxes, and another purple bin for some odds and ends.

Sewing corner!

This is where I sew. My machine is hiding under the 'Happy Bunny' maternity shirt, and sitting on the desk that my husband once sat in, in grade school. Under the desks I store patterns, instructions for my machine, and stuff I am working on. 

Turn the corner again... (yes wall to wall counters!) and we are to the original counter. From Hobo store, it's a hardware store that is SUPER discounted, and you get what they got kinda store. Anyway cabinets and counter top are from them. Awesome bar stools cut down from my creative friend Michele.

SO this is the only counter that is 'counter' height. This corner is my 'Accessories' area. ALL my buttons, brads, charms, and well... accessories for any project are here. You see the black bars with all the black shape punches on the wall (bar is from IKEA's kitchen department) the drawer is more punches, and the cabinet is currently empty. The shelf below is for my scrapbook albums, and below that is bins with 3D projects in them, and a cat nap house.

Middle is more punches, pens, pencils, tools, devil horn headband... drawer 1. is Adhesive. Any kind of a glue, tape, glue dot, wet, dry, permant, or temporary you need. Drawer 2 is chipboard pieces in bags by type. And drawer 3. is ribbon. In bags by color. Oh and above are IKEA boxes, I coverd and labeled for more storage. Things I don't use every day.

AND the other end of the counter is my 'desk' my laptop goes here, or I sit with my creative magazines or books, sketch idea's, take notes, and sip coffee here. Drawer is my 'office drawer' with stapler, tape, chapstick (well chapstick you can find in almost every drawer!) post-its, cough drops, and iPod charger. Cabinet is for memory stuff. OMG that cabinet is a zoo! Below my feet is Stampin' Up! catalogs (since 2000)  and my empty scrapbook albums. Below that is my foam stamps and notebooks.
Oh see to the left is a wire mailbox file. I keep some fun black chipboard there, and on the key hooks is where I store my letter chipboard in the fun original containers. Also fun is the clock above. It was a wedding present from a very artsy and good friend of mine. We don't keep in touch any more, but I think of him often with my clock.

To the center of the room is my cart! I once had it in my kitchen, but it cluttered the room, so it works awesome down here! THIS is fantastic, the tall stand on the left is my 'Clip it Up' by Renee OMG, LOVE this thing. Two levels of clips. Hundreds of little clips for all your stickers, and fun things! (bought my mom one for  her last birthday!) 

Then we have my journaling tablets, and MORE stuff that didn't fit on the Clip it Up tree. Below is my photo storage (LOVE those things too. At JoAnne fabrics!) And even more photo books, two encyclopedia's and a bin with a project I'm working on. 

Let me explain the encyclopedia's. The new trend or in 'vintage' scrapbooking is the look of encyclopedia paper. So why buy it when I had a very inspiring friend give me these two books?!

Next we have 'THE table' which is a 6 foot by 3 foot table in the center of my room, my dad built it IN the room, I asked for the boards below, since I am short and need to put my feet up (since they don't touch the floor!) plus it's obviously great for storage!) Currently a work in progress with my buttons all over. 

At the end of the table is this massive file cabinet. It's a travel agent file cabinet, from my fabulous friend Piper. Both my mom and I got one. I keep my fabric in here by color.

Behind the curtain is the... washer and dryer... ewww... BUT it's like free counter space when the rest of the room is a mess! Yes I rigged that lamp on top of the dryer with that shelf thingy. It works! I didn't take a picture, but to my right in this picture is the laundry bins, and a 6 foot storage unit from IKEA, two doors. One for snacks, and one for supplies, like garbage backs, sandwich bags, floor cleaner, and plastic bags.

'The Art Office"

THIS room, or space is where it all began. It's a 5x5 square room, right below my 1/2 bath above. It was where I was going to have my little art room... HAHAHAH!!!

Either way it's now the office. I paper journal in here, sit and think, brush the cats, and store things. Above is all my Creating Keepsakes, and Scrapbook Etc. magazines. The clear boxes are all hand made greeting cards, and to the right of that is my notebook fetish!

The shelves go up to the ceiling, for more photo storage, and some odds and ends art stuff. And my drawing stuff at the very top.

The other wall is my 'Stamp Wall' these mini shelves really were intended for my little knick knacks that I didn't want around the house, but meant a lot to me. Now all my stamps are in cases here. 

The white cabinet is a box of me. Filling the 3 shelves are random photos, trinkets, and things from my life that make me happy. 

I didn't take a picture of the chair. But it was my Grandma Alice's. When she died, I played rock, paper, scissors with my cousin Kristi for it. I LUV it.

My room is full of things that are colorful, and inspiring to me. These quotes I read to get going or just remember to 'Trust your Crazy Ideas'. I keep a picture of each of my kids here...

Alex was just 2 here, sitting on my counter, playing with my stuff. I love this one.

And Mia was SO happy in this one, with her Darby doll. She was 3 here.

And what art room is complete with out some of my Chloe, and my

Jordan. Oh, they have a HUGE carpet tower, in the middle of the room, placed there in the winter because it's about 3 feet below the heat vent! They LOVE it.

So whatever your space is, be it a half a basement, a corner of a room, a closet, or just a cabinet in your kitchen, make it YOURS. Make it you. Make it special. Mine too 8 years of tweeking, moving, sorting and arranging to get it where I love it. 

Hope you enjoyed the tour. Ask questions if you have any on my space. If anything leave me a comment that you stopped by! Happy creating!

JCat