Craft Room Bloom

Despite our unusually warm weather recently, winter is definitely on its way. I've packaged up the final seeds for next year's garden, including this clematis seed head, which reminds me of ostrich feathers.

Our hydrangea bushes, which have been so beautiful all fall...

...are wilted and brown. The vibrant ginkgo across the street, overnight, shed all of its leaves.

I still love winter. Before the snow comes, I can still bring in pretty leaves and branches to put around the house.

The orchards around the city have been closing, though. Todd and I looked around for a nice one to visit, but it seems like we've missed the season. We found one place by a busy road, with no actual orchard in sight. Just a few forlorn boxes of ornamental gourds...

...pumpkins...

...and more gourds.

Now that Todd is finally done with school, though, we'll be able to indulge in more things that we love...including making it to several orchards when the season starts next year!

With winter coming, I'm paying more attention to my inside hobbies. In a small bedroom upstairs, I set up a little craft room for myself. I've got my long table that Todd built last year, with my yarn swift and winder attached. In the corner, a small wooden cabinet holds my sewing and embroidering supplies.

Against the wall is the bookshelf where I keep my rubber and acrylic stamps, inks, and paper punches. I don't have room for all of my rubber stamps, so Todd is building me a leaning shelf with narrow wooden ledges. The walls in this "afterthought" room are not able to hold wall shelves up, so we've got to be creative!

I have hundreds of acrylic (clear) stamps. To keep them organized, I stamp their design on plain white envelopes and store them in shoe boxes.

I can fit quite a few in one envelope!

For me, this is the best method. I'm not interested in an expensive binder system, and I don't want them flapping around in their original packaging. It's no problem to leaf through the envelopes to find the shapes or alphabets I need.

I also keep my embossing tools in this bookshelf. I've just recently discovered embossing. I'll do a tutorial later, but basically you stamp an image, pour a type of powdered resin on top, and use the heat tool on the left to melt the resin.

It makes a really detailed, raised image that I love. Here's a vintage beater I embossed with a gunmetal grey color, for a recipe card. So fun!

The craft room is L-shaped, so there's a narrow hallway that runs to the side of the main part. I keep my fabrics here.

In the back cabinet, I keep my office supplies, modeling clay, watercolor supplies, piles and piles of construction and specialty paper, ribbons, envelopes, card making supplies, and knitting books.

The basket at the top holds my stencils and light box, and related supplies. I love these! I've found lots of beautiful stencils, like this...

...and this.

Using a light box (a white plastic box with a light bulb inside), I'm able to 'dry emboss' my writing paper and envelopes.

Bosewichte loves the craft room.

So does Tabitha. I keep a few pillows by the door, and the cats take turns sleeping on them. When I'm in my craft room, working, I've always got at least one cat that slips in and stretches out on a pillow.

It's a real work in progress, but I'm absolutely thrilled to have all of my craft supplies in one place. I love my craft room, even with the mint-toothpaste paint and the weak walls!

I'd been feeling a little unsettled with my knitting lately, so I decided to put all projects away and focus on some instant gratification. I'm making these little hexagon-shaped pieces that will one day be sewn together to form a patchwork quilt-type blanket. It only takes a little bit of yarn to make one, and if I run short on one, I just knit in a new color. I was surprised at how my little pile grew and grew. I've got 45!

It gives me great pleasure to finish one little hexagon. I may work exclusively on these until the holiday season is over!

Have a great week!