DIY Craft Room on a Budget

My friend, Mary Elizabeth, is in the final stages of her whole-house redo and she saved the best for last . . . her "Me" room, a combination craft room, office, and quiet space carved out of a small spare bedroom.

Mary Elizabeth's favorite color is PINK (obviously!) so she really went for it, using  Sherwin Williams "Exuberant Pink", in a satin finish for the walls and in a latex gloss for the desk top . . . with her favorite black and white zebra stripes for accents and storage pieces.

 

Mary Elizabeth is a Weight Watchers Leader and needs lots of storage for materials so she stretched the budget to purchase three storage carts and a number of small bins and containers.

 

 

 Bookshelves were repurposed from other rooms. It's a plus that Mary Elizabeth is a whiz with her pink power tools!

 

Hidden storage in the closet...still a work in progress
 

We hung pegboards, bulletin boards, magnet strips and curtains. Then Mary Elizabeth used zebra striped washi tape to trim the window shades, bookshelves, and bulletin board frame.


 

Even the desk accessories express Mary Elizabeth's love for pink . . . and bling!

The room still needs some tweaking but the "bones" are done. Mary Elizabeth is collecting simple black frames and plans to use one wall in the room for a collage of favorite family photos. And she's still sorting through boxes of office and craft supplies that had previously been stored in the attic.

The "door" craft table will give her lots of space to work and create 

 

 

Here's the budget:

2 2-drawer file cabinets from the Habitat ReStore @ $30. each = $60.00
Hollow wooden door at ReStore = $10.00
Paint  = $50.00
2 sheets Pegboard @ Home Depot = $14.00
Hardware = $10.00
Bulletin Board @ WalMart = $10.00
Assorted Storage bins and carts from Big Lots = $125.00 
4 Curtain panels at $8.00 each from Christmas Tree Shoppe= $32.00
Total = $311.00

A closet close-up
 

This was a pretty quick project. With two of us working, the basics were done in three days. Here's how we budgeted our time:
Day #1 -  Clean, prep, and paint walls (2 coats) 
Day # 2 - Shop for storage pieces and accessories; paint pegboard, and desk top
Day # 3 - Touch up, hang pegboards, bulletin board and curtains, load the room.

1. 

   photo courtesy of stilinspiration.com

Now my favorite Weight Watcher leader has plenty of space for both work . . .

and PLAY!

 

 

This post is linked to:

Party Junk at Funky Junk Interiors

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Link Party Palooza at Tattertots & Jello

Amaze Me Monday at DWELLINGS

 

Paying It Forward

 

Have you ever been touched by the kindness of a stranger?

This was posted on Facebook recently by a wonderful woman who works at my daughter's group home:
My friend and I were at Applebee's yesterday for lunch when someone sent a business card saying, " You have been touched by an act of kindness. Please pay it forward". The note came with a $25.00 gift card for our lunch!!!! So we gave the waitress an extra $15.00 tip, paying it forward in a very easy way. It made us feel so good. The waitress hugged us, which my friend really liked, so all around great things happening!!!!!!

Her "friend" was my daughter.

 

When I read the post, I cried. Unexpected kindness has that kind of power.

Maybe the tears came because someone chose to buy my daughter lunch as a random act of kindness at the holiday season. Or because it reminded me once again of the goodness in people. Or maybe because of all the times people have seen only my daughter's disabilities and not her beauty and humor and bravery.

 

Or maybe because this has been a very tough year for our family, a year of loss and estrangement, and this random act of kindness came at just the right time. The very next morning, DH paid it forward at Dunkin' Donuts, hoping that the chain of unexpected kindnesses would multiply.

As we head into 2015, my resolution is to continue to pay it forward in a small way each day.

photo from modernpilgrim blog



Wishing each of you a New Year full of good health and many random acts of kindness to warm your winter days . . .
 

Christmas at Our House

 Lyrics from my favorite Christmas song: "Christmas At Our House" by Barbara Mandrell:

 

Christmas at our house . . .

 

 Newington, Connecticut, 1950's

 

Warm memories

Andrea, Cheryl & Nancy; Christmas 1953

Bright colored presents

And Christmas trees

 

Marshmallow meadows

 

Applegate, Thanksgiving 2014

 

Candy popcorn balls

 

Photo courtesy of Taste of Home.com

I knew that Santa wore overalls

 

 

Mama's baking in the kitchen

Daddy's chopping firewood

 

 

Raisin cookies I was snitching

Christmas was good.

 

Reaching out to help a neighbor

That's the way it always was

 

 

We knew Jesus as our Savior

Christmas at our house still does.

 

 

Christmas at our house

Some things have changed

 

Faces and numbers have rearranged

Kristen & Grampa (1923 - 2005)

 

Mom (1921 - 2014) and the "Stunning Smith Sisters", 2008

 

Hank, Cheryl & Nancy (1952 - 2010) , Wells, Maine 1987

 

Giggles from children stay in a place

 

Andrea, Cheryl holding Nancy; Christmas 1952, Newington, CT

 

Rob, Aunt Joanne, & Kristen, Christmas 1978, Essex Junction, Vermont

 

Rob, Katie, Kelly, Kristen, Kevin & Kit; Christmas 1990, Andover, Mass.

 

I see old Santa has gained some weight.

 

 

Mama's baking in the kitchen

 

Nancy, Christmas 2006

 

Daddy's chopping firewood

 

Kristen & "Mommy" (me)

 

Raisin cookies I was snitching

Christmas was good.

 

 

Reaching out to help a neighbor

That's the way it always was

 

 

 

We knew Jesus as our Savior

 

 

Christmas at our house still does.

22 Applegate Lane

Christmas at our house is love.

   

Anna & Aunt Nancy

 

From our house to yours...

 Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

A Misfits Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was . . . different.

Our power went out at about 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving Eve due to almost a foot of wet heavy snow that surprised us early this year. 

It wasn't back on when we woke up so we relied on our trusty generator to provide enough power to cook the 19 pound turkey we had thawed and stuffed.

I felt bad for the families who were unable to cook Thanksgiving dinner at all. Some coastal peninsulas, like Harpswell, still had no power yesterday.  I imagine that it's difficult to be thankful when you're cold and hungry.

 

Since my Mom passed away in April  and my sister, Nancy, before that, our family has grown smaller. I miss the days when we would have 20 or more people at our house for Thanksgiving.



Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving 2009

This year, it looked as if there would be just THREE of us for Thanksgiving - DH, DD and me. I wasn't sure how to make that feel "festive".

Then it became FOUR; my friend who is a minister would be between church services and was excited to share Thanksgiving dinner with us. We laughingly referred to ourselves as the "Misfits Thanksgiving" . . . a day for "the otherwise uninvited".

On Thanksgiving morning, the snow storm added another guest to our little dinner group. Another friend was stranded in the snow and couldn't join his family in Massachusetts for Thanksgiving.
Now we were FIVE. This was beginning to feel like a real Thanksgiving!


Thanksgiving 2004

The dinner was delicious and the sweet simplicity of the day was an unexpected joy.

As we were contemplating dessert, the doorbell rang and BFF Mary Elizabeth arrived.  Now we were SIX! We sat over pie and coffee martini's and Bailey's well into the evening, sharing stories and laughing.

We were thrown together for Thanksgiving due to changes in our families and changes in the weather. And, at least for that one day . . .

Our little band of "misfits" became a family.

DIY: Closet to Martini Bar

What do you do with an underutilized kitchen closet? Well, if you're my very handy friend, Mary Elizabeth, you transform it into a martini bar!

After

 If you've been reading this blog, you know that I've been helping Mary Elizabeth update and repaint her house. We were taking a lunch break in her kitchen one day and the door to the little closet off of the dining area was open.  That's all it took to get our creative juices flowing!

Before

 Since Mary Elizabeth loves  martini's, we got a crazy idea:

Why not transform the little "junk closet" into a functional (and fun!) "Martini Bar"?

During

And what better martini-inspired color to use than . . . ta da . . . "OLIVE green!

 

Shelves were removed, cut down, painted and repositioned.

 

 

Mary found the mirrored tiles for the back of the bar at Goodwill and installed them herself (she's a whiz with power tools!). She also installed battery operated lights and painted the insides of the door with chalkboard paint. Better to post her "Martini Menu" on!

Mary Elizabeth is still planning to hand-paint olive borders on the trim around the chalkboards but otherwise Applegate's newest Martini Bar is ready to open . . .

 

And I plan to be the first customer!

 

 

p.s. In a comment about my recent post on wine cork crafts, blogger Donna from Distressed Donna Down Home wrote, "I thought surely you would create some sheep, a donkey and the Wise Men for the nativity scene". 

So Donna, this is for you!

(And yes, I know my sheep bears a strong resemblance to a llama . . .).

 

This post is linked to:

Party Junk at Funky Junk Interiors
Nifty Thrifty Sunday at Nifty Thrifty Things
Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On the Porch
Make It Monday at Distressed Donna Down Home