2011 - A Recap

2011 was obviously a huge year for us.  I spent a majority of the year pregnant and we had our perfect little girl at the end of September.  I blogged a lot more in 2011 than I had in the past.  These are some of my favorite posts from the year...

January

A fun Craft Project

My Finished Studio

When We Were on TV

February

Looking for Betsey's Make-Up

 My Husband Built Me A Surprise Closet 

 March

At 11 Weeks Along We Shared Our Pregnancy News

 April

Save The Dates For My Sister's Wedding

 Baby Shower Gift Wrap

 May

Living Room Project

 Bathroom Remodel

It's A Girl!

 June

Finished Sister's Wedding Invites

 July

Sister's Bridal Shower

August

 Sister's Wedding

 Wedding Candy Table

 September

Nursery Projects

 Guest Room Remodel

 Pearl's Arrival!

 October

Photos From Pearl's Birth

November

Thanksgiving

December

Gift Wrap Posts Here and Here

Christmas Stockings

 Pearl At Three Months

Happy 2012!

-Kira

Clutter

Jeremy has a group of guys over at our house tonight playing poker.  I am really lame and couldn't think of a single place to go to keep myself busy so I am sitting in my studio getting started on my sister's wedding invitations.  It's a cluttered mess in here.  I'm too stressed out by this disaster area to actually work.  I'm going to have to stop trying pretty soon and clean.  Not a fun way to spend a Saturday night, but I'm sure it will feel good once it's finished.

 I know, it's bad.
Also, completely unrelated to the cleaning, but totally related to the invitations...I just had to text my sister to ask how her middle name is spelled.  Awkward.
-Kira

DIY pom pom project

Last week I shared that I had pom poms on the brain so I decided to do a little project with them this weekend.  I design hats for a living so I have a ton of them laying around.  I cut pom poms off of hats that couldn't really be given away because they had already been cut up or damaged.  Then I figured out the length that I wanted my garland to be and cut my yarn.  I used a big plastic needle (the kind you use to finish a knitting project) to string the pom poms onto my length of yarn.  I also made sure to tie a knot on either end of each pom pom to keep it in place.  This was an extremely simple project and literally took me ten minutes from start to finish.

The next time I do a project like this I would love to make my own pom poms so I can pick the colors and have a uniform size, but I really like the random nature of size and color on this one.  It works well in my overly colorful studio.

I hope you all had a great weekend!
-Kira

My Studio

I've decided to start calling my craft room my "studio."  I want it to be a place where I can do design work from home as well as craft and sewing projects.  It was just way too chaotic for me to design in there before.  I'm guessing some of you probably think it still looks too busy, but it's organized chaos now so it's much better for me.

 I wasn't planning on putting things on the walls until we painted it, got rid of the popcorn ceiling, and switched out the flooring.  I also hope to eventually have cabinet doors over the storage space on the wall.  All of those updates probably won't happen for a couple of years as it is pretty low on the remodel priority list so I finally decided to put some things on the walls.

I received a lot of fun artwork for Christmas.  All of it came from etsy sellers.  From top left: 1. Doily Clock by and furthermore 2. Bits and Pieces Print by Alice B. Gardens Photography 3. Otter print by Berkley Illustration. I actually bought this one myself at Crafty Wonderland.  4. Vintage Wooden Spools Print by HeyZee 5. My DIY cow.

The opposite wall was blank as well, but I ran out of artwork to hang.  The other day I tacked up a piece of scrap fabric to photograph for my paper crown project.  I actually really liked how it looked so I decided to keep it there and add other scrap fabrics to the mix.

This table is still a little cluttered for me to draw at, but I will fix that.  It is where I plan to do design work when I need to get out of the office.  It's not great looking, but it's a folding table so if I need extra floor space or if I have a hard time getting to some of my books I can easily take it down.

I just took a photo of this because I think it's so cute.  When we bought our house there was a random mini shopping cart in the backyard.  I decided to use it to store my felt.

I love productive weekends.
-Kira

There is a cow on my wall

This weekend I finally did the craft project involving my little Value Village cow friend.  Here is how it turned out...

My plan was to just spray paint him and be done with it. The original surface was really glossy so I sanded it beforehand, but I still couldn't get the paint to stick well in certain areas.  It chipped off really easily so I knew I needed to try something different.  I sanded over the paint so that only the areas that were sticking well stayed.  Then I cut out small pieces of scrap fabric and lace and decoupaged them on my cow.  I made sure to cover the areas where the paint didn't stick well during my process.  I think it turned out even crazier than I imagined, but I like it that way.

I also put artwork on the walls in my studio (finally), cleaned the room, and organized my mess.  I will show you photos of the room later this week!

-Kira

P.S. This project is posted on the Project ReStyle flickr group.  There are a lot of interesting projects documented there.  You should check it out!