Pop Tab Purse

I love funky purses.  I am not one to get really hung up on getting some $400 bag for Christmas or the ever popular Coach bag which almost everyone seems to own these days.  I prefer ones that have some personality but are still functional and aren't on everyone's arm.  So when I saw some photos on Pinterest for purses that were made from tabs of cans, I thought, hey, that looks like something I would like!

The link I am using comes from my Craft board:
http://naomivandoren.com/pop-tab-purse-tutorial/
Most of the references are for Etsy shops which are selling them, but there are a few links that are actually tutorials.  Some suggest crocheting, and others have you putting them together with wire.  I opted for the wire option after I was in Jo-Anns and saw colored copper wire.  I thought, ok, that's pretty cool.  Sadly, I haven't gotten too far on this, but I think it's a good, "work on it when I have time" kind of project.  So this is what it looks like so far:

I picked out a blue and purple colored wire so I will alternate as I go.  It'll be interested to see how this will take shape.  Progress photos will be posted as I go.

Finished Pillow

So I did end up finishing the pillow and this is how it turned out:

A couple of lessons/notes:
I need a really really long needle if I want it to be a fairly firm pillow.
The bigger the needle, the bigger the hole it makes when you push it through, so you need bigger thread.  I used a heavy embroidery floss for this.
This really is a pretty easy pillow to make even if you are fairly new the sewing.  You just need the right tools and go slow while stitching around the circle.

Supply Run!

So I am taking a sort of break from hands on projects today.  I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics to seek out some supplies for future projects.  It's one of those things where I have 90% of what I need and am missing that 1 item that's preventing me from starting it.  I was armed with a sales flyer and a stack of 50% off coupons.  Seriously, if you aren't on their mailing list (email OR paper mail) you need to take advantage of it.  One - you get to make your own sales.  Two - you can use more than one coupon at the register.  Today I used 4 of my 50% off coupons (it's coupon commotion) and combined with sales, I saved 45% off my entire bill which was a hefty chunk.  Honestly, it's the only way these projects are affordable.

So I did pick up another bag of Poly-Fill to have until the next ice age probably.  I will need some amount to finish the pillow and then I have another project lined up which should hopefully even out the bag and I won't need any more.  *fingers crossed*  I might be in an infinite loop.

I also picked up piping material ($0.59/yd) which will allow me to work on some experiments I have in mind.  Eventually I am going to reupholster the chairs in the living room (haha, I have had these for 3 years telling myself this), so might as well learn how to make piping now on the smaller stuff.

I am most excited about my colored copper wire purchase today.  I will be making a can tab purse as one of these upcoming projects.  There were numerous ways people have done these in how the fasten them to each other.  A lot of people used nylon cord or crocheted them together, but there was one post that explained how to do it with wire.  At first I thought that was obnoxious, but I realized it allows for some vibrant colors to be worked in too.  I am probably going to contribute blood to that fiasco, but hopefully it'll look cool in the end. To start, I cleaned a load of tabs and am letting them dry.

I have no idea how many I need, but I figure, might as well start with a bunch and see how far I get.  

Sprocket Pillows!

Today's project comes from my Sewing! board:
http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2011/03/tutorial-sprocket-pillows.html
These remind me of pillows that used to be at the family camp.  They were full of scraps of random material.  Some shinny, some velvety, and some just plain funky.  I do not have such a diverse scrap fabric collection yet (key word), so I made do with pulling on a color group and working from there.

Anyone who has been in our house or knows anything about us will not be surprised at my pick of the color blue for this pillow.  To be fair, I needed 12 pie slices for the top and I didn't think I could pull together the eclectic look the author in the tutorial was able to do (need to learn that skill).  I also have more random blue fabric than any other color.

First step first, print the template from her tutorial page.  Mine printed right on the first try.

 I cut out the pie slices which wasn't too hard.  I made 2 each of 6 different fabrics.  Just folding the fabric over itself meant only 1 cut to get two pieces.  This I like. My assortment looked pretty good to me.

I will say I am glad she put the instructions to sew them in pairs and then sew the pairs together and then sew the halves together.  This helps keep all your pieces even and allows you to have a fairly good circle at the end.  Way to go!

So my pretty pinwheel of color looks like this:

When cutting out the bottom circle, it's important to make it match the top as close as possible.  I went a little bigger on mine and had trouble lining it up with the center ring in the last steps.  I ended up just fudging it at the end, but had I thought about it earlier, I would have taken the time to pin it down and make a closer copy.

I was able to reuse some of the crib skirt material I used in my son's room for the side of this project.  Getting the length of that just right was a little tricky, but not too bad. When you go to sew the top to the side band, pinning is really your friend.  I dislike pinning, so you know if I am telling you you need to, then you really probably need to.  I am guessing I used close to 30 pins to make sure it would sew correctly.  You are basically sewing a straight piece to a curve and that's not exactly an easy thing to just have happen.  You'll need to be as obsessive about pinning for the bottom as well.  If you did it right you get something like this:

And because I happen to have a random bag of Poly-Fill laying around (who doesn't right?), I went ahead and started to fill the pillow.  The bad news?  I only had enough to fill the pillow about half way.  The good news?  I finally found a use for that silly bag of Poly-Fill I have had forever.

I'll post finished products when I get to the store to buy more Poly-Fill.  I was thinking I was doing pretty darn good on not spending any money on these projects just yet.  There are a lot I can just do with the mini craft store I seem to have in my house, but there are also a number of them that need just 1 or 2 random things that I don't seem to have.  My shopping list is becoming a hodge podge of random supplies.  All in the name of a Pinterest Challenge. :)

Glittery Things

What makes every day items better?  Glitter of course!  My oldest is bringing home some smashing art work these days and the magnets we have on the fridge are only kind of so-so with holding them on there.  So these looked easy enough to do.  The hardest part was locating my glitter stash.  I swear it moves on me.

Another one from my Crafts board:
http://fromainsleywithlove.blogspot.com/2011/07/shake-glitter-off-your-clothes-now.html
This one is actually just an image and someone "hacked" instructions below it.  It's the clothes pins with glitter on top and magnets on the bottom.

I had some left over magnet reel from when I did my spiders on my door (still my favorite Halloween decoration).  I have glue and I did manage to locate my glitter.  Surprisingly, I only found 1 clothes pin though.  Eh, better to start with one than none.  Here's what the final product looked like:

Total time: 10 minutes plus drying.  Pretty snazzy upgrade for not a lot of effort.  And hey, glitter!

*Changes I would make - not to use the curled up magnets, they don't lay flat enough to stick well.  I have some flat circle magnets that work better.  :)

Heating Pads

I may be a hoarder of fabric. It's possible that I have bought fabric from the remnants bin at Jo-Ann's with no real clear goal in mind other than - "this will be handy to have some day".  I get really excited with those some days come around.  About 3 years ago I bought some flannel material I thought would be good for burp cloths. Let's just say that never happened.  And because of that, I have fabric laying around to do my next Pinterest Project.

From my Sewing Corner board I present this gem:
http://www.thegreenwife.com/2010/04/02/heating-pad-tutorial/
I love heating pads.  They do wonders for aches and pains and are great for winter nights with the bed is cold.  I have one that I made a long time ago that is now getting to the point where it's seen better days.  I might have burned the rice once and it's an old towel that's getting kind of beat up.

I liked this tutorial because it showed a sectioned heating pad thus making sure the rice was evenly distributed.  Mine is basically just in a long tube and it can be a pain to get the right amount of stuff where I want it.  Also, this one added some essential oil to make them smell nice.  Something I wasn't aware of when I made mine years ago.  SO!  I set aside a chunk of rice yesterday with some lavender oil to marinate for this project.

I liked the timeline on this project for being about an hour.  I don't have a fancy serger (although Santa could bring me one and I would be happy to have it), so I made so with my regular sewing machine.  Most of the places she used hers for are all inside seams anyway.  Flannel doesn't unravel like most cotton, so not a big deal.  I also didn't buy "high quality flannel".  Did you read the part where I got this out of the remnants bin?  Pound puppy material more like it.

I love how thorough these tutorials are with each step shown so you know exactly what you should be doing.  As I read through what she had detailed I made mental notes to skip stages.  Pinning has never been my strong suit and for something as simple as this, I didn't bother.  The exception was holding back the rice to get a stitch down.  That was sort of necessary.  I figure I saved myself some time by not having to serge all the edges and then serge them together.  I did pin at the 3" intervals because I do not own a proper fabric marking pencil.

So how did all of this turn out?  I would say fairly good.  Some of the sections aren't as straight as they should be, but whatever.  It still works the same.  Perhaps I should invest in a pencil.  It took me about 50 minutes to do.  This does not include the overnight marinade with lavender oil on the rice.  Now I just need to put it to good use which I am sure won't take long!

Pinterest Challenge

Ok so it's been a while.  A long while.  Ok, just over a year long while kind of.  I could fill in all the blanks on what happened in the last year, but honestly, I have better things to do with the limited free time I have.  Speaking of free time, I am on maternity leave, so it seems I have some more time available to me than I used to have.  Funny, first kid is a loss of personal time, and the second you get some back and don't know what to do with yourself.

Anywho, since it's the middle of summer and it's not always nice or easy to just get out and go for a walk or otherwise occupy my time anywhere other than home, I have come up with a game plan.  I have decided that I am going to set a challenge for myself.  I don't have anything better to do right?  So the challenge is this: Do something related to my Pinterest Pins 5 times a week.  This could be anything that has to do with the just over 1,000 pins I have on my board.  Preferably, it's some sort of "project" and not me just laughing at a hilarious eCard I pinned.  Although, on some days that might count.  This challenge is for the month of July (what's left of it).  I am hoping this yields at least roughly 20 project-ish things.

So to kick things off, here's what I did yesterday:
http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/01/chocolate-chip-scones/
That's right, make something from my Food Love board.  This is where I pin things I consider "treats" instead of Real Food (another board).  I have to say, baking things really isn't a huge time investment other than waiting for the oven to make your mush turn to magic deliciousness.  Also, I prefer recipes that don't care for completely off the wall ingredients.  So, this one fit the bill.

There may be one missing because I couldn't wait to taste it before taking a picture.  I regret nothing.  It was delicious and I would encourage you to try the recipe if you like to have "cookies" for breakfast because let's face it, scone is a nice way of saying breakfast cookie.

The second project is one that I adapted from this post from my Craft board:
http://www.ohreallybeckyforever.com/2011/08/15/im-not-crazy-youre-crazy/
Making envelopes from scrapbook paper!  We have decided after this past Mother's day that we are kind of done spending $45 on cards for people for one holiday.  Since when should it cost $5 to say Happy Mother's Day with a cute picture on the front?  My kids can do that!  Anywho, in her tutorial she was making the envelopes a different size.  I wanted to make mine so they would fit an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper/card stock folded in half.  For those that want to know, this is known as an A2 envelope size (4 3/8" x 5 3/4").  She also had a template to work from that fit the scrap book paper.  I did not. You would think I would have measured using the dimensions for the A2 size envelope, but that would have made sense right?  I just sort of eyeballed it with a piece of folded over paper.  I did however pick a scrapbook paper that was essentially a grid so I would have some guidelines.

Overall, it came out pretty good.  I also did not have double sided tape, so I raided the Elmer's glue stash and used that instead.  I would in the future make the tabs that fold in a bit wider so there's more surface area to glue to.  One of the questions that she was asked was how did you seal the envelope?  There are a few ways to do this; 1 - use double sided tape, 2 - use Elmer's glue, 3 - use a decorative sticker (you can splurge there since these are cheap to make - see breakout below).  I think I would go with double sided tape or a sticker.

Otherwise I think it turned out ok.  I just need to put something on the card stock and mail it to someone.  :)  Also, if you are tempted to do this at home yourself, the comments section recommended that you use a white sticker address label so the poor people at the post office don't have to decipher the mailing address a midst whatever pattern paper you decided to use.  And if you want a price comparison for store bought vs. homemade, here you go:
Store bought - cheapest I could find $1.99, but I'll admit, even those were sort of lame.  Typically $3.99 is more average for a card.
Homemade - 50 pack of card stock (regular price $9.99, I buy it only with 40% off coupons at a minimum - $6).  Price per sheet (assuming $6 for pack) - $0.12.  Price per sheet of scrapbook paper - Individually $0.49, rock bottom sales - 6 sheets for $1 ($0.16 each) for individual sheets.  Packs can come in 180 sheets for $20, can get them on sale for $10 - $0.06 a sheet. So card stock - $0.12 + $0.16 = $0.28

So that's $3.99 - $0.28 = $3.71 savings per card.  I know some people will say, "I don't have time to make a card."  I get that.  I don't have time to agonize over the 50+ card selection in the store (which can take me up to 30 minutes, plus driving to and from - I hate picking out cards) only to find cards I like which are $6 a piece which I won't spend.  SO!  To each their own, but for family at least, you are going to get homemade wonders.  Don't worry, we have markers, crayons, glue, glitter, and stamps to make them all one of a kind Picasso's.  :)

Spring Wreath

I am beginning to wonder if Pinterest isn't funded through places like Michael's, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann Fabrics.  I feel like anytime I see something cool on there, I am usually ending up at one of these place to do said cool project.  Today was no exception.  Granted, I did want to go to Michael's to get Colin a decent Easter basket, but I didn't NEED to buy the other items until I saw a pin on Spring Wreaths. 

We have a fall wreath, a seashell wreath, and then usually something Christmas-y for the door during December.  I lack other wreaths to fill the front door during the spring and late winter.  I was inspired by this pin (website) for my design.  I still think that one looks a little nicer, but hey, this is wreath number two I have ever made, so I think it came out ok. 

Inspired and ready to go, I headed off to Michael's to buy supplies.  My sad hot glue gun, wires, and pliers were in stock in my closet, but I needed a new wreath ($4), flowers ($5), and some bling ($6).  If I had held out (read - had the patience), this project would have been a bit cheaper, but for a $15 investment, I thought it was worth getting everything at once.  I did save 20% on everything at least (hooray coupon!).

I basically just watched TV and puttered until I got a look I thought was decent.  Then I got the hot glue gun going and starting making it permanent.  After the flowers were in, I placed the butterflies where I thought they would look the best and then added the beads in various spots for sparkle.

Overall I thought it turned out pretty cute.  If I had wanted to spend more on the flowers I am sure it would have changed the nature of the wreath, but not too shabby for $15 and an hour of my time for the end of the weekend.  And now we have something for our door for the spring.  I am sure the neighbors will appreciate a bit of brightness in this dreary wannabe spring weather (currently wintery mix falling from the sky - hooray).

DIY Coasters

I decided to take a stab at making some kind of fun coasters last weekend.  I have had the scrapbook paper on hand for a few months (6 sheets for $1 sale - wohoo!).  I finally picked up some 4x4 tiles at Home Depot after a long hiatus from that store.  Do you ever notice how you can just drop $100 in there without much trouble?  Of course, buying random things you have put off for months probably doesn't help.


ANYWHO!  Here we go.  Materials needed are as follows:

4 - 4x4 tiles
1 - piece of scrapbook paper
Mod Podge

Tools:
Pencil
Scissors
Foam brush for Mod Podge






Trace out your 4x4 tiles onto your paper.

 

 Cut out the paper.

 

I recommend doing a dry run fit test before applying the Mod Podge.  I had to trim down my pieces to get them to fit.  Once you have the size you want, apply a thin layer of Mod Podge with your sponge brush.

 Apply your paper and smooth out all the bubbles.

 Once the paper has had a chance to set, apply another thin coat over the top.

 And there you have it, one of a kind coasters.

Total investment for this project $1.68 ($0.16/tile, $0.17 paper, $0.87 for foam brush).  You could go a step further and put felt circles on the bottom to protect you surfaces, but if you don't care then you are done.   I honestly don't think there's a cheaper DIY project that doesn't look like a 4 year old colored on construction paper.  :)  Enjoy!

Halloween Creations

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays in this household.  We have a number of decorations to put up around the house, but most of what we had filled a small apartment, so it looks sparse in our much bigger home.  So I have been looking for ways to add to our collection.

I am going to have to give credit to Pinterest again for this idea, but I still love it.  It was very easy and didn't take a lot of time.  The hardest part was finding the silly spider rings at the craft store.   This project is also way wallet friendly ($4 with supplies left over).  So much so I didn't feel too bad about not having a coupon on me for this.  Here's what you will need:

• Spider Rings (or other small Halloween toys - they have to be light for this to work)
• Magnets (I used a strip of magnet tape found at the craft store)
• Hot Glue Gun (and sticks)
• Scissors

Collect all your stuff on a work surface of sorts.  Our dining room table serves this purpose for me always.

Step 1: Cut the ring part off of the spider rings so you just have the spider bodies left.  Note: The back of the spider will not be super smooth, but just try to cut it as close as you can.

Step 2: Cut the magnets to match the size of the spider body.  This should be enough to get them to stick.
Step 3:  Using your hot glue gun, put a small dot of glue on the magnet and press onto your spider body.

Step 4: Apply to whatever surface you wish.  I chose my door because I think it's way fun.  You can do any surface that a magnet will stick to. 

Happy Halloweening!

Pinterest

Pinterest, the latest and greatest web phenomenon that's sweeping the nation.  Ok, it may not be that popular, but it's definitely main stream and sucking up hours and hours of peoples lives as they skim the website for the coolest ideas and funny photos of cats or the latest eCards.

I posted to Facebook the other day that I had learned the following things from Pinterest:

I need Mod Podge, it's the new duct tape
Chervon patterns are apparently the latest trend, but I think it's ugly
"I'll be glad I pinned this one day" is the most over used tag line
Some people are really clever
Some people have too much time on their hands
I need about 30 more hours a week to do some of the fun things I have pinned

I could also add these as well:

People appear to keep everything in cute labeled baskets and never seem to have anything out of place even if they are organizing a toddlers room!
People are blindly re-pinning things that have websites that go to no where (not a big deal when it's a funny picture, more so when it's 'follow these instructions to happy organized home")
Nutella is the new ingredient for any dessert recipe
Mason jars are the new "it" containers for everything from summer fun drinks to baking cake in to using as a vase.

 I love pinterest, I really do, but I also recognize that there is no way I am ever going to make half of the things I have pinned.  As my husband has told me, it's like the new magazine for people to oohh and aaahh over.  I don't disagree, but it sparks some little bit of self doubt when you see what people are pinning.  "Am I doing cool enough things around my house?" "Should I be craftier?" "What if I don't know how to make 50 random meals from what I have on hand?" "Do people really have time to do all of this and how the hell do I make time for just one of these ideas?"

A perfect category in which the above worries come into play is the "Brilliant ideas and tips for around the house".   Nothing like making you slap your head and say, "Why didn't I think of some of these?"  Of course, two minutes after you pin it, you can't remember one simple idea that seemed so second nature when you were reading and so the cycle continues.

A lot of what I a pin are ideas that I hope to reference when Colin is older.  Ideas for keeping kids entertained that involve simple household items or cool craft projects they can make and occupy themselves for an hour or so.  I also like to pin gift ideas and crafty things around the house in the event I find time and want to make something  homemade (which I love to do).  But I try to at least skim the articles/blogs/sites and see if it is anything I would honestly every try to attempt on my own.  Some of the pins involve some really whacked out steps or materials and all I can think is, "Really?  You think people are honestly going to be able to do that on  their own?"  But that is what Pinterest is for after all, imagining the possibilities even if they aren't possible for you.

Food recipes I have gotten a bit more discriminating of because there are SO many food pins.  I am trying to get on board with using the crock pot more, but some sites use some really terrible ingredients.  The fact  that something has 5 ingredients or less is not always a plus in the dishes favor no matter how quick it is.  I like to enjoy my food.  I have made a couple of things from my pins and had varying degrees of success.  I am happy to try new things, but just not every day.

*gets on soapbox*

One of my bigger pet peeves about Pinterest pins are the ones that use the tag line, "I'll be glad I pinned  this one day".  I can't stand it.  That's the whole purpose of Pinterest!!  You "pin it" so you can reference it at some point in the future.  This pet peeve also includes things like,  "Definitely making this one day" or any other statement which implies that you think you'll do something with the pin at a later date. I want to write NO DUH! in response to many of these, but as Pinterest doesn't really have a medium for that (and thank god they don't) I vent my annoyances here.   Every time you re-pin something, you have the option to change the text that goes with it.  Do us all a favor and remove those silly statements and just give a two sentence summary of what you pinned if appropriate.  Comics don't need summaries, a simple Haha, LOL, Hysterical, Hilarious, or other such statement is perfect.

*gets off soapbox*

With that I say, if you haven't joined the Pinterest community and want to see some fun things, what are you waiting for?  :)  Happy Pinning!

The Creative Process

I mentioned before how I was considering placing items on Etsy to sell.  In order to do this I need to actually MAKE something to put up for sale.  First things first, figure out WHAT to make and then HOW to make it.  Really these things seem easy, but generally speaking, I hate patterns, so I make my own.  This is good and bad.  It’s good because I don’t have to “conform” to some cookie cutter instructions and thus end up with a unique finished product.  However, it usually involves some brain power I don’t always have in one go to figure out the details of what I am making.  I thought I would take you through my process of creating my own pattern.  Perhaps it will inspire, maybe you’ll wonder why I don’t just buy a freaken pattern, but hopefully will just be enjoyable to read.

I want to make placemats.  Hmmm… How big are the ones we currently have?  *Goes to find a measuring tape*  Ok, let’s see here, it’s about 12.5”x17”.  Looks about like the size I would like to finish with.  *Makes a box and mark 12.5 x 17* I know I want to use some of the techniques of quilting, so how would I do this?  Ok, we’ll make horizontal stripes.  How wide?  Ok, most standard quilt stripes end up being 2” finished product, would that work?  Hmm, 6 of those gives me 12”… close enough.  Ok, now I want it to be different on each row to add some character.  *Starts to play with the layout dividing rows into halves and 1/3 and 2/3 sections.*  I kind of like the looks of this.

Ok, if I make 6 of these, I can shuffle the colors so that each fabric is in a different location on each placemat. *Verifies this by making 6 dummy blocks and shuffling the color by one in each*

 

Ok, so how much fabric will I need?  Let’s see, all combined, each fabric will be in each spot at least once, so I need as much fabric to cover one 12” x 17” placemat, including seams.  Given I want to have two rows cut in half and the other 4 cut in 1/3 & 2/3 pattern, I need 4 – 8.5” cuts, 4 – 5.5” cuts, and 4 – 11.5” cuts.  All of them 2.5” wide (using ¼ seam allowances).  At this point you might notice I didn’t factor those into the cuts.  You’d be right.  I forgot that until the end.  I’ll say it was still fine.  I added 0.5” to all of them to allow for the joining seam and the edge seam.  Thankfully the math worked out.  From here out I will use the corrected lengths, even though I had to run through it twice.  See note about how sometimes the brain power doesn’t all come in one go.  :P

 So, if normal fabric runs 44” or 45” long, how much do I need cut?  Here’s where the “higher mathematics” comes in.  I played around with a few combinations of 18” lengths.  I can get at least two equivalent rows cut in one strip (18X2 = 36 and 36<44).  So if I can do 2 rows per 2.5” inch wide strip, then I will need 3 strips.  2.5x3 = 7.5” wide.  Hmm, that’s a little weird to ask for at the cutting counter and I might want a little wiggle room, what’s ¼ yard?  36/4 = 9”, that would make me feel better.

So now I know I need ¼ for each 6 fabrics I find.  What about the back?  It needs to be 12.5 x 17.5” (seam allowances factored in).  What’s the best way to configure that on 44” fabric… I could do 2 each at 12.5” wide (2 tall), for 3X12.5” = 37.5”, a little over a yard.  Or I could do 17.5” wide (3 tall), for 2x17.5 = 35”, slightly less than a yard.  Guess I am going to get one yard of fabric and figure out which fits best.  The cutters at the counter usually allow a little wiggle room.  

How to finish these off?  Instead of making binding, I will buy bias tape and make my life easier.  So how much of that will I need?  Measure the perimeter of each mat now, (12.5x2)+(17.5x2) = 60”.  Bias tape is sold by the yard, so that is roughly, 1-2/3 yard per placemat.  So, multiply that by 6 and you get 10 yards on the nose.   

So now my shopping list in complete.  To make 6 quilt inspired placemats I need:

¼ of 6 “coordinating” fabrics

1 yard of fabric for the backs

10 yards of bias tape

Notions – I have thread and what not.

I’ll post pictures once I get them complete.  Hopefully they will be as nice as I think they will be in my head.

Dabbling in the Creative Arts

This past month, my sewing machine has seen more action than it has in a long time.  I think I got fairly creative with some of the gifts this year, plus I made what we wanted for decorations around the house.  I had a great time making everything and it made me realize two things.  One - I really need a craft room in our future house and two - I wonder if I could sell anything I make.

My friend sent my this link a while ago about creative craft room inspirations.  I nearly passed out looking at them.  How I would love to have space where I could spread all this stuff out. My favorite of these spaces is the first one on the page where everything is white and bright and roomy!  I think a lot of these craft rooms look more like craft closets and while best to make use of spaces otherwise not utilized, you still need room to work.

eclectic home office design by vancouver media and blogs The Locker

Granted, the first place we buy probably won't have big sunny windows for me to work under, but if I keep it in the back of my mind, it can't hurt.  :)  So without a fancy dedicated room, I take over the dining room table on a frequent basis.  It works, but is far from ideal.  Even so it's better than nothing.

The second part of this post is supposed to be about if I can sell anything in a place like Etsy or not.  I haven't looked into many details on how much it would cost to set up a site and if I am responsible for all the taxes I would owe on the millions of dollars in sales I will generate.  Details, details.  I have a couple of ideas for things to post for sale on there, but I have to work out how much time it will take and a tentative cost on materials.  Mostly I would be revolving around kitchen/dinning room items like napkin holders, table runners, place mats, and oven pads to start.  Granted I know how to make about half of those, but the idea is still being worked out.  If anything comes of it, I will be sure to let you know.