Creative Happy Tuesdays: Getting Decors for My Craft Room

I hope I can start using my craft room again by early next week. I had the opportunity to visit Papemelroti in person after almost four years! I've just been buying from them online, but the experience is so much different when you visit the shop. I'm so glad the shop in Glorietta is still around. Sadly my favorite resto, Don Henrico's, has been replaced! It used to be beside Papemelroti. 

I was so happy I had the opportunity to pop-in Papemelroti yesterday. Thought it would be nice to find some decors for my craft room. I already have a unique clock, but I want to add a couple more things to make the place more cozy. Papemelroti feels like home. I've been visiting the same shop since the 90's! 

I went through all the corners of the shop to familiarize myself with what they have now. Last time I got to visit was in November 2019. They have a lot of new stuff and it seems they have retired some items (i.e. wrought iron decor, they only have flat metal ones now). They have a lot of clocks and wall board decors now. I went through all the boards. I liked a lot of stuff and was so confused, haha. 

I ended up getting two items. A #Create board and a cute message board. I #Create board would be perfect for the craft room. I think I'll stick to the "create" theme for the craft room since that's what it's meant for. I have a couple of miniature sewing machines I collected. Oh! And I have a thimble collection from my travels. I'll bust them out once renovations are done. :)

#BeKind #StaSafe

Creative Happy Tuesdays: Mademoiselle vs. La Fleur? Craft Room Accent Wall

Aside from proper cabinets for my craft room, I was given the option to have an accent wall. Since it's my "cave" I thought a pink wall would be cute. I had my room painted pink way back and kinda miss it. Early last week I was asked to choose the shade of pink I wanted from a color palette. It was hard! I didn't want it to be too bright or too light. It's hard to choose because I need to make sure I don't get tired or annoyed by the color. 

From the many shades of pink I chose mademoiselle and la fleur. Mademoiselle was more vibrant and youthful. I have a shirt in the same shade. It also reminded me of my old room. La Fleur was a different shade of pink. It looks a bit peach depending on the lighting. It reminds me a bit of my 2022 planner and happy flowers. 

Mademoiselle vs. La Fleur

On Saturday, Sweetie informed me that the team had painted the two shades of pink on the wall. I had to make my choice. When I saw the wall I was immediately attracted to mademoiselle. It is a comforting shade of pink and reminded me of happy days. La fleur though was what I originally wanted. I thought it's more age appropriate and would signify a new chapter in my life. It also felt like a very stable shade of pink. 

I went out of the room after looking at it and pinged some friends for advise. Posted the options on my stream, but the result was 50-50. Everyone was torn about the choices too, haha. A friend took it a step further and explained to me what kind of accessories would match the room. Mademoiselle would match with silver colored accessories. La fleur would match with gold colored accessories. My pink bench though matches better with mademoiselle, but I could always make a cover for it. 

First coating

After thinking more about it, I finally decided on a shade. I chose la fleur since it looked more fresh, it's I think more appropriate for my age, if ever I add accessories, I'd prefer gold, and it won't make me crave for strawberry ice cream. 

Shiny new craft room
(the painter said he loves the color)

Over the next few days, the cabinets and paint job were finished. I just went down and the room is ready for me to move in. We'll have it cleaned first before I organize my sewing materials again.

Thank you Lord for the beautiful gift :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Creative Happy Tuesdays: Craft Room New Look Coming Soon!

Cabinet installation has finally started! I've been dreaming of having a proper craft (maker) room for many years now. I've been working on my projects where there is available space. The past few months my craft room has seen many changes. I got two cabinets to hold my stuff, but clutter easily piles up. I want a space that where I could properly organize my stuff. It's also my safe room whenever air quality goes bad, so it has to be secure. 

Just before we emptied the room.

The space for my craft room is small. I originally wanted floor to ceiling cabinets, but realized that it would make the room feel stuffy. So I asked if the middle part can be made into a desk since I do other stuff too. I want my art materials and stickers accessible. 

Original plan was to keep it open, then I wanted it closed.

The architect suggested to have drawers at the bottom instead of plain cabinets. I agreed since it would be easier to organize knick-knacks in drawers. Originally also thought I'd keep the cabinets open or use glass, but after using glass steel cabinets for many months I grew tired of the busy background. I sold the steel cabinets to a friend. 

The final cabinet that will hold my craft stuff.

Aside from the cabinet I'm having a design wall installed. We're just going to DIY it with flannel and foam board. The design wall will help me look at the design while I'm piecing the quilt. I'm also considering putting a rod on top of the design wall to make it easier to take photos of my projects. 

I decided not to make a new sewing table since the one I got from Spotlight is still useful. I'll probably have one made in the future when the existing one becomes unusable. I'm so excited to have proper cabinets for my craft room! Yay!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Craft Tuesdays: Craft Room Wish List

I'm back in my craft room today. I was staying at the dining table so I could be nearer to the boys, but it's warmer today so I had to go downstairs. I haven't done any sewing in the past few weeks. The t-shirt memory quilt blanket is not done yet. I suspended working on it when we went to Bohol. I'll wait for the boys to get well first before I work on it again. 

The good news is we'll start working on getting our house properly fixed. That includes fixing the craft room. I actually call it the "maker room" since I don't just work on crafts. I use it to blog, edit videos and many other things. It's essentially my "cave" haha. It's really a tiny space. It's approximately 3.5 meters by 3.5 meters. Architect Wansi said we'll need to re-layout the space to maximize it. 

Thought I'd write out what I need to make the space perfect. 

Sewing Space

The sewing space doubles as my "desk" right now. I cut fabric, iron, use the sewing machine and even eat on it (especially on hot days). Ideally though the table for sewing should be different from where you iron and cut fabric (and definitely don't eat on it!). Well, space has been an issue so I'm thinking about the following options:

Have a central sewing table (still use the table I bought from Spotlight)

Install a fold-down table from the cabinet that can be used for ironing/cutting fabric

Or install a pull out table from the cabinet

Or have a table that can be folded when not used

Fabric and Knick-knacks Cabinet

I bought two steel cabinets to hold my fabric. It looked really good since I could see my stash. The truth is I now regret getting steel cabinets with glass doors. I organized the fabric but it still looks cluttered and with a small room it's better to keep things behind opaque cabinets. Architect Wansi suggested to build a proper cabinet that will have desk space. 

Here's what I need to store: fabric, sewing tools and equipment, cameras and equipment, quilting books, wadding and I need a nook for my meds (I keep them downstairs since it's cooler there). 

Quilt Design Wall

I see this often on quilting videos from other countries. Quilters have a wall which they use while working on piecing their projects. I just whatever free space I have (usually a bed) and it's tricky because you can never fully appreciate the design and colors. I wished I had a wall when I sandwiched the memory quilt. I tried hanging it on the curtain rod, but it did not work. So I'm hoping to have a quilt wall in the maker room. 

Also just discovered some nice channels on YouTube that provide ideas and suggestions when developing your craft/sewing/maker room. Ohhh, so excited!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Craft Room Update

We've now lived in our new home for six months now. Slowly working on fixing our home. There's a lot of things that need to be repaired and we still have a lot of unopened boxes! We decided to get help already from an architect to get things going. Maybe we'll finally be able to have visitors by Christmas! 

I've been spending most of my time in the craft room. I wanted to customize cabinets for it, but it's going to take time so I just got steel cabinets. We've moved it around a few times and it gave me a chance to re-arrange my fabric. I'm not satisfied with it yet, so I might re-arrange it one more time. I also need to organize the sewing accessories better. I'm thinking of getting a thread organizer, but I'm holding off buying anything since I'm waiting for a proper room design. 

I also got a bench for the room. It's a cute dark pink bench which I use whenever I feel like resting. Miggy sits on it whenever we eat at the craft room. The bench also doubles as storage, so that's been useful for me. I'll make a quilt cover for it when I'm done with the memory quilt blanket I'm working on. I had the bench customized by a shop in Tarlac. 

The craft room has it's own toilet and bath. That's one reason why it's the perfect tambayan for us. We used to hang out in the dining room, but I had to move downstairs at the beginning of summer. Last week I had a brilliant idea to spruce up the bathroom. Thought it would be cute to upgrade it with Hello Kitty items. I found a rug set and a cute box on Shopee. I was looking for a towel holder, but so far have not found any I like. I just got the rug and box first and will do further improvements later on. 

The craft room is functional for now, but it needs to be improved. The space will be more useful with proper cabinets and hopefully by then I don't have to keep my sewing machine on the floor when I'm not using it. The sewing table I got from Spotlight was a good investment, but I don't think it's going to last long and it's too fragile to move around. Maybe I can have a portable one made so I can sew anywhere hehe. Slowly but surely.

Happy Sunday everyone!

 

Color Seasons

My favorite color changes every few years. I've gone through mint green, red, yellow, peach, violet, pink and then it went back to red. I haven't had a favorite color for a few years now, but friends noticed I have a lot of blue colored clothes. I think I'm used to wearing blue because I wore a blue uniform throughout elementary and high school. My bags and device covers are mostly red. I have a lot of random pink stuff. 

I've been thinking about what to do with my craft room. Should I make it colorful? Or stick to neutral colors. We just have everything in white right now. I had the kitchen cabinets repainted to dove gray from midnight blue. I wanted it to be brighter and just chill. We haven't considered coloring anything for now and will probably keep things as it is for now. 

I've been struggling with choosing colors right now. I used to be so decisive about these things! I decided to make our curtains, but it's been two weeks and I haven't chosen a color yet. Gaaah! I've been changing my selection for the fabric almost everyday. I'm not sure why I'm dilly-dallying over my choice. I already had a long discussion about colors with a friend and we agreed on warm neutrals. That's how I ended up with dove gray for the kitchen cabinets. 

Maybe I'll stick to neutral colors for now. I can always have add colors through accessories. Did you notice it's easier now to change how things look? One can easily buy sofa covers or chair covers. I can easily make themed quilt throw pillow cases. I plan to also make different covers for my appliances based on the season. That should keep me busy for a long time. 

Now that I've thought this through I think I'll make gray curtains for now. It should help accentuate the Christmas tree more (well... when we get around to setting it up!). 

What do you think? On hindsight, I could have thought about this before, but decorating isn't really my cup of tea, haha. Recos are welcome!

#Home35 #NewG211 #Xmas19 #StayHome #BeKind   

Home Clean Up and Planning My Craft Room

We got help from Gab's company, Squeaky PH, to do move-in cleaning. Our new home is still dusty from the construction work and it would be really hard just to clean by ourselves. I'm so glad it's easy to get help now for home cleaning. 

Our home though still looks like a bodega right now. I'm still hopeful we could make it look decent by Christmas. I hope our dining table arrives today. It would be perfect to have it in time for Mommy's birthday. 

One thing I'm really excited about is my craft room. I've been pouring over ideas on Pinterest. I want to have floor to ceiling cabinets to house my fabric and materials. Then put a desk area on one side where I can put my books, printer and small equipment. I'm still deciding what kind of center table I should have made. I'm thinking of a folding table which can be expanded and hold small knick knacks. I saw some being sold at Lazada and Shopee, so I might consider that. They're smaller than what I need, so may still consider just having it customized. Dealing with design is not a strong suit of mine, so suggestions are welcome :)

The nice thing about being home is I could get help from friends who have businesses. I prefer to work with people I know because we're also taking a lot of precaution for now. I contacted my school busmate earlier to see if his company can help with our cabinetry. I've been going through his profile the past few months looking at projects his company has made. Hopefully he'll be able to indulge my whims haha. 

Update: dining table is delayed. Arggghhhh...

Happy new week everyone!

#Home33 #NewG213 #Xmas19 #StayHome #BeKind  

My Dream Space

I was already in high school when I had my own room. Growing up I slept on the floor in my parents' room. We had available rooms in our home. I just never had the urge to move. My realm was my mattress and the space around it. My toys would lay beside the bed, eventually an Olympia typewritter, books and then I went through a period with my walkman. I soon moved to my Ate's room after. 

When my Mom taught me crafts she would put projects in a basket. This allowed us to move around the house. We'd usually start in the bedroom and by afternoon in her garden. This is how I learned to work anywhere. With little space though in our apartment here in SG, I commandeered the couch and sala table as my craft space. It's not a pretty sight. My materials are also lined up across the kitchen. 

I've always dreamt of having a proper space to do my crafts. Right now I use the dining table to measure and cut fabric. Fabric and scraps are scattered across the living room table. The couch holds my rulers, biscuit can of thread and sometimes the pincushion. I once had a walk-in closet which I turned into a craft room. The room housed all of my beads and I had a table I could work on. Too bad though I barely had time to craft then!

I've been looking at craft room vlogs and designs on Pinterest. Wow! It would be wonderful to have proper storage for my sewing materials. Then a center island where I can cut fabric (okay, Sweetie can also use it for his projects). I also want to have a sewing machine table I could push around where I want to work. I get so excited thinking about it haha. I've been trying to draw my ideal craft room, but my drawing skills does not exist. 

I can go on and on about the features I want for the tables, but I won't bore you with that. What about you? Would you want to have a special space for yourself? 

Day 4 Gratitude Challenge, An Accomplishment of Yours: surviving motherhood until this day! Whew! I was looking at licensed cartoon fabric early this week because I'm planning to make Miggy a quilt blanket. I realized though that he is already an adult! I ended up not getting any fabric because I realized I need to reframe my mind and accept that he's no longer a tiny 4-year old. I am grateful to everyone who has accompanied us in our journey. 

CB///*Yr2/90 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/117 #NewG356 #Home130 #StayHome #BeKind