Notes from A Cottage Industry

Weekly words to live by.

Happiest of Thanksgivings to one and all.

Well, I pulled it off last night, adding leaves to the table and decking it out, harvest-style

(Yes, indoors.)

(Insert exasperated eye roll here from me, deep in the heart of Traceyville.)

Can I interject here that I am wondering if I am the only girl in America who thought the stores (Grocery and big box craft stores like Michaels) would still have little white gourds or pumpkins in stock?

(The employee at my local Michael's yesterday looked at me like I was a slice of bread short of a sandwich when I asked her where any of the Thanksgiving merchandise was.)

In the end, it came together just fine, sharing our Thanksgiving meal in my dining room(As much as I whined, I couldn't get anyone on board to dine outdoors as I had envisioned in Traceyville.) with Robin's egg blue accents on white pumpkins I already had on my dining table. A good time was had by all.

I hope your Thanksgiving was spent with people you love.

....Oh, the pink booties in the photo? They were worn by both of my daughters, and I thought they were long gone, but were rediscovered this past week. I gave them to my daughter to use with grandbabe number nine. (A second grand daughter for me!)

Down-to-the-wire-last-minute Thanksgiving tablescaping.

Yeah, it's the story of my life, doing things last minute.

Last night, (the night before the night before Thanksgiving...)I realized I had no actual game plan for my tablescape for the Thanksgiving dinner with my family that I am hosting this year.

Wanna know how that happened?

I have been in Traceyville, that's how.

You see, we had a record breaking dry and hot spring and summer here in the Pacific Northwest, and from the minute I announced I would be hosting Thanksgiving for the family, (Way back in August, I believe.) I started envisioning a perfect rustic harvest themed table, with little white pumpkins and candles in old canning jars lined up down the middle,flanked by bistro chairs with fleece throws draped casually over their backs, outdoors, on my freshly painted, firewood-stacked-and-lined covered patio.

I pictured two matching outdoor heaters on either end of the patio,(I know! Nice, am I right?) and perhaps a firepit that I just bought on an early Black Friday deal off to the side, adding the wonderful smell of cedar to the holiday air. (And for the grands to make s'mores after dinner. They love doing that!)

(Have you gotten the entire visual here?)

Mmmm hmmm.

Well.

We had a cold snap that started a couple weeks ago, and I buried my head in Traceyville, where it is always warm enough to dine outside with six little men under the age of seven. I glanced at my iphone weather last weekend, and remained ever hopeful that the weather would somehow cooperate with my vision for this Norman-Rockwell-meets-Country-Living-Magazine event in my mind.

It would seem that this is not to be.

Last night I had to take the fast train from Traceyville to Vancouver, where we are expecting a high of 42 (if we are lucky.) and face the cold (no pun intended) hard facts that I had never bothered to come up with a "Plan B" for Thanksgiving twenty-fifteen.

I then spent several hours a fair amount of time perusing Pinterest for ideas. (After all, my own Autumn Entertaining board  was of no use, as it is full of every outdoor harvest tablescape ever photographed, and not much else.) Finally I remembered what I already knew; that it is who is in the chairs that matters, and not what is on the table.

I felt a wave of peace wash over me when I remembered this, and I have no doubt that tonight after work I will set the table and something will come to me to foofy it up, and in the end, it will all work out just fine.

Finding a pan to hold that twenty one pound turkey is gonna be another story.

What all the sharp dressed men will be wearing this New Year's Eve.

You likey?

(They're boutonnieres!)

Anyway.

I know. I’ve been MIA.

Life has been crazy busy.

(Isn’t that true for all of us?)

Between trying to get all the rooms in my cottage painted, my busy season at my grown-up girl job, and the big etsy order I had, I’ve been spread a little thin.

The rooms are now all painted, (Yippee!) the etsy order has shipped (Yippee some more!) and work is…well, still crazy busy. (But that is a good thing.)

I had so much fun doing my etsy order that I was kinda sad to have it completed. Then…the shopper emailed me wanting to know if I might be able to create boutonnieres to coordinate. Hellooooo! Yes, I would love to! I sent her photo samples, and we shall see what she decides.(I will keep you posted, don'tchaknow.)

They were so fun to make that I will be adding them to my etsy shoppe later this week. (After Thanksgiving is out of the way…)

What do you think? Can you see these on a sharp dressed man’s lapel at a black tie affair, or better yet, a new year’s eve wedding party?

I’m swooning here.

Weekly words to live by.

The post where I create order in my little craft room, thanks to some inspiration from the 80's.

(Having trouble figuring out what that is a picture of, exactly?)

(It's a treasure. It's shot with my iPhone, looking out the back window of my 52 pickup truck.)

...

As I shared just last week, I have always struggled with keeping my creative spaces neat and tidy.

Okay, I struggle with keeping most any place neat and tidy, but in my craft room, the struggle has always seemed to be outta control.

Anyway.

I spent a good portion of this past weekend addressing this problem, (When I wasn't making a huge untidy mess working on the big etsy order...)

 

....and while I don't want to sound overly confident here about my organizing and tidying skills, I think I may be on to something this time.

You see, I have had this idea percolating in my head for some time now, that old school entertainment centers would make perfect a storage center in a craft room, or an antique mall booth space.(circa 1980, when TVs were big and deep, and we liked several cubbie holes to hold our VCR and wide assortment of VHS tapes.) I'm talking about the solid oak, five-hundred-million-pound-multiple-cubbies-and-one-big square to hold your television entertainment centers.

And I found one on craigslist, just a couple of miles from my home.

(Inset wild cheer here.)

For twenty five dollars.

(Repeat wild cheer here.)

And I offered the guy twenty and he said okay.

(Who could pass up that sweet deal? Not me.)

I whined begged pleaded convinced my Rock n' Roll Buddy to go with me in my old blue truck to pick it up.

(This is where things got a little dicey.)

It turned out that the entertainment center five feet wide and six feet tall, and it was made of thick, solid oak.

(Remember the 80's? Oak was the thing. Heavier than anyone could imagine, but cool looking.How had I forgotten that?)

Yeah, heavvvvvvvv-y.

It took three of us to get this ridiculous thing into the back of the truck, and once it was there, my rocker buddy informed me that he would not be moving anywhere again.

Undaunted, and basking in the confidence that this was going to be too perfect for words, I let it go for the evening, and figured we could find an easy solution on Saturday.

Saturday came, and I called around for back-up support but struck out. We finally ended up getting a kindhearted-and-available neighbor to help out, since he didn't have any plans until the Duck game on TV at 4:30.

It was touch and go, with a few frightening moments where I couldn't decide if my neighbor was going to have a full on heart attack, (Seriously, I have never seen a person sweat that much.) or my Rock n' Roll buddy was going to have an asthma attack, and then there was the part where the entertainment center got wedged real good between the hallway and the office doorway, but I prayed hard, and held my breath, and in the end, other than a three foot long scratch in the hardwood floor that I had to sand a bit and seal, it was all good.

Actually, it was better than good. It was fabulous.

It holds and organized a lot of my crafting supplies, and holds my printer perfectly. Now all that is left to do is add one more shelf above the printer, and paint it all white.(Update to follow when I get to that point.)

*sigh*

It turns out that rock n' roll and big hair weren't the only cool things in the 80's. 

The post where I got my clip boarded calendars hung well in advance of the new year.

...and I am pretty tickled about it, because it is a first for me.

My craft room is now freshly painted in the same fabulous shade of clean and cozy white that I have painted the rest of my cottage in, (with the exception of the laundry room and bathroom, which are my signature Robin's egg blue...) and the clipboards I ordered arrived in just two days, so there was nothing stopping me.

(Please ignore the very sad 1950's door with peeling paint. Installing cottage style interior doors is on my long wish list of things to come.)

I have big plans for my craft business (and my craft room) and I am doing all I can to guarantee that twenty sixteen will be the year I become organized and focused!

Weekly words to live by.

Magic is something you make.

That just might be my mantra for 2016.

(I know it's only November, but working on all of these New Year's Eve hats and horns and such has me all inspired for the year to come.)

So.

I'm working on getting my craft room dialed in, once and for all. (Okay, if you know me in person, you know that I have never had a craft room, big or small, that has been "dialed in".)I am getting it dialed in so that I can be organized and ready for crafting and creating things for my easy shop. 

(Oh! The plans I have for my easy shops!)

(Yes! I said shops, with an "s".)

In preparation for organizing things, I bought myself twelve clipboards.

Yes, twelve.

One for each month.

I made a calendar sheet for each month, and I am going to hang them on the wall, so that I can plan and plot out all of my easy items well in advance of their respective holiday/seasonal times.

Oh yeah, watch out, people. 2016 is gonna be my Etsy year.

Land of the free, because of the brave.

Feeling extra patriotic (and oh! SO proud!) this Veteran's Day, as my son just completed his IFT (Initial Flight Training) with the Air Force.

Thank you to all who serve, or have served, selflessly, so that we can sleep peacefully each night.

Creative minds are seldom tidy.

I think that's what they say, anyway.

(And...if that is true, I am apparently very creative.)

...

So, I am still working on this order for an etsy shopper. 

(I am having so much fun!)

And, I making an epic mess of my cottage.

I won't go into details because I might actually die of embarrassment, but trust me when I say that my little office is so messy that I work on the dining room table. 

(I tell myself it is so that I can see the TV while I am working, and I simply cannot miss The Voice.)

And, as I said before, I get so excited and inspired while working, and when I get going...well, I seem to make a bigger mess.

One side benefit of getting so inspired is that I come up with new ideas while creating. Last night was no exception.

The person I am creating all of the party items for ordered some favor bags, and I told her I would be happy to provide a sign to place on the table next to the favor bags, so guests would know that they were free to take them home. 

Of course I knew I could use a picture frame, but that was a way-on-the-back-burner-plan-B idea for me. I kept thinking there must be something clever that could go with the vintage look...and then I found an old book, with pages folded, from my old booth days at Camas Antiques.

Oh my.

I designed a sign, and sure enough, the book held it upright just fine, thankyouverymuch.

(I blurred the names, because the party is a surprise and I do not know if the guest of honor reads my blog.)

Of course, as my luck would have it, I ran out of ink in my printer at the exact moment I wanted to print my latest creation, (Does that happen to you?) and so the photo shows only a rough idea of what will be like in the end, so you need to imagine that the page will be nicely colored and all foofied up with some sheet music and netting and such.

I think she will love it.

Oatmeal weather.

Yep, that's what we are having here in the Pacific northwest, and I am loving it.

You know, crispy cold, with some alternating drizzle-drenching downpours rain. Mmm hmm, comfort food weather. There are lots of meals that make my comfort food list for lunch or dinner, but for breakfast there is really nothing like oatmeal, preferably with cinnamon and apples, (And maybe some raisins and nuts if I have them on hand) and a cuppa cocoa or hot tea.

(Preferably eaten while covered up in my little down throw on the sofa, by the fire.)

(Add to this scenario that it is a weekend when I have no urgent time schedule to watch the clock for, and I am officially in heaven.)

Do you have any favorite breakfast comfort foods?

Weekly words to live by.

Gettin' my (nearly) nightly craft on.

So, in between my grown up girl job, and my house renovations, I have been madly crafting a whole slew of New Year’s Eve party items for a large etsy order.It's hats, and horns, and midnight snack bags, and oh! It's all so cute, and the more I craft, the more giddy I become. ( True confession here- Sometimes I even leave the room and come back in just to marvel at the glittery eye candy.)

I work on this pretty much each evening, and I get myself so excited about the details that I then have trouble falling asleep.

Isn’t that funny how inspiration and using your creative side of your brain can do that? (Please tell me I’m not alone in this.)

The domino effect, home improvement edition.

Yeah, so the living room and dining room are now pristinely covered in a fresh milk-white shade of satin paint, and you would think I'd be just squealing with delight each time I enter my cottage, but...what happened was that now all of the dingy, tired, chipped up molding that we left unpainted are screaming louder than ever to be replaced.

Instead of noticing the disappearance of various paint color splashes that had previously been on the wall, I see how desperately I need to (at the bare minimum) paint the mantle.

*sigh*

It's the old "If you give a moose a muffin" thing all over again.

Mind you, this is not a bad thing. No, not at all. What it has done is get me motivated to tackle the trim work right away.

(It doesn't really show in the photos, but trust me, in broad daylight, it's quite visible.)

If you live in the area, you just might see me driving over the I-5 bridge in my old blue truck friday night after work, heading to Home Depot for 36 pieces of trim.

Updates coming your way!

Apparently Christmas is just around the corner.

Mmm hmm. At least according to all of the stores I was in this past weekend, Christmas is well on it's way.

Now, I love Christmas time as much as the next girl, but I am not quite ready for tinsel, jingle bells, and Christmas throws just yet.

I want to enjoy November a bit, along with all the crisp fall weather, and look forward to Thanksgiving for a week or so first.

I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year, after a number of years of not actually hosting (hostessing?) any holidays, and so I am pretty danged over-the-moon excited about it.

So excited that I made invitations, even though my family knows I am hosting, and where I live.

(I am all about those kinds of details, you know.)

I am even more excited about my theme for the table scape, (A rustic harvest look, with possible alfresco dining, weather permitting!) and all of the little details for the actual day.

More on my Thanksgiving table scape to come. I'm off to drop my invites in the mail now.

The post where I get my living room walls painted. (At last.)

Can I get an Amen?

(Thank you.)

As I begin the eleventh month of living in my cottage, I am at last, beginning to see real progress. Two weeks ago I had my bedroom, the guest room, and the hallway painted, including the ceilings, thankyouverymuch.

Yes, I could have painted them myself. Two reasons that never happened:

1. It seemed daunting to paint the ceilings and walls of so many rooms. (Shall we just say that I am not the neatest painter? Even when I lay drop cloths down, somehow a fine mist of paint speckles and splatters manages to find it's way to my furniture and floors.)

2. I'm crazy busy at my grown up girl job all day, and coming home to try and muster the energy to paint in the evenings wasn't happening.

*sigh*

Never mind the reasons.

(See the paint splotches? See the plaster repair that I did actually tackle myself?)

I know I could have done the inside paint job. (God knows I've done it before, plant of times.) The simple fact is stated up above, where I state that I am entering my eleventh month in my cottage, folks.

That would be ten months since I slathered some blue, grey, and off white paint on various areas of the living room walls to finally decide I was going with an all white interior.

My painter-guy was cheaper than I imagined, which made this all (finally) doable.

Tonight I will mop the hardwood floors, wash my sofa slipcovers, and curtains, dust and oil my wood furniture and admire the serene atmosphere in my sweet living and dining room of my cottage.

I will then repeatedly step in and out of the room, admiring it from both the hallway and the kitchen doorway, pinching myself.

Next step will be new baseboards and trim. (Yippeeeeee!)

weekly Words to live by. (Hello, November!)