{Mantle Makeover}

Happy New Year friends!!! I am so excited to share this new year with you! I have so many fun ideas and projects to share with you all in the coming months! It's going to be a fun time :)

Fist up...my fresh new mantle makeover!

As soon as Christmas is over, I get bit HARD the the purging and redecorating bug. I crave a clutter free and organized space, but it needs to be homey too. 

My mantle is my favorite thing in our home. I just love everything about it and it's SO fun to decorate!

Here's a close up of all the bits and peices.

 Hoops. You can never go wrong with hoops in my book! Pick out some fun fabrics that make you smile. Seriously, how cute is that little fox??? I have a little bit more of that sweet fabric so you'll be seeing more of it :)

 We are in the process of booking a family shoot to get REAL photos taken, but for now, this is the best picture of us. I found a pretty frame at Home Goods and that AWESOME 3 is from a store at the Orange Circle called Eikon. It's AMAZING. 

 Vintage books. Mason jar, yarn, lace, roses from our yard.  Purdy.

 This frame was a fun little project! We spray painted a cheap frame and glued a few rows of twine to the inside. Mini clothespins will hold a few favorite pics. I want to get a few Instagrams printed for this. SO cute! And the owl is a fun find from Home Goods. Love him!

This is my very favorite wreath EVER. Burlap, lace, fabric scraps, and a few favorite flowers. I love it all. So scrappy and fabulous!

Happy New Year everyone and HAPPY DECORATING!!!

P.S. Stop by tomorrow for the release of my new crochet pattern...the Mug Sweater. They are SO cute!

{Fall Mantle}

Hello there! I'm so excited a share my fall mantle with you today! Lots of fun handmade projects. I just love it!

 I've been in kind of a creative funk lately and this project was really good for me!

 I made these pumpkins a few years back and every fall when I get them out, I'm just giddy. They're so cute!

 I painted a dollar store vase a pretty buttery yellow and added some flowers and leaves I found at Micheal's. The vase is kind of a craft fail, but you can't really tell so yay! I learned a lot in the process and will definitely attempt it again!

 I've had this sign for a few years now too. It's a favorite.

 This is one of my all time favorite projects!!!! I spray painted a cheap frame pumpkin orange, wrapped the backing with pretty fabric, book-paged the letter "O" and hung it in the frame with a scrap of fabric. It's attached to the backing with a thumb tack. That little wire pumpkin was one of the fun things we made at the last Pinterest Party I went to! I just love how these little things came together!

 My scrappy wreath. I love it!!!!! This was my first attempt at those cute little felt flowers. Verdict: I'll definitely be making more!!! So fun!

 The whole thing! I'm now kind of obsessed with making pom pom garlands! It was just the perfect finishing touch!

I hope you enjoy these projects! I so enjoyed making them! Happy fall y'all!!

Oh Happy Day {creative space reveal}

It took several days and lots of elbow grease but the office makeover is finished!

Here is what it looked like before…cluttered and messy.

And here it is now! Come on in and I’ll show you around!

I showed you all this area already, but in case you missed it…here is my revamped ironing station!

Next, I moved the desk, relocated my cutting matt, cleared off and painted the bulletin board, and made a few accessories for the desk!

Thanks so much to The Secret Stitch Club for sharing their tutorial for the cute little “Keep Calm and Sew On” printable! Love it! And see that little mug rug??? Those will be coming to the shop in the very near future!

I also made a new cover for my sewing machine! I will be guest posting the tutorial for this ruffley goodness on a fabulous blog in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more details on that!

Then I made a cover for my boring folding chair. I chose a sunny yellow vintage inspired fabric. I also made a cushion for my bum. Hours of sewing is hard on the tailbone :P

I painted this bulletin board to match the other one and I added some teeny tiny bunting. So cute! Thanks to Andrea from Knitty Bitties for this printable. Something I need to be reminded of everyday!

Here is the backside of my desk where I store all my stuff.

On this shelf, I store my fabric and works in progress.

My cutting matt and tools we relocated here, to the other half of our L-shaped office desk. It’s working out nicely. And in case you can’t tell…I am printable obsessed! Thanks to Kim at Yellow Songbird for this one!

This is the email checking desk. As I have mentioned previously…I blog from the couch due to laziness. Still working on getting a new chair. This one is GINOURMOUS.

Well that’s it. This is where I make all the pretty things for the shop! I hope you have enjoyed the tour!

Oh and make sure you stop by See Kate Sew today for my tutorial on the Conversation Heart Coasters!

Have a great day friends!

{My Creative Space}

Over the weekend I gave you all a sneaky peek at what was going on behind the scenes at Sew Chatty.

It was time for an office/sewing space INTERVENTION. I felt like I was on an episode of “Hoarders” {which I totally love BTW}.

Clutter had overtaken most of the space and when things are messy, I am a crazy lady. It’s a pretty small room…about 10x10…and we have A LOT of furniture in there. It’s our home office AND my sewing room. Double duty means two desks and one of them is L-shaped so that’s like 3 desks.

My sewing desk {IKEA…love it} is made to be double sided so I was using one side to cut and the other to sew. I love that, but that means the desk is in the middle of the room and it is a TIGHT squeeze to move around in there. I decided that was the first change to make.

After LOTS of decluttering and organizing and moving things…I give to you the tour of my creative space…how it is now…but I’m no where near done yet!

This is the view from the living room. Whoa. I can actually walk in there now!

   

This is a strange little nook outside the room that I have turned into my shipping station.

This is the first area I’ll be making over! The dresser will be getting a pretty paint job and new pulls. The ironing board will be getting covered. And the things that are currently on the wall will be relocated to another wall and I will framing some pretty vintage flour sacks in embroidery hoops to hang up.

I am also eager to makeover this area! I’ll be redoing the inspiration board, covering the chair, making a new sewing machine cover, and adding a few cute accessories to the desk. 

This is the shelf part of my desk and where I store all my books, patterns, and various supplies. What is that white thing you ask? That would be my .50 light box…what I use to photograph most of my products. Tutorial coming soon! The other shelf stores my fabulous fabric.All that stuff in the corner is display things for boutiques/shows. I really need to find a more aesthetically pleasing way to store that!

This would be my new cutting table {aka desk that’s been in the room for 7 years} and where I check email, etc... I blog from the couch because I’m lazy :) 

I am also thinking we need a new desk chair. This one is GINORMOUS {while being very comfy} and not pretty. I like things to be pretty.

Well, that’s it. My creative space pre-redo. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be working hard to make it pretty! I hope you’ll follow along to see the progress!

Have a fabulous day!

Fireplace reveal!!!

We took advantage of the long weekend and tackled a little home project!

Our fireplace needed help in a major way. Not sure why but it didn’t have a mantle. Just this weird little brick ledge that’s really too small to hold anything. We’ve had our engagement picture up there since we moved in 7 years ago, but it’s really too small for the space. We are not very motivated with the whole DIY thing so we were just living with it.

Shortly after we bought our house a friend/neighbor gave us a couple of OLD windows she scored for free from another neighbor who was getting new ones put in. Anyhow, back to the not motivated when it comes to DIY…they’ve been sitting in the garage for about six years.

Well, a few weeks back our friend/pastor mentioned that he had a mantle sitting in his backyard and we could have it if we wanted it. It would just need a good sanding and painting because it’s been outside for 3ish years…

…so now we had a free old window and free old mantle…and all of a sudden I was VERY motivated to get this project done!!!

The husband took charge of sanding, painting and antiquing the mantle to match the shabby old window and I got to work on the pretty stuff. Here it is!!! You like? I am majorly in love with it. Just feels so homey and like it was always meant to look like this.

I got to have a little fun with the decorating! I made a burlap rosette wreath for the window inspired by the lovely Jenn from Tatertots and Jello! Not sure what to put on the mantle. I want to be able to change the wreath and mantle decor seasonally. Hmmmmm. Decisions, decisions. I got some cute little votive holders for the weird tiny brick ledge. See that little antique chair? It was my Grandmother's and I love it. Cover it, or leave it alone in all it's mustard glory? Oh and while I was at it, I also made some new pillow covers for the very plain brown throw pillows on our couches!

My two favorite things…patchwork and ruffles!

Have a great day!

The start of a new project.

The new year makes me want to have everything tidy and clean and organized and nicely decorated. Anyone else crazy like me? To feed my OCD tendencies I am going to do a room by room purging, cleaning, and even redecorate a bit. I have lots of fun craft projects planned! I have estimated this endeavor to take 7-8 weeks. Let's hope I'm right! I am starting this week with our living room.

I know it looks tidy but now, but if you could see the insides of all those drawers…you would shame me. The game plan : De-clutter, and CLEAN. I am making some covers for the throw pillows, and doing a pretty big fireplace makeover. I also want to make two more quilts…they are easy patterns. I am hoping the living room comes easily together this week so I can show you the room again next week all spruced up! Happy Tuesday friends :)