Where Bloggers Create Party! Mary's New Creative Space!

I am so excited that this day has come!! 

Since January I have been working on my space on and off with the hope that I would be finished enough to show it off for Karen's wonderful party, Where Bloggers Create.
Scroll down to find the list of blogs participating on the right hand side of Karen's blog.
 

It is because of Karen's party and all the wonderful creative ladies who have showed off their creative spaces for the past 4 years that my space is more then a thought but an actuality now! 

 I spent hours pouring over all your creative nooks and crannies for ideas on my lil ol space.)
I have a huge number of pins on my Creative Pinterest Board just devoted to all this inspiration.
You can see all of my Pinterest boards here-

This whole process was almost a Spiritual journey for me in so many ways.

Even the thought of having a space of my own seemed so selfish and such a waste of time but God used my hubby and friends and His Sweet Spirit to let me know it was ok- He created me with a creative Spirit and it is ok to use it even just having a little down time fun for myself.

There there was the vast overwhelmness  (is that a real word?) of it all!!
My goodness where to start in this  huge pile of boxes and junk supplies that has been stored from floor to ceiling in a huge quadruple door closet?
More before pictures here

I have a tendency to go into freezing mode when I begin to feel overwhelmed- DO you?
Well I just heard a voice
"One Step at a Time"

Guess that first step is cleaning all that stuff out!  Painting came next with some oops paint  that I had in the basement- then
it was on to making this puppy a fun space to work in!
My space is part of one of 4  guest rooms we have for ministry purposes.
Since we still needed the room for guests I had to get creative with the space - we
still need to have useable guest room and I didn't want it to look like an office/workspace

Well enough chattering-
 let  me show you around my little space.

The worktable was my real inspiration piece here

It started out looking like this

You can read more about this project here-

What I love most about this table- All the cubbies!

You can see from this the sewing machine area- 

It folds down so you can use the whole top of table for work area.

 I had so much lace that I made more lace cards like the tutorial I posted  here

To the right of the craft/sewing table is a set of shelves that were updated- I wrote about that fiasco HERE

 Pretty vintage tins and boxes to store goodies

You can read about the music page lazy susan here

My mom made the little dress form years ago for me.
Clocks and ribbons galore.

Continuing clockwise around the room we come to this little area.
I have had so much fun with vintage pages dressing up things like this tiny dresser redo

 

Vintage millinery flowers in a cloche with angel halo

 I used stick pins, charms and buttons to secure lace and ribbon ends.
For the buttons,use a  shank button then pin with a large head through the shank hole.

I posted a tutorial on how to make an inspiration magnet board and magnets HERE-

Love being able to see all my vintage barkcloth now!

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I had painted the back wall with some oops paint that I had bought when we first moved here. It was the perfect soft butter cream.
 As I was organizing all those boxes of junk  crafting things I came across a box of needlepoint canvases that I  picked up at a yard sale years ago for 3.00!
I almost didn't put the canvas wallpaper up as I kept looking at all those inspiration beauty rooms like June's Rebecca, and the lovely German blog  elfenpulver or Carol's  with their beautiful soft white  pastel color scheme.  So many gorgeous syudios out there.  Then I heard that still small voice again.
"Mary you are not June. This room is yours and canvas on the walls is you"
So an Executive "way higher " decision was made and the canvases went up!
We live in a very old house with plaster walls so I tacked a few up with tacks
(4 broken tacks to every one that went in the plaster- man that stuff is tough!)
 then pinned the rest using pins and overlapping the canvas a bit.
I think it looks a bit like burlap only with floral designs!

I also intentionally did not paint all the little shelves and such all white but left some wood toned as the furniture in the room is stained and not painted.
I am so eclectic in my loves and so have lots of different colors and little collections
some vintage and fun like this darling little milk set

 letter dice, Bill's Grandmothers little sewing cabinet,
 a tin from a swap I did with sweet Elyse several years ago

 One of my favorite little things for my sewing area is this darling wicker tray I found for 1.00- it was already painted white!
 It holds my sewing thread, pin cushion, tape measure and chocolate!

Clipped to the handle with one of Elyse's (did you know she is writing a book!!!) cute clothes pins she made is a vintage prayer card.

I found a little box of these memory cards/prayer cards and love changing the card out  now and again for fresh encouragement.

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Another find was the spice rack used to store some more pretties

The ruler trim and lace organizer was another tutorial  post I did HERE

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To the left of the table is a wicker stand that holds stamps, paper, etc. The top has brushes and other tools for easy access.

The little angel was made by one of my precious friends in Alamogordo years ago.

Jackie is so creative - she has just opened  an Etsy shop to sell her soaps, quilts and other pretties.

There is always something that is needing to hide and that's what the lace curtains to the left are for.
Here, I will give you a little peek-Glues and lots of different supplies hiding here.

There is also more storage under the skirted desk which is the whole reason I did a
 tutorial on skirting the issue!

Of course a pretty desk needs a pretty chair using  a pillowcase as a slip cover
More about the chair and a pretty surprise at the back HERE.

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View from the fainting couch

Have I bored you too much or would you like to see some more of  the room?
If you'd like you could lounge on the fainting couch for a bit and have a cup of tea.
I have the Jeanne De Arc Magazine I won for your entertaining pleasure also.

As you can see from the below picture, it is still very much a guest room.
(sorry for the grainy look-with 2 windows it is hard to get a picture with good light.

Oval frame with sheet music- Found the little dress in my pile of stuff
ribbon tree under a laboratory beaker used as a cloche

Tiara picked up at yard sale last year for 50 Cents!  Another find while going though all those boxes was  the crown stick pin that I received from being in a beauty contest right out of high school.  I thought it would be fun pairing it with the tiara.

On the other side of bed is a fun surprise!
Do you see her over there in the corner?

 I tell you I have the most awesome friends ever!
My sweet friend Gayle asked me if I wanted her dress form as she kept tripping over it -
(you can see her beautiful home HERE)
I have been wanting one of these for so long!! I can't believe I now have one!!!! Her name is Ida Ruth,
in honor of Gayle's aunt whose antique dress she was wearing when I received her!
 The dress she has on now is the bridesmaid dress I sewed for my sister's wedding 18 years ago.
Not old but it's so pretty I think.
Ida Ruth is not the only one whose wearing clothes. The lamp shade is wearing one of my skirts with a little crochet trim to help keep her up!

I love this picture of my MIL and her 2 sisters-Mom is the baby in the picture.
Don't you just love how proud and happy they are with their dolls!

Another find from several years ago is this  3 tiered server.  I kept it black and spray painted a lazy susan black to place under it so it would be easy to access all the different bottles.
I took a picture of it by the craft area as it showed up better in the pictures.

 

Glitter is stored in pretty glass containers,salt shakers ,or in the case of these 2- decanter tops.

 I have lots of pretty bling in a handled tray on top of the tiered tray.

This wall grouping came about because of a huge boo boo on the wall!
You can read about the adventure here.

Another view from the mirror at the desk.
Little angel wings - gotta love them!

If you are still with me after the long post-thank you so much for touring my creative space!

If you are ever up my way give me a jingle so we can do some fun crafting and chatting together!
If you would like to see some of the creative things I make
Here is a page of my tutorials

If there is something you would like to see in more detail just let me know-I have a ton  of pictures and didn't want to totally lose you from this post!
 (There are lots of links (in blue) if you would like to know more about any of the project involved in  making this space.)







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May join these great parties too-
 Masterpiece Monday, Mop It up Mondays,   Metamorphosis Monday,   Table Top Tuesday at Marty's,  White Wednesday, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Wow Us Wednesday, Time Travel Thursday, Transformation Thursday, Feathered Nest Friday, Fridays Unfolded, Inspiration Friday, Potpourri Friday 2805, Show and Tell Fridays, The Charm of Home, Thrifty Things Friday, Vintage Inspiration Friday,  Weekend Blogging Reading @ Serenity Now ,   The Charm of Home,  Met Monday, Sunday Scoop at I Heart Naptime,  Weekend Wrap up at T&J,   Shabbilious Friday, Funky Junk Interiors, , Pink Saturday, Show and Tell Saturdays ,