Organizing my craft room - one step at a time

I did a little organizing work in my studio this weekend and it was fun and felt great to start getting things organized. The bits and pieces are coming together and soon enough my studio will be a place where I can actually get work done and find what I need when I need it rather that spending all day looking for my zippers or sifting through piles of fabric to find the "perfect" piece. So I have a few before & after photos that I will be posting throughout the week of a few of the shelves and nooks in my room. I'm still far from finished but it's getting closer! So keep posted for all of the "after" photos to come this week. Here is a sneak peek of a few of the before photos of the disaster of a craft room that used to be upstairs.

Obsession Confession - Magazines & Catalogs

Hello, my name is Mallory and I am addicted to magazines...

I haven't done one of these in a while but you may remember that past confessions have included fat quarters and craft books. Today I would like to talk about another obsession of mine. I have tons of magazines and catalogs, it was honestly a small workout to gather all the magazines from their various locations around my house and get them all to my studio. I love looking through them, some are for keeping some are just for perusing and tearing out what I like before they hit the recycling bin. But, I love them all. In today's era of magazines folding faster than your husband after getting kicked in the junk, I cherish each of these issues and take my time devouring each page. I pull inspiration for new projects from the fashion and craft magazine and I love grabbing ideas for my house from the decor and shelter magazines.

Another great thing about magazines and catalogs is when they arrive in the mail. You know the scene in Billy Madison where Adam Sandler sings a song after finding out that it is nudie magazine day. Well, that is how I feel when a new issue of Martha Stewart Living hits my mailbox. I am also a sucker for the BH&G SIP publication at the check out counter of the grocery store or drug store. 100 decorating ideas - Great! Easy Storage Solutions - Fantastic! I am always sneaking those into my cart and it just gets added into the grocery bill so nobody needs to find out. I love my magazines and no matter what my husband says about this obsession I believe it is here to stay.

Are you also obsessed with magazines? Share your stories, it's ok to admit it!

Organizing my craft room

Although I said that I was going to have a very productive weekend in my studio last weekend I will confess that I did not. I went on a road trip to Pittsburgh instead. But this weekend is a whole different story. I am far from being done with the organizing process and showing you amazing before and after photos but I have a good start. Actually my studio looks like Martha Stewart threw up all over the place right now but I keep telling myself that it needs to get messy before it will be clean. So, I guess this is just a boring post to tell you that I did what I promised I was going to do, just a little later.

I will do the big reveal in a few weeks when I have time to make the room all shiny and beautiful, for now I will show you just two of the projects I am tackling. We moved into our new house about 7 months ago. I took over one of the extra bedrooms as my studio and while we were renovating the house I literally took most of my fabric and other crafty goodies and tossed them into a crawl space in my studio. Before this weekend it looked like this:

There is also a small closet where purses, bags, buttons and other items are being stored. It currently looks like this:

So, as you can see I have a lot of work ahead of me. After my cleaning process is complete I hope both spaces will look a bit more presentable.

Monsterous shopping!

I received many wonderful gifts for Christmas this year but there were 5 times when I opened small brown, familiar boxes that got me quite excited.

These little guys all represent a gift card to Anthropologie, one of my most favorite places. I happened to wander into the wonderful store over the weekend and found a few goodies that had to come home with me right away.

This awesome carafe was on sale, I got the largest size.

This book is fantastic, I am addicted to craft and design books so I had to pick this one up.

I also got a sweater. I decided to save some of my gift cards to do a little shopping before spring quilt market so I can have some new fun items for the trip to Minneapolis this year.

New projects complete!

I finished 2 new bags over the weekend. My new year's resolutions are off to a pretty good start.

First was a custom diaper bag. The new mom-to-be gave me a general idea of the shape and size and I took it from there. It is a pretty simple bag but I really like how it turned out. There are two pockets on the outside with coordinating piping along the top. I also added two pockets along the inside so she can keep organized all the time.

The second bag was an order from a shopper at Bazaar Bizarre. She saw some of my duffle bags at the show and didn't get a chance to come back and buy the one she liked. Since I sold out of this particular design I made a custom one for her with additional pockets on the inside. I have had lots of requests for pockets on this style of bag so I was happy to be able to test this out on the new order.

Both bags turned out well, one has been shipped off and the other is posted on my etsy site now waiting for it's new owner to take it home!

I have another weekend of work in front of me over the next few days so hopefully I will have some fun new items or an organized studio to show for my work next week. Heck, I might even post over the weekend to send out an update - I know, I know more than one post a week! It would be crazy but I think I am up to the challenge.

Who's the boss?

I went to the library today and got a big stack of books to give me some inspiration for the week and something to do while it continues to snow outside. Mostly just design and craft books but I also picked up a great business book called The Boss of You: Everything a Woman needs to know to start, run, and maintain her own business by Lauren Bacon and Emira Mears. I've been reading (and writing) for a few hours now, I am only on page 38 and I am already feeling more inspired than I have in a long while. I have read a few other books about small business marketed to crafters and women but for some reason this one is really clicking for me. You know how these books always tell you to make lists and think about what you want your business to be, well, I actually did that. I am writing lists and giving a lot of thought to my business and how I want it to be perceived by others and what I want it to be. So far I am really enjoying the book and hopefully this creative and inspirational mood will stick for a while so I can get through the book and get my business going this year!

As I was writing this post I googled the name of the book and found out they have a blog too! Now I know that I won't be able to get anything done at work tomorrow.

New Year's Resolutions

Well, it's January so I figured I would go ahead and post some of my new year's resolutions. I didn't post any last year but I'm pretty sure that most of these were on my list for 2009 so I hope that I do a better job in 2010 of getting a few of these taken care of.

1 - Spend more time in my sewing room - I don't have to be sewing or creating a specific project, just spending time in my creative space often inspires me and makes me happy in general. I spend too many days coming home from work, eating dinner and heading to the couch.

2 - Spend more time working in my sewing room - this is kind of part two of my first resolution - hopefully when I am spending all of the time in this room I will start doing some work as well. I already have two orders for the new year so I need to get cracking!

3 - Organize my sewing room - I have been living in my new house for about 7 months now so I need to get this room under control. I have A LOT of stuff but I should have enough room to store everything so I need to get organized so it will be easier to accomplish resolution #2. As you can see from the photos below - this room could definitely use some help.

4 - Blog more - of course, not much else needs to be said about this, I think it speaks for itself. (by the way it is the 7th day of the year and I'm already on my 2nd post - not too bad!)

5 - Apply for more craft shows - I have done three shows so far, two last year. This year I would like to attend a few shows in the spring and a few shows around the holidays.

6 - Spend more time on my Etsy store - pretty self explanatory - I can't sell items that aren't in the store, so I need to get them up there.

7 - Network more - I don't have many friends that sew or craft so I would like to meet a group of people who I can learn from and connect with in this industry. On this note, I can mention that I got word today that I have been accepted into the Etsy Team Columbus group so this resolution is off to a great start!

8 - Start working on my book ideas - like many people I have a few ideas for fun craft books. I would like to start working on researching these ideas and getting them written.

So in the spirit of resolution #2 I spent about an hour in my sewing room tonight organizing a few shelves and putting away a few Christmas presents. Speaking of presents, I got my mom's vintage Singer featherweight sewing machine as a gift this year. I was so excited to be able to call it mine - I have been lusting after it for years!

My Year in Cities 2009

I hope that everybody had a wonderful holiday season and a very happy new year! I had a great season spending lots of time with family and friends which is what it's all about. I had fun last year looking back through the year to see where my travel took me, I think 2008 was a little more interesting in travel but this year we bought the new house so that was pretty interesting as well.

Here is my year in cities for 2009:

Columbus, OH - old house
Pickerington, OH - while we renovated the new house
Westerville, OH - New house
Cleveland, OH - visiting with my parents and family
Lansing, WV - white water rafting on The Upper Gauley
Pittsburgh, PA - Spring Quilt Market
Houston, TX - Fall Quilt Market
Rock Hill, SC - Visiting my new niece
Buckeye Lake, OH - Vacation time
Orlando, FL - Vacation time
Cincinnati, OH - Weekend trip with friends
Davis, WV - Ski trip at Canaan Valley

Bazaar Bizarre 2009

I'm a little behind on this post I guess I can use the holidays as an excuse - there has been a lot of shopping and crafting to prepare for this Christmas. Bazaar Bizarre was two weeks ago and it was a blast! I had a great time, met some wonderful people and sold lots of stuff. The weather was great, which can be a big problem in Cleveland this time of year, but it was sunny on Saturday and just a little rain on Sunday. Luckily that didn't deter any of the shoppers. I don't think there is anything else I could have asked for. Overall it was a great weekend! Thanks to Shannon and all the vendors and shoppers for making it such a great show!

If you stopped by my table during the show and picked up a card, thank you so much and welcome to my blog! I hope you stay a while and come back often.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

How does it work?

I found this awesome animation on Swiss Miss of how a sewing machine works to create a stitch. I never really thought too hard about it but this is pretty fun to see how it works.

click here to see it!





I am busy, busy working on finishing touches for bazaar bizarre that is this weekend in Cleveland. If you are in the area you should stop by to see all of the awesome vendors!

Regretsy

This is definitely my new favorite website. Regretsy is a blog that posts recent posts from etsy that may have been best left unposted. Just a little warning that many of these are adult products and adult language so if you are easily offended you may want to stay away. The best part is many of the sellers who have had their crazy items posted on Regretsy have had an increase in visitors to their stores and many have sold the crazy items too.

Weird Purses!

Ok so this is more of a hat than a purse but it is weird. These hats are from Isaac Mizrahi's new fall/winter 2009 collection. I love purses, no big secret there, but I don't think that would ever wear one on my head. Honestly, if the handles weren't there I probably wouldn't have looked twice. I wouldn't have bought one but, for a runway show a little crazy on the head is not unheard of. So are there pockets in there? Am I supposed to store my phone and and credit cards up there? I guess it's just not by cup of tea. What are your thoughts?

Quilt Market 2009

Quilt Market was a blast, as always. It was busy all day and delicious food and drinks every night. I didn't get out of the booth much so I don't have tons of pictures but I got a few of my favorite booths:

Amy Butler -

Alexander Henry -

Echino -

I didn't get tons of photos but there are many great blogs out there with great recaps of quilt market. True Up is one of my favorite blogs and she has done a fantastic job with her recaps.

Gift Set Complete!

I have been working on my sister's new baby gift set for a couple weeks and it is all ready to be shipped off, hopefully arriving before my new niece!

My sister wanted a simple diaper bag with lots of room and a few pockets on the inside. So she got this big bag:
And then she gets these surprise accessories too!

A custom, matching Ella Phant:

And this matching clutch to carry baby wipes and a few spare diapers:

These will be on their way to South Carolina tomorrow, the baby is due this week so hopefully the bag will get there on time.

This gift set is great for any new mom, if you like it let me know and I can create one for you too! Head on over to my Etsy Store to see all of the measurements.

Weird purses!

I have been looking at the stats for my blog lately and noticed that the number one google search that leads folks to this blog is the phrase "weird purses." So I figured that maybe this is something that people are pretty interested in so I am going to try to make this a monthly feature here at Mallory Hill and bring the readers what they want. I know that I am not the best about keeping up to date with my posting duties so I figured if I have certain posts that need to go up every week or every month then I will be better about the blog in general. Hopefully this works for me. I am going to work on figuring out some posts that can become regulars so I can finally make good on the promise to myself that I will be better at posting more often.

So, as promised, here is the weird purse for September!!

The Fendi Artist Baguette is a new idea in fashion, the ultimate DIY bag comes from us from an unexpected source in my mind. Fendi, a very high end designer brings us a plain white baguette that comes with pantone markers for you to create your own design. When I first saw a picture of the paint by number type purse I thought: "Oh, that's cute, what a fun idea, I bet my niece would love that." Then I noticed the buckle on the front and was sure it must be a knock off, surely a designer at the level of Fendi would not create a designer bag with no design. But, I was wrong this plain white bag can be yours for the small price of $1,300, yep, that's right, a plain canvas bag for just $1,300 - what a steal!

Woohoo - Show number 3!

YAY! I just got notification that I was accepted to the Cleveland Bazaar Bizarre! So exciting, I love doing craft shows and I am hoping to start doing more next year. Now that I know I will be setting up my table again this holiday season I need to get sewing. I already have a few projects in mind for Christmas presents so I have to get busy. The show is December 12th and 13th which seems like it far away now but it will be here before I know it.

In other news Quilt Market is just around the corner and I am getting excited for the trip down to Houston. Since I lost all of my pictures from Spring market (I still don't know how that happened) I will be sure to keep better track of my files to bring you some fun photos from this year. Market starts on October 10th, can't wait!!

Anyone else going to be at Bazaar Bizarre or Fall Quilt Market this year?

Craft Hope

I found an awesome website that does wonderful things - Craft Hope organizes different craft and sewing projects for people to work on across the country and then they send off all of the sewn items to different organizations all over the world. They are on their 4th project right now - sock monkeys for little heroes burn camp. Too cute! If you know how to make a sock monkey and have extra socks laying around head on over to get all of the info.

Happy Birthday to me!

So it's the big 2-6 today! No big plans, nothing too exciting but I think we might go to Ikea this weekend, one of my favorite places in the world (besides the beach, exotic vacations and other fun places). We are putting the finishing touches on the house so we need curtains, a few more pieces of furniture and I am sure we will find a few more items around the market place.

I also received a wonderful gift in the mail from one of my favorite retailers. Anthropologie sent me a 15% off coupon for my birthday so I know where I will be heading in the next week or two. How cute is the little card they sent? I have never received something like this from a retailer before. Happy Birthday to me!

My favorite places...

Another one of my favorite places would have to be Ikea. I could literally spend days at this store. Honestly, if Anthropologie and Ikea had a baby I think I would pee my pants from excitement. I used to work in Burbank, CA and my office was only 2 minutes from Ikea and I would go there on my lunch break all the time just to walk around. I now live in Columbus, OH so I am an hour and a half from the closest store, but that is better than some folks so I can't complain too much. It is probably safer that I am not too close, they would have to kick me out for being an stalker or something. I don't need something like that on my record so I will settle for one or two visits a year.

Since we just bought our new house we have been to Ikea once to get some basics and I will happily be making the journey again this weekend. We don't need much furniture so my focus will be in the market place. The reason that Ikea and I make such a good pair is that I am SUPER cheap (my husband like to call me a tightwad, he finds it humorous). But, Ikea is also SUPER cheap - in a good way. So we are a match made in flat-packed, build it yourself heaven. I can't wait to see that big blue and yellow building come into view this weekend, I have started the countdown!

One more great Ikea fact - the 2010 catalog is out now, get your order in for one because in a few months they will be pretty hard to come by. I will be back next week with pictures of my wonderful journey!

Cupcakes...mmmmm

I love cupcakes! (I also love the Homer Simpson reference in the title - did you catch it?) Anyway...Cupcakes are amazing and I wish I could sit at home all day and sew purses and bake cupcakes and of course...eat cupcakes! So I spent way too much time on this blog Cupcakes Take The Cake last night, very fun, great picture, and delicious ideas. I probably gained 10 pounds just thinking about all of the deliciousness. So after pages and pages of cupcakes I found THESE cupcakes from The Busty Baker.

Mint Filled Brownie Cupcakes, they are made with peppermint patties, I am not really sure if things get more amazing than this. Now I just have to find time to make them.

My favorite places...

I think I am going to try to start a new reoccurring post here at Mallory Hill of a few of my favorite places. Maybe you can share a few of your favorites with me along the way. So here is the first, hopefully of many, posts on this topic.

My favorite retail store would probably have to be Anthropologie. If you have never heard of this store or been to one of their locations then stop what you are doing, don't even read the rest of this post and get to a store - stat! If there is not store near you (you may want to consider relocating) then you should spend some time on their website because it is awesome. They have unique clothes, items for the home and lots of other fun stuff that you don't find anywhere else. Unfortunately, I usually can't afford most of the stuff in the store but that doesn't stop me from going into the store every time I am at the mall so I can ooh and aah over their awesome displays and look at the clothes and read the books.

You just don't find displays like this at the department store:

And their catalog is awesome, if you don't have a store near you order the catalog so you can get a little bit of inspiration. I love their photography, it's amazing:

I'm so crafty...

No, I am not pregnant. But when I saw this graphic here I laughed out loud and sent it to my sister, who is pregnant. She complains because she doesn't think that she is crafty and she doesn't have any hobbies (I say having two kids, one on the way and a full time job is a good excuse for lack of extra time for hobbies). So anyway I sent her an email with this logo and a link to the site and told her that her protruding belly is a true sign of craftiness. A few of my other favorites include this shirt which I will have to buy for my husband when I am pregnant:

And, of course, I will have to have one of these for my little bundle of joy when he/she arrives in a year or two:

Take a look at the entire website to pick your favorites and get a few gifts for your next baby shower.

FAIL!

This could very well be my new favorite website. I love crafting, sometimes it comes out looking great, just like the picture on the pattern or just as I had imagined it in my head. And then there are the other times... when it doesn't look ANYTHING like what I had planned - a failure. This blog is dedicated to these wonderful learning moments in crafting - Craft Fail is a great place to spend some time. Here are a few of my favorites that I have seen:

Too small -
Martha's bath salts -

Craft Fail bath salts -

A Look On The Bright Side

I recently found a new website and immediately put it on my list of favorites. The Bright Side Project is a blog dedicated to giveaways, everyone loves giveaways so everyone will love this site. The great part about this site is that to enter each giveaway you have to answer an inspiring question - not just "why do you want to win this item?" like many blog giveaways. Like: "When and how is the last time you were pleasantly surprised?" or "If you could invent anything, what would it be and how would you use it?" They might not be life altering questions and answers but they are different than most other blogs and it is fun to read all the answers people come up with, they are never the same.

Each month has a theme - July is "Beauty full!" All of the items celebrate, promote, and reflect the beauty in you and in life.

Another bonus is that most of the products that they offer are items that I have never heard of, therefore introducing me to new, fun websites and products. The variety of products is great too! Bags, baby bedding, cookies, and everything else you can think of. They even have their own iphone app!

So, do yourself a favor and stop by The Bright Side Project and take a look around!

Oops I did it again...

Sorry for the Britney reference above, I do still love pop music though. Well it has been another few weeks since I last posted but I did warn you that with the move I wouldn't be around much. So we are all moved in now and unpacked for the most part so I am running out of excuses so here I am with a quick post before I go get a pedicure for my brother-in-law's wedding tonight. I am way behind on posting obviously so as soon as I get myself together I will have pictures of the new house, pictures from Spring Quilt Market and a few more exciting items for your viewing pleasure. Get excited, I promise I will post again before the next two month mark!

Pachyderms & Packing

It has been a whirlwind these past few weeks. We sold our house, bought a new house and have started the crazy process of packing up our current house. Plus I have a show on Saturday up in Cleveland so I have been trying to sew and pack for that at the same time. I think I have enough items for the show, I have one order to place and I need to pack everything up and then I should be ready to go. Here are a few of my Ella phants that will be for sale at Oddmall this weekend!

So, I apologize in advance for being a little sparse over the next few weeks. We will be doing a lot of remodeling on our new house so we move out of our old house in about 2 weeks and don't move into the new house until the middle of June. Lucky for me I get a very convenient break the weekend of our first move, Quilt Market in Pittsburgh! It is technically a business trip since I will be working but my husband disagrees since he knows how much I like going and I would go for free if I wasn't working there. It will be quite crazy around here when I get back though. I can't wait to put up a few before and after pictures, there will be some big changes in that house!

SOLD!

It has been a crazy few weeks here, we sold our house after only 4 weeks on the market and we bought a new house! I am so excited about all of this, now we just have to cross our fingers until both of the closings go through in mid-May. Our new house is so cute, it's a 1915 Cape Cod, with original woodwork and pocket doors and 5 bedrooms, yes 5 can you believe it??!??!! One downside - Wallpaper, there is A LOT of wallpaper throughout the house. And not the pretty kind, the kind that all needs ripped out and every room needs repainted. But that's ok, I was looking for an older house with lots of character and that's what I got! It also has a window seat which I love and a big back yard. One of my favorite things has to be the front porch, complete with porch swing!

How cute is that house? Hopefully in about 2 months it will be even better. So if things seem a little slow around here for a while you will have to be a little understanding since once we get possession at the end of May I will be stripping wallpaper and painting as my second full time job. I will keep you updated, keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well with the closings!

New adventures

I found this great post on design*sponge. It is a guide to all the great little places around Columbus. If you live in Columbus or are planning a visit here any time soon you should definitely check out this guide and start checking out each of these stops. I have lived in Columbus for about two years now and I have been to a few of these places but with this list I have a whole new set of adventures for the spring and summer. Make sure to check out the comments too for a few extras posted by locals. I think this might be one of my first stops,

The Book Loft seems like a place where I could easily get lost for an afternoon. 32 rooms of books, 32 rooms?!?! That's crazy, this is a must see.

This would have to be my next stop, On Paper seems like an awesome store and I think I would probably spend lots of time and money here.

Look what I found!

Vintage finds could be one of my favorite things. I recently went to one of my favorite vintage shops, Footloose, in Granville, OH. I work near by so on my way back to the office from lunch I was very excited to see a big sign that said "Barn Sale at Footloose" No convincing needed, I was headed for the huge barn behind the store. As I walked in they said "don't pay attention to the price tags, just make us an offer." That's when I was pretty sure I was dreaming, but no, it was true. I had a great time digging around and finding some wonderful clothes. I ended up with these two wonderful dresses with great prints.

Here are close ups of the beautiful prints:

You would pay top dollar for these beauties in many vintage stores but I got them each for only $3, yep that's right just $3! The green one even came with a matching scarf, how fun is that? I'll tell you...very fun! If you live anywhere in central Ohio or if you are planning a visit you must stop by Footloose, it is wonderful, room after room of these amazing finds.

Real Estate Adventures!

It's not exactly the best time for this but we went for it anyway.

I put my house on the market a few weeks ago and now it is a waiting game. Hopefully it won't be a very long waiting game but these days you just never know. I am heading out to look at a few houses this weekend, I am so excited for a new house. All I can think of is the new curtains and pillows I can make. A new sewing room, all organized and pretty! That is probably the most exciting part, I have already picked out a panel print that I want to put on the wall.

It is a super graphic by Alexander Henry Fabrics, it is a great panel and I am going to stretch it over a canvas and the design and everything else in the room will work around it. I think I will paint the walls in one of the shades of tan that are throughout it. It also has many coordinates for other fun decorating accents. I love this look:

Maybe a few of the coordinates hanging around the large piece. Wow, I've only had one person look at the house and I haven't even started looking at other houses and I already have my sewing room decor planned out. I guess I know where my priorities are.