AND a microwave cart!

That's RIGHT!  The kitchen island was NOT enough.  We went ahead and made a microwave cart!  We used pieces of wine boxes and the whole wine boxes for holding things (potatoes and onions and stuff!)  Woohoo! We're pretty awesome!  I plan on staining it, but I just wanted to share as soon as I could!

Here's the frame:

And BAM!  Awesome:

And here it is, in use:

The final reveal!

So, Eleni and I decided that we needed a kitchen island.  After scouring the internet, we realized that the size we wanted was going to be way too expensive.  So!  We put some roof racks on my 1990 Toyota Camry, (yah, that's right!) we picked up 4 free pallets from a craigslist ad, and we began on a journey.  Over the past 2 weekends, we built and built, sanded and grouted, painted and cut, drilled and planed, and finally, we ended up with an AWESOME product.  (Sorry, not the best pictures.)

First, the frame.  We made 8 of these simple frames, made with 2x3s and 2x4s.  After we put them together we realized we could have easily just used 2x3s.  2x4s were overkill.  We got a sheet of cabinet grade plywood and cut it to size and screwed it all together as shown in the second picture.

Wine boxes!

They're just about my favorite things.
Other things that make the list: power tools!
My parents found some wine boxes at the flea market and of course they thought of me and bought me a few.  Horray!  And I used my new jigsaw and a hammer to fix one up real nice.

So, I only upcycled one of them, but I upcycles it into awesome!  I'm gonna hang these babies above the microwave stand and put the awesome vintage plate set I got off Etsy right on top.  And it'll look FABULOUS.

Here's the before...

And after...

Come in, come in, into my dungeon...

As most know, I live in a basement apartment.  There are good and bad things about this.  I love the apartment itself, with some vintage (read: old) appliances, a double oven and grill top.  A walk-in closet in the bedroom and a door between the extra-large vanity and toilet/shower area.  Plus, a huge section of the backyard solely for my use.  My landlord is also pretty cool and very nice.  But, it is still a basement, so sometimes water seeps in through the front door... and I live under a family of bouncing monkeys.  It's nice a cool in the summer but warm in the winter.  But anyway, here's a few views of where I live... (don't forget to mouse over the pictures for a few tags)

My livingroom/kitchen is one open space.  The entrance to the apt is to the right of this...

Annnnd, TJ himself.  At his desk, which is where he normally is (except for the next few days--he bought dead space 2 so he'll be stuck to the tv for a while) the frig, sink, grill top, ovens (didn't get a pic of that) are to the left of this pic...

Making a bag out of a book

Once upon a time I had an extraordinary amount of time for crafting and I crafted many a thing... once upon a time.  Back then, life was all 'what will I make next.'  Anyway, as you'll find, a common theme in my makings of things is making them as a gift for someone else.  It's really the reason I've gotten into so many varied types of crafts.  Also, once upon a time, I took up sewing for a moment (before realizing how horrible I was at it).  Using a very nifty how-to, found here, I was able to make a friend of mine a bag recycled from a book.  As pained as I was to rip out the pages of a book--I can hear my high school English teacher yelling "book abuse, book abuse!"--I did it for the art of crafting.  My version is a bit different from the tutorial (ugh, ugly big wooden handles... really?).  I added buttons on the outside and, on the inside, little "windows" for 2 pages from the book that I couldn't destroy.

This page reads "The world is dark, and light is precious/
Come closer, dear reader/You must trust me/I am telling you a story."

Also, I didn't just trash the sheets I savagely ripped out.  Instead, I blended them up into pulp (along with colored construction paper) to make paper and, in turn, these snazzy little note cards.

To begin...

A friend (codename: CaLynn, Site: a case of the crafties) told me once, quite some time ago, that I should start a craft blog.  Hers is all nice, organized, and she shares links to her inspirations/gives credit where credit is due.  I say this because I hope you don't expect mine to be!  haha, at least not the first couple of posts.  I, unfortunately, have lost a lot of the linkage to the inspirations for my older crafts, but if I find them, I will update.  Anyway, point is that I'm going to share a lot of the stuff I've made, and going forward, the stuff I make.  I know a whole of 5 people MIGHT read this, but I hope those 5 enjoy what I gots. :)

Lemme start with my craft space, which is itself a collection of organizing DIYs (and some store bought stuff).  In 3 parts, the center (and where I do all my work) looks like this...

Here, you can see my main craft table, it tilts, though I've never found a need for the tilting--not yet anyway. Ikea-bought legs (in the as is section :) provide some storage underneath, and the top is just an unfinished piece of plywood.  Also, note the Silhouette HD that my boyfriend (codename: TJ) got me for christmas.  Also, my DidItMyself (made by my very own imagination) coffee can organizer.  It is simply: 1 curtain rod (mid-grade, pretty sturdy), 8 repurposed coffee cans (with a hole drilled into the very top), and those useful S hooks that you can find at your local hardware store.  There's also an Ikea-bought basket that I can't see myself using much longer and will probably be replaced by more coffee cans.  Now, I've considered covering the cans with scrapbooking paper or possibly painting them, but for now, and I think for permanent, I'll be leaving it as is.  I like the metal  look.  I sort all my tools by craft: cutting things, sculpting things, painting things, etc.

If you were sitting at my craft table, to your right and left you'd see this and this:

Which is just me utilizing every inch of space I have for hanging things like my level, my rulers, my dremel, etc.

Now, part 2 of my craft space is my main storage:

What you see here is random stuff on top, paper things in those paper boxes, fabric and the obligatory "misc" bins, AND repurposed wine crates.  Each of those little green suckers is designated to a particular item-type or craft-type, including (but not limited to): my buttons, my stamping stuff, scrap jewelry, jewelry supplies (jump rings, o-rings, etc), etc.  Crammed between the wall and the shelf, you'll find poster board, canvases, and foam board--big things that fit nowhere else.

And a close-up of a few of my boxes:

And, last but certainly not least, is my other craft table--used for placing things that are done and need drying (note the cooling rack) and of course used for more storage:

It looks cluttered, but most of it is pretty organized.  A sewing machine I rarely use because I suck at sewing, the cooling rack with some old clay-creations that never even made it to the painting stage, more wine crates that I made into a bookshelf type thing (stores everything from paints, spray paints, chemicals, glues, quilling paper sorted by color in those cigar-boxes, nails, screws, hardware, stamp pads, etc etc etc), and lastly my AC Moore-bought ribbon holder which supports my collection of old and new small bottles which themselves hold itty bitty things like beads and brads and googly eyes and other stuff.  phew, that was a mouthful.




Time for closeups!

I mentioned to TJ today that I think I spend more time organizing my craft area more than I actually craft... it may or may not be true.  I go nuts when it gets all cluttered though, so I spend a lot of time re-sorting, organizing, and finding/creating new storage options.

Well, this post alone took a lot out of me, so I hope you enjoyed it!  Expect more, eventually.  For now, I'm going to go read, and if you wanna know what, it's this: