First Snow!

We got our first snow here yesterday. I'm really trying not to complain, because I do love blankets, cuddling and hot cocoa, but I'm not a big fan of being cold. So to try to counteract the negative side of snow, I focused on this card for this week's Sketchmania challenge. Check out more entries and even submit your own for a prize on Dee Dee's blog!



Enjoy!

Rachel May

Schoolhouse Tunic Finished!

I went to the Schoolhouse Tunic class at Fancy Tiger and had a blast! I finished my tunic and went home all giddy about it. Here's a picture of me in it this morning-it's early, be nice.

I'm really proud of the craftsmanship. It's the little things that make it look good, like matching up seams and taking a little extra time to make sure that all of the edges are finished. We had a really good instructor and it was a super fun class. I'm already planning which class to take next (hello kimono robe)!

I didn't prewash my fabric before class (i totally know better than to do that too), but it ended up working out to my benefit. The tunic was just a bit too big on me, and after a good wash it fits perfectly. Not tight, not too loose, just right. Can't wait to show this off at work today!

Enjoy!
Rachel May

Washburn Residence: Dresser Redesign

I've been helping out a client(finally using my interior design degree) with a few selections for her home. She had already purchased an unfinished wood dresser for her bedroom (top left is a look-alike) and wanted it painted. She wanted red, but we needed to narrow down what she meant by that, so I came up with this mood board.

click to enlarge

I created this to help the client and myself get on the same page as far as what "red dresser" meant. That's a big deal-people have different perceptions of things. We decided which dresser we liked best (all images found on Google after searching "red dressers"), the bottom right was our favorite. I used that selection and a rug as inspiration to select the paint colors/finish look on the piece.

I'll make sure to post updates as I move along on this project.

Enjoy!

Rachel May

Schoolhouse Tunic

Today, I'll be here, learning how to sew this. So excited!

Rachel May

Happy Saturday!

Last night I did something really weird..got into cooking mode and baked squash, made pizza (from scratch), baked chocolate chip cookies (from scratch), and threw together a salsa (scratch). Why? I have no idea, I'm just odd sometimes.


I intended to make pizza for dinner. The rest was for...the rest of the weekend, I suppose?

Result: Cookies and coffee for breakfast today and squash for lunch. Maybe I should rethink this and cook healthier items next time (although everything else was pretty healthy...but I can't resist the cookies).


Rachel May

Art by Craft

Hello! This is what I was up to last night: volunteering for the Denver Handmade Alliance at an amazing art opening and exhibit. It's called Art by Craft, runs through the next two weeks and can be visited between 12 and 4. Very cool-I highly suggest it.

If I were smarter, I would've taken pictures, but I didn't. Oh and funny story-I took the light rail to get to the event and took the wrong one to get back home. Not very funny last night, but I'm ready to laugh about it now. Took an hour and a half to get home, but I did make it, and I got a lot of book reading in. I made sure to sleep in this morning to make up for that adventure.

So if you're smart enough to know your route there and back, definitely go:)

Rachel May

Paint Swatch Organizer

You know those clear plastic business card sleeves? You could use them for business cards (standard), but you could also use them for TONS of other things. I was trying to organize some paint swatches for a client and thought of this idea. Using a business card as your template, cut the paint swatches to size.


You can cut the name off and use double stick tape to adhere it to the back, or cut it so the name shows on the front. See?


Very nice-and it looks so clean an professional. I'm pleased with the results! I'm sticking extra smaller paint swatch scraps in there (no need to throw them away) in case my client would like to keep them for reference, or if they're unsure of which color to choose. Also-if they don't like a color, it's easily interchangeable! No commitment whatsoever:)

Enjoy!

Rachel May

More Wabi Sabi Goodness

I took the Wabi Sabi article (mentioned before here) into work this week for our staff meeting to share with my coworkers and it went over really well. It seemed to really make an impact on the people I work with and I was SO excited to be able to share something that really enlightened me with other people.

Our office culture is really changing in a positive light which makes all of those hours spent at my day job so much more enjoyable. It's so easy to start overlooking things at work and get frustrated, and to let that frustration build day after day. I'm so glad we've noticed it and are taking action to work towards a more positive, accepting culture. If you want to check out the Wabi Sabi article, it's in this month's Whole Living (a Martha Stewart Publication). I highly recommend it.


In the spirit of Wabi Sabi, I found the best Wabi Sabi coffee cups at Caribou Coffee the other day. They look handmade and have the neatest little circle handles on them. And, at 50% off, I bought two. Can't get much more Wabi Sabi than that.

Today I'm doing some interior design research for a client (can't wait to share more on that topic with you!) and soaking up a creative day. What are you up to?

Enjoy!

Rachel May

Sketchmania #14

Here's my card for this week's Sketchmania challenge!

I tried to go for more of a collage style, but I think I'm too linear to craft like this. I'll stick to what I usually do:)

If you want to check out other cards, go to Dee Dee's blog.

Enjoy!

Rachel May

Whole Living: Wabi Sabi Your Life

I was hanging out with my sister yesterday and she mentioned an article that she thought I'd like. It's titled "Wabi Sabi Your Life" and it's in this month's issue of Whole Living (pg. 103). I read it tonight and really felt the message, it's exactly how I want to be and what I strive for now. Here's the basic idea:

"Wabi sabi is the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete, the antithesis of our classical Western notion of beauty as something perfect, enduring, and monumental."

My very own Wabi Sabi: handspun yarn. The first thing I'm embracing as imperfect yet absolutely beautiful.

Wabi sabi celebrates imperfection and flaws and embraces that. I really feel like this is something that everyone can take into their own lives. We worry so much about the laundry not being done, our home not being "perfect" when we show it off to others, or our bodies never being skinny enough.

On the contrary, it doesn't mean letting everything go, living like a hoarder and never bathing. You still need to have some sense of control and order in your life, but it's about embracing those things/people/ideas that you cherish, and giving them recognition and value.

I would highly recommend picking up this issue and checking out the article, SO inspiring!

Enjoy!
Rachel May

Horseshoe Craft and Flea Market

Happy Saturday! Today I ventured out to the Horseshoe Craft and Flea Market. It was awesome! Here's what I found:

Handmade Soap by Clean Getaway in Almond Vanilla (mmmm)

Earrings made using recycled skateboards by Mukee (perfect fall yellow color)

I also purchased an event tote bag, the new Fancy Tiger Class Schedule, some granola and coffee from a shop called Cake (whoever was the genius behind the whole coffee-at-a-craft-fair thing is my hero).

I saw some other cool shops that I want to check out as well: Presents for Pirates has cute notebooks and things, Dandy Social Club makes me want kids-cutest kids clothes ever, Bluedoor had an amazing sewing machine painting that I REALLY want, Vital Industries and Tomte Craft (same place) were also there.

Such crafty success! So glad I attended.

How's your Saturday going?

Rachel May

My Bedroom: End Tables

I'm working on a bedroom redesign for mine and the Boyfriend's bedroom. It's going to be awesome. Right now I've only gone as far as to purchase end tables (couldn't wait!) that go next to our bed, and to assemble one of them. Here's what they'll look like:

Room Essentials Nightstand in Espresso, Target $59.99 (each)

We've had a file cabinet and an Indian-style carved nightstand next to our bed since I can remember, so it's super exciting for me to have end tables that match AND go with the style of the room. I can't wait to turn it into the fun-but-relaxing space that I know it should be!

You also might remember my bedroom "befores" from when we were building our bedroom shelving, that's here. The "afters" are here.

I'm on a very tight budget, so I'm working on a design board to post and show you and I'll be revealing my budget, how much I've actually spent, what worked and what didn't, and progress along the way.

Enjoy!

Rachel May

Blog Crush: Little Green Notebook

Here's a really fun interiors blog for you to check out. I've been reading through the archives for the past two days...very good stuff. It's called Little Green Notebook.

This blog inspires me to design more. Which reminds me, I discovered the most perfect side tables for mine and Boyfriend's bedroom. I'm going to purchase them this week, then I'll have to do a big reveal! Stay tuned!

Rachel May

Sketchmania #13

Here's my submission for Sketchmania's 13th challenge! Ooh..I had SO much fun with this one!



If you want to see other people's submissions, check out Dee Dee's blog!

Enjoy!

Rachel May

Hanging Lake Part Two

Here's more pictures from our hike this week.

We hiked a little further once we saw Hanging Lake and tried to get under the waterfall. We got pretty far.

Then we backtracked a little bit and hiked up to Spouting Rock. This is the original water source for Hanging Lake-it's an aquifer that's flowing out of the mountain. We were totally able to walk under this waterfall.

We hiked further and were able to look over the edge down to Hanging Lake-sort of get an aerial view of it all. It was breathtaking. You can see the boardwalk that's around the lake. This was taken from above.


Why I love Boyfriend: I told him I needed a picture with my sock in progress. He doesn't ask why, he says "Well I'm going to focus on the sock, the waterfall will just be a blur in the background, okay?" That's a man with his priorities in place. (if you don't understand why someone would take a picture of sock knitting, go to the Yarn Harlot's blog).


We had a blast.


I'm already planning our next hike-this one was SO much fun!

Enjoy!
Rachel May

Adventure: Hanging Lake

Boyfriend, his mom and I went on a hike yesterday to Hanging Lake. If you live in CO or you're visiting, I highly recommend going here. It.Was. Amazing. This is what you see as you're walking to the trailhead (you don't hike this part, this is just the background..but really? Beautiful!).


Boyfriend took some amazing shots. I named him photographer for the day. I was the lens cap assistant (very important role, don't you know...).


I spotted this little guy moseying up the hiking trail. We helped him to the side, so he wouldn't get injured by any hasty hikers. Isn't he the coolest Halloween caterpillar ever? Boyfriend says he's seen them before, but this was a first for me-very cool.


And since the girls over at the Fancy Tiger blog were talking about seeing some elf houses in Iceland, I thought I'd share with them that those elves must vacation in Colorado. Here's proof! True to their Icelandic nature, they like staying at a place with ice-cold lakes. Makes sense.


And this is what everyone hikes to see: Hanging Lake.


Nuff said.

Even more pictures tomorrow, some with crafts! Stay tuned!

Rachel May

Catch-up: Sketchmania #11

Here's another past challenge card I created for Sketchmania! To check out the template or other people's work, stop by Dee Dee's blog!


Enjoy!

Rachel May

Sketchmania #12

Here's my submission for this week's Sketchmania challenge. Hope you like it, I had a ton of fun making it!


Check out other people's submissions at Dee Dee's blog!

Enjoy!

Rachel May

Home Staging: Westminster

Today's post is all about staging. At my day job, we call our houses by their street name (hence the title of my post). I won't give you addresses to the houses that I'm staging because some of them have sold since, but I'll label them this way throughout all of the staging posts I do.


I really liked this house and had a ton of fun staging it. The major staging focus was art and accessories. They can really transform a space and make it look warm and inviting.

My favorite space in this home: the bathroom. I'm so proud of how adorable it looks!


Looking back at these pictures, I had a thought: I love this job:)

What do you think?

Rachel May

Catch-up: Sketchmania #10

I keep forgetting to post my weekly challenge entries for the Sketchmania challenges, so I'm playing a little catch-up the next couple of weeks.

These challenges are great-Dee Dee does an awesome job coming up with the designs, and I'm proud to say I'm one of the designers in the great group she selected. Here's what I came up with a couple of weeks ago:


If you want to see the template for the challenge, or other designers and readers submissions, check out Dee Dee's blog for more info! You can enter to win prizes as well:)

Enjoy!

Rachel May

Excited for Fall!

I was flipping through my newest copy of Travel and Leisure magazine and found this: knit goods! I've been thinking about knitting so much this month, with it being featured in magazines and on Fancy Tiger's Blog- the owners just went on a trip to Iceland-how cool is that?

Now I must go knit something! And all this has me thinking about Christmas...oh boy the work that needs to be done!


Any hand knits on your horizon? I saw that knitinsage is doing a mystery knit along-very cool. And the Yarn Harlot always has something (well, multiple things, really) on the needles. I'm thinking socks and hats myself. I would love to have some nice wool items by winter this year!

Oh and did you see the Fall Getaway cover? I'm really lusting for a vacation right now and that was such a tempting cover. I dropped everything to start browsing the pages for more info. But in the end, the hand knits got me-and they're a little more accessible to me than a trip to the Carribean for a spa getaway (at least so far anyway...one can dream).

Enjoy!

Rachel May

Card Club Challenges

Hello All,
I've been working on some fun things for the blog, but first-some bad news. I've decided to dissolve the Card Club Challenge. Why? There's a lot on my plate and I've been struggling to do it all. I think this is for the better, but it was a tough decision. I'm hoping this will help me to focus on all of the other projects I have going on right now that are demanding my attention.

But there's good news as well! If you still want to see awesome card challenges, check out Dee Dee's blog,(for which I am one of the designers) where she holds them weekly!

No worries-there will be enough craft content to go around:)

Enjoy!
Rachel May

TGIF

This has been a long couple of weeks, and this poor blog has been shoved aside in the meantime. I'm just so glad it's Friday, I can't say it enough! I hope to get back on track this weekend and start sharing with you one of my newer endeavors...home staging.

I don't think I've addressed my day job on the blog too much, probably because I'm there all day and my blog is what I do on the weekends and in the evenings. I'm the office coordinator for a house-flipping company called HomeVestors (the We Buy Ugly Houses company). It's a challenging job, but it mainly demands that I sit at a desk all day answering phones and emails (or at least that's how it feels sometimes). I've been there over a year now, and it's taught me SO MUCH about homes-not just making them beautiful (which college taught me) but the entire process of purchasing, remodeling, marketing and selling them. I can't believe how much knowledge I've gained from my position. With that being said, I dearly miss designing!

I have a pretty cool boss that sees my interior design potential and wants to help nurture that. He started a company for him, me and a third partner (she's also education in interior design). I won't get into the personal details, but basically my partner Pat and I do the staging and my boss is our built-in client. I'm kind of still letting this sink in, I mean I'm part owner of a company now (but I still have to keep in mind that I'm full owner of another company too...)!

I've taken pictures of some staging I've done lately and I have some images of staging that my partner has done as well and I'm going to start posting those soon...sharing another part of my life with you readers. Hope you like it!

Rachel May

Card Challenge #8!

My results for Card Challenge #8!

This card challenge required us to make our own patterned paper for an anniversary card. Here's what I came up with:




You can join the challenge every two weeks as well! See what the other members are doing:
SkyleRae
DeeDee

Enjoy!

Rachel May