Fabric Covered Binders

Hi Guys!

Today I wanted to show you something I did last weekend, a very quick, simple little project which came out great, and that you might like to try yourself. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it was a good one; easy, useful, cheap (and by cheap, I mean free!) and pretty. What more could you want in a Pin? 

I followed this pin to the source, gathered my materials (I already had everything I needed), and jumped in. I used some old binders from work, ugly, and still in good shape, but headed for the trash. I nabbed them just in time! As you can see, it doesn't matter what kind of binders you start with, they'll be totally covered when you're done.

The directions are very easy to follow, and in just a few minutes, I was done! I covered two of these binders in a half hour, which included finding fabric in my stash, pulling everything together, ironing the fabric flat, cutting & assembly.

 Viola!

I am going to use these binders to stash my embroidery & sewing patterns and stencils. I picked up a packet of clear, heavy weight page protectors to store small pieces of patterns and templates and help keep everything organized.

This is my current and very dysfunctional pattern storage situation, it's a mess! One binder with everything squashed in willynilly. This is no good, patterns and pages are constantly slipping out and falling everywhere. Yuck.

(Yes, I do have a Barbie on a Vespa. Whut?)

Now everything has a home and sits together nice & pretty, until I pull it out and make a mess, that is! Haha, that's kind of the name of the crafting & making game though, isn't it? As my husband often says "Where Lisa goes, mess follows." He's not entirely wrong, but I keep trying.

I hope you'll give these a shot if you're into organization, you could use them for all kinds of things, like recipes  checklists, storing bills, idea books, anything really. They couldn't be easier and the options are unlimited as far as fabric goes. Let me know if you do, I'd love to see!

oxo,

Lisa

Happy (belated) New Year!

Greetings friends!

Did you have a nice New Years Eve/Day? Are you the party-hardy kind, the quiet evening at home kind, or the midnight-schmidnight, I'm going to bed kind? I'm the second kind, and it's usually just the hubby and I, as well as our critters all piled on the couch watching movies or whatnot. This year was a little different, two of our dear old friends came over and we nibbled and sipped our way into the new year. Then, just around midnight, as the clock ticked down to zero, we went out into the backyard just like we did as kids, and used up the left over 4th of July sparklers.

Good times infinity.

Any resolutions? I'm not a huge fan of New Year resolutions, generally speaking. They feel a bit like setting oneself up for a hard come down. I think a resolution or better choice can be made at anytime of year, and the dead of winter seems the hardest place to start. That being said, this year I AM going to try to get more sleep. That seems like a nice, gentle goal to start out with. Being a night owl is great for us creative types, but not when you need to be awake, showered, dressed and out the door every morning by 7:30am for a 20 mile (all freeway) commute to a full time job... yaknowwhatimean? So until I pick those winning lotto numbers, I need to try to get to bed earlier. Really try. I'm aiming for before midnight. We shall see...

2011 definitely had it's share of ups & downs. It was not a good year for many of my friends where their furry little hearts are concerned, myself included. Too many beloved souls passed over the rainbow bridge this year...

Not a day's gone by that I haven't thought of and missed this little fella, deeply.

I've spent a good long time thinking about where the last year has gone, it really seemed to fly, didn't it? Naturally, I can't help but think of all the things I *didn't* get done. I was bemoaning this fact with a friend recently. She reminded me of all that I *did* get done, and encouraged me to make a list so I could see it on paper. I took a spin though my Flickr account to remind me since I send/give away so many of the things I make, and ya know, she was right, I felt a lot better!

 Well hey there, big fat list!

I've posted about a lot of these things here on my blog, but there are a good many that I haven't for one reason or another. Especially the most recent Christmas "makes", I'm getting there, I'm getting there. There are 45 projects on this list, and 27 of those were completely hand stitched embroidered projects. Not too shabby, right? Thank goodness for friends who know how to pick you up when you're down.

One of the items listed up there was that I wound my floss, almost all of it! I count that as a project because it took all the crafty hours I had to spare for 3 full nights. Once I started I couldn't stop. I never wanted to be one of those "floss winding people" but my floss basket was OUT OF CONTROL, y'all. It was bad, imagine a very brightly colored birds nest. I couldn't take it anymore. And now?

Booyah! This is a good way to start out the year I think. I didn't label the bobbins with color codes, and I'm not too concerned about them being in exact order, either. I usually pick colors on the fly, so this works for me. Only problem, this box ain't big enough! I'm waiting for one of those highly coveted 40% off JoAnn's coupons to come in the mail, I'm going to get a bigger box so I can have all my floss in one place. Ah, the things that I excite me... My life is a thrill ride, I tell ya.

Welp, as I look at the clock it's nearly my new bedtime so I better say goodbye! I'll be back this week to share a couple more of the neato things I made for Christmas, I'm kinda proud about a few of them :o)

Come back soon!

oxo,

Lisa

p.s. Oh yeah! A new project for a new year, I'm embarking on a 365 Photo project wherein you take & post one photo every day for an entire year. I'm excited and a little nervous, it's a lot to bite off, but if I say it out loud (telling you guys is saying it out loud) I'm more likely to make it happen. So far, so good (it's been two days, ha!). I haven't decided yet if I'll be posting these here, in Flickr, Tumblr, or if I'll start a separate blog for them. I'm completely open to suggestions, have any of you done this before? Please, do tell!