Happy Birthday to Me

These cupcakes, from Sam's club of all places, were amazing

 It's my birthday, well not really, but it is this blogs first year anniversary. A year ago today I decided to take the plunge, starting with this dresser re-do and record all of the random crafts and things I get up to. If you're a frequent reader you'll have  noticed some of the changes taking place on the blog in the past week or so. I completely re-did my header and home page, added a more personalized side bar photo, changed the font, and added a support and popular posts section in the sidebar as well. For all of you new readers, you get the new and improved Guild of Goods! I wish I had taken a screen capture of the before and after but I forgot, which brings me to my next point.

The reason I made so many changes within the last week is that I want to continue to improve this blog and take it to the next level. Not only the blog itself, but my sewing and crafting as well. Here are some of my plans for the next year.

- I plan on focusing more on sewing and reupholstering this year with the occasional furniture re-do and crochet project. I think that having more of a focused approach will help streamline this space and attract more people with similar interests.

- More of the personalized photos, like the one above, that headline each post. Not only does it make a pretty picture on here, but if you're pinning these photos, the photo will say exactly what the post is about. That way if you forget to caption it when you pin it, you'll remember because of the tag on the photo!

- I also want to remember to take more pictures, and I want to start to get away from the cell phone pictures I've been using. I'm not really sure how to go about this yet because I'm not really ready to splurge on a fancy camera. I see a lot of sewing blogs use cameras that have remotes, which is ideal because you never need to ask someone to stop and help you take pictures. Does anyone know if they make webcams with remotes?

- I want to get better at recording the type of fabric I use in my posts and where I purchased it. Not only will this help  me keep track of fabrics I like or don't like, but it can help you as readers if you're venturing out on projects of your own.

That's about all I have for now, and I hope you all are just as excited as I am. Let me know what you think of the changes I've made so far. Do you like the new font and header? As I continue to work on this space feel free to leave comments either at this post or on my contact page. I'll have an upcycled filing cabinet that I'll be sharing tomorrow so check back then, and if you haven't already checked out the two newest Renfrew shirts I made you can check them out here.

These cupcakes, from Sam's club of all places, were amazing

 It's my birthday, well not really, but it is this blogs first year anniversary. A year ago today I decided to take the plunge, starting with this dresser re-do and record all of the random crafts and things I get up to. If you're a frequent reader you'll have  noticed some of the changes taking place on the blog in the past week or so. I completely re-did my header and home page, added a more personalized side bar photo, changed the font, and added a support and popular posts section in the sidebar as well. For all of you new readers, you get the new and improved Guild of Goods! I wish I had taken a screen capture of the before and after but I forgot, which brings me to my next point.

The reason I made so many changes within the last week is that I want to continue to improve this blog and take it to the next level. Not only the blog itself, but my sewing and crafting as well. Here are some of my plans for the next year.

- I plan on focusing more on sewing and reupholstering this year with the occasional furniture re-do and crochet project. I think that having more of a focused approach will help streamline this space and attract more people with similar interests.

- More of the personalized photos, like the one above, that headline each post. Not only does it make a pretty picture on here, but if you're pinning these photos, the photo will say exactly what the post is about. That way if you forget to caption it when you pin it, you'll remember because of the tag on the photo!

- I also want to remember to take more pictures, and I want to start to get away from the cell phone pictures I've been using. I'm not really sure how to go about this yet because I'm not really ready to splurge on a fancy camera. I see a lot of sewing blogs use cameras that have remotes, which is ideal because you never need to ask someone to stop and help you take pictures. Does anyone know if they make webcams with remotes?

- I want to get better at recording the type of fabric I use in my posts and where I purchased it. Not only will this help  me keep track of fabrics I like or don't like, but it can help you as readers if you're venturing out on projects of your own.

That's about all I have for now, and I hope you all are just as excited as I am. Let me know what you think of the changes I've made so far. Do you like the new font and header? As I continue to work on this space feel free to leave comments either at this post or on my contact page. I'll have an upcycled filing cabinet that I'll be sharing tomorrow so check back then, and if you haven't already checked out the two newest Renfrew shirts I made you can check them out here.

Peek into: The Craft Room

I haven't posted about the craft room before, mainly because it still wasn't very setup. I had some time over Thanksgiving break to get some things organized (hide some other things in the closet) and make it look presentable with what I have so far. This room had a built in bench/desk that I thought would be perfect, but in actuality it's a really small tight spot when you're working with a bigger piece of fabric.

I haven't posted about the craft room before, mainly because it still wasn't very setup. I had some time over Thanksgiving break to get some things organized (hide some other things in the closet) and make it look presentable with what I have so far. This room had a built in bench/desk that I thought would be perfect, but in actuality it's a really small tight spot when you're working with a bigger piece of fabric.

DIY Felt Sewing Booklet

I finally made it over to the craft store (JoAnn's) this weekend and picked up some things for my next couple of projects. Even though I couldn't find my stack of coupons, which of course I saw immediately when I got back home, it's student discount month and I got 20% off. Whoop!

Craft loot

I got some tie-dyed felt, which I used to make the felt booklet I'll be getting to further on in this post, thread to make bracelets with, and a couple yards of different trim that I'm going to make headbands with. About a week ago my grandma sent me a little booklet she found in her sewing basket that has an easy craft a month, under the month of March there were instructions for a felt sewing booklet.

Copyright Martha Stewart

I knew right away I wanted to make this because my sewing basket is a mess. I have a very small little basket and an overabundance of stuff that is usually spilling out of said basket. I figured I could place all of my needles and buttons and other things in this booklet as opposed to them just being everywhere. The inside of mine didn't come out nearly as cutely organized as the one in the above picture or some that i've seen online, mainly because I have about a million needles, but hey it gets the job done. I also saw this cute one for earrings that I thought was pretty neat when I was googling around. So you can make one of these and use it for more than just sewing supplies. Click the link to see pictures and what supplies you'll need to make your own!

I finally made it over to the craft store (JoAnn's) this weekend and picked up some things for my next couple of projects. Even though I couldn't find my stack of coupons, which of course I saw immediately when I got back home, it's student discount month and I got 20% off. Whoop!

Craft loot

I got some tie-dyed felt, which I used to make the felt booklet I'll be getting to further on in this post, thread to make bracelets with, and a couple yards of different trim that I'm going to make headbands with. About a week ago my grandma sent me a little booklet she found in her sewing basket that has an easy craft a month, under the month of March there were instructions for a felt sewing booklet.

Copyright Martha Stewart

I knew right away I wanted to make this because my sewing basket is a mess. I have a very small little basket and an overabundance of stuff that is usually spilling out of said basket. I figured I could place all of my needles and buttons and other things in this booklet as opposed to them just being everywhere. The inside of mine didn't come out nearly as cutely organized as the one in the above picture or some that i've seen online, mainly because I have about a million needles, but hey it gets the job done. I also saw this cute one for earrings that I thought was pretty neat when I was googling around. So you can make one of these and use it for more than just sewing supplies. Click the link to see pictures and what supplies you'll need to make your own!