Decorating

Updatings:

~ Patty Radish ~ 8 Comments

I have been spending most of my time over the last couple of months finishing up projects…again! If you have been following me for a while you may be asking yourself “When are you going to be done with this “Project” project?” And I wouldn’t blame you…seriously, wow!

I am happy to say that I am about as close to being finished with old projects as I have ever been…except for Project Life. I’m not sure I will ever be caught up with that. And this seems like a good time to ask, would you would be interested to see how I create P.L. pages? Please let me know in the comments.

On to the latest…

Crochet Projects: Three afghans…check!

One for me, one for my daughter, and one for my grandson. This one is mine, taking photos of blankets is a pain, but you probably get the picture here, tons of color. I create these by tying random lengths of neutral and colorful yarns together, rolling them into balls, and crocheting them into squares. This involves a ton of end weaving, but the end result is super fun!

Using up macrame supplies: Check!

A wall hanging for me and a hanging bed for my daughter’s cat. In my quest to find the right color of cord for my daughter’s wedding decor, I kinda got stuck with with a few skeins that I needed to use or give away. This is a new technique for me so it’s a bit wonky, but the cat bed came out super cute. Here is a link of the inspiration: Cat Bed (Seriously! I could have bought that for $25…doh!)

Hanging pictures and emptying containers: Double check!

A strange assemblage, but this wall needed something, and I needed to hang these or get rid of them. This is in my sewing/craft room so I’m not too terribly worried about the decor, as long as it’s fun and colorful. The gallery wall in our bedroom came out really nice with some midcentury florals. I’ll be working on a gallery wall of family photos in our hallway soon.

Organizing: Keeping the things I love!

I went through my whole sewing/craft room and donated what didn’t bring me “Joy”, clearly I still have a lot of joy left! (please don’t think the rest of our house looks like a thrift shop, just this room…or at least I hope so!).

I have been doing this throughout the house, and slowly it’s starting to feel a lot more relaxing and less cluttered. Almost everything in our house has some sort of sentimental value, things we have owned and loved for years. They all seem to fit together in a way that makes us feel cozy and comfortable in our little mid-century rambler. (Emphasis on little!)

The first page spread I have created in over a month!

I have so many things that I want to get back into now that I have caught up on house/creative projects, like my shoppes, art journaling, making videos, shorts for IG…this blog!

On that note, I have had a giveaway percolating in the background for a while, but we have one more round of family visits coming up, so that will have to stay on the back burner for a bit longer. I will announce that as soon as I get a bit more organized.

As Always,

Thank you so much for visiting,

A grateful Thank You to all my new followers,

Talk to you soon(er),

~Patty

Holiday Decorations

~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

Today I was taking photos of my decor because I’m hoping that if I have this to refer back to, things might go a little easier next Christmas. I also plan to pack it all away and label it per the particular tree or area. I thought since I took a bunch of photos it might be fun to share.

Yes, I have many trees. I do kind of a Retro-Woodland-Glam thing, lots of trees, animals and sparkle.

These trees are in our front window. The only “outdoor” decor this year until my hubby’s knee is ship shape (no ladders this year mister).

The sweater gang.

The shelf above our TV. I have been putting those Santa pictures on our mantle for over 30 years. I’m not sure about this arrangement yet, but I love the wooden nutcrackers. I found the fisherman this Christmas, the new guy. I started on the nutcrackers after my mom sent bunch of them to us one Christmas. They’ve been a fixture ever since.

We have a few rather large ornaments, so I hang them deep into the tree to give the decor a little depth. The disco ball was an addition from our son a few years ago when he flew over from Korea one Christmas. A sweet keepsake, we don’t see him very often.

Our mid century hutch and pencil tree. All my small ornaments go on this tree, acorns, walnuts, little pinecones. It may sound funny, but I remember where most of my ornaments came from and who I was with when I bought them, or who gave them to me. It’s always so much fun to bring them out every year.

I repainted all my nutcrackers a few years ago to match my Christmas color scheme. I’ve gone almost completely neutral, so these guys will get a makeover next year.

The shelf in the corner of our dining room, I usually have plants on it. Yes, I pretty much strip the house at Christmas then deep clean and redecorate after the first of the year. It’s also when I clean up my plants and give them some new top soil, it’s a great way to start the the New Year.

Lily has to get into the action when I’m taking photos so I thought I’d toss her in too.

Well, that’s about it around here right now, relaxing and crafting…and eating

I’m working on the memory pages in my “Holiday Journal”, so I’ll be sharing those later this week.

Until then,

From our home to your’s HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope 2022 a good one for you and your loved ones!

Talk to to you soon,

~Patty

Making Room for Sweetness

~ Patty Radish ~ 4 Comments

There is somebody that I have been following for many years that mentioned the impact that cleaning, clearing, and de-cluttering has made on her creative life.  Now this is a great idea in theory, but it’s work, so I wasn’t too terribly interested in really getting serious about it…until this happened…

…making room for this sweet being in our home.

I love my art room, but I love him more! And what a great excuse to finally go through years of stuff to make it fit in here…

…the office.

Half the size of my old art room, with stuff already in it. That spells touching everything before even attempting to make it fit! (this photo is after working on all the crap on the floor!)

Fear not, progress has been made. I’m sharing this photo so you will appreciate my progress. This room isn’t as cute as my old art room was, but I’m hoping it will grow on me.

There are a few more decorating projects to be done like painting and such, but everything is cleaned and organized.

I actually have some empty boxes and space to fill, and I’ll need it, I’m not through!

I was also once told that inspiring decor helps your creativity, I’m inclined to agree.

In case your missing the theme here, I need a shot of creativity in my life, along with downsizing. Art has been pretty much put on the back burner as of late, because I’m just feeling a bit overwhelmed by all that needs to be done. When my husband retires, we plan to move into smaller digs, so this definitely needed doing.

My journal makings have become part of the decor.

Things I like to keep handy, and a perfect way to fill a corner.

This table sits right under a window, so no decorating here. This will be my only work surface in the room, which is why I didn’t mind filling the larger table with supplies. I’m hoping this will work. Please excuse the plastic table cloths, when the paints come out “It’s every man for himself!”…or woman.

There’s something about a clean space that makes me want to make a mess and get creative, I’m not sure if that’s just the nature of things, or my inner 10 year old jumping up and down.

Anyway, I have a few more moves to make, so I better get at it. I just wanted to check in and share the latest.

Have a great weekend,

Thanks for the visit,

~Patty

Hearth and Home

~ Patty Radish ~ 5 Comments

Hello, I thought I would pop in quickly to let you know I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth 🙂 I have been keeping super busy with personal life stuff and not much art journaling, so I didn’t quite know what to share. Lately, I’ve been enjoying diving into working around the house, visiting with family, taking time to talk on the phone, all the things that I used to think  “I had to make time for” because I was trying to “Run a shoppe”. I’ve not been this happy since my kids were little!

It’s the small things that make me smile, like finally getting to some decorating done in my laundry room. I will be painting that chest of drawers when I make up my mind about color. I have a long list of projects I want to do around the house, and I am finally ticking them off.

At the end of the day I work on this, it’s coming along quite nicely.

It’s that time of year again. This was two days of hard labor to pull up some unsightly ground cover that looked ratty and made a nice home for weeds to grow. We still have a few more things to move and remove here, but progress is happening.

On the news front, one of my journals was chosen to for the next issue of Art Journaling magazine, it should be out this summer. I didn’t write my article on this little beauty of course, this was just a nice excuse to share a recent gift.

This has been my latest obsession, Ali Edwards “Week In The Life” project. I had joined up last spring when my son was visiting from Korea, and I took loads of photos, but it didn’t get any farther than that. So, I decided to do a trial run with the photos from his visit before my niece arrives for her annual visit. I can’t tell you how much fun it was to look through all the photos and remember and our little adventures together. But, I’ll have to put this on hold until after my niece flies home. She and I will be filling in a couple of these albums documenting her visit, I can’t wait!

That’s it for now. I’ve signed up for the iHanna Post Card Swap again, so hopefully I will share about that this week some time.

Until then,

Have a wonderful weekend,

~Patty

Sewing My Little Heart Out

~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

This year is all about getting our house in order. I had the same intention last year, and I was really quite successful, but there is still so much to be done!

I love having handwork to do in the evening in front of T.V. or listening to an audio book (and ticking WIP’s off my list, win!) so hand quilting small projects is perfect.

img_6144Here are my latest creations. The two at the top were put together and quilted before the Holidays, but needed binding. The runner on the bottom was pinned, but needed the fabric pieces stitched on, then bound.

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You may be wondering why I need so many runners…

Full Disclosure:

I really dislike dusting! Every once in a while, I will take a few runners and throw them in the wash. Or, if they are in a hard to remove kind of place, under a T.V. and such, I will just use a vacuum attachment on them. I don’t know, they just seem to make the furniture look cosy, and I love making them.

img_6151I had originally made this one for my bedroom, but I really, really disliked it there. So now I have one less runner to make for my sewing room. 🙂

img_6152Just so you know, this and the previous runner, were made out of blocks from quilts I had started many moons ago, and had never finished. It’s such a huge relief to use things up and move on!  This one is going into my sewing room too. I have about 8 runners to make for my sewing room alone, but I definitely have all the fabric I need.

Yay for using up supplies!

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This runner is for our dining room table. It’s made by stitching fabric pieces onto linen with vintage wool thread. I wanted to use thick colored thread on this because I wanted the option of flipping it to give my table a more neutral look.

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Here is the wool thread I used. I found several spools of this gorgeousness at the thrift store a few years ago, Love! You can find some on Etsy and Ebay too.

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One of the reasons why I’ve made getting our house in order this year, and last, is because we will be selling this house in a few years, and I want to be ready to de-personalize and neutralize our decor. As you well know by now, I love color, so this is an easy fix!

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This is what it looks like on our table, just the pop of color it needed. I’ll be starting the placemats this week, I’ve chosen a leafy, vintage-y fabric for them, and muslin for the backside. I’m not sure If I will be doing any hand stitching on them yet, we’ll have to see.

In between stitching my heart out, I have been busy with working in my faith devotionals from last year, planning out my year with Lara Casey’s “Goal Setting Planner“, and I signed up for Ali Edwards “One Little Word“, mine is “GRACE”. I will be talking a little more about those things as soon as I’m a bit more organized. I fell off the “No spend” wagon, but hope to jump back on asap! 🙂

So, until next time,

Thank you so much for stopping by,

~Patty