Craft Room Renovation

Earlier this summer the kids went to "summer camp" at Mimi's house. That bought me just over a week of free time and true to myself I picked a project to tackle. This time it was the craft room, well and Emma's room but that's a different post. Feel free to skip to the bottom and see the transformation
From the moment we bought the house I knew this tiny room, or extra large closet was destine to be my awesome craft room. I've been using it since we moved in and painted the original dingy walls with a couple (yes a couple) of free sample paints I had laying around.  It was fun but not really as functional as I originally envisioned.
So here it is with the door removed, a hideous but working fan we found in the attic (there is no air vent since it is technically a closet, the fan was a must,) and my sample paints. This is pretty much how I'd been using it.
So keep in mind (standing looking into the room) it is about 7.5 feet deep and 4.5 feet wide, angles of pictures are a bit awkward and the pics are pretty bad

This is how it looked, looking in from the hall. There was a bunch of clutter on that back wall but I had already started clearing when I thought about taking pictures. 

This is the desk that was there. It was counter height and about 12 inches deep. Impossible to use for sewing so I da to drag my sewing machine upstairs or to the kitchen table when I wanted to use it. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a craft room.

There was a light already mounted over the desk, behind the panel with the "R" hanging on it. Someone was obviously using this as some sort of craft room or office before too. Obviously at this point it was more of a glorified storage closet. 

So I started with the desk carefully taking it apart. I knew I needed to save as much as possible to reuse. like always I try to keep my budget small.

Once that was done I had to patch the wall and paint, which I found at Lowe's as a $5 mis-tint. Score! I always, always check Lowe's mis-tints. Every time I go in and sometimes I just go to check. It there is ever a color I think I may use at some point I grab it. Its so worth it. The white color was also a mis-tint enamel.  Next I painted and installed pegboard (tip: pegboard cannot be mounted directly to the wall if you plan to use hooks on it, don't ask me how I found that out) and the new desk on the back wall. The desk was two pieces of wood from Lowe's that I stained and and sealed (I think they were $12 ea). The brace underneath was "reclaimed" from the previous desk and the white panel on top used to be the pink panel on top of the old desk. 

The wonderful pegboard idea came from Traci over at Beneath My Heart, go check her beautiful make over out!  

I used this pegboard organizer kit to help get things moving, about $9

I love this thing, its so handy. 

I also mounted this thread holder on the wall so I can see what I have easily.

I used scrap wood and L brackets to make these little paint shelves and utilize that narrow wall next to the doorway. (Those are Eli's sweet little feet there)

To the other side of the door I scored these two baskets for only $6 each at Garden Ridge. Perfect as a paper drop for mail and school work) 

I bought a couple of jars to hang underneath the shelf they hold all kinds of things, buttons, beads, wall anchors... 

I used more sale baskets to hide some of my other things...

A long, long time ago, my granddad made each of the grand kids a giant bulletin board. It was huge and perfect for this wall. 

So here it is. Pretty basic but the desk is not 24" deep and the right height for sewing. And I really love the room. 

For those of you that skipped to the end (as always here are the before and after shots) 

Left wall 

Back wall

Right wall 

Before

After

So what do you think? It's been about a month since I've done it and I really love it.

Eli's Octonauts Party

Eli's 4th party theme was a no brainer. He loves the Octonauts and since we have a pool and were planning on a swim party it was the perfect fit. Octonauts are a Disney Jr. show (its actually pretty cute) where the characters live under the sea they "explore, rescue, and protect" the sea creatures. There aren't really and Party City Octonaut decorations but that didn't stop some crafty mommas from making their own. And its awesome because they shared them FREE! Between my printables ($14 at office depot) and my Dollar tree frinds (the paper lanterns, silly string, crepe paper and blue polka dot plates) Everything but the food cost around $65, including the orange theme wrapping paper and goodies for the goody bags, talk about party on a budget! Thanks pinterest community!
Thanks to Leigh @ Leigh Tells it Like it is for the printables set, it was everything you need. I even used the little 2" circles of the octo-alert and and taped them over the label on out bubble give away to make octo-bubbles.

I loved these boxes from On the Verge  and they were perfect for the a pair of goggles which was our goody bag gift. I printed these on cardstock so they had a little bit of weight to them. The goggles were only $2.50 ea. at HEB so it was a pretty inexpensive goody bag. I also used some of the 2" circles from above and glued the characters randomly to the boxes. 

I also snagged the "puffer fish" idea, which were in the goody boxes too, from Rookie to Rockstar. I found my fish" in packages at the dollar store, 3/$1. She also has the cute printable I hung by the door/goody bags. 

OK now that I'm all linked up, here's our Octonaut party...

Since the party was in the backyard we put a sign on the door to direct traffic. I just copied the Octonaut symbol to a blank document in word and downloaded a font called Rosewood (I used it on the invitations too) then made the sign. 

and a sign at the gate

We put up a couple umbrellas for shade

We decorated the breezeway with crepe paper, dollar store paper lanterns, jellyfish (see below), and felt bubbles (also below.) We already had a blue sun sail up for a little shade and it added to the atmosphere.

I hung the banner on the garage door and used one of the pennants for the kids cooler.

These little jellyfish were another pinterest find. The kids and I made several and hung them in the breezeway and through out the house. They were really simple. I bought a package of foam bowls, eyes, and party coordinated crepe paper at the dollar store. I poked a hole in the bottom of the bowl. The kids each got two pieces of curling ribbon and 4 long pieces of crepe paper. I tied them all together in the middle with the end of a third piece of curling ribbon. Then fed the other end through the hole and pulled it tight and hot glued the eyes. We gently crumbled the crepe paper to make it less straight.

The little sea horses were a hit too. Eli already had a tone of "sea creatures" so I just used them randomly to decorate.

Its hot here in Houston so the food was all inside. I used the seahorses and some Octonaut toys along the window sill. For bubbles, I used leftover felt circles from Eli's Rainbow Fish Costume last Halloween, I cut way too many. I just stapled them to curling ribbon and hung them. The felt worked well because we got a little rain shower and they didn't ruin, but you could just as easily used scrapbook paper. 

Normally, i try to make a cake but this year I just didn't have time since we just got back from a vacation last weekend. So I ordered a plain one and added decorations...

I think it worked well, it was really cute

We had cupcakes too. I wasn't sure on the total number but one thing I knew is everybody loves cake. I bought some short clear plastic cups and was able to drop a cupcake into them to send extras home with guests.

The party ended up being small but it was perfect and he was one happy camper! (check out the Octo-pod centerpiece.)

Between swimming and cake/gifts I did a silly string fight. It worked to motivate the kids to get out of the pool and help them dry a little bit more before they came inside. Here's the before and after

A good time was had by all and I just love a laid back party.  Happy Birthday to my sweet boy who brings us lots of joy and laughter. He's growing into quite the personality.