sewing room tour

Maybe you remember the sewing room post I wrote last year about my biiig basement sewing room. It has plenty of space but very little sunlight and no heating. And let me tell you, it is not very comfortable to sew when you're wearing a winter jacket, fingerless mittens and a scarf.
My roomie moved out last week and I'll have our two-room apartment all to myself until I move to South Carolina in three weeks. Which means I get to use the spare room as a sewing room / guest room.

Luckily, Julia left her furniture when she moved out. I get to use her shelfs and desk to put my sewing stuff. The space is tiny compared to my basement studio but it is warm and sunny. What a luxury! Also, my cat Lina gets to keep me company while I sew. Prepare for lots of cat + sewing pictures if you follow me on instagram (@froggeddesigns)!

Some of the stuff I don't use often is still downstairs but 75% of my sewing stuff fits into this small nook. Yay! Having a clean, fresh and warm sewing space is so inspiring - I want to sew all the things!

I already made some small things that I'll share in the new year because it is a rainy and gray day - not ideal for taking pictures.

And here's an awkward selfie. Because that's what hip bloggers do, right?

Oh and if you're like me and wonder how people manage to keep a clean sewing space - here is what it looked like 10 minutes prior to taking the pictures. #honestcraftroom

my craft space

The picture above shows the usual state of my desk - a (creative?) mess. I usually clean my room/purge my school supplies before uni starts. My classes start in two weeks so I guess it's about time to get organized again...

This is an overview of my 'craft space'. You could also say that it's my entire room because the only two corners you can't see in the picture accomondate my bed and closet (which is also mainly filled with craft supplies... not to mention the bags full of old clothes for sewing projects underneath my bed...). So basically my craft stuff has taken over my entire room. Which I don't mind at all...

I love this shelf/desk combination from ikea. The table's leg broke off due to a little kitty incident so I got the alex drawer unit instead. I love it because it holds so much stuff, the quality is great (made in Germany - yay!) and it's much more convenient than the original leg.

The drawers hold all my craft supplies that have to be kitty safe like my knitting needles, my pin cushion, sharp scissors, glue, etc. It also holds all my craft books, my camera gear, cat food, paperwork, etc. On top there are my rulers, steam iron, yarn for wips and the white wooden box hosts the yarn for my upcoming projects. The desk is my sewing and cutting table, as well as one of Lina's favorite spots to hang out.

I got the two tealight holders at a thrift store in Denmarkt. I love them! I filled them with tiny scrap yarn balls :)

My second desk hosts laptop, printer, wips, school stuff, etc.

All the clear boxes underneath/next to my desk are samla boxes from ikea. They hold scrapbooking stuff, fabric scraps, Christmas gifts, and all kinds of little bits and pieces I collect. I use this desk for homework and studying, scrapbooking and everything I do at my laptop. This is also the corner where my current knitting projects are stored so I can knit while watching a movie/tv series online.
The calendar is from here. My printer is usually barely visible because I stack all my school stuff on it. I reeeeally need to get a shelf to put all my books and binders for uni.

This chair is my favorite 'reading corner'. Nowadays 90% of the things I read are for school but it's still a fun place to be. I usually turn the chair around so I can put my feet on the radiator and watch the birds and squirrels outside. Unfortunately Lina also thinks that it's a nice place to relax. She often occupies the chair so I have to sit on the window sill... spoiled kitty.

[This is her typical face when she's afraid I might be thinking about stealing her sleeping spot.]


That's the view Lina is enjoying right now. My mom had a couple of trees cut down(no worries, they were conifers that weren't native species and took lots of sunlight because they were huuuge. We're planning to plant more apple trees and a plum tree.) so that explains the big brown spot. It also revealed the rather unlovely patio of the apartment underneath. I'll probably yarn bomb the rain gutter so I have a more colorful view during the winter months.

It goes without saying that my craft space won't stay as clean as it is in the pictures above for more than half an hour; as soon as I make something the creative chaos will be back... ;)

Have you shared pictures of your studio/craft space? Please share a link - I'd love to see them!

craft supplies storage

I never considered the content of my closet as 'weird' or 'not normal' until a friend of mine saw it the other day and couldn't believe a woman can own a big closet and not fill it to the brim with clothes. Well, I guess most crafters could think of a much better use for a closet than storing clothes: storing craft supplies!
Of course I have to put my clothes somewhere so I had to make some space for them but I'd say about half the space in my closet was taken over by craft supplies.

My (ikea) closet has sliding doors so it's kind of split into two parts. This half is closer to my crafting table so naturally it holds most of my crafting supplies. I was surprised to see that I have ended up with a huge fabric stash whereas my yarn stash is rather decreasing. Probably because I usually buy yarn for a project and use all of it or return the remaining skeins or give them away to friends whereas I always end up miscalculating how much fabric I need for a project so I always have tons of it left.
Last week I looked through my clothes to donate some to make more space for my fabrics. I managed to empty one entire shelf so now my echino fabrics(my all time favorite fabrics!) have their own shelf - with lots of space the expand my little collection :)

The second half of my closet is rather boring (as in mostly clothes). But there's a second box of yarn and a big box of WIPs. As you can see it's almost empty - time to start some new projects!!
The doors of my closet are kind of my memo board; I use washi tape to stick all my to do lists and project ideas and bills etc. on there.

Last but not least, Lina loves sleeping in my closet. Which also means I can't close the doors often because she either sleeps inside or she sleeps somewhere else but the minute I close the doors she gets up and sits in front of my closet and meows until I open them again. She's pretty possessive...

apartment tour // my kitchen

I love seeing other people's apartments. The furniture they choose, the decorations they choose, ... it tells quite a lot about the person's character. Here's a little tour of the ~530 square feet(50m²) apartment I share with my roommate, Felix.

The kitchen is the room I invested most in (money as well as time). We don't have a living room, so this is where we hang out when we invite friends over. It's not a very large room, but it works really well for us. My parents tiled the kitchen, the walls were done by a painter and the windows were replaced. Not to talk about the 17 electric outlets we now have...



Most of the cabinets, the dishwasher and the stove were thrifted via the German craigslist. They were really cheap but also really dirty. The fridge was bought at a household clearance sale. All the other furniture is from ikea. The wood counter top is from the local home improvement store. I applied about 8 coats of oil so far. It's quite a lot of work but I just love the look and feel of wood. We had to buy two  short counter tops, because the staircase is too narrow and the ceilings aren't high enough to drag a 3m long counter top up two stairs.




My kitchen table is the 'Norden' one from Ikea. I absolutely love it because it has six drawers where I store napkins, candles, etc. and its size is adjustable. Great for a small(ish) student kitchen! :) I got the table cloth in Denmark. The design is by Susanne Schjerning and I love how well it matches the color of the wall. Probably the cutest thing ever are these salt and pepper shakers. I mean, look at them. They're sheep!!! How could any knitter resist them?!?!



I got the shelf several years ago. It's a special edition for Billy's 30th birthday and I got it for a ridiculously low price. It's perfect for the kitchen because it holds all my baking stuff, my cooking/baking books and all kinds of bits and pieces that didn't fit into the other cabinets. Did I mention that I love all kinds of containers and jars? They're cute and useful!



Originally I bought this kitchen island to put the microwave on it. Well, turns out the old microwave I found in the cellar that once belonged to a former renter is broken. My budget didn't allow me to get a new one yet, but turns out the island is perfect for my vintage bread cutter, fruits and vegetables, plants, etc.





I grew up with the wooden ikea 'Moppe' boxes. They're versatile and available in different sizes. I was happy when I saw that ikea brought the Moppe boxes back. The ones I had when I was a kid didn't quite survive my childhood(aka being painted in a different color every two years. And they might have fallen off my shelf once or twice...). So I got a new one to hide the corner where there's no counter top(don't ask...). It's perfect to store tea bags, cereal bars, muffin paper cups, etc.
The wall storage rack is also from ikea. It hides the ugly edges of the wall panels and gives me easy access to the most important tools, like scissors, spatulas, spices, etc.



These wall cabinets saved my life. In the beginning, I had hoped I wouldn't need them because I thought that lots of drawers would be enough storage. Drilling holes isn't exactly my favorite pastime... but turns out pots, pans, baking supplies and dishes take up quite a lot of space. The wall cabinets add lots of storage without taking up a lot of space nor do they look massive. And for 10€($13) these were real bargains.



Last but not least, my kitchen aid family. Oh my... I'm not going to go into how much I love them and what great stuff I've made using them because this post is super long already. But I wanted to show you the cute coffee grinder! I got it at a flea market. It wasn't super cheap but it's great - you can never lose it and it works smoothly :)

I'll share my bedroom next week and hopefully the bathroom and hallway will follow soon - there's quite some work that has to be done... like figuring out bathroom storage possibilities and a shoe solution for the hallway.