Making a Pretty Crafty Home

I have been thinking for a while now about a project.  A project for this year that we call 2012.  A project, that maybe we could share together?  Let me explain...

Dottie Angel

Ever since I started wandering through Blogland I have admired, wondered, marveled and, I admit it, sometimes envied these immaculate, pretty, white walled, clean and perfect homes that I find everywhere I click.  You know the ones I mean right?  Yvestown's Cath Kidston loving one, Dottie Angel's granny-chic inspired one, Shabby Roses Cottage handpainted one and Posie Gets Cozy's warm and so inviting one.  All stunningly beautiful and utterly inspiring.

Yvestown

I had thought that I was quite pleased and with my home.  We did a lot of work when we first moved here and I've done a lot of decorating in-between.  There are many parts of it that I cherish and adore. But.

What with a 'Little Addition' to the family coming along 6 years ago and my crafting mo-jo coming back with vengeance coinciding with (or even causing!) a lack of enthusiasm for the dreary old housework chores, the house perhaps hasn't had the care and attention it deserves for some time now.  So once I started, at the beginning of last year, to attempt to blog in earnest myself, I soon found what utter dump of a house it is I live in.  OK, so maybe that is an exaggeration but what blogging has thrown into sharp relief is how hard it is to get a decent photo in this place.  You think everything looks fine, until you look through the lens!

Shabby Roses Cottage

I guess it's just that your eyes get used to seeing an ugly cupboard or a pile of junk day after day and you forget about how it looks.  Your eye sees the same thing it saw yesterday and thinks 'Yes, that is usually there.  That is all fine and normal.' but, you look through the lens and suddenly your eye thinks 'Oh my Sainted Aunt!  That mess is going to be in the photo, how dreadful it looks!'  In other words, you suddenly see things from a new and worrying perspective.  This, dear readers of mine, is how my eye is seeing these days and I can tell you, it ain't a very happy eye!

This is where the new project comes in.  I have been thinking, that what with being a bit of a crafty sort, being the sort that has been able to create a pretty thing here and there about the place, really there is no reason why my house should not look gorgeous and wonderful and basically be a delight for to my newly aware eye to feast upon.

I have been prowling my home looking for mess, junk, the tired, the tattered and the torn and I am going to attack it!  I want to tidy the mess and junk, spruce up the tired and tattered, rejuvenate, re-jig and re-invent this messy house into a Pretty and a Crafty Home!

My big project, goal and overall aim for this year is born:

What do you think?  Fancy coming with me on a journey of home improvement through craftiness?

This is what I want to do:

1.  Tidy, tidy, tidy and clean, clean clean!

The first step for me is to get rid of the junk and de-clutter.  It's time to get rid of the stuff I don't want, don't need and can't use or re-use and tidy up everything I'm keeping.  As I'm doing the tidying and de-cluttering I'm going to be giving this house the 'Spring clean' of it's life.

2.  If it has to live here, it should be pretty.

With a tat loving daughter and a husband with no thought for how things look, it's going to be tough to keep new ugliness and junk coming into the house, but I'm going to try hard.  If we do need something new, it should add to the home, not detract!

3.  If I don't like how it looks, and I can change it, I will.

I'm not planning on re-decorating the whole house, this is about finding the bits you don't like and changing them into something you do.

4.  Thrift, re-use and recycling are my watch words.

As it stands the budget for this little project is practically zero, so I'm looking for cheap solutions here! (Although there may be the odd exception, knowing me!)

5.  Crafting is king!

The most important thing thing of all.  This project is all about home improvement through crafting.  If it's home made and it makes me happier about my home then it's part of the project.



Now, this is just what I'm setting out to do.  If you'd like to join me you can define the challenge however you'd like to so it works for you and your home.  The principle is, if you're doing something crafty to improve your home, make it a more pleasurable environment to be in and look at then, it qualifies.  If you can thrift and recycle your way there - so much the better!


My head is buzzing with ideas and I've been prowling around the house with my camera, taking photos of 'trouble spots' to be attacked.  I can't wait to get starting and I'll look forward to sharing this journey with you.  I'll label all my 'Pretty Crafty House' posts, starting with this one with 'PCH' so that they're nice and easy to find in the categories section of the sidebar.

If it looks like there may be interest then maybe we could start a Flickr photo pool or a Ravelry Group or something so we can share ideas and triumphs.  Any suggestions on this front are very welcome.

It's going to be so good.  I hope you're excited too!


S x