Greetings aardvarks. Has anyone ever seen an aardvark? I don’t even know what they look like. But let’s save that for another day, shall we? I’m low on sewing blog fodder, so today you all get the previously threatened pictures of my closets. I hope it’s not boring – it was fun to put together!

Before we start on the tour, take a minute to tour the new look of the Snug Bug. I did a spring blog cleaning! Most of the changes are just a bit of a freshen up, but I did take some time to build a dropdown list of finished projects – you can find it on the far right sidebar right underneath the ‘about me’ gadget. It’s a quick way to find a specific finished garment and it’s SUPER handy – at least for me!

And with that, let’s go on a sewing tour of my house, shall we?

It’s that one – with the tuck under garage…

And the basset hound. Watch out – she’s a jumper…

 

Hello? Is there someone there?

 

Come on in! Do you like our totally 50’s jail cell feature?
We painted it white.

 

Living room first. See the chair in the corner? I made the slipcover.
It was a giant pain. I meant for this slipcover to be a practice one,
but haven’t been able to muster the energy to make a ‘real’
one. I made the pillows too. They’re silk.

 

In this shot, sewed-by-me things include pillows, a
quilt, windowseat cushions and hemmed curtains.

 

See the bookshelf? On the bottom shelf I keep binders with
knitting projects and notes. And that little basket is my knitting
basket. There’s a pair of half-knitted socks in there right
now. I started them on my honeymoon. Last July. I’ll get
back to them during summer roadtrip season!

 

Our reference library. Magazine files for back issues of Threads
(and our taxes!) Most of my sewing books are stored spine down
since they’re so tall and I didn’t set up my Billy’s with shelves
tall enough to accommodate them. There’s also some fine fantasy
fiction, home reference, gardening, knitting… it’s our how-to
shelf! The soapmaking is Mr. Bug’s book.

 

Lucy’s windowseat. A nine foot long
custom made basset hound bed.

 

Let’s head over to the kitchen. It’s just across the hall.

 

Here’s our kitchen! We redid it a few years ago. I love my
white and orange kitchen. The kitchen table doubles as
my cutting table and was my sewing table until we
put together the sewing room last fall.

 

I made the kitchen curtains from Ikea fabric, grosgrain ribbon,
stitchwitchery and curtain clips. I love stripes and polka dots!

 

This old industrial sewing machine (at least, I think that’s what
it is!) hangs out in the one decorative glass doored cabinet we included i
n the kitchen. Isn’t it cool? It was in the garage/shed in the
house I grew up in. It was there when we moved in and I
took it with me when I moved out. It made a handy doorstop.

 

Remember when I made the full-circle apron? I use it
so much I’ve been thinking of making another one!

 

Enough of the kitchen. Let’s head back down the hall to the bedroom.

 

Oops! I forgot about the hall closet! A lot of my coats and jackets hang out here. In fact, Mr. Bug frequently points out that he doesn’t put anything  in the closet.

Here we are! The bedroom. A few things of note. My tripod hangs
out in here, since this is where I take blog pictures. I
suppose it may look odd to guests, though! Oh my!

The bed is a crazy sculptured upholstered number – see the
white scrolled headboard and the brown siderails? It was
originally silver vinyl. Really. I reupholstered with that brown
mock-suede, but the color is SUPER hard to coordinate
with any other color and seemed too dark when I
repainted the walls the light blue. I managed to
make a white denim slipcover for the headboard,
but haven’t finished the siderails. I don’t
like that kind of sewing. Also, Mr Bug likes the brown. Sigh.

I made the striped pillows out of old Ikea seat cushions
and I made the cushion on the bench out of an old blanket and some
pillows. Also, not sewing related, but I made the white fan to carry
down the aisle instead of flowers at our wedding last year.

 

Many of you are probably familiar with
my upstairs-fabric-stash cabinet!

 

What’s in the cabinet? I’m glad you asked!

On the top shelf I have class materials (in the magazine
file) for classes at the shop. Some white boxes of jewelry,
covered button kits, leather trim in a glass jar, ribbon on a spindle.

The second shelf is almost all trims and such – the
coffee can is full of store-bought bias tape and
hem lace. Miscellaneous trims are in the basket.

Bottom shelf is full of current project
fabric. Pink and green are what I’m all
about right now! The pile of fabric all
The way to the right is all my lining material.

My closet! It has three sliding doors, so I had to take three separate pictures.

On the left: hanging are my dresses and trousers. I have a hanging shoe rack, and more shoes in upper shelving  not in the photo!) Undies, PJs, leggings and such are in the little chest of drawers.

Center photo: the white boxes are full of sweaters, tshirts, tanks and shorts. More shoes on the upper and lower shelves and two hanging bars – tops on the top (organized from sleeveless to long sleeved) and skirts, suits and jackets on the bottom – arranged from shortest to longest.

On the right: more shirts, then on the shelves I have tights and nylons in the lined basket, jeans on the next shelf down, socks in the white Ikea box and boots and shoes on the shelves. There are more boots on the floor of the closet under the lower hanging bar. Scarves and belts are hanging from the shelves too.

And yes. Those are hot pink crocs. I try not to leave the house with them on, but they make good house and garden shoes!

 

That’s it for the bedroom – let’s head over to the
sewing room. I’ve posted pictures before, but
today it’s a bit more cluttered.

 

My sewing desk. The iron’s right there and there’s
pretty good light – especially in the afternoon!

 

A close up!

 

I got these jars from Ikea and love them for thread. Neutrals
in one jar, colors in the other. Since they’re tall and skinny
it’s easy to see most of the spools and the tops of the jars
are wide enough for me to stick my hand in – I don’t have to
dump all the spools out to get to the one I want! More coffee
can storage (I love my label maker!) and my mom’s toy
sewing machine. Turquoise and red are so lovely, aren’t
they? The pictures in the background are my mom and
dad in high school and me with a cat.

 

Sigh. I almost didn’t take a picture of this. Here
we have a mass of half-done projects and tote bags…

 

Since we’ve visited the sewing room in other posts,
lets head out – back through the kitchen to the basement!

 

That’s the door you came through – the living room’s on
the right. You can see Lucy’s kitchen bed to the left.

 

Hello again kitchen!

 

Ah! The basement door!

 

Ooooo… scary.

 

Yup – just keep going. Head to the yellow curtains…

 

Here we are! The basement stash!

 

I try to keep it semi separated by color.
I hate how messy fabric can get.

 

oooo…. orange and pink….

 

My super sophisticated scrap program. One grocery bag for
woven scraps, one for knit scraps. The brown hamper is full
of my yarn stash which has been heavily
edited over the past few years.

 

The joys of owning a home! Those of you who are renting and perhaps without a washer and dryer in your living space, I feel your pain. I seriously think this was my favorite part of buying a house! Last year Minnesota offered a rebate for buying a washer so we decided to upgrade then! There’s a super awesome 20 minute express wash that I like for pre-treating. When we upgrade the drying I really want to get a steam dryer – more pricey, but seems super handy!

 

Wanna head back upstairs? Oh? What’s behind that
door you ask? Go ahead and open it…

 

My bike! Yay! I’ve been practicing, even though it’s been
pretty cold. It’s SCARY!! I thought having three wheels would
make it a cinch, but lemme tell you – if you’ve gone 36 years
without hurtling down the street, wind in your hair,
it is NOT an easy sensation to get used to!

 

I’ve tested it with dresses and can report that this bike and dresses get along beautifully. I will be sewing up a few more for bike riding! Mr. Bug got a bike too so we could go biking riding together – that’s it in the box – the Fed Ex man just brought it today! His only has two wheels. Poor Mr. Bug.

 

Since we’re already in the garage, let’s just head out this way. The sewing portion of the tour is done, for those of you who are interested, let’s go check out the garden!

 

Just head up those stairs…

 

Oh! She’s still out here!

 

Go around the corner there. Poor sleeping roses!

 

Here we are! It snowed this morning, but patio sitting
season is almost here! Now go up to the sunbrella…

 

OK, Stop! Look over to your right – that’s neighbor Larry’s
yard. We got married there last summer! It’s hard to see,
but there’s a gazebo back there. It was covered with roses. Sigh…

 

Here’s our back yard, tiny, isn’t it? We’ve made it very
secret garden, though, and we love it. When we moved in
everything you could see was NOT there (walls, arches, patio,
stepping stones, roses… even grass!) The previous owner
had problems with allergies and yardwork and replaced all
the grass with woodchips. Seriously. We removed 50 bags
of woodchips the first spring we were here and planted
grass. Last year we added all the hardscaping and the arch
with the stepping stones. The little wall is
a bench and my herb garden.

 

Here’s a closer shot of the herb garden. It’s a lovely place
to drink wine in the summer. See all that mutant lavender?
It made it through the WINTER here! It’s not supposed to do that!

 

This is Rin Tin, our neighbor. He is totally in love with
Lucy the hound, but she plays it pretty cool with him.

 

Let’s check out the other side of the house.
Look at our composting and rain barreling!

Raspberries! We added a raspberry bramble last year
and they made it through the winter and are already getting leafy!

 

Alright – let’s head back in.

 

Thanks for stopping by!