My Beautiful Craft Room / Office

Crafting by Knight opened on the world wide web two years and three apartments ago.  I am finally in my ideal apartment and have built my dream office!  Seriously though, isn't it drool-worthy?  It's taken me a couple months to get everything exactly how I want it, but I'm totally in love.  I spend about 8 hours a day in that chair and am so thrilled for it to be complete.  Every item has a place and I have a wonderful inventory of materials and products.  

My gallery wall is my favorite part of the room.  As you can see, there are some pictures of Kevin and I, my bestie Grace, and some past bouquets.  I've printed several free printables I found on Pinterest and others that I purchased.  The "I craft therefore I have no thumbprints" is actually a cross-stitch that I did myself.  

Look for great printables here, here, and here.

I have a cute little dry erase list where I put my clients names and when their order has to be shipped by.  It's a great feeling to cross names off the list, but an even better feeling to add them! 

Michaels has really helped me get my act together when it comes to storage and organization. Pretty much all of my shelves have come from Michaels. 

It comes in handy to reuse wedding decorations to decorate your office when you own a wedding bouquet business.  

My cube shelving system has made my life so much better!  I now have bins for each of the weddings that I'm working on at the moment.  As you can see, I also have tons of boxes that have various purposes, such as dies, comic books, excess burlap, etc.

Right in my reach, I always keep multiple pairs of scissors, wires, hole punches, and other tools.  Hot glue sticks are hidden away in that adorable little rose tin.

Thanks for touring my office!  I hope you like it as much as I do!  :)

Flower Styles

When I Have No Orders...

For the first time since I started Crafting by Knight, I have NO orders in my queue.  I seriously got an order within 2 days of opening my shop in June 2012 and since have at all times had at least one order to be working on.  It's usually like 7-10 orders at any given time, so to have none is crazy!  

Since I have some time on my hands, I decided to work on some projects that I want to see in my own home.  (I'm also working on a line of home arrangements of paper flowers that will be ready to ship once they are listed on Etsy).  

Today I'd like to share with you what I created this morning!  Our bedroom is super lame. We have nothing hanging on the walls, there is usually clothes on the floor, I'm not a huge fan of our quilt, and our cat has terrorized our curtains and blinds.  My first step in transforming our bedroom into a peaceful, pretty place to spend time was to do something cool with our curtains.  We have blackout curtains that are a light brown.  Remus, our kitten, has literally broken the blinds so that they have to be drawn up or else he'll continue to mutilate them (we're definitely going to have to pay for new blinds when we move out of this apartment...).  Remus has also clawed the curtains to such an extent that there are small holes all over them that let light in.  

For our wedding, we decorated with a lot of burlap.  Our isle runner for our wedding in the woods was burlap, my shoes were burlap, our tables were lined in burlap, my bouquet had burlap roses and was wrapped in burlap, so in other words, I own a lot of burlap. Because of this, I decided it would be pretty cool to make burlap curtains.  

I started by cutting the edges to be straight and to the right sizes.  Then I pinned down the top to make a loop for the curtain pole to go through.  I have a sewing machine, but I decided to just hot glue the edges.  

My fingers got very hairy and gluey with my hot glue method.  Fortunately, I'm used to my fingers being covered in hot glue ... it still hurts though.

I added some lace ribbon to the bottom of my valence.  Because I was leaving our brown blackout curtains to be under my panels, I decided I needed a valence to cover the ugly blinds tied up to the top of the window.  

I then ironed the burlap valence and put up my new curtains!

Remus always has to be in the pictures if he is in the room.  

My tulle curtain ties are trying to imitate a curtain tie I found on pinterest:

Obviously I didn't use the same fabric, but I still like mine.  :)

Hope you enjoyed my morning project!  

-Casey :)

Why November is the Greatest & Worst Month of the Year

November is filled with beautiful colors, smells, and activities.  It is the month that reminds us to be thankful for all we have been given.  It is a month of friends birthdays and family gatherings; of laughing with the ones you love and the ones you struggle to love; of breaking bread and giving thanks.

November is full of stress and anxiety.  It is the month of low orders (or no orders), of not getting things done in time, of failure to perform the absolute best.  It is a month of memories of death and remembering those who aren't sitting at the table beside us.  It is a month where family tensions rise and the ugly comes out. 

Regardless of the ups and downs that November, I want to spend every day giving thanks for all the beautiful blessings in my life. I'm going to use this blog to make a Crafting by Knight thanksgiving list.  

1. I am thankful for my business, Crafting by Knight!  I never imagined that I would start my own business  ... and have it be a success!  

2. I am thankful for the creativity that God has given me to make beautiful things with my own two hands.  It is pretty cool to see how my flowers have developed into a science almost.  It used to take me so very long to make just one and now I could probably do it with my eyes closed.  

3. I am so thankful for all my amazing clients!  What a joy it is to work with brides and be a part of making their wedding day special!  

(Thanks for this awesome photo One Edition!)

4. I am thankful for my husband and his support for Crafting by Knight.  He has spent many evenings after working all day helping me by cutting paper and wires.  He's my best friend and my partner in everything.  

(Thanks to Colin who took our incredible wedding photos!)

5. I am thankful that Crafting by Knight has been able to become my full time job!  It is truly a blessing that I am able to work from home, wherever our home may be.   

- Casey 

Paula's Bouquet

Zoe's Wedding Party