Heading into a new year in the Greenhouse!

Our first year in the Greenhouse, our classroom and community space at our Durham, NC headquarters, is coming to a close, and, oh, the memories we've made! As we head into 2014 with a calendar full of opportunities to learn something new, connect with creative folks in our area, and give back to the community, what fun to take a look back at the past twelve months of getting our craft on in the Greenhouse!

Since we moved to our new office space in October 2012, we have been so excited to have a community space to gather, craft, learn, and, of course, party! Heading into a new year, we're looking forward to carrying on some of our favorite "traditions" of the past year!

Sewing pincushions at our Etsy Craft Party in June!

We've had a whole lot of fun this year, and we've been delighted to meet so many members of our local community at classes and events in the Greenhouse.

We have lots of great opportunities to learn something new in the Greenhouse coming up this year, and we're kicking off January with some classes geared to arm you with surface design prowess to personalize your crafting in the new year!

Join us for the basics of prepping photos for print, learn how to create a seamless repeat pattern on paper, and come out to our kid-friendly design event to make customized candy wrappers perfect as party favors or Valentines! I'm also super excited to announce that we'll be hosting the first "help session" to teach folks the Spoonflower Basics, a demo and Q&A session in which help-desk superstars Emma and Kate will walk you through the process of creating custom prints with Spoonflower!

Of course, we'll still have our hands-on workshops and crafting socials– including a Craft Supply Swap!— and we even have a shiny new Spoonflower Greenhouse Facebook page where we can share and connect with our community!

So excited to be kicking off a new year of crafting & DIY fun in the Greenhouse, but as we move into 2014, here are just a few highlights from this past year:

To get to know more of our neighbors, we kicked off a monthly crafting social, Pins & Needles, last January. We get together every third Tuesday of the month to share what our projects and inspiration, and usualy we have some killer baked good to go along with our socializing!

It's been amazing to have a couple of hours set aside each month to craft, and, most importanly, catch up with friends we've made this past year!

Michelle whips up some last minute Christmas order at December's Pins & Needles.

In addition to dozens of amazing projects that come through Pins & Needles, I must say that our Open Studio is one of the coolest things that's come out of this event.

After hearing the sewing questions that came up time and again at Pins & Needles, community member Teri brought forth the idea of having an open studio devoted to helping folks sew.

In August, we started holidng an Open Studio once a month, and for three hours, folks can bring any sewing project in for Teri's expert help or encouragement. Machines and tools are available for anyone intersted in trying to sew, and, delightfully, in 2014, Teri will be giving super-quick demonstrations of basic sewing tips for anyone who'd like to brush up. We're starting the year with a quick lesson in keeping our machines cleaned properly! Ah, don't you love the new year?

The cutest Halloween costume this side of the Mississipp sewn up at October's Open Studio!

This past year was also a time that we were able to make some really cool projects and learn some very useful information in the classes and workshops we held.

Amy Flurry's DIY PR Workshop was packed with information from an editorial pro about getting your creative business great press!

Local designer (and Trading Spaces alum!) Edward Walker and his team led a fall interior design series to make a complete custom monogrammed bedroom set!

We were excited to have kids in the Greenhouse learning to sew! Kids learned to whip up quick drawstring backpacks perfect for taking on a school field trip!

We also made Halloween plushies from precious cut and sew kits!

Spoonflower's own Caitlin of Salty Oat designed a custom embroidery sampler and taught basic stitches several times this year– can't wait to see what she designs for Valentine's Day!

We also had so much fun inviting folks here for sew-ins this year!