Studio Tuesday

Alex posted photos of her very minimalist Japanese studio yesterday.  And while I admire that kind of neatness, in my heart of hearts I KNOW that it's not me.  

I am fortunate enough to have a "studio".  It is a multi MULTI functional room.  It has to support all my art and crafting needs.  This means that usually it is covered in thread and fabric scraps, paper scraps, containers of glue, paint, bits of felt and plastic and anything and everything that I may care to use.  It's not a pretty sight.  It also has our second computer which the kids use for games (and by kids I of course mean Husband), my ironing board and is used to store many things.

But I spent all day Sunday tidying and reorganising.  I'm trying to force myself to do a drawing everyday-or a water colour painting.  I needed another surface. This one desk wasn't enough. So I added this old and wobbly card table into the corner.  This works so well for me because I can jump between the two tables.  The new table also gets lots more natural light which is important as there is only one lamp for the whole room.  (Remember; THIS is organised)

That meant I had to move this bookcase over into the corner:

And move this bookcase up onto the shelf (the shelf hides the airconditioning duct)

I made myself a pin board -it has some of my recent paintings on it-the computer constantly has Pandora radio on it..
I tidied my fabrics after making two quilts lately. (up the top are the kids' old martial arts belts which I want to use as bag handles)
Then yesterday I did the attic.  It needed a BIG tidy up as all the winter stuff had just been dumped up there all over the floor, Ella hadn't tidied her toys since ???? And Kit was desperate for a space to set up the Lord of the Rings models that he inherited from Oscar.
We moved her couch around.
I stapled canvas and this old tablecloth (?) to the floor in her turret room to cover up the nasty raw wood floor.
We prettified it with some of her pictures and a little "seat"-it's really cute in there now.  It's a tiny Hexagonal room with no electric light but flooded with lots of natural light through the four windows.  Just the right size for her doll house and some things around the edge.

We even found a way to hang Oscar's mask.  Ella was so excited with all these changes that she decided to sleep up there last night on her couch.
All this meant that we finally had enough room to find a little spot for Kit (which he's messed up already).  He has a free coffee table that I collected off the street and he can sit here and play and paint and he's mostly out of the way in the corner.  This is very important, as I've spent the last three weeks stepping over him as he set himself up ALL over the floor at the top of the attic stairs.  Those little figures HURT when you tread on them.

(BTW if you're wondering about all the sheets hanging everywhere-the attic has no insulation and was so dark and awful before all the sheets (I wish they were all white, but I used what I had.)

All this work meant that today Kit could paint, Ella and I could make ponies ...

...I could cover this ultra cheap bookcase I bought with old maps....

...And I could play with my new toy-these carving blocks.

Oh MY WORD!!! SO much fun and SO addictive.  I could loose myself for days with these.

These are the little prints I made with the stamps I carved.  I really love these.  I'll put them up in my etsy store before the end of the week.  They are printed on watercolour paper all ready to be put in a little frame.

Don't know about the kids, but I am LOVING the school holidays.  I suspect I may have to do something with them soon though as they are starting to do the school holiday mope.  Shame, I could keep myself busy for weeks.