my space {Blogtoberfest day 14}

After showing off my new art cabinet a week or two back, I was having a chat with some friends on twitter and promised a full studio tour at some point. Then last week, I received an email invited me to be part of WeWork‘s “Where We Work” series, and since I’d a) promised a tour anyway and b) had a few slots I needed to fill for Blogtoberfest, I would like to officially welcome you to my humble corner of our home, where all my creating and daydreaming and plotting happens.

{please note – this is not a sponsored post. I was merely invited to post and share my work space as part of a larger project}

The “creative” half of my studio, where all the fun stuff happens, and all the stuff to make the fun stuff resides in a form of organised chaos. The wall mounted cabinet on the left between the two doors stores all   a lot of my art supplies, and the large cabinet in the front left stores my fabric, patterned paper and stamping/scrapbooking supplies, as well as tools best kept out of reach of little hands, like my bookbinding awl, and pliers/sidecutters for jewellery making. Everything else is stored on the under-desk bookshelves in a hodpodge of boxes and containers. That is definitely on my to-do list to convert to drawers and reorganise!

The canvases on the left hand wall are preschool artworks by my big boys, the canvas on the right was a gift from Car, the photo frame currently holds photos of my daughter from when she was a baby but desperately needs updating, and in the far right corner are two bunches of flowers – one is the first bouquet of roses my husband gave me (dried, obviously), and the other is a bundle of artificial flowers left over from our wedding.

Up the other end is the business end – my computer where I blog and edit photos and write and waste far too much time on Pinterest, a couple of artworks that are yet to find a home, and my sewing machine.

My main workspace – this table was built but my husband for me, and it is where all the fun stuff happens – over the weekend when I was preparing for this post, it was Project Life catch-up. Yesterday it was sewing a quilt for a blog post tomorrow. Today it was a run of letterpress notecards for a custom order. This table sees a lot of variety, and it’s paint covered surface tells a tale of many productive hours spent standing over it.

The collection on top of the large cabinet is a bunch of things that make me happy – a bowl of washi tape and a bowl of buttons. A set of photo frames I received for my 30th birthday – one with a photo with my three big children from when I was pregnant with the fourth. A drawing I did playing around with pastels one day. A little silk ribbon embroidery. A piece of patterned paper, a button I bought from our local library blue-tacked to the front. A  figurine version of yours truly from my 30th birthday cake. A (working) typewriter. To go above it on the wall I have a fabulous mini quilt in grey and yellow and lime that I can’t wait to see up there to really brighten things up.

And under the table is my newest organisational weapon (which I am forever in search of the “next big thing” that will help me keep my space tidy & organised) – an extra shelf to store large papers and my cutting mat and rulers.

And that’s about it! It’s not a huge space, and I still have a bit to do before it is completely “done” – I have a children’s craft desk in progress and replacing the carpet with painted floorboards is a job for the holidays. Drawers for the bookshelves are a longer term project. But for now, it’s my space and it is where I spend time indulging my creative side, and the enjoyment I get from my tie in here outweighs the things that need to happen “one day”.