A New Studio Space- Part D for "Declared Done"!

I'm so pleased with my new studio space! It's so roomy, lots of storage space and just plain lovely. Some of my treasures have come out of hiding , most of my stuff is much better organized, and the space feels full of possibilities. I wanted to get some pictures posted as the room will never be this clear again !

In no particular order (as if that wasn't obvious!), some of the spots I like. These are some muslin ribbons I made, wound onto vintage bobbins. Cigar boxes hold some unmounted stamps.
I'm making my shelves earn their space.

The Captain got this old window frame for me awhile ago, and I've been waiting to find the perfect spot. I've had the little white house dillie for ages, have nearly donated it many times, and never had a good place or idea for it. Not sure if you can see it, but it's full of embossing powders. God, I had no idea I had so many ! The drawers in the white unit are full of stamps...the woman at the Post Office asked me yesterday how many stamps I have ( I love her because she always ooohs and ahhhs over my stamped packages). I don't' exactly know how many, but I do the the number would frighten normal people!

I love my shelves. The bottom one was part of an old bed, the top one was in the boiler room, begging for a nicer home. A couple of coats of white paint, some brackets, and instant display and storage. I threaded curtain rods through the bottom brackets - one for hanging large sheets of paper, the other for ribbons. Should have taken down the heat gun for the picture - while it's handy there, not so attractive in the picture! I also didn't realize how many books I have - these are just for text backgrounds and embellishing. I probably have enough for several life times.


The paper storage stack isn't all that attractive, but so much better than my previous storage - all on one big box, so I couldn't find anything and everything was getting bent or torn. I like having all the colors separated - so I can find exactly what I need without pitching a nuttie hunting for it.

Now, I'm going to start making stuff!

Celebration!

Whew, think we're finally over the Nastiest. Bug. Ever. To celebrate, we went to a local farmers' market over the weekend. In keeping with our New Year's resolutions, we're trying to eat more locally grown food, so we were delighted to find local winter farmers' markets. We are regulars at the summer ones, but just found out about the winter offerings. This weekend the market was at a greenhouse and it was mobbed - police directing traffic, cars parked all up and down the road - crazy!

There isn't much for vegetables yet, of course, but I did snag some lovely little beet greens. There were fish vendors and several small farmers selling organic, humanely raised meat. We've cut way back on our carnivorous tendencies, so even though "happy" meat is more expensive, we're probably spending less than we were on the industrial stuff. The Captain found some huge pork chops and ground beef for his nights to cook.

These lovely duck eggs were our fun find. They are so amazing -- blue-green or brown speckled and BIG - how could we pass up these beauties? So this morning, I made scrambled duck eggs - a first for me. I couldn't bear to break the shells, so recruited The Captain's help in blowing out the eggs. A careful poke or two with a skewer, a bit of back and forth to break the yoke, some huffing and puffing and the eggs plopped out. ( Easy for me to say, The Captain did all the work). These eggs are really thick, almost the consistency of pudding. Tasty, tasty and so pretty - that's a lot of goodness from a little duck! We rounded out our feast with toast with maple butter from Dean's Sugar House in Charlemont, Mass - JD makes the best-ever maple butter!

The shells found a new home in a great little nest - I know ducks don't live in little nests in trees, but they look so darn cute! The nest is in my new studio -stay tuned for the final installment on the reno!On the way out, I bought a couple packets of seeds and some pussy willows - spring is here and we are over the plague - life is good!

What a lovely surprise!

It's been quite a week here - both the Captain and I taken down by a nasty bug. My new, nearly finished studio sits silent, supplies begging to be used and there are even some ideas floating around! This is not good - there is only so much bad TV that I can take, and I'd like to get back to doing things.

But, yesterday, a bright spot - Une Femme Curieuse sent this lovely award! Thank you so much! The is how the award works: thank the blogger who bestowed it, and pass the award on to other blogs you love.

I have many blogs on my list of favorites, so it's hard to single out the very favorites. I'm amazed at the creativity, humor, insight that these lovely blogs share with us and hereby proclaim, "I Love Your Blog".

Jenny Doh

A Field Journal

Where Women Create

The Vintage Magpie

The Vintage Moth

Of course there are many, many more luscious blogs out there, many over on my list to the right. Some of them just received this award (The Printed Thought), so congrats to you!

Thanks again, Ms Curieuse!

Over at NGS, we're continuing the study of Julia Andrus' book, Paper Transformed, and now we're on the technique called "luminous lifting". I started with black card stock. The directions said to apply Perfect Medium to the paper, but since I didn't have that, I DTP'd the paper with glue medium. Then I used a small brush to apply Perfect Pearls- it took a couple of swishes to get the touch, hence a few spots of "blobbiness"! There have been several comments on the site about difficulty with the "lifting" part- the directions call for pressing a bold stamp onto the paper which would "lift" off the color, and many felt that the "lifting" wasn't all that spectacular. I inked my stamp with the same glue medium to guarantee some lift! I sprayed it with water to "set" the PP. This picture doesn't do justice to the nice shimmer from this technique.

I cut up the paper , layered it onto black card stock, then onto gold moire paper, added a strip of old gold ribbon and sentiment to make a birthday card. For some reason, the gold paper didn't photo or scan well - all those wavy lines look very weird. This technique is fun and easy and makes a nice shimmery background.

Dracula at Mount Washington

"When I have a little money, I buy books; and if there is any left, I buy food and clothes".

- Desiderious Erasmus

I love used book sales. I like the idea of books rotating through a series of readers and can't understand how anyone can throw a book away! The Captain shares my love of books, so we are a dangerous pair at a book store and always head for the books at any tag sale. A used book sale is a cause for celebration.

All of those books need a place to live, so we recently added a couple of large bookcases to our library. They started out as unfinished wood - some stain and a couple of coats of butcher's wax and they looked as though they'd lived in an old library for years. (As of today, all of the artsy open areas in the bookcases are now crammed full of more books!)

I picked up an armful of books at a recent book sale at Phillips Exeter Academy, figuring these smart folks would have some good hand-me-downs. When we went to Mt. Washington recently, I stashed one in my bag. While the Captain was at a lecture, I decided to stay in our room and read. Imagine my surprise when I hauled out my book and found out it was about DRACULA! I bought it for the cover and obviously didn't read the fine print. I'm not a Dracula fan - not wild about any of the movies and can't understand the current vampire craze.

But, there I was with no other book, so I decided to give it a try. Picture this - I'm alone in a very old hotel, reading about Dracula and it starts pouring rain and then the wind starts howling, rattling the windows. I was doing OK until the lights started flickering off and on and then just went out. Did I have a moment when I wondered if maybe there was something to the idea of the "undead" - you bet I did!!

The book, The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova, was excellent! I'm always amazed at writers whose first book turns out to be a best seller. The story was full of intrigue, lots of discussion about old libraries, old books, old paper, old churches,travel, and yes, vampires. I love reading a good story that also is full of obscure information. I just bought her second book, (brand-new, so you know I'm serious about this author) and no, it's not about vampires.

A New Studio Space- Part 3

Whew - think this project is finally coming together. Just finished making something out of nothing - always fun! I mentioned these drawers before - they were rescued from an old platform bed - no throwing out any potential storage! I had them stacked under the eaves in my old room, a board covered in paper served as a top - although it was not quite wide enough but hidden by all the stuff on top! Since the drawers sat right on the floor, there was a bit of flopping around to get to the bottom ones!

We put some particle board that was taking up room in the garage on the top and bottom- this time it fit nicely. I was going to repaint it, so started sanding and realized I liked the worn,grungy look fine. The Captain helped put on some legs ao it's much easier to use the bottom drawers and there's storage underneath! I changed out the ugly plastic handles with pulls rescued from another project. Some paint, well really, lots and lots of paint (particle board is verrry thirsty!) and the ugly duckling turned into a funky storage unit.

A New Studio Space - Part 2

Before!

Back to the studio renovations - the room started out as a spare bedroom, a bit overly yellow and with the famous white (OK, not really white at this point) carpeting. It's been a good spot for a daughter after college and for lots of wonderful company, but it is now ready for a new life. No worries, we still have lots of room for company!

First up on the list of changes - the walls. I never noticed it before, but a section of the chair rail was 2 inches lower than the rest, so the Captain helped me take it off and level it out- hence the strip of pink paint in the picture above. I mixed up some leftover paints and serendipitously came up with a creamy off-white for the top part of the wall.

On to wallpapering- something I've never done and figured what better to start on than 1/3 of a wall , just the space below the chair rail. I found this great paper from Blonder's Cest' la Vie line that combines many of my current obsessions - sage green, old clocks, roman numerals, and background text. Thanks to Home Depot's 1-2-3 Home Repair book and Google, I became one with the paper. While I'm not going to make a habit of wallpapering, I'm loving the paper and amazed that it's still stuck to the wall. Plus, I have lots of scraps of that fantastic paper to play with!


Last up - the floor. Ripped up the white carpet and probably a hundred nails and staples! I decided to paint the floor. I didn't want to put down something I'd be worried about - I am famous for dropping ink pads on the floor and they always land ink side down. If I go all Jackson Pollack-y on it, no problem. I filled in some of the major divets in the floorboards, painted with another mixture of leftover paint and finished with a couple of coats of polyurethane. Voila, a brandie new, easy to clean floor.
Now I'm sorting through all my stuff and moving in. I'm trying to organize things to make it easier to find what I need, be able to see more of what I have and maybe be inspired to use more of what I have instead of buying more ! I even have a (tiny) pile of stuff to donate.

We interrupt our regular programming

So, I'm out shopping for some pants this morning and feeling OK about it. I'm several sizes smaller than I used to be and think I'll be able to find something without too much psychic stress. I was doing fine until I came across a pair of size 2 jeans (obviously misfiled as I am several sections down from the 2s) and hanging from the very tiny waist of these jeans was a big tag that proclaimed, "Seriously slimming style".

Now, call me crazy, but I'm confused; if you're wearing a size 2, just what part of you needs "serious slimming"? It's no wonder that daytime TV is full of talk about "body dysmorphic disorder"! What kind of message are women getting when we're told that a size 2 body needs special slimming technology? What about those of us wearing double-digit sizes- what comes after "seriously slimming" - "Drastic size management style"?

I will return to the regularly scheduled programming about renovations now that I've finished my rant. I'm going to look for some chocolate first - it's medicinal, so the calories don't count.

(BTW, the skinny jeans pictured above can be purchased here).

A New Studio Space

When we moved into our current house, I took over a small (emphasis on small) upstairs expanded closet space. It was the first time I'd ever had a room of my own, and I fell in love with it. It feels like a secret place, very cozy and it's all mine. There is a sky-light and in the summer I can hear the birds singing while working. However, it is very small, and my storage space is so limited. I've added significantly to my stash of supplies since moving into my little room, and every available spot is overflowing with stuff. Despite my intentions to use up the stuff I have before buying more, stamps, inks, papers and other assorted doo-dads send out "You need this" messages to me. Stamps and pads are in the drawers, and the rest is in bookcases and plastic bins. Lately, more and more is in piles on the floor, making navigation in this tiny space a challenge. Clearly, in order to contain all this stuff and still have room to move, I need more space!
This room never looks this clean - I took these after a major clearing out so I could show one of my daughters that it was possible to clean up my mess! You can see how the slanting roof limits storage space. I do have a low stack of drawers jammed in under there - more on that later. I imagine I'm the only person on earth with white carpeting in a craft room!

So, when our youngest son left home (boo-hoo!), I decided to move out of my little spot. I'm moving into a small bedroom with three windows! I've been painting, wallpapering, tearing up more white carpeting and sorting through all my stuff. Stay tuned for a progress update.

Friends

I'm lucky to have a few very wonderful friends. These friends don't live close to me (although I really wish they did) so I don't get to see them nearly enough. But, when we do get together, we can pick up from the last time without missing a beat. These friends get to hear stuff I wouldn't dare tell anyone else, and I know that while they might laugh, roll their eyes, gasp, or even cry, they'll say something that I need to hear. I love being able to talk through family, kid, relationship and work stuff with these smart, funny women.

We're not all that much alike - we have different lives, styles, and obsessions, but somewhere in there has been a constant connection, understanding and openness. We've laughed and cried, asked for and given advice, shopped, and always, always, shared something yummy to eat ! And, to paraphrase Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets , they make me want to be a better person.

This stamp from River City Rubberworks of two old ladies is one of my favorites! It. reminds me of my friends (although none of us are THAT old!) and my grandmother. I've used it over and over and love coloring their outfits , old-lady purses and accessories! Don't they look like they could tell some stories and let it rip if given the opportunity? They remind me of the Anne Taintor quote : " They made it their strict policy never to err on the side of caution". Behind that prim facade, I know these dames are cooking up something and I don't mean dinner!

In a recent issue of Somerset Studio, one of the letters to the editor set me off! (I know it's dorky, but I always read the letters to the editor, and the prologue to books, and the acknowledgements). Anyway, this person wrote in to say how she'd "outgrown" the publication and felt what she does is art, and what people are submitting to the magazine is (tisk-tisk) "crafts". Clearly there was a judgement implied : art = good; crafts = not so good. Anyone familiar with Somerset knows that this magazine showcases fantastically creative artists. Of course there are many different styles and not everything in the magazine appeals to everyone, but really, is it necessary to be so petty? I'm reminded of the saying, "Some people need to chop down the trees around them in order to make theirs look taller".

Trying to shake off this annoying issue, I've been thinking about why some styles speak to us and some don't, and why our preferences can change over time. While I love the "no success like excess" style of Tim Holtz and have shared some tags based on his work, I am also curiously drawn to the minimalist style of Jenny Doh. I love her simple, uncluttered look, clearly a "less is more" approach. I like to think that as we grow and have new experiences, our tastes change. That doesn't mean what we liked before is suddenly bad, it just means that we've opened up to something different. Life would be mighty boring if we didn't keep changing and growing, both as "artists" and as people.
In the spirit of experimentation , here are some tags I made in a more minimalist style. I love the background "grunge" stamps from Glitz It Up ! I punched out the little hearts and made the circles with the top of an acrylic paint bottle. The "stitches" are a stamp from Clearly Impressed- a whole lot easier that sewing! I trimmed the bottom of the tags with the Victorian blade for my Fiskars paper trimmer ( a great gift from my son). This is the first time I've used a decorative blade and I may become addicted.
Then, back to more complicated tags. I love this acrylic paint resist technique. I used a white paint dauber on the swirl stamp, then some text, Distress inks and a swirl or two. The large tags were a learning experience - in my enthusiasm I got ink all over the backs of the tags - grrrr! Think I may glue them back to back and hang them from something. Lesson learned - the backs of the small tags are pristine!

There, I think I've banished the evil humors with this pile of tags.