Easter Saturday Abundance & How Not to Organise an Art Space

As mentioned a few days ago, these are photos of my little Art Quilt flip-over "book" on display in my dining room (which is also temporarily doubling as a craft overflow room at the moment as seen in one of the photos below). I love the fact that I can change the quilt on show by just flipping it over to the next one.

Yesterday I had a very productive and relaxing day. I worked, on and off all day, on my "serenity" fabric postcards. These are for a small Australian exchange that is running on a bimonthly basis for 2007. The hardest part for me was settling on just one idea - I had so many for this theme and wanted to try so many techniques, but settled in the end for a simple leaf based design in soft greens and cream. I am finishing them off this afternoon and will post a scan tomorrow. I love the 4 inch by 6 inch format and I'm already looking forward to the next round.


I have included a photo today of the view from one of my kitchen windows to honour the sense of abundance I felt this morning as I made (another) cup of tea. The sunlight was streaming in, the pot plants all looked lovely and green and I felt blessed.

The photos below, however, are of a different sort of abundance...

This is the first small bedroom that became my art space - primarily for stamping and paper arts. It has ended up very cluttered! In the corner there really is a desk. Needless to say I work best with a lot of stuff around me. Neat and tidy saps my creativity as it usually means I can't see what I have available!!

When we moved to this house, all the bedrooms had built in robes so I adopted the cupboard and wardrobe for craft and art storage (supposedly stuff that only occasionally needs light and air). Under no circumstances will I be photographing the contents - I open those doors at considerable personal risk (regularly). Hanging the twill, thin ribbons and trims on the cupboard door right behind my desk was an inspired if tangled move. They get used so much more now that I don't have to get up and fight my way to them.


As with the cupboard and wardrobe, the built in robe is full of stuff! Important, meaningful, valuable stuff. Stuff that is very hard to get to. The doors however are very functional - they display ribbons and trims & trading pins etc from the first three Stamping Down Under Conventions I went to when I first started stamping. They are bright and cheerful and remind me daily of the wonderful people I have met through stamping.


This is my super-sophisticated storage system for large sheets of paper! Works great - very visual!


More storage - this time of stuff that I need accessible on a daily basis - eyelets, charms, beads, cardstock, beeswax, extra tapes, paints, special papers...


When Josh left to go to uni in Perth I "took over" his bedroom for my sewing stuff - as you can see I didn't even take down the posters and stickers. Needless to say there is a lot of fabric storage happening in this room but I will spare you the photos of the towers of white plastic tubs. I also store my decorator napkins in drawers in this room. Have I mentioned my love of napkin art???


And finally, the overflow arrangement. I have set up a trestle table in the dining room so that I can have some space for my Easter creating! On the dining table you can see the lovely but very cheap green "party bucket" I recently bought at Coles. I bought a hot pink one too in the smaller size. Not for parties but for when I want to scoop up a pile of supplies for a project. I love them!

Please don't give up on me...I am not a lost cause (quite).

Addendum - Joseph has just had a quick look over my shoulder and asked why I haven't taken a photo of his shed! Needless to say he has spent the day cleaning it out so it doesn't look anything like the "usual" shed we face when forced to look for secateurs or weed spray! If you thought my rooms looked cluttered, you would not have believed the "before" shots of the shed!