Organizing

I've been working on rearranging and organizing the studios...a task that needs to be done, and that I enjoy, but feel guilty about the time it takes away from other things -- uh, like creating. My office went from being an office to becoming a fabric studio to being an office/design/illustration studio. I realized I needed much more room for the fabric studio so that went to the basement where my painting/junking studio is. The basement is so torn apart it's scary. Add to this that my kitchen has been in constant renovation for a year now (no thanks, in part, due to the poorly chosen contractors I hired, but that's a whole other story) and some of the kitchen stuff is boxed in the laundry part of the basement. ugh.

As I tinker in each area I am finding little spots of happiness. I focused on a part of the office yesterday. I acquired a dresser over the weekend that I thought I would maybe Freecycle, but since I like it's style I thought of 3 different places I could use it. The office won. I had to get this...

to be neater and cleaner visually to free up brain space. So I did this...

Oh happy day!! Much more visually appealing and I'm liking the vignette on top of the dresser.

Although, that may change because that's what seems to happen around here, as my friend's remind me all the time. 

I found this little guy a few years back and almost gave it away, but for some reason I couldn't. At the time, I really wasn't drawn to this type of cuteness, but apparently things have changed. I found him in a drawer and he's been moving around and finally has a perch. 

My goal later today is to get the fabric on the shelves and the sewing machine on the table so I can start stitching away. It's been a bear trying to figure out what fabric went into which box when I was looking for a specific one. I often feel like I'm running in circles. It's self-imposed I know. But HEY! the final results, which I see clearly in my head, will be wonderful.

Yeyyyy, garbage!!

Look at this beautiful thing.

OK, not everyone would feel this way about an empty dog bag. I completely understand. But since I make things out of them...I'm excited when a new one makes it's way to my house. One day I had an empty bag in my hand and I thought, "hey, this is a neat material, maybe I can use it for something" and voila! This design hit me. It's amazing when you request these 'garbage' items (oh the stuff I gather!!) how many people think you're crazy, and might rather throw it out than give it to you.... Until they see this....

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Then they oooh and aaah and ask me if I sell them. I say "yes," hand them my card and explain that each is an original and they are made out of at least 90% (usually more) of recycled materials. The interior of this one is made up of the leg of a pair of jeans. The flower is from discontinued decorator fabric samples, the flower center is a vintage glow in the dark tack, embroidery stitching is made with vintage embroidery thread. It is machine quilted. It has a hard bottom insert to prevent sagging. Fun Fun Fun! 

Now you may understand my excitement. I recently got two 'Cat Chow' bags, too, that are such a pretty limish green. If you saw me, you would have thought I just received a birthday present. I picked them up from a gifter from Freecycle that left them on her porch for me...I was skipping down the walk like I won a prize...I was so excited when I saw the color!! Oh the brain started whipping all kinds of wonderful design images around. One of the bags has already been tagged for a commissioned handbag that will be given to a cat owner/lover. I think it might be a hip-bag....hmmmmmm I just received some old belts that just might work as the strap. Of course, my mind could change a 1,000 times before I actually sit down to make it. When I'm holding the materials in my hand, that's when the design pops into my head.

I've begun....

ahhhh, here I am finally joining the creative blogging community that I've been so diligently following. Only took me forever to figure this thing out...and I'm not done by any means. It's the whole opposite side of the brain thing going on.