We are back from our family fun getaway in Utah and when I returned I was greeted by three overflowing tubs of packages!
Sugarwings was here to hang out with me most of the day so I’ve only managed to unpack, open, sort, and admire the contents of one tub.
I’ll be checking out the others and editing photos from the trip tomorrow. But for now I just wanted to pop in and say “hi” and thanks for the kindly studio comments.
Welcome to my studio! I'm showing (tons and tons) of photos of it today as part of Karen Valentine's "Where Bloggers Create" party.
Last year, I was chosen as one of the winners of the tour, and my studio was supposed to be photographed for Where Women Create. But… I've worked with enough magazines to understand that things don't always play out as planned. I've done dozens of articles over the years for many publications, and I've also done quite a few that have never appeared anywhere.
It happens.
But I'm still happy to be a part of this tour and I'm glad Karen is hosting.
I'll start with the views from my desk, standing at my workspot and taking a few pictures in all directions.
I've shown lots of photos of my studio on my blog, so these might be redundant to you if you've been here before.
But there are always changes here and there throughout the room, so maybe you'll see something different. I was looking through my post from last year and decided that the room is much nicer now.
Its still over-full, but to me it is less cluttery. Not to my husband, he mentions the "H" word sometimes when he ventures into my space. I always cringe, and start to justify my pretties. I saw 3 episodes of Hoarders and can never watch it again, its just too spooky.
Yes, I have a lot of stuff. But its good stuff!! And its organized, and I have plans for it. (does petting it and saying "my precious" over and over count as a plan?)
But I have a feeling that I don't have to justify any of my pretties to my blog friends. Unlike my spouse, you guys "get it".
It takes stuff to make stuff! And I looooove to make stuff.
This side of the room, that I've shown you, is the working area. I have one big square space, just under 1,000 sq ft, and I love every inch of it.
The front half of the room also over flows into work space, I usually leave my sewing machine set up there when I am not entertaining. We use these two dining room tables for big dinners.
And they come in very handy when I do a tag book swap. Here is just the beginning of the tag piles that I'm stacking up before I start making the books.
But mostly, the front of the studio is just storage.
All of the furniture has to do double duty, and has to have plenty of storage space as well as being pretty.
And its has to be cheap too. Every single piece is from a garage sale, flea, or auction, and I repainted and fixed it up.
The treat cabinet is very useful. It holds a great deal of wallpaper up on the shelf, and under the table cloth, I store all of my paper plates, cups, etc.
And of course its always good to have sweets available on craft days!
The furniture isn't arranged in a way you'd do in your home. I clump the pieces together to seperate the room into different areas. I also use old doors and screens to divide the space.
To create an office, I grouped French doors around a faux gazebo made of salvaged porch columns.
The rug is actually painted vinyl flooring. Here is how to do it:
Even Sugarwing's work area has double duty furniture. Her block seats are also storage for play dough and coloring books.
She has her own cabinet full of supplies too, but I guess I cropped it out of this photo. I took a photo of her corner, then when I edited it, I forgot that the focus was supposed to be her stuff.
This column might not be out here long. We are thinking of remodelling the kitchen, and it will possibly be used in there.
The dress form was decked out for Bird Song and liked the vines and birds on it so much, I'll probably leave it this way.
I've painted the stand, and wrapped the whole thing in grape vine that I cut off our fence.
While I'm talking about dress forms, I'll let you know that I'm having a giveaway for one of my Mini Dress Form online tutorials.
Leave a comment if you'd like to win one. If you have already purchased the $15 class, and I draw your name, I'll send you a kit of vintage goodies to make the dolled up dress form with.
Here is some good news! A box of these little girlies are on their way to Somerset. Its always an honor to be in one of their publications.
Lets see, where was I? Here is a bigger picture of the front part of the room.
We added onto our house about 6 years ago, and I didn't want the new part to look too out of place with the original old farmhouse. So, I've tried to add details that give this space some age.
I trimmed these windows and did some of the baseboards myself to save money on the construction. Since I'm not a very good mitered corner cutter, I butted the boards up to these vintage bullseyes instead. No mitering needed, and it ages the window.
Okay, this area might be one of the reasons my husband uses the "H" word when he comes in.
The buffet top sure is not going to be cleared to serve a buffet from anytime soon.
Its a bit full.
But I love my stuff and pretties. Some of it is completed work, some is supply type stuff for future work, others are just things I like.
Having it out in the open where I can see it, reminds me to use it.
Although, sometimes its just plain fun to set up and arrange. Kind of like playing with a doll house.
This banner was one of my examples from the Bird Song weekend here at my cottage. I've had lots of inquiries about when the next is. Well, we are still waiting to see what our remodelling project will entail. No one would want to be here during that! So, I am waiting to get things settled with the contractor before I plan anything.
I'm hoping to do something early in November. I'll let you know. The last one was so fun, I can't wait to do it again. I'd have had one already if our redo plans hadn't been so up in the air.
Beth and I wanted to do one in September, kind of a B&B weekend with just a few guests staying here with us and creating in our jammies at midnight, sipping wine, eating chocolate and playing with old wallpaper. Sounds fun doesn't it? But I don't know if I'll have a kitchen then, so that is probably out of the question.
Durn it.
But I do like the idea of a new kitchen.
This lamp shade was Debbie's project for Bird Song.
And this is what I made in Lisa's class at Paper Cowgirls.
Well, I've been blathering on for a while, and still have what looks like about 300 photos yet to load. If you are still with me, maybe you'd prefer just some detail photos of the room, and not so much chitter chatter?
Because I know that there are a lot of studios to visit on Karen's list.
Isn't this pretty? Beth made it for me.
Here is a photo I did of my littlest fairy grand baby. I love having sentimental things around the room.
Like this watercolor of Sugarwings for the Grumpy Fairy book.
And gifts from friends, this is from Hope.
And this basket is from Lori.
And here is another gift from Beth.
She gave me this little wallpaper cabinet just this week.
The pink cup is from her too. I have Beth gifts in every corner of the room.
Of course, this is one of the best things in the studio.
Its always wonderful to have my little buddies at my feet while I work.
Did I say that I was going to stop chitter chattering and just show photos? Then, I just kept chatting.
Sorry! If you are still here, I'll stop the rambling on and just leave you with the rest of the photos. Enjoy the studio tours, and thanks for coming by to see mine.
On the 15th, Karen Valentine is again hosting her "Where Bloggers Create" party. I look forward to looking through all the studios, there are about a zillion people signed up to show their spaces. I'll be in Utah at a mini family reunion, but will have my Magic Pink Princess Computer (that is what Sugarwings calls my Ipad) with me and hope to do some surfing.
Please forgive me if I don't answer comments, I'll be knee deep in family fun all weekend.
Here is my post from last year's tour. (its LONG too)
And when I get back, it will be time to start making tag books! The fun never stops!
My post is going to be a ridiculously long one. So, I'll leave it up till I get back, and won't plan on other new postings till Monday or Tuesday. It might take you that long work your way through it, I went a bit over board with the photos.
Before I go, I want to update you on the Facebook Face Stealer dilemma that I had. Looks like she has blocked me, so I couldn't check her page, but someone else looked for me and apparently she (or he? uck!) has replaced my pilferred profile picture with one of her own. Or one of somebody else's. Who knows. I'm just relived that my photo is not up there any more. It was creepy.
When I get back, I'll announce another winner of my online dress form tutorial. If you have already purchased one of the $15 classes, (thank you!!), then I'll send you a kit of vintage goodies instead if I draw your name.
Leave a comment if you want to be entered. On any post.
ps- I forgot to tell you that I listed some of the kits in my Boutique, and they are almost gone now. One left! I'll make more as soon as I can.
Between babysitting fairies and floating around on the lake, I managed to start unwrapping the never ending packages of tags that are coming in the mail. And oh my- they are good ones!!
Now, in past tag book swaps (Puppy Love, Dorothy, and Alice), I've seen some really nice work, and very clever ideas. But in this swap, I have to say that the word I am using over and over is Pretty. The theme seems to lend itself to very pretty tags.
Check out the ones loaded on our Flickr group to see what I mean.
There have been some very thoughtful and pretty gifts too! This box is filled with sweetly scented dried flowers and this lovely hand made flower by Abby.
And I am always surprised at how charming the wrapping is for so many of the packages. This is from Darlene.
See how cute Mary wrapped hers?
And my goodness, LOOK at this pouch from Liz Waring.
Lynn tied her package up with a ribbon flower.
This gift is from Wendy.
Its my own Blue Bird of Happiness!
Sabrina sent this pendant that she made.
You would think that is more than enough, but it just kept on coming. I am touched and thrilled already when I open the mail box, or step outside my door to see a giant pile of tag packages on my porch, but the generosity of the swappers really blows me away.
Jill made up a goodie bag with this little doggie brooch in it for me.
And if you have ever read my blog, you might have noticed that I like flowers… aren't these pretty ones from Julie.
This creative thank you note was sent by Karen
My pal, Stephanie sent this book, as well as an extra tag for my book. Lots of kind hearted swappers gave me an extra tag for my own book. Mine will be overstuffed with wonderfulness!
Thank you for all the goodies, ladies. You really did NOT have to do that! (but I love what you sent!)
I'll have more photos later on.
Here are a few of the tags that I made for the swap. I got carried away and made too many, but its good to have extra.
To sparkle up the one on the right, I used some of the vintage rhinestones that I carry in the Boutique.
For now, I am opening and sorting the incoming tags. I will probably have two full tables of them by the time they all get here. You all remember that I extended the deadline, right? I have a trip to Utah that came up after I planned the swap. So instead of the tags being due by the 15th, they should be mailed by then.
That way, the tags should all be here when I return from my trip, and I can start the assembly process.
Now, that is not the quickest thing to do. It will take most of the week to get them put together, packaged and labelled. So, if for some reason you are running late, please, please, contact me before you spend a fortune on over night shipping!!!!!!! I will let you know if you still have time to get them in before I'm done.
Not that I am encouraging procrastination. I just hate to see you spend way too much money on shipping to get it here fast and then have it on my desk for a week after all.
We had a sweet time babysitting for our tiny fairies. That baby is about as mellow as they come. She fusses a bit if she is wet or hungry and that is about it. Goes right to sleep when I lay her down, and wakes up smiling and playing with toys in the crib until someone picks her up.
We thought it was going to be a piece of cake, after a fun family evening at Pixie Pie's birthday party, and peaceful night with the little one sleeping almost 12 hours and waking up as happy as can be.
Sugarwings was helpful and not at all jealous of the time we spent with her sis-star.
The dogs and the baby had a mutual admiration for each other, and spent a lot of time together. Twinkle adored her and didn't care how much her ears were pulled or twisted.
Agnes Rosebud liked to be near her if she was eating, since only about 20% of the food went into her mouth, and plenty went onto the floor. And she was happy to cuddle up and visit, but when the ear pulling started, she jumped down.
Twinkle never even acted like she wanted to get away.
What a good dog.
Of course, Twinkle was probably just waiting for a photo op. Since she thinks all cameras are pointed at HER only.
Our littlest fairy was content to crawl around, stick out her tongue and laugh for most of the day.
Then, about mid-afternoon, she started to wonder where her mom and dad were. I could tell by the way she was looking over my shoulder and was beginning to fret.
By evening, she was in tears. She'd never been away from mommy that long and was missing her too much.
So we hopped in the car and drove out to Camp Gaea where her parents were teaching workshops and she joined them for the rest of the weekend.
We still have Sugarwings, so she and I will be doing some painting together and will see a movie this afternoon. It seems quiet without the baby, and we are already looking forward to our next time to have her back.
Sugarwings is helping me write about our weekend with her sister and it was her idea to have purple letters.
Can you guess who this photo is of?? If you guessed Karla Nathan, I just don't know if you are right or not.
Someone named Carla Ross, on Facebook, says it is her. She is using it as her profile picture. I'm a bit freaked out about the whole thing. I reported it to Facebook, and heard nothing back. I left her quite a few messages, asking her to remove it, and heard nothing back.
Yep, I'm more than a bit freaked out about it.
I've changed my profile photo to this one, and changed my password too. Honestly, I don't think there is much more I can do. Except hope that Carla Ross is just camera shy and borrowed a photo, and that she isn't really some weird, creepy, guy out to steal identities.
Now. onto a much more pleasant, happy subject- Romantic Homes has a blurb about my wallpaper obsession collection on page 26-27.
This is one of the photos they used. I was squeamish about doing my own photos for them, since I am not a real photographer, I'm just a picture taker. My camera is a nice one (and I LOVE it), but not a great one, and I don't use big girl editing like photoshop, just picnik. I'm good enough for blog pictures and scrapbooks of fairy babies, so was really worried about doing a magazine shoot, even a mini one.
(that bench was built by my son, from a Victorian headboard that I painted)
I'm still plugging away on the tag book covers. My God, what is wrong with me, that I offered to make 135 covers????????????????? By the way, the swap is at full capacity now, thank you to those who joined.
I promise I am not really cursing you all as I glue trim onto yet another in the never diminishing pile of tags. They will get done. I know they will. I can do it. right?
That is, if I live through this weekend… I am babysitting the tiniest fairy grand baby for the first time.
For 3 days while her parents are teaching their zen and energy stuff at some festival. I will have Sugarwings too, and she is a full time handful when she is here, so it could be exciting. Did I mention that the baby is still breast feeding and has never been without her mommy over night?
Maybe I will have to use this as my new facebook picture after doing 135 tag covers and watching the girls for the weekend. I'm feeling hagard just thinking about it.
Honestly, it will be a good experience for us to have both girls together. And we need to spend more time with our littlest one, she hasn't been over as much. I remember lots of late nigths cuddling baby Sugarwings and rocking her when she couldn't sleep. This will be my first shot at it with her sis-star.
Wish me luck!!!!!!
Oh, I almost forgot- the winner of the dress form tutorial is
That was such an easy giveaway, I think I'll do it again!
Leave a comment if you want a chance to win.
I'f you've already purchased the $15 online class, and you win the drawing, I'll send you a kit. ( I really do have kits made, I simply have not photographed and listed them yet. It has been crazy around here.)
Today was a very productive, but lonely, craft day. I'm gearing up for the tag book swap and worked on a few more tags, then almost got all the covers finished.
But I was working all alone, everyone forgot craft day! Holiday weekends can take a lot out of you. All three friends simply forgot. And the repairman coming to finish replacing our new tub surround forgot to show up too. Then, at the end of the day, my son cancelled our dinner out.
I was feeling very forgotten by then.
Not for long, though. I scooped up this little fairy and she kept me pretty entertained for the evening. We ran errands, had a picnic in the park, then walked downtown for ice cream. She noticed these flowers painted on a store front and said that the "ABCs" looked like mine. What she meant was that the name signed at the bottom had a K and an N in it. Well, it should, its my painting and I signed it!
It was pretty touching to me that she noticed it.
So, my day ended up pretty nice after all. And I got a LOT accomplished on the tag book covers during my solo craft day.
Each cover has been cut out, and the cage has been embellished with metallic inks or glitter, and I've added floral wallpaper to the backs,the holes are punched, and I've inked the edges. About half have the ruffle glued to the bottom. I'm using some vintage eyelet lace to trim them out.
Its exciting to see them all come together. So far, I haven't opened a single package full of swap tags that has arrived in the mail, I'm saving that up for "dessert" when I get my end of the deal finished. Something to look forward to.
One of the tags I made today is for Mary's Monthly Collage Challenge. But since my mind is on birds, I killed two of them with one stone and made a bird tag as my entry to the challenge.
This is what we had to work with.
But my favorite part is the crackle glaze, I love that stuff. It was only placed over the girl and the background, not the flowers or the bird. When it dried, I used dark brown ink over it here and there, and blended it out with a baby wipe, then inked the edges of the tag.
On my next post, I'll be drawing a name for this giveaway for one of my
Mini Dress Form online workshops.
If you win, and have already purchased the $15 class, I will send you a kit full of vintage goodies to make the dolled up dress form with.
I hope you are all having a Happy Fourth of July weekend! We've been out on the boat most of the time, and got an early start on Friday, turning this into a 4 day weekend.
Before hitting the lake, I filled a grocery cart with fresh fruits and veggies, and spent a few hours in the kitchen making up picnic dinners. I also made a vat of chicken salad with fat free greek yogurt and low fat sour cream in place of the mayo and some slaw made up in a similar way.
It seems like being outdoors makes everyone twice as hungry, and we all tend to snack the whole time we are out there, so I try to pack things you don't feel guilty about eating a lot of.
So, we gathered up a ton of food and a ton of kids and headed for Lake Clinton, about a ten minute drive from our house.
It was the very littlest, most tiny, grand child's first trip out on the lake.
It was so nice there, we stayed out on the water till the sun went down. We hadn't had much of a chance to be out there yet this summer due to engine troubles, but after weeks of having the pontoon in at the repair shop, we were raring to go and enjoy the sunshine and the refreshing lake water.
Then, of course, the boat died.
But we had Sugarwing's Daddy along and he is handy. He figured out why it wouldn't run, when about 4 or 5 mechanics hadn't been able to.
None of the kids seemed too worried about being stuck on the lake for a while. I think they'd have been happy to be stranded out there all night.
If this photo sends chills down your spine, you aren't the only one. That slippery, wet, baby with no life jacket terrified me. But, she is a cuddly child who doesn't wiggle much, so everyone else seemed okay with it. Personally, I was praying for the park rangers to come by and give us a huge fine and insist that she wear a jacket.
And I didn't hold her in the water myself at all. I was afraid I'd drop her.
But I was told to not fret so much.
Isn't that what Grammies do?? Fret and worry and try to keep the grandies from ever coming to any harm? (I have to admit that I was against using the stacks of tables as a diving board and the anti-sunscreen rule too, but I also have to admit that the kids don't seem to get sunburned and no one slipped away to the bottom of the lake or cracked their head open on the dock)
This itty bitty thing was pretty happy with the whole trip.
I think she is going to love being a boat kid.
I know I love being one! (yes, that is my husband out on the tube with no lifejacket on, I have to fret and worry about him as much as I do about the kids)
Not only did we pretend to be angels, then vampires, do some redecorating, play with pups, watch Tru Blood, and eat a ton of good food (I was afraid to try to zip my pants for the flight home), we did lots of creating in Randy's studio too.
The deadline for my Bird Song tag book swap is coming up and I wanted to have some tags to swap too, so brought along stuff to make some. Randy had a lot of supplies to use also, and we shared back and forth as we worked in the studio till the wee hours of the night. And through most of the days too!
I also packed up a bunch of papers that Mary had given me from her new collections. Both of these previous tags are sitting on a page from her collections, and the roses in the first one is from a previous collection of hers.
These tags aren't for the swap, I just felt like making them, because I loved the images that Mary had provided. She has pages and pages of lovely ladies, some in color, some in black and white. I cut out these girls from the black and white pages and colored them with Coptic markers. I've always wanted to try those, and Randy's crafting bud brought some for me to experiment with.
I think I like them… the fact that you can buy a blending pen makes them much better than most markers. I'll be buying a few for myself with the weekly 40% off coupons that I clip out of the paper for Hobby Lobby or Michaels.
Randy and his friend joined the swap, so we made tons of tags between us.
(this is the black and white version from Mary's collection, after Randy cut one of the ladies out to use on his scrapbook page)
Then he worked on scrap books, while I kind of messed around with whatever sounded fun. Like fairy-ing up some old photos. I used some of Mary's older papers to make the wings and hat, and tinted him with the Coptic pens. (the sweet picture behind it, is from her new collection)
But mostly I worked on bird tags. Have you ever noticed how much more fun it is to make things with other people's supplies (or with a new package of goodies you just purchased)? Randy had some great ephemera and Kevin was popping in with things he'd found while out junking that he thought we might want to use.
Like the blue print paper in the background of this one. I made a lot with this paper, I'd never worked with it before, and really liked it. I got on a roll with making a night time sky with this paper, and birds in front of a full moon over the deep blue sky.
All the info for sending in the tags is in a post you can reach by clicking on the Bird Song Tag Book Swap button on my side bar if yours are ready to send in.
They are starting to arrive, every day the postman has a bundle for me!! Its so fun to see them arrive.
I'm not opening them yet, please understand that I can't keep track if your package has arrived or not. I'm getting over 900 tags in the mail, that is a lot of packages! And I am not the only one in the family to bring the mail in, so I haven't seen each one yet. My son and husband bring mail in and know to pile up the packages for me to open later.
Uhm, did I mention that the guncles and I had a good time? With lots of silly fun? The weekend went fast, but we managed to pack in a lot of goofiness, including a Tru Blood mini marathon.
With HBO Go on my Ipad, we were able to watch the second episode of the new season after the premiere. So, of course, we made a PARTY out of it!
Because everything is a party at Randy and Kevin's house!
I drew some Tru Blood labels that we added to some empty bottles, and we drank out of red, crystal goblets, and painted our faces to look like vamps.
Since the guys bought my plane ticket, I wanted to treat them to dinner. We talked about getting dressed up and going out, but decided it was more fun to get dressed as vampires, watch our favorite show and eat in. So, I bought some lobsters and we had the best meal ever.
Crusty bread, still warm when we bought it, a crisp lettuce wedge with Kev's home made dressing topped with a chopped, fresh tomato, and giant, lovely, delectable lobsters.
I was disappointed in fairy land on the show, were you? I've come to terms with the fact that the show doesn't follow the books. And since they do stay true to the actual characters themselves, I don't mind, and actually enjoy the surprises that the show wouldn't offer if it did follow the books.
But man, the fairy land is NOT what I had hoped for at all. And Bill is King?
But that's okay. I still love me some Sookie and am a loyal fan.
I love me some guncles too.
Every night, the suppers were so good. One night was seared scallops in a vermouth and heavy cream redcution.
And another meal was grilled flounder with fresh asparagus and fingerling potatoes roasted in butter and onions. See why I was worried about my zipper still working? Did I mention homemade German chocolate cake?
Oh, and please remember, that there is a giveaway for one of my Mini Dress Form online workshops. If you win, and have already purchased the $15 class, I will send you a kit full of vintage goodies to make the dolled up dress form with.
