Studio Tour 2016- Where Bloggers Create

Oops, we almost missed out on joining in on Karen Valentine's annual Studio Tour.

Ya know, you snooze, you lose, right?  But I checked her site and it looks like I can still add myself to the list.

And I even have a few changes to show from past years. Not big ones, but some things did get shifted a smidgen.   Since, sadly, I didn't host Birdsong this year, I decided to enlarge my office space. The whole studio is one big room, just under 1,000 sq ft.  I divide into sections with hinged doors, and large pieces of furniture.  So, the room is rather fluid, and if I decide that I'd like to allot more space to one area instead of another, all I have to do is shift stuff around.

So, I gifted myself with about 8' of extra room in the office.  Normally, I'm stingy with the desk area, and save all the extra elbow room for seating in the main space.  Since there are no guests now, I thought the space would be nice to make use of in the desk area.

The bluebird backdrop is painted on plywood and usually, it sits by the treat cabinet and serves as decor for my Peeps at Birdsong.  Since (very, very sadly) there was not an art event here this spring, I thought I needed a bluebird view to cheer me up and moved it to sit behind my desk.

Very cheerful!

And the poor treat cabinet is looking lonely, since I haven't had company to feed. It is being used for storage, not goodies right now.

Well, this isn't typical, but for now, the studio is set up for sewing.

YUCK

I really do not like to sew. But…. sometimes it is the solution to a problem.  I'd bought a boxful of old lace curtains at an estate sale (for $6!) and wanted to make them fit the windows in the new room we are adding onto our cottage.  

The sewing isn't going well, but I'll get there.  There have been a lot of breaks to save my sanity.  Too much sewing is rough on me. 

I've been painting frames and getting family photos into them to hang in the new room too.  We will have a fireplace and mantel!  That will be a great spot to display some special pictures.

Another job that I need to tackle is recovering this ($30) chair from a garage sale. I'll be painting the wood too. Lately, I've been recovering some other seating, and have painted a couple of tables.  

Packing up the living room and kitchen had me in the swing of organizing and spent time going through each cabinet in the studio to straighten and edit the contents.  While at it, I boxed and labeled all of the supplies in this one!  Can you hear the sound of me slapping myself on the back? I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. And in the last couple of months, it has stayed nicely sorted.

The corner cabinet was moved from the kitchen to the office, that is what started all of the shuffling out there.  My son built this cabinet for me, and while I loved using it as a china cabinet in the kitchen, I think I'll like it even more out here.

With all of the redos going on, I'm afraid that I've neglected my regular work. I look forward to getting some time at my craft desk soon. Here is a view from my workspace. I miss it!

This is kinda new too.  The cabinet on the right was a wooden one in my office area, and I covered it in some of my very favorite and vintagey wallpaper, then moved it to my work zone to keep supplies in.

As you might notice, I have a collection of these style cabinets. About half are original, the rest are newer ones that I've covered in old paper.

Of course, in my opinion, any storage is better if covered in old wallpaper.

Thank you for stopping to look. And have a good time on the rest of the tour, you can find the link on Karen's blog, here.  It is her 8th annual Where Bloggers Create Studio Tour. Thank you, Karen for hosting again.