Diversions and roadblocks

Just as surely as I get started on a big project like redoing my studio, other things come along to get in my way. We had a conference out of town, Gabriel's been sick, I am sick now, and we're getting ready for our big Thanksgiving celebration the Saturday after the holiday. That involves a lot of long-put-off work on storage and reconfiguring different areas in our house, so my studio (regretfully) has taken a back seat. I hope to get most of the house stuff done this weekend and try to get back to the studio over the next week so that after the holiday I can get to work on the gifts I'm making. I won't have an entirely handmade Christmas, but I do have handmade gifts to give to several friends and family members. I'll also do goody plates or bags for neighbors and several friends, of cookies and pumpkin bread.

I still sneak into the studio every day to do some plotting and thinking about what I want for the room. I need a better solution for the sewing machine for one, and I need to decide what should be stored in the basement and what should be put on the top of the book cases. I think I know where I want to put the printer, but I have to get through of mounds of junk before I can do any rearranging.

With luck I'll come out of this with a pretty streamlined work area, one that I can feel confident moving from project to project on. More on this later!

IKEA!

Ikea for the win - I got a narrow bookcase (about 22 inches wide and 15 inches deep) for my office. Tomorrow I will try to put it together and get it set up, then get the albums moved in there from G.'s room.

I will need to untangle my morass of cords and find a better place for the printer. Thank goodness it's wireless! Once that's done I'll move all my paper & scrapbooking stuff into the new shelves, and get the junk on the floor into the shelf closest to my desk.

I've got to get busy! I have projects to get to work on to use up those supplies!

Freeform beading

I've always loved freeform beading, but have been frightened to try it. I have beaded around cabs (that I've made with polymer clay) before, but nothing terribly freeform. Recently I took out some face cabs I've made and a few regular large ovals and decided to jump in. The first one I backed with a medium-stiff interfacing, but I find it too flexible and hard to hold taut. I'm also unhappy with the glue I used. I stopped in the middle and switched to a thicker fabric (I think it's buckram. It looks & feels like it, but it was in the remnant bin and unlabeled) for the second one. I hate to give up the work I've done on the first one, and considering that I need it done by Friday I will probably muddle through. I'm hoping the second one will work better.

This is all part of OUS for me, Operation Utilize Supplies. I'm using this new therapy to not only use up what I've got, but to try things I've been longing to try. Look for photos of the freeform stuff, and also of the studio as I excavate it over the next few weeks.

The Studio and Operation Utilize Supplies

I have done a little bit more work in the studio. I brought home some lime green tubs from Home Depot to fill up, and with luck we'll get to Ikea on Sunday to get my new cabinet. Tomorrow is a "day off" for me (meaning I don't have to get up and get the husband off to the train, or pick him up) so my big goals are to get the left side of the room cleared, then reorder the closet. If I can get that done, I can fill the cabinet on Monday with what's on the floor under the desk... and then I can move the tables and tackle the bookshelves!

With luck I'll be able to call the studio totally workable (including being able to sew easily & do clay and scrapbooking as well) by the end of November. *fingers crossed* Then I'll be able to throw myself into Operation Utilize Supplies with vigor!

The studio!

Until we finish our basement (where I have wonderful studio space set aside), I have an office and studio space in our back room. It's a nice room and there will be plenty of space for what I'm working on, but right now it is full of my "art supplies". I put the quotes around it, because part of it is just junk that has ended up in my boxes of supplies. I have to do this in stages.

1. Get the area to the left of the desk clear. I have to have space for my LP's, and there's also room to put another cabinet (to be obtained from Ikea) for supplies.
2. Get under the desk emptied.
3. Get all the bookshelves emptied of books & the books moved or stored, and use that space for art supplies.
4. Unearth Gabriel's kid desk which lives in the same room and get it available for him to use. I have a bedside table to put next to it to store art supplies.
5. Get excess to the basement for storage.
6. Get my sewing machine available for use. I have two portable tables for the room, one for the sewing machine and one for layout/painting fabric/cutting patterns and so on.

It is going to be a big project. I've decided that one of my carrots on a stick for this will be art supplies - I have a few things I need and want, but I won't buy anymore (unless there's an emergency, like a custom order) unless I've finished a stage of the mission. Here's a video of the room, to give you an idea. It's covered with junk, so beware! I've been sorting and pulling stuff out of boxes.

My Giveaway - followup!

Some of you may remember my Mask & Giveaway post early in October. In it I asked for new ideas for masks, and said that in November I'd choose a random comment to receive a gift in the mail from me for participating. My Random Number Generator (see my widget in the right column of this page) chose Comment # 8, who was Aik! I've emailed her and asked for her physical address to send a gift to.

I'll be using many (maybe all) of the ideas, because they were all fabulous. I love masks, and plan to make more.

Keep tuned here for more photos, and blog entries - I'm doing NaBloPoMo this year, and have chosen this as the blog I'll be faithful to all month. Hopefully it will get me into some good habits!!

My "Poverty Mentality" and sympathetic magic!

My friend KaoticEkko blogged about something that really hit a nerve with me. I have long realized that I suffer from a serious poverty mentality, which I describe as the subconscious (and sometimes conscious) belief that I am poor, will always be poor, and should never use any of my hobby supplies for fear of wasting them and not being able to acquire more. This comes from so many years of living from paycheck to paycheck, and art supplies were an expensive luxury. I have art supplies that I have had and hoarded for 20 years!

There is a little thing called "sympathetic magic", which is usually defined as influencing something by using or creating an item that resembles what you want to happen, or doing something as if something else will happen, in order to influence it happening. One of my favorite examples of sympathetic magic in my own life is when our sweet Basset puppy fell very ill. He was in the hospital for almost a week, and the doctors told us every day that he would not make it. One day at the store I saw and purchased a puppy bed for him. I brought it home and put it in my son's room, and told him that it was a bed for his puppy when he came home. I bought this bed even after being told the puppy would not come home, I did it to show the Universe (and my 3 year old) that I believed J.D. would get well. He did. I have no idea whether or not the bed had anything to do with it, but it was something that fed my soul and created a much needed positive attitude.

So, in the spirit of sympathetic magic, and with the help of KaoticEkko and hopefully some other folks, I am going to start USING my supplies, with the belief that I can make art with them and be able to buy more and create more. Today I dug out some molds I never use and made up some cabs to bead around. I'm determined to use up my bead supply so that I can start buying better beads and doing more beading work. Tomorrow I start cleaning and sorting my studio, and next week my sweet hubby is taking me to Ikea to look at some shelving options.

OUS (Operation Utilize Supplies) means we use up what we have, we post photos of what we've made whether we like it or not, and we clear the way in our hearts, minds & workshops for new supplies, new projects, new ART. Join us! Let's start believing in our ability to create and grow.