Freebies

January always seems to be the month when I'm wanting to simplify. Maybe the excesses of the Christmas holidays bring that around. Maybe I'm subject to clever marketing for "organizational items". Maybe it's simply that the new year brings with it the desire to clear out what is old and stagnant and bring in new life. Whatever it is, Nate and I have been cleaning and re-arranging our office/studio space and I have things to give away.

If you see something here that you want, leave a comment. This is all under the assumption that someone out there still reads my blog and that someone will either want old craft books or know someone who might. Anyhow, if you see something you want, leave a message and I'll figure out a way to get it to you. First come, first served.

Simply Soldered by Carrie Edelmann Avery

TAKEN---7gypsies in Paris from Autumn Leaves

Jim Holtz Distressables

All of these books have sort of the same distressed, vintage asthetic. I like looking at them but they're not really "my style" a the moment.

Altered Art & Collage by Sue Giduck

TAKEN---Creative Correspondence by Michael & Judy Jacobs

Other items not pictured:
The Usborne Book of Calligraphy Projects
The Handmade Paper Book by Angela Ramsay

My "Studio", Part II

The studio is finally looking like a creative playspace instead of a toxic waste dump. The Wise and Bearded One kindly installed shelving and brackets from Home Depot along the one side wall. It's not a sexy solution but it was the cheapest, strongest one---less than $50. As you can see, we have a lot of IKEA organizing boxes. We'd probably have even more, except the Portland IKEA doesn't open until this July (YAY!). I had this old IKEA rectangular paper lamp that was looking pretty beat up so I tookit apart and made it a new shade out of some bright summery fabric. It only puts off a little bit of light but it helps out when I'm ironing at night.

(Pictures go in order from right to left)



The square boxes that have fabric in them are actually IKEA c.d. boxes that I re-purposed when Nate reorganized our c.d. collection. The rolling cabinet, I picked up off of Craigslist for a song about a year ago. I just used some acrylic craft paint to give it a cheerful face.

One thing I really don't like is the floor. It has scuffed up old brown paint. I wanted to paint it a darker color with a fun pattern like this, but Nate's convinced he wants to strip and refinish the wood some day. Since this room will likely be our master bedroom once we add a bathroom upstairs, I guess I can live with a nasty brown floor for a while.



Nate installed two "idea boards" for me on both sides of the window. The are homosote boards that I covered with linen. I snagged the sewing machine cabinet for free at a Neighborhood Cleanup the other week. It actually has a fully-functional old HEAVY sewing machine in it. I sewed with it a little bit but since it came sans instructional manual, I can't figure out how to do much on it besides straight stitches.

I needed more light over the sewing machine at night so I got these three at Cost Plus/World Market. Only one actually has a bulb in it, since I am severely limited in the number of electrical sockets in this old house. In the center of the room is my work table. I picked it up at IKEA a couple of years ago. I like that the height can be adjusted.

Now that the craft space is a little more organized, I hope to make better use of it. But, that might have to wait a couple of more weeks until school is out.

My "Studio", Part I

Have you ever seen our home office/studio? No? I'm not surprised. It's the one room of the house that we always shut the door when we have company. It's invariably a mess. No--more accurately, a disaster, an eddy for junk in our swift-flowing lives.

I know I've been a little quiet on the blog-o-sphere lately. Partially that's because my job has been so busy. But also it's been because I've been re-organizing the office/studio/junk room(is it re-organizing if you never really organized it in the first place?).

Here are some pictures from "before". Hopefully, there'll be "after" pictures soon.