Where I Create

I was recently asked about my work space.  Where I work and create my designs.  And so I decided to take some photos and tell you a little bit about it.

First thing you'll notice is that it appears untidy.  Maybe it's very untidy to some of you and really neat and tidy to others!  For me, I'm happy that I know where everything is and it's a lovely space to work in.  The room is actually quite big for a "spare bedroom".  I share the space with my hubby who's also my business partner.  Yes, we work and live together 24/7!
I definitely take up more space!!  I do a lot of crafting and painting, so the table is my space.  His work is almost exclusively done on his computers.  We do have a serious lack of storage space.  For now though, the space works.

My crafting table changes on a regular basis.  It's very rarely completely bare.  What's on the table reflects what I'm working on at any given time.  Although it has also been used as a "dumping" place when I suddenly go into "I have to tidy up" mode.  And then after that, it might be free of stuff for a couple of hours!

I've never really put a huge amount of thought or design into how I wanted the space to work or what is in the space.  When we moved into this house, we knew that the spare bedroom would be our office/studio.  We knew we needed two desks and lots of storage for our books, art and craft supplies.  We bought all the furniture from Ikea apart from the book/filing case (photo below).

This lovely piece of furniture belonged to my Dad and was in his office.  After he died and we were sorting out his belongings, I knew I had to have that unit in my office.  My brother and sister were happy for me to take it.  Apart from sentimental reasons for wanting it, it actually seemed to be a perfect fit in my office.  I love it and I know Dad would've been thrilled to know it's being used by me.

Taking these photos, I've realised that I've surrounded myself with a lot of things that inspire me.  I also realised that I have the most amount of my special photos and nic nacs in this space rather than the living room or bedroom.  Truthfully, I spend alot of time here so it makes sense.  If I get a new photo, drawing from my grandchildren, gifts from my kids and family, I almost instinctively put them in my office.

I love my photos of my family.  I have a little photo heart tree thingy on my desk that has photos of all of them.  It's just there and I love that I can just glance up and be reminded how blessed I am to be part of such a great family.

And then there's my grandchildren. I also have their little drawings on my desk and notice board.

I did the painting of the robin for my Mum as a Christmas present a couple of years ago.  It's obviously become even more special to me since she died and reminds me that I must do more painting!

The print on my top shelf (see below) is of a painting by Kelly Rae Roberts.  I bought it for it's inspirational words such as "embrace vulnerability", "own your talent", "ask for what you need", "speak of your gratitude" etc.. I think you get the picture.  Just so inspiring.  It's the same with the green tin and storage box (photo with Yankee Candle), a present from my daughter.  She knows me so well.  I love all the inspirational words and quotes.

Oh and Yankee Candle.  The room has to smell nice.  I love to have a Yankee Candle burning most days.

On my monitor stand are some cotton reels that belonged to my grandmother.  Again, someone who was very special in my life.  We were very close and it's been 17yrs since she died.  I still miss her so much.  I love being surrounded by her things.  I have jars of her buttons as well as various other haberdashery bits and pieces that belonged to her.

There's also a cute little Mickey Mouse ornament on my monitor stand.  My youngest son bought it for me when he went to Disney a few years ago.  It's so perfect and I love the thought that went into it when he bought it.  I love Disney.  I love Mickey Mouse and snowglobes.  And Mickey has a paint brush in his hand.  There's a book with the words "Once Upon a Time" in the snowglobe.

Basically, I have what I need on a daily basis to hand.  I think that's why it gets untidy.  There are certain books and supplies that I use every day and so they never get put away.  It just works for me.  My workspace is definitely me and definitely a refleciton of my great loves and passions.  It's practical as well as inspirational.  Yes, I'd love a great big studio one day.  I'd love a nice sofa or reading nook.  I'd love very specific storage solutions and our paintings on the walls.  For now though, this is where I work and create and I love it!

I'd love to see your creative space/office/studio.  Send me links!  I love seeing where others work and create.

Starting from Scratch

Oh my goodness, what can I say?  How stupid am I?  Do I listen to my own advice?  My own wisdom.  Do I practice what I preach?  I thought I did but clearly I don't.

I lost my whole website.  My online store.  Everything.  The lot.  Gone. Forever.  No more.  Non-existent.  Yes, I do back up but my last back up was a couple of months ago.  I've been out of it and working so hard to try and re-brand, make new stuff, deal with grief and so and so forth.  Not good enough.  You can't miss any back-ups.  Not one.

It appears there was a misunderstanding between me and my hosting company.  I'm still not sure what's happened.  I thought my hosting account was set on automatic renewal.  They told me it wasn't and when I didn't renew, after 30 days, they deleted my website off their server.  Fair enough.  I guess.  But what about emails to let me know?  Yes, apparently they sent them.  But no, nothing.  Not in my spam folder.  Nowhere to be seen.

I cried.  I actually cried and sobbed.  Heartbroken.  All my hard work.  My whole store.  Everything gone.  All my tutorials, products, blog posts (on WordPress).  Gone.  I haven't looked at my backed up database yet.  I know I'll be able to pull some stuff off of it.  After the initial shock and tears and a tantrum - kicking myself for my own incompetence at not doing the last 2 backups - I decided to go out.  I was meant to be meeting my daughter anyway for our usual walk.  I knew I had to go and it would do me the world of good.  To walk off my frustration and anger.  To be in the sunshine.  To get exercise and figure things out as I walked.

And I did.  I had been re-designing my website.  I had decided that WordPress wasn't working for me and so I started to put a new website design together and re-launch it in the next few weeks.  Following on from doing Module 2 of "The Art & Business of Surface Pattern Design", I realised I wasn't 100% happy with my brand and new business.  I knew I wasn't ready to launch my business.  Not really.  I knew I needed to re-think my online store and the products.

Losing my website may well be a blessing in disguise.  I have nothing to work from now.  I have to work from scratch.  It's a good thing.  It seems huge.  I'm determined to make this a positive experience.  To turn it around and make the best of it.  And I will.

New logo.  New website.  New store.  New products.  It seems the right time.  Its been up and down like this for a number of years as I've battled with huge changes in my personal life.  More so in the past 2 yrs after losing my parents.  I thought I was ready to move on before but clearly it wasn't the right time.  Maybe it is now.  No is the time.  From scratch.

Snapshots from My Week

a heart in sunlight on my office floor

Whitstable - i used to live here - love this place

yummy texture

 

love having coffee with my daughter

 

beautiful Spring daffs outside village church

fresh veggies from local farm shop

me - this is a moment of me facing the real me - feeling tired, exhausted most of the time since my Dad died

another self portrait - as I am most days at the moment - no make-up and actually ok with that

working on a new collage - scanned this in "as is" and used it to create a digital paper