The other day I got stopped for speeding.
Yikes!
The nice policeman (what a hunk) asked me when I had my last speeding ticket. Um...42 years ago in Illinois. So it's not like I'm an incorrigible criminal.
"Where was I going?"
To my sister's house.
"Is it on fire?"
(ain't he funny?)
So he asked what I do for a living...I wanted to say race car driver, but held my tongue. Instead I said,
"Retired, I'm an artist".
And I felt like I was lying on the stand. Oowhee.
When was the last time I made art? Well, that painted board I made for my BFF Patsy's birthday, but that was like one thing in six months or more.
It ate at me for days that I lied.
I didn't get the ticket just a warning...caught driving a red sports car. Hmmm.
OK so I mentioned to my sister that I noticed some old work of mine on Pinterest (how nice that they remind me daily what I used to be doing with my time and talents) and it got to me, a little bit, like a mosquito bite.
When I think about going into my studio, I walk in and turn right around. It's just too dark and uninviting. The big windows face west and don't allow much light in until the late afternoon, right around nap time, when I don't want to be creating anything but sweet dreams.
And then in my sister's studio I noticed her windows face east and she gets flooded with morning sun.
So bright and inviting. Aha! I have a space just like that. The dining room!
Whamo...I began imagining how I would use that space and then started moving out furniture and moving in other stuff. Putting the ironing mat back on that table and raising it up on bed risers, dragging in my thread caddy, my fused fabrics on that shelf system meant for shoes, and a table from our entry way to hold stuff like tools and measuring thingies, and pretty soon I had a bright happy creating place.
The sewing machine woulda-coulda been coated with dust from disuse, but it sat inside a closet, untouched since we moved in last September. Now I have wheeled it out (everything on wheels, O if were only so) and found a nice spot for it, considering feng shui for the whole arrangement. Then I placed my teeny design wall on the space adjacent and pinned up my initial efforts of a new knitted scarf pattern. (Looks like a fancy jock strap, no?)
The bookcase was full of books that got switched out for my wood panels, so I am ready to make new stuff that will eventually get mounted on those. Some similarly sized art work is also on the shelves to remind me what I used to make...and a few bins of fused scraps which will help get me started. Under that red table is a lime green bin of batting, cut down to workable sizes, also facilitating new work.
The front porch, the screen porch, the kitchen table. Not a problem. For formal dinners...what, like Thanksgiving?, I can easily return the dining table to normal height, wheel out the sewing machine and thread cart, and it is good to go.
Ok, we likey.
Now in the old studio, I suddenly have an empty closet, for like 10 seconds and moved my bins of yarn (most of it anyway) into the closet and out from under my bed where it shared the space with blobs of doggie hair. Wow. I gotta vacuum.
++++
It is supposed to rain today and I pray it does since it has been two or more weeks or dryness, meaning I have to water daily. But the flowers are doing great. Here's some views.
What are those beautiful purple & white flowers with the petunias?
ReplyDeleteSuperbenas from Proven Winners. A variety of verbena.
Deletethe lilies are very NICE...... and I look forward to seeing what you create besides eating spaces.....
ReplyDeleteA very exciting move....congrats
ReplyDeleteI consider each of your knitting creations are wearable works of one-of-a-kind art. But I understand what you are saying. I have made and given away over a thousand masks in the early months of the pandemic, but have not sewn a stitch of creative quilting.
ReplyDeleteA severe prolonged arctic cold weather event caused ruptured pipes in my laundry/storage room, which I discovered when I stepped down into 2" of water and the sound of gushing water in the walls! 20 years of storing things in there to be dealt with "later" had come to its day of reckoning.Most of what was being stored was ruined and had to be tossed.The blessing? My kids no longer have to deal with Mom's stuff after I kick the bucket or become incapacitated, and in the meantime, I have acquired a 12'x18'quilt studio space with new tile floor and walls. I'm going to call it my Lemonade Studio ( as in, "....when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"
Joan from Missouri
What a great result of a terrible situation! OOohhh 12x18' quilt studio sounds fabulous!!
DeleteI love how fearless you are in making a house really work for you!
ReplyDeleteI just had all the lights / lighting in my basement (craft area and laundry room) changed over the all LED lighting...I can not believe the difference it has made. Working on cards, sewing, doing laundry have now become almost enjoyable (the laundry part). They converted 3 florescent to LED tubes and that made a huge difference in the basement. I really enjoy reading about your "musicale rooms. Makes me take a new look at some of my rooms...changes would be good. Love the deck and plantings!!
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, labels on the floor plan is only a suggestion. Good for you taking over the dining room, housing is too expensive to have a room sitting idle 99% of the year. Especially when the room for activities you'd like to be doing saps all interest in those things. The deck is looking great, I'm glad it's coming together the way you hoped it would.
ReplyDelete