My Studio

I think it's amazing! I've had several people (as in more than two or three) send me messages asking what my "studio" looks like. I looked around and asked, "Who? Me?" A studio? So I decided to put a few pictures together and show you where I work. I hesitate to call it a studio, but it makes a fine work area.

What I like best about my work area is the view. My work top sits right in front of this huge window and looks out into the backyard. I can see our deck, a storage building, an old treehouse from when the kids were little, our carport, our two little pygmy goats, and trashcans waiting to be taken to the dump. You are not going to get to see that loveliness, however. What you can see here are two of my favorite additions to the work area. The heart wind chime hangs just outside the window, next to the hummingbird feeder. The crystal hanging-thingy is inside, along with three others.

I bought these in a wonderful shop in Cedar Key. Over their cash register is literally hundreds of hanging decorations. These caught my eye immediately and I thought they would be fun to look at. In the mornings when the sun is just coming through the window, they cast rainbows of light on the floor and the back wall of my room.

Not the clearest photo, but this one is my favorite. I have about twenty other blurry photos that I took trying to get this one. My camera couldn't decide what to focus on, so basically it focused on nothing. 

This is where I spend the majority of my day. When I graduated from high school, my dad gave me a small roll top desk, which I still have. I used it through college and wrote many speeches sitting at that desk. Probably close to ten years ago I saw a large roll top like this one at our local Sam's store. I don't know what was so special about it, but the price tag said it could be mine for a mere $1,000.00. Yes. You did read that right. Needless to say that desk sat at Sam's for years. 

Then, several years ago, Kali and I were visiting a local family business called Brantley's. Mr. Brantley had just driven up and was starting to unload their big truck. I walked behind the truck and saw this desk loaded up inside. He helped me climb up into the truck to look at it. He had picked it up fairly inexpensively from a store that could not sell it because it had some small damage. Nothing extensive. One area is concealed with a drawer, and there is a crack in one of the outer panels on the desk top. Nothing that interferes with the rolling of the top. He offered it to me for $200.00. I had him leave the desk on the truck while I called my husband and we went 50/50 on the desk as a birthday present to myself. 
I ran an eBay scrapbook store called Scrap Attack out of this desk for several years. And now, I research art and run The Creator's Leaf from this desk.

As far as hands-on work goes, this is my main space. And again, I apologize for the pictures. I just have no idea how to get decent photos with that much light coming in the windows. I guess I could wait for a storm, but since this room has been flooded twice in the last few months - literally flooded due to rains, like 4" deep in water - I don't think wishing for a storm is a good idea.

Just another angle. This is pretty much my work space - long and narrow. That big metal desk is another Brantley's find. I think it was originally meant to be a tool/workshop kind of storage. Those drawers are full of scrapbook paper, ribbon, ink, stamps, all kinds of supplies. In the center is a rolling cart that came with the desk. It has storage underneath, but also two large drawers, and a solid work surface top. German made, it shows online as being close to $1,000.00 also. I bought it Brantley's for $100.00. I spend a good portion of the day standing here working.

I found these jewels at Joanne's, although Michael's carries them in primary colors - not pink, purple, lime, and whatever shade of blue this is. I used a 50% off coupon and got two for the price of one. Maybe $30.00 - ish. It holds a lot of stuff!

These beautiful flowers were made especially for me by one of our wonderful speech moms. Here is a link to her Etsy store - Shiny Monkey Buttons.

 And sitting next to my beautiful flowers - it's Robby the Time Keeper Robot and His Trusty Air Cycle. I love steampunk and draw quite a bit of it, so I thought Robby could be an inspiration and, well, I just thought he was cute :). I got Robby from The Fluffy Chicks' Etsy store. You can find them here. 

 One end of the desktop holds various pens, and storage units. That big butterfly box came from Joanne's also. I have bunches of zentangle tiles and watercolor paper stashed in there. The pink bin came from Wal-Mart's school supplies sections and holds all my microns. Oh, yeah. That cool Mickey Mouse vinylmation sitting behind the pink bins - is just waiting to be tangled upon!

 BUT, my absolute favorite thing in my work area - studio - is my chaise lounge! I have wanted one of these for so long!!! And it's really huge for this area, and I have to walk around it a lot, but I don't care! Perfect place to sit and read awhile, to look through my art journaling books, to study some new tangle patterns, to take a nap. 

It's comfy and I love it! And before you ask why you can't see any room in this picture - I photoshopped it all out. For twelve years we home schooled in this room, pre-art life. We have bookshelves and books and home school paperwork/portfolio stuff - everywhere! I totally whited all that out for this picture. 
And there you have my studio slash work area. Virtual tour √.