Reorganizing Take Two #somuchfun #foundgoodstuff

 In my last post I was showing you how I was reorganizing my art studio. 

It was looking pretty good, too.

And then I got an awesome idea for getting more of

my color media out where I could actually see them

and be able to remember what I have.

Hence, Reorganizing Take 2. 

When we lived in Florida, we had one of these

nifty hanging racks on the back of a closet door and

we stashed boxes and cans of food in it.

Ta-da!!!!!

$29.00 on Amazon and it was here in two days. 

This is the perfect way to get my color available where I can 

see what I have. And not forget. 

And before you get discouraged, I have been collecting

color for almost 6 years now. 

Just so you know. 

All these bottles of color were previously stashed in

drawers and in pretty boxes. Where it was not visible. 

So easy to forget what

I have and just keep going back to the items 

on my rolling carts.

 By moving things out of boxes and onto the back

of the door, I was able to free up a bunch of space.

I now have 2 drawers of alcohol ink.

Yay!!!!

Easier to access and still portable.

I work with these in the kitchen because that room

is better ventilated than my studio.

 This is far and away the coolest thing I found!

I got this on eBay. A long time ago. It was in the bottom of a drawer underneath a lot of other things. 

It was made in England by Page of London. 

The lid is a little dented up . . .

. . . but the paints inside have never been used. 

It's crazy how the colors are all mixed up and in no order.

It is a huge set - the tin is 7" x 12". 

I can't decide if I want to use the paints

or

save the paints. 

Opinions?

A used and nasty set is going for $39.00 on eBay.

And today - I continue cleaning up.

Cause I made a serious mess yesterday. 

Reorganizing My Studio #whatamess #mystudio #whereiwork

Reorganizing once again because I can't find something.

It is hard to find certain things because I keep

thinking about where they were in Florida. 

Every inch of this room is utilized for storage.

And it does get a bit out of control from time to time. 

Recently, I have had several people ask about 

my studio, so I thought I'd show you some photos.

The above shot was taken from the doorway. 

No, I did not paint the pictures over the TV.

They are the art of Jasmine Becket Griffith.

I got them at Disney Springs.

Of course Tinker Bell is my favorite!

Mostly I use the TV to listen to the radio.

Hahahahah!

Those white cabinets came from IKEA.

Of course.

The boxes on the shelves are filled with various paints and inks.  

I am working on a system to get them out in the open where I can actually see what I have. 

The white enclosed cabinet is the shipping station for my store. 

That next chest with the colored drawers came from

Hobby Lobby. They still carry this cabinet. 

That's just part of my lunchbox collection up top.

Down the right-hand side is where I actually work.

The two tall black cabinets came from Hobby Lobby

and the rolling carts full of ink sprays are

from IKEA. 

I have carpet on half the floor.

That way if I have a mishap with color -

it doesn't get on the hard wood floors.

Wow! I'm just noticing how cluttered things were

in these photos. It looks better now. Honest.

 My store is located in the closet. All the shelves are full. 

In both directions - left and right and out of sight. 

I have been pulling things out in order to downsize. 

I'd really like to get out of the shipping part of the store and go all digital.

I have a rack coming that will hang on the inside of the closet door. 

I am going to put as much of my color as will fit 

on the shelves so I can actually see and 

grab without having to move a lot of things.

Some more of my lunchboxes, Funko Pop figures

and my Zen the Zebra from Zebra Pen where

I am an Artist Ambassador. 

 I've put together and published three books

from that desktop, using that computer

and all these supplies.

Tangle Starts has all full color pages - 

similar to what you see on the cover -

ready for you to just add your line work to.

Or use as an art journal or for collage work.

 Tangle Starts Planner is set up in the style

of a bullet journal with heavy focus on the

tangler and tangling art.

It has 106 new tangle patterns and plenty

of places to store your favorite patterns and

for you to draw and tangle away the days.

Tangle Starts Strings is my most recent book.

There are 378 pre-drawn strings so all you have

to do is add the drawing.

That hard first step of setting up your string

has already been done for you.

I am currently working in stages on four more

books for the tangle artist.

They will round out my Artangleology Series. 

More info on those later.

This concludes my studio tour.

Hahaha!

I hope you enjoyed it.

And I promise, 

it is cleaner and more picked up now. 

Making a Huge Mess

I noticed it had been a few days since I last posted. I've been busy reorganizing the studio. Again. This is about a twice a year event. Actually, I was hoping to find some photos that I lost during the last reorganize. Unfortunately they haven't turned up so far.

A very ambitious project. I downsized four 6' bookcases to two. Replaced the plastic see-through drawer carts with wooden cases. Primarily so the Frankles can't see what is in the drawers. 

Hahahaha! She's such a sweetie!

This is all I managed to get done last night. I'm combining the den and a small bedroom worth of art supplies and paraphernalia (that's a law enforcement term) into just the den. The hope is that when I'm finished, the Frankles will have her own bedroom - with a big girl bed and desk area - that she gets to share with my reading corner.

I love my recliner. Still lots of work to get done and I'll post photos when I'm finished,  but first . . .  it's Frankie time for the next 3 days. Love me some Frankie time!

Making Plans

We have the most awesome Ace Hardware store anywhere! Inside the hardware store is a gift shop with so many beautiful things. I usually do some Christmas shopping there each year and I have already spotted a couple things I want to go back and pick up. Today, they had some new butterflies in stock. I have a couple others that I got at Ace to use in photo shoots, but never one like this. I love the colors and the shimmer! I came right home and got it hung up in my studio. And I have plans for a photo shoot with Frankie some time soon. Frankie and this butterfly! Can not wait!

The Perfect Size

Yesterday I went to Jacksonville to take my mom to the doctor. On the way home, I was able to stop at Office Depot - one of my favorite stores :). Yes, that is a bit strange, I understand.

But, I just love going there - alone - so I can walk up and down every single aisle, and look at every item in the store. Yesterday I found this little treasure! I have a matching mail sorting box - I use it to keep my Tangle a Day calendar in, along with my One Zentangle a Day workbook and journal, my CZT field book, my Tangle Keeper from Genevieve Crabe, and a ziploc bag full of watercolored tiles for later. Now I have this little post-it note box that is the perfect size for keeping a stack of tiles on hand and ready. There's a half inch wiggle space, so I put a couple black tiles on one side, and a couple ATC tiles in the back. All close at hand. Yay!!!! Yay for Office Depot and awesome deals!

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 √.