Biscuit's House

New order

Hubby forgot to buy another soap and didn't find any resin plaster, so no crafting tonight, but I was too tired anyway. Last night after the casting fiasco I read for a while and then tossed and turned a bit in bed, and didn't sleep until 3. Which I bitterly regretted when the alarm clock rang this morning. This evening I did the white tornado in the bathrooms and dusted the guest room, and tomorrow evening only finishing touches will remain to be done as hubby said he would wash the floors himself. The house hasn't been this organized and clean for a long time, probably since we moved in, and I want it to stay this way. Like many people I feel better when the house is relatively tidy. Reading a book on the sofa with a mug of tea after work with the vista of a clean house around me, is much more satisfying mentally than reading the same book on the same sofa with the same mug of tea in the middle of chaos. So even though I'm not the housekeeping type at all, from now on I'll strive to tidy up each night before bed (and am training Puni to do the same). And now that the mess is out of the way and it's no longer necessary to clear a path with a machete, I will find and employ a cleaning person as we've been saying we should for the last 5 years.

I received this book today, I ordered it after seeing it in Debby's blog, and amazingly it was in stock at Amazon, as Where women create had been (the sign of a rising tide of anglophone crafters in this country?). As Debby said several of the studios featured in Where women create are pictured in this book as well - a pity really as one woud think there are enough crafters in the US for variety.

This book is more like a practical how-to book than Where women create (which was mostly visual inspiration and essays about the crafters featured, and read kind of like a novel).  Some of it is too thorough, directing and detailed for me (I don't need graph paper and furniture cutouts to organize a quarter of a small room) and the personality tests don't hold any interest for me, but I like the pages that show ideas for organizing supplies classified by type, and then the studio examples shown by craft category. It gave me an idea that I would like to use one day, to stack cake tins (the muffin tin type) in a drawer and use them to store beads, fabric roses and such small objects.

And of course, before/after images like the ones above are vastly uplifting.

Speaking of studios, Heather just posted photos of hers. I'm sure that in such an environment, even my alginate would behave like an angel.

Ribbon sampler

Last night I assembled the ribbon sampler I had ordered from Sajou ; according to the site it should have taken a few minutes but I think it took me close to an hour, I'm so clumsy (^-^;). Of course I ended up with glue stains (that I only made worse by trying to remove) so to hide one of them I glued a butterfly that had nothing to do with the sampler, then I had to add another butterfly for balance ; the gingham ribbon and blue rose at the top are also hiding stains (^-^;;;). Still, the sampler looks cute and I think it's a nice idea that can be easily adapted by crafters to display lace, bits of fabric and trim...

Inspired by photos in the Where women create book, I (well, hubby) added hooks to the wall below the ribbon sampler to hold scissors and ribbon and trim. To hang the scissors I recycled pink and brown ribbon from a Ladurée chocolate box, and pink and grey ribbon from a package that ViYa sent me. It's good when I raise my head to see these bits of ribbon that remind me of pleasant things.

Also inspired by the book are the new small knobs on the drawers of my Ikea shelf, which can be used to hang small things. And in the fridge are two tea jelly glass jars which when empty will join the other two that are glued at the bottom of the shelf, and will hold little fabric, porcelain and metal flowers and bells.

The next step will be to add another hook next to the ribbon sampler ; sort my tools and put away the ones I don't use often, such as paint brushes, in a box on the shelf behind my chair, to make space on my small work table. I would also like to find a fabric pocket that I could fit to the side of my work table, and where I could put the crafting books used for current projects when I need room on the table to cut fabric or use the sewing machine, and still have them close at hand for quick reference.

I'm contemplating removing the soap ad replicas on the wall above my computer and replacing them with an "inspiration board" but I'm not sure yet. I don't want too much "mess" on the walls.

I think my little space is looking prettier and cozier than before, however when hubby saw the photo on my monitor, he said it looked better in the photo than in real life, which was exactly my thought.

Space

  Workspace must be in the air. There was a post on Whipup on the subject recently, and yesterday I received the book "Where women create" which I had ordered after seeing it in Joyce's blog.

I'd kill to have chests like these (and the space for them) :

What a lovely space to create : (it's just as messy as my corner but with vintage furniture the effect is charming) :

I was very surprised and gratified to see one of my favorite dollmakers featured in the book (Nancy Wiley) :

It must be the effect of the book combined with the news that in 3 weeks my parents, sister, BIL, nephew and niece will come and stay for a few days; but I was seized with the urge to tidy up my corner a little.

It's still not the bee's knees, but much better than before. Basically I have these shelves, plastic drawers, two photo setups, a table for sewing/crafting (my sewing-machine resides below the table), and my computer desk next to it. It's a small room and it also contains my husband's computer desk and his bookshelves. Nonetheless we spend lots of time in this room, Puni sitting on the floor and drawing or watching DVDs on my computer.

I took a leaf from the Crafter's Companion book and glued jam containers where I keep buttons and beads to the bottom of my Ikea shelves (I was amused to see the exact same ones in the Where women create book). I need more so I ordered two jars of tea jelly from Mariage Frères (solely in the interest of tidying up of course).