Hooray! That left me free to make a small dent in the sewing room detritus so I can call in a space planner. (Ms. Closet gave up on me a long time ago and anyway, she has relocated so I will have to find someone else to help me)
I know there is some blog tour of real studios, but nobody wants to see anything this real.
I need to empty this cabinet, which didn't used to be in this room - it was my old kitchen cabinet and just the right height for cutting/ironing with my old kitchen table butcher block top. BUT it has to go. Thought it would be great storage but the drawers don't pull out very far and the shelves are shallower than you would think. 1980's builder's kitchen:-(.
It took me a couple of hours just to empty the one drawer you see pulled out. Lots of redundant stuff went into the trash: more paper clips than can fit into the little box; pens that don't work and batteries I was delighted to find until I read the 2001 expiration date.
I found a zillion ballpoint pens that still work, but do I need all of them? Can I just throw them out? ARGH. Put 'em back in a plastic bag and stuffed them into a different drawer. Not helpful. Tomorrow, I will tackle another drawer. Maybe.
However, I am making progress on the other side of the room. This afternoon I moved
my sewing machine from in front of the window to where an annoying table used to be. The table is out in the hall and may go back down to the basement, or to Freecycle. It's only another place for clutter. I'm sitting in my chair now looking at the mess, but when I look at this, I feel calm and happy. And exhausted from moving furniture by myself!
I found my old sketchbook from 1999 and looked at it with fresh eyes. Interesting…I don't know what the genesis of this sketch was.
It took me a couple of hours just to empty the one drawer you see pulled out. Lots of redundant stuff went into the trash: more paper clips than can fit into the little box; pens that don't work and batteries I was delighted to find until I read the 2001 expiration date.
However, I am making progress on the other side of the room. This afternoon I moved
my sewing machine from in front of the window to where an annoying table used to be. The table is out in the hall and may go back down to the basement, or to Freecycle. It's only another place for clutter. I'm sitting in my chair now looking at the mess, but when I look at this, I feel calm and happy. And exhausted from moving furniture by myself!
Paris Métro map as a jumping-off point. But that's as far as I got.
And these lines, obviously, took their cue from a scrap of cloth. What was I thinking?
This one was how I felt about being in the sandwich generation and I wrote something to go along with it. Thank goodness that's over!
I fell into the chair exhausted earlier tonight and didn't think I could move again. But I finally got up, made a good cup of coffee, took a couple of cookies I had baked the other day and some home made ginger pistachio ice cream and it perked me right up, as you can imagine. Now I think it is time to crash so I can do a little more in here tomorrow, before the weekend starts.
5 comments:
Congratulations on starting to create order and move ahead. I think the hardest part of organizing to do creative work are all the decisions, like with your pens. They suck the creative juice out of you. One example, I have a lot a great books from teaching art that are in my way. I tried to give them away to other teachers, but they only want the net. I can't think anymore what to do with them, so I may heave out the boxes to the trash just to get my energy back. Remember, the goal is to create artwork, not to get bogged down in stuff. I need to make that a huge sign that I see in my space.
I have made some headway on the glut of supplies recently by giving some materials to a local Family Resource Center where they were going to help families make Holiday decorations... also gave a batch to the local library for an after school art class. But sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and fill up bags for the trash can. I need to stop making things long enough to do a little more cleaning and organizing, and this is my favorite time of the year to do just that, so maybe I'll join you! I think the results will be worth the effort...
Nice to see that my studio isn't the only one in chaos -- no real pix of mine online either! I envy your sewing chair and that lounger.
The activities directors at nursing homes really appreciate all kinds of stuff. I gave them 3 bags full of miscellaneous and they were thrilled with it.
oh you are wrong that people wouldn't want to see this!! I loved seeing the creative mess so I feel right at home! My studio rivals yours for old pens, scraps, papertrails, embellishments, all piled up like an archeologist's dream dig. I put it on the tour anyway, and figure it will make others feel better about their space.
LeeAnna Paylor
lapaylor.blogspot.com
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