New Studio Revealed + Contest Winner!

Well I am finally ready to reveal my beautiful new studio! Wow what a difference this has made, I didn’t realise just how much I needed this change.

The layout is now so much more uncluttered, tranquil and functional. I really took a lot of time to think over what my needs were and am so glad I did!

Here is my new desk Now as I look out the window I can see the birds in the trees, so much more inspiring!

My desk is an old dining room table I got at the charity shop for £10 and I covered the top with some beautiful oil cloth from the local hardware store £13.

I wanted my room to serve my creating rather than computer work and so I intentionally reduced my computer area as much as possible so I only use it when I need to.

The laptop sits on a pedestal unit which I already had, it’s very functional so I wanted to keep it. The shelves are cut down from a previous shelving unit and are perfect for storing my giant printer and my little printer/scanner. I got the idea from something similar Marisa has in her studio.

I turned my memo board the other way around and simplified what was on there. I previously had two of these boards and reduced it down to one. I may use the other in another room in the house.

This is my secret cubby, where I store my books and bits n bobs. It has a light in there too!

This is the view from my door which still needs to be painted. And boxes that still need to be unpacked.

Now I have this big lovely wall to display my artwork on, I still need to decide what is going to go on there from my collection!

I moved this bookcase from the wall in pic above to the wall by the door. It looks much better and I substantially reduced the amount of clutter on there too.

The drawers beside it I already had and used to hide under my painting desk. They don’t fit under the new one (which worked out fine anyway) and so I stacked them here.

Bookcase close up and presenting my most fav area of the whole room…

My thinking chair!! An idea also gained from Marisa, I never had an area to sit and plan, think, pray and sketch whilst being in a comfy chair. I really needed an area like this to nurture this side of my creativity and so I set about to find the perfect chair.

I found this at my fav charity shop for £20!!! It was sitting inside the door waiting for me to buy it lol. It’s in perfect condition and so comfy. I’m just finishing off a granny square cushion for it which will set it off fab.

And so that is it! I am so delighted with it, it was well worth all the effort.

So now I bet your thinking ‘Come on get on with it, who won?’, well the colour is actually a pale grey blue called ‘Celestial Cloud #6’ by Dulux and so the winner is…..

Julia Badgley who guessed on facebook ‘ a pale blue’. Congratulations, I’ll be in contact soon.

Well that’s it for the tour, thank you all for entering my contest, I’m off to continuing working on some new goodies for the shop.

Blessings

xxx

Saying Yes to…

Hey friends, how is your week going so far?

Mine is going so much better than last week, that’s for sure! I’m looking forward to some fun times this week. We are decorating our bedroom atm so it’s a little (understatement) frustrating right now because we are having to sleep downstairs where there isn’t so much room and with Ellie downstairs, who happens to love a cosy bed (who have thought it?) well let’s just say I’ll be glad when we can move back upstairs! It’ll be great to have a beautiful bedroom for the first time since moving here yay!

This morning I was reading Jolie’s blog about saying Yes to wonderful things in life and thought it would be fun to list the things I am saying Yes to right now…

• God
• Prayer
• Love
• Kindness
• Sharing
• Hugs
• Friendship
• Painting
• Drawing
• Eating good healthy food
• Eating a little of not so healthy foods
• Exercise – Running and Walking
• Fun & Laughter
• More joy daily
• Rolling around, tickling Ellie dog and playing
• Stretching myself
• Sitting in the sunshine
• Sketching at the cafe with a pot of green tea
• Enjoying growing my own plants
• Eating my own home grown produce
• Tending the garden
• Searching for rainbows
• Watching and listening to things that make me feel good
• Sparkly lip gloss
• Listening to the birds sing
• Watching the butterflies
• Fresh strawberries
• Knitting

I could go on I think, it’s surprising when you list just how many great things there are!

How about you? What are you saying Yes to right now? Let me know if you decide to blog about this too, it’ll be fun to see your answers.

xxx

Catch Up:

• I just listed a new painting for sale called ‘Sun Rise’, check out the blog post from yesterday. 

Romance in Lille

On the Thursday we got to have a day out in Lille, a large city not far from Thumeries. I was fascinated with the buildings, the Cafes and the shops.

The sidewalks were beautifully lined with trees, just like you see in the movies- and we even saw romance in the air, how sweet! :) (I didn’t photograph that of course lol)

Here’s some pics of the centre…

There we so many Cafe’s everywhere and some very chic shops. I’m amazed I didn’t take more photos!

So that’s it from my France adventures, I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing all the pics. Hopefully another adventure won’t be too far in the future.

You can find some of my France photos available as Fine Art Prints in my Etsy store.

Many Blessings,

xxx

2009 Memories

Make a Smilebox slideshow

It's raining, it's pouring...

It's a warm and wet Sunday here in England so I'm enjoying some quiet time this afternoon after a busy morning helping out at Sunday School. The kids amaze me, they are so funny and love to sing and dance they help me to remember to lighten up and enjoy myself too, it's so easy to get bogged down with life and forget to have fun.

This afternoon I'm doing some crochet, I started on my first ripple blanket using Lucy's pattern. It's coming along great I'm on the second row, I think it will take me a very long time to complete this but it'll be so worth it. I'm going to use it for our bed. Currently our house is in the process of being completely overhauled so every room needs a makeover! We bought it like that ;) We do like a challenge. So this blanket is my attempt to start putting some love into our home and transform it into a beautiful vintage style country home :D I'll make sure to show you some pics sometime so you can see the transformation.

It just downpoured so I thought I would quickly grab a photo of my tomatoes to show you, these have been grown from seed. I'm really pleased with how they have turned out, not bad for a first attempt. My carrots aren't looking too hot though, they look like the tops have been eaten by slugs :( But I'm still hoping they will work out.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments on my podcast, I really enjoyed doing it so look out for another one soon.

I'm off to snuggle with Ellie. Have a great Sunday!

Are you a 'scanner'?

Are you a 'scanner' ? "Hmm?" you may say "what is that?" Well sometime ago I came across Barbara Sher's book 'What to do when I want to do everything' (Now called Refuse to choose) and I was amazed. For some reason I set it aside and until now never went back to it.

Well yesterday I felt drawn to check it out again and I came across Barbara's podcast on Blog Talk Radio. I listened to the one on scanners and felt like my life had finally been put into context and I was no longer a wandering soul, who liked Everything! You see I've always been someone who loves to try things and have dipped into many things and then moved on to the next. I always thought I couldn't stick with anything and saw it as a major flaw in my personality until I discovered this is not so!

'Scanners' are people who love learning and love to try many things. They stop something when it is no longer enjoyable to them. Does that sound like you?

Check out Barbara's podcast and book to learn much more, it is so freeing. I always felt like I 'had' to put myself into a box and be one thing or do one thing and if I didn't I wasn't being professional or I wouldn't be a success. Now I know different!

This issue has come up in many forms including a discussion I had with Jane about feeling like I have to paint in just one way. I was telling her how sometimes I longed to paint abstracts and other times whimsey or landscapes but didn't feel like I could for fear of coming across disordered and scattered. I told Jane how I loved her authenticity, the fact that she puts out work in response to her creative call, whether it be prim, impressionist or abstract - it is so freeing for a creative person. It is therapy in it's best form.

Since starting my business in 2004 as a craft business selling handmade stitched items, pot pourri, little gifts and hanging ornaments and then creating patterns and workshops and now moving into painting, I realise I am someone who loves to make things! It's impossible for me to just say I am a painter or a crocheter or a stitcher because I am all of those things. Going back to my Inspired post I can see I get a lot of this from my Grandma who loved creating in all kinds of ways.

So now I feel like I have been set free, free to create and put out to the world whatever God calls me to create and I am very very excited! Above you will see a little mosaic of just some of the things I love and creative things I have done in the past 5 years.

It is impossible for me to do just one thing creatively. I still very much love painting and will continue to bring you paintings every week and you may see some other cute and creative things popping up too. I hope you are excited as I am to share in my journey of a complete creative lifestyle offered to you here on this blog and at my Etsy store from now on and I also hope that you too will feel free to play and enjoy all the things that you love and that make you happy.

1. tea time, 2. Ellie in my studio, 3. Beautiful primrose, 4. angel love bookmark, 5. sweet pea seedings, 6. Crochet, 7. scented heart1, 8. osteospurnmum grown, 9. red heart cushion, 10. cupcakes, 11. creativity closeup 2, 12. Bear, 13. Sketch - Dare to Dream, 14. Ellie & Me, 15. chocolate queen greeting card, 16. blue pearl chain earrings

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.