Studio redo........

 

You may have noticed I've been MIA for a bit!  Well, I'm back and I have completed a studio redo over the past week or so......and it feels GOOD!  Before, it felt like over load.  Really, how many pieces of paper, magazines, lace, fabric, buttons and other cool stuff does one NEED?  Truth be told, not all of it was THAT cool.

My "sort out" started a few months back and concluded a couple days ago when I painted the walls in my newly organized room.  I've been trying to raise the status of my room and turn it back from catch-all to a studio/craft area.  So, I sorted and threw things away, took a load or two to Goodwill, forced some "good stuff" on art buddies...rearranged and compacted and came up with this!  Now, only art related items live in this room with the exception of the vacuum cleaner, I just can't find another place to put it...so, I guess, it is not a perfect world.

 

This wall holds a lot of stuff with the tall cupboard, dresser and bookcase.  With the load lighting I was able to remove two storage pieces from the room, one cupboard and one small dresser.

 

One of my favorite things in the world is that rusted, beat-up, green metal multi-drawer storage piece, on the shelf, I bought it at an antique fair a few years back.

 

 

  

 

I gained room to display some of my other "favorite things"!

This is my "toy shelf"!  I have a spelling board in the back, a cage for Bingo numbers and a ramp walking Popeye.  Ramp walkers were made with jointed legs, when you placed them on a slanted board they would "walk" down!

Simpler toys from simpler times.

 

 

 

 

I'm using old glass refrigerator dishes to hold my "crayons".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hubby and I at our grandson's wedding last year and, in the photo you can't see,at our wedding.

 

 

These are altered books I've made and books from swaps I've participated in. That's Elizabeth's cool tag hanging from one of the books. It is from the color swap we did, a year or so ago, remember that E?

 

 

 

 

 

These are 1950's style, clear, hard plastic containers that I picked up for fifty-cents each at a garage sale.  They are see through and perfect for holding ribbon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Books, books and more books!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vintage lunch boxes and an old tackle box make great storage.   I have calligraphy pens and nibs, my labeler, Japanese hole punch, eyelets and more tools stored in these.  The colorful tags are where I list the contents of each container.

 

 

 

  BEAUTY SHOT!

 

 

This is a small, former bedroom, about 10' by 10' in size, so one space expanding move we made was removing the doors from the closet.  This made room for more shelves and another bookcase.  I've used tin picnic baskets, cigar boxes and wire locker baskets for MORE storage containers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More fun storage: muffin tins, canning jars, wood boxes, and old soda cases mixed with new baskets and a pencil holder one of my granddaughter's made in wood shop!

Not to be left out.....my Charlotte's, "frozen Charlottes" are what these little dolls are called in the antiques world because their limbs do not move.  I have about a dozen of them, total, so cute!

 

Finally, like many of you, I use recycled food containers for storage, too.  Here is where I keep my pens, well the black ones any way, in a plastic container that originally held store bought cookies.  My colored pens are in another lunch box!

 

After seeing all the stuff that is still in this room.....you are, probably, asking yourself "what did she get rid of?".  I'm asking myself that question! 

I've been doing journaling, collage and jewelry making, not to mention painting, sewing, bookmaking and collecting for a long time....I had a bunch of junk!!!  Now, only the really, really, really good stuff remains.  You believe that, right?