Fresh Start, Part II

This is probably not as impressive to you as it is to me. This represents hours and days of work. I cleaned out our shed AND our garage over two weekends, and then puttered around for almost a full day creating this little area that is JUST FOR ME. I've seen real "studios" around the internets, and how beautiful they can be! Mine is not beautiful to anybody but me, what with the oil-stains on the floor and the unfinished walls, but let me give you a tour anyway. This is the picture from the door that goes from the kitchen to the garage.

On the right side of my area is much of the "unglamorous" work I do. Lots of brown paper for wrapping, plastic bags to repurpose into "plarn" which is "plastic and yarn" together, clothes for repurposing or remaking, sheets that need to be ripped for rag rugs, interfacings and baskets of patterns and books. Here though, tucked in among the industrials, are two of my favorite things: The three-tiered shelf was made by my dad for our books when we moved to our "new house" when I was in second grade. And, the yellow blanket (hung to obscure my side of the shelving Erik uses on his side of the garage) was embroidered and quilted and given to my mom a baby shower when she was pregnant with me. It was made by her Aunt Vera. She passed away last fall, and she was the last connection I had to my Grandma Dot, so this is a special reminder indeed. My great-aunt Vera, by the way? Domestic diva.

Swinging left, a shelf of fabrics, a dresser that holds crocheting thread, gift tags, ric-rac, and a draw of scrapbooking paper, stickers, and paper punches in different shapes. I'm not a scrapbooker. And I mean, not at all. But I've picked up a few "starter packs" of the paper and accessory stickers at deep discounts over the last year, and they've been very handy for cards that go with handmade gifts, or to back a photo for a frame. The yellow blanket was given to my mom when she was pregnant with me (probably at the very same shower mentioned above!) by my godfather's mother. We also lost my godfather late last summer (what the hell?) and I was happy to learn that this came from his mom. I had always thought it was from Mama (my godmother's mom) and I've always loved it for the perfection in its tightly formed waffle weave.

Also precious to me in this photo: This is the antique dresser my mom brought home for me when I was 15. I was a pretty rotten mean-ager at that time, and it was a sweet gift. (Now on top of it: a bowl of handspun yarn she brought back from her vacation last summer. She loves me. And, a happy canister of knitting needles and crochet hooks in every combination and size under the sun.) The white wicker corner shelf...I've had it as long as I can remember. It was in the first bedroom I remember having in our house in Fremont.
Continuing round to the left, on the other side of the dresser, is my yarn. Ahem. No, I did not realize I had so much yarn! It barely fit! And there are two basket of yarn on top of the shelf. And see that box, under the dresser? *cough* Yep. Yarn. And See those baskets and boxes to the left of the shelf? *blush* Yep. Yarn. To be fair (to me!) the yarn in the boxes are already committed to half-finished or almost-finished projects. Oh wait. That might not make me look so good either. Moving on.




Turning left again, there is a shelf under this cabinet with the rubbermaid containers that house my current projects. The cabinet itself is a built-in feature of the garage, and continues to hold paint brushes, rollers, paint pans, grout, stains, rubber gloves, wooden stir sticks, spackle, sheetrocking compound...oh come on! Doesn't everybody have this cabinet in their garage? But, again, precious to me: My Aunt Barbara made me this wreath when Erik and I got our first house together back in 1993. She taught me to crochet. And though I don't share her enthusiasm for hot glue crafts and ribbon making, I am a happy recipient of her endeavors. It may not seem to honor her work, keeping it here in the garage, but this corner is full of my favorite things, of handmade gifts that inspire me, and so I think it's right where it belongs. I used a wreath hanger that goes on a front door to hang it on the cabinet. Looking at this picture, I can see that I need to move Tommy's artwork to the empty door beside the wreath. A small detail I probably thought I'd "fix later".

And now we're back around where we started. Where my space stops on the left is where the laundry starts. Insert joke here.

And do you see that BIG SPACE in the middle? Welllllll...that BIG SPACE in the middle is going to be filled up by this weekend. And that BIG SPACE in the middle is the impetous for the entire Fresh Start 2009 project I've been working on all month!