Ahhh...April

I love April. I grew up in Florida and the heat can get crazy hot, especially the area I live in now which has no ocean breeze to cool us down. April is the one month that we get some cool sunny spring days and I love it. I feel a bit like I'm coming out of hibernation, physically and creatively.

We clean cleaned our front porch this weekend and I am posting a few pictures to look back on in the blazing summer months to remind me of cool mornings with the door open and hearing all the birds splashing around in our mini pond.

I have been on another complete studio overhaul once again. Not quite sure I ever quite finished the first go around to be honest. When I brought home the "perfect" cabinet it never fit quite right so we ended up pulling 75% of the contents of the studio out this month and moving the cabinet into it's permanent home. Anyone who does paper crafts or mixed media of any kind will understand immediately what that means! My husband looked the amazing variety of supplies I have and asked me this rational question. "What do other artists in do? Do they buy just what they need for a project, use it and then get what they need for the next project? It seemed so much easier when you were just a painter." This IS a logical question to most people but of course explaining that why we need a little bit of everything would involve also explaining why that jar of old keys is vital for a future project. Or how the dozen dictionaries in varying stages of perfect vintage aging are crucial to, well, inspiration itself. So anyway I am in the process of learning how to be creative when there is still "some" chaos around me. I do have some physical issues which keep my progress much slower than I would like in this reorganizing project so in order not to shut down creatively I really am working on making pretty things in a messy arena!!!

I almost forgot to show you a little corner where I made some progress. This is a ribbon rack we made from rain gutters, under the cleanest neatest shelf in my studio so far. Maybe tomorrow I will post something a bit more creative. :) Nan

A Rainy Restful Day...Ahhhh

It is a bit soggy here....no thunder or lightning, just a slow steady sleepy rain. I have been blog hopping today and catching up with everyone. I love how I start somewhere and suddenly here I am 290 blogs later reading just one more creative thing. Can only do this once in a while because I get overloaded with too much information and my brain just locks up. :)

I did spend a little time getting the rest of my little work corner cleaned up so I can start my Paint Free class with Wyanne next week. I can't wait. Love her work and have been looking forward to this since November. I wasn't able to start the class then because we were out of town and had no internet. But now I am so ready. Here's my clean corner! :) Nan

WOYWW Time To Organize!

This is my first post here. This neat blog by Julia seems to have taken on a life of it's own recently. I see it everywhere and it is fascinating to see everyone's space. Forgive me Julia for being one of the many new faces adding to your list and probably making you crazy!

I love to do MMM, Three Muses and Linda's CC Tim Holtz challenge so my desk is always crazy! I've departed from teal for a bit and am obsessed with Cherry red...I just dyed some tags with KoolAid as you can see in the second photo. Taking photos of my space made me realize I need to take a break and get some organizing done! I was asking in an earlier post if anyone else has a hard time being in creative and organizing mode at the same time and the consensus seems to be that they are two separate areas of the brain and it IS hard to do both. So here is one small glimpse with a before and after post soon to follow as I work on getting some semblance of order in my workspace. :)

Happiness Day 7 STUDIO CleaNuP !

I have realized no one pays too much attention to my blog when I'm not doing artwork ( there are exceptions....thank you Lynn and Becky)..... :) you both are so sweet to notice when I need a bit of a pick me up comment! Truthfully it is pretty liberating doing these 30 Days Of Happiness posts. No rush rush to meet challenge deadlines or trying to create when I'm just not there yet. But the happy news is that I found out Thursday that a lot of my feeling so bad the past couple months was due to a prescription problem. When I had my thyroid removed I was told it could be a rocky road but I was just glad to be cancer free. Now I am starting to understand how the wrong dose of thyroid RX can take the wind out of your sails and if there are any stressful things or sad things going on it is amplified. So I'm looking forward to feeling much better. I know it takes several weeks to feel really better but I am noticing a little difference already. I feel more creative and can do a bit more without being short of breath or heart flippy flopping. Yeah! I worked today on my art supplies/thrifty finds storage area today with my friend Lori and we really did some work. I have totes. They are labeled. They are accessible. This makes me very happy! Next my studio!