Studio

Several weeks ago, Maureen over at I'd Rather Be Blogging and Victorian Studio took us on a really cool tour of her new Victorian studio where she creates her beautiful crafts and cards.  It's wonderfully organized with great furniture pieces, and not near as dusty as mine!!  Sadly, I'm not quite as organized as she is, as I am still digging through boxes which remain not quite unpacked.  I have more room to stack the boxes than I do for the items inside, but that's OK because I have a fairly good idea where things are kept.  

When we moved to this house, I got my very own Craft Room for the first time.  Back in WA I had 'Kraft Korner' in the family room, but never my own studio.  It's been kind of a mess for the past 10 or so months, so I finally spent some time straightening up as much as I could.  I love to surround myself with hand made items made by friends or artists.  Everything in here has tons of significance to me.  Would you like a tour?

Puppies following me in the doorway.

I just got those sparkly aqua and purple curtains at The Christmas Tree Shop in Sagamore.  Only $5.99 each! I should've gotten the longer ones but originally I was gonna use them in windows then decided to cover up the closet and shelves.  They're a little short but looks better than the boxes.

Some of my Canadian license plates collection.  The Fairfax thing was a tshirt, made by an artist in Marin County, CA. I used to live in Fairfax.  2 cross stitch projects under it and that sparkly card I made earlier in the year.

Shells & rocks, Golden Gate Bridge cross stitch.  Paper camera that I built on the left.  That groovy looking train case on the right contains my childhood marbles.  4 Whizzer tops that were popular when I was a kid. And they are all sitting on a footlocker which is filled with more memorabilia from my high school and college years.

The rainbow glass windchimes in the corner were purchased at the Maiden Lane Craft Show in San Francisco almost 20 years ago.  Beaded cards on the wall by a Vancouver Island First Nations artist.

Pictures of my maternal grandparents.  A Sandwich High Blue Knights glass I've had since about Jr. High.  I bought the painted sand dollar from some children in Cannon Beach, OR who had set up a table and were selling their painted rocks and sand dollars.  Small beaded purses purchased in Canada and Puyallup.

Pacific Northwest Native art of Mt. Rainier, called 'Takhoma: Spirit Home'.  The 5 pics on the line were made and given to me by my dear friend Angie.  Beaded amulet bags were made and given to me by my bff/sister Michelle.  More beaded cards from Vancouver Island.  Pic of my dad & Uncle Dick taken in the 1940s.

More beaded bags purchased in Canada and Puyallup.  Rainbow candles from Victoria BC.  Flags of BC, Canada, CA and WA.  More rocks.

I looooove the Polar Bear plates.  The 2 sticks on the left contain the glass beads I made at The Bead Factory and the large clam shell holds the marbles I made there too.  The ex-h gave me the center, sea-themed glass paperweight one year, and I bought the Saturn one on the bottom left is from Glass Eye Studios in Seattle.  Tiny beaded purse...not sure if I got that in Canada or WA.

Beaded peacock shawl on a small chair.  Glass table with a Celtic design that the ex gave me years ago.  The blue bottle I got this summer.  Also a marble solitaire game I bought in Port Angeles, WA prior to departing for my trip to Victoria in 2007.  My dear friend Cathy gave me the glass plaque for 'Someone Special'.

Got the tie dye at a Dead show.  Peter Max poster I got off ebay.  My friend Debby gave me the beaded purse.

Mostly marbles, a couple glass floats and glass ornaments.  Plus craft books and my colouring book stuff on the bottom shelf.

Marbles, bottles, feathers and other bits of glass and rocks and stuff.

My former bosses went to Africa in 1995 and brought me back that authentic beaded Masai collar.  More license plates (the WA one was from my car).  Crayon & button art I did this year.  That's a photo of the ornament I made and submitted to a contest in Tacoma.  The picture ran in the paper and I was able to order one from the photographer.  

When I left my job at Gillin, Jacobson, Ellis & Larsen to move to Washington, they gave me that Grateful Dead poster as a going away gift.  The senior partner, Andy Gillin, is also a Deadhead.  

Cigar boxes full of  rocks & shells from beach combing adventures in Canada and Washington.  More marbles.

Wizard of Oz music box, more bottles, marbles, shells, sweetgrass, blue glass float....

San Francisco music box on the left.

This is a heart shaped shelf I found at Salvation Army in Sumner, WA and which I repainted then decoupaged.  Large amethyst tea light geode and ornament from Glass Eye Studios of Seattle.  My little iron cauldron on the 2nd shelf and red glass vase on the bottom shelf.

That was my old license plate when I lived in MA the first time.  "Cassidy" is a Dead song and Neal Cassady drove Ken Kesey's psychedelic bus, Furthur, in the mid 60s.  Neal was also the Dean Moriarty character in Jack Kerouac's On the Road.  My bff/sister Michelle made the mobile.  The Laughter, Love & Music poster is from the free concert in Golden Gate Park held after concert promoter Bill Graham was killed in a helicopter crash in October, 1991.  It was the most amazing day and I was privileged to have attended.  I got the smaller Dead poster at Experience Music Project in Seattle right before I moved.  All the amulet bags are made by artists in CA, except for the white one on the left that was made by a woman in Victoria, BC, and the white one on the right that I also bought in Victoria (I made the one on the top left next to the LLM poster).

Cable car whiskey decanter (that clearly needs dusting).  My dad was a Nixon supporter and my cousins gave him that candle.  Whale candle, Pierrot doll, leather tipi that I've had since I was little.

More bits of pop culture.

Kitsch, pop culture items, my old Dawn and Triki Miki dolls.

Even more pop culture things and a Cape Cod thing I made years ago from a kit.

Can you tell I like to collect pop culture stuff?

Mask made by a woman I worked with at Channel 56 in the 80s.  Mystery Science Theatre 3000 lunchbox and a dancing Spiro Agnew music box that was also my dad's.

The few books that are unpacked, plus photo albums from trips to Canada.