My Studio Is Compleletly Packed Up

Finally got everything in the studio packed away. Well except for my printers and printer supplies, but I keep feeling like I might need those. And I left one table up cause I am working on a project for a friend and need somewhere to put the sewing machine.

Unfortunately we STILL don't have a closing date so I'm in limbo just waiting. There is a lot of drama going on about this condo purchase but since I've been whining about it on Facebook for weeks now I won't do it here too.

Earlier when we were so excited about moving my mom found a great round table and chairs for our new eat in kitchen at a second hand store. It's stored in our garage now but I found a pic of how someone updated a similar table and can't wait to get my hands on it.

This is what I want to do to the table and chairs. I'm so excited about this!

Last week the boxes piled everywhere were getting to us so my daughter and I took up an invitation from my college friend to come out for the weekend. We got on a plane (which if you know me is no easy feat, I do not like flying or heights or falling to my death) and flew the short distance from Chicago to Detroit.

Leaving Chicago! My daughter took these pics cause I can't look out the window.

Here we are on a super small commuter plane. Even my daughter was like Whoa this is small!

Before we left my daughter said I was too gray and since I don't look old yet we had to dye my hair. I've been fighting her for about a year cause I don't care about the gray, I earned every one of them!

Here I am back to all brown. Oh and my daughter flat ironed my naturally curly hair. I had no idea it was this long!

 Here we are in a recording studio where we did interviews and had make up tutorials done on our faces. This is my after, don't my eyebrows look fabulous? Seneca got a smoky eye. This is part of a project that my college friend Jamie is doing and we were happy to come and help.

Seneca getting her eyes done. We had to keep quiet in the dark background since they were filming.

Me getting my eyebrows done. So nervous cause you had to constantly look at the camera as if it was a person. Sounds easy but it's not.

Here is where the photographer was shooting photos of us. We had different outfits to wear and we also did some shots outside. Can't wait to see them! The interviews were done in a closed recording studio so we could see the people being interviewed but not hear them.

The weekend was over too quick but we had a great time and now we are back and dealing with boxes.

Still Packing...and Designing A New Studio Space

I'm determined with this move to have a nice looking studio, not one that constantly looks like a tornado hit it. My new space will be open to the living room but also visible from the foyer so it's much less private than what I currently have. Now I'm tucked away behind the kitchen and at the end of the living room "L". Plus I just know my mother will have snarky things to say about the state of my studio and I don't need the drama.

 This is my current set up. Kind of a vertical rectangle and I have the second door to the kitchen blocked off. There is another door to the kitchen in the living room.

See, an overcrowded mess.

Unfortunately I have to do all of this on a zero money budget. But luckily I get to shop from the furniture we have in our house already. We have to downsize so much but I can use some of these pieces for my studio so it looks less like a storage room and more like a creative space.

This is the new space. It's basically the same size as my current space but a horizontal rectangle. The only downside is that the ONLY door into the kitchen is thru my space and I have no windows at all. Hoping people walking thru all the time doesn't annoy the crap out of me...we'll see. There is good light coming in thru the big bay window in the kitchen.

Here's a photo of the new space. The chandelier here is beautiful but I'll be taking that down in favor of a ceiling fan. It might go in my bedroom.

Here's the foyer to give a better idea of my little drawing. You step down into the living room and my studio space is on the left side of this pic on the other side of the railing. Not loving the black tile floor but we can live with it for now.

Here are some ideas of what I'd like to do:

My current computer table is a vintage dining table with leaves that pull out from the sides. The top is all scarred from years of wear so I'd love to paint it a bright fun color and use it as my sewing table. Right now my sewing machine doesn't have a home, it moves around from table to table. I have tons of paint in the garage that I hope to use.

I have been desperately wanting a super large worktable for so long. Here are some ideas that I really like.

I have 2 wooden doors that I use for the tops of my worktable now so I'll bolt those together from the underside and place them on top of an old dresser I have and an old table base maybe. Still trying the work the sizes out. I know this will take up a huge amount of room but I have to do it.

Another thing I love is using furniture pieces as supply storage. I'm hoping to do something like these ideas.

Also since our new kitchen is small and I'm the only coffee drinker I might put something like this in the studio.

To free up some room I plan to put my computer in my bedroom. That should  (hopefully) keep me focused on work and I'll spend less time online.

That's all I have to share for now. Back to packing!

I'm Living In Box Hell.

Once we made the decision to move my mother immediately started packing and getting rid of stuff. She was so crazed about getting it done that it spilled over to me and I started packing too. Did I mention we haven't even found a place to live at that point? 

It is good to get rid of things we don't need ahead of time but now I'm living with boxes stacked everywhere. My mom told me the other day that she thinks she started packing way too soon. Yep I already knew that.

My mom found a thrift store that all the proceeds go to a battered women's shelter, so tons of stuff went there. Her church is getting ready to have their annual book sale so every book we don't absolutely love and movies we don't watch all went there. We had maybe 10 bags that went between the 2 of us. We are big readers.

Here's 2 walls in my living room covered in boxes so you can see what I'm dealing with.

 The majority of stuff packed so far is 1/2 my studio, all our movies and books, living room art, and winter bedding. I feel like I'm living with a hoarder cause you have to follow little routes to get around the living room. I spend most of my time in my studio which feels spacious since 1/2 of it is packed away. This is all my stuff, my mom has a bunch of boxes downstairs in her living room.

Oh and did I mention that we will probably not even be moving until September?! I'm beginning to feel like I will lose my mind before this move is over.

Here's What's Been Going On in Sassyland.

O.k. in my previous post I said that a lot of crazy things were going on here well here's the craziest. My mom, daughter and I live together and my brother moved in 2 years ago when he was getting a divorce. He's been looking for a rental house for him, his boys (who he hopes to be able to get custody of), his girlfriend and her 2 kids. They were having a terrible time finding anything so I came up with a brilliant idea...why not rent our house to them? We were planning on moving in 3 years and renting out the house anyway. It's the perfect size for a large family and we'd have tenants we could trust. Plus my brother is willing to do all the painting and ripping up of carpets and installing new extra base cabinets and pantry in the kitchen that has to be done to rent out anyway. Yay!

So off we went looking for a new smaller place of our own. We originally thought about renting a house also but the rents were too high and it would be cheaper to buy. The small houses we looked at needed so much work and didn't have room for a studio for me. Mom and I didn't want to deal with snow removal and yard work anymore either. So then we thought maybe a condo would be the way to go. My daughter is planning on joining the Military this Fall or next Spring so it will just be me and my mom but we do need a third bedroom for my daughter until she leaves and for when she visits, plus I hope my son and his girlfriend and their children will visit us. Did I tell you I'm going to be a Grandma for the first time?! Whoo Hoo!

We saw small condos with scary elevators, smelly larger condos with great views but needed the kitchen gutted and no where for my studio and a cute townhouse condo with super small bedrooms and stairs so steep even my daughter didn't like going down them. We had specific must haves which include first floor living ( my mom has 2 artificial knees and stairs are not her friend, plus she took a nasty fall this Spring and broke both her wrists so gripping is an issue too ), we have to bring the dog and cat ( they are family ), 3 bedrooms/ 2 baths ( one with a shower and the other with a large tub ), a large dining area that I could use for my studio, garage, in-unit laundry, an eat in kitchen and a patio. And then I saw one online I thought might be perfect for us. We went and saw it and put an offer in right away! The price was well under market value ( the housing market here is terrible and it takes forever to sell ). The selling couple want to start a family and the complex is adults only, which is perfect for us, nice and quiet. They are actually trying to buy a house in our current neighborhood.

We had our inspection and discovered that we need new windows in all the bedrooms and the dishwasher is about to die and there is an issue with some of the vents so we are waiting to see about that. It's a much larger condo that we thought about getting but we are downsizing from 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms and 2 dining rooms, plus we don't want to be all over each other since we are used to our own spaces. The bedrooms are the largest we saw and I will have a huge soaker tub in my bathroom. Our move in date will be in September sometime depending on the sellers buying situation.

Swap Doll Now Finished and Delivered.

Wow it's been a day short of a month that I last blogged. So many crazy things have been happening around here. I'll share all the news over the next few posts. First of all I finally finished my swap doll. My ADA Art Doll Artists Group had a doll swap last month. I was a little late getting my doll out but since I was hosting the group I figure it was o.k. and my partner had no problem waiting.

I don't have the best photos since it was raining like crazy when I wanted to take pics but I'll still share them with you. I receive a great doll from Sarah Timmerman which I'll show first.

This is Mia the Unhappy Party Guest.

She's an adorable zombie. I love zombies!

My doll went to Sherry Hall. Since she lives on a ranch and rides horses and steer, yes you heard that right she rides show steer!, I had to make a cowgirl. I wasn't able to show wips of this project since Sherry follows my blog but it you bear with me I'll do that now.

I was so happy I already had these fun fabrics in my stash!

 Hand sewing the mini pom pom trim (also from my stash) with green embroidery thread that matched the green in the fabric.

 Super proud of how this skirt came out.

The underskirt was made from a real baby dress. It already had the ruffles and lace so worked out perfectly.

I hand embroidered the belt with colors from the fabric and found also in my stash one of those bolero type metal things that was perfect for a big buckle.

The boots were the hardest part of this project. I made them from felt. The light brown that looks like leather is an embossed felt that I also already had. I embroidered the details on and I love how they turned out.

These are the three accessories I made to go with the doll. A steer plush doll, a hobby horse and a flat topped cowboy hat.

Skirt and underskirt detail. She also is wearing bloomers 

I made but never got a pic of.

Meet Lucille - Queen of the Western Prairie

More Trial and Error.

So here's the Lion AGAIN. Still without a mane. I tried several different ways to make the mane with the faux fur and nothing worked right. I may just be too darn picky, my family liked how I was doing it but it just didn't feel right to me. I'm going to try a different approach, new materials and see how that goes. I may end up returning to the fur...who knows.

On another note my swap partner follows my fan page and my blog links there so I won't be showing anymore peeks of that project. I want it to be a surprise for her. I will say that I've completed her clothing and now need to make her accessories.

Worktable Tuesday

Fabrics I'm working with today.