Just Another Neurotic Episode From The Life Of An Artist

Some years ago R and I decided to redecorate the guest room. We got a lovely daybed, quilts, some beautiful book cases, a vintage table and a tiffany lamp. We wall papered the room in a nice floral to give it a warm homey feel. We also decided to put in new carpet. We found a discontinued piece of very thick velvety pile at a good price and R bought the whole roll.

As it turned out there was enough on the roll to also do my work room next door. I decided that if R was going to put new carpet in the work room, I wanted to fresco paint it first. I thought a nice rich carmelly parchment look would be just the thing since I don't really care for cool colors in my house. I like it to have a warm feeling. I painted the ceiling and the doorways a periwinkle. Now I am sure that might sound odd...but I wanted it to look like Mexico under a night sky. It's very pretty.

Little did I know what I was in for when I started the project. Now when you have been in business nearly 3 decades you tend to amass a lot of supplies for your work. I am never going to run out of lace, silk flowers, ribbons, buttons, findings, beads and a whole assortment of other doodads...not ever. Then of course I have the basic bear components which include hardware, mohair by the tubs full, stuffing supplies, etc. On top of all that my work room also houses my bear collection, dozens of books, a dress makers dummy, a small scale version of stone henge, a castle and a whole host of other curiosities. Oh yeah...and my sewing machine and work table, a pie safe, desk and hutch, several trunks and an amoire.

By the time I got it all boxed up, the room painted with paint that R bought which was a nice paint...but didn't really lend itself to fresco painting and reduced me to tears of frustration a couple times, carpet put in and everything unpacked and put back, it took three months.

I organized everything nicely when I put it away. Before that it was sort of stored in shelves and boxes and drawers in a rather neat but eclectic way. I knew where every single thing I owned was too. Since I organized it years ago I haven't been able to find a thing I want when I want it.

Yesterday I finally decided it was time to clean up the work room again. In particular the closet. *Bangs her head on the desk for a moment* I took half the stuff out of my overly full closet and realized with horror that I am never going to get it all back in. (Ok I will but it's quite intimidating to have it all out) The closet is full of plastic tubs filled with mohair and ribbons and other supplies, and my very large assortment of hat boxes. There are also bags of things...tulle, crinkle paper, velvet fruits, unpainted wooden boxes, hats, doll clothes, and the list goes on. Most of those things are in multiple colors or large groups because I had an idea at the time I bought them.

Some of those ideas came to fruition and some haven't...yet. When I put it all back the first time I thought it would be easy to find if I grouped like things together. I was wrong. Apparently my brain can't process such a concept. I am going to have to figure out a new system that will allow me to find what I want. Maybe if I colorize things like my clothes closet...I never have any trouble finding what I want in there.

I have considered making nice groupings of supplies in little boxes or bags and selling them in my Etsy shop. My only concern with doing that is the moment I sell something I am sure I will find out a week later I needed that particular thing.
I guess I will decide once I start putting it all back and can fully assess what I have.

My dream is to have a little stone cottage out back, separate from the house where I can work and keep all my stuff. Even though it never spills over into the rest of the house, I would like to have something I design the way I want it with shelves, cupboards and everything I need to stay organized and find what I want easily.

I should have worked on it tonight, but somehow watching a little TV and making this blog post seemed much more appealing. Sigh~