Bearded iris, a messy studio, and junk journal pages...

Remember me? 

Friends, our summer has taken an unexpected turn, so I will apologize now for neither looking at nor commenting on your blogs, and for not paying much attention to mine.

Just when Mr. Perch was doing so well with his prosthetic leg, he ended up getting a pin-head sized sore at the bottom of his tibia just where his leg was amputated. After two trips to the emergency room (you may remember why we run scared of wounds that don't heal), and visits to several of his doctors, it was determined that at least there was no infection. Since every time he put on his leg the sore would reopen, he was finally told to keep it off until the sore healed and a new and different kind of prosthesis could be made. This has been going on since just after Memorial Day, so in the meantime we missed out on our trip to Florida to visit my family and to Massachusetts to visit his. Not to mention that The Wren's Nest is becoming a distant memory. In any case, the magical new leg is supposed to be ready next week. We can only dream that it will solve the problem of the mysterious-tiny-sore-that-will-not-heal!! Enough of THAT!

So, what have I been doing with all of my "at home time"? Cooking, cleaning, gardening, and a little art is pretty much it.

Last week my annual haul of bearded iris starts arrived. I ordered them in April from a company that I had seen through Pinterest, and was totally thrilled. I ordered ten plants, and they threw in another four as a bonus. The bonus plants' selling prices were more than I paid for the ones I actually ordered, so they have my vote as a great company to deal with. The company is Stout Gardens at Dancing Tree and you can find them here. They are in Oklahoma City.

Below is a photo of the plants that I received, 

right before I put them in soil-filled pots 

 where they can root a little 

before the voles have a chance to meet them! 

Lovely, healthy plants were these!

So, after cleaning up my art space a few months

ago, I am happy to report that it's back to

its original form... 

...mostly because

I have still been working on one of my

junk journals,

adding a few pages here and there...

 I can't seem to find anything I'm looking for.

Perhaps I should just organize things a bit again. 

Ya think?!

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I hope that you're having a wonderful weekend!

Making some room and purple...

Good morning friends! I mentioned recently that I have been cleaning out our attic and tagging things for our community yard sale in the spring. Cleaning out attics is never fun, at least not in my book, but as with everything else, there is always a bright side.

I determined the other day that if I live to be 100, I will never again need to buy gift wrap, other than perhaps for Christmas. Because I am (almost!) a hoarder of all things on sale that I think I will have a future use for, we had so many rolls of wrapping paper stored in so many plastic totes that I decided to price all of the ones that I didn't think I would ever really use and away they will go. Well, as you can imagine, the attic-cleaning is not confined to just the attic, because we are also getting rid of quilts, throw pillows, and various other household items that are not only sitting in the attic. So along the way, I have cleaned out bedroom closets, kitchen cabinets, and even my studio. That's right. My studio!!

As I was tagging the gift wrap, I decided to clean out the bottom drawer of my chippy white old dresser in my studio, where I kept papers that were for occasions other than Christmas. Not to mention, a long and low tote that housed more of the same is stored under the bed in the upstairs guestroom. Result?

All wrappings are now consolidated into the

tote that is under the guest room bed,

and this dresser drawer in the studio

was emptied out and cleaned...

All the stuff that was sorted for projects-to-soon-

be-in-the-works that were sitting on the bed...

...are now in zip-locks in the drawer...

,,,and you can now see the bed ,

which anyone rarely sleeps in,

for what it really is...

As I said before,

there is a bright side to everything.

And after working most of the day Saturday

on the "attic project",

I treated myself to a little creative time.

Since my fabrics are now so nicely organized,

I pulled out the purples...

...and put some things together

for a fabric collage, 

hopefully to be completed soon...

Goodness,

I love it when a plan comes together!

Where Bloggers Create 2013

Hello, and thanks for stopping by! My name is Sue and I love mixed media art, particularly any venue that uses vintage photos, lace, fabrics, buttons, ribbons, papers, and well, you name it! I enjoy using any kind of timeworn materials and giving them a new life in my art.

Welcome to my creative space! This is a first for me, so most of all, many thanks to Karen Valentine at My Desert Cottage for putting this together for all of us. You can click on the "Where Bloggers Create 2013" button near the top of my sidebar to reach all of the other bloggers who are participating in this event.

Come on in...

My space is in one of our attic bedrooms.

I am very fortunate to have a space that is about 700 square feet.

It is here that I get away with displaying my chippy paint belongings,

which would likely not fly with my husband in the rest of the house!

This room also doubles as a third guest room when we need it.

Though this room has two windows, there are a lot

of trees outside, so I don't get much light.

I try to use accent lighting wherever I can.

My husband also installed track lighting over

the work table, which you will see later.

This is an old dressing table and mirror,

repurposed as my sewing table...

The dormer window houses my computer, desk, and printer.

Sorry for the bad lighting...

In the dormer space I also keep my inspiration board

that displays recent finds in the way of vintage photos...

Meet Miss Grace.

She bears that name for two reasons.

She is named after my mother, 

and the name suits a lady wearing a collection

of vintage rosary beads. 

To her right are a couple of bins

that store scrapbook paper... 

I have a lot of shelving in this room. It is mostly composed of

those cheap little two-shelf units that you can get in WalMart

or any office supply store, and they have been added to over time.

In some areas I stacked them upon each other,

and in some areas I did not... 

This section of shelving below is backed with shelving

of the same size, and it divides the right side

of the room in half to maximize storage space,

and make the room a little cozier.

I have a lot of art stamps stored

in large plastic box frames.

They are grouped and labeled by category.

Books and magazines are stored on each shelf

next to the trays of stamps.

I also collect old books that have interesting

pages. You see some of them on the floor,

here used for pressing flowers!

The covered photo boxes on the floor to the left

house part of my collection of vintage photos,

grouped by subject, such as girls, women,

babies, families, etc.

The tin boxes on the top of the shelves

house unmounted stamps...

Below is the reverse side of the shelving you saw above.

I'm sorry to say that this is the junk that you see when you

enter the room. Here I store everything from fabric collage books

to gardening and computer books.

You can also see my little Janome sewing machine,

which I sometimes take when I am away from home...

Below are a couple more photos of the other side of

this shelving...

To the far right of this section are yet more boxes of vintage photos.

I guess we all have our weak points!

Below are some freestanding stock cabinets.

If you can believe that I have even more "stuff" than you have

already seen, here is where it is hidden in all of its messy glory!

Inside of the larger cabinets I store painting materials,

and larger gadget-type stuff.

I once attempted to get rid of all plastic storage,

but it never happened.

The little drawers on top house ink pads,

card stock, pens, markers, and glitters...

The drawers in the above cabinets hold fibers...

...various embellishments...

...and other things that I can never seem to find a

real home for...

To the side of the entrance to the room

is this old hutch, used to store ribbons, fabrics,

lace hankies, and other pretties.

One of these days I will add the rest of the glass

handles that I bought many moons ago!

On the left side are a couple of round hat boxes

 that hold my vintage glove and millinery collections.

Gertrude, or what's left of her,

reclines on top alongside a

vintage sewing machine.

Here is some more plastic drawer storage,

in which I keep glues, stencils,

and envelopes in various sizes...

                                                                   

Another view of my small sewing machine

and photo storage boxes.

Also some old dishes for "future" art

projects...

A close-up of the photo storage...

On the trunk at the foot of the bed, seen earlier, are two covered

boxes (the kind that you can pick up at Michael's for a song).

In the first are more vintage photos, but organized in zip lock bags

by subject so that I can pull them all together easily if I want to

do a themed project. The ones below are part of my collection

of patriotic photos...

...and the box below it stores my vintage lace...

And below, my friends, is the junkiest part of

this space. It stands between a pine hutch,

and the white cabinets you saw earlier.

It is stacks of plastic boxes that store

ribbons, beeswax materials, and a lot

of old jewelry pieces that I bought for

a song on eBay and have not yet had a

chance to use.

You will also see two rolling carts from

the laundry department of WalMart.

Sometimes I roll them over the the work

table for easy access to frequently used

items. This room has no closet, so one of

these days I am going to hang a rod from the

hutch to the sloped wall above the cabinets

and cover this mess with a curtain!

What would a studio be without some of our favorite collections?

Whether we use them in projects, or just stare at them and love them,

we all need them. Here are a few of mine.

Trinkets...

     

Baby shoes...

Chippy stuff and salvage,

stored in a large old wire basket

recently named "The Salvage Saloon",

just waiting to be used in assemblage projects...

Old books...

Old millinery...

Vintage gloves...

Victorian photo albums...

Inspiration for assemblage...

Beautiful papers...

Lovely old buttons...

Vintage wedding photos and

gorgeous old sheet music...

Who doesn't love ballerinas?...

I try to keep some inspiration on the work table...

And things gathered together to take on the next trip...

...along with stuff already packed in bags...

I like to keep frequently-used materials easily

reachable on the work table...

And if you've made it this far,

here is the big picture!...

I can't thank you enough for spending this time with me. I hope that I can visit your work space soon! Have a creative day!