My Space

I've been talking a lot lately about my personal space needs for crafting and such, and so I thought I'd take you on a little tour of what serves as my office/studio.

 This is my corner of our basement.  The room is shaped rather like a backwards capital L, and my office/studio is tucked in to the foot of that.  I've spent the last day or so trying to make it a more workable space because - honestly - although I've been set up down here for quite some time I almost never actually use it.

 

To the right you see Gillian's spinning wheel (mine is upstairs so that I can easily take it out to the deck to spin...a favorite thing of mine to do in the summer) and a chest with piles of junk on it.  The chest is there because we cleared off the area rug in the main area so that  the girls could set up a Lego wonderland (which is awesome), and the pile of stuff is part of an effort to sort and purge.

 This is part of the problem.  I need a wall with a door right behind that desk to block out the craziness of the rest of the basement.  Ah well.

 

The desk itself was my Grampa Curtis's desk, and it is amongst my most prized possessions.  The bench that backs up to it is the toy box he made me when I was small, and it contains a great deal of my fiber stash.  The baskets on top hold various works in progress and/or materials that I will need to use soon.

 Next to it is my inspiration board.  Also inspirational?  The books on the shelves are my favorites...or as many of my favorites as I could cram on one book shelf.

 I was an RA one summer for Missouri Scholars Academy, and my girls gave me the print.  I'm going to hang it a bit on the high side so that I can put up a row of hooks underneath it from which to hang my homespun yarns.

 Love my Starbucks chair.  It's one of my most favorite things as well.  Draped on it is one of my favorite fingering weight shawls.

 The stash is contained in that dresser.  The two bookshelves hold all of my knitting and craft books as well as many of my tools.  Piled high, you see the rest of my fiber stash.

 

I used to have a shawl on display above that dresser, but I recently gifted it to a dear friend.  I've decided I need to hang another shawl there...I just haven't figured out which one yet!

This rocking chair came from Sean's Grandma, and is very comfy. 

 

Again, you see the chaos beyond the bookshelf...another great reason for a wall with a door.  Sean has urged me to put in a row of curtains for privacy.  Maybe I will this summer. 

 

Part of the problem is that I don't like the red for a work area.  It's too energized, when what I prefer are more peaceful colors.  The thing is, though, I LOVE that red for a basement family room.

 

In a dream world, what I'd really love is floor to ceiling bookshelves along the exterior wall so that I could bring most of my books out of storage.  Having said that, we're not sure how much longer we really want to be in this house, so I don't really want to start any major projects or make any big, unnecessary investments.

 

The fact of the matter is that I'm darn lucky to have a space to myself...I just need to start using it.  At the very least, I think I'll be buying a big Ott lamp this summer for better lighting.  That will help a LOT.  I'm also working to get rid of stuff I don't want, need, or use anymore so that the whole area isn't quite so cluttered.  One big thing that's also helping is the simple fact that the girls are old enough now that they don't feel a need to follow me around the house all of the time, so I do get some peaceful moments down here.

 

So there it is, my space!

 

Now...time to get to the knitting!