Inspiration in the Studio

I'm sharing some more pictures of my studio today and showing the things that I keep around me for inspiration.

Quotes and words are a daily inspiration to me, and I love to incorporate them into my studio. (Truth be told, they're all over the house.)  Here are a few ways I do that...

On my bookshelves, I have a changing display of scrabble tile words:

There's an old window hung on an alcove wall and I love to stick quotes on that:

Here's another spot where I display things, a lovely vintage ladder that I hung on the wall.  The steps are just wide enough to balance wood mounted stamps.  If I buy a new stamp, I usually put it on there to remind myself to use it!

 

Finally, I just love this poster not only for the sentiment but the large reminder of home in the form of the Union Jack flag.  It's taped to the closet door, inside which you will never see :)

I love to put new and vintage 'stuff' in bowls and jars.  I suffer from the disease of 'if I don't see, I don't use it'. I found this old china bowl in free box by the side of the road - isn't it a treasure?

And seriously, I could look at jars of buttons all day long!

 

The final thing that motivates me to create, or at least makes me happy, is the view from the window of my space - my back yard.  It's still pretty bare right now, but soon it'll be a riot of color.

Don't forget to share with me pictures of your studios - new and old blog posts, or online galleries are fine.  Link up at the end of my first studio post.

The "Not So Perfect" Studio

I've never shown pictures of my studio on the blog before because I've always thought it's too messy.  I thought that I should wait until I'd done that big clean-up and made it look perfect.  I realize that day will never come and it's okay!

I don't have much time to create things at the moment, so I'm going to share some pictures of my studio over the next week.  It's cluttered, untidy and imperfect, but it's mine and  I love it!

On one wall of the studio is a set of Ikea Expedit shelves - I know lots of people use them in their studios - they're so great for people who are visual and need to see their 'stuff'.  The small and large cream canvas bins are from Walmart.

Here's a few close up shots of the shelf contents - old books, what a surprise!

I love this little poster that I bought on Etsy - I haven't got around to framing it yet, so it's just taped on -it's the truth, I tell you!

On top of the shelves, I have this lovely old wooden box, some vintage rulers and piano rolls, just waiting to be used for something....

Along that same wall are two more bookshelves housing ribbons and all manner of stuff - copic markers, buttons, beads, vintage ledgers and twine, to name just a few things.

Here's one of my favorite things in my studio, the clipboards - not sure why really.  They hold all my current Etsy orders and schedules.  Perhaps because it's one place that I'm organized.