Virtual Studio Tour – Studios Magazine October 3, 2009

Cloth Paper Scissors Studios Magazine Open Studio Virtual Tour

My studio is what is formerly known as a dinning room. It’s actually an addition that was built onto our house long before we ever moved in. Originally it was a porch that was closed in and another porch built on that was then closed in to make the closet. This means that in the winter it is very cold in the room. I have a large double door cabinet that I keep most of my supplies in (along with some kitchen equipment). I also have an awesome easel that doubles as a drafting table, a few small bookshelves under a built in counter top, and a large wooden box where I keep my yarn and fabric.

This is my main worktable. It was given to me by two very dear friends when they were moving into a new home and no longer wanted this table. The glass top makes a perfect work surface since I can clean anything off of it easily.

Here, I’m making book cloth, which has to be pasted down to a glass surface to dry. I used the top and bottom of the glass. When I removed the book cloth, it was super easy to clean.

My bookshelf makes my life easier. I needed one for along time and finally bought one this summer.  On top, I keep my ribbons and post card collection.   The top shelf is where I keep my inspiration and favorite things.  Next shelf down is things in progress, then a shelf of buttons and easy to reach towels.  The next to last shelf is my knitting books and art books.  On the bottom I keep my dye pot and my hand spun yarns.

Shelf of my favorite things:

In Progress Shelf:

I like to work assembly line style when I’m producing blank journals.

Breaking down paper for text blocks:

Text Blocks:

Covers In Progress:

Books waiting to be bound:

All bound up:

I don’t own a book press so I have a makeshift one. I have lots of heavy books, Masonite boards, and a large can of pineapple juice.

This is a glimpse of my very large bookbinding tool box. This is just the top tray.

My studio extends outside this one room and on into the rest of the house when I need more space. I do most of my knitting, crocheting & spinning in the den so I can use my computer & watch TV. I use the living room as a sewing room since it has our dinning table in it. I use my kitchen to dye wool and make felt and my porch doubles as a drying rack on sunny warm days (on rainy days, the shower rod in the bathroom is used for drying).

I have some furry help in all this mess too. Zoe, my black kitty, is the reason that my shop is called “The Crafty Kitten”. He loves to sit beside me no matter what I’m doing and just watch.

Piggy usually sneaks in when I’m not looking to check my work.

Snuggies has been known to fall asleep on my feet if I stand in one place too long (usually when I’m breaking down paper for text blocks).

Then there is Raisin, who isn’t allowed in the studio alone because she will eat all the kitty’s food. She likes to sleep by my feet or in my lap too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the little virtual tour of my studio. Feel free to check out my online shop (which is a little empty at the moment) The Crafty Kitten.

Wednesday WIP August 26, 2009

The fingerless mitts that I’m making to match my Crochet Bobble Beret are almost done. I just need to put a thumb on the second mitt and weave in all the ends.

I picked up the Hedera socks again today. I really want to get these finished soon.

I started the little elephant from Cute Little Animals forever ago and put it aside. My hope is to have this finished by Friday. It’s not a difficult pattern or anything but I just can’t get into it for some reason; even though it is so cute when finished.

Zoe seemed unimpressed by today’s WIP’s… or maybe he’s giving me that look because I wouldn’t let him play with the strings.

Raisin Loves Peanut Butter July 14, 2009

Friday FO’s June 12, 2009

Not too much to report on the finished objects front this week. I’ve been busy at work & cleaning/rearranging the studio. It kinda put a kink in actually getting things done. I did spend all of Sunday afternoon dying wool. Some I dyed with Kool Aid and some I dyed with food coloring. I used vinegar to set it with so I hope it holds. I’m going to be using this for wet felting.

I did manage to get one book bound. It’s another leather book. It’s much larger than my other leather books that I’ve bound so far. I really like this size; it would make a nice sketch book.

Most of what I’ve gotten done this week is reading. I’ve read Stardust, Coraline, part of The Grave Yard book, P.L.A.I.N. Janes, and I started Death: The high cost of living this morning. I also re-read both issues of Handknit Heroes. I’m loving me some graphic novels this week and I’ve become a Neil Gaiman addict.

Last night at A Likely Yarn, we had the first meeting of the Handknit Heroes Knit Along which was sooooooo much fun!! We has such a good group I can’t wait for the next meeting!

Snuggies wanted to be a camera hog so here’s a couple of photos of her being silly.

I have a big weekend planned! I hope everyone else has a good weekend too

Lazy Sunny Sunday September 14, 2008

Today is the first day off I’ve had since Labor Day.  There’s nothing like waking up without the sound of a blaring alarmclock.  For breakfast I had a fresh poppyseed bagel one side with blackberry jelly and the other with honey pear jam.  I picked up the bagels and jams at the farmer’s market yesterday morning.

I’m determined to not just sit in front of my computer all day so after my initial email check I shut it off and went to tinker in the studio.  For the first time in ages I painted.

The whole house is fully of lazy beings today, lol.  Here’s two of my lazy fur babies:

Now I’m off to enjoy the rest of my lazy day

Edit:
Time off also gives me time to cook. For dinner I made salmon patties, roasted red potatoes and onions, and cooked apple. I say “apple” because I only had one. The apple is from my grandparent’s tree. My mom brought it to me on Friday.

Perfect September Evening September 4, 2008

Have I mentioned how much I love September?  Today was perfect.  My morning scooter ride wasn’t too cold and my lunchtime scooter ride was wonderful.  Warm but not too hot and sunny with a warm breeze all day.

I rode up to the produce market and bought some fresh local grown corn & a tomato.  I also picked up a couple of apples but I’m not sure about where they were grown.  All for $3.00.  Seriously, that is an excellent price.  I would have bought more stuff but my scooter trunk will only hold so much.

Dinner was delicious.  Chicken thighs, fresh tomato, and a baked potato loaded up with butter, sour cream, cheddar, and onion followed by a slice of amish cinnamon bread.

I checked on my veggies that are growing in (and out of) the flower boxes.  My pumpkins are doing well.  So far I have 4 growing.  Three that are all about the same size and one larger one that has started to turn orange.  I picked my first tomato.  The tomato bush is loaded down but this is the first that has ripened and it is HUGE.  It’s an old german plant and I can’t wait to eat it.  Funny enough, it’s exactly what I bought at the produce market this afternoon. I’m so proud of my little (super tiny) veggie garden. I don’t use any type of fertilizer, plant food, or chemicals on them. In fact I didn’t even stake my tomato plant and the pumpkins are a voluntary plant. I just like to let them be. Since the pumpkin came up due to us tossing the inside of our jack-o-lantern in the flower box, I’ve been randomly tossing veggies in the yard hoping that more will come next year.

I took Raisin on a walk while the sun was setting.  I took the camera in hopes of getting her reaction to the pumpkin on video.  No luck.  She usually freaks out and runs from it like it jumped out of the bushes at her and then timidly tries to inspect it by staying 3 feet from it and sticking her neck out really far.  She’s silly sometimes.  I did get this video of what she likes to do when we’re walking up on the hill.  She likes to walk along the rock wall top like a little kid would.  She jumped down part way through the video because a dog was barking across the street.  My video has no sound… silly camera records video but no sound.

For some reason, WordPress will not accept my code for my video so you can watch it from my Flickr page here.

I love the view we get on our walk. It’s surprising how much two blocks can make in the view here. The view from my porch is ok but not like this.

While we were on our walk, I came upon this little plant.  I would love to know what it is.  Anyone care to tell me?

Raisin is always such a happy pup after our walks. Sadly I haven’t been able to take her on many in the past 2 months. I’m hoping that now that things have calmed down a bit we can get back into the swing of walking every evening.

I’m off to work on the monkey socks and watch the Project Runway that I recorded last night.

First socks July 15, 2008

I’ve started knitting Monkey from knitty.

As you can tell, Zoe is thrilled with my knitting. He’s so excited he’s about to fall asleep.

Raisin Gets An Elephant July 3, 2008

After going through many binky dogs like they were treats, we decided to not buy Raisin stuffed toys anymore. Until we found this little elephant. It’s made out of the same fabric as her bed so we’re hoping that she’ll not be able to tear it apart as easily. She looks so adorable toting it around the house with her.

Paper Kitty’s Day Off May 19, 2008

I had today off from work. I had an absolutely freaking awesome day. Today was my Kiwanis club’s Special Field Day. We had almost 500 kids to come. I helped run the Big Basketball game. No rules, just shoot the ball. All the kids had so much fun… and so did I. I ended up with a sunburn even though I put on sunscreen.

I ran some errands, which included stopping at the Coffee Station and getting a slice of white chocolate toasted pecan cake (my absolute favorite ever).

Today’s mail brought this awesome vintage Kerr jar from PetitPoulailler, this needle felting kit that came in the most awesomely cute packaging ever from princessminders, and a set of hand carders from a very lovely ebay seller.

That’s Raisin’s nose in the corner, inspecting things as usual.

My morning started with finding this adorableness on my side of the bed before I left.

And this is how my evening went…

She insisted on sitting on me like that. I was trying so hard to keep up with the Etsy Lab’s Craft Night but it was hard to do anything with her sitting like that. She kept pushing her head up under my chin too. Too cute. Once she stopped I was able to follow the Demo for making a paper bag.

New Purse May 13, 2008

I made this tonight when I got home from work. I used the instructions found here. Neutral gray outside; fun and funky inside.

I also got started on cutting out pieces for my next quilt project….

But don’t think I did all this on my own! I had a helper…. Snuggies was my crafty kitten tonight instead of Zoe.

But she quickly got bored and started chewing her toes in a very cute way….

I got this adorable little drawing last night that was drawn by my 3 1/2 year old niece. It’s a drawing of one of the M&M people. I think this is excellent for someone her age!