Wednesday, October 24, 2012

October, you're here

Hello, it's been 4 weeks since my last blog. It's been a challenging couple of weeks to say the least. We have a neighbor that's not being very neighborly and the whole apartment just got new carpet and paint. It was like moving out but instead of taking all your belongings and putting them in a van they just got shifted to other rooms and there was a LOT to shift!

I had to go through everything in the studio and take it all out but not before sorting everything. All accompanied by this delightful heatwave weather we've been having. I haven't been able to make anything for two whole weeks ! That's such a long time when you have a shop ! However, I did discover that I had a lot of fabric I didn't know I had, and as such do not need to shop for more for a while and also that it's actually quite a big room that I made look tiny. I did decide to get some shelves and the same morning that I spent hours trawling the internet for some lo and behold I walk the dogs and there's one sitting on the side of the street looking for a new home. I dragged the dogs across the road, accustomed as they are to their walk for closer inspection hardly believing my luck. They were actual wood and not particle board which was quite exciting. Someone had attempted to paint them black and only got halfway. I promptly finished walking the dogs and then got the car, the tricky part was getting them in the car, singlehandedly I might add. I'm a recycler it's what I do, take abandoned things and make them useful, it doesn't make me look any less dodgy though. I was still wearing my running gear so  you can only imagine me lifting this 8ft tall shelf into the back of a Hyundai Santa Fe. It did fit, just and I made it home where the shelf stayed till my husband got home.
Two days of sanding later, a combined effort followed by paint it's almost ready and mentally I have already planned what's going on each shelf.

Here's Panda.
Orange wool coat plushies
On a craftier note, this is Panda. Well, I think you have to go back a bit to find when I had the idea for Panda, this is attempt no 3 and I like him. He looks like he has a black sweater on which is my favourite part. In other news the book is coming along, I have some watercolors to experiment with and I'm excited to see how it turns out. There have been some exciting wool finds, an orange wool coat, it's always tricky to find bright colors and the timing is perfect as we head into fall.

Here's Black Widow Spider
 I decided to make a spider, see I am getting into Halloween slowly but surely. He has wire in his legs and a wooly body. He was a bit too cute which is when I decided to add the distinct but deadly red hourglass on his back. The dogs didn't seem too bothered and reluctantly posed for pictures.

So there you have it, the new carpet feels pretty nice and everything feels clean and fresh. The process forces you to declutter two car loads went to the charity shop. Various surplus bits of furniture have found new homes and while all the artwork still needs to go up I must say it feels a bit more zen.