Tuesday, September 27, 2016

My Journey As A Creative Designer - Woodworking and Beyond #1781: Some Distractions and an Update

As some of you may have noticed, I haven’t been posting as regularly as you all may have been used to. It seems that the past couple of months have been a bit unsettling for me and I have been a little bit distracted. 



I don’t know if reading about our move is becoming tiring to you all or not. I hope it isn’t. I am finding that settling in has taken much longer than I have anticipated and there is really no way around being distracted. After all, both living and working from home means that I am constantly reminded of all these little things that I need to do. Those of you who have moved know that it sometimes takes quite a bit of time to really settle in and feel comfortable in a new environment – no matter how nice it is. Some things just take time, and I believe that part of what I am experiencing these past several weeks has been finding comfort and familiarity in an entirely new environment. 



For those of you who are new to my blog, at the beginning of summer we moved from a small, one bedroom apartment to a full, two-story house. We figure we have about four to five times the space that we had become used to, and it was a wonderful breath of fresh air for both Keith and I, who have run our business from home for the past seven years. We are now able to stretch our legs and not only do we have a large room that is our designated workshop, but I have my own large studio/office and Keith has the entire basement (which he completely renovated and  tailored to his needs) to work and play in. Not to mention a large living room and dining area and kitchen. You may say we are ‘thrilled’. 



But coming from a cramped, small space means that a great deal of organization needed to take place. Both Keith and I are sticklers for being organized. That is how we survived in such a small place for so long. We always took pride in the fact that people who came in would tell us that they would never know we ran a business from our small apartment – let along a woodworking business. We always tried to keep things in place and in order, and tried our best to make our home comfortable and uncluttered. But finally, we just knew it was time to change. 



In any case, we moved in June and have been working hard to organize and settle in all summer. This has taken up a great deal of time – not only physically, but emotional time as well. Those hours that I had spent planning and thinking and organizing were usually spent creating. While I feel that I have been still doing some new designing, I am certainly not at my usual work load. But I am doing my best. 



Last week I showed a hint of some drawings that I was doing for some new ornaments. I am pleased to say that I did get them finished, and we were able  to do a site update this past weekend and get everything new posted. Keith has some outstanding new designs as well, and I thought you would like to see them. 



First off, Keith made a new snowflake pattern with eight different basic shapes of snowflakes and five (YES! I said FIVE!) variations on each. (Do you think he is hanging around me too long??) 





Here are some of his SLD687 Snowflake Ornaments pattern. If you go to the web page, you can see all the different variations. Some have words and some do not and there are different levels of difficulty. Surely there is something there for everyone.



The next new pattern is the one that I created and showed you a peek of last week. It is my SLD532 Large Damask Snowflakes Ornaments pattern. 



Each 6" ornament is fun and challenging and would look lovely cut from beautiful hardwood. But they would also be nice stack-cut from plywood, painted and embellished with some beautiful rhinestones. There are so many ways you can create these pretty ornaments. I think they not only beautiful, but fun to cut as well. 



Finally, for this update, Keith created these lovely SLDK688 Overlay Angel Ornaments



The angels can be displayed as shown, or on their own to enhance any tree, wreath or garland. 



We also have a special discount code for our Newsletter Subscribers this time. You can get it by joining our Mailing List on our site. (We never share your information with anyone)



We think that it was a pretty good variety of things for the update. 



I also have been getting many requests to show what we are doing with our home. Many of you like seeing our organization progress and enjoy seeing photos of our home.  I did take some pictures of this weekend’s projects to share. 



This is a photo of our dining room/entry area. I love how bright and airy it is. It is a large room with plenty of space and lovely hardwood floors thoroughout our home. (The home is over 150 years old!)  While it is roomy, it is still rather stark.



I had purchased some pretty black linen to make a valance for the windows and a curtain for the entry door. I just think it would warm up the place. I also made some new chair pads for the chairs, with a lovely brown/black thick tweed fabric. 



Here is the “after” picture … 



It is funny what a difference just these small tings makes!



These are the things that make a house a “home” I feel. Even with the door closed, it looks so much nicer and 'warmer’. 





Another thing I did for my 'studio’ room was to make some pretty lace curtains for the French doors which divide it from the living room. (You can see “Inspector Coco” looking them over!)



Again, it makes such a lovely difference – allowing privacy for both Keith and I without completely shutting the other out:



I absolutely LOVE my work area and desk, too! All of those hours of planning and organizing are really going to pay off. I have a most beautiful and comfortable space to call my own! 



I have a couple of additional projects that I am working on today, and I will be happy to share them with you tomorrow. I am happy to say I am “almost” finished with my studio. After today, all I will have to do is 'fine tune’ some of the organizing and I will be good to go. Then I will move to the upstairs and our bedroom and bathroom and hallway. I still want to do some things to the bathroom downstairs, but these other projects are slated for the winter. I think that making the main living area and working areas complete first are the most important. The woodworking room upstairs is in pretty good shape, with only some fine tuning projects left to do over the winter. 



I think I will be pretty busy for the time being … 



I hope you don’t mind seeing these photos. There is part of me that feels a bit guilty for not focusing 100% on work. But that is really only a small part and I know that what I am doing now ultimately will pay off in the long run. I am so used to blogging every day and cranking out design after design that anything less that that can feel like slacking. But I think in the long run, it will make allow me to design more efficiently and even better in the future. I hope you stick with me through these 'growing pains.’  I promise that there are great things to come. 



It is Tuesday already and it is very autumn-like here in Nova Scotia. It is overcast, dark and very cool outside. Quite somber in fact. But it is a nice day to curl up, make some soup or bake, and enjoy being inside my new  home. Tomorrow I will show you the rest of what I am doing with my studio. Then I can call it “done” and get to designing. 



Sometimes distractions can be very functional.



Have a wonderful day! 






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