Laume's Studio

Our weekend was a bit more exciting than we'd planned - we were out of town for a football game on Friday. Got in some shopping and visiting family as well and it was all fun and lovely - until we went to drive home and discovered our car had something majorly wrong with the electrical system. No power. No juice. We all got a ride home with the tow truck driver. Over a hundred miles. Exhausting.

We mostly relaxed and recuperated yesterday, but we finally got some of our juice back by afternoon. Lisa had fun putting up the last of the Halloween displays. I emptied the bowls and other kitchen items out of a set of display shelves in my kitchen and while grandpa entertained the baby, she had a ball putting up as much of my Halloween village as she could fit in each of the boxes. Between no time, no space, and no area safe from cats, I haven't put it up in years, so it was a special treat for her to get to design it and for me to enjoy it. Here's the whole cabinet:


It was really hard to take photos of as it doesn't have enough natural lighting on that wall, and in particular inside each "box" for the camera to pick up details without a flash and with a flash it ruins the spooky effect. But here's a few up close shots, to show you all the little extras she designed - backdrops, scattered leaves, mossy "fog".

She made the spider web in the corner out of pipe cleaners.

Doesn't that fabric make a great background? She's decided to live in the house on the left and I'm going to live in the house on the right.

I have too many houses to fit them all up and so my one request was she design a cemetery scene and she could pick whatever else she wanted to display. I like how it turned out.

While Lisa had fun on her "construction site" (building a village!), I spent the time trying to dig the studio out from underneath all the piles and boxes so we might be able to spend at least a day or two crafting. Both Lisa and I are really anxious to try our hand at some ATC's but all my recently gathered craft supplies from the Sweet and Sinister Swap activity got shoved into the back of the studio at the last minute so the front of the studio (aka, the "guest room) had room for a portacrib and suitcases.

I decided instead of just shuffling the mess around, I'd take a larger view of the project. Years ago I bought a bunch of those large "fit-under-the-bed" sized plastic boxes - they were just the right size for the shelving allocated for them in the garage - to organize all my craft supplies. I started putting things in them by general category - a box for miscellaneous ephemera, a box of "nature" supplies, one for paint supplies, another for tools, etc. I managed to spread out all the boxes, sort a couple of cardboard boxes into them, and then abandon the project as being too dusty and hot to work on in the summer, too dark and cold to work on in the winter. Spring and autumn are too busy. Sigh.

I cleaned off the boxes and brought them all inside and in a few hours most of the boxes were completely filled from the items I sorted through in the studio. And I haven't even touched the rest of the craft supplies in bags and cardboard boxes in the garage! If I ever get my shit together, er, my bountiful treasures together, I'll be the most creative soul on the planet!

The flower supply was too large for a plastic box. I started collecting them primarily for fairy doll making. I loved making the few tiny fairies that started the collection. Now to make just a few thousand more fairies.

Lace and ribbon. I have more bags as well, as soon as I can find them, most from my mom. Except for gift wrapping, I had no idea what to do with them but they were too cool not to keep. Now I've seen so many clever inspiring projects online for them, I'm excited to have so many to choose from. (If only I'd seen all these ideas BEFORE I gave the thrift store an entire box of retro Christmas decorations and gift wrapping supplies last year - ARGH!)


The blue bag has crepe paper. Pipe cleaners, feathers and boas, and a couple of lace hearts. Not sure why they all fit together - not enough of any of them to be their own category.



This is my favorite box. STUFF. Flotsam and jetsam, much of it from cleaning out the remnants of twenty years of small children. And odd bits I've picked up at thrift stores or garage sales or, discovered simply laying on the street. Do other people collect "street junk"? I have a bunch of pearl buttons I found on the streets of Edinburgh that I'm saving for something special.

That's just a few of the boxes - there are more. But you get the idea. I had a lot of fun rediscovering all the goodies I have laying about willy nilly.

Today I have some grocery shopping to do, and I promised William I'd make our traditional Graveyard Pudding, and then it's back to sorting and, knock on wood, if we don't run out of time, I'll manage to get the dining room table cleared off and Lisa and I can be crazy creative tonight! While eating pudding.