Blog — "studio"

We all love to get little sneak peeks into the working world of various people, so I thought I'd start capturing some of these moments as I go.

Meet Finley, my studio (and everywhere) cat. He's kind of an ass, if we're being real, but a cute and cuddly ass (is that literally a thing? Probably not. Gross). On a typical day, he'll be climbing around behind the shelving unit as pictured above, tracking inky paw prints across the floor, scaling the tall shelving units in my closet, and doing his general best at trying to prevent me using a mouse and keyboard in a normal manner.

Finn, as I call him for short, is the epitome of that whole "curiosity killed the cat" saying. You may have recognized him from one of my more popular Christmas cards. I've blogged about him before, and I already have a sequel planned for said Christmas card this coming year.

What's going on in your studio or creative space lately?

I've been in overdrive these past few weeks as the holiday season is upon us. The shop has been busy and I'm preparing for two shows-- one at Fort Meade this coming weekend as well as the Richmond Craft Mafia's Handmade Holiday on December 14th. In addition, I've still been hard at work launching a few new products here and there and getting my new newsletter in order, so I thought it would be fun to get a little peek into my studio.

My studio is located in our historic Baltimore row house. I get to enjoy lots of natural light coming in from both a large window and a glass paned door that leads off to our second story deck. One wall in the studio is exposed brick, and Andrew put up salvaged wood shelving for storage. It is definitely a space that helps keep the creative juices flowing as well as being tranquil and relaxing.


And of course, arranging to have all of these photos taken was no easy feat. Andrew was my sort of fabulous photographer, which involves many photos being taken when you're not even close to being ready or ok with the fact that he is snapping the shutter. And then, my friends, you end up with this.

After all was said and done, there were obviously many photos that were still salvageable. I was able to use some of them, including a new head shot, to update my Etsy shop About Page, my Twitter profile, and my Instagram profile. In addition, you may see some of these photos pop up in an upcoming feature that I am excited about! It feels good to have a little more cohesiveness across the board when it comes to all of my outlets.

Do you have any photos of you creating in action? I love getting glimpses into the studios of other artists!

I've been very, very slow when it comes to updating you on our improvements in this row house. After quite a long time, the transition of our second bedroom to a studio and reading room is finally complete. I would still like to add a few things like artwork, a small side table that would fit between the chairs, and a few small storage options next to my desk. However, the room is finally fully functional and very efficient at that.

You can revisit the looks of how the room used to look here and here. The color scheme didn't change too much-- we stuck with browns and blues. We have two incredibly comfortable chairs along one wall. The large pillows came with the chairs and the smaller blue and brown pillows were made by me when this was a bedroom. And no reading area would be complete without a cozy blanket to curl up with.

No creative and cozy space would be complete without a nice green plant, some FLW inspiration, and some coasters that I made for a tasty beverage.

My printer, The Beast, is sitting on top of a small dresser that we moved from our master bedroom. I repainted it four years ago with leftover paint a friend gave me and would like to try to find some neat knobs from the architectural salvage to replace the wood knobs. I store my packaging and shipping supplies as well as my ink in the dresser. The clock was originally purchased for the original bedroom from Uncommon, and it just so happens that the dresser matched it exactly! This is a great space with lots of natural light and I enjoy being in this room hence the yoga mat rolled up next to the dresser. It's a good yoga space!
My desk is along the wall opposite of the chairs and gets lots of great natural light from our second story deck. I use one of our dining room chairs so as to save space on our first floor when we don't have guests for dinner. The exposed brick wall is one of my favorite features in our house. It runs the full length of the house on both floors of the house. Things not to pay attention to? The mirror that is currently camping out here while our first floor half bath is still under renovation, and that cardboard box that is currently being used for my recycle bin. I'm currently in the hunt for some aesthetically pleasing recycling and trash receptacles.
On the desk is my trusty macbook, my scanner, a flat screen monitor that I use while working on designs or editing photos, a calendar, and my to do list (of course!). I stow away my external hard drives and my graphics tablet in a super secret drawer that also serves as extra work space.
The calendar from Smock is a perfect way for me to keep track of things with a simple glance and it doubles as a great art piece.
On the wall opposite of the windows, we have what would appear to be your average sliding door closet.
But in reality this closet hides a lot of my essentials. I have two storage units that I picked up at IKEA. The lower one houses all of my paper (though you may notice I still have some overflow on top of the storage units. The upper unit is turned sideways so that it would fit and stores all of my crafty odds and ends. I keep my boxes of envelopes both in the corner to the left and on a shelf above the storage units.
And there you have it! Hope you enjoyed my little studio tour!