Tuesday, January 18, 2011
It has taken me three weeks into the New Year, but I finally feel organized, or at least as organized as I'm going to get. I have a perfectionist problem. I can't seem to sit down and get any work done on this blog (obviously) or any other design-related projects because I want my house to be perfectly clean, my children to have all their homework completed, my laundry all folded and put away, my errands run, my dinner prepared...but, seeing as how all these things are NEVER done at the same time, I've decided to put some of them off to get work done that actually stays done.
Like most people, I sit down at the beginning of every year and write out a list of resolutions, most of which I fail miserably at achieving. On the other hand, Joel rarely, if ever, writes out New Yew Year's resolutions because he says he's always in the process of making and working on goals and doesn't need the start of a new year to get him motivated. He's definitely a "Highly Effective Person". I know because I recently read Stephen R. Covey's book so that I can become one as well.
In order to do that, I've determined I needed a more inspiring workspace. I've had a vision in my mind of what I wanted my creative work space to look like for a year, but have had little time to actually make it happen because I was trying to do it all by myself. Then I found some talented individuals to help me out and now my space is almost complete.
One of my favorite collections of Joel's is Deer Valley in Azure, so that became the inspiration for my space:
The bulletin board was made by Angie Maxfield, a niece of a friend of mine. I LOVE IT! I had temporarily placed a plain cork board on the wall above my desk until I saw Angie's magnetic boards and knew one of them would be perfect for this space.
I love the old fork Angie bent and curled to use for a picture-holder magnet. Angie doesn't have a website yet, so if you'd like to contact her, please email her at bittyvintage@gmail.com:
A couple of years ago Joel partnered with The Madison Park Group to create these iPop magnets using his Deer Valley artwork. The line has since been discontinued, but they will be using some of Joel's Spring 2011 designs for a new collection of magnets.
Once in a while I like to peruse Etsy to see what kinds of items are being created out of Joel's fabrics. I'm not sure this is a healthy activity for me because my jealousy sometimes gets the best of me and I wonder why I wasn't creative enough to come up with such clever ideas. Take for instance this ironing board cover I stumbled across. It was made by Paula at Compelled to Craft:
I found a second ironing board cover made by Jamie and Carmen at CityChicCountryMouse, and ordered one from them as well to switch it out with the other one from time to time. They included this cute, little pincushion to match:
Finally, this corduroy bag was created by Jessica at www.fresh-tomatoes.blogspot.com. She just happened upon a booth we did for a local art show in 2009 and couldn't believe Joel and I had recently moved to the same small town where she grew up. We were happy to swap fabric for some of her adorable bags:
So, thank you ladies for helping me create a more organized workspace. Now that my design workspace is embellished with all of these beautiful items, I'm hoping I will feel more inspired to work on my own projects over the next few months before Quilt Market. While Joel didn't make a list of personal resolutions, he and I did sit down New Year's Even to make some ambitious business-related plans for this year. I can't wait to receive our advance yardage of his Spring 2011 collection next month and get sewing!
