Ta-daaaaaa!

I've been promising forever that I'll post photos of my new studio once I get it finished and organised. I think my last promise was quite a while ago.

Well, I've realised this is as organised as I'm going to get in the foreseeable future, so here's the guided tour!

First, a reminder of what it looked like when we moved in (on a much sunnier day, as you can see):


And the photo at the top of this post shows what it looks like from the doorway now – mainly my work desk and some storage shelves, and the edge of the block-printing table around the corner. This (below) is the trimming and packing table, which Nathan's dad made at a nice standing height so I don't have to lean awkwardly over to do all that fiddly stuff anymore.


In fact, Nathan's dad is responsible for this entire room. Seriously. He made both the tables, he painted the walls (you do not know how long it takes to tape and undercoat and paint a room with this many angles – it's insane). He mounted the wall shelves. He assembled the floor shelves. He put up the clear memo board and the white noticeboard and he made every single thing fit perfectly. And did I mention he drove down from Dallas to do all this? The man is a saint.


There's even this little corner for when Berry wants to join me (see above... she was working on a sticker-collage that day), with a play mat and amazing hand-stitched cushions from my sister in South Africa. The areas you can't see are the extra shelves by my desk, and the huge and excellent store room full of shelves (to the left of my desk) where all the endless boxes of blank stock and coloured envelopes live.


This place makes me happy every single day.

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"Before" (Part 2)

You've seen the studio empty and full of promise – now here it is, full of boxes, functioning (very basically) and ready for its own Extreme Makeover.

We're working like crazy to get it perfectly organised for maximum creativity and efficiency – two of my favourite things – and of course it needs to be pretty.


I'll have "After" pictures in a few days!

Child labor laws: testing, testing...

Did I say that Berry would be relaxing this weekend? Shame on me! She found so much work to do, she hardly sat still for a minute.

Long-lost toys to unpack...


Dresser drawers to work on...


Walls to tape off...


Something important involving a screwdriver...


This much work is enough to drive a girl to drink. (Well, milk.)

Sooooo quiet

I've been very quiet. I blame the house and I blame Berry.

The house is taking a lot of time to get organised. We're painting first and I've figured out that 90% of painting is actually taping. Especially if the builders have gone nuts with crown molding and fancy baseboards and lots of angles. Ohhh the angles. Pretty to look at, hell to tape.

Here's Nathan, cutting in some of the corners...


So there's that... But now (thanks to Nathan's dad, who shall be sainted at a later date) the entire downstairs living area is painted and it's beeeyoootiful. So fabulous. Painting over the grey with Travertine has completely transformed it, and we're feeling luckier by the minute.

Or we would be, if we weren't so sick. That's where blaming Berry comes in. Two half-days in daycare and she brings home an array of viruses a medical textbook would be proud of. Honestly, it's like she went around collecting them. So she's been really sick and miserable for a week now, and we've been falling like dominoes ever since.

There should be a rule against having to take care of a sick toddler when you're sick yourself. I mean really. It feels impossible and very unfair, and makes me seriously consider things like how one might go about getting a nanny. And a maid. Or a sidekick of any kind, really.

Speaking of sidekicks, here is Berry helping her Grandpa put the very glamorous Ikea table back together... See? It really is child's play.

"Before"

I'm going to show you my new studio when it's been completely overhauled, set up, decorated and organised to the nth degree – so it's only fair that we should have a "Before" shot to compare with the "After" that will eventually appear.

Consider this the badly-lit shot of the glum-faced model failing to suck in... Nope, can't do it. It's still looking all fabulous and full of potential to me! I promise, it will be genius in a month or so.