A good 6 weeks have slipped past since my last post and as the days and then weeks passed by, I kept wondering if I actually wanted to come back to this little online space of mine.  The longer I left it between posts, the easier it became for me to not open the laptop and pretend that I didn’t really have a blog at all.  A blog, what’s that?

But, here I am, sharing photos of a recent project that I still have on the go – a Sophie’s Universe blanket.  Yes, I’m still in the depths of working on the ‘Weekend in Stockholm blanket’, have a dishcloth on my needles and a chevron scarf that I’m just getting back on track with, but as any creative minded person would know, it’s damn hard staying on track with just one thing.  I did just cast off another pair of socks though, so I’m sure that counts for something.  Yes?

Incase you haven’t seen this delightful project around the traps, it’s a free CAL (crochet-a-long) consisting of 20 parts, shared over 20 weeks.  You can find all the instructions over on Dedri’s blog, Look What I Made.  I’m only a few parts in, but this will eventually be a full sized blanket for my girl.  It’s definitely challenging, mainly because I really have to concentrate with my counting on each round, but also quite rewarding as I conquer each round.  Incase you’re wondering, I’m using Patons Cotton Blend (8 ply), and this is the same yarn that I’m working with for the Stockholm blanket.

Now back to the blogging bit.  I’ve decided to take quite a few steps back and just pop up a post when the mood or inspiration strikes me.  Life can take us in funny little circles sometimes and right now my circle seems to be evolving away from this space.

I’ll still be here, just not nearly as often.

Mel xx

  {Following on from the post yesterday, here is part two of Kate’s creative space}

Now I know to most this will seem extreme, but I do have a third creative space.  I made this extra space because for now, it really suits our family lifestyle to have it set up.  Because of the weather making regular creating in the garage difficult and because we have 5 children needing to be kept busy & loving to be creative AND because even though we have a reasonable sized house, our family all tends to live & spend time in very close proximity together, we made small creative station right in the middle of the lounge room!

This desk won’t be there forever but for now, I need to be around the family all the time, especially while my youngest is in kindy & home some days.  I can’t just lock myself away in the front room.  Here I can manage to get some work done during daylight and of course at night once everyone is asleep I can split my time as necessary between my lounge room desk & my office as needed.

So here in the lounge room behind our two couches, I have a trestle table & some drawers & my main computer. It’s here where I run my ETSY shop, do my digital illustration & graphics work from. I also do daily sketching here, some light painting with watercolours & gouache.  I scan my work here, edit my work, colour it & get it ready for the printer.

Here’s a peek inside some of my drawers.  I have lots of sketched pages, I go through 1 or 2 pages every day & store them here for future reference.  If I’m working on a large assignment, I’ll use anywhere between 10-20 sketchbook pages so I go through these very quickly.  I also have a stock pile of textures that I’ve made.  These are usually with paint and I scan them in to use them digitally.

And inside other drawers are all my drawing pens & pencils.  Also some watercolours.

My lounge room desk is in a great spot with lots of light & for the moment, I spend much of my time creating here as the family does their own thing all around me.  They read, watch movies, play with toys, play with technology, do homework or do their own creating on their creative ‘dry’ work station.  The kids trestle table is nestled right next to mine on the left & they can sit there 2 at a time time and draw endlessly all throughout the year without having to worry about packing it up or extreme heat or cold in the garage.

During school holidays I also bring the watercolours into the house and set it up on our formal dining table which is also known as the ‘homework table’.  This enables them to keep themselves busy going from drawing on the inside desk, to watercolours on the homework table, to acrylic painting & collage out in the garage.  So they are set up pretty well creatively too.  They are of course very normal kids so they spend much time outside on play equipment & trampoline, riding bikes & scooters or playing upstairs in their rooms with Blythes & Barbies & their latest thing Shopkins!  They also have a big games table & lego table out in our family room near the kitchen.  I love that we have plenty of spaces to rotate them around.  It certainly makes it easier for us as parents when they claim they are bored.  There’s always a free play area somewhere to keep them busy!

So there you have some idea of where I create & work in my house & how I manage 5 creative little people too.  Its very much a way of life for us here & I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Right now we don’t need a stuffy formal lounge & dining area.  We need practical & fun spaces to live, work & play. And I think for the most part we are achieving that.

Thank you all so much for reading about our creative spaces & I hope you’ll check out some of my work in the following places!

Want to follow along with Kate?  Here are the links you’ll need:

• ETSY shop
• Website
• Instagram