Why Not Turn Everything Upside Down?

I've had this growing feeling lately....time for a shake-up in the studio...a total rearrangement!  I know that my studio is featured in the Spring issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Studio, which includes a floor plan and everything, but it's spring and time for a change!  Besides, I'm feeling as if I'm about to adopt a child or something....I need to make a new space for the sewing machine that I'm going to get very soon!  I speak as if I haven't yet enacted this shake up, when in fact, the whole thing is said and done, as of late last night! Johntimothy is away at a conference, and while it might have been easier to move some things around if he'd been here, once I get an idea in my head to do something...well, I'm ready for action.  Off I went first thing in the morning to Lowe's in Sioux City (45 minute drive) to get yet another hollow core door and some sawhorses....voila, instant desk!  I moved tables and file cabinets and then moved them once again until it was all just so...quite lovely actually, and my back was only a little stiff this morning...but that's what yoga is for! Actually, what took the most time was gathering up and moving out and then back in all my little trinkets and memorabilia that occupies every inch of space...all objects carrying a bit of memory...a stick, a seed pod, a plastic this or that, a tiny box, handfuls, armloads of brushes, crayons, little dice, small animal figures, etc. etc. Every inch of paper, gathered in piles, reorganized and brought back to live in a new space.  And, I made a few more discoveries of unfinished works, some of which have now been been torn apart to make new and different pieces, and others that just a need a bit more tweeking, some of which was done today in my freshly designed space!

Page From The History Of My History

This piece had long since gotten buried, maybe because I'd grown weary of making all those stitches that never seemed to end, but I was delighted to meet up with it again yesterday....a long lost friend.  I spent a fair amount of time today adding more stitching....until I announced it finished!  I thought for a time it was named Page From The Book of Lost Love Letters, but only in posting it here have I realized that it is called Page From The History of My History.

Page From The Story Of The Three Buttons

This green and cream colored piece of decorative paper has been resurfacing in my pile of paper scraps for a few years now.  I had dipped it in beeswax some time ago and had never quite known what to do with it.  Today when I picked it up I knew exactly what to do....at least to start.  I found that a little sheet of Japanese paper dipped in beeswax does not have to remain pristine, but in fact, when crumpled, it reveals drawing marks that are quite amazingly beautiful.  This little piece was crumpled and attached with the button and countless, random and overlapping stitches in subtle colors, of pink, green, yellow and cream.  Despite it's title as a page from The Story of The Three Buttons, this little piece only has one button.  I had three ready to go and then understood that I was not to actually USE three buttons....you see, this page appears at the very beginning of the story, say page 7, and I don't believe the second and third buttons appear until pages 52 and 76, respectively!  I just do what I'm told....

So, more fun for me tomorrow!  I'm very much looking forward to my field trip to Omaha, where I will spend as long as I please at the Jackson Street Bookstore, perhaps the best used bookstore I've ever had the pleasure to frequent.  There are so many books just in the literature section that they're wedged in and sit in piles on the floor...but that's only where I'll start....so many winding paths to other sections, so many books to peruse.  I can't wait!  No place to be, no deadlines...total bliss!  See you fine folks on Monday...have a wonderful weekend.