Studio Tour

Before

After

A colourful clutter of inspiration and necessities 

My new Frieda Kahlo doll. A birthday gift from my sister, handmade by Jennie.

Tools of the trade - My ultrasonic (for cleaning jewellery) is hiding behind the polishing machine, in the middle is my pickle (a heated acid solution that removes flux from heated metals), as well as my rolling mill (for rolling the metal to the desired thickness of plate or bars, or preparing the metal to be drawn down in to wire.)

One would hardly guess, when looking at the 'before' photo of my bench, that I am usually a 'place for everything and everything in it's place' kind of girl, especially when it comes to my tools. I like to tidy up and put everything away when I've finished working, so that I sit down to a clean bench the next time. Only, it wasn't quite feasible during the rush of market prep. Tidying up seemed like a bit of a luxury. My table became a dumping ground of tools, half finished projects, packaging, and general craziness as I tried to get as much done as possible as time ran out. Working amongst the mess has reaffirmed for me why I tidy up at the end of the day!

Yesterday I pottered around the studio cleaning up and sorting out, while the children played, swept the floor and made more mess. Once I have sorted out their pile of toys on the floor, and the pile of mending on my sewing table, all will be well in my studio again. But at least, for the time being, I can now sit down and work on some custom pieces with room to move and think. And a tidy bench.

What does your work space look like?

Are you neat or messy, or both?

I just noticed that I need to fix the date on my bench clock.

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PS. Happy birthday to my dearest darling twin sister! And happy birthday to me! 32. Oh my! 

Ta-dah! Our new kitchen

Before

After

As promised, photos of our new kitchen! A new light fitting or two, a blind, a few stools and our kitchen will be 'done'. But I think we are close enough to calling it finished that I couldn't resist sharing the before and afters. 

I am really loving our new kitchen. It came together just as I imagined and is such a lovely place to work. We looked at several options and decided on a custom built kitchen with routed, painted doors, white appliances and white stone bench tops. Dave was a little concerned with how an all white kitchen would look. It has long been a dream of mine and thankfully he trusted my judgement, as now he loves it. He put his own stamp on it by way of choosing the sink and tap wear, as he works in the plumbing industry. (Both pieces seemed enormous until they were in the space! Now I am loving the large double bowl sink and the tap wear.) 

How far our house has come in the almost two years we have called it home. It feels like it is really all coming together now that the kitchen is (almost) complete.

Home sweet home.