far too quiet around here

yes, it's been far too quiet on this little blog.  can't believe it has been months since my last post.  i know i'm not regular at the best of times, but this is very very bad.

now, I have a reason.  we spent ages looking for a new house and then a month trying to buy the one we wanted.  very challenging.  the owner built the house 27 years ago and was so emotionally attached to it he had great difficulty letting go and found every excuse for not selling, he even took it off the market at one stage.  but success was finally had and we have a great new home to move to in December.

then .... we had to prepare our house to sell.  there is so much more to do than you think and everything takes longer that you estimate. and the stress ... boy oh boy. 

and now we are living in a totally un-cluttered environment and are too scared to do anything in case we mess something up.  i must say though (but don't tell the irishman), it's really nice to live in a tidy environment.  i am a total messer and don't really like that side of myself, but have so much difficulty controlling my untidiness. i even mentioned it here in this post. 

although having said it is great to living in tidiness, i am missing all my art supplies and whimsical and beautiful photos and bits that i have hanging around my studio.  it won't be for long though.

here's a photo of our living room as it looks now.   will try and hunt out a 'before'.

in pursuit if a blissful studio

i so love books. can't get enough of them. mainly non-fiction though.

i recently bought an android tablet so i can carry a library of books around with me.  loving the download.

but when i buy art books or decorating books, or books with pretty pictures i still really like to look at them in hard copy. not sure why. i can do mags on the tablet, but books are a little different for me. i am sure this will change though.

my latest book obsession is this ....

 ... from the people that publish WHERE WOMEN CREATE magazine and books.  

me oh my, the studios that some lucky ducks get to work from. i have no idea how they do it.  how they keep them so tidy and looking so divine (perhaps they don't and they all had a big tidy blitz before the photographer arrived ...hmm can't fool us).  i want to move in to so many of them and live there. such inspiration.  i particularly am crazy about the studios that use all sorts of vintage goodies and furniture to store and display.

here are some pages of total gorgeousness ...

 this is my favourite of the studios in the book. it looks like a vintage conservatory doesn't it?

 i so love the shelving. at first i thought it was some kind of vintage wall cupboard (which it may be), but on closer inspection it looks like it is a back piece of timber, funky brackets and shelves with rails so things don't fall off.  love it, and don't think it wouldbe too difficult to make one.

 more shelving with rails

like this room although it is a little too organised and neat for me, and I think I'd need lighter walls, but I did like the dimensions.  check out the legs on that desk ... me oh my...

i am so inspired to decorate my studio, and have all the vintage bits i would need as i have been collecting for years. but i have a small work room and far too much stuff and every time i decide to start I get so overwhelmed when i realise all that has to be done that I decide to have a cup of tea and think about it (or buy some more organisational books like this one), and then nothing gets done.   

but I know this book will inspire and motivate.  yes it will.