Bittersweet December

Between the holidays and a tragedy in my circle of friends, I haven't been able to pay much attention to the creative side of my life lately. However, I can happily report a very healthy holiday season of sales, which kept me busy and flattered with each sale. I have a few new items to list that I hope to get up this evening, featuring a few new coaster designs and a few other things I have made over the last few weeks.

I can also report that the shelves are DONE. They aren't in "display" condition yet, but part of that is due to the next impending project - tearing the carpet out of the studio and laying down (guess!) slate tiles. This will not only serve as inspiration for me, but will get me one step closer to putting a pottery wheel in the studio. Clay+carpet=coughing dusty mess. As a move towards embracing my "life is short, don't wait until it is perfect" aspiration, I will post pictures of the shelves and studio - home decor magazines may not be calling as a result, but you will at least get to see how very cool (and full!) the room is.

The top, leftmost shelves in the room.

The middle shelves on the left side of the room.

The shelves on the right side of the room. Note all the shipping supplies for orders, and above that shelf, my mom's photo portrait of my dad from before I was born.

A few projects in progress:

These are four shutters I was able to salvage from an historic house in Maryland. If I hadn't rescued them, they were going to a landfill. They have been a bit of a pain, between transporting them home to Virginia, worrying about the lead paint, moving them to a new house, and storing them (I have numerous shutters that are not pictured, as well as a number of windows), but I do think it's been worth it. The sage green ones here will probably turn into a hinged screen for the studio. I figure I can hang things on the slats, etc. As I am able, I plan to clean up the rest of them, and make more home accents from them. I might mosaic glass on some of the windows... way too many possibilities.

These are some mosaic items patiently awaiting grout. A beachy sea glass and starfish panel, lightswitch covers, and a cabinet door.