Back on December 5 I posted a picture of "true love", that is the last picture here bookcase, as I started to fill it up.  Well, this is undying everlasting love:  3 more bookcases AND bringing a rug up from the basement.  I haven’t brought books in yet from the shed where they were stored when we put the house on the market, which failed dismally (not one viewer in 3.5 months – cautionary tale about when deciding to sell your house:  don’t pick the biggest slump in 12 years to do it).  So we’re still here and making the space work as if we had moved.  Since I love my house, this works just fine for me.

The point of this is to make your work space work for you.  For years I’ve used cinder bocks and boards, stacks of paper on every available surface including the floor, stuff piled on top of stuff.  I’m visual.  If I can’t see it, I’ll forget it – truth.  Which is why I leave notes to myself on my calendar.  Anyways, Husband has always said:  right tool for right job makes everything much easier.  Yep, he loves tools and over the year has collected many.  and taught me to do the same.  Well, office space hasn’t been a priority, but moving the house around and looking at other spaces and thinking about how we would live in them, made me realize I need to do something with my space.  After all, it’s only money (the bookcases).  So we plunged in, Husband (bless him – I’m so glad he’s mine!) paid for half the cost as part of my christmas present and then put them all together for me yesterday. 

The rug is from my parents’ home where it lived from 1950 to 1994.  Then it lived here in the basement under Husband’s drums.  When he moved his drums to his office space, we rolled the rug up so I could use the space for studio.  We had two rugs originally – the bigger one, about 12 x 15, we donated to a local food pantry to sell.  Husband isn’t fond of these rugs – needless to say they are a part of my life.  It occured to me that since we were tearing the room up anyways, I could put the rug in my room.  So we did.  Immediate safe, warm, snug space in which to work.  I am beyond pleased with having this rug under my feet.

That pretty much took the whole dreary rainy very warm (there were mosquitos out!  in January!  in Maryland!  can anyone say global warming?) day.

So for art (as if creating a great space to work in isn’t art, but hey, this is traditional) , I’ll share with you a picture of a box that Dhyana put my christmas presents in…and then wrapped it.  She made it on her trip home for the holidays when she was "cramped and bored" in the back seat.  She is an amazing talent!  Check out her website, Mystical Dream Art by Dhyana Mackenzie. (always on the side bar).

And for playing around, here’s a Picasso website much like the Pollock website – be careful, it sucks you in really fast.

thought for the day:  Empty time is time to lie in bed and contemplate dreams or the marks on the ceiling, time to go for an aimless walk or sit by the fire staring at the flames while pretending to read.  Empty time is time to rest, renew, and replenish by following the impulse of the moment.  Empty time is time to slow down, to find the stillness and spaciousness that allow us to stop all the doing and simply be…..If there is one consistent thing that stops people committed to doing creative work from doing it, it is this:  a lack of necessary silence in their lives, an inability or unwillingness to find and stay with the stillness, to regularly create empty time in their day or their week…..if there is no time when absolutely nothing is expected or scheduled, we are not likely to arrive at the appointed hour ready to do our creative work.  For as surely as a disciplined creative practice brings us to our creative work, so the spaciousness of empty time in our lies allows that which lights a fire within us…to find and speak to us.  Oriah Mountain Dreamer, What We Ache For:  Creativity and the Unfolding of Your Soul