A Little Studio Tour, and a Huge Confession

Doesn't this picture look almost magazine perfect?  Well, except for the old boots, don't I look just peachy in my parlor?  My son-in-law Asa Gilmore took this photo for a bio I needed for a trunkshow.....Truth of it is I used to sit here with piles of boxes and bags of stuff and stitch away, when I was focused on primitives and pincushion dolls.  In the front parlor for gosh sakes.  Then I gradually moved some stuff and became very industrious.....

In Here......This is what we call the "Rock Room."  I've been working in this part of the house for some time now, and it's great until we entertain a larger crowd, as in holidays or whenever said crowd presents themselves.  No matter how much space I have, it always seems to disintegrate into about 10 square inches of horizontal surface anyway.  This is a family dining room.  When I need to sew, the machine plops onto the kitchen table.  When I paint, it's outside or here in the rock room, jewelry happens here, papier mache...stained glass, this is where I've been.  Okay, so this is where the huge confession of a natural packrat comes in to play.  I do have another space.  Half of an historic barn.  The beginnings and endings of a lovely little and mostly restored bohemian apartment.  Tiny kitchen, a bathroom, next to my vegetable garden.  Vintage wallpaper....woodburner cookstove, nice old windows adorned with stained glass.  I don't use it.  Well, it's used for sure, but not to work.  The reason I am sharing this with those of you sweet and patient enough to actually read this, is to irrevocably shame myself into doing something about it. 

This is the glass on the upper portion of the door leading into my space.  Are you prepared to see what lies within??

I won't force you to endure any more of these painful photo's which clearly exhibit firm proof of my illness.  Acutely Disorganized Packratitis, and I'm not going to take medication for it either.  Instead, I am getting up off my sciatic behind and doing something about it.  Years and years of textiles, trinkets, things I just love and don't have room in the house for....inventory for my little shop on main street, and most probably inventory for my ArtFire vintage studio.  Ceiling to floor of my needful things, and what I most want is undoubtedly on the bottom of the pile.  I was supposed to be doing something about this as I write, but the entire building needs to be emptied outside and it won't stop raining or snowing or blowing.  I expect it will take 3 or 4 days to do it all, and I will keep you posted....Until then.....