Craft Books & Studio Purge




















I have been purging my studio for the last few days. It is definitely a process of making it worse before it gets better... I literally have a mountain of stuff in one corner that I am trying to sift through and decide whether to keep, give away or throw out. We have been doing this process throughout our home in a quest for simpler living...a life of things we LOVE. I think as a visual person, I tend to keep things for sentimental reasons simply because they are visually familiar. I may have little or no real attachment to them, but I keep them for the comfort of familiarity. I have definitely grown as we have gone through the process and am actually finding it quite cathartic now. However, my studio is just a whole new prospect. I have an entire wall of shelving containing clear plastic bins. I'm not surprising a visual organizer. I like to be able to see what I have. I also like creating in the moment and being able to design based on the colors and textures around me. So, it is hard to know what items will bring such inspiration... what do I purge? On the other hand, if I have more than I can store effectively then I lose my creativity to chaos. So, I am trying to find that balance and I'm excited to get back to creating in my studio.

In the few quite moments that I have, I love to read craft books. I love getting inspiration and techniques from other crafters and designers. I am so lucky to have an amazing library system from which to borrow. I have the databases for all of the libraries in our network at my fingertips and am able to request books to be delivered to my local library...brilliant! So, here is a current stack I have been pouring over...

Postal Sunshine

"Brown paper packages tied up with string...these are a few of my favorite things." There is nothing I love more than a little postal sunshine. This little package of goodies is headed out to make someone's day...could it be yours? I really think there is nothing I like more than receiving a package in the mail...the surprise...the little thoughtful details...hmmm what could be inside!?! I even get excited when something I ordered has arrived! That is why I like to package up my SimplyJune orders like a gift...we all deserve some little presents even if we buy them for ourselves!

Well, Nikolai is currently obsessed with the mailman and his truck. Our postal carrier parks his truck in our large neighborhood (indicated by our "Thickly Settled" street signs...who came up with this one?) and delivers on foot from this central spot. Nikolai can literally watch the truck for hours if you would let him. When the truck finally takes off for its next destination, Nikolai calls out "Bye Bye Mail Man". Oh cuteness.

One of the goodies on its way is a book entitled "The Magic of Ordinary Days" by Ann Howard Creel. This is really a delightful novel if you haven't yet read it. Hallmark Hall of Fame has also produced the movie version which absolutely does the book justice and stars my beloved Skeet Ulrich. The story is based during WWII and follows a young woman who becomes pregnant out of wedlock and is sent to marry a farmer by her minister father. Her relationships with her new husband as well as two young Japanese women in an internment camp tell the story of this time in history in a very personable and poignant way.

Matryoshka Inspiration

I came home to a nice pile of eBay goodies this weekend including this 1957 Russian embroidery book - inspiration for the hand embroidered Matryoshki I'm working on. The Matryoshka doll pictured is the second in a set of 7 that I purchased on our last trip to Russia to bring Nikolai home. She features many of the traditional Russian fairy tales.

I am also currently addicted to inter library loan and recently requested a very comprehensive book on the history and art of Russian Matryoshka - The Art of the Russian Matryoshka by Rett Ertl and Rick Hibberd. It is a beautiful coffee table book detailing the history of the art and artists behind this beautiful craft and artistic symbol of Russia. One of the interesting details I learned was how they paint the spirals on the heads of the most popular style of Matryoshka. A small piece of ribbed fabric is rolled into a small circle, dipped in paint and hand stamped.

A Blueberry Summer

When I was a little girl growing up in New York state, my family and I would visit the south shore of Massachusetts every summer and stay in a cottage right on the beach. The cottage, loving named "Merry Gale" was built in 1940 by my Great Great Uncle for my Great Aunt Mary. He used lumber from his land surrounding the family cranberry bogs. The cottage is quite simple and the rooms are partitioned with walls, but the roof is the only ceiling. I would lie quietly each night as a child staring at the wood roof, discovering different figures and designs in the knotty planks. Those images were as clear as day to me and still are - my favorite being a pig with an eye patch wearing a striped bandana. My bed was the best part of my room though, it was built into the wall and pulled down lengthwise suspended by ropes and metal pulleys. We spent two weeks every summer at Mary's cottage nestled between the river and ocean and now Kolya will do the same.

Another favorite pastime at the beach was blueberry picking. There was a beautiful blueberry farm nearby and we would go there at the beginning of our stay every year to pick buckets of blueberries to enjoy with cream and sugar and in a bread pudding recipe I fondly called "Blueberry Stuff." Over the years, my father purchased blueberry bushes from this orchard and others and now has his own "blueberry farm". But, blueberries still always remind me of the summers at the beach.

I was recently talking with a friend who has started decorating her kitchen with a blueberry theme, so these blueberry tea towels are off to her. Enjoy!

On another blueberry note, if you have never read a copy of Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, pick one up today! This is a favorite children's book to many and the illustrations a must see for any blueberry lover. It is sure to be Kolya's favorite book too as we sit on a beach blanket eating blueberries and reading...