Photos © 2011 Curly Girl Design, Inc./Leigh Standley. all rights reserved.
Happy New Year!!!! Oh how I love a brand new year! I venture to say that this first, fresh few weeks of the year is among the most sacred times for me. I feel energized, reflective, inspired and creative. I feel full of pride, a little relief and a touch of fatigue over the year I have just wrapped up and then, after a brief but important couple days of hibernation, immerge bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I have big plans for this coming year and those big plans each have a thousand little steps. It is best to approach them one at a time.
In order to put last year to bed, and begin this one there are a few things I must get in order first. Things like inventory at the shop and warehouse, taxes, and travel-plans for the upcoming tradeshow season. There are also a few, ahem, cobwebs that need to be cleaned out. Places in my life where I have let things accumulate making it hard (or unpleasant) to do the things I really want to do in those places. This can apply of course to relationships, thought processes and most obviously to physical spaces. In this case… my studio.
Oh. My studio.
How can one expect to fill the world with creative genius when one cannot find a clear surface on which to put a pencil down! My thoughts go to Sherlock Holmes.
I have a 2011 wrap up post in the works, but this little studio re-org took up the better part of yesterday (into the wee hours of today) and I am pretty excited about it and wanted to share. It was a rough go. An epic organizing session. A true test of my attention span. There were points at which I thought the studio just might win the battle.
It started like this:
Not so bad you say? That's just because everything was shoved into the closets (we did have guests for Christmas after all…)
Not bad, but it would get worse before it got better. About 3 hours into my studio smack down it looked like this:
I had to stop for a snack. I sorted, I stashed, I chucked, I purged, I was merciless yet careful, thrifty yet thoughtful and above all… clever. The best thing I can't believe I didn't think of before was getting this pantry rack for the inside of my art closet door!! It pretty much doubled my storage space for 'small stuff' and made me APPEAR to be far more organized than I actually am! Double points!
I took these photos in the wee hours, so they are kind of dark, but I think you get the picture. All in all, I am pretty excited about how it turned out and can't wait to get in there to make some new cards!
Top 10 great or weird things I found while cleaning:
1.) A letter from a former student that she wrote me after I left the school for a job in Boston. She was secretly my favorite, and attached was her 1st Grade photo. She is now in college!
2.) A Year 2000 U.S. Mint Proof Set of Quarters (my Dad puts them in our stockings and I never know what to do with them!)
3.) A photo booth picture of me and Coach in Italy, right after we got engaged.
4.) The book my friends made me for my 30th birthday…full of letters and photos!
5.) My old retainer. Gross.
6.) A note my Dad left on my desk after they helped move me to Boston.
7.) My ear buds (totally been missing those!)
8.) Both of my LOUIE awards! (better dust those babies off!)
9.) My old 'design files'. Binders full of magazine pages with stuff I liked on them. Life before Pinterest!
10.) A stash of my wedding invitations. Feels like just yesterday and a million years ago at the same time.
So there you have it. As far as my studio goes, it's hospital corners for right now and I'm feeling pretty good about it! It's amazing how much energy you can get from moving some energy around. It sometimes stirs things up a bit, but I have never regretted doing it.
Are you harboring some energy somewhere? Burying a little light? I'll bet you are. We all are. Here is my official plug for getting to it this month. DO IT!! YOU WILL FEEL SOOOOO GOOOD! Promise! And don't worry, you will have plenty of time to go ahead and mess it right back up. That's what life is all about.
What do you need to get to? Say it out loud here. Maybe it will help!
xoxo
