AN ARTFUL PEEK INSIDE...

my home away from home,

actually only a hop, skip and a jump away from where I live with my hubby,

my home/studio.

If you are new to the blog,

when I married my Jim in 2011,

 I went to live in his home,

only,

none of my things fit inside his perfectly appointed home.

Not a spare inch to be had.

And we are not only talking about my clothes & furniture, car, computer, bicycle and appliances,

we are talking a lot of artsy fartsy things here like my 6 spinning wheels,

my floor loom,

my Navajo loom,

my 4 Featherweight sewing machines along with my Pfaff machine.

And what about those 4 huge storage bins of handmade Xmas ornaments,

2 bins of Easter goodies and 3 bins for Halloween.

And then there is my collection of Professional artists works

 that I've been collecting and teaching with for the past 37 years,

oh yeah,

and the student artwork I've been purchasing to teach with as great examples,

as well as all the other art supplies I store that don't fit inside my classroom.

The list is ridiculously long.

Jim took one look at all my stuff and said I don't so!

That's not gonna fit honey.

  ha ha

So what to do?

I had to buy a house to put all this stuff in.

And at the time I rationalized it as 

this will be a great starter home for when my children move out.

Wrong!!!!

They turned out to be slobs,

there's no way I'm going to let them move into this cute little place and mess it up.

And I can say that because they never look or read my blog.

HA!

So there you go,

3 stories of art & supplies,

all artfully arranged in this 800 square foot loft.

My neighbors see me walking back and forth constantly between the two homes,

driving when it's raining,

don't want to mess up my hair.

Some know I live in two different homes,

some just think I'm a nut-ball.

So anyways,

back to my original post,

a Holiday peek.

This is the tiny entry way that you step up to from the front door.

Or if you want, 

you can take a couple of steps down into my garage/studio space.

That peek will come another time.

The children & grands are all represented except for Syd,

in the process of framing him up as I write this.

The artful is this new-old rug I thrifted recently to show to my 3-D students for their weaving unit.

It's handspun wool colors were perfect for a Xmas display.

Not sure if it is Mexican or Navajo,

leaning towards Mexican,

perhaps done in the weaving village of Oaxaca. 

It washed up beautifully without felting.

The tiny green treen holds tiny handmade ornaments that were gifted to me from past students.

Next is the small display I did around that ginormous monstrosity of a T.V.

Fireplace to the right.

The handcarved Santa in sled with Reindeer belonged to my mother,

the patchwork stocking I made years ago for a felting unit with my students.

My favorite part of this display is the "Thankful" banner draped across,

and the recycled newspaper tree below.

This sweet little tree holds favorite handmade felt/embroidered ornaments 

by artist Judy Coates Perez,

and Russian Needle Punch Embroidery artist Leslie McCabe of Earth Angels Studios.

This next fun tree is from illustrator Patience Brewster's Xmas collection several years ago..

So are several of the ornaments that are hanging on it.

A new addition are felted acorns that are difficult to see that I found on Facebook.

For the past 4 years I've bought a live tree for this home,

and Jim has made canes from every trunk and woodburned each year along the shaft,

but for some stupid reason that I can't remember,

I bought an artificial one last year at Big Lots after Xmas sale.

I didn't realize that it was going to be so small and barely fit all my ornaments.

But the cool part was the lights were already on and there are 4 different settings.

I put two of the settings here because I couldn't decide which one I liked better.

Not sure which way (real or artificial) I will go next year.

A closer look at several of the handmade ornaments by my mother, 

my children and past students.

And a closer peek at this cute new addition,

the stuffed ornament,

gifted to me this year from 1st Quarter 7th grader 

Ethan Zhang.

But it is my daughter Danielle's 4th/5th grade creation,

a catapult she had to make for her class,

that is still one of the most artful pieces on this tree.

So fun that it gets the prime spot at the tip top.