Studio: the spruce

With the creative energy injection I got in Bali, I've spent most of my spare time since I got back sprucing up the studio, which has been great and a different kind of 'making' than the usual crafty stuff.

I love making spaces pleasing and comfortable. It makes me feel good, makes my mind clearer. It usually doesn't last all that long once I start using the space; the detritus of everyday life builds up like barnacles on the hull of a boat, and then I have to go through a big, refreshing clean up to get it back to feeling good.

But now I have the abundance of two spaces - my bedroom, which is now a lovely quiet space with a large bed and room to move, and my studio, which is big enough to house all my stuff without it looking like a cave of crap.

It's been so great to be able to set up a space to my requirements, the fulfilment of a long-held dream. There are three main areas in my 20 square metre studio: I have a desk for my computer-based work, a sewing table for my crafty work, an empty space in the middle of the floor for doing yoga / setting up my massage table. There's also now a guest bed which means we can now have people come and stay over if necessary. And best, there is storage along one wall for all my empty containers and oils and towels and fabrics and magazines and markers and coloured pencils and photography gear and recording gear and stuffed toys and...

Amazing what you can fit in 20 square metres! The luxuries of a) a spare room, b) a workspace that isn't my bedroom and c) empty floor space cannot be overstated. I am so so so grateful for it.

This past weekend I borrowed A's chainsaw and carved up some old railway sleepers that he had pulled out of his garden (he's building a pool). I made some steps up to the studio, and started on the garden path that will go around the side to the garden behind the studio, also making use of some big fat river stones A didn't want. I've got bruises on my leg from where I rested the chainsaw while trying to start it - I have never felt so puny as repeatedly yanking on that starter cord and nothing happening. And I was a bit frightened of the chainsaw at first, to be honest, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. It's surprisingly exhausting! My cuts are pretty, er, rustic, mainly because I couldn't be bothered to tidy them up. Oh well, just sanded the edges and put some pot plants along the sides.

Next for the studio - installing some sort of bathroomy bits.

But now I need some crafting time, making something a bit more delicate that requires scissors instead of chainsaws and thread instead of giant nails.

Dreaming

I have too many things buzzing around in my head. Like cicadas, all of them making a racket and none of them being able to be properly listened to.

Contributing factors:

• I bought the Designed to Sell Unconventional Guide and started working through it.
• Last weekend, I did the introductory massage course at the Australian College of Massage. It was a great weekend; I learned a lot about technique and posture, and got to give and receive about five massages. Verrrrry nice. Of course as soon as the first day finished, I wanted to enrol in the Cert IV, get accredited and start my own clinic.
• This coming Saturday, I'm working at Goodness Gracious Me gratitude lifeclass (which is being held at the Scripture Union building where I work, so my colleague Des and I volunteered to work it so we could get a free ticket to the class) and will no doubt give me a bit of a boost.
• And in May, I'm going to the Big Hearted Business conference to nourish my creativity and try to work out how to change the world with it.

Maybe, having stirred them up, eventually all of this will help the cicadas to quiet and allow me to try and make some sense of it all.

Okay, so here's the big dream of what I would love to be happening in a few years.

Let's assume that mum and I will stay in our little house for a few years yet. Despite the downsides of the main road, we love the house and the garden. Oh, the garden! It's like a tranquil little rainforesty paradise.

Come through the many gateways to my creative wilderness...one day...

Ever since we moved here I have had dreams of building a studio in the backyard, with windows facing into the greenery, where I could do my creative work and not be sleeping, working and creating all in my bedroom (not to mention storing all the copious amounts of fabric and paraphernalia that goes along with making anything).

I want to build a little multipurpose studio, with lots of light, good sound/temperature insulation, a bathroom, and storage space. It would have a work table for sewing, spot for writing and a space in the middle for a massage table without it feeling like when you get a massage at a beauty salon or something and it's basically the size of a closet and you spend the whole time feeling sorry for the therapist because they can't move around properly.

Something like this from Garden Studios (only with some sort of storage solution):

I would be able to sew and write and design there. I would be able to tidy things away into the excellent storage and set up the massage space and do regular massages to keep some regular cash flow coming in, while selling my creations (both sewn and written). I might have to go and work somewhere for a couple of days a week, also to keep regular cash flow coming in. But the rest of the time I would be concentrating on creating, on giving joy to people, on making positive, relaxing spaces where people would love to come, on filling up my creative/nourishment tank.

But, again, that costs lots of money of course! So it's a long-term dream. I don't know how I'll get there. But that's what's buzzing around in my head at the moment. I need to be patient and recognise that these things don't have to happen right now. Everything takes time. But it helps to have a direction to step in.

And this is at the forefront of my mind, always:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

James 4:13-15