Inspiration Friday: Organizing Your Crafty Goodness

Crochet Mushrooms YUM!

Happy Friday!

Sorry today’s update is so late– I’m feeling under the weather and have just been really slow today.  I am excited about today’s Inspiration Friday post though.  I’m a crafty person… No, I don’t mean you can’t trust me!    I love to make things.  My craft obsessions are ever changing, and like any good crafter, I have my own little stash of project materials that I’ve accumulated over the years.  Yarn, fabric, paper, plus assorted miscellaneous items are all stashed in various hidey-holes throughout my home.  I dream of the day when I can have a craft room of my very own, where all my things are stashed together in their own pretty places.  And that’s what today’s Inspiration Friday is about… pretty, organized creative spaces.

In fact, today’s post actually features the creative space of a wonderful Swedish artist, Hummmlan, who works in a little bit of everything:  paper, watercolors, fabric, yarn… you name it!  She most definitely understands the need to corral all the bits of stash that a crafter ends up trying to hide and her creative space is chock full of great ideas to inspire creative stashing!    You know I HAD to ask her all about it, right?

Please tell us a little about yourself… What inspires you in decorating and in your art work?

I’m living in Sweden with my 3 year old daughter and my fiancé. A year ago we bought our house, a cute little house from 1925. One of the requirement was that I could have a little crafting space in the house. In our old apartment I sat at the kitchen table and was crafting, sewing and painting. I had to clear the table each night so we had somewhere to have our breakfast! No fun at all.

Storage as Art

There are so many things that inspires me in decorating. I can be inspired by a painting or music. Of course I get much inspiration from other blogs and from flickr. Often it is a little detail in a photo, a beautiful frame or how someone have displayed their things on a shelf for example. I love interior magazines too, but they are quite expensive and me and my sister-in-law are borrowing magazines from each other.   A mix of new and old things I think is the best way to decorate.

buttons

In my artwork it is mostly my daughter and other children who is a great inspiration to me. After Maya was born my creativity exploded! It is a bit of a paradox, because before Maya was born I had all the time in the world to be creative, but wasn’t… After she was born I found the time to be creative while she was taking her nap.

What was your biggest challenge in organizing your creative space? How did you overcome this challenge?

A beautiful desk

The biggest challenge was to find the right furniture and decorations that I wanted. The desk had to swallow a lot of my paper and crafting supplies but yet be beautiful. It can take years to find the right things. I’m not finished with my craft room, I think I never will be. It’s a ongoing process. Some times I was thinking that I would buy a desk from an apartment store who had the right drawers for storing and organizing all my things, but it wasn’t the desk I really wanted… I’m so happy that I waited, I found my desk on the Internet, at a site where you can buy and sell your old things. Like a flea market but on the net! It was a bargain it cost only 500 SEK, that is approximately $60 USD!! I couldn’t believe how lucky I was! The chair is from my grandmother and the shelf is from IKEA. The type case I found in a local flea market.

Close up of wall storage

Would you please share your top 4 suggestions for organizing a creative space?

1. Hide all ugly things in drawers and boxes!

2. Display only the things you like and think is beautiful.

3. Keep it simple, if there are to many things it’s just looks to messy. (Some people knows the art of having a lot of things everywhere and it doesn’t look like a lot of clutter, but If you aren’t one of them, just don’t do it…)

4. Storage, storage and storage! You can’t have to much of that! Things that I know I won’t be needing for a while I have in the attic or in the wardrobe.

You can see more of Hummmlan’s creative space and home by visiting her flickr account, her blog, and, of course, her etsy shop!  If you’re interested in even more inspiration for organizing your creative space, check out the following links:

• Lots of inspirational photos from the members of the flickr group Creative Spaces
• And even more with the flickr group Organization is for Squares
• And a great article from Domino magazine, 9 tips for establishing a creative space

Have a great weekend!

xoxo – Shauntelle

In the Trenches with Jane of All the Luck in the World

coffee table as sculpture

Happy Wednesday!

As promised, I’m back today with a new “In the Trenches” interview! (And on the right day this week, aren’t you happy?!?) Today’s interview is with Jane of All the Luck In the World. Jane is a Danish artist that creates colorful whimsical items ranging from soft textiles to jewelry from recycled materials. In keeping with her artistic sensibilities, she has created a wonderfully colorful home as well, but not in the way you might expect. Read on to learn more…

As usual for me, I stumbled upon your home while browsing Flickr photos for inspiration. I am almost ashamed to confess that I know next to nothing about you (except you have lovely taste in design!). Please tell us a little about yourself…

I am a graphic designer and artist, living and working in the Netherlands. I love to recycle, so I use lots of vintage and found articles in my work. I also have a webshop selling handmade, re-styled and vintage products: www.alltheluckintheworld.nl

Hello Dear

If you had to use only 3 words to describe your design style, what would they be? How did your style evolve to become what it is today?

Eclectic, personal, colourful. I’m not sure, I have had the same style for many years but of course there have been changes if I look back. But I’ve always loved vintage and hand made things.

Living Room

Your home exudes color and cheerful creativity to me. Do you have any tips you could share on how you manage to mix bold colors and patterns in such a way that they create a lovely warmth in your home, rather than feeling overwhelming or chaotic?

My house is small so I try not to have too many things in one space. Except for my studio which is full of

Bedroom Corner

things I need to have around me for inspiration or to make something out of. I hardly have any new furniture or accessories in my home. Just about everything has a history and it’s own story. Don’t be afraid to change. A new coat of paint can make a big difference.

What is your favorite spot in your home and why?

My bedroom because it’s nice and white and peaceful, yet very pretty.

What would you say has been your greatest challenge in decorating your home? Have you overcome this challenge, and if so, how did you overcome it?

I could say decorating on a tight budget, which is what I do but it comes quite naturally so it’s not really a challenge. If you keep your eyes open you can find beautiful things everywhere. That’s why I started my shop. I didn’t have enough space to keep everything!

As you may know, A Beautiful Abode was created because I wanted to share the resources and inspiration I discovered on my journey to creating a beautiful home on a tight budget. For those of my readers who are also on a tight budget, what would you say are your top tips for emulating a look similar to yours on a budget?

Visit flea markets and secondhand shops, You can find great treasures there! Buy art on ETSY. Use everything as inspiration!

Garden Paradise

Please be sure to drop by Jane’s home of the web, All the Luck in the World. Visit her on flickr to see more of her lovely home, and, most importantly, be sure to leave her some comment love here so she will know how much we appreciate her effort in answering the questions, especially since English isn’t her first language!

xoxo – Shauntelle

Craigslist Monday: The best buy for your $50, Dallas vs Atlanta

Happy First of December!!!

Am I the only one who feels like I blinked and the summer flew by?  I can NOT believe it’s already December. I’m just not ready to start shopping for Christmas or all the December birthdays yet.  But I am very excited to be starting this month off with great news!  My very own A Beautiful Abode was featured on the House Beautiful website as one of their “sites we love.”  You can’t imagine how honored and excited I am! 

Anyway, the feedback for the first city versus city craigslist showdown was really positive, so I thought we’d kick the month off with another one.  This time, we’re tightening the budget… only $50, cause really, isn’t most of your money going toward holiday gifts at this time of year?  And we’re head to the big D… Dallas, Texas that is… where everything is bigger.  Let’s see if that’s true of the bargains as well!

As usual, I started off with Atlanta.  To be honest, the A isn’t giving up much by way of good bargains today.  I was seven pages in and ready to give up… but then, the heavens opened up to bless me for my persistence and I discovered this:

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/fuo/936109924.html - $30 credenza

Isn’t this a gorgeous credenza for only $30?!?!?  Yup, that’s right, only $30!   I’m thinking that this could be really gorgeous painted an antiqued black.  You could even change out the handles, although with an antique black finish, the current handles would look charming rather than dated.  For potential and cost, this credenza is definitely a winner to me!  http://atlanta.craigslist.org/fuo/936109924.html

In case you think something is wrong, I did make a valiant attempt to spend the remaining $20, but there was just nothing.  10 pages of NOTHING.  So, I gave up on beating that dead horse, and moved on to Dallas craigslist.

I thought the pickings were slim in Atlanta… then I spent 30 minutes trolling through the Dallas listings.  What a disappointment! Try as I might, I couldn’t find anything that I’d call a deal in the Dallas listings. 

Clearly, Atlanta is the winner by default today.

That’s it for today.  Just in time too, because I turned away from the computer screen to see snow flurries falling outside my window!!!  Time for celebrating with some hot chocolate.

Stay warm!  And don’t forget to go read the House Beautiful review! http://www.housebeautiful.com/decorating/best-sites/blogs-a-beautiful-abode

xoxo- Shauntelle
P.S.  I almost forgot to tell you, a new “In the Trenches” interview will be up on Wednesday, so remember to stop by, ok?