It's been awhile since I've updated the blog. I've been a busy little bee these last few weeks!
Spring had sprung here for about a week - but now it's snowing today and the wind is howling. Summer is so short here, and it never fails that Mother Nature allows spring to pop in for a bit early in the year, teasing us with the warm breeze and budding trees before blanketing us in a final snowstorm or two. Eventually, she relents and allows the warm weather to stay.... even if it is only for a few short weeks before fall is upon us again here in the mountains of Wyoming.
I'm really excited to announce that I've officially moved into my new studio space. It's still a little rough around the edges, but it sure beats being relegated to a tiny corner space in our home office.... which usually translated into my projects being spread out all across the counter tops and table in our kitchen. Few things kill my creative process more quickly than being in the middle of a project and needing to stop, pick up, and put everything away so that I can have the kitchen back in order to cook supper for my family and put it on the table.
I now have plenty of table space of my own to spread my projects out on and, best of all, if I need to stop and leave something in mid-process, I can do that for however long is necessary until I can come back to it and everything is still right where I left it. No dragging things out only to have to turn around and pick them up and stow them away until I have time to drag them back out again and pick up where I left off. This has made me feel SO much more creative, less burdened and frustrated, which has already translated into a much more productive me. I'll post a couple of photos below.
The paint is fresh and the trim is not up yet, I also still need to paint around the windows - but that's alright! Like I said, still a little rough around the edges, but I'll get the trim up as time allows, for the moment I'm just relieved to be moved in & (mostly) organized.
You can see the chimney from where the old wood cook stove use to sit in the kitchen there next to my wall cabinet, it's a bit of an eyesore at the moment. It was covered with old fireboard that I pulled down so now you can see the glue tracks on it. Eventually (hopefully sooner than later) that will be remedied by stuccoing it.
You can also see that the wall where the chimney is is still covered in old brown paneling. That will eventually be covered with sheet rock, textured, and painted to match the rest of the room. There is some old ductwork up along the top of the wall that needs to come down before that happens. I was just in such a rush to get moved in that I didn't want to wait.
The studio is inside an old farmhouse that was built in 1905. It has been added on to, remodeled, & remodeled again over the years before we purchased the property. The wall cabinet you can see here was painted in a black and white holstein pattern.... I had to remedy that. LOL! It's hard to tell from the photos, but I gave the trim a sort of marbled effect. Looks pretty neat when up close and personal. This shot was taken from just inside my front door.
The walls are heavily textured, which is difficult to see in the photos, and I used two different shades of green - Night Hush for the accent wall, India for the others - that are just gorgeous in person. The art work I have to go on the walls in here is going to look great against these colors... not to mention, the colors are very soothing yet inspiring for me. That's always a plus in a creative space.
This view is looking across the room from the back corner. The table in the middle of the room was a "junk shop" find. It's a nice old heavy folding style table that someone had built a wooden top for at some point in time. It had been painted gray and was quite weathered and chippy with peeling paint. For $20 it was mine, I loaded it up, brought it home, sanded down the worst of the chippy paint and then gave it a sheer wash of color that matches the cabinets. I took the main color used on them, thinned it with water and brushed it on one section at a time and then wiped it off with a rag. It gave it a pretty neat finish.
The space is still a little bare... I have to get some shelving up on the walls and have a couple of stand alone cabinets that will be going in here for added storage, along with the artwork to go up on the walls. There is also trim to be hung, curtains to be made, a "skirt" for the table, and I also have a tall beautiful hardwood desk coming that will sit in one corner for additional workspace.
All in all, I'm just VERY excited and relieved that most of the work is done and I'm moved in. Now it's down to the fun part of adding more bits n' baubles to truly make the space mine. In the spring & summer months, my garden is right outside the door .... the lighting in this room is perfect, I can hear my wind chimes tinkling from their post on the deck as I work... it's quite peaceful. Perfect. ♥
Now... on to some new items I just listed in the shop.
Relic - These antiqued brass tribal style shields were given a verdigris patina then hand-burnished to take the finish off the high points, revealing the antiqued brass beneath and leaving the patina in the recessed areas.
I've accented them with hand-wrapped turquoise howlite teardrops and rounds. They hang from antique brass finish leverback earwires.
The overall length from the top curve of the earwire is approximately 3.5".
All components are lead and nickel safe.
Totem - I've wrapped a lovely little handful of glossy black rooster saddle feathers with anti-tarnish silver and a Bali style cap and strung it from 20" of silver plated rolo chain. A sweet little silver bird swoops above, flanked on either side by a turquoise howlite pendant wrapped with anti-tarnish silver wire and a dainty little silver plated locket. Finished with a silver plated lobster claw clasp. Any dark spots you see on the silver are simply reflections.
The overall length of the feather portion of the pendant is just shy of 6".
All components are lead and nickel safe.
And last, I'm now offering 10ml amber roll on bottles in all my scents. I'm working on getting pictures taken of everything and getting them all listed in the shop. I'm still debating on whether to switch entirely over to 10ml roll-ons, or offering both the 7.5ml screw top bottles and roll-ons as well. Decisions, decisions! Here are a couple of pictures of the new bottles. You can find these listings in the shop here -
Screamin' Mimi - and here -
Seraphim. Don't see the scent you want in the roll-ons? Check out this link
here.
And, on the perfumery front, just a couple of quick notes. My Absinthe Sucre is a very popular scent for me, but it is a very rich, sweet, heavy fragrance. One that, for me, lends itself well to cool weather wear. After having a few people express an interest in a lighter, fresher Absinthe blend I do have one in the works. I'll keep everyone posted.
I also have a new musk-based scent that I need to get listed in the shop, Skinny Dip. It's a vanilla musk with a very sweet "cotton candy" note to it. Makes me think of county fairs, bonfires and sun-kissed bare summer skin. So far the reviews on the testers I've sent out have been great. Look for it to debut in the shop within the next week or so.
As always, I typically have lots of new blends in the development stages that I'm constantly tweaking on to get them just right before sharing them with you... another one I'm excited about is Edain - inspired by the goddess of horses in Celtic mythology. It's a lush blend of hay absolute, jasmine sambac, and wild rose.... among other notes. Keep your eyes peeled for it!
And whoooooooooo.... I think this is the longest blog post I've ever made! :-)
XOXO,
Tina
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