Studio Diary: January 6, 2018

My Studio Diaries gather raw and real inspirations and insights of life in my studio. They are not finished pieces but works in progress intended to let you in to the world of this one creative heart.

The Studio

I’m officially wrapping up holidays and ready to get back into the studio full-time. I’m excited about the season ahead and ready to return to my regular practices – starting the week with intention with Mindful Mondays, wrapping up the week with the wonderful women of Journal Club. I’ve also got a new project – a brand new class that’s all about dance: Awakening. It’s been awesome doing “research” by playing songs and moving and grooving around the house! I cannot wait to share this experience and hope that lots of people will sign up and welcome dance into their life this February!

A Clothing Challenge

Friday nights are sister time and this week Suzie, Shannon and I took on a clothing challenge. Could we go to Value Village and buy an entire outfit for just $20? I shared the experience live on Instagram Stories and am currently writing a post about the process – how we did and what we discovered. It was interesting to see how looking for an outfit changed our approach to shopping!

The Reno

This category is bound to start showing up more and more in the days ahead. On Saturday Justin and I went out to a local coffee shop with our notebooks and started exploring our plans for the house in much greater detail. Over coffee we plotted out our entire main floor from flooring to trim to lighting. Now we’re deep into researching banquettes and gas fireplaces!

We were also playing around with the idea of some additional walls (Yes, even though everyone loves open-concept, it’s not necessarily our thing) so I popped into Value Village again and bought a $4.50 King-size sheet that we could pin up as if it were a wall. It gave us a quick impression and helped us experience what it would feel like if that new wall was there. This experiment resulted in a “no” for one location and a “yes” for another. Progress!

We’re also experimenting with furniture layouts throughout the house so that we can plan based on what’s working for us. On Sunday we flipped the living room around entirely!! Couches, lighting, the television – everything was moved into a new location and lots of sweeping and dusting was done! At first the change felt awkward and I was thoroughly unconvinced but bit by bit, as we solved problems and came up with ideas, the room started to come together in a new formation.

With each layout there are wins and losses. In the new setup, we gain ease in the flow of traffic through the room (a priority for Justin), the seating is tucked away in a more private spot (I liked this a lot) and the one window we have becomes more of a focal point for everyone. On the other hand, we lose some seating (a concern for me) and too easy flow through the room might make it feel more like a hallway than a cozy welcoming space! We’ll keep it this way for a while and see how our opinions shake out. I certainly found myself liking it more than expected.

Justin has a real gift for setting up spaces and this change was all him. My contribution was honestly simply being open to the change! Now… I can’t say the cats feel the same!