AMANDA'S BASKETS: WHERE BLOGGERS CREATE

Thursday, July 17, 2014

WHERE BLOGGERS CREATE - A STUDIO ON THE GO

Welcome to all WHERE BLOGGERS CREATE visitors. I'm happy you're visiting my studio. And yes, it is a studio on the go. Meet Lady J (Explorer) and Duchess (my trailer). Duchess is an eighteen and a half foot Dutchman Sport Travel Trailer with approximately 140 square feet of space...

I did a lot of remodeling after I bought the trailer - removing the very small sofa and the dinette table (which I used for my desk) and two benches - which gave me a lot more space. Here's where I lounge in my rocker recliner.

My craft books are within easy reach on the bottom shelf. And part of my yarn is on the second shelf in a basket along with a basket of journals, sketching pads, etc. I have more yarn in the red footstool next to the recliner.

Above this area is a shelf which holds several boxes of my fabric. I enjoy making mini-quilts/wall hanging so I have lots of small pieces. By the way, those pieces above the recliner are some of my own creations.

My trailer is fully equipped. There's a full kitchen...

And a place to sleep...

The cats sleep on the upper bunk. And to the right of this area is a full bathroom. All the comforts needed. By the way, here are my companions, Chip and Dale...

But the most important place is my creative area.

It may not look like much, but with this set up I have everything I need to do just about anything I want.

The tall set of drawers have my stamps and stamp pads, my acrylic paints, watercolor paints, brushes, spray inks, punches, small tools plus a lot of miscellaneous items...

In the picture below, the top drawer in the left section of drawers contains a variety of different papers to use with multi-media collage, the second drawer contains my stickers and various like items, the third drawer contains a really large variety of printed papers and the bottom drawer has my old items like postcards, magazines and book.

The top drawer in the middle section of drawers contains all my colored pencils, pens, markers, etc. The middle drawer contains my glues and paint items like gesso and extenders. The bottom drawer has all my beads and beading items.

There are several other sets of drawers which contain my ribbons, laces, sewing items, embroidery floss, quilling supplies, etc, etc, etc. The two sets of drawers under the table are on wheels for easy access.

And, there are shelves above this area which contain even more supplies. I even have a sewing machine which is stored behind the recliner when not in use.

So you see, my studio, although small, affords me the opportunity to do just about any type of craft I would like to do even when I'm traveling. And I travel a lot. If you ever find yourself thinking about traveling and wondering if you could still create. Yes you can. I do it all the time.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoyed the tour of my studio and I look forward to seeing you again.

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?