Details

To start with, let me just say that though I’ve been craving a dedicated crafting space for years, I had no idea how ridiculously happy it would make me. I’ve been sewing today – in my new Dedicated Crafting Space – and every so often I would pause and just… savour the feeling. I’m either mad or just counting my blessings.

Anyway, this is what it looks like when I’m in the middle of something:

At least for the moment, it's unlikely to stay this tidy
At least for the moment, it's unlikely to stay this tidy

Furnishingwise I’ve mostly been working on details today, figuring out what goes where on the shelves, hanging another picture and so on. Some details, therefore:

Two prints hung
Two prints hung
Too true
Too true
A library worthy of Jorge Louis Borges
A library worthy of Jorge Louis Borges

The top print is from The Black Apple on Etsy, and was purchased about a year ago, I think. I’m thrilled to finally have it up on the wall. It’s been languishing in its shipping envelope since it arrived, as I really had no place to hang it, but I just had to have it anyway. The quote, by the way, is attributed to Morrisey. The bottom one is also from Etsy, from Industrial Fairytale, and arrived only last week – and it’s still available, so if you want one for yourself, go get it!

I’m liking the way this is working out so far, the plan is still to fill the wall with book-related prints and such. I’m expecting to stick to black frames to create some sense of order, and I’m also expecting to take my time filling the space, waiting to find pieces that I really love instead of falling for the temptation to buy things just to fill it. I also know I have several things in boxes and such that might work.

The frames are Ribba from IKEA, and the one problem I’ve discovered so far is that the passepartout in these are for A4, whereas the prints, naturally, are American letter size. If you click one the images to get a larger version you can probably see that there is a gap on either side of the print. I’m going to have to get new passepartouts done, in other words, but in the meantime this will have to do. Having them on the wall makes me happy, gap or not.

The reading nook before adding the last picture
The reading nook before adding the last picture

Another detail to note is the lovely little pillow, which is from Syko. I’ve been a faithful reader of her blog for quite some time, so I had to have one of her creations – I also bought her book, Scandinavian Stitches, which is quite wondeful.

The curtains, by the way, are moving into the lass’ room when we get a rod up in there, and I’m making new ones for this room. If she ever “grows out of them” though, they might well be moving back, since I’m still as much in love with them as I was when I bought them before she was born.

Reading

It should come as no surprise that I like reading. And books. And any art that involves either is immediately interesting to me.

For the hobby-/guestroom we had planned to get a Hemnes daybed from IKEA, furbish it with proper mattresses and quite a few pillows and a good reading light, so as to cater for guests (hence the essential “good mattress”) and reading (pillows and lamp, though the essentialness is a bit overlapping, obviously). The nice people of IKEA decided to have a 30 % sale on Hemnes this week, so we now have one Hemnes flatpacked on the floor, waiting for this weekend when we plan to move the lass into her new room, thus freeing up the space in the would-be guestroom.

Over the daybed, I’m planning to frame reading related “things”. I have som old (well, late 90’ies) ads from Waterstone’s (that I just LOVE), and I have one or two prints purchased off Etsy. I would like some more of the latter, though, so today I’ve been browsing, and tomorrow, once I’ve had time to consider which ones I really like the most, I’ll be putting in a few orders.

Here are some of the ones that immediately appealed to me:

read1

 

“The reader” by Majalin

read2

“Girl reading” by Belafonte (Emma Leonard)

read3

“The boy who liked to read” by TheExtentofSilence

read4

“One Story More” by trafalgarsquare

read5

“Books can take you anywhere” by TheLittleFox

read6“Reading is rad”/”Girl in green socks” by Artisjustfrozenmusic ( Carla Thursday)

Since it’s expected that the lass will use the space as well as us “grown ups”, I quite like the idea of mixing the styles a bit, rather than sticking to a more coherent collection. Since they have a common theme, I think they’ll work together anyway.

Have you seen any reading-themed illustrations lately? Please let me know in the comments, I’d love to get some tips for more candidates.

Etsy inspiration

I’m in the middle of a new quilt project (pictures to come) and needed some input on sizing, so I thought I’d do an Etsy search to see what other people have done. And boy, have they. Done things, I mean. I was expecting drool-worthy stuff, I must admit, and I was not disappointed. Here’s a selection, saved for future inspiration:

baby patchwork quilt from olivetreetextiles
baby patchwork quilt from olivetreetextiles
Handmade Fussy Cut quilt from sewsecret
Handmade Fussy Cut quilt from sewsecret
Strawberry Surprise from Spoolnloops
Strawberry Surprise from Spoolnloops
Modern Baby Quilt by Red Pepper Quilts (knitknat)
Modern Baby Quilt by Red Pepper Quilts (knitknat)Mrs. Roy G. Biv Quilt Pattern from CarolinaPatchworks