I had a lovely chat this morning with Dawn from www.decoratedshed.com  who is working on writing something on her blog about working from home.

I thought her recent blog post about homeworkers saving money and being greener was excellent - she obviously recognises what working from home is all about!  Read more here: www.decoratedshed.com/blog/article/10_Ways_Working_From_Home_Saves_You_Money

If you are thinking about working from home, or if you already do and are thinking of expanding into your garden space, do have a look at www.decoratedshed.com - their garden buildings really are amazing: stylish, modern, substantial and lots of choice too!

curved lodge garden building

I want one for an office!!!  My garden studio (a heavily disguised garage extension!) is a fab place to work but because it’s built from concrete blocks, my phone and internet are not at all happy in there.  I do have a back-up plan - I’m going to build an office at the back of the (brick-built) garage - oh, but how lovely would a separate office with lots of glass be?  It’d be (almost) like working in the garden!!

garden office

There is a reason I’ve called this post “Don’t Touch My Craft Room”.  Really.  Other than the fact I’ve had a bit of a re-organisation in my crafting space and plan to share some of the piccies here with you.

Here’s the reason:

craft room door plaque

One of the door plaques I sell is this one.  It surprised me that so many crafters attend craft fairs as customers (I don’t know why that fact surprised me - I attend as many craft fairs as I can as a customer even though most weekends I’m selling at them) - I only know they do because they buy this plaque.  The wording seems to be something many crafters definitely associate with!

It’s available as a hanging plaque too.

hanging plaque for craft room wall

I can change the wording.

personalised version

If you’d like a craft door plaque of your own, here’s the link: http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/doorplaques.2.html

And if you’d like the hanging plaque: http://www.1stuniquegifts.co.uk/hangingplaques.html

But now onto my space.  As home-based workspaces go, it’s quite a generous size - I’m very lucky, I know.  I still manage to fill it - and mess it up!! 

This is the main space I use for painting:

my painting area

It’s often quite messy.  But also sometimes a bit like a production line:

watching paint dry

Round the corner, there are even more shelves of items ready to be finished off:

waiting to be finished and packed

It’s sometimes quite organised.

white boards

 The whiteboards keep me on track (mostly) - I update them daily.

It’s not just practical stuff that finds its way onto the walls.  I’ve put up some of my own paintings and you’ll also find postcards and photos that inspire me on the walls.  The beach hut canvas is one of mine.  I was inspired to paint this after getting lost in Devon one night.  I had to stop the car in a mad frenzy of excitement when I saw beach huts in the dark lit up by fairy lights.  It was magical, although the rest of the family thought I had completely lost the plot by this point.  They may well have been right.

pics on the wall

More of my paintings in another corner.

my paintings

This bit of the studio is a bit messy:

untidy area

I love sewing too but my poor sewing machine is feeling a little neglected these days.  It is a fabulous machine and deserves much better.  I will dust it off soon (promise!) and may even do a bit of something creative with it as well as the practical (read: boring) jobs I have lined up for it to tackle.

my sewing machine