Cleaning up Spring

What is it about Spring....

I love Spring.  I was born in Spring.....So many wonderful things have happened to me in my life in Spring...Good luck-ness seems to happen in spring.....

I love the newness......the awakening......the vibrancy of greens......the birds coming back to what seemed like such a dormant garden......and my word does it make my own feathers twitch.  I know we are meant to spring clean at this time of year but something rather overwhelming comes over me, particularly in May, that makes me turf everything out of the nest and re-transform my home and my work room.  Every corner disturbed, every drawer and shelf unpacked and purpose re-thought.....

As you may know I am a hoarder with a capital H.  I can't quite comprehend what it is like on the other side of having to live with me....things arrive in plenty through the front door and letterbox and not much seems to vacate at the same rate of passion.  'Until May'.

So, here I am, middle of May and all in the studio has been sorted, organised, arranged, re-arranged, categorized, valued in worth, re-painted, re-hung, re-positioned, re-considered and most importantly re-freshed.  And it feels great.  It is the only cheap form of therapy I know that places a full stop on what 'was' and re-energises the introduction of the new.  New chapters.  New directions.  New ideas.  New partnerships.  New purpose.  New energy.  New passion.  New reason.

So here is how the studio looks in May......a few new introductions of furniture, all re-arranged and walls re-painted in Plaster Pink....  I wonder where I will be/what I will be doing this time next year....

...and while all this was happening I am engrossed in listening to...

...the Friday-Monday rule....

...I am trying to stick to my new routine of work/family/sanity balance that only allows me to check into my work room on a weekend to answer emails or to indulge in a little internet meandering.  I don't own a mobile phone so my visiting Facebook or Pinterest or Etsy is one taken by being sat at my bureau infront of my pc. 

It is so important that work has a completion line that closes one week and allows the next in line to commence with a refreshed eye.   I have chosen to be a tad organised on a Friday.  This may seem a bit confusing but I leave my work room as if it is the up and coming Monday morning.  I leave new trimmings hanging on the wall, new found visuals positioned on floral grounds, re-awaken textures, tidy and sort and leave the studio with exciting compositions in place.  A sense of a new week before we even approach.  

...so this is how my Monday morning looks to me....I have a list in my diary of orders needing to be completed and sent and while I work on those I ponder what to do with the new fabrics and ephemera that have recently arrived in the studio...I take an acknowledged consideration and nod to completing projects and products that are still only half made - even if it is only another quarter of a mile of stitching I will be still closer to completion that I was last Friday.

....do you have any routines you can share...I love hearing how others organise their week - sometimes I wonder how I manage to complete deadlines when there are so many distractions.....but I do and satisfaction is felt....

arrangements...

 ..one of my favourite 'things to do' is to make simple arrangements and compositions with the new arrivals to the studio...palettes of plaster pink and grey litter the studio today...