This is my studio, it’s on the 3rd floor of our home…It is where I make my jewelry, color, sew and paint, yoga room and even wrapping central at Christmas…as you can see in the photo, my jewelry caddy is bursting with tools, beads and findings…also the drawers behind the chair are filled with materials for all my crafts…the project I am working on now is laying out on the table…  My studio is also a guest room for Aaden and our niece Kara or whoever wants to enjoy the top floor of our home…we playfully call it the penthouse because it is so far up you can see the rooftops…it’s especially beautiful when it snows!!  I have not bought any new decor for this room, it is all furniture and accessories from many years ago…  This table and ladder back chair are from when Victor and I first got married, it was our kitchen table in our first home 46 years ago…I bought the table and four chairs, unfinished before we were married and it took me, a 19-year-old, 3 months to finish them on my parents back porch…they are in amazing condition for being that old…I must have done a good job…

This is the view from the windows in my studio, we are level with the rooftops…on a snowy day, it is warm and cozy in this room…We also have a twin bed for guests in this room,  but for me it is a comfy daybed to take a nap😉…It can easily be pulled out to make up as a bed for our company…When Aaden stays with us, the pillows go on the floor and the bed is filled with his favorite stuffed animals!!!

This is the coloring project that I am working on now…it is a mandala wall hanging that Gina gave to me last Mother’s Day…I am coloring it with colored pencils, but first I used watercolor to fill in the background…  This wall hanging is going in the loft at our beach cottage on Cape Cod… We have owned it for 32 years and it will be such a joy for me and I hope for you, to introduce you to our cottage, probably around Memorial Day!!! Now back to my project…I have a strip of wallpaper from our living room on the Cape, laying next to the mandala, all the colors in the cottage coordinate with this wallpaper, so I want to make sure the colors I choose for this project will match….they are blue like the ocean, yellow like the sand and coral like the sunset!!

Me working on my mandala and the progression so far…as you can see on the last photo the bottom right side is mostly done and shaded in…I’ll show you the finished product this summer, hanging in the beach cottage loft…

✻REPURPOSE AND FIND A MEMORY✻

I like to repurpose, recycle and reuse whenever I can…like the old table and chairs from our first kitchen, they may be out of style but they function perfectly and have a place in my heart…but older and more precious is the vintage suitcase I use as a coffee table in my studio…It belonged to my mom and she used it for her honeymoon, 76 years ago!!!  And the treasure I found inside…This is an 11″X14″  professional photo I found rolled up in the suitcase some time ago…My mom is the second from left in the first row…It is a graduation from a sales program at Hovey’s Department Store in Boston, probably in 1938…Hovey’s was where Jordan Marsh was and now Macy’s in Downtown Crossing…She worked at Hovey’s until she married my father…What a treasure!!