Castle in the Clouds

 There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.


Yes, I have a normal job, my life is not all creativity and smelling the roses.  Annually we survey our employees and spend our energy working toward being a "great place to work".  This year, I am serving as the "Great Place to Work" champion.  It occurred to me as I made my way home the other day that the creatives of the world need a "great place to work".  Having housed my talent and endeavors until now in a small attic room. I am so appreciative of the space I now have to stretch out that I find myself savoring the place as much as the artistic process. This is my encouragement to you to find your space.

A Victorian desk laden with a wrought iron garden piece is my main creating space. The shelf nearby came out of my Mom and Dad's shed where it was destined for certain demolition. I added baskets dry brushed white for art supplies. Old silver-plated pieces house my collaging tools and paint brushes.

Surrounding myself with the beautiful remains of the past inspires me so I have lots and lots of small vintage treasures that I picked up at estate sales.  These tiny obsessions fill wooden shelves and cover every available surface. A tiny metal Tootsie Toys piano sits next to a Victorian pincushion in the shape of a shoe...and there's Mr. Peanut, a retro salt shaker from the 1930s.  Angels and crucifixes, old perfume bottles and rhinestone purses, silver candlesticks and dried roses...it all adds to the ambiance in my creative space.
 

                                                                                A room without a chandelier is a room with no light. I've added paper mache angels to mine and continue to add vintage prisms as I find them.Vintage lighting can be found at estate sales and restored to working condition. If pieces are missing, get creative.    The top hardware on mine is made from a scrolly metal base I picked up somewhere and a vintage clockface! You must have one.  I insist.
                                                                                                     

A picture that hung in my grandmother's bedroom and then in my mother's keeps them near me while I work.  The dark cabinet of drawers on the right is where I house all of the supplies for our Gilded Gypsies jewelry. The chair is a turn of the century piece which I layered with loads of paint and gook to get a distressed vintage finish. I am one of those people who never researches how to do something, I just start splashing and sawing.  Clearly, I'm lawless......and dangerous. But the point is that if I can figure it out, anyone can. This is shoestring decor as the only pieces I paid any real money for were the desk, the multi drawer cabinet, the wrought iron trellis and the gold tabletop under the window.  Everything else was rescued and refurbished.

Favorite Things
Victorian Silver-plate
Victorian Shoe Pincushions
Religious Relics, Rosaries, and Crucifixes
Vintage Photographs and Tintypes
Antique Gold Leaf Frames
Tootsie Toys Dollhouse Furniture
Vintage Clocks
Small Vintage Books
Vintage French Postcards

Music is a must have in a creative space. Some of my favorites:
Overwhelmed ~ Big Daddy Weave
Sunrise ~ Norah Jones
Across the River ~ Bruce Hornsby
The Way I Am ~ Caroline Pennell
If I Didn't Know Any Better ~ Mindy Smith
Whom Shall I Fear ~ Chris Tomlin
Paperweight ~ Schuyler Fisk & Joshua Radin
Perfectly Lonely ~ John Mayer 

~ Marie ~
        

There are no rules of architecture for a 
                              castle in the clouds. ~G.K. Chesterton