Where Bloggers Create 2014: My Crafty Nook

Hello, and welcome to Twigs and Tulle!

My name is Michaele Sommerville, and I am thrilled to once again be participating in this online tour of creative spaces and inspiration!  Many thanks to Karen at My Desert Cottage for hosting this fabulous event.  Won't you come on in and have a look around?

Over the years my crafting space has grown and changed significantly.  Once relegated to a single basket full of yarn and crochet hooks tucked near the corner of a couch, I began to give myself additional space over time as my family and I relocated to and from military posts in New Mexico, Kansas and Texas, finally landing permanently in Oz.  Once my husband retired from the Army and we found our "forever home," he insisted that I have an entire room devoted to my crafts.

The doorway has some convenient hooks and an apron waiting for me, and is what catches my grosgrain ribbon once cut, keeping it organized.

Here's the view as soon as you're all the way into my crafty nook.  So many crafters and artisans refer to their space as a "studio," but I haven't been able to shake the nickname I used when I first carved out a little corner for myself and my crafting supplies years ago.  "Nook."  Of course my husband thinks "Mom Cave" is a more appropriate reference (see the pillow on my chair?).  

Speaking of chairs, if you visited last year, you'll remember the green beauty.  I'm happy to report that I found a friend for it:

My cubby storage is full of fabric bins, and those are stuffed-to-overflowing with crafty items such as tinsel, holiday garland, styrofoam forms, bottle brush trees, ephemera, tulle, adhesives and photographs.  The top row of cubbies is open so that I can tuck glass jars, bottles, and repurposed candy dishes in them.  Once housed along the window ledge, our new cat, Buck, demonstrated how ~fun~ it was to push them out of the way onto the floor several times, spilling ribbon, buttons, and spangles.  I'm still missing a glass jar and cork stopper from his last attempt at reorganizing my space...

Lighting, knick knacks, artwork and additional storage can be found on top of the cubbies:

A tiered cupcake holder with tea cups and candle votives caches a lot of goodies like beads and buttons.

This past year I taught myself how to solder, and have made many charms and ornaments for the holidays.  I like to keep some of them displayed in a shadow box near the door:

Here's the view from my green chairs.  I adopted a paper rack when a craft store went out of business, and it fits perfectly between my bunting bars (want to see what's in the closet?):

My card catalog stores my ribbon, keeping it neatly organized by color:

                  

My desk is where I do most of my blogging, and I added a mini dress form to it when I began making charms:

Nooks, cubbies, and more storage.

My file cabinet has been turned sideways, and I covered its blah exterior with wrapping paper (of all things), prettying up the magnetic display.

Little boxes and drawers appear safer on the ledge than my glass bottles and dishes were.  Buck-the-Cat hasn't shown any interest in getting into them... yet.

But I am surprised that he hasn't attempted to dig through the contents of the bins:

Finally, a narrow yet tall bookshelf helps to keep all of my favorite crafting magazines, inspiration books and journals safe:

Thank you for visiting!  I hope you've found something that inspires you to give yourself the gift of a creative space, be it a desktop, corner nook, portion of the den, or entire room!  

~Michaele~