Studio Dream

I have been felting for a number of years now, and my current plan is to ramp up from a part time to a full time career once my three children are all in school.  But I am not organized.  I have wool and craft materials all over the house.  I get side tracked by laundry.  And dishes.  And DIY home projects.  And cooking.  You name it.

Anyway, I have a dream to seperate my home and work (a little) by having a studio on our property where I can  store all my craft supplies,  where I can teach small classes and where I can sell some products.  I have started doing research: there is a whole movement of building tiny houses!  "The Tiny House Movement."  Who knew!  Here are some cool ones:


http://www.materialicious.com/2009/04/farm-buildings-into-tiny-houses.html
Okay, so this one might not meet my needs for a studio/shop.  But I have been teasing my brother-in-law for years that I was going to make a home out of an old grain bin.


http://tinyhouseblog.com/earthcob/little-cob-cabin/
This one is cute.  Not practicle for my needs, but cute.  Check out the inside!


Love the stone floor and counter top!  Love the windows!


Looks pretty spacious too!


How cute is this one?  Perfect for New England!  Highly functional, and beautiful.

So I have been brain storming on how to turn my shed/chicken coop into my studio.  Some basic needs for my studio space are:

water (for cleaning, rinsing and felting wool)
1/4 bath bathroom (for classes)
electricity
heating of some sort
shelving for display of wool and products
stove top for dying wool.
Drying racks
a loft for wool storage
Windows.
And I'd like to have a place to sleep of some sort for friends and family to stay in when they come and visit me.

Amazingly enough, I have gotten some very practical ideas from Jill Barklem's childrens books.   She has amazing illustrations!

Perhaps I'll start my conversion next summer.  I'll have to start with building a new chicken coop.

Becoming a Country Bumpkin

Did you know I used to live in Minneapolis?  Within the city limits?  Within walking distance of downtown?  Yup.  I lived in the Midwest for a whole decade.  I used to live in the thick of it.  I ordered fancy $4.00 coffees at cool coffee shops.  I ate out all the time.  Oh, the food .... the food!  I used to go to music concerts.  And (gasp) I shopped for my clothes in a mall.  I admit, I have never been overly fashionable.  (Those of you who know me well need not nod your head in whole-hearted affirmation.)

Then, John and I decided to up and move to a little town in NH.

I didn't realize I made the slow transformation from hip twenty-something-year-old living to thirty-something-year-old rural life.  But it happened.  It hit me like a ton of bricks.   Recently flying back to Minneapolis showed me that.  There were some seriously swank women in the airport.

Apparently skinny jeans are cool.

Apparently baggy jeans aren't.  They are kind of frumpy.

Apparently wearing your hair in a messy bun is so '90s.

Apparently I should get those boots I love - and wear them on the outside of skinny jeans.

But I hate skinny jeans.

And, like an old person, I gasped at the price of a small coffee in the airport.

It is official, folks.  I think I might be an aging country bumpkin.

So I bought some lipstick.  "Lip Shimmer" actually.

But I can't give up the banjo or quilting or my pick-up.  I just can't.