Quinn McDonald´s creative space story

Do you yearn for a place to create? This week I talk to trainer, author and business and creativity coach Quinn McDonald, who shares the genesis of her own creative space at home and the work she makes there.

1) When did you start dreaming about having your own creative space? Did you have one as a child?

When I was a child, and until I left home, my bedroom was first a sunporch, then closed in but used as a shortcut to both the garage and to my older brothers' room. Being the youngest, and coming along at a time when parents were practical, and stoic (rather than delighted) about having a child late in life, I never expected a room with privacy, but I wanted one. In college, there was still no privacy, so it was not until I was an adult that I had a space for myself and my work. And ever since, it has been a requirement. Now, I have a space in the former dining room for my office, which is open to all (but no more tidy) and the studio is the guest room, but it still is my studio, in all its glorious mess!

2) The day you stepped into your space for the first time, did you already know how you wanted your studio to look like or did the design evolve from the actual space?

Each time I moved into a new space, I let the space speak up for my current work. The spaces have varied widely in size and location, and each time, it's a surprise to see what developes. My most surprising development was about five years ago, when I moved to Phoenix while my husband stayed behind in D.C. to sell the house. What was supposed to be a few weeks turned into a year. I had a tiny apartment, but I took an art class, and sure enough, a small table and colored pencils grew under the only window.

3) After the work is done, do you clean up after each piece, after each day or whenever you can´t find the table any more?

I leave work out to tempt me to come back and work again. There is always something in progress. If I finish something, I start something else. As a creativity coach, I know that it can happen that you leave the studio and never return, because of the responsibility of creativity. So I always leave more of less of a mess. OK, more, rather than less.

Thank you so very much Quinn for being my guest today!

Inspired to create but don´t know where to start? Quinn gives you five idea on what to write on the first page of your journal here.  

You might be intrigued by the concept of a creativity coach and wonder how it works. Here´s how in Quinn´s words.

Thanks again for illustrating week #37 for me! 

Now on to you. Do you have your own creative space?

Julia Elmore shares her decluttering process to create space for her art

This month Jamie Ridler studios is focusing on making space, just like we are. Here are a few ways you can honour whichever stage of your creative cycle you’re in and Create Space this month.

If you have been procastinating about decluttering I highly recommend reading Julia Elmore´s post "Clearing the clutter to make way for clarity and productivity. I was cheering for her all through the post and it has a happy ending. :D

This month at the Keep it simple, make it work decluttering and organizing series we are looking at the entry ways but today we´ll look at the other side of the house. Recently Julia has conquered another space, a gateway between the kitchen and the back garden and she invites us to see the process. Then I´ll show you some of her beautiful paintings too.

Today has been all about creating a space to play, says Julia.

I have, for rather too long, been working on the dining room table or floor, spreading out and making my art, only to have to clear it all up again in order for my children and I to eat at the table. For too long now, I have been dumping my half-finished projects in a corner of the room until I have a little window to work on them again. Today, all that changed.

Today, I set about clearing the lean-to at the back of my house and making space for my art. It had previously been a dumping ground; an obstacle course between kitchen and garden; a nuisance of a place, dirty and half falling down. However, in taking my art and my passions more seriously, and determined not to let them take over our living space any longer, I made a decision to change this good-for-nothing space into an inspiring place for me to store my art materials and perhaps use to make art. There is no big table out there, so I could continue to use the dining room table or the big table at the bottom of the garden, housing my projects safely in this new space in between bursts of art. Or, I could use one of the wooden boards out there either balanced on top of the drawers or leaning against the wall, paper taped to it, as I have done indoors or in the garden in the past. It is not big, but it is enough.

In truth, it is the message I am giving myself that matters.

It was only in doing this today, in sweeping up the cobwebs and putting the remainder of my ex’s stuff into boxes, that I realised how truly vital a playspace is to productivity and happy home life for me. It is about giving value to my art and what matters to me and separating that from the necessities of family life, such as eating at the table. Simple, but true. Just took me a while to realise this.

Do you have a playspace for your passions? If so, what inspires you about this place? If not, what could you do to create one? I would love to hear your thoughts.

It has been a pleasure to read Julia´s story and I´m certainly going to keep an eye on her site "Be creative daily"  and her gallery of work. One of her pieces will be the illustration for Week 25 next Monday. Come back to see that one!

Self portrait

Fearless

Self portrait Spanish style

AEDM ´12 Day #5

First Monday of the month. Time for a new theme. :D
In November we´ll be going through our craft materials, right in time for Art Every Day Month hosted by Leah Piken Kolidas and also in preparation for the seasonal crafting.

TASK FOR THIS WEEK: papers (ok, this miiiiiiiight take longer than one week ;) )
To begin with: shop at home.
* Gather all your Christmas papers. Scrapbooking papers for cards and seasonal albums and also wrapping paper for presents.
* Gather all your gift boxes
* Gather all your gift bags

For our gift boxes I invited Sarah Keerie who is going  to teach us how to make an extremely cute one. :D

For Art Every Day Month I will be posting my table and work from the previous day.
This is my work in progress on my table on Nov 4th.

And my layout. Now I have started using the stickers in English (my native language is Spanish and that was the only one I had used so far) I´m having new possibilities. :D

Full Moon Monday

Every month images of shoes are displayed prominently in my Full Moon Boards though I don´t as much as you´d think from them.

These are my new summer shoes that I got for Mother´s Day on the 21st.

With my "one in, one out" policy I needed to choose which pair had to go. Plus I rallied Tati to clean her gym shoes collection.

TASK FOR THE WEEK:
* choose which shoes are umcorfortable. They need to go!
* check the soles. Are they even? If not, send them to be rapaired
* check the laces. Are they thinner at some point? Replace them.
* check the shoe shine (now you are humming Gorillaz´s song).

Have you ever used the crumpled newspaper paper inside the shoes to mold them trick?
Of course you could use a shoe tree, and talking about those next week Vani from Ayloviú shows us some intervened shoe trees for charity.

One extra week

For my "Create Space" project this month, I´m going through my wardrobe. I´m taking longer than expected this year with the "change of season" routine. This is why:

I had been using size 48 (14 in the USA and 16 in the UK) for a few years and now I´m one size down. Cool news. And before you ask, I won´t recommend the method as it included 6 weekly dentist appointments. ;) Now I need to weed through my clothes and I will be taking one more week with those.

Many around the world are taking care of their wardrobes as well:

* Suzie, the Foodie in Canada is piling up on warm clothing for her upcoming winter.
* Leanne from Deep Fried Fruit in Australia is decluttering with a mission, she will donate what she does not use any more to organization helping women in need.
* I will add the link later (when I can trace her back) of the girl who is making summer hats. ;)

You can find more clothes references from fab bloggers participating in Blogtoberfest. 

It´s raining everywhere, or so it seems

I have friends all over the world and so many are checking in with rain weather reports that it seems we are all indoors now.
Great time to tell you about the TASK FOR THIS WEEK: wallets, purses, handbags, bags.
For each item:
* Are all zippers working?
* Please read care intructions carefully before cleaning, most purses don´t like water.
* Decide if you are going to keep it, donate it or throw it away.

I found this entry by Leanne from Deep Fried Fruit truly inspiring. She was looking to donate bags and accesories to local women´s refuges or an organization that helps women get back to work.
In the same line, Shionge from So Shiok! is working on a Women´s Back To Work Programme that brings jobs to the heartland with a cool concept of Jobs on Wheels, a van that distributes fliers and forms.

Are you wondering what we will do about bags this Friday? Anne from My Giant Strawberry will talk about bags! Here´s a sneek peek of her work to whet your appetite. ;)

September update: my month in numbers & Day 1 of Blogtoberfest

My month in numbers is a project taking place at Julie Kirk´s blog  where you sum up your month with ... numbers. Lol!  Here are some inspirational instructions on how to go about it.

Here are my favourite 30 pictures (one-a-day) for September.

Pictures kept for September 2012: 193

Pictures forgotten for the "one-pic-a-day" project this month: 0 Yaaaaaay!

Artist´s dates: 5

Faces asked for in Ayala Art´s project: 29

Faces actually drawn: 7

Animé themed fair visited: 1

Kids taken to the fair: 4

Kids who asked to be taken along for next one: 7

Pins bought by Tati: 16

Loquats eaten from the tree: lost count

Blog Guests: 4 Toni, Denise, Tracey and Debbie. It´s been a pleasure to have you here for a playdate girls! :D

And now, on to October!

For my own series of decluttering on Mondays and creating on Fridays we are going to take care of our wardrobes. With the change of season it´s time to move things around.

TASK FOR THIS WEEK: keep an eye on what you are wearing as an act of self care.

* Are you comfortable with your clothes? Are they too tight, too loose?

* Are all the buttons well set? Hems done? No holes? Set aside a slot to take care of all those little things that are weighting you down because they keep getting postponed. You´ll feel SO much lighter afterwards. Promise.

* Are there items you haven´t worn in years? Let them go. Read this article by Danielle Laporte about the importance of space to see the possibilities with keener eyes. 

Blogtoberfest12 prompt #1: Set an intention 

Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. Arnold H. Glasow

That´s it. ;)

Jars and bottles

This jar is sooo pretty! That bottle is so interesting! Glass has a strange hold on me. I want to keep it all ... and I do.
Do you gather jars and bottles too?
Want to do something with them?
Author Debbie Nicholas from Country Heart and Home will be my guest this Friday! She´ll share a crafty project, like the ones you can find in her upcoming book:

Gifts from Your Kitchen: How to Make and Gift Wrap Your Own Presents which you can preorder in Amazon.

TASK FOR THE WEEK:

*gather all the empty jars and bottles around pantries, shelves and tables.

*put them in warm bubbly water to take the labels off.

*wash and rinse them in and out

Each Monday this month I bring you a task to organize your spaces and each Friday something practical or crafty for storage.

Some packaging changes

A few weeks ago I noticed some changes in the food packaging at the supermarket:

One that really surprised me for it´s crafting consequences was the jell-o and crème caramel ones. No more cardboard boxes!!! Just when I had decided that I wouldn´t keep any packaging "just in case" unless I had a project in mind!

I NEEDED a project to use my boxes. That is exactly when I saw Tracey Grundy´s article in Card Making and Papercraft magazine on upcycling with odds and ends: a beautiful project featuring an empty cereal box. I wrote to her asking about the piece and she gracefully wrote instructions for us to make one. Come next Friday to read them, they are very easy to follow and the end result is absolutely beautiful!

Each Monday I bring you a task to organize your spaces and each Friday something practical for storage or crafty for recycling.

Magnetic memories and reminders

 “Once you become aware of what you need, you’ll see recycling opportunities all over.” -- Quinn McDonald.

Oh, yesssss! Absolutely! Now I look at things differently. For example, this month I´m having a look at my kitchen. This is the side of our fridge.
WARNING FOR TRACEY (and other non linear thinkers): darling you may want to skip this picture´s description ;) Go back to reading after the second one.

You sure you are not looking?
Ok, then I tell the rest of you that these magnets are ordered geographically North To South. *grin* First the UK ones, then the Argentinian provinces/cities and finally the USA, Brazil and Germany.

It´s safe to look now everyone!
This is the front, the practical side. I "cheated" a bit and added all the magnets I could find around the kitchen, even in drawers.

I had magnets of places that no longer exist and it seems I take a magnet each time I buy at La Fábrica, which is twice a year for the kid´s birthday parties. They have the best cakes! And fresh, delicious sandwiches.

TASK FOR THIS WEEK: Time to magnet declutter!
* First gather all your magnets.
* Ornamental and souvenir magnets get cleaned and displayed.
* Check the shops/deliveries still exist and are relevant
* Read this post for a creative project with magnets. :)

You may go to Quinn McDonald´s post to see more examples of practical recycling for arts and crafts. She also wrote this post about containers.

I´m reading more and more Organizational blogs and choosing my favourites to follow on Facebook too, like A Bowl Full of Lemons  and I am an Organizing Junkie. Their style is clear and streamlined, just the way I like it. :D

Here are more posts about organizing your spaces and here some about something practical for storage or crafty for recycling.

A mug shot

*giggle* I wonder what kind of traffic I´ll have with that post title. ;) Here´s a mug shot of all our family´s mugs. :D Tati is the one with the biggest mug collection, which reminded me of "How big is your Littlest Pet Shop?"

 Another mug shot, this time our oldest two mugs. I´ve been considering changing them for something a bit more cheerful lately.

You know who makes the most awesome mug huggers? My friend Toni does! Come next Friday for a crafty project with her as my guest.

TASK FOR THIS WEEK: take a look at your mug collection. Any chipped ones that would be better as fun plant pots? Any plain ones that would look nicer with a bit of decorating? Are there enough mugs for a bit of hot chocolate for Christmas? Did I really say Christmas? Yes! Only 113 days to go! I will be joining the ranks of the Organized Christmas this year too. Tune in for the holiday´s planning and crafting these weeks. :D

Each Monday I bring you a task to organize your spaces and each Friday something practical for storage or crafty for recycling.

Stacks and stacks

Each Monday this month I bring you a task to organize your spaces and each Friday something practical for storage or crafty for recycling.

During August we´ve been decluttering our audiovisual collections: photographs, cds, dvds and now it´s the turn for the magazines.

TASK FOR THIS WEEK: go through your magazines. Donate/recycle at least a third of them. Planning on selling some? Give yourself a deadline. If they are not published by September 10th they need to go the recycling way. That way you will not end up with a pile of magazines by the computer waiting for their turn on your to do list and becoming a hazzard.

What´s left of my UK collection

When we lived in the UK I used to buy a ton of mags. Needlecraft, Cross Stitcher and Options every month plus a decoration one (different ones each month) and a check out gossip one from time to time. Daniel went for cars, bikes & business ones. When Mati was on his way I added Parents and some others. I have already decluttered those to the minimum expression.

I´ve been buying a magazine a month here for my Fullmoon boards with canadian coach Jamie Ridler for the past four years. That is a lot of magazines. Time to declutter them again. No more saving them for the day I host a vision boards tea with my friends.

You see, that´s the mindset that gets me cluttered. The "saving for". An event that may never come. If it ever does ... I´ll handle it then. :D

Videos

Each Monday this month I bring you a task to organize your spaces and each Friday something practical for storage or crafty for recycling.

In August we are working through our audiovisual collection. This week we will go through our dvds collections.

TASK FOR THIS WEEK: go through your video collection.

*Get all family members to clean their own collections. As tempting as it is to get the job done quickly: please don´t go getting rid of somebody else´s belongings! All in the name of family peace.

*There are always extended family members and friends that will gladly receive a "new to them" movie and is a great way to get rid of the dvds you don´t like and don´t plan to watch again.

*Plan some type of order to your dvds so you can find them again easily. For example: all your exercising dvds together, kids´movies, war/spies/musicals/etc.

Come next Friday for a Creative Project! :)

The Sountrack of your Life

Each Monday this month I bring you a task to organize your spaces and each Friday something practical or crafty for storage.

August is our audiovisual month and this week will be devoted to cds. Why do I say cds and not LPs or cassettes? A matter of time, literally. Just as it happened with the printed pictures, going through all of your music collection may take more time than you are willing to spend on decluttering this week. Let´s make it easier on us and say cds. :)

TASK FOR THE WEEK: go through your cd collection and separate those that no longer resonate with you, those that you never really liked.  So you noticed I said separate and not toss? ;) Yep, we´ll be doing something with the discarded ones on Friday.
While you go through each cd make groups that make sense to you like: rock & pop, jazz, classical, international, Christmas, soundtracks ...

My family´s ecclectic taste. One cd for each. Any guesses which is whose?

Back in 2010 I posted each week the cd I had downloaded to my laptop. It was the Sountrack of my Life. Not many have changed. What about you? What´s your history with music? Do you have an all time favourite?

Life snippets

 Every Monday in July we worked organizing small objects that we use on a daily basis: pens, papers, jewelry and  make up.
In August we´ll organize our multimedia files, starting by the photographs.

If you only have digi pics, then take this week to:

* put the pictures in the right direction

* delete blurry pics or some of the multiples you took "just in case"

* add appropiate names and general dates to files

* BACK UP!!! Trust me, I´ve been there. Now I don´t delete the pictures from the camera until I have them downloaded AND onto Cds. I also have an external drive as full laptop back up.

If you also have printed pictures take this week to organize and date your albums, beginning by gathering all the pics from around the house. :)

This is what 350 freshly printed pictures look like. I always wait for the 2x1 offers to catch up on my printing. ;)

 Now the organizing part. You need to decide which is the most comfortable way for you to find your pictures again. By event? By person? By theme?
In my case I have several albums:
*family first by family groups and inside those chronologically.
*home by room
*themes (e.g: Disney trip, weddings, etc)
Here you can see the groupings. I added little sticky notes with the dates by comparing the pics to my digital files.

If you like taking pictures of your life, you can participate in {Sunday snippets}: it is a collection of photos from your week. I really like it because this way I can also add the pics that didn´t make "picture of the day" but are still significant to document our family life.  Stop by {tinniegirl}'s blog for more or to play along! I´ll be playing too. :) The tagline is: "No need for words.  Let the pictures tell your story." 

I´m reading more and more Organizational blogs and choosing my favourites to follow on Facebook too, like A Bowl Full of Lemons  and I am an Organizing Junkie. Their style is clear and streamlined, just the way I like it. :D