Workspace Wednesday with Jodie York

Hello my memory keeping sisters and welcome to Workspace Wednesday!

18 months ago my four babes and I purchased a tiny 100 year old cottage here in the beautiful Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia. We call this place our home with gratitude and much love in our hearts. It’s small but we make it work because we just love it so much.

I don’t have a craft room or studio but I have a lovely workspace which is part of our cottage kitchen. I create our memory keeping projects, my artwork and run my creative business amongst the life of my family. It’s a classic case of ‘one in all in’ and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We simply love being all together.

How do we make it work? By being organised, by not having excess product, by being completely practical with storage, making sure everything has a place and by being flexible with the use of the space because yes, sometimes I too have to share.

This is my workbench where our memory keeping projects are created. When I need extra space I usually move to our kitchen table which is just to the left of the bench.

I enjoy creating here. There is ample light and everything I need is at arms length. I like to stand when I create and this bench is a fabulous height for me to do this comfortably.

Having your workspace as part of the living area can be handy - I can sneak the odd few minutes to work on a creative project while still keeping an eye on the kids. I want to be with them, not locked away in a separate room on my own. I love to create with life going on around me.

I keep my journaling, stamping and cutting tools in the left draw. Embellishments, stamps and adhesives are kept in the bottom cane drawers. Alas I find it impossible to keep these draws tidy. I use them too often.

All of my journaling cards for our Project Life album are kept in the cream hutch to the right of my workbench in the top two little draws. My page protectors are in the larger draw below them.

All my favourite stamps that I use on a regular basis are kept in a cane basket on one of the shelves beside some white 3x4 and 4x6 white Project Life cards.

I keep my Studio Calico Project Life kits on this shelf along with my mini album and cutting tools. Our miscellaneous craft supplies can also be found here. They are used by my babes but are supplies that need a bit more adult supervision hence why they are stored up high.

I try and have no more than two Studio Calico Project Life kits ‘active’ at any one time. Since my product purge I have made a conscious and determined effort each month to use up as much of the product included in the kits as possible. So far so good. Yes, I have those moments of looking at a scrumptious embellishment and just wanting to hide it away simply so I can look at it forever…sigh…BUT I just breath and use it to embellish a fabulous family memory.

I print all my photos at home using an Artisan 1430 printer from Epson. This printer takes up a lot of table space so it’s home is on top of the kids school bag shelves I had these wooden shelves made to hold all my 12x12 papers. Since my product purge I haven’t needed them so it makes a perfect school bag storage area. I’ve set my printer to chat to my computer wirelessly so it doesn’t matter that it is away from my workspace. It’s also a good reason to get up and keep moving. I have a second printer there for scanning and printing anything the kids need.

Opposite my workbench and under one of our kitchen windows is where I create all my brush script commissions, posters and canvases. The wooden table is very special to me. It was my great grandfathers. He handed it down to his daughter and it was used for years on their farm for many family gatherings. My grandmother gave it to my mother and my father renovated it beautifully. I now use it to create art on.

My go to tools for my memory keeping projects are journaling pens, trimmer, blank white Project Life cards, Design A Project Life page protectors and my printer.

I like to keep my memory keeping projects simple. As a result I don’t need a lot of space for storing products. Less is more for me. I don’t feel overwhelmed by too many proudcts taking up my workspace and this in turn helps me to maintain my creative mojo.

I love looking at other creative’s workspaces and find it inspiring to see how people maintain their areas. I have loved showing you a piece of our home and my workspace on this Wednesday.

Thank you! XO

About a year ago I had a massive purge of most of my memory keeping products. It was the best thing I ever did for my creativity. If your experiencing a lack of creative mojo or are feeling overwhelmed by too much product you are certainly not alone. I was there too but I changed and my darlings if I can do it you absolutely can too! I wrote about how here on the Studio Calico blog in a post called Use Your Stash.

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And don't forget that PREVIEW is happening in just a few hours! Join us for a live chat at 11:00am EST and then for a preview of August's kits at 12:00pm EST! Hope to see you there!