8 May 2018

Making the Most of Small Spaces part 2

CeCe's room is the smallest room, and though tiny I've never let that get in the way of her having everything she needs - without it looking like a toy junk shop!. You can read about her little desk space we created here. While I loved it and it worked wonderfully I'm always trying to think of new ways to free up space and to encourage her with her creating and so I'd had my eye on some kind of memo board for a little while. The Ikea Skadis pegboard was the perfect solution (by the way this is in no way sponsored I just love passing on my love of really beautifully designed and functional products!).

I've passed on my love of stationery to the girls and this is one of the reasons I think this pegboard works so well as it displays your stationery like little pieces of art. CeCe doesn't need any encourage to start making, but i do think that it is so enticing about seeing all your tools and equipment for it all neatly displayed and ready for action! It's sort of like having her own studio space, don't get me wrong when space is tight you really do need to come up with many different space saving solutions and often they will be using spaces for many different purposes which may mean having to tidy away things when not in use. However, it is lovely to just have a small space for creating that can just stay out and ready waiting for new beginnings.
Like mother like daughter, she has rearranged the pieces on there so many times! It's completely changeable as you buy all the pots, clips and hooks separately allowing you to change it up as you require. I would have liked to have gotten a colour, however the white does let the brighly coloured pens and washi tapes sing - but it would be so simple to spray it though if you wanted to.

I've added a felt pom pom garland, a frame from a charity shop with an Alice Apple illustrated postcard from Five Little Diamonds - I'll do a separate post about this gloriously kitsch shop soon as I am now a brand rep for them which is so exciting! A 'C' coaster from Magpie Line, this red habitat light that I love and various other bits from Flying Tiger. And yes that is a crochet Augustus Gloop! My friend Jane had a wonderful Willy Wonker themed party for her son last year and this was one of the many beautiful hand crafted creations!

I know it is a bit of a cliche but come spring I do always feel like a bit of a clean and so I rearranged my shelves - one of my most favourite activities! I initially wanted to make everything a bit brighter, but generally in the end I just took quite a few things away and I think I've let the things I do have 'breathe' a bit more.

I'm not sure if you can quite see but I added a small shallow dish I made at Clay Club with designer Beci Callow. She runs clay workshops in Leigh on Sea and Chelmsford, and they are so lovely to go to. I make all the time, but I do think there is something so beneficial about going to learn new things in a very hands on way from other maker/designers. I'm so pleased with how it came out, I love that you don't quite know how your piece is going to turn out and so it is such a joy when you get to see the piece when it has been fired.

I also bought these gorgeous tiny spice spoons from Beci as how could I not?! They are just the sweetest thing! The girls think they're fairy spoons, and I think they'll be just the thing for styling photos of small scale things.

And the spring flowers, sadly these beauties which bloomed over Easter are almost gone, but I had to capture them before just to show you. We're currently planning what to do with our front garden as these few weeks in spring are the only times it looks nice, so this could be the last time we see it like this, which is sad but it would be so nice for it to look a bit happier for the rest of the year.