JUST A FERRY RIDE AWAY

Most of the time I take the bike to my studio. Sometimes the tram. But on special occasions, I get a little treat. You see, the building where my studio is, is directly at the Spree, the main river in Berlin.

And a couple of minutes from there we have a little ferry boat crossing the river. Just a 2 minute ride, but still pretty special, especially in great weather.

I didn't get to take a picture of the boat, but it's pretty cute.

And when you get to the other side you are kind of in the middle of a forest.

Isn't that cool?!

IT'S EASY TO KEEP YOUR STUDIO TIDY, ISN'T IT?!

It’s been a while since I closed down my shop. I’d never thought it would take me that long to open it again!! On the one hand, I must have forgotten how intense German bureaucracy can get, on the other hand, underestimated how many business things there are still for me to learn.

At the moment I still haven’t got anything listed in my shop and I’m doing courses and training, which is nice, it makes me feel more secure plunging myself into my business full-time again for a second round.

So, before I get the bureaucratic .. uhm.. challenges moved out of the way, I was wondering what I could do in the meanwhile. And I decided, one of the things that would make work easier for myself once I start it, would be a very well organized workspace.

So, I decided to focus on that. I tend to be quite tidy, but also quite unorganized. When I posted pics of my studios in the past, people have told me it looks quite tidy and how they never get theirs to look that clean.

My Australian Studio

And here is a link where you can have a look at pics from my very FIRST studio.

Same studio as in the picture before

I don’t actually need to tidy up that much before taking pics, but of curz there are days where it doesn’t look quite like that either. And I remember a time when I JUST started my label.. holy shit, I don’t really wanna talk about that, there were a lot of tears, a lot of crawling around the floor and lots of swearing while looking for things.

I used to think I don’t have time to tidy, but then spent 10 times longer looking for things and it seemed, things took me 20 times longer to make.

I’ve noticed from hearing other people and knowing myself, that most people (would) like a tidy workspace, so here are some tips that I’ve figure out for myself on,

“How to keep a tidy workspace” 

•figure out the perfect layout for the space you have: make a list or draw a floor plan of your studio and think about things like storage options and how to save the most space, figure out where everything needs to go.

•once you’ve done that, it’s actually quite easy to keep your shit tidy, if you just tidy up by the end of the day. Allocate even just 15 or 30min and put everything back in it’s place and do what needs to be done, like bringing the rubbish down, taking cups to the kitchen, etc.

•I don’t know about you, but my studio is not a dining room or picnic table, nothing against snacks, but keep it contained.

•make your studio a cozy place, put up nice lighting, get a comfy chair, put up pictures, keep it nice and warm or cool, make it so you love coming in there and you can start working straight away, coz you got everything at your disposal and you are excited to be there.

•tidy up your computer desktop(one of my pet peeves), close down all tabs, bookmark what you need and drag shit you've put on your desktop into designated folders by the end of your work day/night.

And this is my space now

I had an open studio event 2 months back, which I used as a deadline to make my space more inviting and comfy. I gotta say, I like using it much more now. My studio is outside my home and it’s almost like a little home away from home!

What tips have you got to keep your studio tidy and comfy? Post links to pics of your workspace in the comments, I love checking out other peoples spaces!

Thanks for reading!x

WELCOME TO WORM WORLD

GOOD WORM (Candy Dragon Worm)

BAD WORMS (also commonly know as serger worms; they tend to live and crawl out of ur sewing machine, the more u sew the more serger worms u get, if u dont vacuum them away regularly one day u will choke on them)

I adopted Snowball Worm, she made good friends with Brunhilde(in the middle) and sheep(well, that black sheep on the right). Now she spends her days with me in my cutting room, she is very content and quiet. Just lovely!

I also wanted to introduce u to The Worm Lady, but unfortunately i cudnt find a picture of her. This woman is a London poet who participates every second Tuesday in a poetry slam at the Foundry in Shoreditch.

Its crazy, all her poems are about worms, i can barely understand a word of it and shes got quite a following. I think her catch phrase is something like "..and they sway from siiide to siiide" with all her followers chanting along, its really quite a site to be seen and i highly recommend it if u ever get to East London on a particular Tuesday. The Foundry is nice for a drink too, aah the good ol' days!!

LITTLE HELPERS

Today i want to introduce u to my little friends, my work colleagues, my companions.

First there is 'Sheep'. Sheep helps me by making my everyday meassuring tasks a pleasure, it is very hard working(but likes to take long leasure breaks) and very easy going. Its like 'Gadget Sheep', its right leg extending into a measurring tape, always has a cheery smile on its face too.

Then there is the iMice(speakers for my iBook), identical twins, my boyfriend bought them for me, they are right little entertainers, cud be singing away the whole day, if i wud let them.

I'd get a headache before they wud get a sore throat, thats for sure!!

Their favourite song is by Metallica. Why? No one knows.. Maybe coz they can feel really dark and mysterious while singing it. But really they just like THAT ONE song by them.

And thats their favourite band, it must be coz of their eyes, they have this slightly evil glint while singing these songs and when u stare at them for too long, u'll be hypnotized!

This is Brunhilde, my watch dog.

She takes good care of me since we met in the good old days in Berlin. I actually got her from a Free Shop. We were friends from the very first sight and since then she's been sitting on window sills and tables keeping watch for ghosts and crazy people.

At the moment she likes to sit guard on her watch tower made of stacked coasters.

The Free -Shop is NOT a charity shop, its a collective run by a bunch of funny people(theyre all commies) with a great concept. The rules are, u can bring stuff around which u dont need(useful stuff mind u, no rubbish) and leave it there and/or u can also pick things up u need or wud like to take. U dont pay money for them, u dont trade, there is a maximum of 3 items u can take and they got all sorts of stuff there, toys, kitchen stuff, clothes and shitloads of books.

Love the Free Shop, makes me all sentimental(i used to live above it).

Yep, thats where Brunhilde and I met and those are my friends and they and other people join me in my day, like every day!

Thanks for reading!:)

Who do u work with?

MY STUDIO AND I

I wanted to do a blog post on my studio for Aaaaages, but never got around to it timewise.

So here it finally is!

The picture above is a rack my boyfriend made for me for my serger thread spools.

Im so happy with it, so i dont have to have them in a nasty little basket anymore all over the place. Very nicely made, hes very talented.

Some fabrics..

This is the wall behind my sewing table, i added a fake window to it, to brighten it up!

As u can see its full of scrap paper sticked onto it about sizing, shipping prices, new designs, fabric shops, to do lists and little tags people send me.

These are the little piles i work with, i cut the fabric and pin it all together and then put it in little piles on my table, so i can sew them up in one go, they get fluffy sometimes from cutting so i have to brush them with a clothes brush when they are finished.

And this is me working! My boyfriend took this picture aswell as all the other pictures of me in my shop!

Next time i may show u a whole pic of the room, once i pimped it up a bit.

And ill also show u our cutting room, which im very proud and happy to have now!! Yay, it has a ginormous table!:)

Check out my friend Penny working, seeing her blog post yesterday finally gave me the kick up the arse i needed to do mine!

Thanks for looking and id like to see ur studio/workspace, so post ur links in the comments if u want!