
The top floor of this little building is my studio. Today Karen Valentine is hosting her 2nd Annual "Where Bloggers Create" party and I've accepted her very gracious invitation. I originally designed this little building as a playhouse for my children. Of all the architectural projects I designed in my previous career, this is the only one I had built for myself. It's tucked into the slope in our back yard with the garden shed downstairs with the playhouse above. When the children grew out of it I moved in.
You enter it from the back up a few steps and through the garden.

A big antique chair sits in the corner waiting for visitors and the walls are covered in friend's artwork, vintage plates, and shelves of inspiring teacups. The artwork over my desk was painted by the very talented Georgia who works for me. The red peanut shaped desk is from Ikea. The plan was to come home with the white rectangular desk featured on the cover of their catalog, but I opted for a bit of fun with hubby scratching his head. There's a story for almost everything here, but I'd love to be able to serve you a cup of tea before I show you around.
Tea is the inspiration behind my paintings and I have plenty to share.
These colorful teabags, mostly from Harney & Sons and Harrisons & Crosfield, become a part of my artwork. My mother's antique pansy teacup was the inspiration for a painting I created here.
I painted the shadows first to avoid smearing the artwork later. Next I added the gold trim, because honestly, it was an easier choice than conquering the pansies right off.
Once the pansies were finished I painted my grandmother's handmade table runner underneath. Eventually this became a Thank You greeting card.
My Studio is always a bit cluttered. The artwork of the boats on the left is a friend's father's unfinished piece I rescued from a local thrift store. I'm sure it wasn't as valuable to the original owner being unfinished, but has sentimental value to me. The Sunflower painting tucked behind the door came from an auction to support the High Schools art program.

As you can see, it's not very big. I have mat cutters, a light table, watercolor paper, pencils, brishes and files of ideas tucked in each drawer.
A white hobmail lamp illuminates my desk beautifully.

I'm finally discovering these liquid watercolors, but my favorites are the set of antique inspired colors which work beautifully for vintage china.

My frien Ali drew this "T-ANATOR" for me which says, "Tea and cake or death, tea and cake or..."

I've painted this very sweet bud vace on a Thank You card when I should have been painting Christmas cards. It's hard painting christmas when your studio is surrounded by roses blooming in the summer. A friend loaned me her rose teacup which finished the setting.

Lace is my favorite thing to paint, but I need to use a very samll brush to fill in all the negitive spaces.
"God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." -Genesis 1:17
I believe that if God created man in His image, with part of God's charator being creative, He also gave man the ability to create. May you clearly see the abilities God has given you to be creative. It doesn't have to be in painting, sculpting, or drawing, it may be in cooking, or planning a fun day out with friends, or even in organizing your home. Whatever gift God gave you, find joy in doing it.
Thanks for visiting, and thank you Karen for a fun event. For more "Creative Bloggers" visit Karen's beautiful creative space at My Desert Cottage and the list of all the participants.
I'm always sure to have one visitor who takes a nap under my desk while I paint.
