It's Thursday

..and you know what that means. For this week again, anyway. I said I'd do totally random this time round by answering a question you set for me; and several of you asked about my workspace.

Here we go - 

My room for making things is on the fourth floor of our house. That is, of course, why I'm High in the Sky. So that's (hold on, I'll check..) 42 steps along several landings and up six sets of stairs. This is good because it's peaceful (unless I'm in a Morrissey mood). This is bad because I don't always hear the doorbell. And, of course, if I do catch it, I run the risk of permanent injury racing back down all the stairs in time to see my new supplies driving away again in the postman's red van. Same goes for the phone. There is no phone on the top floor, due to my own money saving nature. I'll admit it. I can answer The (not So) small One's hamburger (helpfully supplied by Uncle Dave last Christmas); but the line is bad and the goldfish in the tank on her desk give me the evil eye unless I feed them as I talk. Tell you what, leave me a message and I'll get back to you..

So, what would you see if you cam scrapping with me? Stop to get your breath back at the top of the stairs and you'll see my photography spot. I have to be careful about what time of day I use for my shots because the light comes from a skylight; but I like it here. I bought the small Ikea unit recently, and the plan was to keep my photo props and tripod and so on in the shelves. Of course I'm already filling them up with books and magazines instead..

Through the door and you'll find my desk

Two desks actually, though one is only a wallpaper pasting table (when we wallpaper, I'm allowed tp paste. Glue I can do). Let's try and ignore it. My big desk belongs to my sister, but I borrowed it when she moved. That would be, um, about five years ago.It's a great size, big enough to keep the sewing machine up on. But I do have a habit of piling stuff up around me. You can see on the left my "I'm in the middle of this" pile; and on the right the "you're next on my list" pile. 

I don't have any glamorous containers: it's mostly old takeaway tubs stuffed with things-I-might-need-sometime-in-the-future. I have bits from Studio Calico's Pop off the Page class in one at the minute.

Swivel to the right and you'll see - mmm, more storage. That's a work in progress. The unattractive gold trimmed shelf? I bought that from the bargain corner in TK Maxx and I'm planning on painting it. Hasn't happened yet. It holds kits. Beside that you can see the makeshift cardstock holders I cut down from mailing boxes. There's some coloured cardstock I bought from the States when the exchange rate was in our favour; and a couple of packs of Basic Grey Basics I'm loving right now. And there's my spray ink collection.

if you swivel round a bit more, still ignoring the pasting table, you'll see the unit which holds punches, stamps, inks and all my spare paper. It all fits in there - paper filed by colour, punches in one tray and inks in another. I don't buy often but stamps - these ones came with kits - and I don't often but ink. I have a few favourite Jenni Bowlin ones because they give a good result with acrylic stamps. Grey and navy are my current favourites. Then, less than a dozen punches and that's it.

It's only a corner, but it's filled right up. The room's a big one (we could really turn it into two, but we would have to add windows); so if I'm in a mood to be easily distracted I could play with some of the other stuff we have crammed in here. I could have a ride on the Wii bike, but that would be unlikely. I could decide to sort out the guest bed, but that's probably not going to happen. I could play some Smiths on the old stereo..ahh, now that's more like it...play loud music, make more pages faster works for me.

What works for you? It is Thursday after all: let's hear how you work. Or play. Away from the main action in the house? on your own? in a crowd? What makes you want to make? Over to you!