My name is Charlotte, sometimes known as Ms Lottie, occasionally as The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady. This is my blog, where you'll find me writing a lot about my quilting and textile arts and a little about my family's life in a small seaside town in New Zealand. Haere mai!

Thursday, November 10, 2016

My New Kettle (and Studio)

Following on from my last post, when I heard the news that I no longer had a studio, I wallowed for a little while, then I put the problem out to the universe.  I asked friends and family for ideas and help, and the discussions that followed pushed me to think about what I really would like in a studio if I could have anything I wanted.

The list was long!  It included: water, power, space, light, storage and all the other things artists usually want.  But it also included security of tenure.  I wanted to be somewhere that I wasn't at the whim of other people's decisions.

I had some amazing offers and I want to thank those people, it was humbling to know people wanted me in their spaces, but my husband and I came up with an alternative solution that really ticks our boxes.

A nice sunny spot that's all mine! The curtains are up because the carpets were being cleaned.

We own a rental property a couple of minutes drive from our boat and it has a small flat downstairs.  The woman who had been renting it bought a house so she was moving out.  Then we sold our old house where we lived before we moved onto the boat (yay!).  We stored our furniture in a shed there when we moved aboard - now we would have to rent a storage unit for it.  And our rental property needs some serious maintenance work to the gardens.

So the plan came together like this:  We would take the bottom flat for ourselves, using our stored belongings to furnish it.  It would be my studio, our storage facility, our landside base if we ever wanted to get off the boat (storms, pulling the boat out of the water for anti-fouling etc) and we could also put wwoofers or Helpxer's in to help with the gardens and work on the boat - it always needs sanding and painting in one spot or another!  The best thing about the place is that we own it, nobody can kick me out and I can make as much creative chaos as I like!

There's a little bedroom, bathroom and laundry down the hall.

I'm getting excited about it now.  I wasn't, purely because I've spent several weekends shifting out of the studio and our furniture out of the shed, and the last thing I wanted to do was to shift it all back in again!  But I've taken a week off while I wait to get the carpets professionally cleaned and now I'm rearing to go again.

And I bought a new jug....


6 comments:

  1. Congratulations.............looks like the universe delivered you a happy result. Put the new jug on and celebrate!

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  2. Yay - all good then :)

    Our house is finally being rebuilt here - we have an excellent builder this time and Habitat for Humanity is also on board and we will get a give a little page through them. After two years of hell I can hardly believe this is real!
    viv

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  3. Oh hooray! I am so happy for you! Security is key though the othet qualities are important as well. I hope you will get some good studio furniture etc.

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  4. Looks like everything is starting to work out... the studio looks an ideal space and it will be good to see how you "fit" with the space.

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