Damaged Books & Brightening Things Up

Happy Friday! Woooohoooo! And Happy Valentine’s Day, for what it’s worth.

If you want to know my general approach to Valentine’s Day, you’re welcome to read my one and only poetic tribute to Valentine’s Day here.

The cynical tone of that poem might lead you to think I’m not a fan of Valentine’s Day. But not so! There are, after all, quite a few heart-ish embroidery designs on Needle ‘n Thread that have shown up around many Februaries over the past 19 years: Will Ewe Bee Mine monogram collection; this free Bloomin’ Heart design; this free swirly heart design; this Heart o’ Flowers design; this branch heart design; this hearty kaleidoscope design (published in July, actually); and of course, Key to My Heart, which happens to be one of my most popular project e-books.

So I’m not opposed to Valentine’s Day, but I don’t really get into that much, either. Maybe I need to buy myself flowers or chocolates or something, to change my perspective? Brighten the day up a bit! LOL!

In the meantime, though, I’m brightening things up and combating the doldrums of winter in a different way here in the studio, and I thought I’d show you how.

Before we start, though, a quick announcement: there are some damaged books for sale in the shop right now. You can find those in this listing. They include Enchanted Embroidery, too. The damage on the books is not severe – often, it’s just a dinged corner or two on the book, and not very noticeable at that. Be sure to read the descriptions if you’re interested in picking up some damaged books at a discount!

When we were preparing for the Open House here at Needle ‘n Thread before Christmas this past year, I discovered that Christmas gift wrap was a terrific way to close off our open cubby shelves and eliminate the visible background clutter of our storage and shipping area.

During the Open House, we taped Christmas wrapping paper to the backs of the cubby shelves to help cut down the clutter that was visible when looking through the open cubby shelves.

We liked it!

But Christmas has come and gone. And it is time for a change! So this week, I decided a cheery upgrade was in order.

If you look at these cubbies that haven’t been papered yet, you get the idea of the clutter that shows through to the front of our work space.

This half of the cubby wall is devoted right now to organizational and storage space, rather than pretty displays.

But I still plan to back the cubbies with paper, so that the tools and production materials on those shelves don’t compete with the shipping and storage in the back of the studio.

I found this darling blue, white, and green striped floral paper that is exceptionally cheery and light. I think this paper will carry us nicely into summer, keeping the front of the studio looking tidy, neat, and bright.

During the Open House, so many of our visitors examined these shelves and their contents with great interest. In the cubbies, we displayed many finished embroidered items, along with interesting older books, needlework tools, embroidery accessories and nicknacks, and a variety of gifts and cards that I’ve received over the years.

We liked the display so much that we decided to dedicate half the cubbies to rotating displays all year long. I love walking into work and seeing these shelves now! They make me happy – and our occasional visitors enjoy them, too!

And that, my friends, is just a little glimpse of Studio Life for you today.

It’s important to keep one’s workspace visually pleasing and comfortable, don’t you think? And this time of year especially, when gray days outnumber sunny and when the gloom seems to stretch on interminably, it’s really important.

Anything that wards off the winter blues and adds a little extra cheer and brightness to life is a good thing in my books!

Wishing you a marvelous weekend!