Creating Space,

I’m on day three of a four-day weekend (we take Easter very seriously in New Zealand, you see—no commercials on TV on Good Friday and you can’t buy alcohol in the stores on Easter Sunday) and I don’t know what it says about me that all last week I was looking forward not to an exciting weekend trip or a lavish weekend party but instead: not getting out of my pajamas all day Friday. I kept planning all the things I wasn’t going to do, all the ways I was going to be unproductive (“Winter coat unbought? Check! Laundry still in the basket? Check! Library books unreturned? Check!”). It was glorious.

Yesterday though, I got myself up and on the bus to the Hutt and to the lovely and excellent Craft 2.0, a fantastic handmade event thingy that featured many of my most-browsed Feltvendors, which is a little like if you went to a craft show in the States and you recognized everyone you drooled over at Etsy. I was all “Oh you’re Shaky Isles! I very much enjoy thinking about purchasing your tea towels!

I bought myself a cute little embroidered pin for my jacket, a print of a peacock for my room, and a couple of back issues of my new favorite magazine, World Sweet World (as well as meeting the lovely couple who publishes it). I got to look at all sorts of pretty things and to hang out with a very very crafty friend, who, by casually mentioning all the awesome stuff she herself makes just for fun, whipped me into a lather of fantasizing about the shirts I could embroider and the cushions I could stuff and the jewelry I could make.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot: making. I don’t know if it’s because my job is ninety percent logic models and advisory meetings and vision statements (the other ten percent is cups of tea) but I am having a real hankering, lately, to work with my hands, to fiddle around and rearrange and to color and scribble and cut and paste. I bought some cheap ridiculous watercolors at the Warehouse a month or so ago and I’ve been having the best time just…making marks on paper with them. First I picked up a paint-by-numbers of some majestic lions lolling on the windswept savannah and that was great because now we have something over the upstairs bathroom sink. Then I painted some directional signs for my birthday dessert fiesta and since then I’ve been just wanting to make signs all the time, for everything: for my room, the bathroom, the kitchen cupboards, everything. I am thinking of getting a new paint-by-numbers of penguins as well, for over the toilet.

I want to have things pretty, I guess. Or beautiful. Over the past couple of years, since the cloud room, I’ve started thinking about created space, and about how external surroundings can affect the interior, internal stuff. Like, I have this theory that a very bare loveless time in my life corresponded with a very aggressively boring bedroom I used to sleep in, and I remember what a huge charge I got out of putting up all the flower garlands and seashells in my first room in my first flat in Wellington: an anvil’s worth of symbolism, to be sure, but you know what? It worked. I really did feel at home there.

Perhaps not unrelatedly, I’ve been reading the design blogs like a damn fool recently, and now it seems all I think about are reupholstered chairs and wallpapered bookshelves and adorable ornaments and delightful decorations. It’s ridiculous because while I am often full of enthusiasm I am rarely full of follow-through, but I keep imagining all the cute projects I can do and all the nice things I can put on the wall, all the scarves I can knit. I keep thinking about how things look and how they feel. I want a lot of bright colors around, lately. I want to look at the water as much as I can and at trees and birds and flowers, wherever I go.

I know that not everything has to mean something, but I sort of think that maybe this thing…this craving for beauty, art, style, design, craft, sensation…does mean something. A little something, at least—the creation of a little space.

Three Words To Describe You


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2 responses to “Creating Space,”

  1. Amy Avatar

    I have been very excited lately to play with fabric with no plan in mind. No pattern or project. What this ends up meaning is I cut my scrap fabric into smaller pieces, overcast stitch the edges and use them for cleaning rags or handkerchiefs. If it’s flannel fabric they become reusable small face clothes or make up cloths. One bunch of cut up towels were pieced together and layered with leftover batting and fabric to become a cat mat. I’m not craving the results, I’m craving the process.

    One project oriented thing I picked up that I am excited about? A little pom pom maker, to make pom poms out of bits of leftover yarn and to maybe, eventually, attach them to a dance belt.

  2. Kim Avatar

    I’ve always felt that my immediate environment has a big affect on my mood and outlook.
    My husband, who usually doesn’t notice stuff like that, mentioned the other day we should really try and do something with the bedroom, which shocked me. It’s true though – bare wares, save for a tacky Van Gogh Wildflowers print really doesn’t set a very nice mood. I’ve started scouring the internet for ideas – but I love yours!