Was there a Tornado in here?

Nope! I am just really bad at keeping my art room tidy. I work on multiple projects at once in this small space and like to keep my stuff out while I'm working. I rotate through projects, some last a long time, and often I start a new one on top of an old mess.

It is a bit embarrassing putting pictures of this disorganized crime scene of a craft room up, but hopefully it will help motivate me to finish cleaning! The rest of my house is usually very clean, minus the dirty clothes that can pile up around the laundry basket and the area around the back door where the dog runs in all dirty.

Its hard for me to clean this space, I go in there and instead of tidying up, I make stuff instead... a LOT of stuff. Each time I start a project it can be a struggle to find the space to work - even when it's sparkling clean! Looking at pictures of pristine organized craft spaces online can get me down sometimes. Then I remind myself that I can create in my small, cluttered room with mismatched furniture and cheap plastic containers full of materials. I do not need that beautiful picture perfect place with coordinated storage solutions. But I can still want it. Someday.

This weekend I set out to make a sizable dent in this disaster area. I got a good deal of stuff put away and reorganized, but I'm still working on a big portion of the room. It's going to take some time before I'm satisfied and maybe some thrift store furniture shopping. The felt and fabric areas are still crap heaps, the drawers of my desk are shoved full of paint bottles that need organizing and maybe thinning out, and the closet is... crowded.

I'd say this is a bit of an improvement. You can't see the floor in these pictures, but it is doing a lot better now. It still needs a heavy duty vacuuming. I've got my embroidery threads almost all put back and my wire supplies on a cute gold tray now. The books and magazines are no longer on my round work table taking up space!

I also decided to hang up a few of the projects I've got in progress on the walls. Before the only thing I had up was the picture of Jenny Lewis. This way, they won't get lost in a new mess and it will remind me of what I need to work on! Above you can see some pants and a tutu I'm working on as well as a half-finished embroidery.

- Originally I had planned to do additional papercuttings similar to the one above (I have two other canvases that size I got for this purpose), so I consider it in-progress.
- The 'pow' gun could be done... I really want to add a puff of smoke from above the hammer but I'm lazy...

- The Audrey embroidery above is definitely not finished, but I'm excited for the day I manage to finish it....
- The cardboard drawing is gesso and charcoal. I made this years ago in a class.
- The woodcutting was made by Hailey and given to me for my birthday. We both have a deep love for David Bowie and she put a quote from my favorite Bowie song on it, 'In the Heat of the Morning.'

Where do you create? Does it have to be clean and pristine or is a little mess fine?