Midnight madness - getting the job done.

It was a little after 1.15am when I came inside after just finishing the final top coat of paint in my studio! Yes, it's quite late, didn't get much done today, so it was a night job after the kids were all tucked up. Hubby went to a movie so I was kept company by listening to pod casts by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington... love and hate them at the same time.


Anyway, what a pleasure it is to finally complete this step  - to stand back and see all that hard work and effort paid off. I started early this morning and went to town with a tube of no-more-gaps... just being picky really on joins and around the old window and French Doors. My daughter was with me and came out with a question that made me realise I was being a little too fussy after I gave her the run down and a little lesson about what I was doing "Mum, does everything you do have to be absolutely perfect?"... errr... ehem!  ahh only from a 7 year old!  I ended up managing the 2 top coats in one day. Yay for quick dry paint eh?


So the colour is a lovely soft pale grey called Porcelain by Resene - I fell in love with the colour and thought the name was pretty appropriate with my love of clay. The colour notes on the Resene website say this:
"Resene Porcelain is a kaolin white, fine and delicate" and I couldn't agree more.

I think its going to be a lovely colour to have in my creative work space. It's a little too late and too dark to take a photo but I'll upload one tomorrow. (for now this colour swatch will have to do!)

So I have had quite the creative week, not all my creativity has to come from clay ( although I did manage to make quite a few wee things today as well and are drying as I type).


A couple of days ago I painted a chair for my office - I have one of those ugly grey office chairs on wheels, but I couldn't stand the thought of that, so I painted one of our old wooden dining chairs and recovered the cushion in my favourite coffee sack design. I have a huge box of coffee sacks that I've been waiting for the right things to use with. So far this is my second re-vamping of furniture.  (1st was a ottoman) I thought the chair came out really well.  I painted the wood with another Resene colour called Acropolis - this is the paint I used when I painted our lounge and kitchen. It's a lovely natural colour and my 5yr old son has called it a 'Hot Wheels colour'... why you ask? Well he helped me paint it outside on the lawn and he thought it was white, then we took it inside the studio for him to discover it wasn't white at all, so he has dubbed it Hot wheels colour as it changes like his 'colour change' hot wheels car... ahhh, I love him, he is so funny! 


Resene actually describes this as "a lightened complex dirty neutral" - yikes! I think is also the same as Half Tea for those that know the new colour names.  Now that I have painted the walls in the studio, I just hope this goes!

I managed a quick trip to one of my favourite salvage yards called The Pumphouse today. It was 4.50pm and they closed at 5pm so I just ran in to ask if they had what I was after... sadly no, but I did cast my eyes over some pretty amazing finds. I took a couple of quick photos of the lovely main building just as I was leaving - lovely to this this old stone and brick work still standing.  Aside from all the tragedy from the earthquake demolitions, some real treasures have come up for grabs and I can't wait to go back on my own and see what I can find.

Right, better get to bed, think my brain has wound down enough for me to drift off - I've got to get up early to flick a quick coat of white paint over the skirting boards and ceiling architraves. I want to get my studio re-organised by the end of the day. After all desks and cabinets are in place the FUN will start... building the new shelves and getting out all my treasures (oh and making things too!)


x Gill

Your perfect workspace competition...

I am so excited that I'm finally painting the studio. The ideal situation was to paint and decorate before moving in last year... but that just didn't happen. With 3 young kiddies, time isn't that spare these days. So I moved in and now I've moved out to paint! Don't worry I'm still making, just back inside the house!

My studio.

So to celebrate that its all GO here, I want to giveaway a pair of my NEW French postmark earrings and a $20 voucher to spend in my online shops www.mudbird.co.nz or www.mudbird.felt.co.nz. Total value $55.00 The earrings are hung from stirling silver hooks.

All you need to do is go to my Facebook page and write down what your dream studio/craft/work space would look like. Get your thinking caps on... I want details, colours, styles, furniture... (oh and if you want to include what you'd create I'd love to know!)

Then get your friends to LIKE and VOTE for your idea. The idea with the most likes will win!

I'll start here:

I love all things vintage & French, I love wooden antique cabinets and shelving. I like light and airy spaces, so warm whites or pale creams would be my choice in colours in my work environment. (altho I'd love to use Aqua or Turquoise colours I think I'll have to leave that more my next studio space with more windows to let the light in) I want great storage and organization, that also looks fab! I want to display my treasures to inspire me, like my antique woodblocks, little italian handmade leather journals, vintage key collections, antique blue ball mason jars... vases and jars of my dried poppy heads and bunches of bunny tails... and

all the other treasures and antiques I've collected in my creative journeys... Oh and I'd have french doors opening out onto a veranda ( yay I've got that bit!!)

So click here and get typing, then email your name/ address to MUDBIRD  so I can contact you if you are the lucky winner! Please put French giveaway in the subject line.

x Gill

p.s forgot to mention when it will close!! Get all your ideas and likes in by this coming weekend (5th February 2012.)

Day in the life of a pottering painter with 3 kids

Hello 2012!

Last weekend we got home after a FANTASTIC holiday - 7 sunny hot days of camping at Okains Bay. After getting through a week of 8 loads of sand filled washing, unpacking and getting back to ‘normal’ life, last night I decided on a whim to start painting the studio! Hard part is that it was filled with tables, cabinets, bags of clay and well… general studio stuff! So I hauled a few bits around and did the ‘cutting in’ paint work in the studio. With the French doors wide open I was joined by about a ton of mozzies, moths and other buzzing things. Hubby made it lovingly clear that he built the inside of it, so I get to decorate it…. On my own!

So today I decided to start undercoating the walls once baby was napping. All started off perfectly – drop clothes laid out, paint tray filled, new roller attached, studio packed up properly and most of the contents on and under the large trestle table in the middle with large drop cloth over it (don’t ask me to find anything!).

9 wall panels to paint! Each approx. 1.2m x 2.2m

My 5 & 7 year olds were playing nearby and happily occupied so it was now or never.

BEFORE with messy cutting in....

1^st panel = carefully painted using the new roller, even smooth finish & coverage, up to standard! I’ve been painting rooms for 21 years so feel like I’ve got this one sorted!

2^nd panel = same as above – it’s looking good folks. Sore wrists (old pain) but I’m powering through. The paint I am using is a new 3 in 1 paint, not my favourite but its doing the job! (actually its a bit like glue!)

3^rd panel = enter 7 yr old daughter wanting to watch and ask LOTS of questions = result still looking great, although taking longer to paint. Not letting her anywhere near the walls or paint!

4^th panel = 7yr old daughter wants to paint the wall with the small roller. I gingerly set her to work on panel 5 with the tiny roller and not much paint! With lots of interruptions and instructions, panel 4 stops and starts and not as perfect as others.

Helper # 1: Taking her job very seriously...

5^th panel = Grandma W arrives to take 7yr old out, so enter 5yr old son who has been pleading to paint (baby still sleeping!!) He strips off, then dons his superman cape and works messily on panel 6 while I finish off panel 4…. And start panel 5. End result is a bit patchy but I try to fix it up with more paint. Meanwhile I try to save panel 6 from his artistic offerings. By this stage I’ve embraced the children’s ‘artwork’ and just try to keep the carpet covered. I think I’m making more mess due to being distracted.

Helper # 2: He nabbed the big roller when I went inside!

6^th panel = needed to refill paint tray again, so check on baby. He is happily using his cot as a trampoline so time for lunch! (2pm ). Organise a smorgasbord of snacks & lunch and a drink, take high chair out to studio and plonk him in it by the French Doors. Start to paint panel 6, takes a looooong time with many, many interruptions. Can’t fix the dried lines from where I stopped/started the roller and had to entertain him. Also trying to stop his toy missiles landing in the paint tray. 5yr old going to town on panel 7, then takes off outside to ride his sisters pink bike in the yard. Panel 6 looking very sorry for itself.

Helper #3: Just being cute.

7^th panel = Baby finished lunch and needs nappy changed. Do that inside then try to con him back outside with some toy animals as we practice animal sounds. "No, a cow says Moo, not Meow". Panel 7 has surprisingly been painted quite a lot by 5yr old son, with 2 different brushes and the big roller!! Argh, when did he get his hands on that?. Slap on a extra layer of paint and cover up the blotches. I was even distracted enough to do a few swipes on the peaked ceiling panels.. oh dear.. loosing it.

8^th panel = its just undercoat right? No need to be tidy? The top coats cover all sins.

9^th panel – hubby arrives home and I’m in a rush to get this finished so we can drive out to Sumner for Fish and chips in the sunshine. Surprisingly this panel looks half decent in the end… or maybe it’s due to the failing light and I can’t see it. Final verdict tomorrow when I tackle the ceiling… JOY!

After.. not a job I am proud of ;-) Top coats will fix all that... and they will be done ALONE!

*** Small flys and other flying insects were harmed in the painting of this studio ***