My Studio

Please come on into my studio. I’ve been up late trying to get it just right for the Where Bloggers Create blog party. Join in and visit MANY wonderful studios and art corners created by fellow bloggers. If this is your first time visiting me at The Little White Attic, then WELCOME.  This room used to be my daughter’s bedroom before she went to college. For almost a year now it has been my creative space and a room for goofing off, trial and error, and a lot of messes. Luckily I can just close the door!

This room also still serves as our guest room, but I have to clear out some of my things. Now for grand tour of my room……..

On the easel is one of the paintings I did last fall that was inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Now that my children are getting older I am trying to devote more time to painting, but it is very easy to let other things take priority. I wanted this room to inspire me, and also to be a place where I could experiment artistically. I think to come up with good ideas you have to be free to play around. You may have some silly ideas, and some that are just no good at all, but from all that creative time comes a few good ideas now and then. Everything doesn’t have to be a masterpiece.

 

This mural in progress is based on a painting of London’s Vauxhall Gardens circa 1815.

 

Some people say that items that appeal to you will go together in your house. This room puts that to the ultimate test. I am still pretty new at having a studio, and things are not organized AT ALL. I have boxes slid under the bed and a little space in the closet, but as I’ve gathered art supplies from around my house for each project, I would rather play than organize. but one of these days it will have to be done.

 

Here you can see a corner of my dollhouse. Here’s a closer look.

  This is the dollhouse I have sat at to play from the time I was six years old. After being passed from younger sisters to nieces it found it’s way back to me. My original decorating that I did with my mom was long gone, so I’ve been stripping it down and reworking it.

 

 

Another shot of the mural I’m painting, and my fancy bell collection.

  My scarves have migrated from the bedroom closet onto the back of the door in my art studio.

 

My dress form is all dolled up for the occasion…..

And above the closet door, my chorus line of beloved

Raggedy-Anns

 

And here’s the shelf that holds almost all of my Jane Austen books

 

More Jane Austen books…….including my trusty compilation which is falling apart. I’m currently re-reading Sense and Sensibility and I can hardly hold it with the cover dangling. Time for a new book.

Here’s the view from my window in the daytime. It may be to cloudy to see the lovely mountains today, but you can see all out Washington state greenery, including a Christmas Tree lot behind our house.

And a few more random photos of the room………….

I love color! 

Necklace from Beth Quinn Designs I won in a blog giveaway. Yay!

This room used to be my college daughter’s bedroom. You can see her creative space at Paisley Muffin, if you haven’t been there yet. If you are going alphabetically then you’ve already seen it.

Now that the blog party is completed, my next task is to sew my regency dress for the Jane Austen Annual General Meeting in October. I need a new dress for the banquet and ball. I can’t wait to learn more dances. My mom and I are going to Portland for the AGM together and then….THREE days of nothing but all-Jane-all-the-time. I can’t wait! So follow along, especially if you love Jane like I do.

After that it will be the holidays, and then time to think about my third annual Jane Austen Tea Party in February for some of my friends and family here in the Seattle area.

Thanks for visiting The Little White Attic!

-Lynnae

I would love your comments!

How Much of a Janeite Am I?

I am here to report my official score from the esteemed and reputable facebook application quiz “How Much of a Janeite Are You?'”.

I had 21 correct out of 23. My final score, which seems to factor in the time needed, was 2612.  I don’t know how many have taken the quiz so far, But I ranked in the global top ten at the time of completion. Now to hunt down the other nine……..

-Lynnae

Happy Birthday Anne Elliot

Today is August 9th, the birthday of Jane Austen’s character Anne Elliot. I decided I wanted to celebrate by doing a little something for Anne. Last night when we got home from a local firework show Mom, me, and two of my girls watched Persuasion. We were up till 1:30 ringing in Anne’s special Day. My mom also reminded me that when Anne’s extravagant father and sister needed to economize, the best way they could think of was to not give any present to Anne. So with that in mind……

Here is my Gift to Anne

I made two paintings for her this week. I would also like to dedicate a song that caught my attention while thinking about this post. I heard it on my Opera Babes CD (Composed by Ennio Morricone and Andrea Moriccone; Arr. by Noely, Jon Cohen; Lyrics by Rebecca Knight).

Read the lyrics and tell me if it doesn’t just fit Anne Elliot and even Jane Austen a little.

You Live On in my Heart

I tell a tale about a girl like me,

Who loved a man but had to let him go,

She thought she could forget him but her heart would never mend.

Although she tried to live without her love,

She longed so that every waking day,

So haunted was her soul, she wished her life away.

I dreamt I saw you walking by the sea,

And wondered could I win your love once more?

I ran to you but still you grew more distant as I ran.

Then suddenly the wind began to blow,

I faltered, and there it was again,

The echo of your love, still whispering my name.

 

From time to time I shed a secret tear,

And even though I know our time has passed,

I still can’t bring myself to tell my heart to let you go,

And as we travel on from day to day,

Remember, although we are apart,

Wherever you may be, you live on in my heart.

Thinking of Persuasion....

Anne Elliot's Birthday Party approaches.

I have been so busy with my mom here this week that like most birthday parties it will be a bit of the rush to be ready. Please read THIS POST if you don't know about the party, and comment on that post if you want to participate. I know it's soon now.

I've made some cute soldered charms with Mom, plus I helped her make a new header for her blog My Way using some of her mixed media artwork, and showed her how to add gadgets to her sidebar. But we've also been running around a lot so I still have to finish my project for Anne......

Celebrate a Jane Austen Birthday

August 9th is the heroine of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Anne Elliot’s birthday. You can be sure her snooty family never celebrated the date once her beloved mother passed on, So let’s celebrate this year.

If you would like to celebrate Anne Elliot’s birthday with me please create something with the theme of Persuasion, Anne, or another character or location from the book Persuasion. From the beach at Lyme, to Bath, to the dashing Captain Wentworth, or Anne herself, all is welcome. Try visual art, poetry, or even a photographed vignette.

If you would like to participate you can copy the picture above and use it as a gadget on the sidebar with a link to this post. Create your masterpiece and post it on August 9th. Come back to this post and comment that you are participating, along with the name of your blog, and I will link to your blog on August 9th so I have a list here that we can all visit.

Let’s make this fun and give Anne a special day!

Creative Jane Austen Challenge

Maybe I woke up on the snarky side of the bed this morning, but today while browsing the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living I just couldn’t take it anymore. I never really subscribed to it, but when Home Companion quit printing they switched for Living to finish out my subscription.

Anyway….

That calendar thing at the front has always ticked me off. It’s so ludicrous. On August 4th Martha is going to open her windows for cross ventilation. Yippee. I hope there’s not a rainstorm that day. And her dogs must REALLY be looking forward to August 22nd, when they get to go on a walk. I’ll bet they’re making a paper chain to count down the days.

I am a real life woman with a three foot pile of laundry on my couch and two weeks worth of mail piled up on my kitchen counter. Every day I yearn to do something creative, (that’s right, YEARN), But by the time I’ve started the laundry and exercised so I don’t blow up like a balloon, the wind is pretty much out of my sails. So I express my creativity in costumes for the kids, projects or other ‘have to do’ things, and end up feeling stressed and miserable.

I know yesterday I shirked my duties to run off and play, and maybe this is the rebound. But what do you do? How often do you get to craft or make art or write or WHATEVER?

Well, I’m not going to let some woman with a staff of 50 dictate how I feel about myself or my ability to express myself creatively in my home. I’ve got better plans for August. And if I announce it here, then I can’t back out. So here goes!

Celebrate Anne Elliot’s

Birthday with me!

August 9th is Persuasion heroine Anne Elliot’s birthday. And you can bet her snooty self serving family never threw her a party, so I’m going to do it!

I’ll post more details soon, but just so you can get to work…your gift to Anne Elliot could be anything creative, from mixed media to poetry to a photographed vignette. The theme is Jane Austen’s book Persuasion, or Anne Elliot herself. Consider the romance, the long lost love, the seaside…….Be creative and get to work. On the 14th I will link to all participants so everyone can see.

Anne is the only one of Jane’s girls that was given a birthday, so lets make it good!

I’m feeling better already. Don’t forget to open your windows on August 4th!

Let’s Take the ‘Everything Austen Challenge!

Stephanie’s Written Word is having an Everything Austen Challenge that will run from July 1st 2009 to Jan 2010. The prize is a DVD of Lost in Austen, and in order to be eligible for the drawing you must read or watch 6 Austen related works in the next six months. Come on, that will be easy! 

Read all about the Everything Austen Challenge here. 

This is what I am planning to do:

• Read Sense and Sensibility
• Read Persuasion
• Read Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict
• Read Jane Austen’s Guide to Dating….Which Jon bought me recently. Now how many hubbies would buy their wife a dating book? He knows how much I love J.A.
• Watch Persuasion (The RPJ Version!)
• Watch Mansfield Park (Miramax Version- even though it’s way off, still, A lot of it is pretty hot. I mean, uh, Fairly well representative of the novel.)

Persuasion

Persuasion was on last night and it was great. That show makes me tear up. And watching it on our new large flat screen was way better than seeing 5 minute segments in the 3” youtube box all those months ago.
There’s one funny trick my mind played on me. The characters all seemed so perfect that when I read Persuasion again this past fall my brain inserted those actors into the story. So much so that toward the end I’m thinking, “wait- where’s that scene where Captain Wentworth is writing at the table, did they cut it?” I could literally see Rupert Penry-Jones walking back into the room and sliding the letter across the desk while making eye contact with Anne….
My daughter is going to want to watch it when she gets home from school. My hubby watched with me, which was fun. He was frustrated with how everyone treated Anne. But after a while he said she was just too wishy-washy, and that’s why everyone treated her like a doormat. I may have said something to defend Anne at this point, but then I thought, that’s exactly a Captain Wentworth line of thinking, and if I had to liken my husband to any of the main Austen heroes it would probably be Captain Wentworth. So once again I was marveling at how brilliant and insightful Jane Austen was.

Get the Dress Done

I had a phone chat with Mom Thursday and she has already read and finished Persuasion, which she loved. We talked a little more about Mansfield Park, and she was telling me what she plans to read next. When someone is first discovering or rediscovering Jane Austen novels, I get a little jealous of them having all the joy ahead of them. I dream of browsing through a bookstore and all of a sudden finding a new Jane Austen book. How wonderful that would be.

Yesterday I was thinking as long as I’m making myself a dress I should make a little Barbie dress as well and fix up a little regency / Emma Barbie to put on my dash while I drive to Vancouver. I got pretty carried away thinking how fun it would be, then she’d need a room or maybe a little dollhouse……

I have to stick with my FIRST priority this month, which is getting my dress done. Then maybe I can play around with that other idea a little more.

As far as today goes, I’m hoping to work on the dress a bit, maybe get it cut out at least. I am doing my teenager’s Saturday chore for her because she took the ACT test this morning. Fall is definitely in the air today. I made banana-chocolate chip bread, and listened to soft rock oldies till my husband came home and made fun of me. OK, he accepted the music for a while without saying anything, but I swear the corner of his eye was twitching.