We didn’t get a chance for Woogie Wednesday yesterday, so we worked on our quick project today.

The Woog received some pretty awesome hair accessories for Christmas and we needed to make a special holder for them. Here’s our materials:

*still working on lighting in my studio for pictures

And here’s how it turned out:

These are all from Pretty In Paper and I love, love, love them!! Definitely unique!!

Well, it took 4 months but it’s finally done (see the process here)! Take a look:

*Here’s the outside entrance.

*Entry table that can been seen as you walk in from the kitchen

*Inside goodness (I love it!!). - Click image to see detail-

*My desk space.

*My bookcase with room to fill.

*The Woog’s “studio” as she shows everyone who comes in. She tells then “that’s where I do my artwork.” - Click image to see detail-

*This is a little thought bubble I made so I can switch out quotes.

*And even my register covers are creative. Done by my brother-in-law who does great ironwork.

I’m so pleased with how it turned out. I had a tiffany blue paint swatch for 2 years knowing that it would be the color of my studio someday, but I really wanted a warm and cozy space, so I decided to go with a green instead. I’ve got these on flickr too and will be adding in some comment notes so take a peek over there too.

It’s Woogie Wednesday again and today we’ve been working on our handmade gifts from the Woog to go with our handmade Christmas.

Earlier this morning we had a “photo shoot” for her Daddy’s gift and for some reason she has started flashing this really sqwinchie smile when I take a picture. This is one I think I’ll do in black and white.

*This isn’t the photo used as the gift though. That’s a surprise.

Then we moved onto gifts for grandparents and such. The Woog loved our magnet project this summer so we are making a magnet set entitled “Smiles of 2007″:

And then I had to figure out what I could make for my cousin’s tween boys. Not an easy task. So I thought up these gross eye ball magnets to make. All boys that age have got to love eye balls!!

She has a few picture frames to decorate and then she should be good to go on all her gifts.

We finished up our snowman and our cards go out tomorrow!

I decided to buy & make homemade this year for nearly all my Christmas gifts. I actually was able to spend less this year and get better (what I think is better) and more unique gifts.

I even went with more simple packaging this year to go with the whole handmade theme.

I printed up some paper bags:

Added my handmade tags from Amy at APL Creations

and voila, a gift!

Here’s a lists of artist I bought from this year:

Letterary Press

Pretty In Paper

Dumb Kid Designs

Bondage Tea

Kung Fu Cowgirl

Mama Doodles

Earth Expressions

Dine & Doodles

Block Party Press

Remake

Gracie Designs

Chunksters

CircularAccessoriess

This week the Woog will be working on her handmade gifts so I’ll show some of those as she makes them.

**Oh, and on the studio, it’s all decorated so I’ll try and get some pictures up this week. I love it!!!

Just a little something I did for this month’s Highlights Magazine.

The past several (SEVERAL!) Woogie Wednesdays have consisted of deadlines for me or the Woog helping me measure, paint and whatnot in the new studio. We didn’t do pictures of those days because it really wasn’t all that interesting. But now, since the studio is done, this is the first Woogie Wednesday and really the first kind of art (besides those 60 illustrations I had due yesterday) that was done in the studio. And, since we’ve started late in the day it will continue into a Woogie weekend.

Today, we are working on our Christmas card. We’re making a Junk A Doodles snowman:

And the Woog is loving her new studio space. Here she is while the paint is drying:

And I don’t like to show a room that’s not yet fully decorated (hopefully I’ll be able to do that some tomorrow in between projects), but here’s a sneak peek at one wall:

It’s finally done and I’ll start moving in today after I finish up some work for a client. Pictures to come!

Things I’ve learned:

• I hate dirt
• I hate sawdust
• I never want to build a house (I knew that before but this experience has reinforced that)
• I don’t have the desire to flip houses anymore (sad because I really thought it would be fun, now, not so much)
• Putting on a roof does some major damage to your hands
• I now know what people go through who suffer from arthritis of the hands. My pain only last a few days and it was horrible.
• My most comfortable pair of sneakers are not good working shoes. Crocs are the way to go! Unfortunately I found that out late in the game after weeks of soar feet.
• Don’t let a 3 year old load up her own paint roller.
• Paint and stain do go through a drop cloth – what’s the point?
• Caulk and trim will hide most anything
• Goody’s Body Pain powders are good stuff