How big is yours?

You dream, day in, day out about getting a house big enough where you can have your own creative space, where everything is where YOU left it, and you know exactly where everything is.

You dream of the day where you have a room for all your creative vices.

You dream of what it will look like, that it will be spacious and well organised and look epic.

Will that be the reality?

When I first moved to Auckland, I did not have my own creative space. And at that time - that was actually ok. It wasn’t until a flatmate moved out that I ended up creating a small little creative space which I quickly outgrew. Another flatmate moving out meant that I ended up with an upgrade to a large creative space (design room), where I could start trying my hand a myriad of different creative outlets. This is where my first brand ‘OB-one’ was born.

I moved out of this house into a small house with my now husband. Unfortunately my creative space in this house became the garage. Not a nice garage, a cold and damp place that was so low in parts I would hit my head, while having to dodge the protruding nails in the beams holding in the insulation (it does not help that I am 6ft). It is clear to say that I did not get too creative during the time we lived here as it really was not a space I wanted to be.

After a year of being in this house, we moved. Into a house with 4 bedrooms - more than enough space for me to have my own creative space (my design room). But when did it go from dreaming of having a space to having a space so full that it is bursting at the seams?

I guess this is the thing with creative types - I literally want to try everything! I see something and I want, NO, I NEED to give it a go to see if I can actually do it.

It was today that I decided to clean my design room. A horrible humid Auckland day. Once you start these things, there is no going back. It gets worse before it gets better. And by worse I mean my design room spilled out into the hallway and then into our office. You see - I guess that’s the benefit of having a design room, and running a business from home, no-one actually sees the mess, the behind the scenes of the creative chaos you call your workspace. The strange thing is I am an organised FREAK! And while my design room sat in quite the state - I still knew where everything was and could still get out the orders that were coming through.

So why then did I need to clean it? And, is this the question I should be asking myself halfway through the tidy, the mess piled up around me, having a productive break writing this blog post.

It seems that as the time passes, my creative prowess extends far and wide. Just sitting here now I can see frames that need to be painted for my gallery wall (they may have been sitting here for a couple of years - I have now finished them - photographed above), embroidery, punch needle embroidery, knitting needles and a LOT of wool, quilting supplies, adult colouring books and ALL the best colouring pencils, bullet journaling supplies including stamps, washi tape and all the right pens, felt flower making, paint for painting furniture (which I have been banned from doing), all the vinyl and tools for my current obsession, and entire double cupboard of fabric, handmade hairclips for kids, jewellery making, crochet supplies, felting wool and needles. I shall stop there. This to me sounds like I have a creative problem. I almost feel like I have ‘outgrown’ this design room and need to knock out a wall (if only it was that easy). What a creative conundrum!

You see, I think the thing with creative types is the fact that we do not just lend ourselves to ONE type of creative outlet (clearly I don’t), but I also cannot bring myself to throw out any of these things, what if I need them? They have to be stored somewhere right?

So no, my space is not spacious (anymore) and well designed - It looks funky and I know where everything is and it is functional. That’s all that matters right? It doesn’t matter that I get complete envy from seeing gorgeous Instagram/Pinterest feeds of design rooms that scream style, class, sophistication and epicness. This Design Room is full of creative treasures and I should be happy enough to just call ‘mine’.

So yes, now I do not dream of the day I get my own creative space, my own design room - I dream of the day I get my own studio - a shipping container (or two) made into a creative studio, we can all dream right?

But for now, I guess I should get back to cleaning, tidying and decluttering this space so that I can actually use it.

Does size really matter? Or do we just fill up the space that we are lucky enough to have?