What’s in a Name?

I have a room. It is my favorite room in the house, and I claimed it as my own before we moved in a little over a year ago. I had a vision. In this room great things would happen. Art would be made. The sewing machine and I would create wonderful items: aprons, curtains, pillows. Ideas would come to life. This room also has to serve as my office. It houses much of my book collection. Therefore I also envisioned it as a mini library. During our first few weeks here, I named this room the “command center”. After all, this is where I plan the rest of my life. I create school assignments here. I write menu plans and shopping lists. My days are planned in my Day-Timer here. But as my yearly reflection on my life began a few weeks ago (I do this during my birthday month), I realized that very few of my ideas had actually become a reality. That realization has led to a frustrating August as I have contemplated what I needed to change.
First, I stepped back and LOOKED at the room. This is what I saw:



Yes, my great room had become an unorganized, catch-all. I can blame some of this mess on the fact that the garden exploded a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been drowning in a sea of zucchini, yellow squash, and green beans. However, I realized that much of it is caused by poor planning and organization…terrible use of a great space.
Next, I sat down at my desk (actually a table). As you can see from the picture above, I did not have much clear space on it. Honestly, I could barely move the mouse around. So I rearranged the items that I needed on the desk to make it work better for my needs….specifically creating a writing space. Not perfect, but it now looks like this:

Not perfect, but it works much better. The rest of the studio is still in the process of transformation. It looks much better than in the before photos, but there are still piles that need sorting and placing. Hopefully by the end of the week it will be ready for its “after” photo shoot.
But in the meantime, did you notice? I renamed the room.  My original vision for this room was one of creativity. In that spirit, I have decided that this room is no longer the “command center”. It is now my studio.