WHAT'S A BEDROODIO?

A bedroodio is what you get when you carve a little bit of space from the corner of your bedroom, and turn it into an art studio. This is what mine looks like.

I had a choice. I could have a larger space downstairs in our basement-like man cave or guest room, which you must go outside and down an uncovered staircase to reach, or I could use this tiny space in my tree house bedroom filled with sunshine. No contest, right?  The best thing about it is that I'm never far away from it, since our entire living space here consists of only three rooms and a bathroom. I stop by that drawing table a hundred times a day. Even if I only stop to stare at the work in progress for a minute, it gets the wheels turning! I probably never would have considered doing this, or even considered buying such a crazy-ass house, if I hadn't had a crazy-unique neighbor back in Midland, named Annamarie Mootz. She taught me that it was okay to break the rules and think outside the box when it comes to how you utilize whatever living space you have. I will be eternally grateful for that lesson!

I thought about cleaning it up before I took pictures to show you, so it would look like the ones in the magazines. But, then I decided to be honest. The truth is, this is about as clean as it ever gets!

The piles around the edges of the table are forever creeping towards the center, and I only break down and clear away the clutter when they finally meet in the center, and there is no longer any room to work!

Right now I really need these piles scattered about me, for they are all the bits and pieces that I gathered along the way in Sudan and Spain. Whenever I walk past the table, I let my eyes drift over them, then start pulling out one piece here, another piece there, until finally, I end up with a new page in my travel journal. Pages like these.

I love my little bedroodio, which seems positively luxurious compared to the Wee Little Studio I started out with about four years back. Just goes to show, there's always room to be creative, if you want it bad enough.