Cubes to the Power of Ten

One of the priorities of setting up my new bigger art studio in our new house was getting more storage for my supplies. The old apartment was filled with my supplies in every nook and cranny, even under the coffee table. The studio frequently overflowed into other rooms and the attic. Where did all this stuff come from? Yikes! I needed a very customizable solution.

A. C. Moore had a 50% off sale on the storage cubes I have been eyeing for some time. I went all out and bought ten of them to get my mess in order. In truth, I have wanted a big unit of these things for years but never had a place they would fit. My studio now measures 10.5 feet by 15.5 feet so there is more than enough room now! And it’s filling up surprisingly fast. Two work tables make it possible to have different projects going and keep the pendant soldering and sanding mess relegated to a spot away from where I make things. My computer desk also fits in the studio. I like my Macintosh PowerMac G5 to be near me so I don’t have to run to a different room to hop online, check email, do layout design in Photoshop, or listen to music.

The ten cubes are comprised of six different modules. I got two of some of them. There are two paper stacks (one is vertical to hold books and magazines), many drawers, one cabinet with a shelf and a door, and two units with drawers and spots for paper or books. I am unpacking boxes right into the cubes. It’s starting to look like Martha Stewart’s studio in here! Never have I been so organized! Once everything gets unpacked I plan to utilize the label maker to slap up some pretty labels. Otherwise I’ll be looking through every drawer for things. I really like labels. I think it comes from my love of how words and letters look. I love sticking words into or onto my art or décor. I’ll probably post another picture once all my supplies and paper are unpacked and labels are made.

Sign Your Money Away

Finally the Macintosh is up and running and I have Photoshop back. So I made a little mortgage signing collage for you!



Mr. M must have signed his name 50 times. The lawyer thought I was nuts for taking so many pictures of my hunny signing his name. No one in his office has done that before, which surprised me as so many people blog about such momentous occasions. I’m not an owner of the house so I didn’t have to sign one thing.

I did have a chance to look through the abstract about the property. I wish I could remember more dates to tell you about right now, but the abstract went back to at least Civil War era. The mystery of whose last name is etched on our front door knocker was solved. It belonged to the owners previous to the owners we bought the house from. We must get this remedied as I feel the house is “marked” by another family’s name. Who really lives here? I would take it down right now, but the front doorbell does not work, and the knocker is the only way we know if someone has stopped by.

We are still living in Box Town, but less so as the garage is now filling up with empty boxes. We’re saving the empty ones for our neighbors who will be moving soon. Sad to see them go as they are super nice. They were having a Father’s Day BBQ on the day we moved, and they brought us hot dogs, BBQ, soda, and dessert!

The Move

We have arrived at the new house. We’ve been here for a week and 2 days. (Sorry, little blog, for neglecting you, but there has been too much on my “to do” list to tend to you. Please forgive me.)

I just love this house and so does Mr. M. It’s adorable and spacious and still filled with boxes. My main Mac computer still is not set up and I am blogging from the crummy laptop. I say we need a new Apple laptop so I can blog and Etsy from my lovely patio.

The kitchen is all done and we started on the living room over the weekend. Slowly but surely. The studio is about half set up. Most of the furniture is in the right places and now all I have to do is unpack boxes and set up my computer desk and work table.

We got a “trial by water” into new homeownership these past few weeks. We had a microburst come through and drop a lot of rain in a short time. The dining room window’s storm window was up so the windowsill filled with water. It seeped under the window and filled my dining room with water, about 1/4” deep on the wood floor. We were not living here yet so this water sat on our wood floor for a day until I stopped by to check on things and found the puddle. It had seeped down into the basement ceiling by this time. There was no landlord to call to come fix this. It’s now 100% our mess! Yay!

All is well now and the damage was not bad. Cleaning out the gutters seems to have fixed the water coming in the house problem. The water damage is giving Mr. M a reason to tear out the finished basement ceiling and replace it with drywall. He needs a project or two.

We had four owls in the backyard this weekend. They were beautiful. Our whole neighborhood is well covered with huge trees, one of the reasons I wanted to live here. I love trees. I have heard owls here but had not seen them until they landed in our tree. I tried really hard to get a picture for you but my camera would not focus in the dark. Grrr. Are owls good things to have around? Will they eat mice?

OK. Enough with the really long post for now. I’ll catch y’all up over the next week and will have pictures of the new house and studio as soon as I can get the Mac going.

Hoooooooonk!

I’m not normally one to honk my horn in the car unless the offender has done something really unsafe, does not see me, or requires the “you are stupid!” honk of frustration. Today someone did the latter to me and I honked a very brief short honk. Just a light toot, if you will. But my horn stayed on, blaring, for about a block. It would not stop unless I pushed down on my steering wheel like I was honking it. If I let go, the horn would sound again. This happened all the way to my appointment. Hooooooooooonk! Honk hoonk! I had to hold down the horn honker to keep it quiet while I drove for another 10 minutes.

I got to my destination and it stopped briefly. But if I moved the steering wheel at all it started again. How could I go into my appointment with my car screaming out in the parking lot? Punching the steering wheel several times finally made it stop and stay stopped. I had a serious case of “the embarrassments” at this point.

So that person probably thinks I’m an idiot for blaring my horn and repeatedly honking at her when she did not deserve all that. So, lady, to you, I say I am sorry. It was my horn. Not me being a jerk.