Odds N' Ends

Revisiting my 40 Things Before I Turn 40 list:

1. Make some new art friends (workin' on it!) 2. Get a tattoo (though first I have to find out if this is feasible, given my health.) 3. Go to the Olympics 4. Meet some athletes 5. See Barenaked Ladies perform 6. Write & publish another zine 7. Keep my ROD journal till it's filled up 8. Brush up on my Spanish 9. Work on a large canvass 10. Learn a new art skill 11. Go swimming in the ocean 12. Go on a picnic with my sweetie 13. See the Olympic Flame 14.Watch the Olympic Torch Relay 15. Cut my hair short again 16. Host an art project over the summer 17. Take a day trip somewhere local but fun 18. Carry the Paralympic Torch 19. Ride the Zip line 20. Purchase and teach myself to play a harmonica 21.Make a journal out of my Olympic ephemera and journal in it. 22. Submit something for publication 23. Host a swap or two (Just wrapped one up.) 24. Photograph my favourite trees in Stanley Park to show the progression of the seasons 25. Create a calendar from my own art for 2011. 26. Print photos that I have taken from the Games so I can use them in my journal. 27. Do one project that's outside my comfort zone this year 28. Host an art party 29. Spend a weekend playing with paint 30. Take an online class (I am just starting two with Mary Ann Moss.) 31. Make and send away some RAKs (Sent one out so far!) 32. Discover some new magazines/zines and buy/read them regularly 33. Take my laptop and/or journal to a funky coffee shop and write 34. Sew myself some cool pillows (I bought the fabric.) 35. Clean out the closet in my studio and reorganize it. 36. Plan a trip for our 20th wedding anniversary (In progress.)

I think I've cut a good swath through it so far. I still have 4 things to add, but like I said, I like to leave room for the unknown. There will be 40 things on there before the year's up!

We had some reno work done here yesterday-new double paned windows in the living room. I discovered a 1/2 inch gap in one during a storm. The wind was blowing and and that simply would not do! Our new ones are fabulous-we have a static pane in the center and a slider with a screen on either side.

Now we're just waiting till next week for our fix-it guy to come back and do the cosmetic touch ups and hang a new blind. I am deliriously happy about the new windows. They will help keep the house alot cooler this summer. Last summer, temps soared to 35C in the house. If you know anything about Multiple Sclerosis, you'd know that hot weather is the enemy. Hopefully we've managed to win half the battle with the reno.

Betty commented on one of my previous posts and asked what an "ROD" was. It's shorthand for "Remains Of the Day" which is an online class taught by the fabulous Mary Ann Moss. Some of my posts about these journals are here and I have a video of the first one I made here.

Okay, gotta fly! Time's a wastin'!

Studio Renovation!

So at long last, here are photos of my closet reno. First, this is what the closet looked like prior to renovation. It's pretty hideous, isn't it? One lone shelf and that's it. Everything was in boxes and every time I wanted or needed something, I had to take everything out to look for it. That got old pretty fast!

What you can't see is that on that shelf, there was a ton of stuff piled up and up-there is actually about 3 feet clearance above the shelf. Only problem is, I am not super tall so the more I stacked up there, the harder it became to get things down.

This is after the reno. My friend Lance, who is incredibly talented designed this built in shelving for me. It took a day and a half to cut and install it all and it's just fantastic! There are seven (count 'em seven!) levels of shelves, specifically sized to accommodate the boxes I had purchased to sort and store my art stuff in. Oh how I love Ikea!


I also have some nice paper trays, gifted to my by my friend Sandy that are perfect for storing the various envelopes, page protectors, etc. that I have. As you can see, I still have stuff stacked on the highest shelf, but it's not near as much as before and it's not anything I really need to access on regular basis anyway.



I have gone through everything, sorted it and carefully labelled it so that if I am looking for something, I can tell at a glance which box it's in. I can't tell you how much I love seeing everything neatly stored. It makes me happy knowing that I am never going to have to waste time searching for things!


Down at the bottom, Lance left enough room so that I could fit a Rubbermaid full of tools (soldering irons, bench block, hammer, clamps, etc.) on one side and my great big Xyron machine on the other. I wanted to have the heaviest stuff stored at the bottom so I could just slide them out when I need them and not worry about excessive weight on the shelves. The tool box weights a tonne!

I also wanted to show you this. It's the brainchild of my friend Penn. I was visiting with her a few weeks ago and bemoaning the fact that my paper ephemera is an absolute nightmare to organize. She suggested that I purchase a couple of literature sorters at an office supply store and then fit these recycled transparency boxes into it.

I sorted my ephemera into categories and then put them into a box and labelled the box. Now when I need something I can just reach over and pull out the box I need, get whatever I want from it and then just slide it back in! Brilliant! The sorter holds 32 boxes-that's alot of ephemera! Not all the boxes are full yet, but that's okay!
I purchased a new desk a few weeks ago and was able to reorganize that too. Now it is much more user friendly. I love the little metal flowerpots I found at Ikea. I thought they would work well for all the pens, markers, etc. that I like to have close at hand. I was even able to "decorate" them with some art magnets I had. If I get tired of them, I can always switch them out.



Okay so I know this probably isn't going to be too terribly exciting to anyone but me, but here's the digital tower fan I bought a week ago for my studio. I am in love! It's so quiet and has a remote control so I can turn it off and on, set the temperature and make it osculate without having to run over to it to do it. It even has a sleep timer and can be set to vary the strength of the breeze as if you were outside and the wind was softly blowing. Amazing!

Best of all, it's tall and skinny, so it hardly takes up any room in my studio. It's going to make being in here over the summer totally pleasant. We get full sun on this side of the house most of the day so if I didn't have this fan, I don't think I would be making much art!


Lastly, this is the new printer my husband purchased last weekend. It's replacing the old Lexmark I had. While the Lexmark still works just fine, it was HUGE and very expensive to buy inks for. One ink cartridge was $50! I do a fair amount of printing and it just wasn't happy-making to have to go and drop $100 on ink. Anyway, this one is smaller and it's still an all-in-one like the old one. I haven't tried the scanner feature on it yet, but I'll be tackling that on the weekend.

So...that's what I've been up to the last week or so-working on organizing my studio and getting everything ship-shape for summer. A huge THANK YOU to Lance for all his help and expertise. It turned out exactly how I had envisioned and I am just so grateful for his time and energy. There's no way I could have done this without him. He is my renovation hero!