Awaiting the Final Signature...

New boxes of IKEA shelves, old boxes of precious stuff I packed away almost 8 months ago...

All waiting for the final inspection signature that will mean that this project is finally finished--at least the construction part.  :)  There are still shelves to put together and shelves to attach to walls, and desks to paint, and loads and loads of stuff to find homes for.

Friday, projectman and I spent all day at IKEA loading up 3 carts full of shelves and other stuff.  Here's what the back of the truck looked like when we had it all loaded.  It was pretty full--we even had one long shelf in-between the two front seats becasue it was too long to fit anywhere else.  

 

Saturday, I had to get most of my boxed up stuff out of the garage so projectman could drywall the ceiling. So with some help from my dd and some of the neighbor boys, we moved all the boxes and stuff either back into the studio or onto the front porch. 

Sigh...I wonder if I'll ever have a front porch that doesn't scream "white trash"...

Drawing Day 15-19

Whoo Hoo! It's Finished...Sort Of

Yes, at long last, the studio is finished.  I can't move in until the smoke detectors are installed and drywall hung and taped on the garage ceiling (which, God willing, will happen next weekend), but the room itself is finished.  We spent last weekend finishing the floor and painting trim and filling nail holes and I've been working on getting the doors all painted.  I am so very excited!   I have an awesome husband!  He's worked his butt off to make this room for me and I can't even find words to say how much I appreciate it.  :) 

So without further ado, here's my new empty studio--just waiting to be filled...

Isn't it pretty? 

Drawings for Day 11-14

I know it's only 14 days in but I'm impressed that I'm still drawing every day--especially since I've been really busy trying to help projectman finish the studio.  :)  Here's to making it another 14 days!

Drawing--Day 6-10

Ahhh...New Year, New Yarn, New Sweater

Well, the new sweater part might be a stretch since I get bored with knitting very easily and put it down to do other things too often.  But, it is January still, so I'm gonna think positively and set a goal to knit a little each night when I watch tv.  Who knows?  I might get a whole sweater done this year--heck, maybe I can even finish the socks I've had on the needles for a year and knit the hat I promised Hannah and finish spinning the superwash wool on the spinning wheel and fix the global economy and end world hunger and bring about world peace.  Hey, you never know, stranger things have happened.  :)

On to the details.  The sweater is  a Berroco design called "Ditto"  I may do a few mods on the pattern.  First, I like the short sleeves but I will probably make long sleeves since I don't like being cold, and second, after seeing my friend's "Ditto" sweater, I know I want to do something with the neckline because it's too stretchy.  I'm not sure what I'm doing yet--maybe I'll knit an extra inch or so and turn it under for a neckband.  I'll leave that decision for later on in the sweater-making process.

I'm making it out of  a yarn called "Amity" by Ella Rae which is 75% acrylic and 25% wool.  So far, I like knitting with it.  It's not a yarn I'd ever heard of before but WEBS had a great sale on it so I thought I'd try it.  So far, I've knit 2" of ribbing on the body so I have a loooooooooong way to go, and there is a lot of plain stockinette stitch ahead of me (snooze) before I get to the interesting part, which is the yoke.  I hope my magpie brain doesn't get distracted by a different, shiny, glittery project before I get to the fun part.

New Year, New Attempt

I would like to stretch a little bit this year as an artist so I've decided to try to do something creative every day.  Since all my studio stuff is still packed and stacked in the garage, I've decided to keep it simple and just draw every day.  When I get everything unpacked and arranged and prettified, I might expand my horizons but this way I'm at least doing something. 

I know I won't be able to post every day but I'm hoping for a couple of times a week, since I'm also determined to blog more this year.  :)  Ahhh...isn't the start of a new year fun?  All those things we want to do better this year and in January, we still have the desire and drive to do them.   Good thing I have friends to kick my a** if I lose momentum (yeah, I guess that was official permission yas).

Without further ado, here are my first 5 days of drawings.  Hope you enjoy!

P. S.  Hope you all noticed the new Picasa Photostream gadget!  I still have lots of albums to load so it's not as up to date as I'd like but there are plenty of photos to look at.  :)  As of right now, the link to the photo gallery isn't working but if you click on any of the photos it will take you to that particular photo album on Picasa and from there, click on the Web Albums tab and it will take you to my other albums.

Of Calendar Making, Photoshop Playing, and Just Plain Fun...

For the last ten years or so, I've been making family photo calendars for my parents and my in-laws.  Last year was the first year that they didn't get done and I had decided that I wouldn't continue making them since the kids are getting older now and aren't as "cute" but my mom really, really wanted me to make her a calendar so I've been scrambling, trying to find enough pictures of the kids and get everything done before January is over.  :)

In my tried and true tradition of making things much harder than they need to be, I decided that I would try making some of my own backgrounds using Photoshop.  After all, I have a book I bought years ago that I thought I really ought to use.  :)  It's called Digital Designs for Scrapbooking  by Renee Pearson.  

After a whole day of dinking around, I finally got realistic and found some editable backgrounds to go along with the ones that I had made.  After a few color changes to make some variety, I had enough to get started adding photos.  I digitally cross-processed most of the photos to make them more interesting looking (well, at least I hope they're more interesting).

I really like the way they turned out.  These are a few of my favorites.

  

I'm definitely looking forward to playing around some more with making background pages and other things like tags and stuff that I can use for scrapbooking or mixed media art projects.  

So Close I Can Almost Taste It

There is paint on my studio walls (thanks to my dh, since I have been sick and had no energy) and outlets in the boxes and lights on the ceiling.   Today I'll get the outlet covers on and hopefully, the window and door trim painted .  I'm starting to get really excited.  :)

The plan for this week is to get the flooring cut to size and sanded so we can put a coat or two of Varathane on it and then get it put down.  Then we can do another coat of Varathane in place and the floor will be done.  Then we have to move all the boxes and furniture in from the garage and pile it in the middle of the floor so we can drywall the garage ceiling.  Once that's done and we've added the two necessary smoke detectors to the house, we can call for our final inspection and then I can start buying shelves and painting furniture and unpacking.  Can't wait!!!!!!!!!!