February Goals

Ok, so December wasn't a great month for getting things done, and January struggled a bit, too. But I pulled through at the end. (I'm including the first couple days of February as part of January, because it makes this list look a lot better.)

  • Submit to galleries that have January submission dates. Done. Well, to one. The most important one. (There were two with January dates, and the other I'm not as into, so it's cool.)

  • Send image of HSC painting to client. Discuss money, shipping, timelines, etc. Sent image and discussed money. Had previously talked about shipping, and touched on it again. Did not discuss timelines, because they're my nemesis.

  • Photograph valentines and get them out into the digital world. Mostly done. Sunlight has been scarce, but I did get a good photo day right at the end of January. I sent out an email or two about them, and put them on my Etsy, but never did a big email, and still haven't blogged about them.

  • Make confirmations for Bridal Screenprinting class and finish syllabus/materials list. Made confirmations -- the 27th of February at noon -- but still need to finish the actual work part.

  • Get laptop repaired. Got a new laptop for what it would have cost to fix the old one! Yay!

  • Give my truck some love. An oil change, maybe a new turn signal light. I filled the air in the tires (much needed) but still need an oil change and a turn signal.

  • Finish sewing projects for other people that I've had sitting around for way longer than is reasonable. Apologize for keeping them so long. Not done. I'm a jerk.


Ok, enough with the half-hearted accomplishments. On to February's goals:

  • This month is going to be mostly about finishing things I've started. A bulleted list, in no particular order, will suffice:

    • HSC Painting: gotta get it out of my studio

    • Sewing: shirts

    • Sewing: cushions

    • Class planning: materials list, order materials, syllabus, assemble necessary bits

    • Cards: blog about them, damnit... maybe do the card section of the website, too

    • Knotical Invitation Suite: print it, photograph it, post it

    • Gloriously Awash In Sin blog: post something, for crissakes

    • Taxes: this requires me to make sure I've caught up on all my bookkeeping...

    • I feel like I'm missing something... I'll add it when it hits me


  • A separate goal, but one that I hope will help the above, is to wear shoes when I'm working at home (as opposed to just being at home... ah, the challenge of trying to work and not-work in the same space). I've noticed that wearing shoes makes me more productive, perhaps solely for the fact that it keeps me from getting too comfy and curling up to nap on the couch. I wonder if that's just totally weird, or if other work-at-home-ers have found this out, too.

Studio Office Remodel, Part 1

The past couple of weeks I've been gearing up for a wholesale mailing blitz for my 2010 Valentines. (I know it seems early -- and for the real world, it is -- but give it a couple more weeks and you'll start seeing Christmas merchandise. The drop date keeps inching its way earlier and earlier. Pretty soon 'Christmas in July' will just link up with Christmas in December without any break in between. My point is: in the world of seasonal retail, September is not too soon to start thinking about Valentines Day.) Deciding on this year's colors, laying out my order sheet, running copies, printing color and design samples, and so forth.

I ran into a snag when my color printer ran out of ink. I was pretty sure I ordered 2 cartridges last time I ordered, so I thought, I must have a spare sitting around here somewhere. After it failed to turn up in all the predictable spots, I figured maybe it was time to clean my desk. There was a good chance it was buried in the 6 inches of stacked/falling/piles of paper.

My studio office. Note how the wall of the window well blocks off any light that might make its way into the office area.
A few hours later: a mostly clean desk but no ink cartridge. My desire for said ink cartridge (which it turns out I never ordered -- the second cartridge was the black one) morphed into a desire for a better office in general. I had been really craving some natural sunlight in my workspace, since I spend an awful lot of time sitting in front of the computer during gorgeous days.

I had been toying with the idea of a remodel for a while, sketching out ideas to make use of the strange, angular space my desk was in.



Daylight!
So the next morning I started ripping things apart. Meanwhile, of course, I was still in the middle of getting materials ready to mail. This was not going to be a quick remodel (quick remodels require detailed plans -- I barely had plans at all) and I have a hard enough time shutting my computer down at night. Besides, we had just gone to Everyday Music, and I had a stack of new (used) cds, and I can't work without music anyway. So I just stacked everything to the side.


Unplugging is for losers.

That was all a couple days ago now. Now I'm in the thick of the hard part. It's not easy to frame out anything when you can't attach anything to the walls (concrete). I can secure things to the exposed beams, or the staircase (although I'm not sure I would really call that 'secure') but everything else has to function on tension and gravity. Oh, and nothing's level. That's been fun. But I am making progress.I dropped $100 on some solid wood countertop from Ikea to use as the desk and worktable portions, but that's the only part that has really cost anything. The rest is recycled or scavenged. Much of it from the original framing that was in the basement "bonus room" when we moved in. (It wasn't much of a bonus, unless you like fire traps.)

More to come. Wish me luck.

Summer colors just in time for winter.

I've fallen into the trap this evening of ogling fabric online. Links to links to links have resulted in a million tabs open on my browser, each a gateway to fabric wonderfulness.

I want to stencil our bedroom wall -- originally I was looking at doing it with fabric, but fabric that I like tends to be expensive ($15 per yard, times 8 feet high, times... oh dear) and wallpaper paste is a pain. We just got done undoing the horrible wallpaper border in our tiny bathroom, and that was enough to convince us that wallpaper just isn't an option. So now I'm just ogling fabric in order to steal inspiration. Today it seems I'm having an orange day:


I am, however, seriously considering purchasing one of the following (leaning toward the woodgrain) to re-cover my computer/office chair and maybe make a matching tack/magnet board. My 'theme' color for the office/non-painting areas of the studio is yellow, but paint only goes so far. The office needs some lovin'.. Plus, the fabric is on blow-out and super affordable ($4 a yard!) . How can I not get some.



Mmm. Fabric.