Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Emails and rest of playroom in progress tour...

A reader made a great suggestion to me via email. I've always just replied personally to emailed questions and comments about blog posts and it never occurred to me that I should answer the emails on the blog so that others would get the benefit of the info. Which proves that I at least do learn something new every day.

I was asked about this mug in one of yesterday's photos. It was in the photo because I wanted to show you my new mugs I ordered from Overstock...but then I forgot to write about them. Duh! Anyway, these are made by German merchandisers Konitz and they are really well made -- dishwasher and microwave safe -- and Overstock packs them beautifully so they arrive in perfect shape. We also ordered a set of Konitz Coffee Bar white mugs that are a little smaller but are equally as awesome. Recommended!


Another reader asked to see the entire rack that I close-upped yesterday, so here it is. I got it online about a year ago and cannot remember where, sorry.


I was also asked a while back about these black baskets perched on top of my CD stamp case. Here's a close-up of them.

I got them on Joann.com when they were on sale. I think the 2 of them with the cloth liner were $30 and they are huge. They hold all of my foam stamps, so it keeps the baskets lightweight, which is good when I need to reach for them. One basket holds my alpha stamps and the other holds my shape stamps. Each set is in its own ziploc bag, too. Very organized...just another of the little mini projects that have been part of this major overhaul.

Speaking of mini projects, another time-consuming one was getting all of my dry adhesives corralled into as small a storage area as possible. It took me no less than 3 tries in different containers to get it down to these 2 drawers. Uh, yes, I do have that many gluesticks. Once I'd made up my mind that I preferred Scotch's Wrinkle-free stick best, I had a very hard time finding it so when I saw them at dickblick.com I kinda went nuts. Oh well, at like $1.20 a stick, I could afford to...

Okay, so...on to the rest of the Playroom Work in Progress Tour, such as it is.

Basically, my closet shelving areas are:
1. my paints, inks glues and mediums in the built-in side wall shelves;
2. the very top shelf along the ceiling is for my special stuff I've bought to alter;
3. and the lower top shelf below that is for my journals, altered books, watercolor papers, canvases, and my glass and vinyl cutting mats

Here are some views of the side shelves, starting at the bottom.

Lots of different mediums here...

And lots of package recycling to create container boxes. Here I've used Kleenex and Yoplait boxes...

And also using a Kleenex box as a liner for a metal CD box from Staples. I have a ton of those long white plastic baskets from the dollar store...

Above the side shelves is the lower top shelf and I have used a combination of divider racks and magazine holders to contain my chaos. Each holder is light enough for my crippled thumbs to grab.

You can see my canvas boards, w/c paper pads (small fortune there!), cutting mats and my scoring boards. I've also got a scrapbook paper holder filled with 12x12" chipboard to recycle.

Here you can see my various old books and journals that are in-progress. I think I will switch that rack to closer to the middle of the shelf because it's hard to put stuff in and pull out way back in the corner. Plus, I have a little bit of expansion space.

And up above that shelf is this top shelf where I've stashed some pet wood pieces I want to make something special with each one.

Can you see the Barbie lunch kit perched in the back? That was mine growing up and is quite special to me. It's surprisingly in very good condition considering how many years I took it to school every day...how many times my thermos leaked...probably got sat on and thrown down many times, yet there is hardly any wear and tear on it and even the plastic handle is still great. It amazes me how well things were made way back when (1960's).

Well, enough for now. Thanks again for sticking with me and all these photos, and I hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of what I've been doing...