New Paint

Yay!  Derek The Floor Dude arrived and, as always, did a magnificent job.  I LOVE my new floor.  And I painted.  Heh, heh.  BOY, did I paint.  I can hear several of you fainting from the bright color.  Get out the ammonia salts!  I LOVE this color.  Doesn't even look like the same room, does it?

But, all the empty wall space you see?  The Ever-Wonderful Charlie will be arriving in the next couple weeks to bring me my new custom cabinets he is making for me.  And my custom table. And the book cases.  What a guy.  He even measured one of my clay books so he could make certain that the shelves would be high enough to accommodate it.  My hero.  And, everything will have doors so as to be Kitty Proof.  He is making things all different heights so our kitties can run and jump all along the top of my cabinets.  Do you think those little ingrates will appreciate this?  Harrumph.

Then, I have to start painting all over again!  I have a lighter shade of the wall paint.  I am thinking I will do some faux.  Maybe sponging off?  What do you think? And make clay knobs and handles.  I can't wait until it's done.  Naturally, I will present you with pictures.

And I will have to sell tons of stuff to pay for it all!  If I have any more fun, I will be illegal.  :D

The Before Pictures

I forgot to show you these.  Poor little Allie is lamenting the upset of her nice little routine being destroyed by her evil humans renovating.  :)

A Little Monologue On Redecorating

Well, you have probably thought I have forgotten all about you.  Not so.  I have been in the throes of craft room redecorating.  Oh boy.  I will give you some before pix soon.  I have this room about 10 X 10.  Crammed full of all my crafting essentials.  It has the original carpeting in it.  We will not EVEN go there.  The very best thing I can think to say about this carpeting is "revolting." 

But, before we could rip out the carpet, I had to move every single thing out of my room. Whoda thunk that all that crap could come out of ONE room? Really.  I move it all into the living room, the dining area, the lanai and a bit into the master bedroom.  I mean... our condo is over 1300 square feet!  It's like my room is in an alternative universe and crap just keep remaking itself.  Really.

So, the day came when it was time to start.  Brian takes 3 days off work so we can rip out the floor horror in anticipation of Derek The Floor Dude's arrival.  Poor B starts ripping up carpeting. He raced against the Opala Man (that's the garbage man in Hawaii).  He'd rip up a section and I'd run it out to the dumpster.  This was a seriously icky job for both.  We won the race and all the carpet went into the dumpster.  Then we started on the padding.  Gross.  We even found a 27 year old cigarette butt under the padding.  How skanky is THAT!  Eeuuwwww.

Ok, now we are down to bare concrete.  I am a happy girl.  But, now I have to paint.  Before Derek The Floor Dude comes.  So, I tape and primer.  I am happy.  I remove all the electrical covers because we are also changing out all the outlets to bring them into the 21st century.  B even buys me a dimmer switch.  I call the World Famous David, The Electrical Dude.  

This guy is great.  He's been an electrician for decades (more than 3 but less than 10).  But, everything can be done "Two Ways".  Picture Winston Churchill flashing the V for victory sign and you will have David, The Electrical Dude.  Only Japanese.  So, He shows up after I have primered.  He likes the color. Good.  I'm happy.  This is NOT the color the room is going to be. But, if David ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.  Never piss off your electrician, your plumber or your bartender.  So, he puts all the stuff in and the freaking dimmer switch is defective.

Swell.

Lowe's is about 25 miles away.  So, the Electrical Dude does the outlets and leaves.  He tried more than 2 ways to fix it, though. Today we hie ourselves to Lowe's and exchange it.  The new one's packaging looks like it's been savaged by wolves.  Lowe's is having dimmer switch issues. On Monday I will try to reschedule David, The Electrical Dude to come install the newest installment in dimmer switches.  He, of course, will know of Two Ways to do it.  

Now, time for pictures so I can go on to the painting.  :D

Goodies Galore

Hi All!

I have tons and tons of goodies that need a new home.  Most are fabric craft items like embroidery floss and fabric and paint on fabric paints and tons of bias tape, quilting stuff and just on and on.  Really ( REALLY!) good deals will be offered.  If you are looking for any fabric craft items, email me if you're interested.  I can better describe what I have and take pictures for you.

 There are dozens and dozens and dozens of never used brand new stencils, too.  Did I mention that I have LOTS of stencils to sell?  Again, I am going to give great deals to whomever is interested.  First come, first served.  Let me know if you are interested!  :D

A Snit

Usually I don't like to use my blog for a place to gripe but I'd like to do so now then counter it with a nice thing.  Today I received two orders of goodies, both from companies I have never used before.  

Snit: I ordered 2 very lightweight gouges from a well known PC artist.  I paid $6.00 for shipping for 2 small items that probably didn't weigh an ounce together.  When I got my envelope with them inside, the actual shipping cost was exactly $1.00.  You think I feel ripped off?  The envelope used cost $.69 RETAIL.  

Nice Thing:  I ordered a bunch of copper beads from The Jewelry Supply Company.  Everything came in 3 days!  All wrapped nicely , in a box, with packing material, WAY heavier than those two gouges and my shipping was $4.99.  Think I'm going to order from these folks again?  You betcha!

I suggest if you need beading goodies that you go take a look at JSC.  :D

Mr. Murphy's Law

Doesn't it just figure?  The second you want to have work done, all kinds of things happen.  I am redoing my craft room.  Totally.  Right now I have this bright yellow room with a Costco table and a ton of bins holding about half of my stuff.  Being the anal retentive girl that I am, this drives me crazy.  I am, "A place for everything, and everything in its place" person.  Every time someone posts a picture of their clay table disaster, I twitch.  

So, lucky me, I am having the ever-wonderful Charlie build me 3 walls full of stuff.  A brand new table that is long and narrower than the one I have.  A nice plexiglass top.  And tons of cupboards with doors, lots of shelves with doors, and a book case, with doors.  Can you tell I want to keep the cats out of my stuff?  He is going to make everything different heights so the kitties can run along the top and have a mini-playground.  

On Friday the floor guy will arrive to rip out our revolting carpeting and lay the same laminate that is in the rest of our condo.  Can you even imagine a clay room without clay all stuck in the carpet?  It will be a dream.

And when I drop a bead or something, it will bounce but I will be able to find it!  WHAT a concept! I am still looking for a bead I dropped several weeks ago.  It has vanished into the black hole of bead-dom.

This phenomenon reminds me of when I used to bartend.  If you dropped money on the mat behind the bar... it evaporated, never to be found again.  Where did all those quarters go?  I think they are circling the planet along with 5 billion tons of out dated and/or dead Sputniks.

I guess beads have now joined the eternal revolutions around Planet Earth.  

So, now I have to paint.  Because I painted my room bright yellow, I thought it needed some fun so I painted blue stars on the cupboards that are already hanging.  Naturally, this bit of insanity led to me having to take the doors off and sand away my stars.  :(  This was very painful.  I finished my last bit of sanding today.  

I am going to paint my new color... Yam!  Pumpkin!  Burnt Orange!  So, I am having a dilemma. Should I paint my walls the darker color and the new cabinets the lighter color?  Or, paint the walls the lighter color and the cabinets the darker color?  Convention says walls lighter, cabinets darker.  Naturally, I will do the opposite.  But... I can't decide.  Heeeeelp!  

And... do you think the Humane Society will come after me if I duct Tape Ipo to the wall to keep her away from wet paint?  SOOOOO many traumas!

Getting Ready For The Holiday Season

Oh boy, I love the Holidays!  So, i dragged all these glass ball ornaments out of my closet.  They've been sitting there because I couldn't decide what to do with them.  The I saw Stormy's cool ornament and thought I would use up all the ones I have.

First I made a filigree one with my brand new wonderful extruder that the good folks at the claystore.com gave me.  Works GREAT!  Then I covered this one with a black and white mokume gane cane I made.  The *necklace* is made of beads and crystals.  I made a pink mokume gane one, too.  Then I put a few ghost canes on it and promptly forgot it was in the oven.  Now I have a pink ornament with yellow flowers.  :(  When Christmas rolls around I will skulk out in the dead of night and furtively hang it on our condo tree in the lobby.  :D  Meanwhile, take a look at this one and tell me what you think, please!  I will putting ornaments on Etsy as the Season gets closer. Thanks!

A Great Place

Hi!  

You know how we all think customer service has disappeared from the planet?  Well, it is alive and flourishing at The Clay Store www.theclaystore.com.  I emailed Susan and Andy Spinks, the owners of the Clay Store, to say that I have just discovered that my Makins extruder is supposed to actually work without me having to find a body builder to twist it for me.  I also told them that I had bought it last year sometime from them and asked it it was too late to exchange it.

This morning I got an email from Andy saying that, even though they couldn't find any record of me buying the extruder from them, they were ending me a new one!  Now, how great is THAT? They don't even want me to return the old one.  Let me just tell you how imressed I am with these folks.  Over the past few years that I have been doing business with them, they have repeatedly gone out of their way to be wonderful.

They find me the cheapest shipping all the time.  Even though I will pay what their site charges, invariably I will get a note from Andy on my invoice saying they were able to save some shipping costs and they only charged my card XX amount instead of the full price.

One time I made an order and received it in TWO days!  I had these wonderful mental images of Andy high tailing it down the runway after the airplane shouting, "Wait!  Take this package!" Many of you might think two days is normal but consider the fact that The Clay Store is in Florida and I am in Hawaii.  Even though Andy gets tired of chasing airplanes, I still get my order in just a few days.  Hey, Andy!  Think about what great shape you are in from airplane chasing!  :D

Everything I get is wrapped perfectly and they stand behind anything you buy from them.  They have really good prices and the best customer service!  And, if you call, they will talk to you as though you were their next door neighbor, not just a customer number.  

So, if you need clay and the supplies that go with it, I urge you to give The Clay Store your business.  They are the best!

Trains

Hi Everyone!

Hah!  You thought I forgot about you and Christmas, didn't you?  Not a chance.  :)  So, the wonderful Patti from Wired Up Beads (look to the right and click on her site... she's the Wubber lady) wanted some trains for her grandsons for Christmas.  So, this is what I came up with.  If I may be allowed to brag... are these not the cutest trains in the entire universe?  :D

I showed them to a client of mine who promptly ordered one.  So, if you would like a personalized train ornament, please email me.  They are $10.00 each and shipping.  I will have some on my Etsy site soon but if you'd like a particular color, please let me know.  Along with the name, I am writing 2008 on the back.   Thanks for coming to my blog.