It feels soooo good to have walking room.  I really never thought it would or could happen.  I can’t say I’m totally done with everything I want to do, but at least now the space is functional and I can actually start to do some of the other things I want to do, like photograph art, get them on Etsy, and also paint and make things.  The ultimate would be if I could teach classes here, but I am still figuring that part out.  If I had a few more feet in my front room, it would be a no-brainer.  I’m just trying to figure out exactly how many students I can fit and what size the table needs to be.  I have to build the table to be custom-sized and I just have wanted to take a little break from the saw.  Ok…lunch!

The Winter session of art classes at the Huntington Beach Art Center are starting up next week and there are still some openings.  They have all their classes online here. I have a few new classes: Drawing Fundamentals for ages 7-12 and a Teen/Adult Oil Painting class, as well as my preschooler classes Drawing for Little Tots, ages 4-6. I’m excited for the sessions to begin!  Helping others to make art, and seeing what comes out of their imagination, is the best thing ever.

I haven’t written on here for so long, I feel like I forgot how!  I’ll try.  So I have a new place, and I have just been thrust into the role of making it suitable and functional, and seriously have spent almost every waking second that I’m not teaching at the HBAC and not working for MovieWeb, and not enjoying dinners with my beau, I have been here building sh*t.  So here is a little rundown.

Here is the new studio!  It is of course still a mess, and there is a long way to go, but so far it’s working out.  The one thing I’m at a loss for is storage in this place, so that has been what I have been focusing on.

I had to build another storage for paintings, and since I filled this one up in about five minutes, it looks like I’m heading back to Home Depot for more wood to make another one.  Definitely cheaper than IKEA to make one yourself, gets you more shelves for less money, and all I used tool wise was a jigsaw, a small nail gun, and a drill. Oh the drill.

The GORM at IKEA was my inspiration, but I sort of wanted it more tailored for my needs, so I designed one taller to utilize the fact that I have 9 foot ceilings and use the whole 8 foot 2 x 2’s.  Also wanted something not super deep as I wanted more floor space.  So I came up with this:

As you can see, it’s stuffed!  Please take the paint brush out of my hand and tell me that I can’t paint anymore until I sell some of these.  It’s seriously ridiculous.  The shop is getting an update soon!

Before I even started this I had to take care of normal everyday parts of the place, like the kitchen.  Here is a still from a video I took when I first looked at the place.  I have been so caught up in making this place functional, I really didn’t take good “Before” photos.  Thankfully Brian caught this video with his phone.

I just had to make this place more me, and also, because of the cramped space, I had to get creative with ways to store things.  Let’s just say I have pretty much moved in to Home Depot.

I made this table after measuring the right dimensions for that little space, and tried to give myself more room.  Especially for food.  It’s not so much that this place is small, as much as it is that the place has not ONE single closet.  Imagine your life with no closet space….I mean NO closet space.  My clothes you ask?  Oh that is another post…

Well now that I kind of have a leg up on this place, and am starting to feel unpacked, expect to hear more from me.  Meanwhile, Merry Christmas!

This Saturday I’ll be at the Family Fun Day event in Upland with Tomoko and Corina from Bosatsu Art Factory having a little art booth and passing out fliers and such.  Hopefully it’s not too hot….I have nearly forgotten how hot the Inland Empire gets…where I’m staying now, by the beach, it actually gets dewey by 7 p.m.  And my poor dresser that I’m refinishing keeps peeling up its finish because it’s too humid and cool to leave anything outside overnight…so I’ve learned.  I was going for a vintage look sure, but now it looks like it was recovered from the Titanic.