Amazing 36 INCH art studio

People living in small places are bound to like this idea for studio shelving built in a weekend for just over thirty dollars. The small plastic bins were purchased at a a dollar store and pine lumber was purchase at a local lumberyard. 

This unit is 33 inches wide and 36 inches tall but you can make yours to fit any size space that you have available. You can save even more money if you're working with salvaged materials.

This houses my colored pencils, paints, brushes, canvas panels, rags, sponges and pallet knives. Everything I need in one easy location.

You can get more details on the actual build on Doug's blog.

Butterfly Hooks recycled/upcycled

 I don't know what the problem was with the pictures but I was attempting to show you some wire hooks that a friend had given me. They're past "shabby chic" and pretty rusty so I'm painting a few of them black with pops of color on the butterfly wings and using them to hang pans from in my kitchen

The art that came to town and what happened next

I continue to sort through the clutter here and "found" a few interesting photos that I'll share here.

This photo is 12 years old and only one of these paintings remains here and even it has been painted over a couple of times. I'm glad this photo turned up because it's confirmation of the fact that my work has changed and improved in a lot of ways over the last decade or so.

 This photo shows that I finally got a lot of my hobbies together. I drew the iris on the pillowcases before I embroidered them and I printed several of my paintings on fabric before making this quilt and stitching them in. I don't have any of these things anymore either except for that pillowcase which is rarely used but thoroughly enjoyed whenever I want to feel a bit spoiled and special.

My bedroom is too tiny for a dresser or closet so we put a row of cabinets around the top of the room so we'd have somewhere to put things. We didn't want them to stand out too much so I did different paintings inside each of the doors so it looked like there were paintings in the room. A lot of people don't even notice that there are cabinets in the room so I consider that a successful idea.

I decided to put the pictures together into a scrapbook page which will keep me from loosing them again and give me someplace to add any more pictures that I might find while going through things around here.

Taking your paints to the garden

When painting Bird or Butterfly houses and Dala Horses I use outdoor acrylic paints in small bottles. There are a lot of ways to carry those around but the best I've found is this divided basket that my cousin gave me.

It came full of cups and saucers to sit on a kitchen counter or dining room buffet but since I don't get a lot of company I put the dishes in the cabinet and took the basket to work with me.

This keeps my supplies organized and ready to go anywhere. I hope she doesn't mind the fact that I've re purposed it. I'm glad that it both looks and works great. Thanks again to everyone that makes it possible for me to keep on painting and gardening.