The Power of Four!

Hi Everyone!

You may remember this picture I took in Seattle in June, while we were walking along a trail near my youngest daughter's house. 

We just came upon the "sculpture" and I thought it was so intriguing I snapped a photo of it. The only thing I could possibly think it might be was some kind of trail marker. 

Now fast forward to our trip to Washington, D.C. in July (yes, we've been VERY BUSY this year).  On our return trip home from D.C., we drove through Asheville, North Carolina, where we stopped for lunch. Afterward we did a little sightseeing and found an art gallery located in an old Woolworth Building here.

  

In one of the artist's booth, I found this photo!

Is this cool, or what?

Here's what it says on the reverse of the card!

That's it for now folks.  This is a short post because it's already 9:35 pm and I haven't packed for my trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, tomorrow  We leave the house at 5:30 am! I know. I know. Nothing like waiting till the last minute.  Which is why I need to "bid you adieu"! 

If I get a chance, I'll post from "out west"!  Hope everyone has a lovely week! May God Bless, Jan

Another Project Completed!!

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out where I was going to put all my rubber stamps!  I wanted them where I could see them all at a glance because it's far easier to create something if you know what you have to create with!  At least that's my theory!!  And although I LOVE my studio (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!), I could use more space!!  Hey - I'm greedy, okay?  Fully admitted!!  But I'm also a pack rat, though I'm trying very hard to keep only what I absolutely love or feel I absolutely need or could absolutely use some day.....okay, forget pare down! I'm a pack rat.  Enough said!!

Now back to the point of this blog post!  I kept wondering how I was going to pull this one off when I realized I still had "available space" on my desk front!  See what I mean.....

 I've learned many things over the years, living with Nigel in the Military, and one thing I'm good at is maximizing every tiny inch of space!  And there are a LOT of inches of space right here for the taking!!

So I took 'em!!  Here's what I did.....

I measured the front of the desk and I measured my largest rubber stamps. This way, I had an idea how many "shelves" I could fit onto the piece.  Since Nigel doesn't want me using any of his saws (silly man!), I decided to let Home Depot do the work for me.  Wonderful people they are! I picked out a good quality sheet of cabinet grade plywood (on sale no less!!), as well as a long length of molding that had a nice ridge running down the length of it, which was also deep enough to hold the stamps.

I then gave the clerk my dimensions and he cut everything up for me!

True to form, I almost forgot to photograph this process.  As you can see, I'd already started painting when I realized I hadn't taken any photos! Here you see the plywood, with the molding placed on top and glued down.  Glue, you ask? Yes, glue!!  It's called Liquid Nails and Nigel already had some loaded in his "squirty glue-gun thingy". 

Come to think of it, he also uses that to caulk with, so maybe it's called a caulk gun!

(One of my "DUH" moments! Sorry!)  

 

Here it is, all nicely painted.  I let the "liquid nails" set 24 hours before testing it, and it really did hold well, so I was encouraged to keep going.  After the paint was thoroughly dry, I stood it up in front of the desk.  The next question was - should I trust "liquid nails" again to glue it to the front, or should I use traditional nails?  Too easy! I decided on the glue. If it didn't work, I could always use real nails, but why not give it a try?

 And it worked!! I glued the panel on the front of the desk, then pushed several heavy items against it to hold it in place.  This time, I waited 48 hours.  And here are the results!

Isn't it cool?  And it only takes up about 3 more inches of space!!

I love it when a plan comes together!!  Until next time then, take care and have a lovely week!! 

Jan