How do YOU organize new purchases?

During one of my many email conversations with my art soul sister, Mary who will be known as Road Princess or RP going forward, we were discussing how we deal with new purchases. I thought I'd share that convo with y'all. Of course, this has been edited for brevity!

RP: ... did find some of the Stickles glitter glue I like at Archiver's -- got another bottle of my favorite yellow and a very cool orange !!! So, do you do this ------- you bring home new "stuff" and you go ahead and open all the packages and think it's just great to take it all out, putting each category of stuff in a certain drawer or box or whatever............and then, since it gets to be such a mess every time you are looking for something in that particular box/category, you turn around and start putting everything back into ziplock bags and try to be organized again ?! No? Oh......that's what I've been doing tonight...

Cheeka: I like to open all my packages and find new homes for everything. I hate ziploc bags and usually dump things OUT of them when I get home. Somehow all my mugs from the kitchen have migrated to the studio to hold various pens and pencils. I have so many now, I needed to separate them because they could not get along. So the sharpies have their own mug, the Bic fake sharpies their own mug (and I put a bunch in my sister's care package - she won't know the difference bless her heart - you do know if you say something mean about someone, you have to say "bless her heart" to take away the sting?) my colored pencils and pastel chalk pencils in another - they are still getting along. And to think I was confident that the spinning pen holder would keep everything - ha! That is full, too, of watercolor pencils and pastel pencils (different from the pastel chalk pencils) and regular colored prismacolor pencils! And markers - the glitter markers are in their own cup with the micron pens, tombow pens, etc. I barely have a mug left in the kitchen!

So the thing is, I am very absent minded - I think it's because in my job I have to have a lot of things in my brain. Things left in boxes or drawers are things forgotten. So i want everything out and available! It makes for a messy desk, as I've mentioned before. I'm kind of focused on this because it's really bothering me! I mean, what is up with this?

I just don't understand...I really have to get a handle on this! On a happier note, I realized my distress inks are dye inks and not alcohol inks, so now I need to buy alcohol inks! yay! And I wonder where everyone is buying these lumiere paints I am lusting after? See, it just keeps getting worse...

What Did You Make Today?

Well kids, I am at work (hey not like they're going to fire me, huh? - kinda like you can't get more pregnant). So I have some pictures for y'all's perusal - things I've made over the weekend and up through yesterday.

At left are some dangles I made for the May "Not Just Charms" swap on Latest Trends (my very favoritist group) and as I said in my last post, I made these completely out of things laying around on my beadspace.

See - like the Fimo beads on top, when you buy things for no apparent reason or project, you always have something out of which to make a pair of earring dangles! That sentence sounds weird but I would rather cut my tongue out with pinking shears (dull ones) than end a sentence with a preposition.

The hot pink beads are a gift from my art soul sister Mary - so I don't know where they came from. The green ones at the bottom are probably blue moon beads - and the sparkly rondelles on there came from Fire Mountain gems (love that place!).

These keychains I made with some fun tecniques. I got the idea for these here. These are formica samples that I coated with gesso in the technique that totally rocks by Lori Roberts on her blog at Altered Arts Magazine I'll let her explain it because she does a much better job than I do at explaining it. I kind of think it's because I get too excited and start babbling about oil pastels and gel medium and well I usually tell people who really don't care and I know it so then I talk faster and get it all mixed up and their eyes glaze over and I'm like Nooooo it's really cool you'll see. I coat them with diamond glaze in case you're wondering. That stuff rocks!

Finally, here's a mixed media painting I finally finished, "She Dreams of Art." The cool thing is, I dreamed the whole thing, woke up and scribbled it on the sketch pad by my bed and actually did it. Magick!

It's watercolor, acrylic paint, water-soluble oil pastels (I'm sayin! I love these things! I want to marry them!), collage of my ATCs and magick marker. Probably some glitter on there too, or there will be before I frame it. You know, I really enjoy this - that's all that matters, right?

More later...

Cheeka

Studio Time

Tonight I had fun creating some stuff in my studio. I can't share till tomorrow because I'd rather use the scanner at work while I can - it is so good for that! One project I absolutely had to do was to make 3 sets of dangles for the May "Not Just Charms" swap on Latest Trends group on Yahoo. Boy, does that group challenge me and help me stretch and tone my little artistic muscles! I challenged myself to make the dangles from the mess on my beadspace. Please, it was so easy because the mess on there hides infinite treasures - it's kind of like going to my gramma's house and turning over stacks of magazines and newspapers to find treasures. I take after my gramma evidently - see for yourself.

I am really kind of disgusted - the camera sees all! What is wrong with me? Seriously, I just moved my computer to my bedroom (long story I prefer it in my studio but got DSL [which sucks donkey BTW] and have no phone outlets in the studio) and moved my makeup table in there so now i have 2 more surfaces on which to create and they are all trashed in a matter of days. I had this grand idea of having a cutting station, a glueing station, etc., and now there is just mess everywhere. I can still find everything though! Perhaps that is my excuse - but i really want something a bit more inspirational! I wonder how I can manage this???? I hate, loathe, despise housework and everything connected with it. There's no one around to make me feel embarrassed about it and the dogs think it's great. So what's an artchickie like me to do? I really need to barter for some housecleaning services! I'm pretty good about keeping up with it marginally until some disaster befalls me (and that happens fairly regularly) but I need a new start AGAIN!

Till next time!

Cheeka

First Post

I suppose I should start this thing - I've been "thinking about it" for a year or so now - ever since I found blogs! It's Memorial Day weekend here in the U.S. and I've had a great one so far. I finished a mixed media painting yesterday - and so long as i have a job, I'm scanning them there because that scanner is awesome! So look forward to crappy scans after the 6th of June when my job ends - wahhh! This is a job I adore, and i've only had it 3 months - but I just happened to be a victim of corporate downsizing. Dang! I've worked on some ATCs, and I'm ready to work on some more stuff but then I got caught up in doing my blog. So I'll end this now and finish the work on the blog and get to the work I really want to do - which isn't work at all! ART.