My New ARTHaven–The Unpacking Finished

The second of two posts today.

Great news – the boxes are all unpacked! There are a few more bits and pieces which I unpacked into the spare room at the beginning, which need to be carried through, but pretty well everything is now in my new ARTHaven. Of course, it’s all chaotic still, and it will take me months to get it sorted to my satisfaction (if ever!) but it will become workable eventually.

Great excitement this morning – the blind man came! Again, he was well able to find his way and do his job, all without the aid of white stick or dog, and in fact he and his sidekick had my new Venetian blind installed in exactly 8 minutes! Really impressive stuff. It looks gorgeous – a much cleaner, smarter look than the curtains which have now gone, and with the added advantage, of course, of being able to filter the light how I want.

Hard to photograph well, because it’s obviously against the light, but around the edges you can see that the colour is a neutral beige to co-ordinate with the room. I did not want to introduce any colour into the decor of this room as it would compete with any art work I might be doing, or want to display.

After months of neglect, sleeping soundly in her box in the spare room at our old house, Sheba is now sitting on her new work bench! OK, she’s still in her box, but when she is released, she will be placed across the corner, ready to do her stuff, cutting whatever I tell her to cut! She has featured so little in my blogs of late that many people may need to be re-introduced to her – she’s my Cougar cutting machine from Thyme Graphics. (The Thyme Machines forum is so wonderful – despite the fact that I have been such a passive member of late, featuring almost exclusively in the “chat” section and not cutting anything at all, I am still considered a full member! What an amazing group that is.)

Are you ready for this? The next photo shows my main work area, looking organised!! It is really beginning to look like home now. I still need to do a great deal of organising, fixing various things to the wall above the work surface, but you can see the general layout! The little black cabinet in the centre came from Dad’s workshop, and contained his taps and dies. It is very dirty and oily, and one of the small white ceramic handles is missing, but once I’ve cleaned it up and painted it, it will be used to store smaller stuff. You can also see my new Stickles carousel to the right, and Dad’s two pipe racks which now hold scissors, tweezers and pliers. Watch this space to see the organising taking place over the next few weeks. I’ve got lots of ideas!

On the right on the work surface, beside my craft mat, you can see the door plate I mentioned in my previous post. Probably my first project in my new ARTHaven, once I get settled in, will be to make a mould of this, and create more of these beautiful art deco pieces for use on the doors downstairs.

The office section is a nightmare. I can’t do anything in there until it’s organised. There are heaps of stuff on the desk, and piles of packs of paper everywhere, and I’ve had to rethink my storage in there because I am asking far too much of the new shelves, which will not support the weight of all my storage. I am now thinking of storing my paper in the bottom of the wardrobe in the bedroom, and keeping the shelves for lighter stuff and maybe some photos and ornaments to make it look more homely.

Last bits of work to be done in this room: the tiling above the sink has to be done, and the shelf fitted for the microwave, and a small wall unit above the sink. I can’t put my stuff in the cupboard until this is done, but there’s lots of other sorting out to be done in the meantime, and it will happen eventually.

Good news over the last couple of days – my hubby has sold my Cricut machine on Ebay for me! That’s one big box that has left this house and not ended up in the new house! I am delighted that it is now sold, and I hope the new owner enjoys using it. That machine got me going on my cutting career but I outgrew it fairly soon, as I was making demands on it that it couldn’t meet, and I am delighted to have moved on to the Silver Bullet Cougar machine.