6 feet of beat up wood

He told me it originally came from Denver, he bought it from a lady selling off stuff up there a good number of years ago. He used it for several projects, repairing or putting together his own stuff. Now he & his wife are moving to a smaller place and getting rid of lots of stuff (awesome old stove, but I didn't have the $995 to pay for it...)



It has this musty oil & dirt smell that I'm hoping to work out a bit, maybe sand it down as my brother suggested, maybe work in some orange oil or beeswax to help the wood. Yes, I know, it'll just get messy again. But now it's mine & I want to clean it up a bit before going to work on it.

It's sturdy. Thank you to Momma, Daddy, Lawrence & The Gina for helping with the loading, wrist twisting, unloading, and general maneuvering of this thing today!

It was a price I was willing to pay for something with history and something that will handle what may get thrown at it. It has a grinder, a vise grip, six drawers, and a wood grip. The backboard (seen leaning against the wall in the photo above) has hooks for tools like saws and hammers, and three rows of metal screw on lids for the box full of jars - meant for screws or nuts or bolts or small nick nack things. Since I have jars full of art stuff on my bookshelves already - things like beads, copper pieces, cloth strips, brightly colored condoms, confetti, my great-grandmothers knitting needles, necklace charms, and mini-nail polish bottles - I figure this will be a good place for them all!

This work bench is not made of mdf board or a kit. This is heavy, thick, sturdy wood. I am in awe at the find and everything fell into place for me to get it. And! When we went to pick it up, there were about a dozen small blue & grey butterflies flitting about where we parked in their yard. To me, that is a good sign.

Now, well, now I have to figure out where to put it, get the wiring fixed (cause it's severely old and shredded and looks like it was made before the light bulb was invented), and then actually start using it. (hmm, I almost typed 'losing it', but that makes as much sense because I do tend to pile things on top of things and never see them again... let's try not to do that with this...)

Oh! I also have this little round thing, almost like a stool, no more than a foot across and maybe five or six inches high, with three little feet on the bottom, that I picked up at an antique store last year for 3 bucks - turns out it was an ice cream blending board from Blue Bell. Crazy. Can perch this on the work bench too!

Ok, so I like the wood. (totally not meant to be an innuendo... seriously. really. but if you actually know me, well, then... you know...)

Enough. Have also been clearing things here and there, and am now to the moving of things around part. Sorta. It's getting there. But I'm giddy at having a new (to me) work bench, and the ideas and thoughts that come from the creative freedom to think of what I want to do next!

the problem with 'organizing' is...

In the process of moving things around, pushing stuff out of the way and boxing things up to store, well, I can't find where I put my wire cutters and wire and hooks.

The hand held blue cutters/pliers are not where I thought they were. Nor are they where I thought they weren't.

They are not under my bed. Nor is the roll of wire.

They are not on the futon by the door. Nor under it.

They are not on the cd bookshelf. Because I'd notice them standing out against all those cd cases.

They are not in my tool bag. There are books, drill bits, a flip razor box cutter, a bag of m&m's, a bottle of lotion, and a sharpie in that tool bag, but no wire piler/cutters. Shut-up, the m&m's and lotion totally count as tools. Um, so do the books. The sharpie is for drawing on random things like walls and Rob's legs... oh, distracted from the hunting...

They are not in the closet where I was also looking for a shirt to wear that did not involve sleeves.

They are not in that box of paints and brushes, but I did find the pink I was looking for last week.

They are not in my backpack, on the bookshelf with the ducks, or under the shoes by the door.

I'm taking this as a sign that these three pieces are not ready to be wired or hung yet, and so will leave them alone for now. Move onto another project... where I'm sure they'll show up eventually anyway.

swiping the green

Picked up some small plastic containers for storage - I'm sorting my own random trinkets into clear boxes, because then I can see what I have. I'm also shifting some of Lawrence & Gina's art supplies into storage so I can use the drafting table for the bigger pieces I'd like to work on.

Picked up some more wood - still kinda wet, waiting for it to dry, so I can make my own frame to stretch a canvas. New painting now in the works.

I've been contemplating dying my hair blond, don't really know why, just feel like it for some reason. We'll see what happens there. That mood may pass.