Good lighting is essential when you do a lot of close up work. When I moved in to my studio 5 years ago, I had a suspended double fluoro installed above my work table to make sure that the work space was well lit. But even with this central light, tasks lights were still needed at every station around the table. Having a suspended light seemed like a good idea at the time but with light only hitting the tables, the rest of the room was dark. And with so many cables and cords dangling from the ceiling, it looked untidy. But today, all that has changed. I had an electrician install two new ceiling lights which are flush mounted to the ceiling.  I am quite impressed with how much light they give off and as I sit here at my computer, I am amazed that the light is reaching this far. You can see that I still have the power cords dangling from the ceiling (for power at the work tables) but it's much tidier now without the cables suspending the old lightfitting. But the best part of these ......

Exciting day, today! I took delivery of two new chairs for the studio. Well, at least, I got two boxes with chairs in them. Empire Furniture are having a sale on these chairs at the moment and they match the chairs I already have in my studio..... YAAAAY! On top of that they are taking an extra $50 off each chair for their existing customers..... Woohoo! What more could I ask for?!! When I picked them up, the kind gentleman asked me if I'd like them put together for $30 each. When I asked him how long it takes, he said about 2 minutes. Umm, I'm no maths genius, but that works out to $15/minute. I don't think so. I'm a dab hand when it comes to assembling Ikea furniture so I'm sure I can tackle these and I'll keep the $60 thanks! So tackle them I did! The first one took about 10 minutes because I got to this point and didn't understand the next instruction. But the second one took only a couple of minutes as promised! And I'm christening one of them as I......

Somewhere between my last post and what seemed to be only yesterday, a whole week has escaped from me. This is not good considering it is only the second week of the year! My intention of showing you my newly decluttered benchtops has not come to fruition - mainly because I got sidetracked. I know, I know, cleaning is such a satisfying task. It's hard to imagine that anything could divert your attention away from it.... right? Did I just say satisfying? What I should have said was "challenging". I find it very difficult to keep on track when it comes to cleaning. In my last post, I told you about the standing joke in my family regarding my cleaning efforts. Their comments are truly justified. But just what was I thinking when I started the New Year by cleaning up my studio? I'm sure you've heard the superstition that says whatever you do on the first day of the year you will keep doing all year long. Well I certainly don't plan to be cleaning the studio all ye......

The weather in Brisbane has turned quite summery these past few weeks and gone are the cool nights when my little kitty kat sought out a warm lap to curl up in. Instead she has now taken to spreading herself out as far as she can on the tiled floor to cool off. Who can blame her - she hasn't shed her winter coat yet! So it's not unusual for her to lay on the studio floor in wait for fallen beads to skate crazily across it. Chasing beads is one of her favourite past-times but tonight she reckons there wasn't enough action down there so she joined me on the beading table where she could create a little bit of mischief and "accidentally" knock a few beads on to the floor. Gotta love the way kitty kat thinks! After a few minutes excitement she joined me back on the table..... intently watching what I was doing. And then she lay down her head on her paws and had a nap. Next day, and she's plonked herself right back in the middle of my work space again...... Impossi......