There is a previous post on Ty’s office, but this one examines my studio. Ok full disclosure, I like having things in boxes until I really, really need what is in the box. Also in the dome there were closets galore, and here there are only four closets!

So there I was one day just trying to get done what I wanted to get done, and Ty comes home to say there is a great shelving unit at the St. Joseph’s Flea Market next door. He saw it on the way home because they leave much of the furniture outside. The store was closed for the next two days and we just hoped it didn’t rain on it.

Tuesday morning the store opened, and we walked the sturdy, 6ft tall oak shelf half of a block to the tower. Once scrubbed down, scraped of wasp’s nests, and brought inside, Ty was all about getting me unpacked. While I put away most of our tech gear, dvds and tapes, he hefted bins full of my crafting items into one closet, and re-arranged another shelf.

He came up with some great ideas for displaying my musical instruments and moth-proof acrylic yarn. Yes, the man can cook and he’s got a mean sense of feng shui.

What’s left? Well as you can see from the picture below, I don’t have a real computer chair yet, but the bin is the perfect height, and keeps me from slouching too much. That open swift on the top of the back shelf? That was Ty’s idea.

We also have a closet full of wall hangings that need to go up, and the quilt may go on the wall too.

This morning I had to go through all of my papers trying to find one specific document. It took almost an hour to find it, so the paper organization isn’t perfect yet, but as far as yarn/fabrics/instruments/av club multimedia go, I’m pretty sure where everything is. I guess that makes it home.

Well that’s about the entire studio, except for Darth Vader wearing my derby hat.

Just in case you didn’t know, I’m “between jobs” right now by choice.  We made the move, and are settled in, and there are a certain amount of things I feel I need to get done before my next phase of employment begins.

Today we found an independent insurance agent in dowtown Conway, his name is Chase.  He was very helpful, and even re-ran a bunch of numbers for us a couple of times.  He had to ask a few weird questions, and we were happy to answer them.  He asked if I was employed, and I said I was between jobs.  He said to Ty, “You’re working at Hendrix, right?”  We were surprised that Chase knew, but it turns out after seeing Tyrone’s email address is his name @tyronejaeger.com, he went to tyronejaeger.com and found the information.  Wow, look at that! Getting that website has done a little marketing for us!

Now we just need something to sell.

Anyway, we got the paperwork back for our insurance and Chase asked us to look through it for spellings, etc.   Names, addresses, previous addresses, employment…next to Ty’s name was “Hendrix College Professor,” or something like that in all of its multiple word capitalized glory….and there it was, right next to my name, “homemaker”.

We’re still laughing about it here.

If you were ever thinking about buying someone an amazon.com gift card, you should really use this link.

And thank you for your support.   Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

…and there were boxes and boxes. In the living room, boxes!

In the kitchen, boxes!

In the crafting room, boxes! (Yes the computer chair is a rubbermaid tote.)

In the office atrium/people tank all has settled. Tyrone is quick to unpack like that. My mother is coming down for a visit this weekend, and bringing the rest of his books. Notice the cool green curtains. I threw those together last week. I was in the middle of unpacking, and just not sure how to set up my studio. A project was needed to put me into the right arm’s length mindset, and the green curtains really helped to triangulate that.

Here is Ty on the roof, happy he’s unpacked. On his birthday, he put out the tiki torches. Now the tower seems more like a fortress at night when we have them lit. Pictures of that tomorrow!

We had a very interesting move into our building, there are two flights of stairs before you even hit the front door. Our building was still being worked on as we moved in, so we were able to utilize some tools.

Here are some pictures I took off of the roof too! We didn’t just sit around and watch them unpack. Tyrone had to play peacemaker between the truck driver and the moving crew. Everyone is contracted out to everyone else, and it is hard to say who is in charge, so the driver was about to send the crew packing after he stumbled on a piece of rebar behind our place and broke Ty’s desk. That would mean waiting 2-3 hours to get another crew out there, and not being unpacked until 7-8 PM. In the end, the crew we had ended up staying and moving everything. Near the end of the day, they’d ask, “What’s the magic number?” and that meant they really hoped that piece of furniture went on first floor.

Tomorrow…interior pictures….we are *almost* unpacked.

It isn’t the most interesting or luxurious of crafts, but darning socks, sewing holes, and re-attaching buttons are necessary tools against the “Made in China” trends, and combats buying more stuff.

After Tyrone and I had been dating for a couple of weeks, he wore an awesome striped shirt from the seventies in a mustard and light blue out on a date.  The shirt embodied his classic style, and I was enamored with it, right down to the hole that was beginning to appear on the shoulder.  I offered to fix it, and really enjoy fixing his clothes ever since.  It may really sound like an anti-feminist thing to say, but I really enjoy providing him with this outwardly physical form of affection.

But there is another reason.  Tyrone is no stranger to sewing his clothes.  Last night I put 4 new buttons on a blue shirt.  A closer look at the shirt showed blue thread reinforcing the arm hole, as well as thick white thread clinging on to the existing mismatched white buttons.  I know he appreciates it because he’s mended his favorite clothes too.

I mended four of my sweaters, 3 pairs of socks, and two of Ty’s shirts.  I had an urge I had not had before.  One of his shirts was a navy blue jersey knit material, and had already started to unravel in places.   I really wanted to fix the shirt in a contrasting bright red cross-stitch.  I didn’t but it may be something to experiment with in the future.  Mended clothes can sometimes look old or cheap, but there is a new trend with T-shirts from LA to stitch in contrasting thread.  Some neatly done cross stitching may up-cycle the garment and adds an additional layer of fashion, and attention to hand-embellished detail.

It was a fun thing to do and contemplate while watching the Project Runway finale, or maybe it is just the cold medicine talking.