The Studio is clean....

.....who knew?? I wasn't sure if I'd win the battle, but I have emerged victorious. I am blessed to have a wonderful guy who loves me AND my stuff. He doesn't mind the occasional glitter in his hair and beads on the floor. He would, prefer they stay in the studio.....yeah, like that'll be happening!! :) So, he let's me, ummmm, hoard? toys without too much grief. I had pared down tremendously when we moved across the country a year ago. Well, I've been making up for lost time baby!! I have rec'd several wonderful boxes from friends, jam packed with goodies for the studio and have of course picked up some good resale finds, sale ourchases and of course necessities over the last year. Then 2 weeks ago I ran into the mother of all yard sales. It is staggering the amount of goodies I bought. I spent $60 dollars and got over $600 worth easy. Here are a couple of pics of my "haul"!! LOL

So, on top of my smaller than before studio, missing all of my upper cabinets, I had all these wonderful new toys to find homes for. So, what's a girl to do?? Empty everything and start over. Yep......does this make you shudder? I emptied EVERY drawer, shelf, container and the CLOSET :::insert horror film scream here::: and redid them. It was a HUGE job but I am soooo happy with the results. I still need to get this yummy wire shelving unit I found and several more plastic storage bins but that will have to wait a couple of weeks. For now, one half of the closet is just stacked containers and boxes (which is no good if you need something from the bottom). I threw out 3 huge bags of trash......I know I know.....deep breaths. I have one huge box of goodies to send to some ART friends back home.

I was inspired by some other ART bloggers who vowed to not buy new supplies for 2009, period. Okay, well, while I share their enthusiasm, I will not set myself up for failure. I am going to limit severely any new items I buy. I know for a fact that I can't go a whole year without buying adhesives and probably some paper. Beyond that, I imagine I can come close. Anyone willing to play along?? Several gals in one of my ART groups are trying. I figure if times get desperate, we can all band together and ship a box of "new" toys to an ARTist friend in need and receive one in return!!

Anywho, here is the clean studio. I do miss my ART words. In my studio in Illinois I had all of my fave ART quotes all around the ceiling. Hopefully now that it is clean, DH will take pity on me and put some back up. They won't all fit, but some is better than none!!