Getting organized

I know I'm not alone in this. My life seems to be an ongoing cycle of organization and disarray. I clean up and them I mess up. The railing at the top of our stairs at home is a collecting point for work in progress that's too big to leave anywhere else (and other stuff).

Here's the sad state of affairs today.


There's a queen-size quilt for our bed that's waiting to be bound. The purple thing is something that I'm just starting. And the bits of silk are part of a series of 10 scarves that I'm doing so that I have something to sell in the new studio (Move in day is this coming Friday!). Bottom line is this: I have got to get this stuff done so that it can go where ever it is that it's supposed to go. It just can't spend it's entire life in the hallway.

As I said, the studio is about to take off. I've got the contract in hand, the insurance is paid for, and I pick up the keys this Friday. I'm very excited, but I still have occasional hyperventilating moments. Am I making a commitment that's bigger than I can live up too? Those moments seem to pass quickly and I keep moving (or floating) forward.

There's so much to do. I've got to do some packing and figure out how much is going to the studio and how much is staying home. I think it's going to take awhile to work out the balance. One of my big questions is what to do about dye. I've switched over to working exclusively with dye concentrates. I mix known concentrates of primary colors then mix everything else from those. I've found that the shelf life of the concentrates is greatly extended by refrigerating them. The same holds true for sodium alginate pint paste (NB: adding 1 tsp of denatured alcohol per quart to the alginate mixture helps too). So, do I buy a little dorm fridge for the studio? Do I just let the stuff go bad faster at room temperature? Or do I schlep it back and forth (not likely!)? This is the stuff I can't figure out. Since my studio time is going to be a little spotty, I'm leaning toward the fridge. Opening up a container of spoiled alginate and getting a face full of the disgusting ammonia smell is just about enough to ruin my day!

A final note on color. I snapped this photo last week in the Bishop's Garden on a visit to the National Cathedral. What amazing colors. I need to do something with this.