My New Wand

Thanks for the comments on my lil Angel Diva...I'm still lovin' her! I wanted to quickly mention that the stand she's on was something I'd made. I painted wood balls and disks, glued them together and then placed her on top. It would have been an easy stand - but since I was trying to attach flat disks to round balls, they wouldn't stay on their own...so I had to hold them together until the glue dried. Which I have no patience for. Besides...as the Queen, aren't I supposed to have loyal subjects to do that sort of thing for me? ;)

Unfortunately, right after posting her, she became the victim of a Dirt Devil accident. She almost met a most torturous demise - but some quick moving and a loud gasp - saved her. (I'm pretty positive the ear-shattering shriek I let out did something to save her.)

I've been a crazy one-woman-dusting-vacuuming-throwing out-donating-Windexing-antibacterializing Queen lately...I have been nothing short of ruthless as I move, organize and set up my new studio. (I've given away 36 30-gallon trash bags of things to the Lupus Foundation - and last week I lost count at 24 bags of trash.) I've traded in my scepter for a Dirt Devil wand...able to suck up little toys, beads and miscellaneous "junk" in a single swoop of my arm. I have replaced my fascination with adhesives and paints...temporarily...with a new curiosity and appreciation for how much a single vacuum bag can hold. I've gone from Googling art supplies to wondering which filter kills more dust mites. Forget playing mad scientist with ratios of epoxy - I just wanna know about HEPA filtration systems and which spot remover works on Kool Aid. The change has been so dramatic that even the childebeasts have commented they wish I'd retreat back into my world of art, and leave their stuff alone. (I will admit that most of their stuff seems to be "junk" - while even the tiniest scrap of my paper is comparable to the Holy Grail.)

In a dust-collecting frenzy, my wand got away from me - and while quickly trying to make sure it wasn't going to "eat" a tray full of odds-and-ends, the hose knocked over the Diva...and she fell. To the ground. Behind the TV. Which I can't reach. Thankfully the dust bunnies caught her - her feathers and halo were all just fine. But the stand I had carefully crafted for her, broke. Every disk came apart. I knew I hadn't used the "right" adhesive...but then again, I didn't expect my wild ways to knock her clean off the bookcase!

She's still recovering...not wanting to stop my obsession with dusting - ok, fearing that if I quit dusting/vacuuming long enough to glue her back together, my fondness for art would quickly replace my new found obsession with cleaning. I'm going to make a new stand for her this week so she's ready to take her place overlooking my new studio. The only problem is that the stand was the worst part of her - and I dread making a new one. Hmmm Sounds like it's time to come up with a new stand plan.

I hope to have pictures of my new studio space up in the next week or so. I thought about painting the room before moving everything in - but decided that's way too much work and I'll never get it done. (I have a tendency to put off things that start with "work"!) Don't know if I mentioned it, but I'm taking over the living room. This has been the room the childebeasts owned for the past few years - and I rarely even ventured down there. I finally did go down a few weeks ago - about the time I was trying to decide whether I should keep trying to cram my studio in my bedroom, or move it to the living room - and when I saw the horrid condition, I immediately decided I deserved the room more than they did. They can play video games in their room - the trashing of the living room was going to stop that day. And it did...for the most part.

I've spent the last couple of weeks sorting through mounds of supplies and grouping them together...and throwing lots of things out. This week is going to be full of carpet cleaning and moving furniture. The oldest childebeast starts school Tuesday and - are you hanging onto your hat?? - it's a mixed blessing. I so can't wait - but at the same time, my muscle power will be gone. Then again, it's only 7 more days and all THREE will be back in school. One in elementary school, one in middle school...and one in high school.

How did I get so OLD???