Organizational Skills

I have organizational skills, I just don't always use them! It's something that I am working on. Some time ago I was in IKEA and fell in love with a Raskog cart. It came in my favorite color, the price was right (about $27) and it came home with me. My first inclination was to use it in the studio for tools. After putting it together and letting it live in the house for a few weeks, I decided I wanted it for storing art supplies. It has worked out great. I can roll it to where I need it or I can hide it away in my office. It also makes a great stand to hold the pyrometer when we are firing the gas kiln!
It doesn't look very organized right now. I guess I need to get my organizer, organized.

We recently ordered new IKEA shelving for our gallery. They were offering free shipping so I ordered another cart with the sole purpose of studio use. The color offerings were fewer and I settled on burnt orange.

Before the cart, I had all my tools in containers and crocks on my worktable, making the table very cluttered for rolling out slabs and doing any hand building. The cart gives me flexibility to roll it near my wheel or next to the worktable. I have also been able to roll it out of the way when we are having a group in the studio for lessons.
After re-organizing my "art cart", I should tackle some closets...

Name your pig

 We unloaded the gas kiln in the late afternoon on Sunday. Most of the load was orders and it was a great firing... thank you kiln gods and Jeff, who stayed up all night to get this firing done before his trip.

These are few samples of the "personalized" piggy banks. I was relieved that "Anne" came out perfect. This was a re-do. I totally forgot to add the flowers to the first one, and didn't realize it until it was bisqued. If you know someone named Anne that needs a piggy bank without flowers, I have one ready and waiting for glaze! At least Anne is a common name. I am sure it will eventually sell.

 I had some fun with the underglaze on this piggy. It will be available in my Etsy shop tonight...

I took Jeff to the airport yesterday and he landed in Tokyo in the early morning (our time). He is staying with a potter friend in Naga and will visit Mashiko tomorrow. On Thursday he will fly to Seoul. It was a stressful week preparing for this trip. There was so much to do and we both came down with head colds at the beginning of last week. We felt like we were moving in slow motion. To save our sanity we took some things off of our "to do" list. We postponed the stripping and painting of the kitchen cabinets job. Better to focus on getting healthy. The cabinets can wait until Jeff returns.
I am certain they will still be there, in all of their peeling paint glory.

My consolation prize for staying behind was a shopping trip to IKEA! Since I was already in Charlotte, it was an easy decision. I didn't go crazy but did come home with new towels and shower curtain for the main bath, along with place mats and a runner for the dining table. I will actually NOT have a "photo taking set up" on our dining room table anymore! We have a good size office where we can keep it set up and out of the way. Now to see if we will actually eat at the table...