Thursday, September 29, 2011

Blip.fm -- excellent Music and Videos



You can follow all my Music Find postings at Blip.fm. Discovered so many great songs there! For free!

I love being WOWed by a song. Grabbed by the song, singer or video and not by hype. Hype actually makes me suspect something is boring (since it would appeal to the masses) and I don't want to waste my time. Being bored is NOT in my definition of Excellence. But I know hype is necessary, like Manure on a garden. heh.

Haven't listened to mainstream radio in a decade. If these are hot bands, I wouldn't know. I just LOVE 'em.

I'll post the ultra favorite videos on this blog. GREAT for inspiration.


Let's start off with:
Poets of the Fall - Dreaming Wide Awake


Find the lyrics on their beautiful website.

Monday, September 19, 2011

I FINALLY GET MY OWN WINDOW SEAT!


Always wanted a window seat! LOVE THIS!
Top cushion is the couch futon extension which is only used when couch opens into a bed.

Trunk holds off-season clothes. My husband made the trunk decades ago by surrounding the frame of a coffee table with pine slats. The coffee table came with the old futon. Modifying inexpensive furniture is another smart thing to do. Pine is so pretty and has lasted beautifully. We used to keep games inside but I like having storage for clothing without having to climb ladder to a dusty attic.

And that's the end of the projects for the new Artist Studio. For now...

SEE ALL:
REMODEL PROJECT ENTRIES

Re-purposed Futon Frame:
Ear-Friendly Pot Hanger

Best Kitchen Improvement for this Short-Attention-Span-Challenged Cook!






The Nate Show had a segment about shopping in your own garage.
Wow, did that inspire me. Because I had a budget of ZERO!

I was able to make many awesome items with an old pine futon frame that was stuck in our shed.

Best improvement I've ever done -- my ears can not take the crashing clanging of pots and pans. Yet that's what I did for 20 years here. argh!

Having a totally visual memory, the moment I turn my head, I forget what I was just doing! Therefore, clanging around with my head in a dusty oven drawer to find a matching lid is just too much.

But with this simple setup, now I just listen to "angels singing" as I grab the pan I need, pick up a lid, and make something yummy.

The open shelves started because of the cramped kitchen situation. But I've realized cabinet doors simply keep me confused what is behind them. The way my eyes work, I'll always have to keep the most commonly used pans, lids and bowls within view AND a quick hand-grab away.

And since the place looks less artistic when a pan is dirty and missing from the wall, "Ms Hates to Clean but Loves Being Artistic" quickly cleans the pretty silver aluminum and hangs it up.

There IS one big spaghetti pot left in the oven drawer, but now nothing is jammed around it. So when that pot is needed, I simply lift it UP! whoo hooo! small victories are huge indeed!

Materials
1) Pine board (from Futon Frame, already stained)
2) 3 long brass screws (left over from building porch)
3) Toggle bolts and screws to install on wall

(I was in a blurred crazed state when I installed on the wall. Don't ask how I did it. Something about holes in the back of pine board matching up with screws coming out of the wall. It's solidly attached to the wall SOMEHOW from those temporary powers of insanity!)


SEE NEXT PROJECT:
WINDOW SEAT

SEE ALL:
REMODEL PROJECT ENTRIES



Re-purposed Rolling Cart: Painting Center


My husband made such incredible furniture for the old home recording studio. This rolling cart used to hold a large mixing board controller.

Not about to let these works of art sit in a shed gathering dust. Isn't this pretty used instead for my watercolor supplies!?

SEE NEXT PROJECT:
POT & PAN HANGER

SEE ALL:
REMODEL PROJECT ENTRIES


Re-purposed Futon Frame: Purse & Hoodie Hanger

PURSE & HOODIE CENTRAL! Small neat black purse for
interviews; big bags carry stuff I need away from home.


This is the part of the futon frame that supported the couch seat cushion. Birch knobs (eBay finds) were simply screwed on.

Frame is resting on anchored screws, just like hanging a heavy picture on drywall. It’s hung higher on the wall so long stuff can hang down.

After using it, decided it would have been better to push the last 3 rows of knobs to outer edges.
(Otherwise, hippie bags on higher rungs cover them up.)

Backpack stays in right spot for me to keep adding stuff, like jerky and water, for my next day’s travels as I think of them.






It must be pointed out that I have limited handywoman skills. Mostly due to easily injured wrists and a seriously short attention span. Therefore, if I can do this, anyone with access to a powered drill can do it too. It took me all day. No need to hurry cuz you get to enjoy it for many years.

SEE NEXT PROJECT:
ROLLING CART FOR WATERCOLOR PAINTING

SEE ALL:
REMODEL PROJECT ENTRIES


Re-purposed Futon Frame:
Project Desk

The key for having time to be artistic is to get EVERYTHING OFF THE FLOOR!!!!






Project Desk:
Rolling tall workbench found for free at our old band rehearsal studio.

(Note that cookie trays make great project trays.)

Kiln used for silver clay jewelry fits nicely on top-left shelf.




Jewelry Hanger

1. Simple Birch Drawer Knobs found on eBay.

2. Knobs added to armrest from old pine futon frame.




The constant struggle is to KEEP THE SURFACE CLEAR!
Can’t focus without elbow-room, ya know.

SEE NEXT PROJECT:
PURSE & HOODIE HANGER

SEE ALL:
REMODEL PROJECT ENTRIES


Recording Studio Ends; Artist Studio Begins





Goodbye recording studio: These hand-made soundproofing
panels had been hung on the ceiling, all walls & this window. We
were working like foxes in a dark den.

(ok, foxes with lava lamps, but still...)

Picture me, 5’ 4” tall, determined to finally be free, tossing them out
the window. At the time the door was essentially blocked by a
shelving unit plus 2 feet of gear.


The main piece, a recording studio patch bay shelf, had stacked black & silver strips of patch bays, attached with screws.

Attached wheels helped me get it out of the house, but was stopped by the rough slate pathway and grass.

Too overwhelmed to find someone to help me drag it to the curb, the shelf sat outside ALL WINTER. But this turned out OK!

By Spring I had more time & finally saw a possibility. And wheeled it back inside...

SEE NEXT PROJECT:
PROJECT DESK

SEE ALL:
REMODEL PROJECT ENTRIES

The old Recording Studio

I'd never been more excited in my life when my husband built this recording studio many years ago.

He was into gear. I was into recording without time limits.

Even if there had been no stress about the cost of commercial Recording Studios, just driving there, setting up and the typical band B.S. always got me too tired to give my best singing takes.

THIS home studio let me sing when I felt powerful. No curfew. No tearing down the mixer levels when we had it JUST RIGHT but -- oh, too bad -- the outside studio was booked to another band the next day.


There was a huge problem. We thought it would take a year at most. 8 years later I was still living in a 720 sq ft house with this monster studio taking up the main living space and part of the dining room.

It had already affected my sanity.

Lack of funds made the recording process take a long time. Prices skyrocketed. Layoffs happened again and again. No longer was Denver a place of working part time, living simply and playing shows like we used to do. Instead, my gig was cycling in heat or snow to reach 2 crap-pay part-time jobs. No energy left to care about anything. The studio gathered dust.


And with people telling us they love our music, but most preferring to download free files instead of paying, all my motivation went straight out the window.

Therefore, the next post shows the awesome day I shoved all the studio structures...straight out the window!


Not to worry. I feel really FREE. Free of caring if drummer #4 quits or a bass player is frittering away hours changing strings.

Husband has plenty of gear IN ANOTHER LOCATION for his live sound engineering biz. All is well. At least, now that I've got some space!

I still want to release all the songs for sound track and music library use. There are 8 left to master.

But until then I am having fun decorating by reusing stuff from our shed.

SEE THE NEXT PROJECT:
RECORDING STUDIO ENDS; ARTIST STUDIO BEGINS

SEE ALL:
REMODEL PROJECT ENTRIES