Ok, so here’s the riser I created! All set up at work – I sit at an open table. There are supposed to be tiny dividers but they were back ordered and haven’t come. I do, however, have a great doohickey that lets me switch between sitting and standing whenever I’d like, which is really awesome. 

The existing riser, store bought and standard, leaves my phone pretty low when I’m standing, plus, it was a tiny bit narrow for the laptop. Not problematic, just a tiny little annoyance each day that I don’t need. 

Aside from that, now everything is white Ikea, black chairs, and semi-corporate-ness. How to make the space I spend so much time in feel more comfortable? It’s a shared table, so there’s not a lot of room for knick knacks, never mind that I’m not much of a knick knack person. I do love birds though, and had this turquoise fabric with bird silhouettes in it… So I learned to ModPodge:

 

 
We have a nice little kitchenette for preparing lunches, with a microwave and toaster oven in addition to the standard office fridge and coffee maker, but I prefer to keep my own little set of dishware, plus the community knife that’s constantly going through the dishwasher is hardly sharp, so more dangerous to use than keeping & using my own – which I wash myself & has a plastic cover. 

I have a Command hook on the side for my headset, space for my plate & coffee cup, and in the bin at left, my silverware, sharp knife, and cloth napkins. I try to minimize using disposables when there’s a simple non-disposable solution, and it’s hardly any effort to wash a set of silverware and a plate & cup after I eat.  

There’s also room in there for salt & pepper shakers, although, while one is pepper, the other is Penzey’s adobo, not salt. If you haven’t tried Penzey’s adobo – do; it’s really tasty! Unlike many store brands, it doesn’t have salt, but if you want saltiness too it’s easy to add the amount you like.

So why wouldn’t I want to look at something beautiful during that time? 

I’ve been working on this project off and on for a couple of weeks. Let’s just say, I’ve never used Mod Podge and it’s been interesting – and sticky! 🙂

It’s going to be a new telephone riser. My office gave me one of those black metal ones to use, but it was just slightly narrower than my laptop, which went under, that it was a small annoyance each day. (Was able to give it to someone else who wanted one, so no waste.) I also have a desk doohickey that allows me to sit or stand, so I wanted one that was a bit taller than the normal 4″ or so.

Here’s the item I started with, a very cookie-cutter white box: 

Here it is assembled the way I’ve decided to configure it: 

I’ve trimmed the backboard so the bottom section is open (computer dock and cords will be going in there), and won’t be using the bottom shelf and one vertical divider.  To keep the backboard up, instead of following the force of gravity, I filled in the grooves below it.

I’ve also filled in some of the other grooves; those won’t be used and since the inside of the grooves is dark brown MDF color, they were a visual distraction. Here I used caulk, but it shrank and cracked in a very ugly way, so I later filled right over with drywall compound. 

I’m pretty much at figuring out where I can use an aerosol spray sealer in my house (um, it’s 19° and -1° windchill right now – not going outside).

More later!

As I’ve gone through various events in my life, some good, some less so, but hopefully all learning experiences, I find more and more that I “need” less and less.

While Project 333 isn’t quite a reality for me yet, I’m inspired by it in many ways, along with reading a few minimalism blogs (like The Other Side of Complexity, zen habits, and The Miminalists).

One place where it’s in place (now to practice maintaining!) is my home desk. At work, I’ve had a standing desk for more than 6 months now – definitely enough time to say it works for me! Recently I set a standing desk up at home, using one of those closet organizer shelving systems. So far, so good, and I definitely went minimalistic:

Another area I’m working on that is kitchen items. I love kitchen items! My twin sister does too, so maybe it’s just a thing… in any case, I’m clearing out quite a bit of stuff as my husband and I continue consolidating our “two piles”…

In that vein – a giveaway!! No, not some regular this-blog-is-sponsored-by giveaway, but just me sharing. I know many of my friends also like kitchen items. I have two sets of mini dishes, great for parties or cute presentation of desserts etc., that are still in the packaging. Way old for returning but they somehow never got used…. Watch for pics soon – if you want them, post a comment here! (You’ll need to be local, or pay for shipping, or we’ll see each other in person in the next month or two – I want these out of the house. :-))

When Scruff and I got married, he didn’t have a dryer in the house. He isn’t necessarily opposed to dryers, but hadn’t had one in about 15 years. Partly because he couldn’t make one fit in the basement, partly because he was getting by without, so why bother?

I told him “I sew. I need to prewash and dry. I need a dryer!!”. I ordered one, a really nice one that matches the new washer he ended up having to get fairly recently. (The previous washer was old enough to still have a metal tag labeling it as made in US!)

By measurements, it fit in space we created for it next to the washer. The delivery folks had had no problem getting the washer into the house; however, the dryer wouldn’t fit through the outside door and couldn’t be brought in.

I’ve now gone 4 1/2 months without a dryer. A couple a times we’ve gone to the laundromat to dry my washing… but not very many. Hanging seems to work ok, but I will be researching better racks for sheets.

Towels and clothes are a little “crispy” hung to dry, which I’m sort of getting used to (and honestly, the crispness goes away as you wear or use the item).

I’m beginning to think I don’t need one after all. It fits more with my environmentalist tendencies, and Scruff doesn’t mind either way…. so for now, we’re not getting a dryer.

My concern – and if you sew, please proffer opinions! – is prewashing yardage. I’m thinking that they may need to go to the laundromat dryer once, to get the preshrinking in. And I’d like to sew more with wool… I’ve heard a steam dryer is great for pretreating it. What would be a good alternative?