Work on Workspace

You know, for a place where I spend half my waking life, my desk at work was not really personalized. For a while it's been on my 'TODO' list to get around to customizing this space. I've even had an idea about what I was going to do for a while.

So this weekend, I finally got around to doing it:



We have a big open office. No cubicles. I really like this, but it does mean that I haven't really had any space to put stuff that is 'mine' aside from a bookshelf (to the left out of picture) where I have a couple of plants, a pair of RC Daleks that Stacey got me and an awesome figurine of Dr. Frankenfurter that prickvixen gave me. Plus, you know... Books.

So... The office manager sits next to me and I'd told her I was thinking about building a trellis and she said go for it. So did Infinity (the person who sits opposite me at the other desk) It's built out of four 6' and two 8' pieces of 1.5" bamboo, An accordion bamboo fence that I cut into pieces, and some 1" bamboo I found in a creek bottom. Plus twine and some impressive rope burns from lashing things together. Total cost was ~$40 for the structure. I should have taken more photos. The lattice looks really nice. I'm very happy with how it came out. I'm also quite proud of my mad lashing skillz. If there were room, you could do pull-ups on this structure. :)

At last I have a place to put a picture and some plants and hang my headphones. I'll probably bring in a few more personal items in the near future too. Possibly a hanging fake 'fire' lamp or something. I have some weird ideas about a 'tiki bar' but I'll see how it goes. For now, I'm just proud of having given myself walls and held to the idea of an open office space at the same time. :) You'll notice I kept with that idea right through the type of plant I selected for the right hand side. The plants on the left side of the desk are both types that are part of the office decor in the entry way to help tie my desk into the rest of the office's theme. I also caught a real break on the plant hangers. I was going to do my own macrame (yes, I can do macrame, many of the plants in my house are in such hangers) but these metal hanging cages were on closeout and too good a deal to pass up.

All in all, I'm quite happy. Can't wait to see what people at work think tomorrow. :)

Freecycle means Free Sewing

Last week I happened to glance at Freecycle and saw a message for an old Singer sewing machine which 'needed some work'. I've got several friends who either do sew but don't have a machine or would like to learn but again, don't have a machine. So, I asked about the machine and picked it up yesterday but I had my bamboo tiki bar to finish and a date with paradox_puree to teach her the basics of airbrushing so she could paint her new RC plane (You can see her completed work here. She took it up for a test flight today. :) so I didn't really get to look at it until today.

The machine was practically new and by new I mean very low use. It's a Singer Model 417 (does straight, zip-zag, and stretch stiches) plus it has a button-holer attachment. It came with all the original accessories (even the oil) and their boxes and manuals. Also tucked away in a corner was the sales receipt from 1974.

It's a GREAT machine. Needed some very minor cleaning and adjustments and I did the full tear-down, lubrication, and inspection. The only thing that has even minor wear is the rubber friction wheel for the bobbin winder but it'll be fine for some time to come. Moreover, it didn't have so much as a single chip in the paint. She's beautiful and runs so smooth!



Honestly, I'd forgot just how nice these machines feel. Everything is so solid and smooth that I confess, I like the feel of it better than my new Husqvarna. Probably because one is mostly steel and the other mostly plastic. The old singers have a much nicer peddle. I've always liked them and peddle is definitely my biggest complaint about my Husqvarna. The husky as a few other tricks (like overlocking stitches and handling of a wider variety of fabrics than the Singer) but on the whole, it's a GREAT little machine.

Soo... Now if any of you guys want to come over and sew or learn to sew or want to borrow either machine for a while, I won't have to threaten you with my 1800's treadle machine. :)

Coming soon: I'll post some photos of some of the stuff I've been sewing lately. Just want to finish the current piece I'm working on. :)