Organizing is Hard Work

Well, I am working hard on getting my studio organized. However, re-organizing the studio is leading to re-organizing the library, the enclosed porch, the basement, and most of the house. And, since my house is small that leads to chaos like this--

   

I have the tables stacked as I try to sort out tools, books, notebooks, etc.  And, there is more to come--there just isn't any more room on the tables.  And, I am convinced once I get everything organized it will all fit.  And, more importantly, I will once again be able to work efficiently without spending time looking for tools or beads or wood strips or ...

And, now back to sorting, labeling and arranging.

Simplifying and Organizing

2013 is my year for organization and simplification.  The first step towards simplification was to merge my blog and website.  So, the information from my Magickal Dragon Designs website is now being merged into this blog.  This means everything is in one place and hopefully I will do a better job in 2013 of posting regularly and keeping my classes and events pages current.

This is also more cost-effective, since I am no longer paying for hosting service for my website only the registration fee for my domain (hodgepodgestudio.com).  Actually for the next 18 months or so I will continue to pay for registering the domain for magickladragondesigns.com also.  And, for my gallery pages to show examples of some of my jewelry and miniatures, I am using Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com.  This FREE app pulls your images from another source, such as Flickr or Facebook and puts them together in a photo array that links to the originals larger images.  You just copy the HTML code to your blog or website.  And, so far it seems to be working well.  Let me know if you experience any problems with my gallery pages.

I am still tidying up loose ends on the web and making sure that I have good links from my old website to thissite.  But, hopefully by the end of the year all of that will be done.

Now, I need to start on step 2.  I moved my studio home in 2011 and never really got properly organized..  I am just one of those people who works better when all of my supplies and materials are categorized, boxed, and labelled.  So, that is the next project.  My former dining room is my studio/teaching space which works fine, but I have been spending more time trying to find things than I have creating art.  I also have a slight issue with my kitties--Cordelia and Isis.  They both think that my worktable is a great place to lay down or, worse yet, bat around small things like tiny silver bowls and then hide them.  So, this is going to be a challenge but I have already purchased a rolling work table and storage cubes as a starter.  So, you might want to check back and see how this all come together.