Funky Crate

You know you've found your calling when you sort of can't wait for Sunday to finish so that you can get back in your studio on Monday morning to create. That's an amazing feeling... and one I've certainly never felt with any other vocation. It's so validating and life-affirming.

These photos are of this awesome, funky crate I picked up at our local antique mall this weekend. I'm not sure that it's even really all that old, but I just love it. The minute I saw it, I knew it needed to be my yarn caddy. Isn't it perfect?!?

Okay... on another topic... I'm wondering right about now if the electric gods of the universe are against me. If you've been following my blog, you'll no doubt remember our $609 electric bill. You'll also remember that I painted in order to heal, and I've been suffering through some hot afternoons. I have yet to turn on the air conditioning once in August! That's pretty major for me. But I'm determined to get that bill reduced to something not so insane. And I'm worried about Southern California Edison's 200% promised rate hike this month.

So on Friday afternoon, I turned on my heat gun to dry my art - like any good impatient artist would do. The thing explodes... literally. There were sparks and a few flames and I had this big black smoke/burn mark on my hand. After this incident, none of the 8 outlets along that corner of the kitchen were working.

I figured, "No problem, it's probably just a blown fuse." Steve came home and we flipped ALL of the circuits and reset ALL of the safety switches both inside and out. Nada. We have no idea what to do next and electricity is certainly something you don't want to experiment with. Wanna guess how much the electrician is going to be? My bet is that it will be precisely the difference between this month's bill and the $609 from last month. How does that happen!?!?