Gosh, the comments and suggestions on yesterday’s post about my problem with paper were so helpful. And funny. Clearly, some of you suffer from the same problem. But some of you are very organized (I am in awe) and generously offered many helpful tips. I plan to implement some of them right away.

In fact, I had planned to being shredding yesterday afternoon. Don was in the city and I seem to get more done when he’s not here. But before you shred, I said to myself, you must replace Mabel’s Drip Pan Pad (a task that I have postponed for 3 weeks.) Featherweight’s have a drip pan with a felt pad that, according to Nova, collects grease and oil and is responsible for a lot of that musty smell. You can order the pads from Nova.

I opened up the Mabel’s bottom and discovered a nasty old drip pan pad, which promptly was put in a plastic bag and dumped in the trash. I took the drip pan outside and removed all the oil that had accumulated there.

There it is. The other stuff is dried glue. And now for the felt pad:

I glued it to the drip pan, put the pan back on Mabel’s bottom and the musty smell is gone.

Ta dah!

Proud of myself, I thought that I had better exit the studio and start shredding. As I cleaned up my little mess, my eyes lit on a favorite piece of barkcloth. (I ♥ barkcloth, and that means ‘love’ not ‘heart’ – don’t get me started.)

No, I said, look away. You must start shredding.

But it’s such a pretty piece of barkcloth – part of an old set of curtain panels. I’ve had it a long time.

I’ve been wanting to change up the skirt around the sewing machine table. Maybe a solid color eventually, but I wondered if I could cut around some of the holes in the barkcloth remnant and make a skirt?

No. Stop. I should shred.

Before I knew it, I found myself measuring and cutting and looking for my velcro stash and it was if I had been taken over by aliens and I plugged in Mabel and, well, here you go:

I wanted something a bit bolder in here. I love all my turquoise and pink but I needed a dash of bolder prettiness. If things start getting too matchy-matchy around here, I get uneasy. Hey, it’s only velcro…if I find something I like better, I can change it. And Mabel, trusty little wonder that she is, did all the stitching.

Now I’m thinking the chair needs to be recovered, but if you remember, I used that chair to fix something in the bedroom. And while I was standing on it, it fell over and I stepped through the woven back. It’s better if I don’t repeat the words that came out of my mouth. So maybe the chair simply needs to be replaced. I don’t know.

And suddenly it was late in the afternoon and I heard Scout pacing around downstairs and I realized that she needed to be fed and I needed some hot chocolate so that I could check in on the blog comments and ….

The shredding never got done.

Happy Wednesday.

I have a teeny-tiny studio space just at the top of the stairs.

There’s just enough room for me, my Elna sewing machine and some fabric. To the right is a bookshelf and further on down the hall is a cabinet and my vintage dress form, Letitia. You can read about the whole shebang in this post.

Here is my tweaking quandary for this week: How do I find space for this?

This is the ‘new’ Featherweight my husband bought me as an early birthday present. Featherweights were designed to be portable, so putting it in the case is always a possibility. But the case smells musty (I’m working on that) and besides, it’s too pretty to be tucked away. But when it sits on my sewing table, it’s right next to the other machine.

You see my predicament. Limited space. I can always use it on the kitchen table. Or on the desk in the den. But I won’t always want to do that and, again, it needs a place to sit.

I have an idea. This table is currently sitting in the den. Since we no longer have a lamp sitting on top of it (it died – in fact the shade was transformed into this) the table is just sort of there. There are a few books hanging about on the little shelf, my vintage child’s piano is on the top. It doesn’t really do anything, especially since we added the coffee table to the den.

I’m going to digress here for a moment. Did I ever tell you the story of this table? Years ago, and I mean twenty+ years ago, I was a faculty member at Boston University’s School for the Arts. I had my own office which was rather spacious. No windows, though, only senior faculty had the coveted offices with windows. But heck, it was my own space. Most of us furnished our offices with a combination of battered office furniture and old props used in student productions. I found this table, which was unpainted at the time, in the prop room and commandeered it for my space. It was a wee bit fragile and needed some gluing. There it lived for a couple of years until I found a rent controlled apartment in Cambridge and needed furniture. I couldn’t afford much, as I was woefully underpaid, so it moved to my apartment. And, somehow, it moved with me to San Diego. And then to New York. That little table and I have a long history which makes it very precious to me. It reminds me of the days in Boston where I was working my tush off and having lots of fun. I painted it a few years ago and it looks pretty nifty.

So, why not move this little table upstairs and place it perpendicular to the sewing table along the wall (under the mantle shelf)? It’s narrow enough, 13 inches deep, and it’s sturdy. I think it just might work. Or will I be trapped in there between the two tables?

I’m leaning toward using it. Any advice?

I’m posting this early so I can link to my pal Brenda’s Tweak It Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday.