Three Lamps

 

2/24/25 Our three portable lamps. The floor lamp has moved to a different corner of the livingroom, the other antique has moved to my studio, and the contemporary one is now my bedside lamp.

To accommodate furniture changes from my move downstairs, I rearranged the three portable lamps in our home. Doing so made me realize that all three were selected and purchased by Greg, two before I even met him. Although we both love them, we hardly used them when he lived here because they weren’t on switches. The two antiques have cumbersome pull chains or a hard-to-reach knob under the shade to operate.

All that changed when I discovered smart plugs. In the dead of winter when I want as much light as I can get, the lamps are on timers, and I can easily enjoy their soft, warm illumination.

The spouse guy recently spent a few days in the hospital recovering from an infection (he’s fine now and back “home” at Aegis). Feeling sad and anxious, I reached for my usual remedy: my sketchbook. Drawing the lamps calmed me and reminded me that the lamps he bought still bring me comfort every day.

Double Celebration

2/27/25 Green Lake and Roosevelt neighborhoods

Many boxes are labeled "Keep upright" because they contain
mugs of pencils right off my desk!

As mentioned previously, I have finished moving my studio downstairs, which means Phase 2 of my eight-month (so far) downsizing project is done! The final Phase 3 will be removing all the remaining items from upstairs so that the carpet can be replaced, but I’m in no hurry for that. In fact, I’m giving myself the rest of the year to finish. I still have quite a few art supplies upstairs that weren’t ready in time for the movers, so I’ve decided to bring them down only as needed. It will be an interesting downsizing process by attrition: Whatever is still left up there by year’s end, unused for at least a year, will tell me that I don’t really need them. It will be easy to take the remains to the next Gab & Grab.

I still have a lot of unpacking to do, so it will be a while before my “new” studio is fully equipped (I will certainly show it off here when I’m ready!). But I’m already having fun starting fresh. All those empty surfaces and shelves waiting to be filled – but filled judiciously. I’m definitely not piling all the clutter back in. It will be interesting to see how accurately I gauged the amount of materials I’ve kept to fit the available space.  

Although I’m working on plans for a larger celebration eventually, I couldn’t resist a pastry reward for achieving this milestone. It was actually a double celebration: One for myself, and one for the unseasonably warm and sunny day. After one of the coldest winters on record, we Pacific Northwesterners deserved it!

While some things didn't get packed when I ran out of boxes, others I deliberately hand-carried myself. My moving guys were great, but nobody touches my jewels.