Dad's Daughter, Part 1: Shed and Shed Byproducts

I was busy busy last week! Monday started with ordering a basic overlap 7' x 5' wooden shed at ilikesheds.com to replace the 20+ year old one we inherited when we bought this house. It was, as they say in this neck of the woods, "knackered." I'd replaced the roof two years ago, which gave its demise a little reprieve (and another 5,000 spiders a place to call home), but we'd squeezed as much life out of it as we were going to and it was time to replace it.

What I wasn't expecting was ilikesheds.com to give me a delivery date of Saturday. They advertised an 8-10 day delivery time, so I had to beat cheeks and get a whole bunch 'o stuff done if I was going to be ready for its speedy arrival. But what really scared me was not knowing if I could actually pull off putting one of these puppies together properly. (I'm trying not to show too much of the wonky fencing I put up prior to the shed roof two years ago.)

I learned early on from my father that if you're not sure how to do something, you can do as much research as you want, but there's nothing like just jumping in and getting your hands on something to really understand what you're working with. My way to do that was to see how it was put up by, well, tearing it down! So, here's how it went . . .

old shed after replacing the roof two years ago

Monday Afternoon:

1.) Pulled everything out of the shed and drove a carload of recyclable items to the tip (dump).

2.) Ripped off felting (tar paper) and removed all but two screws from each roof board (8' x 3.25'), then asked Kpie for help to ease them down. These were still in perfect condition after two years, so I set them aside and imagined ways to use them while disassembling the rest of the shed panels.

Tuesday:

1.) Finished breaking up the old shed panels – setting aside the door and any usable support beams that still had life in them – then tied all the boards into manageable bundles and fit them ALL in my tiny Vauxhall Corsa.

2.) Tearing the floor apart was a little more difficult than I'd anticipated. Waterlogged corners ripped apart easily, but water resistant MDF is one tough cookie and I had to rely on my little sledge hammer and crow bar to break the rest of it down into small enough chunks to fit into the spaces left in the car. Then it was off to the tip in Crawley.

3.) After a little lunch and a game of "kick the ball 'til I goes crazy" with Poppy, I began prying all the concrete slabs up to see what I had to work with for the foundation. The ground was incredibly sloped and uneven and it was easy to see why the shed had become so distorted in the end. I managed to level four slabs and decided to call it a day.

Wednesday & Thursday:

I love dreams. I woke up Wednesday morning knowing exactly what I was going to do with those roof boards. They were destined to become a new bike shed on the patio! A little sketch and some simple mathematics later and I had my jigsaw and drill out for the next two days. I'm pleased to say that every last bit of material (wood, old shed door, screws, hinges, felting, wood glue and paint), I'd either salvaged from the shed or tucked away from our recent loft conversion. I didn't have to go to the store for any bit of this!

weathershield undercoat – final colors to be decided

lid up and top half removable for easy access

The finished bike shed is large enough to fit two bikes diagonally, along with a few other bikey bits and bobs. The top half slides off for easy access and the hinged stand has a hook and chain just in case a gust of wind blows the lid back. (After getting smashed on the shoulder when a shed panel blew over on Monday, I thought a little safety paranoia wasn't such a bad idea.)  The handle is a piece of curved birch branch from the Ashdown. I'll take it off and varnish it while the final coat of paint goes on. We'll decide on colors in the next day or two -- update to follow.

new shed floor on concrete slabs

Friday:

Back to filling and leveling the ground for those concrete blocks . . . BACKBREAKING WORK! But I gotter done and after a well-deserved cold one, home delivery tandoori king prawn jalfrezzi from our favorite takeaway, Ruchi, and a sound sleep . . .

Saturday:

Bright and early 6:55am delivery of our new flat-pack shed! These guys had started in Nottinghamshire at 2am and already made three deliveries by the time they got to us. They even helped me carry the roof board and floor panel down to the end of the garden. Nice.

corner pieces added after this photo was taken

I decided to give the neighbors a break and started assembling everything a couple hours later.  By the time Kpie returned at 3:30pm I had four walls up and we both put the roofing on together! All done by 6pm . . . and I don't need to explain that I couldn't move on Sunday. But hey, we've got a new shed/clubhouse. Stay tuned for paint and further clubhouse embellishments – including a cozy campfire spot.

And Dad, thanks for teaching me how to hit a nail when I was just knee high to a cricket ;-). A hammer for every grrl!!!

Check out my art and art byproducts at cookiechang.etsy.com.

cookie at brighton's west pier market

I haven't made any new posts lately because I've been very busy for the past two months getting cookie ready to launch down at Brighton's West Pier Market. After a very blustery weekend and a failed attempt last Saturday, I checked the Met Office for Brighton's weather forecast, packed the car up and headed down bright and early yesterday morning. With just a light breeze off the sea and the sun poking through the mist, I set up my stand with the beautiful, eerie skeleton of Brighton's West Pier as a backdrop.

OK, so I didn't make a fortune (cookie) -- which may have been a little anticlimactic -- but what made up for it were the amazing PEOPLE I met. And to me, that was everything. My neighbor stall owners were helpful, encouraging, friendly and very welcoming.

Though the weather was stunning, there weren't a lot of people down on the pier, and everyone agreed it was a particularly slow day but that I shouldn't let it discourage me from coming back. Who knows, maybe it had something to do with it being a Wednesday, or maybe people were just shocked that we finally had a summer's day in England and it took them a while to remember where the beach was.

Either way, I'm not judging anything from just one day. I'll be back down on Saturday! (Let's be realistic, if everyone had an office space like this, that wouldn't be a very difficult decision to make, would it?)

Viva Frida! (and Shrinky Dinks!)

In May, mel.e sent me a packet of Shrinky Dinks for my birthday. (I'd requested them because my stash was left behind when I moved from the US to the UK almost three years ago.) So this week, while kpie was away on biz, I indulged in a few late nights with a pile 'o art supplies spread out over the coffee table and reacquainted myself with Shrinky Dinks.

"Viva Frida!" is my ode to my favorite grrl artist ever -- Frida Kahlo. I drew her with a fine line Sharpie on the glossy side, then had to think "backwards" when shading and coloring on the sanded side with colored pencils. I'm quite pleased with the outcome! Frida's mounted on two wooden dominoes which I've glued together. I used wood filler on the sides, then sanded and painted acrylics and gel pens (another gift from mel.e).

I ordered a good handful of milagros from elsol.etsy.com in San Antonio and included the little silver flaming heart, so when you wear this necklace, Frida's heart beats next to yours . . . ahhhh.

Up next will be "Fighting Basquiat," my tribute to Jean Michel Basquiat -- hands down, my favorite boy artist ever. The Shrinky Dink part is done, but the rest is still rattling around in my noggin. Inspiration . . . .

NEW! crumfiti uk POSTCARD & BADGE pack!

check it out! cookiechang.etsy.com
Includes: all 7 crumfiti postcards, 1 crumz badge (pin-back button)
and FREE MAGNET in a glossy, 4-color pack ...are you kidding?
Get yours today!

cookie chang MAGNETS join the BRIGHTON FESTIVAL!!!

I got up early this morning to drive down to Brighton. My mission? To disperse FREE cookie chang MAGNETS!! The Brighton Festival is happening through May, so it only seemed fitting that free magnets advertising my handmade art be an unofficial part of this amazing month-long festival devoted to visual and performing arts!

So did you find one? I left them on magnetic friendly surfaces all over the North Laines. In fact I'm here right now, drinking a faaabulous cup o' joe, looking down Kensington Street, where this photo was taken.

If you found one in your shop and would like to carry my products or artwork, leave me a comment and I will gladly contact you.

If you're not a shop owner and found one on the street, please leave a comment as well. I'd love to know where you found yours.

And please don't forget to visit my etsy shop: cookiechang.etsy.com. Don't be put off by the US dollar pricing. Paypal will convert it for you. Besides, the dollar sucks right now, so you can basically halve the price ($8.00 = £4.00). That means REALLY GOOD DEALS on ORIGINAL HANDMADE ART and art byproducts.  

OK, now on to the seafront to leave the rest of my magnets . . . . Maybe I'll see you down there? 

Could it have been any more gorgeous today? mel.e took in some sites:

Prickly Prunella grabbed some rays:

Mamey Beergarden checked out the Royal Pavilion:

. . . and hit an all-time low in the loo. Oh Mamey, ya gotta stop cheatin' yourself!

street magnets! a kinda "how-to"

I lied when I said that I haven't done ANYTHING to market my cookie chang products. Last fall I had this idea to do what the crumz were already doing -- graffiti. But, being a 42 year old woman in a new country, I thought it might not be too smart to get busted drawing on public buildings . . . and anyway, what the crumz are doing is "virtual crumfiti" not "actual graffiti."

So I said to myself, "Self, what if you could leave your mark around town without actually defacing property?" And what magically popped into my head? MAGNETS!

Being a natural cheapo-minded artist, I fit a bunch of 1" circular designs on an A4 page, printed it out on my inkjet printer, painstakingly cut out little "www.cookiechang.com" labels to affix to the back of each, laminated the page, cut each out with my 1" circle punch and stuck a little magnet to the backs. Fantastic idea, right? Uh, not in rainy olde England is wasn't!



One beautiful sunny day kpie and I put them up all over Lewes and Brighton. I skipped home, certain that the next day I would check my web stats and find thousands of new hits! Well, I did get a few extra from my efforts . . . until it rained . . . and rained and rained. When it finally let up I scoured the places we'd put them, only to find soggy, smeared paper and peeling lamination.

POOP!

Now, several months later, I've discovered a better way . . . and I want to share it! I've been getting postcards and ACEOs printed online at vistaprint.com (or vistaprint.co.uk) for several months now. They're all over the world and well-known for their free business cards. You can get 250 for free, but apparently they have vistaprint info on the back. Smart marketing on their part! But if you're like me, you want the thrill of seeing ONLY your designs on printed material.

So I got on their mailing list. They send one promo a day -- all advertising FREE products. Now if I've learned one thing in this lifetime, it's that nothing is FREE. But sometimes you can get a damn good deal if you pay attention!

Get on vistaprint's mailing list and take the time to look at the promos when you need something printed. Some of the postcard offers give you free uploads, free B&W printing on the backs and free glossy finishes. If you're willing to wait 21 days, you'll only end up paying £3.70 + VAT for 100 standard postcards.

I digress. We're talking about MAGNETS, not postcards. But the idea is the same. Vistaprint's magnets are 4-colour process on vinyl magnet sheets and don't fall to bits when it rains! I spent considerably more than £3.70 + VAT, but did some work to make sure I got 6 different designs on the large size (same size as the standard postcard), and cut them out with an x-acto knife. Voila! 100 sheets magically became 600 bright, colourful magnets which advertise my etsy site and my website! Easy peasy! The whole thing cost me £65.00 . . . but are FREE to you if you find one.

Now all you have to do is look for them on the streets! The crumz are busy putting them up from Seattle to Portland to Brighton to Lewes . . . to a metallic urban surface near you! Let me know where you found yours.