Fun with trash

Huh-ray! The internet gods have smiled upon me and there is now internet access at my apartment. I’m still writing my updates at work because I’m an incredible multi-tasker. It’s been an adjustment, but I really do enjoy my new place.
 
When we moved in, I had only seen the place once and didn’t really recall much about it. I was tickled to discover that we have crystal doorknobs. The house that I grew up in had similar doorknobs; so not only are they vintage looking, they are also real memory igniter for me about my family’s small white house with shutters that were painted blue, but never worked. One of the doorknobs in the bedroom is missing which I would love to replace with a colored glass doorknob, preferably a red one. Unfortunately, according to an article at This Old House, those are among the most expensive to purchase vintage.
 
In addition to the doorknobs, most of the doors are also fitted to lock with a skeleton key. We have three keys. Dillon and I don’t have much of a reason to lock the doors, but they are great fun to have around, protruding from keyholes. My childhood home also had a key like those; only I think I lost the only copy in the back garden somewhere. It wasn’t a huge loss as it only went with the hall closet and it wasn’t as if we were keeping the good linen out of the reach of the servants or anything.

So in my new place, I do have space for an office/studio, which is a blessing. Of course, the space isn’t huge so I’ve been rather creative in my approach to organizing my load of stock and whatnot. What used to be plain cardboard boxes are now faux wooden boxes all with the use of some free balsa wood provided by Kathy when she moved and some scotch tape.
 
All the materials I used are free and/or recycled excepting the tape. The boxes reused from the boxes that either our 16 Sparrows envelopes come in or the boxes that the letterhead envelopes come in at my other job. The tags I made from a sample of Post-it notes that I received for free as part of a Back-to-School package at Staples. They remind me of the wide lined writing paper from first grade.
 
Construction was really easy. These strips of balsa were thin enough for me to cut with my hobby knife. They were even thin enough for me to round the corners with a scrap booking corner rounder [note exactly the best cutting tool in the world], giving a really nice finished look. Both the tags and the balsa wood pieces are repositionable and easily replaceable in case the content of a box changes.
 
My other project on the house was lining the drawers of the china cabinet/pantry in the kitchen. I used my rusty math skills and cut out some [mostly] well-fitted pieces from some brown craft paper I keep around. I’m considering rubber stamping them with a nice pattern, but that's a little too time consuming for me at the moment. Maybe I'll do it on a rainy day.

Lastly, I've finally gotten around to lining envelopes with maps for my presentation portfolio. I definitely like how it makes it more than just a grey envelope, but I'm not sure the execution if professional enough. I need to set up a spray booth [AKA a ripped open cardboard box on the porch] for a smoother glue job.