slow design

There are no shortcuts when you're desigining as you go.  There's ad hoc design - which is throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks (i.e. - yesterday's version). And then there's slow design, which is the thoughtful, "what if?" that keeps you from being wedded to the first version and allows you to try different ways of putting it together (with camera at hand, of course).  Eventually, it will look right.  

Here is what I threw at the wall yesterday.

and here is what I did after I took down all the bits and started again.

More restrul, less clutttered, but still not there.  The difficulty is that I had only three of the original ugly 4-patches.  Two have already been used and I really need to save one for the "before" when I teach my class.  Well, I'll let it percolate.

Today was one of those days. (I seem to have one of those days every day, lately).

1) The saga of Sears and the switching of the refrigerator doors continues.   I won't bore you.  

2)  My wifi extender stopped working - it's no good. So I have to return it.  In the meantime, I went to buy a new one and as I was pullling into a parking spot at the mall, the ditz in the SUV parked next to me opened her driver's side door without looking -- into my right fender.  I had a scratch where the door hit me, but left her with a door that would not close.  OH, well - her fault.  I'm not sure how she drove home while holding her door closed with one hand.

3) Did you ever hear of a supermarket being out of salt?  I don't mean rock salt, I mean table salt. Couldn't find any and when I asked the managers where they hide the salt, they walked me over to aisle 14.  Sure enough, an empty shelf.  What? A salt heist? A run on salt? Hijacked by the Salt Police trying to prevent high blood pressure among all the elderly in Florida?  Life is full of mysteries.

4) A trip to Home Depot to look for battery-operated under ccabinet LED lights.  Cool!!  Got a couple that are velcroed to the cabinet bottoms. One keeps falling so I guess I'll have toscrew it in. They did provide screws, but that can wait till somebody else comes along to do it.  Love the way they look! 

5)  The drop-dead gorgeous tile that I wanted added up to be major sticker shock. So today, i revisited the ugly Home Depot tile and purchased a 12" square that I really don't love but I knew would work. And it is a tiny fraction of the price of the one I love. Sigh...I put a hold on the order and guess I'll keep looking.

This is good for a mtachy-matchy person, but it is so ordinary and boring. OTOH, I will only be here for 3-4 months a year. ANd I have two bathrooms in sad shape that need to be redone. This calls for lottery tickets!

With that, I will put my feet up and read. I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings.