Yet another sign that I was European in another life: I enjoy late dinners. 8 p.m. is my ideal dining time.

I think more than anything, I was/am dehydrated. I require a lot of water per day, and when I don’t get it, I feel the affects.

Hence the thinking that I was hungry, so I kept on eating.

Then, after I finished dinner, I decided that nothing sounded better than some Ritz crackers with just a dash (okay, huge spoonful) of Nutella.

It was so delicious in the moment.

But that was then. This is now.

And now, I am paying for it, as I sit here and type. At least it was good. And Tofu. Can one over eat on too much Tofu?

I think not.

Right now, it’s a lovely, cool evening out. Low 60s. It just might even be in the high 50s. Windows are open. Perfect breeze coming in. The air smells so fresh.

Today was one of those very inspiring days for me. Overcast, cool. Slight chill in the air.

Is there anything better?

I headed off to the studio for inspiration. Correction: le studio.

Turns out all these home, or studio renovations and guess what … new door knob handle fell off.

Well, it fell off once we were able to dig out the whatever whatevers that had fallen off inside.

A slight, little step back. I shall not be deterred!

And what, is this le studio you ask?

My letterpress studio.

How cool is that? If you like letterpress. Heck, even if you don’t, it’s a studio. What’s there not to like about studios?

This has been a long project in the works, and I still have a way to go … but I’ll get there.

I’ll have that gorgeous Chandler & Price pressing in no time.

When it came time to paint le studio, after much clearing out of things, there were a few probs that required a solution.

First: what to do with all the rotten wood underneath the press?

Well, that one was pretty obvious. Get rid of it. But it was the how that I was temporary stumped on.

When you’re dealing with an 800+ pound piece of equipment, you’ve got to think these things through.

I, more like, we, decided the best route to go would be to jack the press up, remove the rotten pieces. Paint while it was up there. Then delicately, jack it back down.

So much easier written than done. But it went pretty smoothly.

Isn’t that green color just perfect? Lemongrass. Love and love. It looks so great against the dark wood of the press, and everything else in the studio.

This afternoon when the doorknob was rendered useless — not to mention, the whole place wide open to anyone who wants to come on in — but let’s face it, who in their right mind would ever be able to figure out how to quickly move a letterpress, I think it’s physically impossible —  it was time to lower C&P back down.

I have to say, I was feeling pretty darn cool. I mean, me, using a jack, getting s*&% done. So empowering.

See. Check it out.

Next thing on the ‘press to do list is to replace those runners. Yeah, they’re also rotten. Hey, it’s not my fault the place was over run by termites for oh, a good 17 years.

It’s my job to simply restore it all to its former glory.

Then, comes the de-rusting. Because, yeah, there weren’t any windows in this place either. Poor C&P was exposed to the elements.

I’ve taken off the ink plate and have that partially rust free. After the rust, it’ll be time for the fun stuff — new rollers, inks, cleaners, typman paper, throw in a couple type sets – yes, the termites went through those beautiful hamilton type cabinets – rather painful to acknowledge this – and I’ll be good to go.

In the meantime, le studio is the creativity space. Reading space. Chillaxing space. So perfect.

It’s about to be the What You Be typing headquarters with my new super cute Netbook.

I was glad to have my mind on the studio today, since my niece and nephew, brother and sister in law headed back home. All that energy of the little ones and then poof!

Nada.

I miss their infectious energy. All those smiles and laughs.

All that joy.