Halfway there. A sneaky peek of one of the chairs I picked up from the lane near my house. The timber treatment is from Porters paints and it's called Palm Beach Black. It's popular at the mo' and for good reason. Its a sexy black. I don't think these chairs are sexy, really, but they look a shit tonne better than they did and when I've chosen the fabric for the seat cushions from this fab outdoor fabric place that I know of ( p.s this isnt advertising I genuinely likeylove these companies and will happily tell you where stuff comes from. For better or worse) they will be positively respectable. Promise. I love how this stain makes the timber look like a stick of charcoal. It's deep and evocative... for me.
It's the long weekend and I've done one. I went to the studio and chucked some paint down and did three loads of washing which are still on the line ( Boring!) yeah maybe but they are still there.. And it's been raining. So I got halfway with that also.
Listen to me people. The hardest part of any endevour is in the last 10%. This is the moral of the story. Actually that's just a fact. The moral of the story is Do not try to do that which is not natural to you because it will get rained on.

Yeah yeah I know, halfway is 50%.. The moral is the moral. We are done.

It's already (only?) 2 weeks into the year and I've been rearranging everything. The website. The workshop. The pantry. The living room. My brain. You get the picture. I'm procrastinating. I've been wanting to do new things with the business and they are new and untested and therefore worth putting off until I feel all safe and risk free... ha.

This will be the 10th year I've been in business and now (now?) I've decided to share more about me with you. Just like when the curtain was pulled back on the wizard in "The Wizard of Oz" but with more cheerfullness. In the past I've wanted to convey the idea that I'm a company ( I'm Maurer AND Strange) and for a few years there in the middle I was. I had two fantastic full time employees and a huge new workshop and a plan to dominate and control the market! But then shit happened.. shit got real... enough for me to question my MO. I was seriously under serious pressure and not sleeping at night. It was serious.
I am a one-woman show. with contacts. Simultaneously simpler and more complex! For those who know me this is probably as revealing as Jodie Foster's coming out speech at the Golden Globes. 
I can get a lot done in a week and I'm excited to actually start showing you exactly what I'm up to. For the love of it. Because life's short. Because I'm inspired. In general, topics will include  upholstery, furniture designs, painting, screen-printing etc. It'll all just get chucked in here because I don't know where else to put it. I'm building a website for my paintings www.jodiemaurer.com because ( because because because because because..) I am still holding onto the dream that my art career is going to take off and the curators will need to look somewhere.  "Maurer & Strange" has always been about creativity and helping you to express it whether it is through fabric choice, fabric design, furniture design, or through a hands on workshop and now I'm expressing myself through blogging. How 'Of the Now' of me ! Here's to mutual inspiration.

A crappy photo, I know. But this is how attuned my eyes are to finding ugly stuff on the street. Ugly stuff that has *Potential*. Halfway down this lane is a stack of four outdoor chairs which are leaning up against a wall. I spotted them whilst dragging cedar around the block. A dog that hates walking who knew there was such a thing. The chairs are grey now and have grass shoved into the joins like they were dragged around behind a tractor for a few hours but ho ho! Just you wait! and wait you probably will because I don't know what it is about this year but sheesh I'm on fire. Gung ho. Projects galore. Don't know where to start.
This laser sharp focus on crap is a type of survival skill. The part of my brain ( that eats chairs) is always hungry but when it gets a find and can chew over all the *potentialities* of the thing then it is happy and at the end of it hopefully I literally get to eat too.
You will be hearing a lot more on the subject of potential.