Saturday, July 08, 2006

Spilt Milk...

Well, not only have other projects (life in general stuff - commissions/work, family summer obligations, friends and my sister's store) taken me away from my Lego ... 2 projects that were well on their way have had a major set back. The large scaled log cabin which was approximately 1/3 complete, and the pink planet moonbase (with 3 floors), met an unfortunate accident, and now both look like a pile of unsorted, (albeit colour coordinated) bricks. Oh well... the rebuild will happen, but for now, while other projects pull at my apron strings (like unassuming little children)... I must continue with my building delay.

There has been one Lego project that has been taking some of my attention, but sadly its not a build or anything I can share with excitement or pictures. That "project" is trying to manage my collection. There seems to come a time, when you get what I call the "wave"... Its when the current box/drawer/container for a certain element, no longer is the right size... When that happens frequently enough, I stop using all these "over flow" bins... and start rethinking the system... then after a purchase or two, the collections sort of moves like a wave into more appropriate sized containers. Its a bit time consuming, but I did have fun with one project.

I have 10 really awesome plano boxes, that I store all my favourite little bits, and use quite frequently. I love these boxes because each little compartment is a sep. container, so you can easily dump, remove, rearrange, etc. but I never really had a great place to store them. I dislike them being stacked on top of each other, because Im not a very tidy person, and when I needed one from the bottom, all the others would get left laying around. So I decided to use my plethora of red bricks for a solution, and built a handy dandy little rack that each box can slide in and out of. Its not pretty, but it does the job real well.





Not to long ago, I finally got the pleasure of seeing another fan's personal collection up close and personal (pictures do not count, since you can't open drawers and peek)... I know to most of you (or at least some of you) this might not be a big deal... but for me, it is a big deal, and I love it. Even tho I have met hundreds of fans by now, I have only had that pleasure of being in a fan's own building area(s) 5 times (J-K-D-C-J) so far and counting. I don't really know why I enjoy it so much... I guess, first of all, I'm nosey, second of all... there is something really cool about seeing how someone else builds, and organises, and manages all these bits and pieces. Especially as I see my collection quickly out grow its home, I am always on the look out for new storage ideas. It's also how funny you can "catch on" to someone else's system regardless how different it may be from your own. I guess it's the familiarity with the parts, but its still a pretty cool phenomenon.

We even had a few minutes to kill, so I helped sort some slopes. Why is it more fun to sort when you are sorting with someone else???

I am looking forward to leaving tomorrow, to head to Toronto, to finish up a bit of unfinished business... and then head on to Ottawa for Monday. My first and true love LUG is having their annual summer BBQ and I cant wait to see familiar faces, and met those that have joined since my last visit and kick back and have a good laugh. Sadly my trip out there last summer did not go according to plan, so I am hoping this trip will less eventful, and way more like "arriving". Wink.

I plan on bringing my Silver Brick Diner (although its not 100% complete... missing 36 black tiles) for "show and tell" and if I can find my camera before I leave, I should be able to post some pics of the bbq. I will be staying for an extra night, and plan on peeking thoroughly at my guest hosts collection. (That will make 6 and counting, YAY!).

d, Thanks for the invite.

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