Tuesday, March 16, 2010

This Task is in there Somewhere

Since the commenting person who seems so concerned about rules has dropped off the face of the earth, or maybe has just got lost in the hull(is that what you call it) of a violin, I decided I would not worry about what rule I might be breaking this time. I just can't get to that cabinet in the craft room. There just has not been enough undivided attention time. However, I remembered that somewhere in that advent box I put a different task that knew I could take on and complete. Lets see though, I have to blog about it, hmmm....

Fluffy, bright colored balls on an elastic strand, that is the best way to describe them. They hang, or hung (now hang again) in Carley's window. They dress, or dressed (now dress again) the window, but not really cover it. They are purely just for fun and look very cute in her room. Thumb tacks keep, kept,(keep) them up. Over the Christmas season I needed thumb tacks, a last minute idea, no time to go buy more....

After rereading an invitation I received to an ornament party (soon before going), I noticed the requested attire: "Please wear your 'tackiest' Christmas sweater." I don't own a tacky Christmas sweater. I have a Christmas sweater and I have tacks (if I disassembled the hanging balls) and I have cork to put on the back of the tacks to keep them on (the sweater of course) and keep them from poking me. I know I am ingenious! No, I did not win. Can you believe it? A girl who wasn't really wearing a sweater, just wearing a (not literally but totally) tacky outfit won. There were a few others that wore almost hideous sweaters but the majority of the women conveniently did not read the invitation closely and were decked out in their most "stylish" holiday attire. Anyway, the balls came down (to supply my tack needs), then after the party I removed the tacks from the sweater and put them somewhere that I would not forget so that I could put the balls back up promptly (or at least in the next few days). I forgot where I put them. So since then I have been playing a game of not "hide" just "seek" the thumbtacks. Or at least just try to remember to buy some new ones at the store. Finally yesterday, I accomplished plan b. I am a proud owner of 100 plus thumbtacks. (The box I purchased said 100 the plus are the ones still in hiding. You know what? When I checked to see how many were in the box just now, to give an accurate count, I noticed that it said push pins instead of thumb tacks. Oooohhhh, that is why I did not win, no one could figure out why I was wearing a push pin Christmas sweater!). Anyway, I came home and rehung the balls. Do you know that Carley did not even notice? It took me standing in front of the window and making several not so subtle hand motions (okay close your eyes and picture the lovely girls that are on The Price is Right that wave their arms presenting the prize) for her to noticed. She even questioned what in the world was I doing with my hands before she noticed. We had a good laugh over it and she was quite pleased with my accomplishment. I had really thought that the task was going to be first one in the box but I guess she is too rule abiding (nothing she obviously gets from me) to do that. Her instructions, remember, were to "randomly" place the tasks in the box. So now I can have a free day when someday in one of the advent box's door I find "hang the balls back up in Carley's window."

On a side note (in case you have been wondering). I heard back from one of the "sons" about my ladybug picture. I went to see him.He had kind of a snooty tooty personality. He told me if he just found materials around the shop he could do it for what he thought was not so much and I thought was a lot. I then proceeded to find a half price coupon for custom framing at the mega craft store. I met a very enthusiastic clerk (who loved my picture). She suggested a lot of fun custom stuff. It cost the a little less than the "son's" price. I picked it up today and I am quite happy about how it turned out. I did leave a couple of small repair jobs at the "son's" place, I have not heard back from him yet on whether they are done. Sometimes (maybe a lot of times) those "mega stores" aren't so bad.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Introductions

The room measures about 4 feet by 9 feet, if you count the counter top space. If you add the closet, the room size almost doubles. It has more items in it than, well I don’t know, maybe the national deficit has dollar bills. I kid you not. Especially if you count every last bead, button, sticker, sequent, and extra circular photo packet of both my daughters over the past however many of years they have been doing umpteen million activities. The room, my craft room, portrays an exclamatory picture of my disorganized, cluttered, disarrayed life and projects a major chaotic thorn in my side. What is its current state on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 as the worst? Probably a 6½. I can still walk into it, I can shut the closet door, and there is still a little bit more counter space for more things just to be placed on it “for now.” It would get a much higher number (and most of you out there, and people around here, would look at it and think that’s for sure), but I have seen it worse, much. And, I know that last summer, I paid Carley and three of her friends, who were raising money for an Italy trip, big bucks to “organize" it. They got a great start on it and miraculously, I have undone very little of what they did (you should see how nicely the hundred pieces of tissue paper are folded and how all the rolls of ribbon are all in one place). However, they could only do so much in an afternoon (half a closet to be precise)and many a cabinet and drawer still need order. Remember that door number two that I conveniently skipped; well…its task was to clean out the farthest cabinet in the room. You see, I know myself pretty well and putting “organize craft room” on one piece of paper for a task was something that would never happen. So, I broke it down, one cabinet at a time. I still did not feel up for the task; so, I went on to door number 4. “Organize middle cabinet in craft room” (honest,the whole box is not about the craft room). I felt I could not escape it; so, I decided I would go back to door number two and would tackle the job. Now, because I know what is in that far cabinet and I know the stories that I can tell from just one shelf alone and because several other of my blogging siblings caught my disease of lengthy blog writing this week, I also decided that I would keep this blog short by just introducing what I will be taking on this week. Task behind door number two, here I come.

Oh oh,maybe this one won’t be so short because there is something else I want to introduce you to(actually, this one you all know well, it just may be a little fuzzy in your memory). It is a very welcome visitor, unlike the unwanted visitor that Bill blogged about, that showed up this weekend. Spring! I say "visitor" because I have lived 50 years in the Midwest and an all out celebration during the first week of March of spring's arrival is entirely out of the question. A hearty embrace to a “visitor” is not. If you are nice to visitors, they might stick around. Here are the top ten reasons I knew it was spring knocking on our door.

1. I went outside for a run and returned immediately to swap the long sleeve shirt for a short sleeved one then still actually sweated.

2. The soccer chairs (now Lacrosse chairs) were sprung from their hooks on the wall. Carley’s team won both games; she was an animal and scored a total of 8 goals.

3. When we went to the dog park, there were tons of new doggie faces and boy were their tails a waggin’, excited, I am sure, about the nice weather. One was so excited it climbed on Carley’s lap and well, peed.

4. When I went to start the charcoal, I went straight to the classifieds. No wasting time, this time, on which part of the paper to part with. And I stayed out there, and stayed out there, to make sure they were lit of coarse.

5. I got reacquainted with sidewalk chalk. Kelley had a gig (no he has not joined a rock band, it was a lawyer thing; I call it a gig because his name was in the program) in Lawrence on Friday. So we went to KC on Thursday night. Friday, while he did his thing, I watched Nico and we became Picassos with the chalk.

6. We also got reacquainted with Cayden’s (who remember is almost 5'9", but only 13) love for really short shorts. Wow, does that girl have some legs.

7. When we got home from our trip Saterday evening, we were greeted by a lovely tree frog serenade.

8. At lunch yesterday I did not ask about the soup de jour and later craved chicken salad for some reason.

Number 9 and 10 are the top two reasons I know spring is preparing to stay.

9. I read a lovely, touching blog about the birth of a baby goat. Actually, I read it a few times; thanks for sharing, Susie.

10. And lookie who we found in our bed (one of our outdoor ones of course).


Happy almost Spring everyone!! Now I must get busy. It will be hard to work inside tomorrow, but yet another sign of spring is in the forecast: showers and storms.