Making More Room

On last Wednesday and Thursday there was a flurry of activity around here as I readied the house so as not to be too embarrassed when kitten-sitters showed up. Ree, my mother and I were going to a large agricultural fair Friday and Saturday because Ree had five photo entries, plus she was going to help a girl who was doing a visual presentation. Since the fair was two hours away we were going to stay over two nights.

Luckily, the weekend before Ree had been to a horse show, showing model horses and photos so I used some of that time to drop the photos off at the fairgrounds. The two venues were only a half hour away from each other. I'm pretty sure these are the last two photo contests for a while. It was interesting to see that in one of the competitions a girl had entered two of the same photographs in three competitions that Ree entered, although she was in a different age group in one contest. Ree, however, entered different photos in each competition so everything was fresh each time.

Back to news of unpacking - I am happy to report that we can now see over half the floor in the dining room. Boxes are piled fairly neatly around the perimeter of the room. My bedroom is also much better with the closet stacked neatly with boxes, and boxes put under the bed. While moving things around I also made time to unpack some boxes which was good because some boxes had quite a bit of empty space.

In the kitchen I have made quite a lot of progress; most of the boxes are gone! I have placed a small Elfa drawer unit next to the stove where I have started to put the small cooking pans as well as the muffin tins that I am keeping. I will fill up one drawer with muffin tins, then I will donate the remainder to the pet organization that our kittens came from. I had to put something beside the stove or otherwise the kitties can get behind it which worries me greatly. I am only going to put things in the drawers that won't be affected by the heat of the oven. I intend to bake soon, maybe even before the end of this week.

As to the photos and kittens, in case you are wondering - four our of five photos received ribbons at the fair, and Ree did really well at the horse show with the photos and the model horses. The kittens were good for the kitten-sitters. It helped that the kittens had more room to roam as the dining room is fairly kitten safe now. Happily for me it will be easier to empty boxes because now there is room to work! I'm not yet sure how to put a caption on photos so imagine that this one is like a "Where's Waldo?" picture, but "Where's Starkit?" instead. While the photo here was taken by Ree, look for photos by me of the box of the week, a new blog feature that I will implement this week, in honor of Andy Warhol's item of the week. It seems that he was a bigger packrat than even me! Please stop laughing now.

What a Difference a Few Open Windows Makes

Yesterday I awoke without much hope of getting anything done; it was day three of our first heat wave of the summer. I was determined to make some progress though. My first chore, done before breakfast, was unpacking a box of books that resided under the kitchen table. Since the not-so-brilliant movers told me they weren't going to bring my biggest bookcase into the house because they claimed I didn't have room, finding places for books is getting more and more difficult. There must have been at least 4-6 boxes worth of books, along with a few other items so I really wish I had the use of those shelves now.

Today I had to go somewhere that was over a 2 hour drive, and had errands to run beforehand so I tried yesterday to make up for today. I hate leaving the kitties alone for so long so my mother came over to feed them, give them water, and probably to give them some good belly rubs. The key to yesterday was getting more windows open and getting more of a cross-breeze going. The house was much more tolerable.

Here's some of what I accomplished yesterday:

• 2 or 3 boxes of books unpacked (can't remember how many)
• many previously unmarked boxes marked with basics of their contents
• a bunch of boxes moved out of the dining room and into the rooms in which their contents belong
• boxes that need sorting marked with their priority level; for instance some big boxes without many items are now marked priority because they are a huge waste of space
• the dining room made safer for the kitties because hopefully they won't be able to climb up inside the light fixture
• found some tie-dyed items made last year that I can bring for examples
  

Here's one thing that didn't get accomplished

• the blank t-shirts, sweatshirts & tote bags for tie-dying have not been found

Major accomplishments today:

• went to frame-it-yourself shop with Ree to frame one picture and mat a series of 3 (wish I had realize how much time I could have saved in the first place)
• went to agricultural/town fair two hours away to deliver 4 pictures and a story