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

It's Miserably Hot Again!

You know it's hot when the kitties are lounging about instead of making mischief. The bad thing about this is that when the bedroom is finally almost decently cool, the kitties come "alive". It was Starkit who sprang from inaction at 3 AM to attack one of the mini-blinds, making an awful racket. They are very nice name-brand mini-blinds so I don't really want either kitty to demolish any of them, but Starkit was making the attempt. So, a few minutes after 3, I grabbed the "Bitter Yuck" spray, made sure I didn't have it pointed towards my face, and gave that mini-blind a good spraying. Then I took her to bed with me, held her for a minute until she sprang back into action. She headed right back to the mini-blind. This time the attack didn't last long. I won that battle, but fear I have not won the war.

I certainly haven't won the war of unpacking; I'm still up to my eyeballs in boxes. Ree and I spent a couple of days trying to get her project ready - photo entries for a county fair. I bought inexpensive frames and tried to put screw eyes into them for picture wire. Most frames, however, are not made for attaching picture wire. I hadn't looked up anything on YouTube, otherwise I might have seen the D-rings. My mother, Ree and I finally went off in search of them. I found something similar, so Ree was in the back seat with the cordless drill, my mother was in the front seat with the picture wire, and I was trying not to go so fast that I would get a speeding ticket. We were about 10-15 minutes late and were not able to get the photos entered, all because of the difficulty attaching picture wire. I could spend about 5-6 times per photo and have them all professionally framed, but it's crazy to spend that much when this is for a junior category with a top prize of about $5.

We're looking for another fair to enter the photos in. We're also waiting for the weather to cool down so I can do some major unpacking. Hope it's not as miserable where you are. Look for kitten picture on Tuesday; I have already taken some, but have to get to bed now as I have to get up early. I won't mind as the car has air conditioning!

Where are the Picture Frames?

Three or four years ago I had a great decorating idea - I was going to turn most of my wood picture frames gold with this gold rub that I got at a nearby craft shop. The goal was to have a more unified look since I have many different kinds of frames. Somewhere in a box there are one or two frames with pretty gold rub on them, but there are more frames without. I went in search of this box of frames yesterday and today because Ree needs some frames for a project she is doing. It would be nice to save money and space by borrowing some of the old frames that have photographs in them, as well as using some of the empty frames.

You may have guessed by now that I never found the frames. It's not that I didn't find any frames or pictures, I simply didn't find the box that I know contain suitable frames for the new photographs. My guess is that it's buried deep in the dining room, possibly near some paperwork I really would like to find.

What have I found instead? Here are just a few things:

• Kitty in a chandelier - to be honest, I didn't see this, but I did see the light swinging shortly after I heard Ree telling Starkit to get out of the dining room light fixture (I dont know if it's actually a chandelier, but I think it might be original to the house so I have to move quickly to get the nearby piles of boxes out of the way)


• A small box inside a big box with picture hangers, as well as some mini-blind brackets that I bought for the old apartment that I had wanted to leave for my former landlady so she could put the blinds up that had fallen down over the years


• Framed photos, unframed ones, and framed counted cross-stitch pieces that my sister had made for us several years back, nothing with frames that will work for this project

The "chandelier"/light fixture has survived another day!