Embossing obsession…

If you are crafty, like me (no, not wily, crafty…) you know that craft obsessions come and go.  I’ve had my beaded flowers period, my cross stitch period, and I’m still convinced that I’m going to make a basket out of buttons one of these years. 

Not made by me - but I have the buttons and the instructions!

But my enduring obsession has been rubber stamps, and making greeting cards.

The world of rubber stamping has changed so much in the short amount of time I’ve been playing along.  Finding the right stamps that fit my tastes was and is a challenge, but as mail order catalogues have given way to internet shopping, that challenge has shifted, but not disappeared.  More on that in another post.

One of the biggest changes to this very small world is due to the rise of the scrapbooking movement – taking all of your photos and mounting them artfully with text and/or other ephemera and souvenirs.  The scrapbooking craze made papercraft materials more varied, plentiful, and widely available than ever.  Machines and papers that were only in stationers and copy shops were suddenly on the shelves at big box craft stores and smaller specialty stores around the country.  I was mostly oblivious to this as it was happening.

In my rubber stamping haze, I was slow to focus on paper.  I’ve almost always started with a white card stock base, layering images, color, other paper elements, but always with a rubber stamp focus. 

Birthday card - 2006

Then there was my amazing discovery of duplex paper – cardstock that was colored on one side and white on the other – it is still a must have in my craft room.  But now, it’s not color that’s got me hooked, it’s texture.

At some point along the road I realized that crafters had these manual machines that do magical things and allow you to crank out die-cut images, but also add texture to your paper.  It’s simple, it’s amazing, and I can’t get enough of it.  It’s not even electronic!  I now look for embossing folders everywhere I go.  Like the quest for the perfect rubber stamps in my earlier crafting years, now I make lists of companies and the designs they have and wonder why I can’t ever find them locally or easily. 

The conundrum for me is making the texture fit in with my stamping style, which remains mostly two-dimensional.  What I commonly see in online photo galleries are cards that feature textured panels with little to no stamped images or sentiments, or cards that use textured papers as backgrounds where the embossed image is largely obscured.  I’m looking for ideas somewhere in the middle.

Image made from embossed brass stencil in 2010 - note - NO rubber stamps!

I have a beginning…

Moose Day 2011

2013

…but ideas are welcome.  Send me thoughts, links to images, or better yet, come over for a craft night!  I’ll supply the texture…

2013 House Projects...

So far, I'm still keen on the Apartment Therapy January cure.  It's been fun reading people's Cure diaries after the first week and their lists of projects.  It really does make the month-long project sound possible as long as I stay grounded in the reality of my busy schedule and not even try to take on too much.

Keeping up with the home cure task list, I think I've decided what piece of art to frame.  Besides, Michael's is having a huge framing sale...

Here's the Cure task update and report:

Yesterday's task - plan a party for the end of the month
For this weekend - deep clean the kitchen, plan and cook a meal, buy flowers

Report:

I started thinking about my annual valentine-making party yesterday.  I think I skipped having one last year due to my outrageous travel schedule.  This year it will likely be a small evening event, so all two of you who are reading this, let me know if you want to come.

A deep kitchen cleaning is long overdue.  The oven has had a can of oven cleaner sitting next to it for a couple of weeks now.  I am frightened of the space between the refrigerator and the wall.

Here's the big list of house projects for the year:

Front Porch

Hang original front door

Add window boxes or shelves for summer plants

Move empty pots and soil to the backyard

Replace non-functional doorbell

Living Room/Entry

Organize landing strip; file or recycle all papers

Finish tacking up sofa skirts

Alter window seat cushion covers so that they fit properly

Make a designated space for purse and work bag

Dining Room

Paint small patch of wall under the thermostat

Inventory the corner cabinet

Label all china cases with permanent marker

Kitchen

Repair water damaged ceiling

Re-think spice shelf solution so that there is room for all of the spices

Organize the loose recipes into a box, book, or electronic resource

Organize party planning recipes and ideas

Re-pot the Christmas cacti

Paint kitchen cabinets

Clean oven

Laundry Room

Re-hang clothes drying rack

Corral the endless supply of plastic grocery bags

Repair washer hot water supply

Garden

Stabilize wisteria trellises

Prune roses and hydrangeas

Create a garden care list

Create outdoor storage for mower, potting soil, pots and tools

2nd Floor Parlour

Repair radiator

Repair bay window roof

Repair ceiling

Freecycle telephone table

Office

File or shred all of the papers!

Create a full inventory and index of dance books

De-clutter the doorway shelves

Repair water-damaged walls

Craft Room

Streamline craft room storage

Paint and hang wood shelves

Continue to make stamp drawer maps to enable quick clean-up of stamps

Create zones for different items

Move outbox to another area of the house

Put everything away

Bathroom

Wash shower curtain and liner

Wash mold from ceiling

Repair water-damaged ceiling

Re-paint peeling areas

De-clutter the cabinets

Repair the sink drain/stopper

Bedroom

Keep dresser and trunk clutter free

Repair damaged ceiling

Review scarves and only keep the few I wear; create new scarf storage

Third Floor

Repair hallway roof

Replace damaged hallway ceiling

Keep guest beds made and covered with king size sheets to keep clean

And this month's special focus project:  the Craft Room!!!!

In a future post, I will share the scary "before" pictures with you...

A new page in the calendar...

Having worked recently on a website I'll share with you shortly, the notion of posting to this blog floated to the top of my list.  I think I still have very little to say that's meaningful, but to distract you from that, I'll try and post some pretty pictures...

Some time about mid-summer, not having my calendar pages for the next year becomes intolerable.  So I haunt Staples until the Day Runner Month-at-a-Time refills are in, and once purchased, begin filling in many of the little boxes.

But then, sometime about October, the blog posts about wall calendars begin appearing, and I start planning my purchases.

Here are the calendars I know will grace my walls this year:

The Collectible Teapot.  I've purchased these every year since the late 90s.  These are the only calendars I can't bear to recycle at the end of the year.  This one lives in my kitchen.

This is a new purchase this year.  It will hang in the bedroom.  I think the cover shot is the best one in the calendar, but it will be fun to see the others each month.  I also might need that dress.

This one is a mini-calendar for my office.  Every year when I see this line of calendars in the store, the images are drool-worthy.  My kitchen does not look like this.

This calendar was an impulse buy from Once Upon A Paper.  It came in the form of a digital download - a 32-page PDF that has the calendar formatted in about 4 ways for your printing pleasure.  Each month is a tree in a similar format to the image above.  I've printed out two months per 8.5x11 page on white card stock, and then an 11x17 poster size for work.  Beautiful!


Which calendars are destined for your walls in 2013?

Stories from the corner cabinet...

So Jennifer and I are throwing a tea party tomorrow. I've wanted to do this for a long time, and it's finally happening. We're doing it at my house, because I have all of the things!!

So, I knew it was finally time to unpack my floral teacups that Mom so carefully packed up for me when I moved out of my apartment (almost 4 years ago!!!!!!!!) I got the box out of the corner cabinet on Wednesday and unpacked it last night...

I love to go to flea markets when I can and look for china things - serving pieces. A bunch of years ago, at a flea market in Fitler Square, downtown in Phila, I bought the sugar and creamer for $6. This set off my little sugar and creamer set obsession, but that's another story... It turns out that when this set of china was produced, the sugar and creamer sat on a little tray (as pictured).



It became my mission to find the tray, and so I trolled Ebay, and about a year or so ago, I found the tray and bought it.

By this time, of course, I had lost track of the sugar and creamer. I knew I had them in the house and I was sure I put them away in frustration when I couldn't find the tray. Ever since I bought the tray, I have been searching all of my cabinets for the place I stashed the sugar and creamer. They were gone. My biggest fear was that I somehow decided to give up on the tray, and to give the sugar and creamer away. It didn't sound like me, but you never know...

Fast forward to last night and the great teacup unpacking moment...

I had forgotten that when Mom packed up the teacups, there were other things in that box. It was like unpacking a treasure chest. The teacups and saucers were there, all intact. There were also some loose pieces of the Japanese tableware I like (See this post...). One of those small bowls was broken - split in half - but I think I can carefully glue it back together and all will be well. And, guess what was also in the box???

Yes, there they were, the Adderley sugar and creamer, all wrapped up and undisturbed. Apparently, it was only an illusion of mine that they had ever been loose in the house, but it was never true until now. Today they sit, clean and beautiful, on their tray in the dining room, waiting for their first tea party in years!!!!

Work weekend...

Next weekend I have the great fortune of having friends come up to help me with some of those house projects that I never quite get to on my own. My list of things, is of course, endless, but I need to focus on small things that are do-able in a weekend time frame (i.e., not painting the kitchen cabinets), not too expensive (i.e., not blowing in insulation), in our skill-set (i.e., not fixing the heat), and slightly glamorous/satisfying (i.e., not cleaning the refrigerator).

Here are some of my ideas:

-put window film on the living room windows
-tea-dye, sew and hang living room curtains
-hang pictures in the dining room
-re-line the kitchen drawers with non-skid stuff
-fix the sofa hems so they don't show beneath the slipcovers

Other more-remote possibilities

-inventory the corner cabinet in the dining room
-start stripping paint off of the corner cabiner (a project you can start and stop)

Oh you who have been in my house (all 2-3 readers who have not given up on this blog), what should I add to the lists??

Seize the Weekend!

I would be lying if I said the craziness of October kind of crept up on me. I knew it was happening. I keep a calendar. I said yes to all of those calling dates AND planned my party for one of those at home weekends. So here I am, about to embark on my one free October weekend, and I’m caught between desires: sleep, be lazy, watch Mad Men DVDs, or, be productive, garden, do laundry, generally de-clutter the house, attack the craziness that is my office. I know! Don’t choose, do both!

Proposed important things for the weekend:

-Buy a pumpkin
-Sleep in
-Turn on the heat in the house/bleed the radiators
-Wash a lot of things - clothes, kitchen towels, dishes (do other things need to be washed, of course, but let’s not be excessive here...)
-Put the downstairs furniture back to its pre-party configuration
-Finish edging the garden beds
-Weed, mow, plant bulbs, general garden clean-up
-Straighten my tree (thanks, Bob!!)
-Make at least one thank-you card
-Scottish dance
-Watch the Mad Men DVDs before they are overdue at the library
-Attend the Piffaro concert
-Restore my office to some semblance of sanity

Will I get to everything on this list? Doubtful. Check back next week for the progress report...

A spate of home improvement...

Almost all at once it seems, I'm trying to take on some very small house projects.

First, in a spate of frivolity, the halloween mantle:





The first image, though clearer, does not convey the lovely light emitted when all of the candles were lit. The second image, though blurry, gives a sense of that warmth. I felt so Martha using the leftover berry spray from my autumn wreath revitalization project as an added bonus. I'm finally about to put all of the halloween candle holders away, but I'm still finishing burning the orange and black mini pillars I'd been holding onto for several years...

On my one free weekend in October, I made great strides in some closet re-organization. I went through a bunch of clothes in preparation for a Salvation Army run, and in the process, realized that I didn't have to repossess the "closet" in the little room on the 2nd floor, soon to be my office. Instead, I banished the final clothes rack that was in my craft room to the basement, hung all of those clothes in the wardrobe in the office (which is normal closet depth - amazing!). And the office closet will become, wait for it, a linen closet! Small it seems, but this excites me no end.

Once I had decided for the linen closet, I didn't want to lose momentum. Last month I just happened to meet a handyman who does a bunch of work in Mt. Airy, and decided to take a chance. I've been building a list of small projects - painting things, hanging things, adjusting things. - things I lack the time and/or the expertise to do. I called him up, and last weekend he came to look at my projects and give me an estimate. The good news is that he said he can do the three small things I gave him. The even better news is that he goes to California once the weather gets cold (Thanksgiving), but he can fit my projects in before he leaves! Now if he actually calls back, I'll be in business. But I know his mother, so the chances are good...

As the last item in this series, I bought a bed last weekend. For several years I've been lusting after the Crate and Barrel Porto Bed. Finally it came up on E-bay for about 1/3 of the list price, and shockingly, I won it. The good part is that it was a pick-up item, so no shipping costs. The other good part is that it previously lived in NJ, which means, driving distance. So last weekend, a friend with a big car and I picked it up, put it together, and suddenly, a big-girl bed!



I'm still not used to seeing it because I don't think of myself as a person with major pieces of furniture I acquire myself, but I'm pleased. And just think of how nice it will look once I actually paint the room a lovely blue-grey. Maybe in the Spring...

It's going to get worse before it gets better...

One of the many things I love about my house is the craft room. I am astounded by the amount of stuff I have that's craft related: rubber stamps, package upon package of fabric, paper, beads, yarn, stuff! The picture below is indicative of my current storage technique:

You'll notice the unit under the windows, the two tall wooden shelves, the stack of crates, and the small drawer unit. And this is only one side of the room. There's more like that. And every piece is full.

So in an attempt to create order out of chaos and take advantage of my 9' ceilings, thanks to the Container Store, their sale on Elfa shelving, and the generosity of my mother, we have a plan!

This whole wall between the windows will become shelves and drawers. I have all of the materials except for one shelf which I can pick up next week. The whole thing requires assembly, of course, but the only thing that requres skill and power tools is hanging the strip just below the ceiling that all of the shelves will hang from. After that, the shelves and drawer units will go up quickly.

It will look something like this, minus the green wall, and taking into account the radiator that juts out inconveniently into the space:

But of course it's not really that easy. The room is full of stuff, and the wall of future shelves has that charming array of pieces already there. I've created only the rudiments of a master plan to deal with this all.

The first step for me was dismantling my old desk in the corner, the file cabinets and desk top I've had since junior high, and pushing the table that was in the center of the room into the corner. The file cabinets have to go. They're bent and have drawers that hate to open. Their contents will go in the new unit. I'll save the desk top and possibly get some new legs for it (from Ikea?) to use as an extra work space/cutting table when needed. Here's the desk on its way to not existing:

I did not photograph the pile of fabric bags that were under the desk, though you can see some of them above. The next step is to move the tall wooden shelves that are currently against the key wall elsewhere, and to get help hanging that top track. Stay tuned for progress updates. and let me know if you feel like constructing drawers some time!

Dateline: Forest Hills

Time: Thursday, 9:45 am

I am, at this moment, experiencing a fascinating phenomenon: the alternate-side-of-the-street parking game in NYC.

I'm in Queens, staying at my mom's, and as I got in late on a Wednesday, there were only parking spaces available on the Thursday side of the street, meaning that on Thursday mornings, you have to move your car so they can clean that side of the street. Luckily though, I was on the right block of the Thursday side so I didn't have to move my car until the civilised hour of 9:30 am.

So I dutifully troop out at 9:20 and begin cruising for spaces on the Friday side. Still no parking. And I realize as I'm endlessly circling that there are cars on some blocks of the Thursday side, even though the time restriction is still in place until 10am. And then I notice that someone is sitting in every car, ready to move at a moment's notice when the street sweeper or meter maid comes along as the taboo time is nearing its end. What to do but join them?

And when the sweeper does, in fact, come along, we signal to each other with the start of engines and the flash of headlights and parade around to the next likely Thursday side. Where I now sit waiting for the block's-worth of drivers to exit their vehicles, in synchrony, precisely at 10am.

Happy 3rd Friday...

This evening was my favorite dance of almost any I go to: Perdue's, the 3rd Friday English dance.

As far as dances go, this one is an anomaly. The crowd is not gigantic, but is quite regular. It's not that there are no beginners, or less-familiars, but the crowd is generally knowlegable, and mostly quite advanced. The repertoire doesn't change much. There's not always live music (loving those old Disney and London Symphony recordings...). And the dance is special and magical in so many ways, has been happening for over 50 years, and these days on a typical Friday, attracts people from 3-4 neighboring states. And what's more, at this talk-through-and-go event, the caller doesn't expect that most people are even listening to the talk-through.

And we just dance. Sometimes the dance is silly. Okay, there are often wonderfully silly moments and alternate choreographies, but still great attention to interactions and intersections. And there's such joy in dancing with people who's movements you can anticipate almost to the moment. And when you're out at the bottom of the line, watching the clear pattern of the dance, and a whole line of people moving together emerge out of the chaos, you know exactly why this is home.

So much of my English dance knowledge comes from Perdue's. This is where I learned much of our local repertoire. This is why I can hear the opening bars of Miss DeJersey's and just go. This is a dance to write in on your calendar as soon as you get a new one for the year. This is a dance to rearrange your travel schedule around.

I have many clear Perdue's memories, from moving endless numbers of chairs to a rotating Fandango, but one memory in particular sums up my love of the dance in a nutshell. Many years ago now, I had a 3rd Friday evening work committment which, when I finally escaped, got me to the dance after 10pm, and in time to only do three dances. But it only took one, it was King of Poland, to relax me, to rid me of the craziness of the day, and to realign my brain from work life to real life - dancing.

You can just guess where I'll be every 3rd Friday I'm anywhere near Philadelphia...

Almost there...

Hey! It's nowhere near 2am and I'm almost done packing. I think this might be a first. Secret - iron the night before. It's the only way.

Finishing now. Off to the woods in the morning...

Getting something accomplished...

Tonight I resisted the siren song of dinner with George and Paul, reading books at Borders, etc. Instead:

-I constructed two shelving units for the kitchen (they now haveto be attatched to the wall and they are good to go)
-I put the second slipcover on the sofa (both are too big and will need some slight altering)
-I went the grocery store
-I moved a bookcase upstairs and began unpacking craft books onto it
-I assembled a set of alphabet stamp
-I stamped stuff! Really, I did!!! Not a lot, nothing final or complete. But just a few small bits to help get me back in the habit.

Two empty boxes on the calendar...

So rare, the completely free weekend... And I can't wait.

Tonight starts with some First Friday revelry at Elfreth's Alley, then off to the Lambertville dance in Trenton.

For the rest of the weekend, as usual, I have lists of things to do:

-Mow the front lawn (such as it is)
-Regain control of the backyard (thanks to Paul, in advance, for his help)
-Show the old car to Ronnie's Craig who may buy it from me
-Try on the milkshake slipcovers, and then maybe exchange them for others (for the last time?? what color will she choose??)
-Clean the bathrooms, mop the floors, vacuum the carpets (pick one?)
-De-clutter the livingroom window seat and the kitchen
-Ponder additional kitchen storage options at Ikea (I know, how I suffer...)
-Catch up on magazine reading at Borders
-Make a quilt square
-Grocery shopping
-Hang up some stuff in the house. I have nothing on the walls. That's not right.
-Crafts! I have to make at least one thing this weekend. The rubber stamps are calling me...

New project idea!

This past year, the fitted sheet from my first set of queen-size sheets ripped. This past month, the duvet cover from the coordinating comforter cover ripped on one side. Concept: replace the ripped side of the comforter with the remaining flat sheet. Sometimes I am so smart! We'll see if this is a Joanna project, or a project I pay someone to tackle. Either way, I am delighted to think of a way to use the remaining pieces of my beloved green flannel.

Anyone want to come over and play designer on Saturday or Sunday evening? I'll feed you...

C is for Crafts...

Tonight I invited a few folks over for crafts. Never mind it was really too hot to contemplate crafts, but I knew without the incentive to get the craft room ready for more than just myself, I would never do anything. Too true.

So I scurried after work and moved things around and put some things away, and realized that I have a heck of a lot of craft stuff. How did it all fit down on 8th Street.

It's also amazing how we can finish with a hobby, and still retain all of the stuff. Am I ready to admit to myself that my cross stitch and beaded flower days are over? Can I be diligent and just finish up the few cross stitch projects that I left in progress forever ago and then give away all of the stuff? Can I make the beaded flower hair clips I have in mind and then move on? Will I ever really quill paper, make the one basket I bought a kit for, and finally construct that bag out of buttons? Can I talk myself out of my new idea of soap-making?

The problem is that I want to do all of these things, but I don't have the time. And will likely never attain sufficient time for all of this. I haven't even mentioned the bags of yarn for crocheting and the bins of leftover quilting fabric. I hardly sew!

It's crazy and I love all of it and I want to organize it and make stuff and...

And come over and craft with me some time. Help me use my stuff. The rubber stamps aren't going anywhere!

What is it?

While perusing Craigslist the other day, I strayed from cars to furniture and found this intriguing piece that I actually really want:



But I didn't know what it was...

Here's another:



And another with a slightly more modern take:



Yes, it's a telephone table. I love the concept of a little bench where you sit, with a surface for the phone and shelves for your phone books, etc. One of the houses that I looked at actually had its phone room. It was a great house, but for that room alone, it was especially attractive.

Phone tables and phone rooms are nostalgic in a way. They're from an era when communicating via wire was not taken lightly. Phone tables were only necessary when phones were fixed objects, unlike today when they fit into our pockets, and freely travel about the world with us, untethered to the wall. These tables fit right into my notion of the simpler, romantic past that was likely neither simple, nor romantic.

This example is defintely not romantic - not my style.



I love this one:





I'm still hoping to get the top item, but the Craigslist people may sell it before I have a chance to pick it up (drat this having no car!).

Maybe that's what that phantom space on the 3rd floor is - a phone room!

D-E-D, Ded

Yes, that would be my car...

So there, I was, a trifle early for my date to pick up those bookcases, when I noticed that the engine temperature was higher than I'd ever seen it. Now, a few days ago, the low coolant light started flashing. But it never flashed for long, and my handy, dandy car instruction manual said to add coolant. Which I did. Yesterday. And all seemed to be well...

But as I noticed the engine temp tonight, I noticed smoke starting to come out of my hood from right about where the coolant tank is. So I pulled into the handy gas station that was right there, into a parking space, put some distance between me and the car and noticed the liquid that had emerged from the car, from about the same place. Then I called AAA.

But the bookcases... I wasn't that far from the rendezvous point, so I decided to walk up and see if I could carry one or both to my car. And they are folding bookcases, so I thought it slightly possible. And it was crazy, but I did it, making frequent stops. But I figured, hey, I only have time to kill waiting for the tow.

I got back to the car, got the bookcases in, got a soda, and then got a call from AAA saying it would still be another 30-40 minutes. Then maybe 10 minutes later, the truck showed up.

From then on, it was just get to the mechanic, walk up to Market East and wait forever for the train home. Thank you Septa Trail Pass...

So now it's mortgage, teeth Pt. 1, teeth Pt. 2 coming Tuesday and an unknown but likely enormous car bill.

Good time to get a housemate. I don't think I'm charging her enough...

Keep your fingers crossed...

Ole!

So there we were, aimlessly strolling about Old City, contemplating an evening of used bookstores, perhaps last minute tickets to Our Town at the Arden, something cheap for dinner, when we happened on the poster that set our course for the evening - Flamenco on 4th and Bainbridge. Perfect.

Though we strayed a bit too long at the Book Trader, we booked it down to the tiny Shubin Theater, and made it just in time. The attraction was Pasion y Arte, an all-women dance troupe. Fabulous, strong, passionate. Inconsiderate audience members aside, I was just blown away by the movement and the emotion.

One key element for me was that some of the dancers were mature women, not the norm in most dance performance settings. But it was thrilling to see these women dancing from their hearts and their years of experience, as if to say, "we've lived long enough to have something to dance about."

The passion in English dance largely comes from a connection to another person, assisted by the music. It's one that works for me. But the ECD dance form itself cannot come close to capturing the depth of feeling that these women were able to display through music, rhythm, costume and movement. It's amazing.

I may need to become a groupie.

Back on track...

I don't know if it was planting that lilac, or whether it's the psychological shift that the end of the school year brings, but somehow, I feel as if life is returning. (Maybe it was just catching up on sleep for a few nights?) From whenever in January, it was all-house-all-the-time. Then it was Passover and Neffa and Rochester all in quick succession. But now, with a whole almost-free weekend upon me I want to catch up and move forward with house things and other activities that get pushed aside during the craziness of the semester.

Highlights of the past week:

-Had a lovely time calling the Jane Austen Ball
-Got a gig for December 2009!
-Bought, set up, and used a mechanical sheep, AKA a manual push mower
-Planted my lovely lilac and lillies of the valley - two favorite flowers, both gifts from Jenny
-Washed a pile of dresses I previously only handwashed one-at-a-time using the "handwash" cycle on my washer
-Finished up the semester at Swarthmore with a final party, followrd by tea with Jenny
-Attended a concert with Rachel at the Folk Factory which is mere minutes from my house. Got on their mailing list and hope to go to more things there in the future.

Weekend plans (oh, that I could accomplish all... I'll settle for some)

-Finally dispose of my dead laptop (tomorrow will be attemt number 3 to drop it off...)
-Go to a studio sale where someone is selling off rubber stamps and other stuff
-Pick up a wall-mounted folding drying rack in Center City (yay FreeCycle!)
-Clean the bathrooms
-Hang shelves
-Put more books away
-Scrub the stove
-Go to dinner at Jenny's and thence to the AGM
-Clean out the backyard (thanks, Paul!)
-Dust and vacuum
-Grocery shopping
-Check out plants at Liz's
-Call Mom

New summer schemes (just the first batch of many):

-Try Jenny's daily bathroom cleaning ideas
-Cook at least one meal a week from my stash of recipes to see if I really do like them
-Try the Satuday morning walk at Morris Arboretum
-Spend time on my front porch and in my backyard
-Learn how to strip wood
-Move this blog back toward my original scheme of topics (though I'm sure the house will continue to dominate, if subtly)

Tomorrow's post - potluck/tea items

Being productive...

Tonight Rachel and Ronnie came over and made life a lot easier. We used our sheer brute strength to shift some furniture, including swapping the (former) kitchen table for the as yet unconstucted ikea drop-leaf. We moved around furniture in the upstiars parlour and discussed how to arrange the craft room. We ate cake.

Rachel and I stated putting together the dropleaf table, but hit a few snags - not insurmountable, but the screws the secure the hinges to the top are not going in well. Tomorrow I will see if I can buy a similar product and finish the job.

Tomorrow is a day of errands and house stuff. In the morning I have a pile of stops:

• Repair shop in Collingdale to see what they can do for Jennifer and Steven's old KitchenAid
• Salvation army to drop off some stuff
• Bank to deposit my latest movie check and change my address
• Streets department to pick up recycling bins
• Line's mother's house to peruse available books, etc.
• Hardware store for screws for the table - see above

After all of the errands, Eleanor is going to come over and help out with some stuff. The major tasks tomorrow are finishing the kitchen table, and then getting as much washed and put away as possible on the 1st floor, including moving empty boxes and some other stuff into the basement.

Also a priority this weekend - assemble the dinig room table, shim the bookshelvs on the 2nd floor, and secure the top of the breakfront to the bottom. I think I know where the shims are. Maybe that's a before-bed project.