A Brand New Day.

It is finished.  I wanted to show the whole kit and kaboodle, but I was such a wreck yesterday all I could think was "load, load, load... UNLOAD.  load, load, load... UNLOAD."  Although on the up side, I finally realize why they called those makeup storage cases Kaboodles.  It's like all the pieces finally fell together and the world makes sense.

 

This is the view from my front window.  But it isn't from today.  I took this yesterday.  I took one today too, but it's cloudy out today so this one looks much better.  I meant to get photos of all my helpers, but I forgot (because I was a wreck) until the only people left were the Smiths.  So here they are:

I think Christy was afraid she was going to smile ugly in this photo.  I do that.  I have so many photos where I am making this exact expression.  It reads "God, please let me look thin and pretty."  Don't you hate when someone has a really horrible photo of you where you look so fat and hideous that you hardly recognize yourself and they say "here's a good one of you!"  And then you realize you actually look like that.  And then you quietly resent that person for the rest of your relationship.

And now for the tour!!  The spare room/office/craft room.  It's the least set up of the bunch.  I got the computer up (obviously!!) and got the closet pretty much organized, but it's pretty empty.

 

  

The my bedroom, it's also pretty empty.  I haven't gotten any pictures up yet:

 

 The bathroom:

The living room:

Yeah, I know.  I have a lot of rocking chairs.  I don't know how it happened but I think I'm collecting them now.  Ken and Christy bought me the brown one and I really wanted it for the back patio, but it's so nice I don't really want to put it out there to rot.

Here's the dining room (I need a dining table and chairs for a good price.  FYI):

 

And the kitchen:

 

Here are some photos of the backyard, I know it looks kind of crappy, but I'm hoping to clean it up this summer so I'll post photos as that comes along.  I also want to put a clothesline in so that will be fun.

 

Tada!!  I'm so glad the moving is over and now I can get back to crafting.  I have nothing to show on that front, but I bought a ton of perler beads that were on clearance at Joann's so hopefully I'll come up with something really cool to do with those.  Alright, peace out.

The haunting revisited.

It's getting down to crunch time. I have the keys. I have the way. Do I have the will? I can out-think, I can out-play, but can I out-last? How did all this crap get in my house? I feel like I went out of town for a while and somebody came in and hid all this garbage in the deep, dark corners of my apartment. Only they didn't because I recognize the stuff and still can't bring myself to just throw it out.





This is all I have pictures off. Moving stuff. Boxes. My closets. I have a goal today since it is my day off and I'm going to try and make stuff happen. I want to get my bedroom closet cleaned out.

I want to get the bathroom dismantled and the under counter cleared out.

 

 

I want to clean the kitchen counters off (except the coffee pot) and get the crud off the top of the fridge (except the microwave.)

 

  

 I haven't even touched the bedroom yet besides the closet.  Ugh.  Still got a long way to go.

 

 

 Alright, I gotta go get some more stuff done.  Wish me luck!!

The haunting.

Fact: I'm moving.
Fact: I want to.
Fact: I'm moving.
Fact: I don't want to.
Fact: I pretend I'm an organized person.
Fact: I am not an organized person.
Fact: I will never move again.
Fact: I've said that before. I've said that every time I move.
Fact: This time I mean it.
Fact: I probably don't.

So yeah, I'm moving. Again. In my own defense I haven't moved in nearly three years. Nearly. So really it's just 2 and change. But nearly three. But I'm not going to move again unless I move away from Portland. I mean it. Really, I do. And that's a fact.

Katie got me some boxes from work.

They've been sitting there for 2 days. I don't have any packing tape. I need to go to Target. What I really need to do is go on vacation for 3 weeks and come back to have all my stuff moved to my new place. Especially the books. Oh the books...

They are everywhere.

Just when you think you've found them all, all these others show up.

Mocking you. Haunting your dreams at night. "You will have to lug me all over again. You will think you haven't loaded the boxes too heavy, but you will be wrong. We will make your family hate you. You do not own us. WE OWN YOU."

And then there are the pictures. I had no idea it had gotten so out of hand. I knew I was buying a lot, but I had no idea.


I got this cool map at an estate sale. I plan to use it to decoupage, but haven't gotten around to it. I hung it up so I wouldn't feel so bad about having it shoved in a closet somewhere.




More.
















And more...







It just never stops! I think I have a mental illness. This is not my cluttered house. These are not my cluttered walls. This is not my beautiful wife. Who sings that song? I can't remember for the life of me. But wait, I'm getting off track.










There are more pictures. A disturbing amount more:

Oh, for shame!! Oh, the humanity!! Who is going to move all this crap? Because it certainly won't be me! I'm not the one who bought the ballerina picture at a garage sale in Canada because I thought it looked creepy and thought it would be fun when someone asked me where I got it I could say "I bought it at a garage sale in Canada! It cost 5 bucks, but don't worry. It wasn't really money. I was just Canadian funny money."





My friend Annette's daughter Alex drew this. It's cool.

Thrift store find.

Um, yeah.

Mommy? Are we done yet? I need to go see my therapist. Next up I'll show you my closets. And then you probably won't want to ever read my blog again. Yeah. This is what I show the world. You can only begin to imagine the horrors I hide from it.

Carpooling.

When I was younger (and a smoker) I loved to drive. I would hop into my '87 Ford Tempo, drive down to the beach and slowly smoke my life away. Over the years I've starting to like driving less and less. And even with the addition of my new car I haven't really gotten the urge to drive back.

Driving in the city is the worst. Plus I haven't really spent any time trying to figure out how to get around Portland besides my little corner of it. So I get lost a lot when I venture out to the greater East Side.

Katie lives right across the street from me. I have actually hollered across the street at her when I saw her washing her truck one day ala Desperate Housewives. Then some poor pedestrian walked by and it got awkward.

I started a new job recently and it's right on the way to Katie's work. So after much deliberation and Katie buying a new car (she blogged about that!) we are now carpooling.

She's a hands-free driver:

It's been going pretty good. I just walk across the street every morning and go get the keys then I go warm up the car until Katie comes out and then we leave. I just kill some time after five at the office and then Katie comes and picks me up. And then I just give her 5 bucks at the end of the week. It's fabulous!

These are my knees, being passengers:

They are so good at that.

Hey! I'm moving! I'm having small panic attacks thinking about moving all my stuff again. But more on this later.

Here is what is going on outside my kitchen window:


Looks like it is going to be another beautiful day!