Fall has fallen

It is officially fall; the time has changed, the leaves are falling, and most of the fields around us have been harvested. 

We have several home improvement projects to work on, like finishing the painting in the sunroom, kitchen, and back office, changing multiple light fixtures, and replacing the deck, all of which is part of my original plan when we bought the house.  

Seriously, in just 4 months we have improved, upgraded, and restored many things, by the time I'm finished my realtor won't recognize the place. I can't wait until next spring when it's fully finished to show it to him, I think he'll be impressed, at least I hope he will since I'll be asking him to help us rent it out.  

Oh, didn't I mention husband is changing jobs again, so next year we'll be moving again, which plays into my decision to downsize my business, I'm basically cutting off etsy. I have deleted 235 historic listings, I am letting all my active listings expire next month and I have no plans to renew. I will keep the shop front as a point of contact and digital footprint and may do "custom" made to order request sales, but otherwise I'm done with etsy.  Their crap-tastic ai changes are finally too much, and I've come to realize that they always do this sh*t going into a holiday season, slow rollout, ill defined, no compliance date, busywork when we have better things to do than change out photos just so they can steal the images to train their stupid ai. 

They manipulate people into doing things they do not want to do, by rolling things out right before the holiday season, they know that many makers have had slow sales, they know we are all looking forward to and hoping for holiday sales, so the urge to comply because you "might miss out on sales" this season, is just a bit too do as I say or else for my liking. They do this almost every year, new payment systems, the odr crap, seriously I've had my shop 11 years and this is like the 6th or 7th time they have pulled this launch something shitty for the holidays shtick. I'm over it.

So, cutting off etsy and reducing business and social media activity will allow me to focus on finishing the house and enjoying my holidays with my husband. 😇 We actually started yesterday, I cooked the first turkey and practice thanksgiving diner, while he started on the deck deconstruction.

we are removing the grill and it's gas line, because if we rent it out I don't want the extra hazard and liability

The gazebo is structurally solid but I plan to paint the posts and seal the rest of the wood so it stays that way. The deck needs new boards and rails, it had not been sealed or maintained in years so rot, holes, and rusty nails. 😅 The truckload of wood gets delivered tomorrow while I'm at the dentist getting more root scaling done. 🙃

The good news is husband will be home to deal with his wood delivery, and I don't have to cook for a couple of days because ya' know turkey dinner.

Overdue "weekly" update

So, yeah it's been a month since I have actually written a "weekly" blog post. 😅 It is certainly not because I have nothing to write about, it's because life and its' ever shifting nature. There is plenty going on it is just personal; birthday, dental cleaning, family stuff, choices and changes.

~Life's a journey not a destination.~

~"Yes William with the pigs."~

~"I am a leaf on the wind."~

~Onward and upward~

~so be it~

I know random thoughts and quotes won't mean much to most people without context but oh well, like I said a lot of it is personal and family. 

In "business" related news, I am still a failure as far as pinterest is concerned, but I have 4 fully approved products in my google merchant center so far. I am less than thrilled with etsy new policy shtick as they try to convince people they are limiting ai use while doing nothing to actually limit ai use. 😏 This new listing and photo thing where we are apparently supposed to add one completely raw unedited photo to each listing for physical items, because that will convince people. 🙃 

Look I understand that ai use has gotten out of hand but this is like closing the barn door after the horse has already run free, too little too late, you are not going to recover public trust after years of not policing your site. They encouraged people to over-edit their photos and use ai on both photos and listing descriptions, so now they want to say "no not like that". Furthermore, if they truly wanted to re-gain the public's trust they would actually rollback the production partner and POD shit and do something about all the IP infringement. But they never will because people buy that shit and etsy gets rich off of people buying that shit.  

As for this new policy, I refuse to comply. I will not edit all my listings to add the worst photo because I do not have "raw unedited" photos of all my stuff and I'm not unpacking it all just to take bad photos. I take my photos with a nice fancy camera which takes large file images that I put through a resizing program called faststone to crop and shrink file size to save space on my computer, they are never getting "raw" images from me because the files would be too large to upload. 

This type of policy rollout going into a holiday season is BS busywork and I refuse to participate in this round. 

at least the cats are happy 

Wow. . .just wow

When goimagine closed 5 months ago I moved to square; it seemed simple at the time, however, it was a whole new site builder with strange navigation and many steps. 

Well apparently, I screwed up my shipping settings, and my checkout has not actually been functional, like at all, like all bloody year. 😫 

I have seen "Cart" called out in my google analytics, so I KNOW people have carted items and tried to purchase. I had been writing it off as abandoned carts, things aren't cheap, sometimes with tax + shipping totals can be higher and cause people not to complete the purchase, so I was trying to not let it bother me. 

Seriously though it has been bugging me for months that I haven't had any orders all summer, it's not normal, but again trying to not let it bother me because the whole world is not normal right now. 

Anyway. . .it should be fixed now, hopefully, fingers crossed that I may actually get some orders and have a decent holiday season. I am still fighting with pinterest catalogue issues but I'm not giving up.

I have always loved photographing clouds at sunrise or sunset; they make the most spectacular displays. 

In other news; I got my flu shot, updated my voter registration, and we are painting and working on the laundry room this week. (finally) 😅

When we moved in, we started with the main hall, master bedroom, living room, dining room, then guest room, and hall bath, so the laundry room wasn't really a priority. 😅 But we've been here a couple months now and I hate the washing machine that was here, I want my Maytag super capacity back. I will continue to live with the existing Whirlpool dryer because it's gas and my Maytag is electric and path of least resistance. 

I swear one day I will get back to making things. 😏

If at first you don't succeed. . .

Try, try, again, that's how the saying goes anyway. 😏 

After what seems like an eternal battle with pinterest and the mystery 1403 error that literally is not even in pinterest's own help pages.

I got an email reply from their support and as it turns out it's pretty simple; you cannot use a google drive for the photo storage. no, seriously, that's what they told me. 

Why the frack can that not just be in the damned instructions to begin with?!? 😒 So as I curse and roll my eyes and delete the last half dozen failed uploads, I find myself annoyed but determined. I will get this done, tech be damned, I will not be defeated by a stupid spreadsheet. 😐

In spite of being sick for the last week I am slowly working on my shop, although, in some ways it looks worse ever. 😅

just a big ole' mess of exploding boxes 😅

I realized I haven't listed the ornament sets on the website yet. I should probably do that soon-ish since holiday shopping season is coming.

so frustrating

Technology can be so frustrating; as a genXer I loved my 
Atari and my first computer was a Commodore64, so it's not like computer stuff is new to me but the current state of technology is stupid. 😐  Seriously, I've been doing the e-commerce thing for like idk 15 years or so, from my original stand-alone leather site, thru etsy, goimagine, michaels, now on square, I've been around this block. 😏 

However, in recent years it has become so frustrating that I just want to rage-quit every other week. 😠I try and try, I follow all the rules, and guidelines, meet all the requirements, fill in all the forms and check boxes and still errors, glitches, and rejection. 😠

I'm left just wondering why I bother and if any of the spent energy was actually worth it. 

I once spent many many hours over a period of multiple months to get a facebook pixel to work and connect with an online shop only for facebook to disable all pixels 3 months later. 😏 (so they could force everyone to use fb checkout so fb could collect their %)

I have most recently spent time trying to get "merchant" status on my business pinterest in spite of multiple failures to get a "catalogue" to upload and function properly I kept trying. I really thought I had gotten somewhere the other day when I found I had a checkmark and approval. 

but in truly craptasic fashion the day after I post on facebook about "hey look I did a thing" it disappeared and I got an email saying 

Just to be clear my products were never being distributed on pinterest because the catalogue upload keeps failing and the url version says the format's wrong and whatever. Because the reality is from the time I got "approved" until 48 hours later disabled, I didn't post anything or change anything in the account. So, I contend I wasn't violating any of the rules, guidelines or requirements for merchants or products or I wouldn't have been approved to begin with. As for the "excessive user reports" reports for what? I don't understand I'm not violating any IP stuff, I maintain my boards and delete old pins with broken links, what are users reporting?! And if there are a bunch of complaints about my account/pins why have I never been notified of a single one?!??? 😕

Furthermore there are a limited number of appeals 2 and the box says to make changes first, but I don't know what to change since nothing has changed since the approval it's not like I can just undo the last thing I did because I didn't do anything. 😒

So, I admit I am basically wasting my first appeal to point out that I don't know what to change based on their vague "reasons", lack of directions, and fact that I changed nothing between approval and disabled. If they reverse it based on I called them crap then it proves the disabling of my account was total BS, if they can give me something specific they want changed great, if not fuck 'em I no longer care.

That's settled

First Key is a crappy corporate landlord that doesn't follow its' own procedures and I'm glad to be rid of them. We did not get our whole deposit back because they took the final utility bill out of it and charged us $350 for pressure washing the exterior of the house (which was filthy when we moved in).  I'm annoyed because all the emails and instructions said the final utility bill would be sent and paid separate, never once was it mentioned anywhere that they would just deduct it from the deposit but that's what they did. 😏 So I'll work on letting go of my annoyance and instead just be glad to be Done with them. 

I didn't post last weekend so one would think I'd have a bunch of stuff to write about this week, but I've been sick, so not really. 😕

I have worked on the mirror in the hall bath, but it still has layers to go.

I have re-hung the living room drapes (finally)

I decided, I am not putting sheers back, because I like my view and natural light. 😉 Plus the ones that were in the living room I used in the dining room, because the ones from the dining room fell apart when I tried to wash them, 😅 not at all surprising considering the very thin nature of the fabric and the decades of sun damage. I did look at/for new sheers for the living room, but I didn't find any I really liked so unobstructed view it is. 

side note, the cats are very happy with their new yard and the country quiet 😇

Yay. . .it finally arrived

When we bought the house, we discovered the dishwasher was broken, disappointing but easy to fix right?  I shopped online looking at different brands and models, checking sizes to make sure it fit the opening, checking noise levels because the deaf-man don't like loud appliances. 😐 It took me a few weeks to decided, then I went to the local appliance store, independently owned, small business, of course they didn't have one in the store, but they agreed to order one and let me know when they could install it. I didn't mind waiting, I don't like handwashing dishes but it's not that big of a deal. 

It should have arrived last week, but the lady called and apologized because their delivery truck never came last week, found out later it was a dispatching error the wrong trailer got attached to the wrong truck and drove to Ohio. 😕 I didn't get angry, I played it cool, we had a laugh about. This week's truck arrived and had my dishwasher on it, yay!

it's nothing fancy just a fairly standard whirlpool in white, it's so quiet 💖

I am really happy with it, it was a good install, I even enjoyed chatting with the appliance guy. 

I am working on my shop off and on, but I still have a bunch of stuff to do in the rest of the house so it's slow progress.

I am getting ready to tackle the hall bathroom. I've got the towel bar, toilet paper holder, hardware stuff. I've got the new toilet seat and curved shower curtain rod ready to go. Yesterday we picked up a new faucet because it was half-price and I am changing from shiny chrome and gold to a brushed nickel finish, not sure why there ever was a chrome faucet under a gold mirror to begin with but I cannot take the mis-matched-ness, it's ridiculous. I am painting the medicine cabinet, the gilt/gold around the mirror never matched, I don't know wtf they were thinking, but I do know it's a cool old Sears medicine cabinet so I'm planning to keep it and just refinish it. We'll have to wait and see how my plan works out with the layers of paint, I'm going for a distressed, antique look with a white base and silver finish. 

I did get a photo of the drapes that sort of shows their color better, but I am starting to realize part of why I love the drapes so much is they are just like my car, the color seems to shift depending on the lighting and the viewer, so are they burgundy, purple, maroon, etc. don't care. I don't have to name the color to tell you I like it. 😇

Expensive but worth it

I am making progress on making the new house a home. When we bought the house it had massive sets of drapes in multiple rooms, but they had been hanging there for several years and desperately needed to be cleaned. I spent hours wrestling them down removing the pin hooks and hauled them off to be dry cleaned. When they came back the clerk was shocked at the cost, but I happily paid the over $300 because they are JCPenney home collection custom drapes with massive linen lined panels, multiple valance swags, and end pieces. The replacement costs would have been well over a thousand dollars, and the originals were still in good shape other than the decade plus of dust and dirt. 😅 Since getting them back they have spent weeks hanging in the closet, initially it was because we needed to paint the rooms first, then I wanted to move the rods, but I have decided to leave the living room rods extra wide and only shrink the dining room. Yesterday I finally got the dining room set re-hung and due to the shrinking of the rod mount I didn't use all the top pieces, but I am happy with how they look. 

Currently the pleats are a bit stiff and it will take them a while to relax, but they look like new.

plus I just love the color 😇 

In other crazy home making news; I bought a giant hall tree. Even I think it's nutz, we already have too much stuff as evidenced by the fact that it took 2 moving trucks, but I wanted it. 😅 The husband wanted a place to sit and put his shoes on in the morning, we have benches and trunks and I could have moved one of those, but a bench doesn't hang coats or hats or store extra shoes so. . . 

I tried looking for local used furniture, secondhand shops, but I couldn't find anything that suited so I searched online and what a mind-numbing 3 days of comparing photos, checking measurements, and specs. I settled on this monstrosity, when I ordered it, I was aware it would be a flat-pack and I was aware the package weight was just over 100 pounds, but I underestimated the number of pieces it would come in. 😅 In the photos I liked the inset panel design of the back but I didn't realize it wasn't 2 panels, each of those "panels" is actually 7 damn pieces. Yeah, it took me 2 days to assemble, and I had to have the husband help at the end stages, because

by design and as per the instructions, it constructs as 3 pieces that then have to be stacked

I didn't have any hope of lifting that and aligning all the pegs and dowels by myself 😏  to be fair the instructions do say it's a 2 man job, although I did 90% of it by myself.   

I have also made some progress on sorting out the shop but I'm still not ready to unpack it yet.  

Faerie blessing? . .lol

So, I finally started working on my shop a bit.

 Just shuffling stuff around, still trying to decide on a layout for the workbenches. 

I have not opened a single box or drawer yet, they are all still sealed, taped up and in some cases stretch wrapped. 😅

Strangely somehow out of nowhere I noticed a single ring laying on the rug. I say strange because I haven't moved the boxes of rings, they are buried in the closet, the drawers I unwrapped and restacked are literally leather, paint, and bead supplies. I had vacuumed the rug before I rolled it up so I'm pretty sure the ring wasn't there. 😐 

 It's like the craft faeries blessed my shop.

First Key may be the worst. . .

I am not young and I'm not that naive anymore, at almost 50 I have lived in a lot of places in a lot of rentals so when I say First Key may be the worst corporate landlord I've ever dealt with that has some weight behind it.  😏

Let's start with I think all corporate landlords are bad, no company should own whole fucking neighborhoods, period. But since they do sometimes you have no choice but to sign the devil's contract if you want to live in some cities. 

While First Key has a lovely website (it's actually a maze of several sites and portals all designed to screw you into never being in the right one) it is dysfunctional and repetitive. However, you don't have much choice in using the stupid portals because they make you pay your rent and utilities through a portal, they force you to report maintenance stuff through a different portal, there are actually 3 and I never did figure out the point of the 3rd one.  😕

When tried to notify them of intent to vacate even though there are specific drop downs in the menus for that purpose it still says in very fine print that they must be notified in writing, not email actual mail. I am betting lots of people have been charged the insufficient notice fee because they didn't mail paper after doing the thing in the portal. 

After they accepted our move out notice I received an email with instructions and the steps to exit the property, but most of it is straight up BS. It said there would be a inspection/walk through 30 days before move out but no one ever called schedule or showed up. It said there would be a rently box placed on the door and to leave the keys in the rently box, but no one ever came and installed one. It said they will inspect and decide on the refund of the security deposit and if after you receive your refund you want to dispute the amount you can file in the portal and upload documents and photos as support for your claim but literally days after our move out all my logins have been disabled and I cannot log into any of the portals.  Seriously, I will get a final utility bill that I won't be able to pay online but have to call and do it over the phone and be charged an extra fee for the inconvenience of it all. We have to wait 30-45 days before they are obligated to send the security deposit refund (if we are actually getting anything back) and then I will have no way to dispute anything or upload evidence because they pre-emptively disabled all my logins. 😠 

So, they better send me the full amount back or I'm getting a lawyer and I don't give a flying Fuck if the lawyer costs me 10x what I'll get back it's worth it to me to prove the point and I might just contact the state's attorney and report the inappropriately cutting off portal access before the settlement of the status of deposit refund. Cutting off the payment portal and forcing me to pay the final utility bill over the phone is hella shitty, I had payments set up in the portal so that I didn't have to pay the extra fee on the payment and they took that access away for no valid reason KNOWING there is still a final bill to pay. 😡  

I spent weeks working my a$$ off cleaning that house from top to bottom, I took down all the glass on the light fixtured and actually washed years of dirt off, I cleaned things that have never been cleaned, I cleaned things that were dirty when we moved in. I paid over $800 to have the whole house's carpets cleaned and I have photos to prove it. 

the place was spotless when I walked out, which is more than I can say for when we rented it

I had to turn the flash off to get photos of inside the appliances because they were so shiny

when I tell you I cleaned every damn thing I'm not joking, I CLEANED like an OCD person on a mission

you cannot tell there were ever cats in the house, it is literally cleaner than when we moved in, it is the definition of move-in ready 

I double-dog dare them to not give me a full refund. . . 😐 I'm already mad and trust me when I say you do not want to mess with a menopausal GenXer with plenty of time and resources. 

Done, but not finished

There is a difference between done and finished, if you know you know. I am so done with this move even though there are things that are not yet finished. 😏 I am so done with the corporate rental company and their 4 websites and 3 user portals and stupid processes that no one follows, giving instructions that they don't even follow through on. Like be so f'in serious how am I supposed to leave the key in the "rently box" on the front door when no one ever came and put a rently box on the front door??!?!? 😖 Why does the email say the window to install said box is between 30 and 7 days? really!?!? could you be any less specific or useful 😠 I tried to follow the rules, I tried to follow their directions, but they literally made it impossible, so I'm done. 

In good news, the cats are adjusting and even liking the new house.

Merlin's barstool now has a view, he seems very happy with.

I still have a ton of painting, trim, and touchup to do, not to mention all the ongoing unpacking and organizing. It will be weeks if not months before I'm fully unpacked and settled. 

Holy exhaustion Batman!

No seriously, I'm getting too old for this Sh*t! 

Don't ask where it hurts because it would be a shorter list to ask where it doesn't hurt. 😒 My ankle popped so loud the other day I thought my foot was just going to snap off Death Becomes Her style. Thank god for the movers, those young men worked so hard, we have a lot of stuff. Although, I should point out that it wasn't 2 men and A truck it was 4 men and 2 trucks, did I mention we have a lot of stuff. 

Even with 2 trucks we ended up with stuff in our trailer and left stuff we have to go back for, yeah like I said too much stuff. 😏  

Part of why I'm so exhausted and sore is because my cRazY insisted on trying to paint the whole house in a matter of days before the furniture delivery. 😅 When talking to people about this it was pretty evenly divided between thinking it was brilliant or insane; it is way easier to paint before there is furniture and stuff in the way, but it is also insane to try to paint a whole 3000 sqft house with different colors in different rooms in a matter of days and then have the energy to move in. Even people who thought it was insane admit it was a great plan because once stuff is in the way and unpacking and setting up and then everyday life kicks in and so many of those little things you never get back to fixing. 😐 But this is not our first home purchase, and I know that from experience, while in previous homes we have done some stuff there is always a list of things you never get to. . .until it's time to sell or move and then you do those things for the benefit of the next person. Well, no offense to our Georgia renters or the guy who bought our Tipton house, but I want to enjoy it this time. 😎

And while I didn't succeed in painting the whole house, I did manage to finish the dining room, living room, master bedroom, my shop, the world's longest hallway and half a guest room (ran out of paint). I still need to do the sunroom, the laundry room, the back office, and mud room, and yes, it is a big house but see the aforementioned "too much stuff". 😅 Luckily the house also came with a second garage just for husband's too many tools, so I can still park my car in the attached garage.

The cats have adjusted quite quickly, I'm a bit surprised, especially by little Merlin as he tends to be a bit skittish and scaredy because of his less than perfect eyesight, but less than 24 hours and he's strutting around like he owns the place. 😌

of course, there is too much to see and explore so he won't sit still long enough for me to get a photo 😅 so here is the blur that is my Merlin

New house. . .

I am exhausted, I really hate moving, but things are happening. I know now that I'm not just feeling behind, I am in fact falling behind, but there is nothing I can do about it. There are a limited number of hours in a day and I am only 1 person, so I will do all I can for as long as I can and it will have to be enough. The movers and trucks are coming on schedule whether we are ready or not. 😏

in the meantime, I find myself wondering why one would hang such a massive set of drapes in such a manner over a normal sized window 😅

Oh, but I am keeping those drapes, they are JcPenney home originals in good condition (I took them to the cleaners) however, I am absolutely shrinking the rod footprint and getting new shears. The dining room and living room both will keep the fancy drapes, just reconfigured and refreshed. 😎 Although they are not the reason I like the house so much, they are just a nice touch, the real reason I love the house is the location and the view. 

 

Yes, that's a deer out my kitchen window just wandering through in the middle of the day. 😍

falling behind or feeling behind?

Seriously, I don't know if I'm falling behind or just feeling behind, I can't tell. 😟  I do know that weeks are ticking by and I am getting things done, but the real question is, is it enough?  Will it all be ready for the movers?  Honestly, I'm not sure, I have packed a lot, I have cleaned things, I have arranged services for the new house. I still haven't managed to finish the little lizards, they may end up being packed in pieces. 😅

I just haven't really had the time to sit down and finish them. I really hate packing things up when they are only half-done, in the past that has been the end of a couple of projects, I never went back and finished them, I hope that doesn't happen here. 

Not that I have much choice, the bench must be cleared so I can disassemble it, everything must be packed before the movers arrive to load trucks. The logistics of moving fish, plants, and cats are getting complicated but we're working on it. My tiredness is growing into exhaustion, but we have weeks left before we'll be settled and between now and then I not only have to finish packing and cleaning this house, but I have to go clean and paint the new house too.  

Next weekend is the 4th, which is good/bad, first Happy 4th but second the cats hate fireworks. 😒 There likely will not be a blog post next weekend, too much to do. 

on schedule. . .sort of

For the most part the moving plan is on schedule, sort of, some of the things have shifted and some things still haven't been scheduled. 😏

There are still things on my bench, lizard bits to be assembled, so some rings and tools remain, but most of the shop is packed.

The actual movers are locked in, closing on the house scheduled, trash bin set for delivery days before closing so we are ready for the cleaning, painting, fixing immediately after closing.  Now the cable/internet has been an adventure, the listing said it already had fiber internet but it tuns out, it is on the street but was never ran to the house. So, after checking around found the provider, was initially told that it would take 4-6 WEEKS to schedule a drop and since we didn't technically own it, yet I wasn't authorized to authorize the "construction". Contacted our realtor and pointed out that it would be helpful if the current owners would authorize the dig since the listing said it already had service and I didn't want to have to move into a house with no service and wait weeks for service. He was very helpful and with the assistance of the other realtor the owners signed off, and the address was put on the list. ~yay~ I was happy thinking it would be weeks and they should be ready to do the install/dig around the time we move. . . well I was wrong I got a call on Friday, and they will be there Tuesday. 😲 So it went from a 4-6 week wait and no way to know when it would be done, to it will be done in less than 2 weeks, I'm not really complaining.  I mean I wanted it done before the move, but I really didn't expect it to go from a waitlist to finished so fast. 😅 Again, that's not a complaint it saves the trouble of changing phone plans and getting a temporary hot spot, but it also means I'll be paying for almost a month of service before we even move in.  

The flip side of the eager-beaver fiber installers is the no contact cleaning industry here in Indy. I have tried contacting multiple cleaning services about a move-out clean on this rental and 2/3 never responded at all, the 3rd service did call to check details (sqft of house and if the stairs where carpeted) said he would email me a quote but ghosted, it has been almost 2 weeks. So, I guess, Monday I get to start over with a fresh search and another round of quote requests. 😒 Sidenote for the house up north it only took me 1 phone call and the cleaning service that does whole home deep cleaning also agreed to do the carpet (without charging the minimum or a ton extra because it is only 1 room of carpet) great guy, super helpful, already paid the deposit and got it scheduled. I love it when things are easy. 

In the not so easy category, I have no idea what color his face should be. 😅

packing sucks. . .

Planning may be everything but packing sucks. 😑 

I have started packing the shop, emptying all the drawers and bins, boxing up rings and packing supplies. I suppose I should put the online shops in vacation mode or something. 😏 

Normally I would have just announced a temporary closure and deactivated all listings, but being honest it's not like I'm swamped with orders and the inventory is all still in my possession so if I did happen to get an order, I could still ship it for now.  That will change but unlike previous moves where things have gone into storage, sometimes for months, this is just going from house to house. 😎 There will be a couple of weeks where it's all packed here waiting for transport while I'll be elsewhere painting and prepping for landing it all in the new place but compared to previous longer distance moves where we landed in furnished temporary housing and stuff stayed in storage for 2-4 Months, two weeks is nothing. 😉 

Although, there is a temporary furnished place in this move plan it is only for 30 days not 3 months like last time. Mostly it's just a local location for the husband to start his job (tomorrow) and a place for the cats to hang out the week I clean and paint the new place. I've ordered a trash bin (and service) for the new place, got on the list for the fiber internet drop, still need to schedule cleaning help and carpet cleaning for after closing which is just 3 weeks away. 😁

I have so many lists because there are lists for each location, lists of utilities to turn on for the new place, list of utilities to turn off this rental. List of cleaning and "repair" for the rental, change laundry room light bulb, swap shower heads back, hire carpet cleaners, etc. List of cleaning and repair for the new house, clean Everything, swap shower heads, work on deck boards, buy new dishwasher, water filtration system. Change of address, update banks and credit cards, etc., 

I am still pretty determined to finish these little guys before the move, #2 has a head and 2/4 of his legs, #3 has all 4 legs laid out, but no head yet. 😅 

Planning is everything. . .

You may or may not know the quote "Planning is everything, the plan itself is nothing", but it has been a founding principle for me and my husband for many years. We are always planning; some plans work out, some are just fun to think about, some are back-up plans or just in case plans or what-if plans. 😅 Some people are PACE people and know the primary, alternate, contingency, and emergency acronym but only apply it to communications not Life.  

So, there is a whole notebook with many pages of lists, lists of repairs for the new house, lists of things to clean in both the new house and the rental, lists of services to turn on for the new house and shut down for this rental. List of services to schedule like carpet cleaning and maid services for both. Plus, a whole separate list for the house purchase, documents for finance, insurance quote/policy, etc. 

Yeah, I'm crazy busy and trying to not be just cRazY. 😜 It is a lot going on at once and it's only going to get worse before it gets better, but by the end of July it will all be over. I am looking forward to that part when it's done, and I can just relax in the quiet. However, in between now and then I have to pack a whole house, paint a whole house, and deep clean 2 whole houses. I highly doubt we will get our whole security deposit back, this is a corporate owned rental, and they will charge $15 for a lightbulb. 😒 So I will do my best, and this place will probably look better when I move out than it did when I moved in, but I'm still not expecting much. 

Aside from the awesome quiet countryside views there are several things I really like about the house, including this stained-glass mosaic lamp shade.

I'm actually kind of in awe of it, I mean look at the shape of that curved rolled edges, I stuck my head in it and there is no wire frame or any kind of supports, it's an amazing piece of work. 😍 Also, hard to believe the woman who bought that for the living room put this hideous thing in a bedroom.

I'm guessing grandchildren were involved, but seriously that thing is the stuff of nightmares and it's gone the minute I get the keys. 😅

Summertime. . .

It is about to be summertime, June when it gets hot, kids are out of school, and I used to do lots of in-person events. However, not this year, this year I get to move again, ok so not until July but . . . that's not really better. 😅 I will be buying cases of water and hiring movers. 

In the meantime, the packing has begun, but not with my shop. I started with the photo set up and moved to the bookcase, I really want to clear my bench before packing my shop, so I scaled the spines. 😉

Now I just need to make them heads and legs and tails. I have the whole month of June to pack so plenty of time, especially considering this was a rental house and I never fully UN-packed here. 😇 

I will say after months of indecision and lack of direction it is nice to have a solid plan. I am actually really excited about the new place, house in the country, super peaceful and quiet, no neighbors, no park, no bus stop, no junior band members next door, no jackoff in a sports car thinking the neighborhood is a drag strip. 😌 We sat in the driveway on the truck tailgate talking to the realtor and there is no way to describe the peace that I felt in that open space with the breeze, watching a rabbit across the drive pay us no mind. I also found a frog on the deck, and I think there are mice for Jaspurr to chase. 

If you're not a country person, if you didn't grow up barefoot in a creek, running fields at your grandparent's house, if you've never been in countryside so quiet all you hear are crickets, you wouldn't understand.

There is a rabbit in the middle of this photo, you may not see him well because he is small and far away, but I'm sure we will make friends. 💗💗

 

Oh wow. . .

The "Weekly" part of the updates has been missing lately. 💩 

I had not realized just how far away from "weekly" I had gotten, sorry. Life has been weird lately and some big changes are coming which is time consuming and distracting, so I guess it's not surprising that I have lost all concept of time and just stopped posting. 😶

Unfortunately, for the curious types I'm not going to blog details, I will just say it is Husband, job, location related and you can probably guess the rest. 

In the meantime, the rainbow baby still does not have a tail, and his brethren remain bench bound and incomplete. 😒

though I am over my frustration with his legs so he will be getting a tail as soon as I have time to decide the pattern, the colors, the length, and attachment 😅 

I am also kind of excited about the other color-brothers, but sadly, they are still just bits of spine at the moment, seriously I haven't even attached the scales to the chain yet, maybe today or tomorrow I'll have some time.

Happy Memorial Day holiday weekend, Happy Indy 500, happy whatever makes you happy. 😇

This week. . .

I have made things!  😁 

Although, I need gold clasps, I didn't realize I was out of gold, so ignore the current placeholding mismatched clasp. 😅 Plus those bracelets aren't the only thing I made. I also made a super cute little "pet" I have no idea what I'm going to do with him other than hold him and admire him, he's not jewelry. He's not big enough to be a bracelet but he's a little too big for a hat/lapel pin 😇

He is totally adorable. I tried 3 different types of beads for the eyes and I'm still not sure about these, but they are growing on me. 

His front legs move more than his back legs but that's ok. The stiffness of the base weave has caused his "spine" to curve with the addition of the scales, but I really like the look of the edge with the square rings.