A Red Pen Moment and A Crooked Day Off

First, I need to share this email snippet I got today. I apologize in advance to any of the other recipients of this email who may be reading it here.

From: H
Subject: Potluck May/June

How's the 14th or the 21st work for everyone?
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Reply from: P
Subject: RE: Potluck May/June

Hi,We have my nieces wedding out of town the 13th. We are here the weekend of the 21st.
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Reply from: H
Your nieces are getting married?
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LMBO! Oh, I am sorry, but this was just perfect. For lack of an apostrophe, the meaning was lost. {end of red pen moment}

On to my crooked day off. The Plan was to head to IKEA to purchase a few more cabinets, and then attempt to find a small bit of order in The Other Room. Here's my report on my efforts.

I have cabinets lining one wall of the room. Aside from the Elfa in my closet, this is the only orderly part of the room.

Moving from right to left, this is the smaller end cabinet that holds my Cuttlebug and all the plates, folders, and dies, and it also holds my acrylic blocks and some miscellaneous stamps in the bottom part.

To the left is cabinet 2 which holds most of my papers and card stock.

A bit further to the left is cabinet 3, which holds adhesives, hardware (brads, clips, eyelets), brayers, ribbon, retired In Color inks, non-SU inks like Encore & Memento, etc.

To the left of that cabinet is where my long-dead-and-discarded plant used to live. The pot was still there this morning, and it needed to leave so I could put in my new cabinets.

See? The perfect spot!


So off I trekked to IKEA. I have a love-hate relationship with IKEA. I love that I can usually find what I need, but I hate crowds, which is why I do not go on the weekends. But what I found out today is while there were no crowds, it was also difficult to find an employee for assistance. Grrr...

I also found out that just because IKEA makes modular furniture that you can add on to, you should not wait 3-5 years between visits and expect to find more of what you bought before. Oh, they carry that line still (amazing!), but they no longer carry the smaller version of the cabinet, which is what I needed. DRAT! So I was determined to head straight out of the building, not looking left or right so I'd not be tempted to buy stuff I did not need, when lo and behold I spotted it. A cabinet that just might work! I went to snap its picture, but my camera batteries failed me. Sigh. But I remembered the name of it and headed to Self Serve Furniture.

Along the way, since I was actually going to buy something, I let myself look left and right, and I ended up with things I do not need, but that are very, very cool. I'll share some of them momentarily.

While in line at the self-check-out for 15 items or fewer, I watched in amazement while a woman took the items from not just one, but two flatbed carts and s-l-o-w-l-y scanned each item - yes, in the self-check-out 15 items or fewer line! Man, I wish my camera had been working... That's okay, though, cuz she was flustered and needed constant help from the employees, and I was on vacation and there were three other swiftly-moving self-check-out stations. But she was a piece of work!

Once I got home and hauled all my goods into the house, my first step was to remove the pot of dirt from The Other Room. Ugh, but that thing was heavy, and it is even on wheels.

Here is the pot about half-way out of the room, and since I had to stop and catch my breath, I took its picture. What you see here is one of the paths of which I speak on occasion, and it had to be widened a little bit for the pot to fit through.

The pot now lives in the Living Room until I can work up the energy to take it out back and unload the dirt into my gardens.

Oh, that thing up against the wall under the window? That's the parts-is-parts of a trundle bed that I refuse to get rid of, so I store it in here. It is tied together with nylon rope, and one of these days I expect to hear a very loud BOI-OI-OING when one or more of the pieces of rope give out and the trundle springs are free at last and the bed expands to unnatural proportions and spews craft supplies hither and yon and the whole room basically explodes. Now THAT would be a great photo op, huh? Yeah, if my heart ever starts up again, and the police let me back in. So you see why I really, really, need to make some progress In There...

Here is a sample of the clutter that was accumulating on the tops of my cabinets. This is now gone - read on!

Here we have my newly-assembled three-drawer unit nestled in its new home. You can see the top of the third cabinet! And there's even room for a light! I (finally) assembled my Stack & Store Caddy that I got last summer with my SU Frequent Shopper points and put in all the miscellaneous boxes of brads and buttons. I left the eyelets in a drawer, since I do not use them much.

I also cleared off and stowed all my miscellaneous adhesives and things like Mod Podge, Crystal Effects, Rubber Cement, Elmers Glue - you know: adhesives. I had enough room on top of the cabinet to put four spools of ribbon from my Ribbon Outlet spree, so they are no longer on the floor. That's them next to the lamp. See how BIG they are? And you thought I was kidding about having 3990+ feet of the stuff! I'm telling you, I could not make this stuff up!

So I've made a litte progress, if only baby steps. Baby steps are GOOD.

Here's the top of the new cabinet with the Stack & Store Caddy, some still-homeless brad containers, and some empty holders that SU no longer sells. Hmmm ... I saw someone take those things and attach them to a coffee can to make their own Caddy. I may just have to try that!

There's room on the cabinet for another Color Caddy that I plan to get to hold my retired In Color inks, which will clear out part of one of the skinny drawers in the third cabinet to make room for even more stuff. Ohboy!

Enough organizing ... let's move on ...

These are napkins I got at IKEA. Are they not VERY cool? Do I need them? No. But wouldn't they look neat on the front of a card?

Here's the other pack of must-have napkins that found their way into my basket.

And no trip to IKEA would be complete without the purchase of a jar of lingonberry preserves. M-m-m, this stuff is good!

Finally, I bring you something I actually stamped! I made this from pieces of Basic Grey I had on the New Heap, and they needed to be used. This is the card I was going to make for Grey Day (get it? Grey Day ... Basic Grey ...), but then I got distracted and tired, so it never came to be.

Recipe: Stamps - Oval All (SU); Paper - Kiwi Kiss (SU), Basic Grey Mellow 6x6 pack, Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip (SU); Ink - Choc Chip (SU); Other - Wide Oval punch, Large Oval punch, Scallop Oval punch (all SU), Kiwi double-sided ribbon (SU), Thicker swirl, Orange ribbon scrap.

So even though I posted no UHC for Grey Day, it IS the theme for my Blog-iversary G-I-V-E-A-W-A-Y, Part Second, so go on and enter! You have until Sunday night to make a card and post it for a chance to win!

Okay, now I need to go rest up from all this activity. Thanks for stopping by!