I don’t know if it’s the cooler weather or the school schedule, but I’ve begun feeling project-ish lately. I suddenly have lists of things that I want to do. In the interests of organizing my thinking on them I’m going to catalog them in here.
The biggest project is the one which will enable many of the other projects. We’re going to shift Howard out of the Dungeon Office Of Doom. The current office which Howard and I share is a windowless basement room. The space is crammed full of two workspaces and cluttered with papers and books. Half a flight of stairs upward we have a guest room with a window.
We’ve decided that leaving a room empty for guests who are only here a few weeks out of the year may be hospitable, but it isn’t a good use of space. Howard is going to get that room. He’ll get access to actual daylight whil he is working. My computer stays in the basement, but I get the whole rest of the dungeon room to set up as I please. It’ll have the futon for guests, shelves full of books, and a big table upon which I can spread out a project and leave it for a week without anybody spilling food on it or moving things around.
I’m excited about this move. It’s going to happen this Saturday while Howard is out of town so that his buffer productivity won’t be impacted. I’ve already drafted the help I’ll need for it. I’m dreading moving Howards big drawing table though.
Other Projects:
2004 Tayler Family Scrapbook
“Who Was Grandpa/Grandma Tayler” books
Howard Childhood photo book
Sandra Childhood photo book
painting & sewing Road & River blanket for Patches Christmas.
sew stuffed Dragon for my mom for Christmas
see if Microwaving Pressed Flowers really works
actually put together some of those puzzles gathering dust
sort and re-organize games shelves
clean up my bedroom
plant tulip bulbs when they arrive
repaint and decorate kid’s bathroom
finish the story I’ve been working on
I’m sure there are more, but those are the ones in the front of my brain right now. For today I need to be cleaning up so that Saturday’s move can go smoothly.
see if Microwaving Pressed Flowers really works
If by this you mean microwaving flowers so they looked pressed, yes.
Cool. I got a book about it for Christmas and I’ve been meaning to give it a try. I need to hurry before winter comes and there aren’t any flowers to press.
Any tips?
Do it in small time increments. Turn it frequently. Watch closely.
What happens if I don’t turn it frequently and watch closely? Am I risking fire? Destruction of the microwave? Or just failure to press and dry flowers?
Fire risk for the most part.
If Howard’s being moved upstairs, do the elves go with him? 😀
Still, more space is always good, though I’d suggest seeing who else you can shanghai into helping you move, if the desk is at all heavy, to avoid problems getting it upstairs. Also, having another surface to spread projects on will not, unfortunately, prevent spills on it, at least in my experience… not when kids are around. 😀
I have minions . . . er . . . helpers coming to do heavy lifting.
Prior to this move the only surfaces I had to spread projects on were the kitchen counter and the kitchen table. The proximity to food made spills nearly inevitable. Food and drink are not allowed down into the office. Spills of papers or books don’t concern me much.
Minions are always good. If Howard has his own, why shouldn’t you?
As far as surfaces downstairs are concerned, while I hope your kids are that well-behaved all the time, I still wouldn’t count on the ‘office table’ as being completely spill-proof. It’s still a sight better than the kitchen counter, though. 😀
Yay, Sandra has minion-helpers!
Yaay, it’s about bleepin’ time you had minions of your own. Why should Howard have all the trappings of fame and you, none?
Is he going to be able to get any work done now that he’s closer to the kid’s circulation paths?
RE: The flower-pressing – I have family members into that. The suggestion was to “Buy one of those cheap bouquets of flowers sold at the grocery store and start with those. Go for something with a few thin, single-layer petals before you start on the thicker, chunkier flowers”. I take it a thin flower = black-eyed-susan type, and thick chunky flowers are stuff like carnations.
Do you have a “Who is Howard’s Grandmother?” book yet? That might be a cool project for Kiki, interviewing the great-grandmother she just got to meet at the reunion.
…. hmmm … the puzzles might be better saved for a rainy, blah day.
Big hugs, good luck with the office-relocation.
Re: Yay, Sandra has minion-helpers!
The “Who was Grandpa/Grandma Tayler?” books are going to be created because the kids never had a chance to meet these people. Neither did I for that matter. There is already a written life history for Howard’s grandmother, but it is geared more for adults. The books I intend to do will have lots of pictures with no attempt to chronicle all the details of their lives. I just want a general sense of who the people were.
For me the point of flower pressing is to press flowers from my backyard so that in winter I can still see flowers that I grew myself. I want to be able to make pressed arrangements that I can frame. Then I’ll hang the framed pictures on the bare walls of my new office. It just occurred to me that I have the perfect frames to use as well. The pieces are beginning to come together . . .