packing

So, as predicted, I have been packing. Which is really kind of boring, and not very interesting to write about. One point of interest, though: I thought that I would be able to fit most (if not all) of my books into maybe 5 banker's boxes.

Well, I packed those 5 boxes, and this is what the main bookshelf looked like:


I may have underestimated the size of my library a little. Granted, a lot of those 5 initial boxes had books which were not on this shelf (which is really only about a quarter of the entire collection), but I still thought I would make much more of a dent.

(Yes, there is yarn up on that shelf. I have been filling the top third of the bankers' boxes with yarn, because it's light and fluffy; if I fully packed every box with books, the boxes will break. Ask me how I know.)

I'm up to 12 boxes now, and it's starting to look a little sparser. Not empty, mind. Just sparse. I think another 5 will do it. Or possibly 10.

Meanwhile, the apartment has become a complete maze of boxes, both empty and packed.


I can't believe I'm going to have to live like this for another month or so. The cats are loving it, though.


Weirdos.

So I think, in about three weeks, this blog is going to turn into a renovation blog. It'll be fun. You'll see. There's gonna be demolition involved. I'm hyperventilating thinking about it already.

chocolate, roses, and possibly a bathtub

Last week, some of my favourite people in the world helped me celebrate my birthday at one of my favourite restaurants in the city (Mildred's Temple Kitchen).


They do truly excellent food (and chocolate calligraphy) there, not to mention amazing presentation, even if my beloved fixed lens can't do it justice.

(We did take more pictures, but a lot of them ended up blurry. Also, this isn't a food blog, although — maybe it should be.)

And then my wonderful husband gave me a dozen roses.


It's lovely being married to someone who knows exactly what you like.

...
This weekend we set up my mother's laptop for streaming movies and looked at bathroom fixtures, and I really don't want to talk about that. Do you know, it's impossible to make bathroom fixtures exciting, even if they're your own? Seriously, bathtubs are not interesting unless you're in one (and not in a big box store. Then it's just ridiculous).

anniversary card with nepalese paper

So, after declaring that crafting is going to take a backseat to all of the other activities I'm juggling lately, I went and made a card. Typical.

In my defense, it's for a specific occasion (a friend's anniversary). I missed sending out Christmas cards this year, so I feel like I have to make up for it with something extra-special.


Apparently, "extra-special" means handmade Nepalese papers. (Well, mostly. The blue-and-white one in the corner is a Japanese katazome, but I didn't use it.) These are my favourite papers, which is why I have them in rolls and not just small sheets.


I love the texture of these papers — it's almost like velvet. And yet, like all handmade papers, it's significantly more raw and fibrous than our everyday, over-processed papers. Every piece has some "imperfection" in it — a thick part, or a creased vein. And the edges are fantastic. I tried to preserve that, on the card.


Having said all that, I don't know if I actually like this card very much. There are too many problems with it. 1) It's not terribly flat. (It's in its pressing stage right now; we'll see how that works out.) 2) Because of the narrowness of the closure, it's nearly impossible to close the stupid thing once you've opened it. I haven't even glued it down yet and I already have problems closing it. I suppose I could just assume that no one will want to close it back up once it's been opened, but that seems like cheating.

Oh, and 3) It's kind of really, really boring. I'm not sure if even calligraphy will rescue this one.

Happy New Year!

I spent Christmas looking out onto this bucolic scene:


If you look very carefully, there are even two donkeys hiding out from the cold in that dark box to the extreme right of the picture.

Christmas was all right. I never did find my holiday spirit, at least nothing sustained, but nonetheless — it happened, and it was got over, and now it's done. That's good. Beatles Rock Band helped. So did sleep.

Pierre's sweater got finished:


And a friend gave me fabric for my erstwhile quilt:


Which are so entirely me, especially the green (just like the toile that I also stole received from her, years back) that I have no choice but to learn to quilt now, just so I can use it. Which means I'm going to have to learn how to use a sewing machine again. As you can see, she's very good at this enabling business.

But that will have to wait. Crafting is going to be spotty for the next few months, because this is my next project:


Choosing paint (and finding boxes, and tile, and possibly even a bathtub) for our new house.