unpacking still

I do sometimes feel it will never end. Every time I unpack a box, I know there are two more filled with similar items, and I don't know where they are going to go. Some things are just going to have to stay packed I think.

I finally found my camera! Yeah! It was in the pocket of the jacket I was wearing when we unloaded the truck. I did manage to get a few shots of the truck before we unpacked it all. This time it was Mike that was the true master packer.

This doesn't look too packed, until you realize that this is a 22 foot truck, so it goes waaay back there. I meant to get other shots as we were unloading, but I was too busy hauling things. When I took this, we had already removed a dining room table, queen mattress & box spring, luggage and a few tubs! Behind this first layer there is a couch, 10' long bookcase, a few dressers, tables, file cabinets and all of the boxes. At this point we hadn't unloaded any of those yet. You can't see them, but they're packed all the way to the top in the back.
One of the casualties was the light brown desk there in the middle. It had too much weight put on the top, and it's front feet couldn't take it, so the snapped off. That's why it's leaning forward.
I was going to take pictures when we stopped in KY, but the blizzards kept me from getting any good shots of the truck. I did get some pretty shots of outside:

This was when we first woke up:

Then, not even a half house later:

A shot from the front yard too:

It made driving rather difficult, but it was nice to see snow we didn't have to shovel!

Last weekend (the one before Easter), Mike's school had a festival, and it was really neat to see all the different trades doing their thing - or showing off what they had completed:



Mike & his classmate pre-made a mold of a car, and then ran it like you would with crown molding for a ceiling. (That's actually his teacher doing the run in this picture).



Then he cut the mould like a loaf of bread to create the little cars:



See how they fit together!

I am so amazed that you can make plaster look like anything, including marble or granite:

The black smithe's were working on some hooks and rods - everyone was pretty fascinated with them:





The stonecarvers were showing how to make a curve:



And I got a shot of one of the master carpenters working on her piece as well:





I'm so impress by all the the different trades. Sometimes it makes me wish I could go to school too, but I know it would be a waste of money, I don't have the talent. I'll stick to the fiber arts for a while - easier to frog.

unpacking!

Ok, I was going to put more pictures in here, but I can't find my camera amid the mess (that I took pictures of!!) so you'll have to do with out-of-date shots or this post will never go up. I will put up a shot of the finished needle case I made before I left. I was thinking of putting up a tutorial on how I made it, but am not sure if anyone would be interested - let me know.

My life is mimicking my house at the moment - in a bit of disarray, but I think I know where everything is... it's just a matter of it falling into place or my finding a place for it to be.

Mike and I flew to Chicago, packed up and drove back to Charleston. When we got to Chicago, we brought the warm weather with us and all the snow melted, which made packing the truck much easier. We had everything in the truck by Friday around 3pm. My MIL kept calling to check on us, and I couldn't really figure out why. She was concerned about the weather, but Chicago had blue skies and mild weather and we were headed south, so we weren't concerned. Plus, we really couldn't leave until the house was empty and the truck packed. Small unimportant detail.

We realized her concerns when we reached the north side or Indy and the snow started. By half way through the city, we were following the tracks of the car/truck in front of us, as the large snowflakes had rendered the windshield wipers pretty useless. There were blizzard warnings for those headed east of Indy, and we saw 3 snowplows in the 6+ hr drive from Chicago to Louisville. By the time we reached the 'ville around midnight, we were pretty exhausted, and fell into bed without even unpacking our bags due to the heavily falling snow.
We awoke early the next morning to a white wonderland - of which I'll show pic's when I find my camera...and we watched the snow fall for a few hours until the snow plows came through the neighborhood. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, and I managed to almost finish a Calorimetry in the meantime. Here's a picture of the finished product:

I'm also working on another pair of fetchings out of some cherry tree possum paints and am almost done with the Quant headband I was working on before I left. Ok, I'm actually almost done with the icord that finishes it, but you get the point....

I was very happy to have Mike's parents to help us unload, they were a great help and we ended up only having a few causalities from the move. We had a small desk loose some front feet because of too much weight on top, and my old Victrola lost a leg. We did figure out that the leg had been repaired once before and just couldn't take it's own weight, but I'm not sure if it'll be worth it to fix it. It's a pretty common model, and the cost of repairs might be more than the price of the piece itself. Right now it's not a priority to fix, but something to keep in mind.

Now it's a matter of unpacking and deciding where everything needs to go. If I can find a good solid place for things, I will be more likely to put them back in their place. It's when I don't know exactly where something fits that it ends up on a counter or tabletop or sitting out instead of being put away - because I can't figure out where it goes, it goes nowhere. So my goal is to get it all put away - properly - by the end of March, and hopefully everything will pull together for April.

Because there are still a few things that need to be settled this month. The house didn't close like it was supposed to the Friday we left. The buyer's buyer was out of town and didn't have their side settled, so we moved up a week. The week has passed and now it's been pushed to the end of the month. We have faith that it will go through, it's just when.

I'm also hoping for my job to pull through by then as well. All signs point to yes, but it's like the house - I'll believe it when the papers are signed and the deal is done. So the goal is, by April 1st to have everything settled - the house, the job and our place - taken care of and 'in it's place'.
So keep your fingers crossed and we'll see where you find me next.

packing up and moving out

I had written a big long diatribe of how much I was dreading the moving, and the sorting and the packing, and at this point, it's a bit late for that. I'm here and it's happening. It's happening! It's really happening! YEAH! We're really moving. I'm soo excited about it.

I've got to keep this short, because I really do need to get the packing done, as we have a limited amount of time. I got in Friday, and had a small panic attack when I realized I didn't have any keys to the house, and my previous house-mates were no where to be found. But found they were, and I was able to sleep in my old bed again which was heavenly!

Mike joined me on Saturday, and we ran around getting supplies. Since then it's been packing packing and more packing! We are having people over tomorrow to say a last farewell, then we pick up the truck on Wednesday and drive off on Friday morning.

We were supposed to sign on Thursday, but the buyers had some issues, so we signed today to get things all out of the way so we can still return in time to start work/school next Monday. I'm also hoping to make it one last time to my old S&B up in the city, but it'll all depending on timing.

It's not been as emotional as I thought it was going to be so far, but I think it's because I keep looking to the future. I'm even ready to give up my old bedroom furniture that I was hanging onto. It's just furniture right? We'll see how long I can keep this positive attitude though.

To prep for the trip down, I did make a great little DPN case for all my needles (that's double pointed needles for all you non-knitters) I"ll put some pictures up when I return. I'm really proud of it. It's nothing fancy, but I really like the way it came out.

So, I'll have pictures, and I'm sure some stories when I return, but hopefully all will go smoothly.