Get The Ball Rolling.

Since this is a nice house and we're happy here and we have more room, we want to decorate it pretty. Things we couldn't have in the tiny apartment. Some things we still can't have because some of our cats are little assholes, but some we can. So I thought I'd make some of those balls with thread and/or string and balloons.

Blew up a bunch of water balloons and got everything ready. You know what? It's not as easy as they make it look in the videos to roll these babies! Don't let those videos fool you. I had to re-attempt the first one several times until it was looking somewhat acceptable. My visions of perfectly formed balls are nothing more than dust in the wind. 

Ran out of black floss to make another or two of it. I'll have to get more black. They're going to go into a tray I spray painted with that fake stone stuff in an ivory that I'll trim in espresso and gold. Should look good. When I'm done all of it I'll proudly show it off. But in the meantime, I had one heck of a mess to clean up. These will take a day at least to dry completely. I need another coat of stone paint on the tray, but it's been raining for two days so I have to wait for a less humid day to do so. I don't like to spray paint indoors. 

Before that I helped my eldest grand-child, Malory. While visiting her father, he got her a book she must have chosen. It's like a diary and there are pages to put in photos. So onto Facebook we went to find the photos she wanted from her mother's FB as well as mine. I printed them out and I should have known she wouldn't just choose a few, but want them all on the two pages. 

I had to wait until she was gone before I could even start on my own crafts. Had I not, 90% of my stock of crafting things would be used by her for "pictures" she makes or leaving in a bag with her to use at home with her sisters. Sigh. I love my grand-children, I do, and maybe that's why I can't resist their pleading faces. So I've learned to wait until they are not present to do certain things or bring out certain things. I've also learned not to take them when I go shopping. I learned this the hard way. I learned this when I went $52 over budget because my grand-daughter loves craft things and hand lotions and lip balms and snacks. Yeah.

Life As We Know It In A Box

You never realize how much crap you've accumulated over the years until you have to pack and then unpack. We donated a bunch of stuff before we moved, but towards the end it was more of a "just throw it in a box and we'll sort through it later" deal.

When I say "we" I mean, my baby sister, her daughter and I. Barely anyone can afford to live alone anymore. Plus, my sister and I have the same likes in many things so it works out. We defer to each other on all things, and I let major decisions be hers if I'm flexible on it.

We moved beginning of May, and we've unpacked a lot. We were going to donate a bunch of stuff to help the people who lost everything in the Fort McMurray fires, but they will only accept money donations now so I guess we're going to have a yardsale. 85% of everything packed was my sister's and her daughter's. So we still have several boxes and bags to go through.

We spent the first few days cleaning and sleeping on mattresses on the floor. We washed everything down and shampooed the carpets. Then we started on doing small repairs we could do ourselves and yard work. Then the slow process of unpacking. During the day we worked downstairs until we could finally see some of the living room floor. Then in the evening we worked in our rooms. After a week of this we were sore, tired, and fed up. So we took a few days to recuperate and de-stress. Now that we have the basics put away, we can go more slowly. And as we empty one box, we fill others to sell.

Usually we donate to the less fortunate. The local food bank is our choice. We have some second-hand places in town, but they still tend to over-price. We know what it's like to not have much or to struggle so we would rather donate to the food bank and those who cannot afford to pay much can get the clothes or things for free that they really need. But... moving, eating out for a week because we couldn't cook yet, and getting cleaners and so on, ate into our finances quite a bit. Add in the extra few hundreds for rent for this house, and we will be having a yard sale. It's also a great way to meet neighbours. They wander over to see what you have and get a peek at you, and you can start a discussion.

Though my sister met one neighbour. We wanted to be sure of our property line so we don't tick anyone off by accidentally having stuff on theirs. One day, she saw the neighbour on our left was outside so she asked him politely. He made a noise, pointed and walked away. To him, it was an annoyance to have to deal with it. Well, excuse us! Guess he's not getting any muffins or cookies from us. Look, if you want to be treated decent by your neighbours, treat them decent. It's that easy. If you're going to be a jerk and rude and behave like we're annoying you asking you one little thing or if we say "good day!" then don't expect us to be kind to you!

I was told he complained a lot if you had what he considered too many visitors. Yes, at first my daughter and her boyfriend, our brother and his friends and son came to help us so it was busy here. We thanked everyone with a BBQ for helping us. It's been quiet since. Not that we were loud to begin with. We weren't. But I have grand-children, the eldest is 5, and the youngest is 1. They like to run and play. We have friends and family. They don't always come around, but we do like to have gatherings for Holidays or birthdays or special occasions. We don't need a stick in the mud to bitch we're too lively for his tastes. We don't crank the music outside, we barely crank it inside! We may laugh loudly at times because we like being able to laugh. We would like to include our neighbours in fun times, if they'd like to be included. But we refuse to turn away family and friends to please someone else. I'm sorry. We respect others and noise laws and that others can be sensitive, but we will not become recluses to please you.

Other than that, things are coming along. Slowly, but surely. We still have moments of, "Oh crap, where's...?" And we hunt through boxes and bags. It will remain that way for a bit yet as we purge and figure out how to set it all up. How the hell did we have all this in a smaller place?