There's no time to do art (or a day in my life)

It's no secret I'm a neat freak, so my entire house being in shambles has taken a real toll on my art and my way of looking at things. Since I can't create art today (or couldn't yesterday), I decided to document a day in my life lately. Here is what yesterday was like when I thought to take photos.

As I mentioned earlier, fabric, fibers and ribbons, paper, paint, and packing will be the focus of the main floor craft room. So, while sorting in the basement, I found many things that actually belong in those categories that needed to be brought upstairs. I began my day around 5 a.m. when I opened my main floor craft room and was hit with this horrible mess.

I've panned the camera from left (at the door) to right.

There are no surfaces that are clean.

I have no staging area or surface, because this room is so small.

Even the floor space is covered with things that were in the basement and came out of the packed boxes.

With coffee in hand, I attacked the problem until I got tired (or maybe it was discouraged). With a new mug of coffee in hand, I checked my e-mail and checked in on my favorite yahoo group, ABC (link on sidebar). After spending way too much time looking at all the wonderful art these talented artists had uploaded in the last couple of days, and briefly checking my e-mail, I was back at the task.

One of the first and really nice things I did as the sun began streaming into the room, was to bring this unused thread rack up from the basement and place all the colorful thread my dear friend Halle gifted me with. What a treat. I actually bought the metallic thread, but hate it, so gave it to Dana later in the day.

By this time it was 9:57 am and I had very little time to jump in the shower and get my stuff together for the trip to Sally's PT.

Don't konw if you can tell, but I did make a dent in the messes.

Even the table is less messy (not saying much, I realize).
This view hasn't changed much.

I did, however, manage to get rid of one entire box of stuff, so now can move around a bit better in the room.

Here I am packed and ready to go to pick up Sally. The decorated bag holds the stuff I was planning to work on while waiting for Sally. The plastic sack on the chair is stuff I had for Sally, and the bag on the floor is what Bleubeard contributed to his sandbox for a couple of days.

After placing Bleubeard's "bag" in the trash, I was off!!

Sally looks like she's not having a good time,

as I snap a few photos of us stuck in traffic. Don't ask about the bear on the dash. It's HER car and I can't do a thing about it, although it is very annoying.

After letting Sally out at the door, I found a place to park. Looks like I'm in the right area.

Sally forgot her paper and came out far enough to remind me to bring it.

Once inside, I was glad to put the heavy bag down.

I can't believe we were 10 minutes early. I thought we were late, even with having to go back for Sally's paper twice, once at her house and once in the car.

As you can see by the bulging bag (and my coffee mug), I planned to get some art done, but the gals in the office were too busy talking to me, asking about my art, and I couldn't get anything done. I hope today isn't a repeat of yesterday.

After her therapy, Sally was hungry. I was not, but she insisted we stop at the greasy fish place, where she picked us up a "two meal deal."

Since I was driving, I didn't get any photos of the greasy fish place, but took a photo of the greasy fish box and bag on my kitchen table. After quickly wolfing down two nicely hot fish and a handful of very cold fries, I was on my way, leaving the cole slaw and hush puppies behind. With a fresh mug of coffee in hand, I headed for Billie's where we took her car to vote.

She even had a little surprise for me sitting in the seat. Yep, the queen of free scored with a strand of pearls, some candy wrappers, and an Orange bag.

Here we were, getting ready to enter the voting place. That's me on the left (OK, that's my arm taking the photo).

Here Billie is proudly wearing her "I voted" sticker.

After tea and talk at Billie's, I headed home to call Dana, who I needed to take some magazines and a swap to. Since she was happy to have some "me" time away from her ailing hubby, she offered to drive over to my place. I was tickled and quickly agreed.

As Dana got out of her car,

the wind was blowing so hard, it whipped my wind chimes into a welcoming frenzy.

Thankfully she made it up to the house without being blown into Oklahoma. Although I was a bit hesitant and embarrassed, I did take Dana to the basement so she could see the messes that were there. At least when she left, the living room was devoid of boxes and I had one fairly "normal" room. Why I didn't take a photo of a clean room, I have no idea.

After setting my VCR (yep, I'm really old school), I headed for the basement mess. I just can't stay in one room each day. I have found that dealing with different messes doesn't depress me as much as dealing with the same mess all day long.

And here's a peek at the mess in the basement before I started last night. And just think, as you're reading this, I'm back at PT with Sally (same time, same place), then off to the south part of town to pick up furnace filters for her.

Of course, before I could do that, I had to end my day by fighting with my tax software. Last year went great. Had it all done in no time at all. This year I've fought with it for 8 days. I could have hand written and hand carried it to Washington in the time it's taken me to file this return.

Will I ever catch my breath and have time for art? Will tomorrow be better? I sure hope so!!