Good morning!
A much better week! Sometimes I just need to do serious work on myself. :)
On Tuesday I went over to watch the boys while Dagan and Leah went to see the new Deadpool/Wolverine movie. I brought with the fake Lego bouquet to put together. Liam wasn't that interested and was playing some game with cats in it--lol! Ian and I worked on the flowers and got through the first instruction booklet. Made eight flowers, if I remember correctly. It was 8pm by the time we finished those. So we found a safe place to store them and I'm going back tomorrow afternoon so we can finish them. Saved taking pictures till we're done. ;) Read the boys a silly book and they were to bed a little after nine. Was a very nice night!
Before they went to bed they wanted me to see the lights were working downstairs! They ran down to turn them all before I got down there. Wow! Love it! There are dimmers on the living room lights, too.
This is going to be the long narrow storage room that is under the entryway. (Somehow this photo was the only one Blogger decided needed to be left aligned and I can't change its mind--lol!)
This is where the litter boxes will be--under the stairs. I will certainly be able to see to scoop--lol! (Blogger also stubbornly centered this line...who knows how it will look when I actually publish this--lol!)
Living room. Not sure which workmen all that is from in the middle of the room.
Standing inside my front door looking toward the bathroom and studio. White dust everywhere from the drywallers.
Kitchenette. Leah's still trying to get the drywallers back to seal off that hole above where the frig will go. The electricians moved the light over above the bathroom door there. There are some other places the electricians need to come back to fix, and the drywallers, and the floor people.
The studio doesn't need any extra fixing, I don't think.
The bathroom. Ian said the light fixture doesn't have any lightbulbs in it yet. I like it!
Liam looking at the current mess in the shower.
Where the washer and dryer will go under the stairs in the maintenance room.
Wow! Really a huge difference when you have light!
The cabinet people can't come back until the drywallers seal off that hole over the frig and a couple other holes they made they shouldn't have. Plumbers will be back, too. Also the trim and door guy will be coming--and the carpet needs to be laid down the stairs. So many contractors to deal with. But it is coming along.
I think some people got the impression I was upset with Dagan and Leah. I was talking about myself. Me. My own issues with dealing with the wait. That was what was causing my meltdown. Nothing really logical. Everything is going about as well as it can be. I love them all. I know their weaknesses and they know mine. None of us are perfect, for sure. But I can hardly wait to be there. They wish I was already there, too. It will work out. I'm not even the one who is dealing with all the contractors and such. I'm just waiting in my place full of bins and boxes. So, I know I have no logical reason to complain. I have everything I need. We have no deadlines. Contractors mess up or don't respond sometimes. Poor Leah gets most of the headaches. Just so much to deal with.
Anyways, I'm sure it was probably confusing to those of you who don't know me well. Like most of us would assume (including myself), I thought my stress was due to it taking so long. But it wasn't. Not really. It was due much, much more to me--who I am and living in chaos for so long. Not having control--of my home, of the move, of my stuff--lol! When you grow up feeling alone, like you have no control over your life, no emotional support, and way too much responsibility way too early...as soon as I got my own room when I was around 9 or 10...well, I had complete and total control over my very organized room. It was my sanctuary...my safe place. No one was allowed to enter without my consent--not my brother, sister, or my parents...and they well knew what it meant to me. I don't get angry often, but people know when not to cross a line with me--lol! Plus, I also knew where every little thing belonged in my room (think Adrian Monk) so that I would know if anyone had been in there or had gone through a drawer or moved anything at all. [Note: I do know someone had been in there a couple times over the years...quite carefully...likely a sibling. I just kept a close watch and bought a lockable file box for my journals. Then no one came back that I know of--lol!]
Yes, when I say I have an OCD side...I do. I have loosened up a little bit over the years, but to this day...no one messes with my stuff. We weren't allowed in my folks' bedroom. My grandparents were that way about their bedrooms (yes, they each had their own--both sets) and we weren't allowed to touch any of their things, either. So I grew up learning a high respect for other people's things and their spaces, you know. We grew up being taught not to touch anything in any store when we were shopping with Mom. And we had to be quiet and respectful of adults...all that stuff. Especially on my dad's side. Children were to be seen and not heard. Actually it was preferrable if we were also not even seen--ROFL!
I don't think I have even talked about any of this on the blog before. Well, now it will make more sense as to how this was all my own personal meltdown. Imagine Monk living with his home torn apart--ROFL! I think of Monk because a part of me quite understood where he was coming from in a lot of ways--LOL! Loved that show.
Anyways, now that I have dug down for the core reasons that I was unreasonably upset...I am feeling much better. I have learned something about myself that runs deeper than I had thought. Know thyself, eh? Always makes life easier. Even when some things are difficult to face. I dearly love McFamily. I am grateful that they love me, too, and put up with me. :)
Meanwhile, Keanna came on Thursday instead of Tuesday. We've had a cooler weather spell that has been just delightful!! Have been able to open the place up...which makes Miss Allie very happy, too.
Although, I spent some time in the studio and she got bored laying on the floor in there. (No chair, or room for one, next to the table in there.) She dozed out in the living room in her chair.
I just wanted to do something mindless. So I worked on swatching all the new palettes! Gave me an idea of how the various brands will work...even if I did use the student grade paper in that art journal I made. ;)
Faber-Castell--some were pretty weak on the pigment side, but okay colors.
Amazon Basics. Really dried all cracked and were hard to reconstitute, but quite a variety of colors.
Paul Rubens "Opera" set. Colors had no labels. They were easily wet and dark--almost like gouache!
Arteza. Also pretty easily reconstituted and deep colors.
Chromatek. Wet well and had quite a variety of rich colors.
Any of the above sets would be easy to color stamps with that could look similar to using markers, I think. Nice bright colors. The first two sets were a bit watery or weak on pigments, though they would probably work okay. Not as vivid.
Then--lastly--QOR. Two small sets--High Chroma set and Earth set.
QOR set of 24.
I have to say that the QOR sets by Golden did feel quite different using them. They look different on the page, too. Much more like the artist quality watercolors I'm familiar with. Hard to explain the difference. I kind of thought they might--hence trying more sets--lol! (I had already bought the small sets quite a while ago before I ordered the rest of these.) But then, I have not played with any of them to see how they blend or work in real practice, you know. Will be fun to find out. :) :) The ones I liked the least were the first two, but I will play with them, too. Swatching is one thing...
So, there you have it. Now you know. I am probably an even weirder human than you thought I was--lol! Anybody would likely be impatient with a wait much longer than expected, but most people wouldn't have an internal meltdown, I don't think. I'm like half-Adrian Monk, though. In fact, I just watched three seasons of Professor T on Masterpiece Prime...another guy I can relate to. Not as bad as he is, either--thank goodness. But I do have my OCD side, that's for sure. Truth. I do go around after my cleaners leave and put everything exactly back where it belongs--lol! Always have.
I am a great believer in the deep dives...in knowing what makes you tick. Highly recommend it. Makes life easier during the rough spots. Sometimes you even discover that the really rough part was all inside of you in the first place. I was sweating the small stuff, as they say. Deep dives always give me a new perspective. I am so grateful that Dagan and Leah still love me and want me to live with them. Grateful for Allie sleeping next to me. And even grateful that when I AM unhappy that I have always been one to eventually dig to find out why and what I can do about it. Feels awful. I prefer to be content and optimistic and happy. Very grateful for that side of me, too. :)
Till next week, my dear friends. Bless you for just being there. We all need somebody to just listen and hear us sometimes. Thank you!! Thank you so much!! :)