July 7, 2025 Monday--5am

Good morning!

Was the time of the month for me to work on banking, getting my rent check down to the office and my bullet journal ready for July.  Same kind of week with hot days, rain, cooler days...but it seems to have leveled off for now keeping the temps in the 70s--whoohoo!

I noticed a lost rain cloud one day.

And what did I do this past week?  I started packing!!  

Allie loves to sharpen her imaginary claws on cardboard boxes, so she was very happy to see random boxes about.

I rolled in my little flatbed cart into the studio.  Using it to roll the filled boxes down the hall into the bedroom.

Moved the little table out of the way so I could start with the heaviest bookcase to unload and pack up...the paper/cardstock one. 

The tallest metal shelves I attacked first.  

The metal shelves went in the large boxes.

The cardstock went into the smallest "book" boxes.

Then I have two plastic shelves for 12 X 12 paper.  They are more fragile.

And the paper was too big for the book boxes.

There were many breaks.

I pulled the last of the paper supply out of the bookcase...

...but even doing it by baby steps for short periods of time...I was done in for two days middle of the week.

And then there was the re-packing.  I had squeezed the plastic shelves into a medium sized box, but then I worried they would get cracked when moved...so I had to haul them back into the studio and unpack these two boxes.

Took the plastic shelves apart and packed them in with the metal shelves in the bigger boxes.

One step forward, two steps back--lol!

Meanwhile...I ordered something this month.  A complete splurge!  (I did check with Leah that they would work.)

Hand painted, bright, colorful, every-one-different knobs for the hutches in the living room and the studio!  I LOVE THEM!!  *happy dancing*

They are bigger than I thought, so I hope they will fit okay.  I have been thinking about these and had them in my cart for months.  Well, more like two years--LOL!

Allie wasn't impressed, even though I let her smell them.  LOL!

I kept plugging away.  Finally finished later on Saturday night.  Six boxes--three sizes--all sealed and labeled.

One down.  Three bookcases to go.

Well, and a lot of drawers and wall shelves to empty, too...and a few things on the closet floor to sort through.  But I am very happy to have the worst bookcase to pack all done.  The others don't have as much (already took a few things off of them to top off these first boxes) but there's a lot of oddly shaped things and odd sizes.  Glad I have some brown packing paper I actually bought for using with art projects years ago. 

No, I haven't heard there's a moving date yet.  But I am very happy to have accomplished something this last week.  It feels soooo good to be doing something.  My internal-endless-waiting-pause state of sadness has been broken...regardless as to when I ever move.  It has lifted my spirits just to have something to do. It did sound like they were going to try to set up the movers for the second or third weekend in August.  So, we'll see.  

Meanwhile--I shall be packing.  I will keep going through everything again.  Get down to the bare minimum of what I need for daily existence and pack the rest away.  My daily requirement for existence is quite a bit of stuff as it is--lol!   I need to have my letter writing supplies available...but I could pack up a good part of them, I'm sure.  I do have a lot.  But letter writing is important to me.  Even if I haven't been as steady of a pen pal recently--lol!  :)  Then a few creative supplies to dabble with if I happen to finish going through everything I own for the second time before I move...and I'll be all set.

Anyways, that's what's happening up here.  It has been beautiful and cooler.  Patio door open fairly often.  Occasional thunder.  (Love thunder!)  I am focusing on all the little things I am grateful for.  More baby steps and recovery time ahead.  Till next week, my friends...