I am confounded
Going too far is one of my trademarks. I always fill that envelope too full to seal it, always.
This harkens back to my former friend’s remark about me many years ago:
“Your’re inappropriate and you expect too much”
And so I am and so I do.
BTW, did I mention that NewNeedlepoint.com is now a US Trademark? Anything I make or do under that name has Trademark protection.
I think that is so cool although it is not cool to say “cool”.
So, what did I mean by this blog title?
Well, I finally have all the new books ready to list. I have them photograped and the photos edited and I am all set to begin listing them.
But every time I sit down at my desk to do it I seem to *slide* away from the task.
Instead of listing a book I ordered some black teas from John Harney & Sons (I am a deep dark black tea drinker, not coffee).
I picked the first book to list and then I went to take a bath. That did not work out, my tenants were clearly not bath people, the water ran brown from the unused pipes to the bath tub. Ick.
I went back to my desk to begin the listings and then I started cruising around the Eileen Fisher web site and comparing what was there, to be bought with shipping charges with what was on the Neiman Marcus web site from EF to be bought without a shipping charge (I hate shipping charges which explains why I do free shipping on nn.com).
I new sweater and cropped pants are on their way to me.
I opened the first book : 97 Needlepoint Alphabets by B. Borssuck. It appears to be a great book of graphed out alphabets to stitch. The graphs vary in size, the idea is that you can copy them and use them as is, correctly sized.
Then my mind wandered. I imagined how tough it must have been in grade school to be named “Borssuck”. I can easily imagine the nicknames that would be applied to that name….oh dear.
I began to open all the programs I need to have open on the desk top to list an item (6 of them, 2 admin, 3 word and text counter) and then I thought I had better go start the laundry.
I did that, now I am sitting here writing the blog. Notice I am still not listing any books.
I have no idea what my problem is. I seem to be all over the place.
Really, it is odd.
So, I have these 33 books to list (as I photographed them I found 2 more unsalables, very bad condition) and what did I do?
I ordered 20 more books.
You might remember (but probably don’t) my talking about a bibliography of Needlepoint books. I got it in this last batch of books. It runs just until 1982 when it was published but still, it is remarkably complete.
Up till now, I have been buying books with no information about them except the name, author and supposed condition (HA!). With this book I have so much more information including a short synopsis and critique of each book.
It is wonderful, I went along consulting the book as I scanned the used needlepoint books in the distributor’s stock.
I found some excellent books, books I would not have looked at before since I was not familiar with the author or the subject/title seemed to be off point.
This opens up a whole range of books to me, books I would have overlooked before I had this bibliography.
I am concerned the book stops in 1982, but as Janet Perry said not too long ago ( I have her 2 books, new, to list too) there were no (zero) needlepoint books published in 2009.
None.
Anyway, I have 33 books ready to be listed and 20 more ordered and I just made myself a lovely Chambord & Soda (which means I am out of it for the rest of the evening, I am such a cheap date).
Plus I have a second load of laundry to do.
Anybody out there want to play Freud and tell me why I am avoiding what I do not dread, in fact rather like doing? We all know I am pretty much nuts but this is a whole new wrinkle.
Ok, I have to get my obligatory link in: check out my extraordinary and enticing Needlepoint web store NewNeedlepoint.com where you will find excellent needlepoint canvases & kits plus a world class (but not complete) collection of out-of-print and hard to find books.
How’s that?
128, really?
Thursday February 25th 2010, 12:29 am
Filed under:
Mostly Books I had put all my expenses on QuickBooks a few months ago, all good for wholesale buying but I have discovered it is not so good for retail selling.
I had listed each book I have for sale, the vendor, the cost etc. All good.
I was thinking about doing the same for each canvas & kit. Although I do have receipts for each purchase, the needlepoints are not broken down in kits, in terms of cost.
At the same time, more or less, I realized that doing a *sell* on a book listed in QuickBooks was a terrible process.
Searching out the title was laborious and if I had duplicates, much harder.
So, I sort of gave up on QB. I will still use it to track wholesale bulk purchases but for 1 each, 1 of a kind items like books I went back to a simple log using columns: date, title, cost, sold & date
Simple, I really like simple.
I have all the books listed now.
I have bought 128 books, so far.
18 are unsalable
5 I kept for myself, 1 of those I gave as a gift to Dr Denise. She had asked about some decorative stitches so I gave her Hope Hanley’s wonderful 101 stitches.
Ok, I have 41 I need to list. Or maybe more like 35 if I take out the duplicates and the unsalables among the new ones.
So, I have sold 20 books. That is not so bad since I began selling them in November.
Now here’s the bad news. (you knew this was coming). Most of the books I sold were $8.00, $9.00, $10.00 and $12.00. A very few were more.
My average profit, after I correctly added the shipping costs to me and then the shipping to the customer is between somewhere between $1.00 and $4.00 dollars per book with most of them in the lower end of that range.
To give you a concrete example.
I sold The Ups & Downs of Needlepoint by Fannie Highsmith
for $12.00 with media mail shipping included. In fact I sold this book twice at the price. It is 1 of 2 of my 2 copy sellers, so far.
I paid $4.61 for it, including shipping. If you deduct the $3.25 to ship it (biggish book, heavy) my profit for this sale was $4.14.
Let’s do another. I sold the Hope Hanley 101 Needlepoint Stitches Book for $8.00
It cost me $4.25. After paying $1.95 to ship it, my profit was $1.80.
I have trouble asking enough for my books. When I realized I was making zip, I raised my prices a dollar or two per book. My sales have slowed way down since then.
Plus, quite a bit of my stock now is the fancier, glossy needlepoint books. The good condition and well-known authors books.
Still, I persist. Like me with the needlepoint canvases, I am tenacious.
I know people are hurting. I am patient (to a point and then they will come get me like Blanche Du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire).
So, if you by any chance noticed my lower price books went up in price a bit, this is why.
Maybe I will go through them and see if I can lower (no, no, no) the prices on some of the more expensive books.
After all, no one at the soup kitchen will notice if my manicure isn’t fresh. (I know, I am bad and that is a terrible joke)
Before I forget, the other book I have sold 2 of is Bargello Antics by Dorothy Kaestner.
And I almost forgot a link: find these treasures and more are at my extraordinary web store NewNeedlepoint.com (I know, I know, too much)
I am reading one of the recommended *Georgette Heyer like* authors I found recommended on amazon.com.
Her name is Claire Darcy and if that is not a nom de plume based on reading Jane Austen I don’t know anything. It is ok. It is not G. H. but it does have some style and wit and is a huge improvement over the contemporary Regency romance novels which all seem to feature orgasms. (I thought women back then rarely, if ever and certainly not before marriage).
The first one is Elyza and she is an engaging heroine.
I, of course, bought the used paperbacks designated “very good”. More fool I. Then again, imagine how bad “acceptible” (the lowest designation) books are.
What else? K is about ready to open his new consulting business. It is going well and he even has some work lined up.
We are waiting on the Vibration Meter. The local distributor is holding it at his shop, although it has been paid for since 2/10/2010.
We are not positive why he is doing this but it is 1) wrong 2) illegal.
So far he has talked to nice Keith. Tomorrow he gets Keith’s business manager…ME. I promise you he will not get a warm & fuzzy feeling from me.
We are going to Orlando tomorrow for one night. Keith (from now on known as Mr BigHead) is giving a presentation to a meeting of the Vibration Institute (he is treasurer, can you imagine?).
I can tell, he is going to become insufferable. He already thinks he is almost as important as I am. If this business takes off he will become impossible.
I need some expert help with keeping one’s husband in his place. I think I should call my mother.
plant surgery by me
I have always been a staunch believer in doing a *hard prune*. It is my theory that the strong plants live and prosper from it and the weak die. Call it an assisted Natural Selection.
Here are 2 victims of marianne’s pruning (with assistance from Keith and the gardeners)
This standard form hibiscus was so overgrown it had begun to lean to one side from the weight of the top. I pruned it hard. We have done this before so I know it will come back strong.
When it has recovered a bit I will begin staking it to stand upright again.
This was a yellow bouganvilla vine that was incredibly overgrown on it’s trellis. It was 8 feet tall by 6 feet wide. The gardeners cut it back to 4 feet tall and put it in this huge pot for me.
I did the final hard prune, taking out all the “old wood” and beginning to shape it. I would like it to be a somewhat cascading shrub, I think I can get that. The other thing is that bouganvilla only flowers on new wood.
Here is that outrageously expensive sculpted pink bouganvilla I planted in front. I did not show you a clear picture of it before.
I have the new books all cleaned and sorted (yes, I wipe with a damp cloth all the used books before I photograph & list them, I know…..I am nuts).
Some interesting books, I went deeper into some obscure subjects. Just mostly titles for now, I will fully describe them in the listings. These are the replacements or books by authors whose other books I already list.
I have another copy of Wildlife in Needlepoint by Stella Edwards, I sold the last one plus I added Stella Edwards Floral Needlepoint for Beginners
Another copy of Bargello , An Explosion in Color by Margaret Boyles.
Also by Margaret Boyles, The Margarte Boyles Book of NeedleArt & The Margaret Boyles Bargello Workbook
Candace Bahouth’s Romantic Needlepoint
Creative Canvas Work by Elsa Williams
Another copy of The Beatrix Potter Needlepoint Book, this one is a English copy originally bought at Beatrix Potter’s home, Hilltop.
2 new Mary Rhodes books, Ideas for Canvas Work & The Batsford Book of Canvas Work
Nature in Needlepoint, Designs by Eva Brent & Text by Meg Merrill. I sold the Eva Brent Chinese design book.
Another copy of E. M. Parker’s Letters & Numbers in Needlepoint.
It is amazing to me how much the quality of these books varies, from order to order. I only buy *very good* condition anymore but……
New, new books are:
The Encyclopedia of Canvas Embroidery Stitch Patterns. with 170 stitches by Katherine Ireys
Basic RibbonPoint Technique by Patricia Mabry
97 Needlepoint Alphabets by B. Borssuck
Needlepoint & Beyond, 27 Lessons in Advanced Canvas Work by Edith Anderson Feisner
I have new copies of my friend Janet Perry’s books Needlepoint Trade Secrets & Bargello Revisited.
A unique book, Needlepoint Designs From Amish Quilts by Laura Siegel Gilberg & Barbara Ballinger Bucholz
Needlepoint from American Indian Designs by Nora Cammann
The Point About Needlepoint by Edith Long & Sara Schlintz, an easy to follow beginners book of needlepoint stitches
The Needlepoint Cat by William Halsey Brister
A gift quality English Countryside Needlepoint by Stafford Whiteaker
An almost (but not quite) gift quality Needlework Masterpieces from Winterthur by Hollis Greer Minor
Needlepoint & Pattern: Themes & Variations by Gloria Katzenberg
A facsimile of the 1882 edition of The Dictionary of Needlework subtitled an encyclopedia of artistic, plain and fancy needlework by Sophia Frances Ann Caulfield & Blanche C. Saward
I had seen this book mentioned but never saw a copy for sale. I finally found Creative Needlework by Solweig Hedin & Jo Springer. The subtitle: illustrated step-by-step directions for a dozen needlework techniques and more then 30 beautiful designs. Notice the word “techniques” instead of the word “stitches”.
There is a tiny little book, just a little longer than paperback novel size, a hardcover Sunburst HandGuides Series called Needlepoint by Hilary More. Despite it’s small size it seems to be relatively complete, including 26 stitches.
Next is a lovely English little book, A Practical Guide to Canvas Work From the Victoria & Albert Museum Collection. Introduction by Santina Levey, Edited by Linda Parrty, Technical Illuystrations by Valerie Jackson and Illustrations by Jill Shipley.
Now 2 very unusual books. The first is Jerusalem in Needlepoint and Embroidery by Ann Roth.
And Needlepoint for Churches by Patience Agnew.
The last book in this current group. Finishing and Mounting Your Needlepoint Pieces by Katherine Ireys.
This is a very diverse group. The book categories are getting too big again. Once I go to more then 5 pages, the extra pages disappear and you are supposed to know that >> means more pages.
hmmmmmm
I try to avoid that. I have not yet sold a book from a >> page so I try to keep them to 5 pages.
I think the new category will further divide the needlepoint books into books that are mostly just instruction and/or stitches & the books that are more interesting or beautiful books of needlepoint.
That is going to be a hard divide to make. The bargello divide was easy, I always prefer easy.
funny side note
The homeowners association here at this over 55 *active adult* community requires each home to have, included in it’s landscape plantings, 3 Palm Trees.
When I first re-did the landscape here, I had just 2. The HOA filed a complaint and threatened me with a fine. I added a 3rd Palm Tree
The problems with a homeowners association full of retired people is they have a lot of time to make rules.
Which side of the street you can park on is dictated by what month it is. Odd number months, park on the odd number side of the street and the opposite for even number months.
You are also required to park in the direction traffic flows.
So, if it an odd number month you have to park on the correct side facing the correct direction and so on.
I kid you not. The front entrance guard house has prominent notices about this.
Speaking of, the expensive Guard House and full time Guard is a total waste of money. The community is not fenced, just tall shrub hedges on 2 sides.
According to the Detective who investigated when we were robbed here, 2 years ago, said that is clearly how they came in, through the back shrubs, from following their muddy footsteps.
The Guard House is a total waste of (a lot) of money but the HOA would rather spend money to plant aquatic flowers in the artificial pond some of them live around than to fence the complex in and make it safe. (approx. the same amount of money to do either)
Small scale democracy at work, complete with lobbyists and factions and parties.
AWK!
WOW and then some
Friday February 19th 2010, 3:13 pm
Filed under:
Bargello NP Look what Margaret, my friend, fellow stitcher and fellow needlepoint blogger has done. Below is Margaret’s picture from her blog. She was waiting to send it until I was moved & settled.
She also says some very nice things about me in her latest blog at
http://cranecottage.com/stitchingblog/
I am amazed, I have to admit, when I assembled this I had no idea it would be so spectacular. Much of that goes to Margaret and her skill as a stitcher.
She had never stitched a Bargello before. I sent her a 14 mesh canvas with an *establishing line* stitched on it, which also gave her the width dimenions. I sent her a graph of the pattern which I did with my wonderful new MacStitch program.
I sent her the threads, told her what order to use them (that was easy) and sent her one of my silly little Bargello Beginner pamphlets that I wrote.
This is what she did with it.
This is an adaptation of Elsa Williams Adaptation of the classic Aurora Borealis Bargello design. I found this in my copy of the book “Bargello by Elsa Williams” on (another link coming up) NewNeedlepoint.com.
I have this book in both Gift Quality and a more used copy for much less money
I have to say here (and not for the first time) that I owe more than I can say to the
wonderful people who stitch for me. Margaret & Dr. Denise are gifts from the universe to me, as far as I am concerned.
I am reading away on the D. Bonavia Hunt 1913 Pride & Prejudice sequel, The Shades of Pemberly. I am enjoying it. It comes closer to Jane Austen’s tone and outlook than any of the others I ever read. Still, sort of close is not Jane Austen.
I am home finally. The landscapers/gardeners are working as we speak, clearing out the massive overgrown shrubs (that my tenants did not prune or take care of and the guy I hired to keep them pruned and cared for obviously did not do anything).
In Florida, where most everything grows so fast, the trick is to keep stuff pruned to the size that is best for the landscape. If you let it go you have a messy jungle, which is what I came home to.
They removed 2 trees, a massively overgrown bouganvilla vine, maybe 10 foxtail ferns that had grown out of control and un-numbered ornamental grasses that used to be used as screen for the utility box and 2 air conditioning units around the house.
In the back we lost the large white bird of paradise and all the Halconias to the cold. I replaced them with a palm that had grown to big for inside the pool patio and 2 red leaf banana trees.
This is the last of the undone, out of control messes associated with this move.
We have covered many of the holes in the walls with our pictures. The others will be filled when K has time.
The carpets are cleaned and the books and DVD arranged as they should be (in perfect marianne order, of course).
We saved the horribly overgrown yellow standard hibiscus in the front and added some more smaller ones around the utility box in the front. We also did a massive prune on the amazing deep pink Bouganvilla tree next to the bench in front.
Keith hacked it and got back it’s lovely shape, leaning over the bench. I will continue to train it that way. It still has frost damage, that will be pruned off slowly
The small plants around the rock are Begonia. The small shrubs around the triple Foxtail Palm tree are azaleas. There is an amazing red cactus next to the Mahogany tree and the spiky plants are Agave.
The entrance to the house had the huge overgrown hibiscus plus another huge overgrown tree, that used to be a small ornamental. They both had the walkway almost blocked.
I pruned down the Dracena, removed the 2nd tree and replaced it with an amazing pale pink Bouganvilla. It is trained around a piece of curved steel pipe. I will have to keep it well pruned to keep it’s shape. I did not really want another Bouganvilla but I fell in love with this at the nursery. I am a fool for flowers.
I added a Bromeliad and planted the triple Pony Tail palm next to it.
The Pony Tail has been in a huge pot but it overwhelmed everything else so we planted it.
The birds were here when we bought the house, They left us the receipt from when they had been bought, they were pretty expensive. I would not have bought them myself but they are here so I use them.
They are really fountains, if I wanted to do a “water feature” in the landscape, they could be hooked up to spout water.
We saved the roots and a few feet of branches of the yellow Bouganvilla vine that had overgrown to the right of the garage door. These nice guys planted it in a big pot on the patio for me. I am going to try to train it into a shape.
We planted a topiary ornamental upright shrub there instead and some Florida hardy shrub roses.
These are the nicest guys working here, I had to stop them from doing everything for me. I insisted I could do some of the pruning myself. I am not sure they believed me until they saw me do it.
So, I am finally home. Yes, I know I am crazy, Yes, I know I am obsessive and a fuss-budget and a pain in the ass.
But I still maintain it is us pains in the ass who make beautiful things. Ok, maybe not just us but still……
It feels like home again, all my *ducks* are in a nice row and I can relax.
Jack The Cat
I have nothing to say of interest to anybody. I have been finishing the unpacking and the settling in, making all those phone calls & appointments necessary (reset the alarm system, service the hvac system, credit cards & accounts).
Then my son arrived for a visit and to get the stuff from his storage room down here sorted and moved to his new apartment in Boston. The apartment, in Boston’s North End is a 1 bedroom but tiny, like all downtown single guy apartments (except the rich guys, of course). He had to go through everything and decide what would fit, what he wanted to keep that would not fit and what to toss.
Guess where the stuff he wants to keep but does not have room for wound up?
Ta Da! my garage (ouch). My parents are thrilled to have us back and I can see we have returned in *good time*. They need some help, sometimes. It absolutely infuriates Keith to see the way some of the service people in South Florida try to take advantage or scam the older people.
This has happened to my folks a few times, trying to charge them ridiculous fees for work around their house. Too bad for them my mother is still sharp and ruthless. She is a joy to watch.
I once watched her get me a sale price on a Dolce & Gabanna bag at Bloomingdales, it was not due to go on sale until the next week but they sold it to me then for the coming sale price. It was wonderful to see her do. (the bag fell apart after 3 weeks, is that Karma or what? I made Bloomies give me a full refund)
I thought I would make up for the fact I have not even listed the 30+ new books yet by showing you some pictures.
Here is Jack in his glory on the pool patio
To the left is my Ty plant, you can see what great care my tenants took of it. I dug it out of the palm tress to the side of the screen enclosure. It has some kind of fungus, it may not survivie and don’t you love the moldy pot.
I promise you it did not look like that when I left.
Next is a picture of my pool. The plants down that end have already been cleaned up and *re-furbished* by me (you should see my poor hands)
Next is Jack The Cat lounging in the sun. He is so happy to be back here. He remembers it and has already staked his claim as Emperor and Lord of the Lizards.
That is a picture of a happy cat.
The last picture is my Valentine’s day roses. 2 dozen from K. One dozen red for passion and 1 dozen white for friendship. That is lovely and romantic but before you praise him too highly you need to know he went to get them after he recieved a box of 64 Godiva Truffles from me, in the mail, Saturday (as in the day before V day).
The pictures are my son in 6th grade and me & K dancing. The chest and mirror are pieces I inherited from my grandfather.
I promise, I will try to get the *habit* of writing this blog back. I have enjoyed doing this tonight and I a not so exhausted anymore….not quite anyway.
This last move really took it out of me.
I am reading an interesting book. it is one of those Pride & Prejudice sequels but quite unlike most of them. This is the 2nd one ever written. It is by D. A. Bonavia-Hunt and was first published in 1913.
This is not P & P soft porn (which is hard to take) or some ridiculous outcropping of ideas, this is an interesting and well written book. It ranks with the best of them.
It was Janet Perry who got me started reading these, this time. When I mentioned the crummy ones I had read, she steered me to some good ones and got me going again.
I found this amazon.com review that mentioned a few authors (of course out of print) who might be “up there” with Georgette Heyer. I have had to order the books used and I am just beginning to receive them, I will keep you posted.
TV, hmmm movies…..well, now don’t laugh. I bought the first 4 seasons of the old Mary Tyler Moore Show on DVD. I am having a blast with them.
hanging pictures
Ok, I am all unpacked including a feat worthy of Hercules, the garage with ALL Keith’s junk (every guy needs an air-compressor taller then I am and a tool for anything and everything that might, could possibly happen or break)
I am almost finished hanging my pictures, so now I feel like I am *home*.
My tenants belong in the special hell they put people who need to put major wall anchors behind every single thing they hang. I have uncounted large holes all over my walls, some in some very odd spots.
It is going to take us some serious patching and touching up to fill them all.
More grousing, the Mrs. of my tenant couple swore to me she would take care of my large potted pool patio plants in return for my leaving her the wrought iron bench and plants at my front door and some of my patio furniture.
She fulfilled this promise moving the plants all outside the pool patio and shoving them in some very thick and tall palm shrubs surrounding the pool.
Many of them did not survive and those that did are not in great shape. I know these are minor details next to paying the rent etc but….I can’t help feeling this way.
I have done zero NewNeedlepoint.com work. I have 30+ plus new books to list and stitching to do on the *cubes* Bargello I am working on.
But the sad truth is I am so tired I don’t feel like doing anything. It has hit me hard that I am not so young anymore. We have moved 3 times in the last 18 months and this last time was a killer.
So, what else am I doing? Not much. I am not watching many movies, mostly I am finishing this move and reading.
I am reading an *off my beaten path* book right now. It is The Green Man by the famous and very erudite writer Kingsley Amis (the father of the famous Martin Amis).
It is a ghost story, but so very different. In the 70′s the BBC made a movie of the novel, which is only available in VHS (yes, I have it). The BBC production stays close to the story, which is amazing enough. It stars Albert Finney as Maurice Allingham and he is very Maurice Allingham. I wish they made more movies like this.
Anyway, I always prefer to read the book first but that is a done deal here. There is, of course, much more depth to the book than the movie but BBC does do it “proud” if you know what I mean.
There is a wonderful bit where Maurice “moves heaven & earth” to get his wife and his mistress into a three-some with him. He plans and plots and finally it happens but instead of his fantasy, both of them focused on him, they are not interested in him at all. He pours them champagne and makes a graceful exit. It is his perfect karmic reward.
I am waiting for the NewNeedlepoint.com spark to come back and once again obsess me. I need to get on with my life, my regular life that is not packing or unpacking, arranging or unarranging.
My son, the chef, is coming down to Florida to say with us for a week. It is not entirely to see his beloved parents. His stuff is still in storage down here, he has an apartment now in the very chic North End of Boston and wants to move his stuff.
Still, the meeting with the movers will only take a few hours and he is staying a week. He is looking forward to some (relatively) warm weather and to driving my Dad’s Jaguar XK8 sports car while he is here. (my Dad rarely drives it anymore, at 86 he can’t easily get in & out of it. The car is the plaything of his grandchildren who visit)
So, I know this is a pitiful excuse for a needlepoint blog. I think I need (another) nap.
How can I possibly be this tired & sore, in my mind and heart I am still 15.
I’m Back
Ok, here I am again. After a nightmare move I am home and glad to be. The move was a disaster. In case anyone wants to hear this, the following is my latest moving adventure.
(if you are not interested, skip ahead).
I hired this moving company that had no complaints filed against it with the Better Business Bureau (that is a biggie in FL, some have many).
We agreed on 3 men & 2 trucks (their trucks were not semis) and a reasonable price.
On the morning of the move they showed up with 2 men and 1 truck. I took one look at the truck and said all my stuff would not fit.
Oh no, they said. We are expert loaders. It will fit.
Now, you know I have moved a lot. I know how much space my stuff takes up in a truck very well.
Well these guys started taking my stuff apart. I did not see what they were doing, at first. I was busy filling the wardrobe boxes they brought us to use (not nearly enough).
They took apart things that should not have been ever taken apart. They left screws and parts on the floor after taking them apart, that I found when vacuuming (and added to the *parts box*).
I was having a fit. I kept insisting the stuff would not fit. They kept swearing it would and Keith took their side. He said that we hired *professionals* and that they knew their business and to let them do it.
MEN!
So, this went on all day. They piled my stuff as high as the truck’s roof, things on top of things. Forget fragile, as if they cared.
I am so glad K & I took my really delicate things over to my folks house in the weeks before the move.
So, finally it is 5pm. They have 1 foot of floor space left along the back of the truck. My stuff is jammed in, all dissembled and piled high.
I went outside and said, “what now? ” AND THE ******* MOVER SAID, THERE IS NOT MUCH LEFT, WE WILL FIT IT IN.
That is when I freaked out. I walked them through the house & garage and showed them how much was left. Finally the other mover said I was right, there was too much.
They came up with this *brilliant plan*. They would drive it all over to my house that night and unload, instead of waiting till the next morning to unload, then come back for more. We would not be there for the 2nd load, we would be at our own house on the other coast. They would empty and close up the house for us.
That was not possible, My own house is in a gated community, they could not come in to unload until 8am.
So, they met us at 8 am & unloaded. I told them Keith would put back together everything they took apart ( I did not say and do a better job) and to head back.
They did, & loaded the rest. ( I was nervous the landlord would come in & see that stuff left and claim it as “abandoned” as was his right in the lease. I told him we would be out by the 2nd.)
Then they unloaded the rest on Thursday morning. I was not there for the final loading, I cleaned the house as they emptied rooms but I was not there to finish plus they left the 3 dozen donuts on the counter to rot (K HAD to buy them for them. They maybe ate 3, K ate a dozen, I resisted but it was not easy)
It is a good thing I was not going to get a deposit refund from the landlord. I would not have been paid it.
So, let’s see. This was Tuesday. Wednesday Afternoon my parents decided they would *drop in* to see how it was going. I called them back hysterical and asked them to wait.
Our mail forwarding is not working, I used the on-line system for the first time about 4 days before the move. They were still delivering mail to my rented house they day we left.
The local postmaster helped and put an emergency stop on the deliveries. They will include the held mail in the forward, which will start in 10 business days (on line delay) after I submitted the change, instead of right away if I had just done it the old way.
I have unpacked, there is a lot of small damage to my stuff. Dents and scratches, nothing I can file a claim about, yet.
Wow, so back to NewNeedlepoint.com. I took delivery of lots of new books during the move (I had them sent to my folks house).
When I finally settle down, I have 30+ books to list.
I am tired, the whole process was difficult and it should not have been.
Ms. Obsessive (me) was all packed, organized and ready for the movers, this should have gone well.
I have put nn.com away in my new “office”. It is the guest room, my house has more square feet of room in it than the rental houses did but less rooms. The guest room is smaller then either of my rental house offices was but thanks to California Closets and my own organizational abilities (toot toot) it all fits in and works.
I am a huge believer in *fitted* closets. I think every dollar used to do this kind of work is money well spent.
I have a huge DVD movie collection ( superior chick flicks and amazing classic movies) that was a real pain to store. I also had a angled blank wall in one of the master bedroom closets.
I got the closet guys and told him what I wanted.
He said “no way”. I showed him how 5 inch wide shelves, exactly fitted to DVDs or paperback books would indeed fit on the wall with room for the door to swing all the way open. I also added a tower of drawers and deep shelves behind the closet door where there had just been one lonely rack for hanging clothes.
Now my whole DVD collection is floor to ceiling in my closet and taking up no room where anything else could be hung.
So, tonight’s blog is basically about what a organizational and planning genius I am. I know this is fairly unbearable but I deserve it, after what I have been through.
So, indulge me, I will be over this soon enough (like tomorrow, when faced with the day’s disaster de jour)
