(no subject)

At the Expo yesterday, I bought the most gorgeous bound book, with a hand-sculpted cover featuring an Arthur Rackham print of Titania, from Figment Studios. (It looks a lot like this one, except with the Titania print instead of Waterhouse's Crystal Ball.)

The problem is that I can't use it for its ostensible purpose, which is writing in it, because it's too high-pressure to write fiction in a really nice book. I wind up feeling bad about my scrawled handwriting and my tendency to scribble out words when I think of something better to say. Writing fiction goes best in a cheap spiral notebook, the kind I get in ten-packs from Costco for a quarter each.

So I'm going to put something else in this one, except I'm not sure what. Options are:

* A quotation or commonplace book. (I used to keep one, but I lost it.)
* A book of poetry -- copied by hand, I mean, not written originally by me.
* A book of copied folktales/fairy tales.
* A dream journal.
* A garden journal (especially as the pages are designed to handle the mounting of photographs).
* A reading journal -- it would be nice to, at minimum, keep a list of what I read.

A cookbook/cooking journal is another option, but the way I cook, it'd be tempting to bring the book into the kitchen with me, and then I'd inevitably douse it in soy sauce or something.

*thinks*

If I start one of these and actually keep it up, rather than getting two pages in and then abandoning, I reserve the right to buy myself another to start a different kind of journal. ;)

(jmpava pointed their stall out to me immediately, and he was right: it was just exactly my thing. In addition to the sculpted journals, there were quill pens, little boxes, and Jack-in-the-Boxes for sale, and the table was beautifully decorated with a few shells and little apothecary bottles and stones set in an unfinished-wood pigeonhole shelf, and a pretty basket of dried reeds and feathers. Not too many, not cluttered, but a very country herbwitch look. I'd totally decorate like that if I didn't have to compromise on decoration by dint of living with someone.)

(no subject)

Today is Final Unpacking Push Day, because jmpava is off at the trade show helping his father again. I don't clean well in company -- I clean well all alone with an IPod -- so the deal is that I'm doing this while he's out and he's returning the favor by dealing with the things I haaaaaate to do, like making phone calls, setting up appointments, dealing with the former housemates when necessary, figuring out how to mount our hanging DVD organizer on the wall, and helping with the haul-and-shove of book unpacking. Also, making appropriately impressed noises when he comes home to discover a clean(ish) house.

So, to-do:

* Sort the papers in the box I just unearthed.
* Open the box under it and figure out what's inside
* Put away box of office miscellanea
* Wash at least 3 bags of clothes and hang them up
* Wash and put away the fine china (upper cabinets should work well for storage)
* Haul the craft supply boxes upstairs and store in the closet
* Haul the games upstairs and store in the closet
* Do a quick 'trash run' and clear surfaces
* Unload and reload dishwasher
* Clear fridge and discard anything that's spoiled (shouldn't be much, except maybe leftovers)
* Make a start on the books
* Store all the empty boxes somewhere so they can go out on recycling day
* Sweep the hardwood to get up the moving/unpacking detritus. (I would do the upstairs too, but we don't have a vacuum right now.)

Yes, this is probably more than I can do in one afternoon. But having it all in one list makes me feel better, and I won't beat myself up for missing a few. I'm doing in in hour-long bursts, timed by episodes of Good Food; when an episode is over, I take a break (which is what I'm doing now)

We still need a DVD and game storage device. Handily, it is Ikea's semi-annual sale, so if we can make it out there this week we can get some appropriate game shelving of some sort. There are a few things I'll need to consult with jmpava on, with regard to whether to keep or discard and where to put them if they're keepers -- and of course I'm going to need his assistance/help with the artwork. And when it's done I want to LibraryThing the rest of my books, and LivingCookbook my pantry. But for now: boxes, clothes, go.