Current Mood : Sweaty but jubilant !
Oogh. What was I sayin' about "tearing up the Lab" ? It is *really* torn up now ! It hasn't been this wrecked since Beloved Hubby painted it.
As soon as Dearest Son got on the bus and Beloved Hubby departed for work, my task of the day began - wrestling the new cubby system into the closet. Had to take out everything, ‘cause that cubby is BIG ! But it still wasn't enough. The computer desk was just too close for me to maneuver it the way I had to. And it was blasted heavy, even empty.
So I took the closet doors off. ‘S OK, I hated those sliding things anyway. It became readily apparent that this cubby was gonna take up 90% of the available floor space. I have to say ‘available', because there's a wooden shoe rack at the back that's permanent. It's a real pain, too - every closet here has identical ones. But I persevered. And it's in the closet, filled with brown boxes of doll clothes and some plastic ones. I had enough space to store doll shoes on top ! That freed up some space in the bookcases, so I redid those, too. Now everyone's not so crowded together.
Unfortunately, the cubby pushed the two big totes of doll furniture out, and it's all in my bedroom closet now. I'm gonna do some shuffling later, because I really wanna keep all my doll stuff in here, out of the bedroom. If I'm lucky enough to have a doll/sewing room, I should do my best to keep all that stuff confined to it ! That's just my outlook.
All that still left me with stuff scattered in the bedroom, the Lab, and the hallway. But I was wiped out. After a quick breakfast, I hit the flea market and a couple yard sales. The flea was a near-total waste of time - I did find the tiny bows I'd wanted for a Christmas photo essay (that I never found time to do !) at pretty much regular price, but since I couldn't find ‘em in December, I went ahead and spent the coins. Also found some pretty lace that was pretty cheap.
I also reinforced the lesson to avoid yard sales that have no prices marked on anything, unless I'm brave enough to suggest what I wanna pay. Really, is it that hard to pick up a dollar pack of pre-marked stickers that eliminate the hassle ? I see more folks leave when nothing's marked, because they don't wanna insult the seller by suggesting a price, or they don't wanna be embarrassed or feel cheap by asking and refusing what the sellers want for something. Plus, most of the time I ask the hapless husband, who has no idea what she wants for anything, so he either asks for you to wait or makes up something. I'd really rather think to myself, ‘Yeah, that's worth a quarter !' or ‘Oh, no way would I pay $5. for that !' without bothering anyone. Few times I have suggested a price, I've ticked someone off. I'm pretty cheap. But once, I really ticked this woman off...
No kidding. I got some ole lady so riled up, other people left. I made the dimwit decision to ask how much she wanted for some entirely unremarkable 80s Barbie dolls that had nice clothes - and no prices on them. Well, $6. each was a bit much, so I wordlessly put the two I held down. She asked why I didn't want them anymore, and I stupidly opened my mouth. I didn't mean to insult her, I simply said I had a personal limit on what I could spend on dolls, and I didn't have that much on me. She reacted like I'd slapped her mother.
And I compounded the idiocy by answering her when she asked what my limit was. You'd have thought I relieved myself on a flag. She went off on me six ways from Sunday and was still ranting when I left. Other people put their stuff down and walked away, and one guy got out of his car, heard the exchange, and got back in, gunning the engine. I still don't know how I insulted her so badly - at the time, $2. for a used blonde Barbie was what GWill and SArmy charged, dressed or not, and the flea markets often charged half that. I've bought dolls that were still in stores for 25c at other yard sales, but hers were somehow worth so much more. I hope she enjoyed her dolls, because I doubt anyone else bought them.
So anyway. I came back home nearly empty-handed, but I was ready to resume work on the Lab. Got the boxes assembled and made dividers from old Dollar Tree foamcore boards, then filled ‘em with doll clothes. The cubby holds everybody's clothes, not just the Barbie ones. I'm hoping to find a cute little-girl cardboard shoebox to hold Baby Chrissy's, but Dearest says she can use his Cars one until I do.
Moved the now-unusable closet doors to the garage, and moved the doll furniture boxes to my closet, since they were completely blocking the hallway. By then, Dearest was home from school and Beloved from work, so that was all I could get done today. But tomorrow's another one, and there's more yard sales. Soon, I'll have the best Lab ever ! Just as soon as I get my dollhouse moved in and the computer moved out. I can't wait !
