It's Raining, It's Pouring . . .

I don't know - can you tell how hard it's raining? The flash sort of makes it look weird, catching the drops mid-fall. But it's pounding down here, and has been for hours - and it's only 6 a.m.

Still - rain makes me happy. Always has, and now that the basement usually stays dry through storms, it makes me even happier.

There is a lot on tap this weekend. I had a lovely dinner with my cousin, ME on Thursday night. She and I might as well be sisters. We've been close our entire lives and even though we now live close to each other, we don't see each other enough. But we made time to have dinner this week, and went to one of our favorite places, Fresh Starts and had a nice girl's night out. The topic of being overwhelmed and not doing those things that nurture and feed the soul and spirit came up, and because we talk so much about pretty much everything, I didn't give it further thought, until we were talking on the phone yesterday and ME said, "so what are you doing this weekend to nurture your spirit?"

Both of our Sundays had freed up and I said that in my quest to divest stuff that I would like to get a really good start on my office - the place were I do most of my writing. Since she seemed so interested, I asked her if she would like to help me, fully expecting a quick, "No Way!" But she said yes, she would like to help me. (OMG WHAT LUCK!!!!!). You probably don't know my cousin ME, but she's in charge. She's the oldest of five children, and although she's younger than I, she's always been pretty much in charge. Of everything :-D And she's far more minimalist than I have ever been. This means that I'm going to have a pretty spotless office in pretty short order.

She's already figured out that we're going to need staging space ("what about the living room?" (we settled on the guest room)), and levels ("do you have some plastic shelves we can put in there?" (I'm looking to see if there are some in the garage that are clean enough to use)), and that pretty much EVERYTHING should come out of the room (oh no - I think I talked her out of that - the closet, yes, the major furniture, not so much). I managed to get out that I like the furniture placement, there's just too much of everything else in there.

See what I mean? Yeah - no one's ever really sat on that sofa (and it's looking pretty good in this photo - how sad is that? :-D) and I continually lose things on it (multiple iPods, books, whatever - if I can't find something, it's the first place I look).



And the yarn is taking up two shelves here in the closet that I really need for other stuff.

And the magazines - made unmanageable by the LOAD of old Spin-Off's that I picked up for a buck a piece at Missouri this year. I need magazine storage.

The books are over flowing . . . (those are mostly knitting and spinning and beading books)


And, um . . . my desk is pretty much non-functional. And those filing cabinets are pretty full.

And there's just paper EVERYWHERE, mating and making MORE paper. (And yes, that IS my Girl Scout sash - why do you ask?)

I mean, I'm an artist. I create out of chaos. But things are now, obviously, out of hand.

I have turned in to my mother.

God help me.

And so, on Sunday, we tackle the office. There will be stuff on eBay. There will be yarn on Ravelry. Check back for photos. It promises to be a pretty hilarious day, and I will get to spend it with ME, which is always good for the spirit :-)