Letting the cat out of the bag

literally. After Matthew so gracefully moved my shopping bag from the end table where I was keeping it so I wouldn't forget, Olivia decided to have some fun.

Apparently Iris wasn't included, so she left to skulk.

Olivia felt no remorse.

In the meantime, the boys enjoyed our new, fabulous morning ritual. Though it still starts ungodly early, instead of James rushing up to work, he has plenty of time for coffee, the paper and hanging out with Matthew. I think Matthew thinks he's ready for his own coffee and paper.

So, in case anyone wants to come visit, our guest room is officially open for business which means we're completely unpacked. We're nowhere near completely uncluttered and my project list is much longer than I'd like, but the last of the rooms in the apartment is ready to use. Considering we packed up 1/2 of our old living room, a much larger bedroom with lots of built in storage, a dormer and some attic space worth of stuff and labeled it "guest room", this was my most dreaded project. All in all, I'm pleased with the progress. Doesn't that look like a bed you could just fall into and cuddle up with a cute cat . . .

if you're eighty-bajillion feet tall that is :-) I needed about 2 inches of rise to get my storage boxes under the bed. The smallest bed riser I could find was 5.5 inches. Hopefully none of our guests have a fear of heights!

Here's the wall of bookshelves. Still messy, but unpacked and semi-organized into categories like: Old, Nerd, Outside, Science Nerd, Computer Nerd, Kids, Kids Nerd, Travel, Civil War, Cookbooks I have, Cookbooks I Use (really I shouldn't have both of those categories, I know), Comics and a bit of miscellaneous. It's a work in progress. The box is full of CDs and jewel cases about which decisions need to be made. Anyone have any good ways they dealt with old CD collections?

The office corner:

I took the closet doors out and "built" a workspace out of filing cabinets and contact paper covered plywood. I had grand dreams of using the tip of finding a scrap of countertop, but even scraps were expensive and not the right length. It makes a good surface for sorting and quilting and I can move my sewing machine onto it when needed. We're keeping the desk on the left if/when James gets a home desktop. I'm not certain how sharing this office will work but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

If you note the boxes on the shelf, they're all marked geneaology/scrapbooking . . . as are many of the boxes under the bed. This fall I have a plan of attack for culling, filing and disseminating much of it, but in the meantime, I wanted it in a somewhat temp. controlled/safer environment. I guess sometimes I still can't shake all that museum knowledge :-)

See you soon! The bed (and cats) are waiting for you!