Total Chaos

 Before starting this post I didn't even look to see what the date of the last post was. 

It's been a long while!

We're preparing for another big move across country. Lots of packing. Many, many cardboard boxes. Let me tell you... selling a house SUCKS!!! Everything has to be packed up and made neat.

I don't DO neat!

I do messy art. Paint splatters and everything. NOPE! says the realtor.... the house must be NEAT!

Grrr...

So the first thing I packed when I caught the first whiff that we might be pulling up stakes was my craft supplies. All of my craft supplies. I rightly figured that I would be far too busy cleaning, packing and repairing things to do any artwork.  Lately while waiting for calls for showings and finding things to dust (yes, the house is so clean I have to go seek out dust, it doesn't just come and laugh at me anymore, it's hiding) I have found myself going out of my mind for a creative outlet.  

Seriously. Really cranky Mommy here lately.

But everything is packed and there are only so many brownies and Scottish shortbread cookies that one can make and give away.

I have easy access to my paints and brushes and I have no shortage of cardboard to paint on but I like all of the little bits and bobs that I do my mark making with and THOSE are all packed away. As well as all of my really cool stencils that I've made over the years. All safe in a box somewhere.

Then I thought, 'Toolboxes! We have tons of little things that I could make paint marks with in one of the four toolboxes out in the garage!'  I was on the phone with Hubs at the time and he can attest to the gleeful cackling every time I found some little thing in one of his toolboxes that would make an interesting paint mark.

I found rubber and plastic washers from a plumbing kit, wire connectors, an un-sharpened carpenter's pencil, the spiral end of a tealight holder and some plumber's putty. There a couple of other things that I just have no idea what they are called. I know what they are used for but their names....not a clue.

I'm working on a little box to send to my aunt for her birthday, which I missed because I've packed away everything including my birthday planner. Grrr...

I have a neat little artbox that my daughter got me for Christmas awhile back that I hadn't started using. The paints are basic and kind of stinky. The oil pastels don't really even rate high enough to be called 'cheap crayons'. They lay down almost no pigment at all so I grabbed a lighter and melted them so they would drip and splatter on the surface and they are fantastic for this application. Gleeful cackling continues.

The tealight holder made spirals that are truly perfect. This one will be a keeper in my art box when we finally start unpacking.

The plumbers putty was a big surprise. I pulled off a chunk and tried using it right away but it was too sticky. I left it out overnight and it dried enough to work with it. I did have an embossing folder handy so I pressed the dried side of the putty into the embossing folder and made a temporary but very usable stamp of a small tropical leaf.  Another keeper for my art tools collection. More gleeful cackling. At this point I might add that I was on the phone with Hubs for around three hours and he did think I was going a little nuts.... but after this many decades together he knows when it is a good and happy kind of nuts.

The rubber washer is easy to identify but the clip I have no idea what it is called. I think it's for bundling small wires but I don't exactly know. I used the rectangle side to stamp with.

Of course there was bubble wrap involved.

All I have to do now is wait for paint to dry and I can fold the box, put in the goodies, print a mailing label and send it off in the mail. 

It is exactly what I needed to do to retain my sanity. Money is really tight. I have to use up all of the food in the freezer and the pantry because the moving company doesn't transport plants or perishables (food). While I am happy that I don't have to go grocery shopping for quite some time, it is limiting the variety of foods that we can have. The freezer is empty, now working on the dry goods. Lots of beans, rice, biscuits and pasta. Thank you Grandma Opal for teaching us all how to cook beans and how to live happily with no money at all. Thank you Mom for teaching me how to bake and improvise with what is available in the pantry. I miss you both terribly.

Living as sparsely as we are right now really does make one grateful for the important things. I'd give away every one of these boxes full of stuff just to have the family all in one place again.  Hoping that will be soon.

In the meantime, gleeful cackling will happen whenever I can manage to have some time to get my painting hands dirty.