Family and cleaning update

Yes, DS Carol (the second youngest of the four of us) arrived Sunday afternoon and stayed with me until about 10 tonight (when DD Leanne picked her up to stay at her place tonight and be driven to the AP for the flight home tomorrow).

Our mother lives in the condo next door to to mine, so Carol spent some of her time visiting with Mom (who will be 90 on Saturday) and the rest of the time with me. It was the first time in years that Carol and I had spent really quality time together - just the two of us - probably since we used to go camping together with our children.

We had just a wonderful time! Discussed everything under the sun and enjoyed each other's company!

Carol is a long-time crafter and quilter so in addition to everything else, we discussed all our recent projects. In addition to her beautiful quilting projects for family (one of which she was working on while she was here), she makes and donates beautiful baby quilts to an orphanage in Mexico.

We discussed how little mini-ing I had done lately and I mentioned the problems I have with completing the Christmas Shop so I dragged it out once again (as I did when Sue was here) and we discussed logistical problems with the case.

OMG -there is absolutely NO way all of this will fit in the room.

The major reason I want to cover the mirror on the back wall. 

Although she is not a miniaturist, her crafting experience and quilting composition eye ensured that she came up with some great ideas -some of which included taking advantage of the back mirrored wall. Then I countered with the fact that a mirrored wall was such a problem in photographing minis and that the mirror might cause problems with some of the plans I had for that wall and that I thought it would be better to cover the mirror with matboard.

Then she suggested....

Then I countered with....

It was an incredible brainstorming experience!!! And we came up with SO many incredible ideas on how to finally complete this room.

......

While Carol was here, I ALMOST finished all the paperwork cleaning and filing.  Only have about a 1" stack of papers to deal with! Files drawers mostly cleaned out and re-organized; other papers filed and organized in binders. EIGHT GARBAGE BAGS OF PAPERS SHREDDED!!!!!!!!

The standing file in the back contains most of my various sized envelopes, fabric/transfer prints, labels, full page photo paper, printed labels, transparencies, binder dividers. The box and binders organized a great deal of miniature information/tutorials, Condo board info and newsletters. kit  instructions, banking, etc..

I THINK I have a space on the shelves for all the binders so by tomorrow night all that could be finished then I can tackle the six shoeboxes of minis that have to be put away properly and start working on finishing at least one project (Oh, my, talk about Freudian slip - I originally typed problem) for the Show on September 15.