Just a bunch of silliness, really: Frame By Frame

There are frames and photos all over my office right now. The printer is whirring below my desk and I'm supposed to be working. Oh and it's 5:51 in the morning. My brain woke up distracted this morning; usually it gives me a little bit of a break until it fully boots up. Today it was all "Whelp, we have things to do and we're going to do them all at once."

Usually I put my headphones on to keep myself centered in this situation. However, the printer still has to finish this page and then another one. I know if I put my headphones on, the printer will jam and be down there humming away and tapping it's little electrical foot.

I told you: my brain is an EDM festival right now.

The hallway is 95% complete. Kevin was going to finish painting this weekend but then it was kind of an unusually busy weekend so we let it slide. Or he's waiting until I get new glasses in a few weeks and I'll (hopefully) finish it myself.

I have already made two extra trips to the dollar store this week. Yesterday's trip was to the little one in my old work town, which I so much prefer more. It's always quiet and clean, both of which are rare for a dollar store.

Sometime during the pandemic, I started using the Common Folk Bathroom as Kevin calls it, to shower. It has a standard sized tub and shower, while the main bathroom has a shower the size of a coat closet. Kevin loves that shower and I'm Meh. It occurred to me sometime during these End Times, that I could just switch. Turns out, Kevin likes having the shower "to himself" and so do I so that's a win. Also, he's six feet tall and I am not so where the water sprays is a thing.

The Common Folk Bathroom is in the hallway, at the "back" of the house, which is ridiculous way to describe it in the small little house. The door faces the hallway where there are photos on the wall organized in really no discernible way. It's the wall you can only see if you're standing there, is the best way I can describe it.

Anyway. When I painted it, I kept one side a cream color because I worried that the beloved mocha color would make the hallway too dark. (side note: I want a skylight. The hallway needs a skylight. Also, I live in the PNW where skylights are good and bad. They often leak and get mossy but they provide much needed light. #freneticdancemusicinmyheadright now #catsbootscatsbootscatsboots

Now I'm home all day and I walk the hallway all the time. I look at it when I'm in "my" bathroom. It was bothering me and I couldn't quite put a finger on it. One day I realized: the photos that were up there weren't photos that I necessarily loved. They were placeholders, space fillers. Photos that had "expired" if you will. People who were no longer in our lives or who we particularly wanted to see their photos on the daily anymore.

This is before I painted it the first time
(Swistle, your frame is going up in my closet)

This is where I realize that I referred to this project in a previous post and began this post with no context. Well done, me. Thanks alphabet brain.

So what had happened was: I took down all the photographs and collages and sorted them into Not Going Back and Maybe Going Back on the Wall. Absorbed some of the photos on the big wall and took apart one of the old collages. Now they languish in the office, stacked in a pile. Then pulled out eleventy nails because I knew I wasn't going to need them again. Bought more paint than I needed and painted everything I could reach the mocha color. We are at the next phase of this project, sorta, but first a few more details.

Anyone need coffee?

Remember last summer or whenever, when I decided that the main photo wall was only going to have photos that I loved? This precipitated taking down a few photos and adding ones of our friends. Instead of having photos on that wall that I felt "had to" be included, I have photos that make me happy. Or Kevin happy, he lives here too I guess.

This other wall though was a mishmash of old family photos, car photos, and just stuff. Clutter. Photos that I had put up for the sake of filling space. Photos that no longer "Sparked Joy". Collage photo frames from the old house. (hello, early 1990's)

I mulled this situation every time that I walked the hallway. Additionally, it's time to paint the doors in the house, they've gotten grubby and worn. I searched the social media for ideas and I noticed these hallways with fun details that made them not look like hallways. This got my mind to spinning. (more, spinning more)

What was needed was a little library nook. A little less clutter. Something beautiful to look at.

Months ago, the Christmas tree displaced a bookcase that neither Kevin or I particularly liked. It had landed just outside my office door and while it wasn't my favorite, I liked having a bookcase there. Cue me surfing bookcases, console tables, shelves, buffet tables until I found a narrow shelf that would work as a bookshelf. I put it in the online cart and it stayed there for a few days. Then Kevin wanted to order from that site so I took it as a sign from the universe and bought it.

The plan was to put it together myself. I took everything out of the box and methodically organized it. Then immediately realized this was a Kevin task and not a Surely task. So pause on that part of the project.

Kevin put together the shelf the evening when I had my little meltdown/tantrum about not being able to paint. He had again entered into Hostage Negotiator Mode with a "I will put together your bookcase so you can play with your books tomorrow."

Next, what to replace everything I just took down? Well, it occurred to me that I just happen to be a decent photographer. I have an instagram account. Why in the World of Where's Waldo would I not put up my own photographs?

I like the idea of ordering and using mixtiles but I just couldn't make myself order them. I knew it would be a hassle to upload the photos I wanted from my social media and phone and online storage. Plus the cost once I ordered everything and then the Waiting. I didn't want to wait for them to arrive in the mail someday.

Instead, I went the do-it-myself method. I went to the dollar store and bought 5x7 frames with mattes. Usually if you search the office supplies section, you can find photo printing paper also but not this trip. I unfortunately had to go into the actual store to buy paper and command strips. #woremymask #selfservicecheckout

I looked through my instagram for photos that I loved that would also look good framed. I went through the albums on my phone and finally culled through online storage. Searches like "sunsets", "flowers" "bridges" They had to make me happy. No sad or sentimental photos, only happy. Finally I printed a group of photos and framed them with minimal drama. Then I carried them out into the hallway to begin hanging them.

And I walked away. My brain went Nope, too many options. Can't Choose. I left them there and pondered them as I went by them for about a day. Then I tried again. Well, because I'm not a planner, it didn't occur to me to get X number of landscapes photos versus Y number of portrait photos. OCD demands balance. You may not proceed.

Eventually I just got stubborn and chose four landscape photos and hung them. Then I chose four portrait photos and hung them. The balance was off so I printed four more portrait photos. In doing so, I found more photos that I wanted to print. I ran out of frames and I am now stuck in If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.

I returned to the store the next day when I took Lucy for walkies and there were only four frames left. I bought them and tried not to panic. Returned home and started the process over again.

Because cheap dollar store frames, only one command strip is needed to hold up the frames. Also, the nice thing about dollar store frames is that once they are on the wall, no one knows that they're super cheap and flimsy. (pro tip: cut off the stand so they'll lay flat against the wall. They're a dollar, don't fuss about "What If")

Finally everything is hung and there were still gaps. I needed five more photos to balance everything. Because of course. And I'm out of frames again. Not to be thwarted, Lucy and I went to the store again and bought nearly everything they had. Now I have extras because we know this is not the end of it. I mean, we went from just a handful of photos to eleventy. And we're not thinking that I post to the instagram every day and will have more photos that I will want to print.

DEEP BREATH IN. DEEP BREATH OUT

Now, we rejoin the beginning of this post where the printer is printing.

Everything is printed, everything is framed and now...I'm out of command strips. I am determined not to use nails. Also, I hung one photo too high and it will bother me forevermore. "Luckily" Kevin needs something at the store so Lucy and I are going into town. We will buy more command strips because I don't want to keep doing this, as fun as it is.

Hold, please.

Whew, we're back and my brain has decided that it needs a nap. But I had to, had to, HAD TO finish this ~~madness~~ project. I could not cope with this taking another day. I would be in the hallway at midnight feeling grateful that command strips are silent, unlike nails. You think I'm kidding.

But nevertheless, she persisted. This is the end result: