10 on Tuesday

1. I totally made that little bookmark! It was inspired by this blog post, although I didn't actually read that post or follow the instructions when I made mine, I just chopped the corner off an envelope and made the rest of it up. It was quick and dirty, but it totally works and it makes me smile when I open up my book (yeah, I'm reading an actual book right now and not on my phone).

2. Last week I went to a book discussion at the library with a new friend, Katie. It's a series called Not For Children Only, and it's (in case you didn't figure this out) an adult discussion group about children's books. The April discussion (last week) was on The Secret Garden, which I read last December and looooooooved. This month's book is The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, which I picked up at Borders yesterday. While I was there, I figured I should really start at the beginning, so I also picked up The Magician's Nephew. I started reading it on the way to work this morning and I'm already halfway through. Partly because it's a children's book (I'm no speed reader), and partly because it's so fun that I have been avoiding some chores in order to sit on the couch and read. :)

3. Speaking of chores, I had a very productive weekend cleaning and purging and organizing. Having guests come to stay is great motivation to finally turn the guest room back into a guest room - over the winter it somehow became more of a dumping ground/storage room than an office/guest room! I'm happy to report that it's almost ready for guests (I still need to make the bed).

4. The cleaning and purging and organizing over the weekend also led to my finally completing a few projects around the house that certainly aren't necessary before we have guests, but I figured it was as good a time as any. Some of these projects involved spray painting, and have you ever spray painted before? It takes patience. I don't have patience. My spray painting turned out okay despite my lack of patience.

5. One of the long overdue projects around the house that I finally got to was getting a print of this photo of my grandpa and putting it in a frame. I have a bunch of my grandpa's cameras on a shelf in my living room, including the one that is in the photo. Now that photo is framed and resting on the shelf behind the camera. :)

6. That photo is one of many that my father had scanned and cleaned up through ScanDigital. I found a whole lot of others that I love as I was going through the DVD I have of them, and ended up putting some of my faves up here (Dad can look at those and fact check me!).

7. In addition to framing pictures, I also found frames this weekend for a few original art pieces we bought from friends over the winter. One of the frames looks great, the other is going to be temporary until I take it to be framed professionally I think. In the meantime, it looks just fine in the cheapo frame it's in....and will look even better when I get it hung on the wall above the couch!

8. Today I did some serious toy/game shopping. I had a list of six kiddos that need birthday gifts in the next two months, which led to a not small Amazon order. Now I only have one kiddo left to buy something for, but it looks like it will be a brick and mortar purchase for that one. At least I know what I'm looking for now!

9. Is it totally wrong that as I was buying these gifts, I was thinking how fun it was going to be to play with some of them myself (you know, if the kids let me)? I figure that's totally right! You know it's a good gift if it's so fun you still want to play with it as an adult, right?

10. Yikes! I just heard the downstairs neighbor come in, which means it's past my bedtime. Guess it's time to hit publish. :)