My living room is a wreck. Even now, after carrying out some of the scrap plywood, removing the mothball-stench-soaked cardboard boxes that arrived in the mail this week, and removing a couple of the small appliances (do sewing machines and hair dryers count as appliances?), this room is making me uncomfortable. There's still a film of sawdust on most of the surfaces, hand tools littered around, and too many big pieces out of place. And, dammit, I am too drained to do much to change anything. I had hoped that getting the biggest priority, the crate that had to be perfect to protect the painting in transport, out of the way, would allow me to have the logjam broken, so I could start working my way through the to-do list. If that is coming, it's taking its time. The flood of energy I waited for has not yet arrived, and in its place I have television-watching inertia. I didn't even have the wherewithal to go sit and drink in front of a bonfire. At this point I'd be happy just to have a vaguely tidy living room. I'm going to settle for an early bedtime and a room that smells slightly less of mothballs and sawdust.
I remembered as I left the FedEx station that I had a birthday party to attend today, and a present to shop for. Good thing I remembered while I was a couple blocks from the outlet mall. The birthday girl is going to be away this summer when she actually turns four years old, so she got to have her Frozen themed party a little early while she and all her preschool friends were around. I tried to imagine what would be an appropriate ice princess gift to a little girl, and all I could think of was good rhinestone jewelry. Her mother said she already had a play tiara, so I went with a sparkly necklace and a comb-barrette that looked like snowflakes. I'm not sure where the inspiration came from, but I spent all of last night and this morning crafting a gift box out of the leftover plywood, and then coating it with spackle, until it was smooth. I painted it in lumpy layers of icy blues, and put a folk art snowflake on the top (based on one from the movie), hoping that once it was done, a four year old could pretend it was carved out of a block of ice. I made a gold satin pillow to pin the jewelry on. It was everything I could think of to make it a gift fit for a princess. And what happened when I got there? I found out that my little friend didn't like Elsa the ice princess who gets coronated queen. She likes Anna, the spunky little sister, who lives for fun and loves without caution. I think she liked her jewelry anyway. That's a good thing, because there is no way I could have come up with an Anna themed gift as easily. I already love her like the granddaughter I hope I will have someday, and that's all Anna would want.
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