Hey hey, it's Variety Pack Day again!

Some days are just yahhh scatter brain, ya know?  Some days it feels like I can't get any one single task done, or, some days I don't feel like I've done enough to justify sitting down for a short string of moments.  So it is, right?

Scene:  this past ThursdayFridaySaturday.

Yeah it feels like it was all one continuous uninterrupted day for some reason.

To start, I went upstairs to rethink the yarn situation for the DIY rug I'm working on for the library.  Based on my last adventures, I decided to see what the pom poms would look like with a combination of the two yarns.

While I kinda liked it, ehhh, it just, when I stepped back and took it all in, it, ehhhh, juuust, mmm, nope.  I do like the two yarns together and think out of all the options I was fiddling with, it was the best of the bunch, but ultimately, it was the soft white color.  Bzzzt, nope.

I know, it's hard to see the second color in there but it's there! 

So I ran over to Joann Fabrics, soft white and receipt in tow.  My first stop in the store, as it usually is, was the remnants section for small pillow fabric for the chair.  It was a tad sparse that day, the selection, but I came across this one.  Good budget decorating tip?  Always always check the remnants section.

$6.  Joann's remnants eternally seem to be 50% off.  Yay!

As you can see, it came home with me.  Yes, 70's-ish.  Heh.  :)  (Sorry babe!)

Next was the yarn.  What a struggle, heh, trying to pick a new color.  Solo, I just could not pin down something to go with the chair.  With remnant in hand, it was easier.  Sorta.  I chose heather gray* this time.

Got home and was all hmmmph when I dropped the gray on the floor.  So I tossed the fabric on the chair.  Ah ha.  No flowery fabric, the gray looks incompatible.

I made a pile of smaller poms and tossed in a few strands of that aran fleck color.  Stepped back.  Head tilts.  Ok, this direction is better but I couldn't justify sitting there making pom poms all day so off I went.

Next up.  Hailey's paw print.

This was hard.

The day we went to pick up her ashes, a nurse came dashing out of the back and gingerly handed us a clay impression of the stinky one's paw that she had made for us.  She said she had tried to catch up with us on that miserable day and give it to us then but missed us and she wanted to make certain she got it to us.

Aw jeez louise.  I don't know how I stayed standing.  Maybe the column of tears were propping me upright, I have no idea.  I was leaning on Mike, that was it.

A couple weeks ago I picked up an 8x8 shadow box frame* for it.  And the other day, something got a hold of me and I had to frame her sweet little imprint.  Not an easy task.  I mean, the task itself is, but in the grand over-arcing scheme of things, it was not.

Rifling through my box o' fabrics, I chose one that was on our former outdoor cushions.  She loved being outside, hanging with us outside for hours on end in the summer.  So I felt it apropos.

I ironed the fabric all nice and smooth.  Spray mounted it to the frame backing.  A dab of Locktite* adhesive.  Let it set.  Cry.

Today I hung it with the paw print from when she was a five month old puppy.  Weep.  Sigh.  My heart aches looking at it.  Hopefully I won't have to temporarily take it down.

When I get unsettled, I clean and/or organize.  Can't explain that.  Happens every. single. time.  Even the slightest wisp of upset and I'm wiping down counters, putting things away.  So after framing the paw then wandering aimlessly in circles, I hit the basement to work it out.

I made some progress despite it appearing worse now.  Although, look, a whole empty shelving unit.  Hm, ok, that is progress.  Then I got bored with all this.

So that happened.

Oops.

Not.  I yanked off some chair rail.  And despite that line of yucky paint, the basement already feels less squat.  The chair rail, a waste of wood here, served to visually cut the low height of the basement in half.  Plus, it's unattractive.  So.  It has to go.

After prying off that section of chair rail, I felt a smidge better.  So I went upstairs and installed the new towel bar and toilet paper holder* in the master bathroom.  A happy fun activity, or rather, the resultant end promised such.

Such a collection of oddly incongruous projects and thought processes, right?  Heh, I know.  Scatter brain, remember?

We're getting some water spotting on the concrete countertop now, by the way.

Down here at the bottom of the photo, right above this text on the leftish.

I will be rereading the label on that sealer I picked up, maybe returning it.  When I wipe with a rag and water, the spots light up like fireworks.  Pew, pew, water spots here!  And the sealer didn't entirely stop a coffee ring either.

I know, I said I was going all in concrete-y.  I'll continue to see how that progresses.  Heh.

Right, the hardware.  Picked a grouping up on eBay.  A bit of a splurge again, but it was the nicest-bestest-designed-goes-with-the-faucet stuff I found.  Our ugly contractor grade crapola has looooong outlived its welcome.

I lined the towel bar up to the outside edge of the mirror and counter.  Not a hard install really.  A couple a' holes in the wall, anchors, screw on that insert, tighten the set screw and voila.  Towel bar!

Toilet paper holder?  Yeah, that will require some post installation attention.

Too, on top of all of that, Mike had an awful day on Thursday.  I felt so bad for him, so I squeaked in a dessert to try and help him feel better.  It's a recipe my mom gave me eons ago, Hot Fudge Pudding Cake; there are oodles of versions out there but here's one close.  I use Blommer cocoa powder because it's awesome and their factory store is close by and when they're roaring on production, the city smells like deep dark chocolate brownies.  mmmmmmm

So yeah.  Variety Pack Day(s).

Well, ok, off to see what today holds!  Hope you had a great weekend!

And Do Not Forget:  Sirens season two premieres tomorrow night!  USA Network!  Tune in!  DVR!

*The yarn and frame are a Joann Fabrics affiliate links.  Locktite adhesive is an Amazon affiliate link.  The general bathroom hardware is an eBay affiliate, but what I bought is unavailable now.  Mwah, thanks!