My Shelves Are Done!!

I'll still be rearranging for a while, but I finished them up today and have the pictures to prove it. :)

This is the walking-into-the-bedroom view just to give an idea of its surroundings.  That's not a wood divider going down the middle - it's the divider in the window that's behind the blind that's behind the shelves.

And I actually had a nifty idea.  The picture on the left shows the shelves sitting on the supports that I labored over installing for two days.  The picture on the right shows them today with a little trim piece that I decided to glue on to the ends of the supports.  I think it makes it look a lot tidier.  Although it did dawn on me once I was finished installing the wood supports that I could have just installed two angle brackets on each side wall and ended up with the same amount of support.  But, if I had such trouble getting things level installing one piece of wood that I could rest a level on while I marked it for installing, I can't imagine how much trouble it would have been to have to install two separate brackets on each side wall and have it all end up level side to side and front to back.  Especially since the whole apartment is not exactly what you'd call "true"!   The last picture, below, is just a close-up shot.

I had to borrow the building's tall ladder today and I swear it doesn't matter how many things you remember to collect and put on the shelves before you start - drill, drill bits, hammer, plastic anchors, screwdriver, measuring tape, the chains and "s" hooks, I still went up and down that ladder I'll bet 50 times! 

But now it's done and I'm pleased - I kind of think the photo would have looked better matted, but in my own defense, when I took it to get it framed, I immediately found a perfect color frame for it and then the framer and I started looking for a good mat and we tried real pale greys, dirty whites, creams, etc., and both agreed that none of them were right with the photo's tones.  If I ever have another photo that I want to frame, I may consider framing it in this frame (and make the photo a smaller size so that it could be matted) and then do another search for a good mat for this NYC one and get it re-framed.  But probably not...

I've also started up on some more cross stitching and needlepoint.  The needlepoint is on the Aubusson rug that I have been working on forever and the cross stitch is a new picture that I will be framing, not trying to make into a pillow.  So hopefully, I'll be posting a picture of the finished cross stitch before too long.  The rug?  Who knows if it will ever be finished!

It's been a nice week "socially" too.  My friend Brenda who I hadn't heard from in three weeks called and we had lunch Wednesday out in Kenova at Griffith & Feils Drug Store which is an authentic, old-time drug store soda fountain place with good food and lots of neat old photographs of the local surroundings.  I had a couple of errands out that way so we just kind of ran around getting those taken care of.

Then, yesterday, Peggy, my other retired friend, finally came back from Florida and we had lunch at the Olive Garden, did a lot of browsing and some buying at Macy's, went to another smaller mall that's out that way and had a nice break at the Starbucks there and then went to go to Target and discovered Peggy didn't have her credit card.  So then it was back to Olive Garden and at some point during all that I remembered that I hadn't used the gift card my sister gave me for Christmas when I paid for my stuff at Macy's!  We were both feeling pretty senile by that point.  So we went back to Macy's too and the poor lady there got me all straightened out.   And, now tomorrow, I'll have my regularly scheduled lunch with Jamie (poor thing isn't retired) and last I heard, my friend Cindy and I will be doing something tomorrow evening.  If we do, then I really hope it's a clear night because I still haven't been up to the Huntington Prime Restaurant's "penthouse" piano bar to take in the view and we're going to do that if it's clear.

Now I have to return the ladder, do a little stitching and figure out what I'll make for dinner tonight...