219 PEZ dispensers...
Apr. 3rd, 2005 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gerisullivan...are now unpacked and assembled into most of the choir. I think there are fewer than 100 more to go! That's just the choir of unique dispensers taken out of their packages for display. I emptied just one of the seven bins of PEZ I moved east, which means there's rather a lot more PEZ to make a place for.
I originally planned to go to the East Coast PEZ convention in Connecticut this weekend, but dropped the idea when March brought a major health insurance rate increase scare. Even though that has since resolved itself far better than I anticipated, resulting in what looks to be better coverage for $7/month less than I was paying last year rather than $122/month more, I'm just as glad to have avoided the PEZcon temptation. There are a surprising number of new dispensers coming out these days, and conventions are also a great place to pick up older (and pricier) dispensers. Instead, I had the joy of remembering just how many dispensers I've added to my collection since packing it in August, 2003, and seeing again how big it was even then.
Thanks to staying home, the basement toy room is starting to look like something other than a storage area for lots of boxes. Better yet, the Twinzy Toy tradeshow banner is up! My great-aunts, Blanche and Bun (Bernice), were twins and ran the Twinzy Toy company from the 1920s until the mid-'50s. They exhibited at the New York Toy Fair for most of those years, and they hand-painted at 18-foot banner to use in their booth. My dad gave it to me most of 20 years ago, but until now it's been rolled up, waiting for a time when I had a good place and way to display it. Whoohoo! It looks great in the toy room! (The icon shows just a small portion of the banner...little did the twins know they'd have a grand-niece grow up to live in Toad Woods when they added a frog to their toy line!)
The weekend's accomplishments also include assembling five book cases, which means there are no shelves waiting to be assembled for the first time since last July. That's something of a good news/bad news scenario. It's great to have all the shelves in usable condition instead of in boxes, in pieces. Unfortunately, it also means I'll soon need to buy and assemble more shelves. Eep!
My paperbacks are finally unpacked; I'm down to a half-dozen boxes of other books. With luck, they'll fit on the three Mission-style wood shelves I bought last month. I have fewer books than most any fan you know. Still, it's nice to have them accessible. Just seeing them brings a comfort.
I've decided to paint all of the PEZboards (pegboard used to display MOC — "Mint on Card" — dispensers). My PEZboards are each a different color, and while little of the board shows once the pegboard hooks are filled with dispensers, none of the current colors even pretends to go with the room. I'll paint them a dark blue so they'll complement the circus fabric that Susan is going to make into an entrance to the Big Top when she and Gavi visit in June.
The toy room needs a couple more chairs, which I hope to pick up at bargain rates as soon as yard sale season begins. Fingers crossed, knocking wood....
Also on the agenda for this month: unpacking and organizing the rest of the Fanac Repository (the smaller finished room in my basement). It would be really nice to be unpacked by the time I've lived here a year! Hmm...that would also mean unpacking and hanging the art, something I've had on my calendar since December yet haven't managed to do yet. Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic here.
There will always be more projects, of course. Susan and I picked up three different fabrics for curtains and patio table coverings at SR Harris when I was in Minneapolis for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
minicon40, and that's in addition to the circus fabric, which I bought there most of three years ago. And I expect that the notion I'll clear the second bay in the garage ranks as pure fantasy; it works too well as a convenient, supplemental basement.
Optimism and fantasies aside, the reality of progress made these last couple of days is really quite satisfying. As are the crocus blossoms, the rapidly shrinking patches of snow, and numerous other signs of spring. (I'm not asking how the Northern Spring Peeper made its way into my basement, but having a walk-out door made it quick and easy to return it to its native habitat.)
I originally planned to go to the East Coast PEZ convention in Connecticut this weekend, but dropped the idea when March brought a major health insurance rate increase scare. Even though that has since resolved itself far better than I anticipated, resulting in what looks to be better coverage for $7/month less than I was paying last year rather than $122/month more, I'm just as glad to have avoided the PEZcon temptation. There are a surprising number of new dispensers coming out these days, and conventions are also a great place to pick up older (and pricier) dispensers. Instead, I had the joy of remembering just how many dispensers I've added to my collection since packing it in August, 2003, and seeing again how big it was even then.
Thanks to staying home, the basement toy room is starting to look like something other than a storage area for lots of boxes. Better yet, the Twinzy Toy tradeshow banner is up! My great-aunts, Blanche and Bun (Bernice), were twins and ran the Twinzy Toy company from the 1920s until the mid-'50s. They exhibited at the New York Toy Fair for most of those years, and they hand-painted at 18-foot banner to use in their booth. My dad gave it to me most of 20 years ago, but until now it's been rolled up, waiting for a time when I had a good place and way to display it. Whoohoo! It looks great in the toy room! (The icon shows just a small portion of the banner...little did the twins know they'd have a grand-niece grow up to live in Toad Woods when they added a frog to their toy line!)
The weekend's accomplishments also include assembling five book cases, which means there are no shelves waiting to be assembled for the first time since last July. That's something of a good news/bad news scenario. It's great to have all the shelves in usable condition instead of in boxes, in pieces. Unfortunately, it also means I'll soon need to buy and assemble more shelves. Eep!
My paperbacks are finally unpacked; I'm down to a half-dozen boxes of other books. With luck, they'll fit on the three Mission-style wood shelves I bought last month. I have fewer books than most any fan you know. Still, it's nice to have them accessible. Just seeing them brings a comfort.
I've decided to paint all of the PEZboards (pegboard used to display MOC — "Mint on Card" — dispensers). My PEZboards are each a different color, and while little of the board shows once the pegboard hooks are filled with dispensers, none of the current colors even pretends to go with the room. I'll paint them a dark blue so they'll complement the circus fabric that Susan is going to make into an entrance to the Big Top when she and Gavi visit in June.
The toy room needs a couple more chairs, which I hope to pick up at bargain rates as soon as yard sale season begins. Fingers crossed, knocking wood....
Also on the agenda for this month: unpacking and organizing the rest of the Fanac Repository (the smaller finished room in my basement). It would be really nice to be unpacked by the time I've lived here a year! Hmm...that would also mean unpacking and hanging the art, something I've had on my calendar since December yet haven't managed to do yet. Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic here.
There will always be more projects, of course. Susan and I picked up three different fabrics for curtains and patio table coverings at SR Harris when I was in Minneapolis for
minicon40, and that's in addition to the circus fabric, which I bought there most of three years ago. And I expect that the notion I'll clear the second bay in the garage ranks as pure fantasy; it works too well as a convenient, supplemental basement. Optimism and fantasies aside, the reality of progress made these last couple of days is really quite satisfying. As are the crocus blossoms, the rapidly shrinking patches of snow, and numerous other signs of spring. (I'm not asking how the Northern Spring Peeper made its way into my basement, but having a walk-out door made it quick and easy to return it to its native habitat.)
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 05:22 pm (UTC)Had to laugh, because my apartment has a serious lack of chairs (in fact, whenever I host a Stipple-Apa collation the directive is "Bring Your Own Chair"). And this morning I noticed an office chair in pretty good shape out by the dumpster next to my building. Even though I vowed to stop bringing home stray furniture, I grabbed it and brought it upstairs.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 05:28 pm (UTC)Lots of people commented at our housewarming on how nice things looked and how (relatively) uncluttered; that's because there's a two-car garage full of boxes! And some of my furniture is still in Mitchell. Eek.
SR Harris is just 25 feet or so from my Dad's company/building (Chamfer Engineering) which is also on Zealand Ave in Brooklyn Park, right next door to it. It's rather amazing how often I get up there and how rarely I duck into the fabric warehouse. I haven't been in there in years, but your comments reminded me of it and how very much I need to look for some fabric for the place here in Mpls.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 05:36 pm (UTC)that spring bug ...
Date: 2005-04-03 06:18 pm (UTC)suddenly my soul is longing for less clutter.
Re: that spring bug ...
Date: 2005-04-03 06:34 pm (UTC)Go check out www.FLYlady.net. 15 minutes at a time has been saving my butt, sanity and marriage for abotu 2.5 yeras now (maybe even 3). It was what helped in the moving, even if we packed a lot of "trash" to only unpack it at the new house (which, ack, we've been in nearly a year adn are still not finished unpacking.
I'm thinking the Master Bedroom needs to be finished, then my kitchen/dining room. Maybe by Baycon??
no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 06:58 pm (UTC)that sounds a bit HUUURRAAAHHH.
Mint on Card, interesing, in lego parlance it means, My Own Creation...
james
"my own creation"
Date: 2005-04-04 01:12 am (UTC)K.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-04 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-04 03:25 am (UTC)SR Harris is an amazing place. I don't sew, yet I've purchased well over 100 yards of fabric there. It was fun seeing some of it in use in the Minicon consuite last weekend.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-04 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-04 03:27 am (UTC)Hey, the Merry Melody Makers even make noise. Not a noise resembling any choral ensemble, mind you.
Re: "my own creation"
Date: 2005-04-04 09:00 am (UTC)AFOL--Adult fan of LEGO.
BURP--Big ugly rock part. This is a reference to a LEGO part.
DACTA (or Pittsco Dacta)--The educational branch of the LEGO Company.
FBTB--From Bricks to Bothans, a Star Wars, LEGO related fan site.
ISCC--International System/Set Construction Competition.
LLC--LEGOLAND California.
LUG--LEGO User(s) Group.
LUGNET--A fan created LEGO website. Considered by most LEGO fans to be THE source of LEGO related information.
Mecha--a reference to a robotic themed LEGO creation.
Minifig--a reference to the small LEGO people that come with most LEGO theme sets.
MOC--My own creation. A reference to an original LEGO creation.
PNLTC--Pacific Northwest LEGO Train Club.
RIS--Robotics Invention System. This is usually used within the context of LEGO MINDSTORMS, a LEGO robotics product.
RTL--Rec-Toys-LEGO. This is a newsgroup dedicated to LEGO related topics.
SAH or S@H--Shop at Home. This is usually a reference to LEGO bricks or sets being made available exclusively through this LEGO direct sales outlet.
SNOT--Studs not on top. A reference to sideways building.
there are more, stole these of someone
james
no subject
Date: 2005-04-04 03:54 pm (UTC)Again Well Done
Date: 2005-04-05 04:29 am (UTC)We can't afford that kind of thing at the moment.
Damn it
Huggs