Haul/Organization: My New Kindle!

Even though I utilized an exclamation point up there, I admit I still have mixed feelings about needing a new Kindle. I had a Kindle 2, and she was a beautiful, wonderful device whose death in a tragic accident was utterly undeserved. *sniffle*

This is also a bit of a stretch on "new" as I bought it at the end of last month (right BEFORE I received the Books a Million coupons in the mail. Figures. -_- I could've held off on a new Kindle if I'd known I would have huge book hauls at great prices!).

I waited a couple of months before purchasing a new Kindle 3, because my 2 simply wasn't salvageable. I decided to go ahead and buy an official Kindle cover, which I never did for my 2. The 3's seem more...flimsy, and I'm fond of my mother's cover, which I got her for her last birthday.


I loooove the color red and am pretty much endlessly resentful that my rosacea makes wearing red a no-no. :(


I bought the one with the light. It's not FANTASTIC, but it'll let me read as a passenger in a car and whatnot, so that's awesomesauce in my book!

I had to go through and individually select each book I wanted to redownload, then reorganize them into categories. My poor, worn out thumbies aren't used to all this hard work now that I don't have time for video gaming anymore!


The category system came out just after I bought my dearly departed 2, and it made the Kindles SO much more user friendly. Now if they'd just make the screensavers customizable without a hack, they'd be darn close to perfect.


The skin is from Decal Girl, which is an AWESOME skinning website with excellent customer service. The design is called "Mystery" and I didn't pop the extra cost for matte since I have the case. The cover is more green and less gray than I expected, but I still loves it. It has a Jeeves meets Poirot feel to it (even though Poirot novels are generally my least favorite of Christie's). It's a bit sad that I'll never get to SEE the back, because of the cover. Ha. Ha.

I'm happy with him so far, but I miss the larger directional buttons on the 2. I have large hands and broad thumbs that don't like the itty bitty new one. I'd hate to be a dude trying to deal with it.

Organization: Necklaces

I don't own a huge number of necklaces. What I need an intervention for is earrings! But I did want a way to organize the necklaces I do have without buying a $100 jewelry armoire tall enough to hold them. I decided to go cheap - and this is what we have!



I'm looking for material to place on the back, but I'm pleased with the look already. I didn't go for the more expensive silver board I use for my pins (upcoming pics!) Instead of regular thumbtacks, I purchased extra large ones at Wal-Mart (their brand) in black and white, because I use black framed artwork in my bedroom. This means I didn't have to squeeze the necklaces between a small pin and the board (as I've seen in some tutorials), but could hang them gently on the large pins.

Despite being a big girl, I prefer shorter to longer necklaces. The cork board technique is perfect for these. Amazingly, my cats don't throw themselves at it when the fan's on, which was a pleasant surprise!

I love getting necklaces down at Pier Park in Panama City Beach, FL. The park's a lovely and friendly place, kept clean. I don't get down there a lot since I'm no longer a Floridian, but it's definitely worth the drive. Sadly, the REST of PCB is something of a mess these days, especially during Spring Break season. Fish Tales is the store in question. Most of my necklaces which didn't come from my Maw's collection came from there. :)

Organization: Goodwill

In the process of getting the house ready for most of the flooring being replaced, we've chosen to act like we're moving. We've donated boxes of books, bags of clothes, collections of toys, and even some furniture! This is our latest collection waiting to be carried off. We did not intend to give Fred away. That seems to be his idea.



This is what the office looked like while they were working on the bedrooms. The cats were torn between hating it because they detest change, and liking all the tall things to climb on.





Complete with necessary cat, of course. They're everywhere!

Organizing Comics..and Lovin' It!

SO you have a comic collection? I bet it's in those little plastic baggies, stuffed into cardboard boxes, right? If you've been collecting for more than a decade or so, they're probably in acidy, un-archival-safe bags, with old style cardboard backboards. So were mine...until recently.

I haven't seen much about these comic pages by BCW Supplies, but I think that's mostly because the comics industry is filled with either (a) kids who toss them in the bottom of closets or (b) traditionalists who HATE CHANGE! I, however, am loving these pages and the ability to make my collection more accessible (yes, I still read them from time to time!) as well as feeling like they're a lot safer.

Here we have the traditional style of organizing comics:

When I got my first scanning printer, I immediately made fancy labels for my LSH boxes. Clearly, my priorities are in order, right? I wonder how many years ago that was...hmm...

And here we have the notebook method. I still have three full boxes to convert, and it's not going to be a cheap process, but it's still worth it to me!:

On the shelf; the notebooks take about the same amount of space as the old boxes, but are easier to put on the shelf.

BCW makes special notebooks for use with their pages, but the notebooks are more expensive than these, which aren't exactly cheap (I wanted heavy duty and was picky about the...clamp? style - $8 a piece at Office Depot), and they only hold 20 comic pages a piece. While these binders are larger than strictly needed, I don't have to special order them and each can hold 30-50 comics, depending on how you place them in the sleeves.


The more delicate comics from the 60s I placed with only one comic per page. I also bought all new backing boards, making sure they're archival safe.


Here is my favorite old corny issue! I love you baby Brainiac 5! Awwww. On an unrelated note, no fun nail polish because we're in dress rehearsals for the play I'm singing in, and as a general rule sharecroppers in the 1910's didn't wear Funky Dunky. Go figure.


The newer issues, which are printed on thicker paper, I doubled up. There's plenty of room for two regular comics and a sleeve in each page. Of course, we'll have a NEW number one in October when DC does its full-reboot. Just to be confusing.

Naturally, the conversion process is being overseen by my feline assistants: Bronte and my roomie's cat Fred.




We prefer to think of Fred's mustache as a "reverse Chaplin," thanks. XD