Peeking under my bed

Filled with “Must Have Cardigan” fever, Jeanne and I each ordered a copy of Street Smart to get the pattern. (I was extremely impressed with the service we got – Jessica of Weaving Rainbow even checked to make sure I’d meant to order two copies; she’ll have more copies of Street Smart soon).

“You’re boring me, Mom.” -Mayhem

“Does that come in black?” -Chaos

I realize my pictures of the CueCat barcode scanner yesterday didn’t emphasize its feline qualities, so here it is with a similarly shaped cat carving from MamaTulip:

“Now this is much more interesting!” *sniff sniff sniff* -Mayhem

*sniff sniff sniff* -Chaos

“Mmmm…. cord…” -Mayhem

Looks like I need to get the bitter apple out again, doesn’t it?!

Last night I finished scanning my books, other than the odd copy that I’ve loaned out and some knitting books/booklets that don’t have barcodes or ISBNs. For the morbidly curious, you can take a peek at my library – I recommend filtering by a keyword tag, such as “knitting” or “cycling.” (Yes, Van, you will find something if you filter by “zombies.”)

I was even inspired to pull out the boxes of books from under my bed! Wanna take a peek?

Perhaps you need a bit more info about what you’re seeing (beyond that I have enough wrapping paper for the next five years)? About eight years ago, my brother helped me build a queen-size futon frame (well, ok, he did 95% of the work – thanks, Matt!). This particular frame turns all the space under the futon into dust-free storage – I can fit a total of 24 copy paper boxes under the frame, with space on top of the boxes for a layer of luggage, ski poles, wrapping paper, snowshoes (on the other side, sorry) and a broomball stick (helpfully keeping me from being crushed by the futon as I rummage around). The amount of storage this adds to my wee condo is considerable and much appreciated. When in use, the futon rests on two removable slatted sections:

Sorry the picture is blurry – I was attempting to balance on one foot and take the picture while using my other foot to prevent the futon from falling back into place. It didn’t go so well, but I think the bruising will be minimal. 😉

39 thoughts on “Peeking under my bed”

  1. :: mind boggling ::: I expected all the “cat books”, but it seems to me that there’s a sweater knitter locked up in your sock knitter body somewhere 😉

    When are we going to Spain?

  2. I saw something similar on a design show once (I think it was the show ‘neat’) where they had underbed storage like that. It flipped up from the bottom and had some sort of piston hinges like the back of an suv would. Very handy! I could always do with more places to ‘hide’ things!

  3. And I spot a Cisco box…!

    They actually have a bar code shaped like a cat. Ah, snowshoes and a broomball stick! Yes, winter in North America. You’ll never beat it, so you may as well join it!

  4. Ok, ok – I’ll return “Time Travelers Wife” and all the Janet Evanovich books. Sorry!!Last night I dreamt that you had to scan all the pages of each book in to the computer so you could read them that way. Tedious? Um – yeah!!

  5. Hah! I recognized that broomball stick right away! We have a high-quality futon up at the cabin that I would sleep on every night if I could.

    No more word from the HS – the kid left for school this morning.

  6. And here I thought I was clever for having Rubbermaid underbed boxes! Awesome storage.

    Can’t wait to hear how you like Library Thing. Yeesh, that’s a lot of books.

  7. We used to have sour grape for our pup’s….they loved it!
    Your a bad influence. I went and checked out that pattern book on line and had to have one, ordered that as well as Big Chill. The wish knit list grows!

  8. OMGosh Chris, I love your futon. Your brother is great, do you hire him out? Seriously, I would buy a woodworking pattern of your futon if it were available.
    Thanks for the bitter apple link. Evanrude has a cord fetish too. He has already destroyed my a few, including the one that plugged into my hubby’s fiber optic snowman (ok, ok, so secretly I was glad to see it go) and has been eyeballing computer cords.

    Everyone has Must Have fever…I smell a KAL.

  9. what a cool futon frame.
    and an amazing feat of accomplishment to scan all those books. I cannot even imagine doing that with mine (grin)

    I look forward to seeing the process on the cardigan.

  10. I can’t believe May could be bored by such a great cardigan pattern. Furry creatures just don’t get the sweater-thing.

    I find the Library Thing very intriguing; I’ll have to check it out. The scanner would be a must for me. Are you pleased with the service and the scanner?

    Great storage system; I hope the bruises fade soon!

  11. Like Margene I need one for CDs. But I need one for books, too.
    Hmm…do they have one for yarn?
    (sigh)
    You are way too organized. I love the futon arrangement – would you do a favor? Photo the complete futon? As in put together with the frame in site? I’m still ruminating on the “sitting piece” for my den…so I’m curious – the storage you describe would be very very nice to have!
    (((hugs)))

  12. You know, you could have just run to JoAnn’s to get copies of Street Smart. (but unless they’ve restocked in the last week, Edina & Minnetonka are out.)

  13. I can’t believe you’re continuing to have a life while I’m stuck at work.

    A barcode reader? Shaped like a cat? Cool! How much was it? Poor foot. The things we do for blog pix.

    Very nice of Deb to send Mayhem some snacks! Such a pretty lacy wooly snack too.

  14. YOu don’t know how tempted I am to order that…..if only it was a dog scanner. 🙂 Or bird….but it’d be so convenient and rather inexpensive really.

  15. Whoa, risking life and limb for the blog! I like the futon though.

    I can see the kitty resemblance in the scanner now that it’s turned around.

    I’ve been having Must Have Cardigan fever too. Hey if I start now I might be finished by next winter. 🙂

  16. hee hee hee–even the kitties want it!

    just made an rss feed for lj of your blog (lj doesn’t have an aggregator but for some sites it will make a psuedo feed). I get your comments but not your posts. Hmmmmm.

  17. Genius. If you publish that fantastic design for your futon frame, there is definitely a market. You had me with the ski poles and broomball stick. AND deep enough for paper boxes…..

    Yarn could be all in one place…

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