A night spent “Building Shelves”

A back story is necessary here. Once you know what I mean about “building shelves” you will be able to relate totally to my inability to get a simple card created last night. Without further ado, here is the back story.

My husband, Joe, and his best friend, Cliff, were building and installing shelves in Joe’s airplane hangar the winter of 1972.

These two guys are construction savvy. They have the tools and the knowledge to restore old homes or build additions on newer homes.

This one cold night, working in a heated hangar, nothing was going right. Boards were cut too short, shelf supports were not level, thumbs were whanged by the hammer head instead of the nails. Measuring devices thwarted all their efforts to get the boards marked the preferred length. Levels used to install the shelf brackets gave off false readings.

In short these two men were too tired from their day jobs to focus on the task at hand. Four hours of work to construct and hang three shelves proved to be a four hours of totally wasted effort. Both men went home with their tails between their legs and heads hung low. Both questioning their sanity.

The next day dawned brightly, as did the two men. After a good nights sleep they tackled the shelves once again and had them perfectly constructed and hung level in 45 minutes.

The quip used in our home now when things go wrong for no apparent reason is “I was/am building shelves.”

Upon arriving at our hotel room, yesterday afternoon, in Nashville, Tennessee I got out my card making supplies and started creating a card featuring another sticker.

My intent was to use the scraps I’ve accumulated thus far and make a colorful base to feature the sticker. One thing lead to another. Each addition compounded the distraction factor of the rest. The papers seemed to me to be having a war with each other.

Putting the failing creation aside I decided to apply some Glossy accents to the saying portion of the sticker. Do something else since the rest is falling apart.

We left the hotel in search of a restaurant for dinner. Upon arriving back at the hotel I began putting my supplies and tools away. Joe asked, a little surprised, “You putting your stuff away? It is only 7!” My answer to Joe was “I’m building shelves.”

Looking at the card base I was less than thrilled with the results. Joe came over to take a look and then he brightly chirped “Turn it this way. The spacial orientation is off the other way.”

This is the card front Joe was referring to.

This is Joe’s insight. I have to admit it works.

Now you know what “building shelves” means.

Leslie