what a day, what a day...

We're in the process (a very. long. process) of building a new house, and are now about one month from completion. Which means that I should be packing. But I can't really pack up my house because we haven't sold it yet, and nobody wants to come through a house with all the pictures taken down from the walls and boxes piled up everywhere. We just went about 9 weeks without a showing, so we started forgetting that we had to keep the house in "pristine" (mind you, we have two kids and two large-ish dogs) condition. It's obviously a relative term. How can I be expected to live like this? It's much too fussy.
We got a call that there would be a showing today at noon. Both of my kids have been sick since last Friday, and I kept them home today for one last day of recuperation. Do you know what it's like to get a house ready for showing with the kids home? Well, fine, I did it: I got the beds made, fluffed the pillows, vacuumed the floors, wiped the toothpaste out of the sink, put away laundry, corralled the dogs - you get the picture. I even got both the kids bathed and dressed and out of the house by the appointed hour. We went to the bookstore and out to lunch and came home to find a message (left at 11:56) that the appointment was re-scheduled. sh*t!!
On a bright note, while I was at the bookstore, I scooped up this beautiful book, which (I think) must've just been released. I'm so inspired to get sewing!
Before I get to that, I have to just sit here for a while and drool over this book I found in Minnesota a couple of weeks ago. Check out some of the sweet pages: