We had a friend from California stop by and stay overnight with us last week (great to see you, DM!). Our guest room in this apartment is also our living room, which at the moment is rather lacking in decorations and furniture. Also, our windows have no curtains or anything else to use in order to add some privacy and/or block out the morning light.
Of course, the lack of furniture means that it does have more than enough floor space readily available for the air mattress we bought for guests. DM reports that the bed is comfy, BTW, so make your reservations now for your visit…
Anyway, the one thing our living room does have in abundance right now is empty boxes. We have to wait until the right time of the month in order to put the cardboard out for the recycling collection, and we don’t have enough room in our little storage unit to stash all 33 boxes.
So, before DM arrived we had boxes stacked high and wide in the living room along one wall. I considered it modern art – kind of a “Tower of Shipping” kind of structure, if you will.
But all it took was a little imagination … and a few minutes of work … and what we wound up with is what I call a modular window treatments, highly effective in blocking out the morning light:
Modular Window Treatment
Gorgeous, no?
OK, so maybe interior decorating isn’t one of my talents.
But really, who needs curtains when you’ve got a whole tower of shipping boxes as raw building materials for constructing a window treatment. 
With a little imagination, it looks like some installations I have seen in museums and pictures of installations in museums
Definitely “modern art.” The box treatment is the latest thing, check out all those protesters’ decor.
And don’t forget the “boxer rebellion.”
Does the bed sleep 6?
Thanks, everybody.
@Kathy: if you can find me a museum that will give us a show for my “installation” of the boxes, let me know quick, before we put them out in the trash later in the month.
©Mom: You said in email that Dad remarked it was the Boxer Uprising, which I think would be a cute name for the modern art installation piece, don’t you think?
© Stuart: the bed sleeps more than 2 kids, but doubtful that it would fit all 6 … but there will be lots of floor space if we get rid of those boxes …
:-). I enjoyed reading this and remembering what a nice time I had visiting with you guys. The accommodations were indeed comfortable and superb in every way!
By the way, I saw David Israel last night and told him about my visit with you guys and with Erhard. He was glad to get some news of you.