Clean, sort, tidy, clean, sort, tidy......

*sigh*.....there's not a lot of hooky been happening round these parts of late. Sad times. I have withdrawal. I've taken to trawling pinterest just to get a yarn/hooky fix.
Work has been crazy busy. Last inspection happened today...YAY!!!! I've had a rotten cold. I'm sick of snots. I'm sick of sneezing. My cats are sick of me sneezing as I seem to scare the life out of them every time I sneeze.

I've also been Spring Autumn cleaning. Like the whole house from top to bottom. Including the dreaded cupboard under the stairs. Nope I haven't gone mad! I just figured it was about time my little domain had a spruce up. Well that and my lovely friend from Holland is visiting on Friday for a girly week of fun and gossip. She has duly been instructed to oooh and aaah at the tidy home. And if she doesn't I shall not take her to the yummy local yarn shop as promised. Mean aren't I????

So remember the room of doom all those weeks ago? It now has a bed and has been prettied up. Oh it looks beautiful!

I chose a simple wooden bed. I was originally going to get a day bed but decided against it. I'm pleased I did. This bed is gorgeous and so so comfy. Good old Argos. AND it was on special offer. Even better!

Naturally a new bed requires new bed linen. Gorgeous organic cotton in crisp white. See how beautifully it was packaged? Wrapped in tissue paper and tied with ribbon. 

We did have a little disaster whilst building the bed. Clumsy madam that I am. Somehow I managed to knock the rather ancient lampshade with the new mattress. It shattered into pieces! Such a shame as I really liked that plastic funky retro shade. Anyway it was a great excuse to order a replacement. Fingers crossed it will arrive in time!

So aside from the cleaning and snotting and sneezing....I've been trying desperately to finish off a blanket that has been in progress for about....oh....3 years?

If I'm honest I've been delaying finishing this blanket as it's made from Stylecraft Acrylic yarn. I was pretty much a learner hooker when I started it so the cost was a real bonus, but boy!, I've developed such an aversion to the texture! It literally sets my teeth on edge! But, having said that, it'll make a fantastic picnic blanket. 

It's very large and also very bright! Ziggy loves it! In fact I'm struggling to keep him of it. He clearly doesn't have an issue with the texture.

I'm now sewing in a zillion ends. It's driving me mad! So glad I weave in ends as I go now.

I'm planning to add a pretty simple border. Shades of blue to try and calm down the colour explosion! One things for sure...I won't lose this picnic blanket in a hurry!

Til next time

Maria x

The Room of Doom Part 2

So onwards and upwards with the great clearing out operation!
Shelves next.... sort, empty, sort, empty....

Actually this didn't take as long as I thought...

And before long they were clear! Sort, sort and more sorting...

Ah dismantling those shelves really did make me happy!

And....done!!! Mind I do have to confess that carrying those blasted shelves downstairs and into the front garden was a chore in itself!

So all the dismantling, sorting and tidying was done. Next step was to order the skip! I had around 17 bin bags in the back garden awaiting said skip which was delivered and filled in one day....

I couldn't quite believe that all of that junk came from one small room AND there was still a stack of goodies to sell and donate left!

Now onto the fun bit.... I had ordered an Expedit bookcase from good old Ikea to give me some useful storage. Time to start building! Now all over the boxes it said TWO persons to assemble! But me being me decided that I would give it a shot by myself and if I got stuck I could always give my neighbour a shout for a hand.... 

Hmmmm....the side panel was a little tricky...

But not that tricky!!!

Oooh....look what I just made!

Absolutely perfect and bags and bags of storage space!

Ok so in an ideal world it would've been easier with two people...but hey! I managed!!! And I love my new shelves. Next I need to decorate. I have this vision in my head of how this room will look when it's finished. I've opted for Annie Sloan Original chalk paint and I plan to wallpaper one feature wall. 

Oh and make lots of yummy crafty goodies for this newly cleared space.

In fact my head is exploding with ideas! Best go and mull them over with a glass of chilled wine :-)

The Room of Doom...Part 1

I have this room. It used to be my workspace in a former life. It was called the craft room.
Then my life changed. I no longer was a full time crafty person. I went back to nursing and shock horror! I no longer had the spare time to potter around creating all manner of gorgeous crafty goodness.

So the craft room stood there neglected. Very sad and unloved. Then I found a use for said room. I know *she clearly said to herself at some point in time* I shall use it to throw all manner of junk into and then I can shut the door and pretend it doesn't exist! Well this junk throwing practice continued for some years...yes...I kid you not...YEARS!!! The poor sad unloved room continued the be filled and filled and filled until one day it was christened THE ROOM OF DOOM!

Well clearly something had to be done about this. It was stifling my creativity and, quite frankly, making me feel very down in the dumps. Dear, dear friends attempted to assist me in the clear out process but you've seen that TV programme Hoarders? Hahaha....Well I got all stressy and quickly realised that this room didn't only contain junk...but also a whole heap of hidden treasures and memories too. I needed to tackle this on my own!

So weeks annual leave was booked and I made a date to start tackling the ROOM OF DOOM!
Scary stuff!!!

Wanna see some photos???
Ah go on then....

The view from the door...

Cover me....I'm going in!

Hmmm.....not as easy to go in as I thought!

Although Mika seemed to manage just fine! I think at this point she's wondering where all this crap came from, as was I!!!!

Arrrgggghhh!!!! Where to start???? I know...I'll make a cup of tea and ponder a little on my plan of attack! Cue a huge amount of chin wobbling and a few tears!!! Come on Maria!!! You can do this!

Slow and steady was the best attack! Along with plenty of tea breaks and some good music to work along to!

I loved seeing the progress and actually (but don't tell anyone) I kind of enjoyed the sorting process. 

So end of day one! Shelves from wall removed, old computer desk dismantled and my big work desk moved to another part of the room!

Well done me!!! I sorted into 4 piles: keep, throw, donate and sell. This made it much easier and I was very surprised at the end of day one to see that my keep pile was teeny! And you know what? I actually felt a little lighter....like a huge weight was being lifted off my shoulders :-)

I'm not saying it was easy. Oh no! I came across so many memories on that first day and many a tear was shed but I had survived!

Maybe day two would be easier....