Craft room on the move again....

Last April (2013) my son left home, leaving us to do some room jiggling so I could have a craft room inside. 

You can read all about that time HERE.

Fast Forward  18 months and my daughter has now taken it upon herself to fly the nest too, which now leaves me with an even bigger room to move all of my stuff into.   This also means I can have my sewing machine set up all the time without having to unpack it every time I want to use it.

At first we were going to move our own bedroom into this space as it is slightly bigger, but when we measured it we would only be gaining 10" in one direction, so thought it was hardly worth dismantling and re-building the wardrobes for that. 

And here is the room as Shona left it on Saturday night to go to her own new little pad.

As you can see, two nice big windows to throw in lots of natural light.  And it is front facing, so I can be a real nosy parker right across our cul-de-sac  :)

She left me an old sofa too, I was going to throw it out but Ruby seems to have taken a liking to sitting on it, so it might just stay - as a giant dog bed!

And her axolotls.  Actually, she hadn't left these at all, I am just baby-sitting them while she sets their tank up in her new home - it takes a week or so to stabilise the water so, for now, they are residing at 'Chez Mommas'.

So this is my room as of now  (actually, it really isn't that tidy any more)..... watch this space as I move into somewhere twice the size   :)

My new craft room - the big reveal!

Well, you have heard me waffle on about it long enough, but tonight I finally got it to a place that I could photograph it.

I would like you to meet..... my new craft room!

So, the story is, oldest son (Iain) moves out - he had the biggest room as he is the oldest.  Shona actually had two bedrooms as when Adam (no 2: son) moved out a couple of years ago, she took over his room as a 'dressing room'. Deciding that one large room was better than two small rooms, she moved into Iain's room, which freed up two bedrooms.

Andrew is going to have one as an office, his office is currently downstairs in what was our dining room.  He had a corner to start with and slowly spread out and took over, so we built an extra room/conservatory on the back of the kitchen which we use as our dining room.  This in turn will free up a dining room and give us an extra living space, which will be nice.

(Sorry son, it really was sad to see you go).

I got the second empty bedroom, actually I got to choose and I chose the one with the bigger window to give me more light to work.

My desk area, the rest of the table is left clear (or so I hope it will be) so I can put the sewing machines on there.

My bookcase.  Daddy L built this when I was little, Iain had his eye on it when he moved out but no, it's mine. It is so solid I would be lost without it!  (overspill of books piled up on the floor)

At the moment it has my novels in too, they will be moving to the dining room when that is re-done which will then make room for the stash of books I have down there waiting to come up (whistles innocently!)

That's my Fimo oven on the top on one side, and my knitting needle pots on the other.

Cross Stitch pictures above, along with a pretty print of silk scarves that I bought at a craft fair.

Then there is my Really Useful Boxes all filled with really useful things :)

Want a closer look?  I have space for two more small boxes, wonder what I shall pop into there (whistles innocently!)

Here is Bunny, this is her new home on top of my RUBox cupboard.

Next, onto my wool stash (can you hear the innocent whistles getting louder?)

Bags of wool that there is enough of to make something....

Projects started as as yet unfinished (whistles innocently)

A comfy stool in the corner for the cats to sit on if they like. In the hope that they will stay off my computer chair in case I need to sit on it!  (You are not allowed to move a cat in this house)

I am planning to decopatch this stool eventually, you may remember my upholstering post about it? click HERE.

And something for the cats to scratch on when they get off the comfy stool to save them trying to claw up my wool shelving.

On this wall is another Cross Stitch, a memo board and my Del Boy £20 note in a frame  :)  (you know I have a David Jason thing, right?)

A few oddments hanging around.... keys, that I WILL do something with (whistles innocently)

Shrink Plastic attempt....

And the first Crochet Owl to start off my Owl Bunting.

Not forgetting the marble collection on the windowsill.

Have you missed something?  Look again.... NO BEADS !  No boxes of beads, no beading stuff, no half finished bead projects.

That's because there is just no room for my bead stash, so that is out here....

In that big brown thing at the bottom of the garden, more famously known as The Bead Shed.

(Do I get an award for the use of "whistles innocently" too many times in a blog post?)

ps: The Amazon links are affiliated  if you click and buy I might get a few pennies.  Just so you know :)

Bargains from a charity bookshop

I have been so clever sorting out stuff to go into my new craft room, stuff I can manage without.  

So far I have sorted out a pile of books and listed them on eBay,

.... and sorted out my yarn and given a large charity bag full away to a friend for a charity blanket.

Then today, I go and browse around a charity bookshop in town and buy a whole pile of books back again !!

But at the grand price of 75p each, how could I refuse?

Let me share them with you.  First the cookery books.

The New Vegetarian Cookbook - Roz Denny.  

Lots of interesting meals in this one, I might just have to try the Broccoli Risotto Torte sometime soon.

The Accidental Vegetarian - Simon Rimmer.

This one looks fabulous, unusual recipes that seem to be right up my street.  How about some potato pancakes with spiced beetroot?

Cakes and Slices - Bay Books

Hmmmm, my mouth is just watering looking through this one, how does Caramel Peach Cake, Passionfruit Almond Cakes with Lime Glaze or these... Date Caramel Shortcake.

And right at the back is a recipe for Baklava - one of my absolute favourites.  I might be busy next week :)

I also bought some craft books, funny that eh?

The Splendid Soft Toy Book (what a great name!)

I was planning to make some soft memory toys out of old clothing and these patterns might be very well adaptable to what I have in mind.  Who could resist Olaf and Olga Troll Dolls?

Toys For Kids - Sarah Stacey.

Some cringeworthy old fashioned patterns, but again adaptable.  I am sure this little fellow could be very cute if made in the right material.

Make Your Own Teddy Bear.

A cute little book with lots of templates and a birth certificate to copy at the back :)

I bought this one for a gift for someone, I think she will like it as she is just getting into quilting.

Quilting Design Sourcebook - Dorothy Osler.

I also bought this for a gift for someone who is a practising Christian.

Children's Letters To God.

I do hope she appreciates the humour, I certainly did.

He has a good point.

Bless  :)

Quite!!

Tidying out the attic

One of the most boring jobs ever is cleaning out the attic.  It is the place where you shove everything that you cannot bear to throw out but really do not want to use on a day-by-day basis.  A place where you keep all those embarrassing family photos and the children's artwork from school.

But sometimes a job just needs to be done. Today was that day.

As my oldest son, Iain, has flown the nest this week, it left an empty bedroom to empty the attic into.  Now this gets complicated,  I have three children - Iain, Adam & Shona. They all had a bedroom each.  Adam left home at 18 and Shona who had the other small bedroom, took his room as a dressing room.  Now Iain has moved out Shona is moving into his large room where she can have everything in together.  This will leave two empty rooms, one for an office for Andrew and the other for a craft room for me :)

But, before that, the attic...

The contents of the attic filled my soon-to-be-craft-room TWICE !  We filled it once, sorted through and filled it up again.

To cut a long day short, we took a full car full to the recycling centre, put some stuff on a Facebook selling site, gave a few boxes of stuff to Iain for his new place, put all the kids artwork, old photos and Christmas decos back up and decided to re-use some forgotten bits.

But what I really wanted to do was to share these with you.

My Godmother bought me the standing fox when I was little, and I found the other one at a school fete when I was around 13. This makes them between 32-50 years old.  I knew they were up in the attic somewhere and had it into my head that they were Beswick Pottery and might be worth something, but sadly not - they have "Made in USSR" on the bottom!

In a way I am relieved they are worth nothing, I don't have to decide whether to sell them or keep them now  ;)  I am going to put them back on display, they don't deserve to be hidden away in the attic.

I also found my old money box pig, he looks a little tatty these days I am sad to say, and I cannot remember where he came from, I seem to think I got it when I was born but I will need to check with my Mum on that.

At a car boot sale a few years ago I found this fellow, so I bought him for 50p to keep my own company.  They have been in bubblewrap in the attic for  years now.

When unwrapping them for a photo I pulled the bung out of the blue pig and found this note....

It says "My name is Bill Hewit I need a home urgently, thanks Margaret"  :)

Do you have any old treasure you would like to share?  Feel free to add links if you blog about them.