My Space

Oh hai.

Guess what I did this weekend?

I moved house.

It feels like it's been a long time in the offing but it hasn't really, just 5 weeks.

The Person very bravely offered to come over this weekend to help with the move. I did give him plenty of warning that I would be a big ball of stress and that he could come on the proviso that he not make any jokes because I would almost definitely lose my sense of humour somewhere in the move.

But actually as it turned out, everything went pretty smoothly. Thankfully my Dad has a Jeep, meaning that all it took was 3 trips and I was all moved. No I don't know how I have so much stuff, I didn't think I had that much but somehow what doesn't seem like much seems to fill boxes very very quickly.

Once I was all moved there was a slightly overwhelming sense of panic where I just kept looking at all the boxes and going "Okaaaaaaaay. Now. Where do I begin?"

And this lot was only the tip of the iceberg!

Luckily I am a machine so I just started and basically didn't really stop until I was finished. Of course I meant to take photos of my progress along the way but the robot in me didn't want to stop. I wanted to get as much done as possible. Mostly because I really hate untidiness and messiness and living amongst unsorted things would freak me right out, but also because I knew I was going out that night and would be hungover on Sunday and incapable of doing a lot of sorting.

I took today off work and I'm pleased to say that I'm pretty much sorted. There are little things to do here and there, but for the most part I am a settled little nested Girl.

One of the reasons I fell so head over heels in love with this room was because of the size of it. I have landed on my size 8 feet here and have managed to bag a flippin' well huge room. When I saw it I thought three things;

1. Oh my god it's massive

2. Oooh there are nice wooden floors, I can totally get a rug (the one in the picture came with the room, I will probably store it somewhere and get me a new one)

3. Wow a fireplace, I can totally crochet bunting and hang it from there (yes I really did think that).

So anyway, allow me to take you on a quick spin around my little space.

Let's start with the corner diagonally opposite the door. All pretty basic, wardrobe, laundry basket, chest of drawers with the TV in situ. I've tried to create little "areas" where possible so that the room kind of, sort of, makes sense. So if you take a little closer look at the windowsill you will see...

...My glass storage jars of wool. They don't look as pretty as they used to because I've used up all my scraps on my various projects, but they can look gorgeous with all the colours going on inside them. And beside the jars of wool are all my books relating to crafty stuff - cross stitch, crochet, embroidery and sewing - all in one handy little place.

Moving a little further round you can have a better view of that fireplace. No it's not for real life fires, but I need to find something to put in the space, big white altar candles or something. You can see Mr Toad taking up residence on the right hand side and on the left hand side are a load of things that will eventually need to go up on the walls. An important job but one that can wait for a little while longer.

What was that? What's that on the right hand side of the fire surround?

It's the books that I bought from Persephone Books on my recent trip to London. A few of you asked which ones I got - I did intend to tell you in the blog post originally but by the time I wrote it they had been all packed up and I honestly couldn't even remember what I'd bought! So there they are for you.

Moving round again we have the cupboard which has got hanging space and has also seen a lot of stuff shoved in it until a better home can be found for them - I'm operating on an "out of sight out of mind" policy at the moment. The grey drawers hold all my crafty stuff - from embroidery threads, to aida, to cards, to fabric to all random kinds of crap, it's all in one place for me to get my grubby little mitts on. 

The bookcase next to it contains my permanent book collection (barring 4/5 boxes that live at my Dad's until I can find space for them one day). As you can see I am harsh - very few books that I read are kept. There are so many books in the world that I don't feel I can justify keeping ones that don't set my world on fire so off they go. There's probably a whole blog post in itself about that bookshelf.

We need to spare a quick moment to talk about the white cupboard under the sink. This was The Person's Ultimate Job on Saturday. I knew that he couldn't really help unpacking because only I would know where things needed to go, so he had the job of getting his flatpack hat on and constructing some under sink storage for me.

This is possibly the best invention ever. The wheel? Pah. Sliced bread? Whatevs. Under-sink storage is where it's at. This guy is from Argos and has been a saviour - there's one shelf inside it and all my little things - razors, cleansing wipes, deoderant, hairspray, you name it, sits inside here and is all nicely stored away without taking up any extra space. Magical. Round of applause for The Person please.

Behind the door was the perfect place for my other bookcase to go. It was meant to be for this fella. This bookcase contains all the books I haven't read yet. I know. I have problems.

And to complete the circle we have my bed. I have plans to get a second hand armchair from charity or something to maybe put in front of the fireplace because I don't really want to get into the habit of watching TV in bed. Plus my I am prone to getting bad backs, and using my bed as a sofa won't do it any favours. But until I buy one, I've set up my cushions at one end of the bed to create a seating area.

What was that? What's the cushion on the far right? Aaah allow me to tell you...

How cool is Mr Owl?! He has flown for freaking miles all the way from another country. I won him in a giveaway over at No knitted knickers. Haven't visited her? Well do so immediately.

Or at least wait until you've finished reading this ridiculously lengthy post. The end is nigh I promise.

You may have noticed at the end of the bed a little brown table. I'd said I wanted a table to do computer things and craft things on in an attempt to stop the bad back issues I've already mentioned. Mum had suggested a drop leaf table would be good because it could be easily stored away. I mentioned this to Dorothy and on Saturday she spotted this baby for £19 in a charity shop and by the end of the day he had taken up residence.

So when I want to do computer things he can come out and sit like this...

And if I need more space to spread out then he can be like this...

Ta-da!! He's pretty battered at the moment but you know what that means....Project Makeover!! It won't be soon but it will happen eventually. I'm excited for it.

Yeah. I reckon I've bored you enough now.

Can you tell I'm kind of excited?