Thursday 26 July 2007

Ikea, spiders and all that glitters.

Sunday, 15 July 2007

For Auntie Leeta's benefit, there are NO spider pictures in today's blog!

We have spent today in Ikea, a necessary evil. Our poor house has had every spare inch thoughtfully used for storage and we have to constantly invent new ways to store 'stuff'. So today's outing was to find suitable storage for books which used to be homed downstairs before we had major alterations done. I cannot bear not having books around me. In our last house we even had a library! Our book collection has been drastically thinned out since we moved to Yorkshire, but I simply cannot part with my reference books. We could not find the right size bookcase in Ikea, but we bought one too big and clever Gary re-made it to just the right size for our bedroom. This is phase one of 'The Big Clearout' which is taking place starting tomorrow. It involves a lot of re-shuffling, selling on eBay and Freecycling. In order to get the bookcase in the bedroom we have had to move two large boxes of bear making supplies onto the landing. I will now have to decide what I'm keeping and what I am going to put on eBay. I have so much stuff to put on eBay that I can't stand it!


I was telling you yesterday about the items I inherited from my Gran's sewing box. I have loads of cool vintage ribbons and braids, but what I love most are all the razzle dazzle glitzy fabrics. My Gran was a very glamorous woman and loved to sew her own party frocks. Long ago I started to take some of her old dresses to pieces to salvage the fabric and last week I finished the job of cutting off all the seams and unusable pieces and ironing it all. I now have a lovely pile of scrummy, groovy sparkly fabric to use in future projects.



One of Gran's beautiful home made dresses. :0)


I have been busy gathering supplies for Livvie's art quilt. I trawled the charity shops of Barnsley for suitable backing fabric, but would you believe I couldn't find a thing? I had to buy a piece from eBay in the end. If only Auntie Tina was nearer I'd raid her wardrobe as she's a turquoise freak and that's just the colour I needed! So far I have buttons, beads, ribbons and braids. I already have the flesh coloured felt for the skin tone. I will use a set of dyes that I have to colour the border. I thought I'd spray on different colours for a muted effect. Oh and because I have just had an operation (most private and personal) Gary said I could have a poorly person present. So I ordered some 4mm silk ribbon from America....and then some embroidery books....and some silk thread....and then some 7mm silk ribbon for dying. Maybe I can sell some of that when it's dyed on eBay?

The silk embroidery threads in the foreground, the silk ribbons in the background and the beads from Penny to the right.
Some spangly stuff I found at Barnsley Market. More Barnsley finds.

For those that have never seen it, this is ribbon embroidery. Pretty isn't it? :0)

Now, about Insey Winsey. He lurks beneath the big cupboard still....teasing me....slipping a little hairy leg out from within the shadows...taunting me....then he DASHES across the floor sending me screaming into the other room! That of course sends him scuttling back into the bowels of hell from whence he came. We have tried three times to catch him now, but each time the little bugger gets away. I keep sneaking in to take a photo for you (Don't worry Leeta, you will have a written warning at the head of the blog) but he's a little camera shy and prefers to run out when I'm least expecting it. Maybe we can become friends? Or maybe I'll suck the little s**t up with the vacuum nozzle? Not really, I'd never hurt him. That's why we can't catch him, because we are afraid of nipping his leg under the glass. ;0) And before you ask, I know it's a male spider because he's wearing size 10 hobnail boots!
So, that just about wraps it up for today. I'll let you know how the start of 'The Big Clearout' goes tomorrow....

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