Surely not again, Sharon!

Contrary to how it must appear, I haven't been spending all my time slogging away in the garden... 

oh no, my lovelies...

I've also been creating a mess in my craft room 😏

"Ooooh, have you been busy making lovely things, then?" I hear you ask.....nope, I'm sorry to have to tell you that I've just been using it as a dumping ground yet again 😒

I amaze myself sometimes with just how messy I can be!  Anyhoo, I took the opportunity of tidying up one afternoon when the weather wasn't conducive to working in the garden.  I really want to make time to work on my dolls houses, too, and I will be sharing more about that on my other blog at some point 😉

It didn't take as long as I feared it might, to be honest.  Sometimes the thought of starting something is worse than actually getting on with it!

A couple of the crates on the bench have stuff in them that I want to try selling on Ebay rather than just taking to our local charity shops.  I've been putting off doing it for months and months, but it would free up more space if I got the job done so it's on my "ought-to-do-very-soon" list 😄

Beverly put up my new bunting and the beaded door curtain when she was over recently, which saved me from having to climb up the stepladder to do it myself or having to ask Adrian to do it for me.  It always feels really good when the room is nice and tidy, so I really should make the effort to keep it that way!

We've had some days when the weather hasn't been good for gardening, so I've been able to make a start on a new dolls house project ~ there'll be more to come on that in due course 😊

Finished ~ I think!

image from Freepik

Earlier in the week I showed you the progress I'd made with the sorting and rearranging of my craft room.  I've been working away out there some more since then, and I think it's just about how I want it ~ for the time being, at least 😏

As I mentioned in that previous post, the stuff I'd put to one side for donation was collected last Friday, so that left me with a nice space... 

which I have now filled with a smaller sideboard, moved from beside the door.  I still need to empty it out and sort through what's in there, but I'm pleased to now have more floor space to move around! 

My craft book collection has been considerably reduced, and as I mentioned previously it now fits in just these two narrow white bookshelves.  As you can see I have also gone through my doll collection, keeping only a few of them ~ another of those Very Big Decisions 😳

The brown bookshelf (which was actually where Adrian housed his LP collection back-in-the-day!) is now devoted to sewing ~ books, patterns, fabric, etc.  The fabric had previously been stored in the large pine sideboard that was donated, and as a temporary measure I have simply wrapped the pieces in bin-bags.  I will eventually sort the fabric in a more orderly fashion, though.

The white plastic drawers, which are filled with dolls' house odds and ends, fitted between the sideboard and bookshelves beautifully.  They are now tucked away, leaving more space within the room, but everything is easily accessible. 

And this is why I wanted to create more space: to make myself a little sewing area 😊 I did have a pretty old sewing machine, which I donated as it wasn't working properly.  Restart, I hasten to add, have qualified staff to check over and fix electrical items that are donated to them.

I decided to use some money I had inherited to buy myself a modern sewing machine, something I'd been wanting to do for a long time but felt that I couldn't really justify.  I've wanted to try my hand at sewing for a very long time and now I have the space and opportunity to do so 😊

I also got myself a dressmakers dummy as I thought it would be easier than just struggling to make alterations, etc, on myself!  She is, alas, not as chunky as your's truly so I will have to add padding to Miss Flossie at some point😳  I started off with the sewing table (which belonged to my mother-in-law and still has the original sewing machine inside!) and Flossie positioned as above...

but it didn't feel quite right, so I shunted them around to this position ~ you wouldn't believe how heavy that sewing table is 😒

I didn't really like Miss Flossie standing with her back to me, though...

so I swiveled her around...

which was, I felt much better 😊  I'm so pleased with the progress that I've made in the craft room.  It wasn't an easy decision to cut down so drastically but I know that it was the right thing to do ~ and who knows, I may yet decide to do little more downsizing once I get going with my craft projects again 😉 

Cutting back ~ part two

In a previous post I mentioned that I had decided to cut back, amongst other things, my crafting aspirations ~ which, of course, has created a fair bit of upheaval and chaos!  To be perfectly honest, my lovelies, I hadn't finished the major sorting-out that I'd started way back in 2023 😲 I did make a little more progress last year, as can be seen in previous posts, but of course since then I have had to make more "big decisions" which has turned everything somewhat upside-down again 😏 

The first thing I decided to tackle was my book collection.  The photo above makes said collection seem as if it just needs a bit of tidying-up....oh no, my lovelies, this was just a small part of the books I have accumulated ~ the rest were scattered throughout the craft room, piled on surfaces and hiding in boxes and bags 😲  It was a mammoth operation just to gather all the buggers up into one place, I can tell you!

I made a Very Big Decision that my collection of craft books would be confined to just these two slender white bookshelves.  I'm not quite up-to-date with my photo records so will share more photos later, but I almost managed to achieve my goal.  In the end a handful of the books have been allowed to live in other bookshelf, which was empty when I took this photo.  I'll explain more in an upcoming post 😉

I had already made enquiries at the Stromness Library as to whether they take books, and was delighted to find that they do.  Apparently, if the books aren't suitable for being integrated into the library system they will be put into their regular sales of old/unwanted books, which of course then raises funds for the service 😊  As you can see, I have sorted out a helluva lot of books (yet to be trundled down there) for donation to the library...  

plus those in the photo above, which I didn't think were quite right for the library, to go to local charity shops. 

The books, along with the bags in the photo above, have since all been taken the our local Orkney Cats and Red Cross charity shops.  In fact, this photo only shows the first batch of donations as I filled even more bags as I went through everything!  It wasn't all from the craft room, I hasten to add, some was stuff that I had put to one side thinking that I might try to sell them on Ebay or our local Facebook market place.  In the end, I decided to go through all of that "put aside" stuff as well and whittled it down to a more realistic amount to try to sell.

I also gathered together things to donate to Employability Orkney-Restart Orkney, which they came out to collect last Friday.  As you can see there was a sideboard and cupboard that was donated, which means that I will shortly be rearranging the remaining furniture in the craft room...

which should give me more space to move about...

and set up a new hobby area ~ more about that later 😉

And finally, I made a Very Big Decision indeed which lead to this work table becoming ~ temporarily, at least! ~ empty 😳  I shall be posting about that decision on my other blog in due course but I'm sure that you will be able to make an educated guess as to what that's going to be about 😄

Seeing where I've been

image from Freepik

When I last posted photos of my progress in the craft room it was, admittedly, pretty hard to see what had actually been done in there 😏  I was finding it very frustrating, to be honest, as it seemed that no sooner had I cleared a surface than it was covered in stuff again!  Then suddenly I was clearing a surface ~ and it was finally staying clear 👏  

In our previous home this desk was used for our computer, up in the smallest bedroom.  When we moved here, though, the only place we could put the computer was out in the hallway and this desk was just too wide for the space.  I was able to fit it in my craft room quite nicely, though.  It's now what I think of as my "clean" work area ~ no dolls' house construction/deconstruction on that lovely pine desk top 😉  Having said that, though, I'll be happy to do other "messy" crafts on the desk as I have quite a supply of puppy pads, that I kept when Matty passed away, that I can use to protect the surface.  It's now back to being the ideal space to write down all my ideas and plans for working on the dolls' houses, not least because when I lift my head to do a spot of thinking I have a lovely, albeit distant, view of the Orphir hills 😊

The table to the right of the desk used to be on the other side of the room and was where I had clamped my scroll saw, although it wasn't as stable as I would have liked.  It fitted in this corner perfectly, though, and has made very good use of the space as two-tier storage.  The space beneath the table is now being used for a few things that were a bit large to fit elsewhere, along with my little vacuum cleaner.

The crate and box currently on top won't be there forever.  They contain bits and pieces for Augusta Lodge which will, obviously, be used as the build progresses.  I do have some "permanent" storage beneath the wall sockets, which I've rearranged slightly since I took this photo.  I've now got my collection of buttons there, along with the jar of vintage sewing threads, which used to be on the bookcase near the door.  Moving them has freed up some more shelf space for my craft books, which I desperately needed!

When the crate and box have finally been emptied out, I shall leave the space bare ready for the next build.  It's really useful to have space to keep my working pieces close to the project currently being worked on.  

The work tables are now all set up, too.  As you can see, I moved the crate of wood strips up from the floor so that I could put my heater there instead.  I decided to use this slightly smaller table to store my tools so that they are all close to hand and easily seen.

The larger table is where I will be doing all my dolls' house construction/kit-bashing.  The pieces of MDF beneath the table are all connected to Augusta Lodge, so won't be languishing there forever 😉  Ooopsies, look at all those bits on the floor ~ I must vacuum when I've finished sorting and tidying!    

You may recall that I have a tall set of white plastic storage drawers opposite the work tables.  I sorted through them last year, filling them mainly with small dolls' house-related items.  The drawers were absolutely stuffed, mainly I think because all the bits and pieces were in little plastic bags.  I came across this set of clear plastic storage drawers in a pile of stuff that I was sorting through.  It is actually supposed to be for storing washi tapes, but I bought it earlier this year as it seemed perfect to store little things in.  I decided to use it for all the little dolls' house ornaments ~ and other bits and pieces that could be used as ornaments ~ that I've gathered together over the years.  

I have quite a collection, as you can see!  I've since squeezed in a few more pieces that have come to light during my sorting out exercises.

The things in the rear section of this drawer are more hobbies and pastimes, rather than ornaments.  I've got a few things in this drawer in particular that weren't specifically dolls' house items, but they are small enough to be used in that way.

I wasn't sure if I would fit everything in it, to be honest, but once the pieces were out of their little bags they slotted in very nicely.

It now sits on the white plastic drawers, the perfect place for me to "shop from my stash" for those little finishing touches as I complete each of my dolls' house builds 😊

 

And there it was...

all gone!

The wind and rain disposed of the snow, thankfully.  Snowy scenes are very lovely to look at ~ rather less lovely to try to get out and about in!  And now that I'm in my 60s, I'm much more conscious that a fall could do more damage than it might have done a few years ago 😳

I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks back that there were still a handful of flowers to be seen in the garden.  Before the snow arrived the patio roses were putting out some new buds, and Eustacia Vye had two that were opening.  All the unopened buds seem to have come through the snow unscathed but the two above are looking a tad brown on the edges of the petals.  I deliberately chose repeat flowering roses, and I'm really pleased to see them living up to their descriptions of flowering into early winter 😊

With the snow all washed away, I had no excuse for not getting out to the craft room yesterday 😄 I just took a handful of photos to share, as it really doesn't look like I've done anything much out there at all ~ despite working for a few hours both in the morning and after lunch!

I mentioned previously that I'd bought some vinyl cloths to cover the old work bench and the new work tables.  The cloth on the old work bench is in a grey linen effect, and makes a nice surface for the dolls' houses to sit on as it sort of resembles concrete.  I think I will buy some more pieces to lay beneath the houses that will be displayed on the other cabinets.  It'll probably be better to get the cloths bought sooner rather than later so that they match the piece I've already got.  Wow, look at me ~ thinking ahead for once 😉   

It was a tad chilly in the craft room, so I wheeled out my trusty little oil-filled heater.  I haven't used it very much since I've had it so I had to have a good look at the instructions again 😏 It's very efficient and soon warms the room very nicely indeed.  It isn't in the most convenient position here, though, so I think I will shuffle things around when I've got more space cleared.

The two new work tables are now covered with vinyl cloths in a rustic brown oak plank effect.  You'd think it would be a simple job to just chuck some cloths over the bloody things, but there was a fair bit of tugging and shuffling involved to get said cloths laying how I wanted them 😒 The cloth to the right is all tucked up, by the way, as I decided to leave my Dremel scroll saw permanently clamped to the table.  I may scoot it along more towards the middle of the table, though, as it's rather close to my working area.

The two little white (bedside!) cabinets fit perfectly beneath the table, with some space left on top of them for storing other things.  I've had them for a number of years and the drawers are very handy for storing smaller items, although I was thinking yesterday that it might be a good idea to label said drawers with their contents 😄 

This was another "little" job that took absolutely ages to accomplish.  All these odds and ends had been just stuffed haphazardly into a cardboard box previously.  I've decided that if I'm going to make my craft room a comfortable space to work in, then I first need to get to grips with sorting and tidying everything in there.  It's very frustrating trying to find things that I'm sure I have but just can't find.  Anyhoo, all the pieces in this crate are now taped like-with-like, and the oddments are all together in a separate pot within the crate.  I also placed another plastic box in the crate as well to keep the lengths of wood better corralled.  It actually started life as a shoe box but the front flap broke ~ I simply flipped it on it's end and it became perfect for the job 😊  (Further up the page you can see a second repurposed shoe box, again due to the front flap breaking, which I'm using for dolls' house wallpaper beneath the old work bench.)

This would actually be a more convenient place for the heater, so I may see if there is enough floor space to squeeze the crate beside the left-hand work table.

The contents of these two crates had been in one very much larger crate.  I'd just used it as a dumping ground for odds and ends of wood ~ or so I thought.  Once I'd decided that it would be more workable to have a couple of smaller crates rather than the big one, I obviously started to empty it out.  Yes, there were indeed the odds and ends that I thought were in there.....along with quite a supply of dolls' house windows, doors, and stairs 😮  I was very annoyed with myself, as I bought a load for Augusta Lodge that I wouldn't have needed to had I been keeping everything tidy 😒  Oh well, I suppose they will be made use of at some point with other kit-bashing projects 😏 

Hopefully I'll continue to make progress in the craft room this week, and have more to show for my efforts!  In the meantime, I'll leave you with the beautiful sight that greeted me when I opened the bedroom curtains this morning 😍

A new elephant to chomp!

image from Clipart Library

Well not exactly a new elephant, more an old one revisited 😏  Last June my craft room was in a terrible mess but by August I had managed to tame the chaos.  Fast forward a year and chaos was once again reigning supreme *sigh*  Lovely Lyndi helped me to make some Big Decisions last year about what to keep and what to sell or donate.

We also knew that we wanted a cupboard of some sort in the newly-finished porch, so I suggested to Adrian that we could use the rather nice pine one from the craft room.  It had previously been in the dining room of our old house but we didn't need it indoors when we moved here.  So moving that out created even more upheaval in the craft room!

Unfortunately, with one thing or another, I didn't actually get round to working through the sell or donate pile and "stuff" started to pile up once again.  Before I knew it, I was back to square one and feeling even more dispirited than I had done last year 😔 

Lyndi had helped me to rearrange the furniture in the craft room last year and although it was better than it had previously been, I was still somewhat dissatisfied with the layout.  Some of the problem lay in the fact that the workbench, although lovely and sturdy, is nigh-on impossible to clamp anything to as the top doesn't project far enough over the supporting struts beneath.  I thought that if I could replace it with something more suitable, it would make an admirable platform to display some of my dolls' houses, with space beneath for storage crates.

I had been mulling over possible solutions for quite some time, taking lots of measurements of both the space available and the furniture I already had to slot into said space.  In the end I found these two work tables to replace the old bench, which Adrian and I shuffled round to a different position to become a dolls' house display/storage area.  As you can see, the new work tables don't match but unfortunately I didn't have enough space to fit in two of the larger ones.  I wanted to make as much use of the space as possible, hence the two different tables.  I have since bought some oilcloth to cover them both, so hopefully the difference in size will be less noticeable although to be honest it doesn't really matter to me.  I also bought some oilcloth to cover the old bench, in a plain grey design that sort of resembles concrete, to make a better looking base for the houses that will be displayed on it. 

This, I'm afraid, is the mess I've left myself with yet again...

It's amazing, really, just how much chaos one woman can create 😳

It was really tricky to get through the door, let alone walk around in the room itself!

In the end, I had to give myself a good talking to and just tackle it one little section at a time ~ you know, eating that elephant 😉

The sideboard, that it just about visible next to the bookcase, used to be tucked into the corner to the left.  I moved the crates that used to be here to stand beside the old work bench, as you can see in the photo further up the page.

We have various items to donate to Restart, and I have made a start selling some bits and pieces on our local Facebook marketplace.  The green and white striped container has a blanket project in it that I'd forgotten I'd started 😏 I've brought it indoors now to join the queue behind the other projects I currently have on the go 😉  

As you can see, I have a number of dolls' house projects waiting to be started 😄

I decided last year that I would let my vintage doll collection go, so they are still in crates waiting for me to list them on Ebay.  

I shall probably rearrange the stuff on the bookshelves at some point, but Gervaise, Jolly Molly, and Gloria will stay where they are.  They like to see what's going on in the craft room and supervise my antics 😊