So Much Stuff, So Little TIme

For some years now we have known that we should downsize and find a new home with fewer rooms and a smaller garden. But whenever we start to think about it seriously we can't quite manage to do anything about it. We are lucky to have a beautiful house with lots of space, I have the perfect kitchen, a dedicated studio and the garden is spacious, backing onto open fields. I have lived here for twenty eight years, my children all grew up here and so there feels like a lot of emotional investment has gone into this house. It is the longest I have lived anywhere - almost half my life. Plus we love the village and village life and have many friends here, so we would be loathed to move away from the area. But the time has finally come when we really do need to make the move and so very slowly we are starting to make lists of things we need to do, whilst keeping an eye on any suitable properties that might be coming on the market in our area.

First on the list is a serious declutter. There is twenty eight years worth of stuff in my cupboards! Bit by bit I am going through boxes and wardrobes, clearing shelves and cupboards, wondering why I've hung on to so much. There have been numerous trips to the charity shop and the local dump. Of course this has also turned up half finished projects and things put aside for when I get the time to do something about them. One of those things I have been meaning to do for ages was to make seat covers for a pair of cheap Ikea stools. And in clearing out I also found the perfect bag of left over yarn with which to do it.

And so of course, instead of doing all the things I really should be doing,  I found a a mandala pattern by Annemarie Huijser featured in Mollie Makes  (because I had been sorting and throwing out old magazines) and I set to work. The pattern didn't make a large enough circle so I improvised until it was the right size.

I admit there was some unravelling and rejigging to make it fit properly but I'm happy with the result.

Of course, this is only one stool covered and there isn't enough yarn to make a second matching cover but I'm ignoring that and just enjoying my one pretty stool!

 

Which is just as well as I don't need the distraction of another crochet project when there really is still much to be done in the clearing of this house and I should also be getting on making wedding waistcoats. Although before the wedding there is going to be a mini exhibition of my portraits in a week or so (all will be revealed soon) so I'm also madly stitching these in an effort to have a critical mass to put on show.

So far I have done fourteen little free machined portraits mounted into 5" hoops.

They are quite addictive and as I work each one, I think of another I could do.

 

But as well as all that, I'm also away teaching for the next two weekends so there are bags to be packed and materials to be prepared.

No time at all for writing blogposts really!