Faery Scrap Tales

Skips and fearless cats

Spent most of the day trying to find a skip company - they seem to be very thin on the ground round here. Finally found one that gave me a reasonable quote, fingers crossed it should be here next Wednesday. The best thing about it though is that my lovely Mum has offered to lend us the money for it - she knows things are a bit tight just now and told me to pay her back when dh finds a new job.

Grandad measured up for the wood today - i've decided to have one wall of shelves running the full length of the wall from floor to ceiling, and on the opposite wall, shelves slightly shorter and starting a bit higher up. I'm hoping that we should be able to get most of the books from our bedroom on them, and it will be fab to be able to go to sleep at night in a bedroom that doesn't resemble a library store room :) He's also offered to put in a couple of shelves above where my scrapping table will be, which will come in handy for all my scrapping books and little bits & pieces.

Now the room is empty we've been leaving the window open in there - was nearly impossible to get to it before, never mind open it! Anyway, this morning i went in to open the curtains and got the shock of my life - cat no. 4 perched up on the window sill!!! Not that bad i know but she's such a tiny cat she can just about fit through the gap. Of course i had to dash off and get the camera, so here's a pic :) It's a bit poor as i couldn't get round the sun streaming through the window. If you click on the pic to enlarge it, it'll give you an idea of just how precarious she looks!

Off to bed now to dream about tins of paint and colour charts - i may have decided on pink but i can't decide on what shade of pink!

Decisions, decisions!

Now that the majority of the junk has been cleared, the really hard work starts! I think i've decided on a colour scheme - i'm going girly, with lots of pink and a few touches of turquoisey blue - ie. the storage baskets i already own! As it's going to be my sanctuary away from the clutter of the rest of the house, painting the walls pink is going to be an excellent way of keeping dh out. He's already mentioning hooking up some of his vintage game consoles as there will be plenty of room. As this doesn't fit in with my craft room/library there's no way this is happening and what dh doesn't know is that said vintage game consoles are getting listed on eBay very soon!

We're going to measure up tomorrow for wood to build shelves - i've decided to have them running the full length of 2 walls as i really want to get rid of most of the books out of our bedroom. The blanket box - which still hasn't been emptied - is going to sit in front of the window with the tv on and my scrapping table is going along the wall by the door. I'm hoping i can find someone to give me a lift to Leeds so i can go to IKEA and get some bits & bobs. I hate not having one close by and can't believe i haven't set foot in one for nearly 6 years! Hmmm, maybe i should try talking my sister & brother-in-law into coming up for a visit and they can take me :)

How many black bags?

Dejunking is going well! I still can't believe it's finally happening but i'm chuffed to bits :) The old bed went out today - just!! It got stuck in the lounge door as dh and Grandad were bringing it through and for a bit it was looking like it was going to have to stay. After a bit of brute force though it went, and has now joined the black bag mountain outside. All that's left in the back bedroom now are a dining room table (which is going to become my scrapping table), a very old desk which will be dismantled in the next couple of days, an old office style chair, a large blanket box and a footstool. The only thing that's staying is the blanket box - once it's been emptied - as i'm going to put my television on it, and dh has said he might even get me a dvd player! To give you an idea of just how much rubbish has gone out, here's a pic of the black bag mountain :)

Hopefully, when this room is done, we're going to start on Grandad's bedroom as that's just as bad - i expect we'll be needing another skip though as i think the junk from my soon-to-be craft room is going to fill one by itself! There'll be another bed to go out as we need to get Grandad a new one, there are also 3 sets of drawers in his room and some wall cabinets that can go too. It's probably going to take us a few months to get everything done but at least we've made a start after waiting for 3+ years.

I'm hopefully going to make a start on my current circle journal as well, probably tomorrow! Need to find somewhere that lists the the top 40 singles and albums going back to the day/week i was born, have got a few sites bookmarked for finding out events that happened the day i was born so that's going to make my entry a bit easier to do! Still not sorted my new stash from Saturday - with all this dejunking going on i've been far too disorganised! I think i'll need to get some more RUB's in various sizes as everything is piling up again. Sticking to the stash diet though, not bought any stash for over 48 hours! That's a record for me :) Oh, and i'm not including the cuttlebug dies i'm getting from a pal as in my book they count as a tool, and i don't have to pay her until we meet up next month!

Going to see if i can persuade dh to empty the blanket box and desk now, not much chance but it won't hurt to ask :)

No time to blog!

I have been absolutely hopeless at updating my blog this week - i feel like i haven't had a minute to myself but it's all in a good cause :) On Tuesday dh - with a little bit of help from Grandad and under excellent supervision from me - finally started clearing out the back bedroom or the junk room as it's been better known as!!! Eleven black bags went out that day, another nine went out Thursday and three went out on Friday. It's just as well we have high gates and no-one can see down our driveway as it's totally covered!!! Yesterday, while i was at Harrogate, the mattresses from the single bed went out along with 4 rugs that haven't been used for years and a box full of old models that the cats had destroyed! There's still a lot more to do but you can see most of the floor now - such a lovely carpet, said in my best sarcastic tone - and the room already looks twice as big.

I now need to start saving for wood to make shelves, paint (colour undecided), new curtains and a new carpet. I was hoping the one that's down would do for a while but now you can see it clearly it definitely needs to be replaced. The biggest expense is going to be getting the window replaced - i'm hoping that we'll be able to find a company that will put in a double glazed window for a reasonable price. We can't afford to get all the windows done at once so fingers crossed someone will do them one at a time.

Yesterday was the Papercrafts Extravaganza at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate - my lovely neighbour picked me up and we spent a few hours there buying lovely new stash :) It was my last blowout before my new stricter stash diet rules come into force so i made the most of it!!! I got the 12x12 DCWV Pocket Full of Posies paper pack, 2 of the new Dovecraft Designer paper packs - Abstract and Amethyst Floral, 20 sheets of Bazzill in assorted colours on special offer, a 6x6 paper pad of Basic Grey Phoebe, a load of 7Gypsies bits 'n' bobs, some fabulous wood mounted stamps for an amazing price (wish i'd got more of them!) and a huge stack of collage pieces for atc's, inchies and so on :) I also got to meet up with one of my UKS team mates as well which was lovely, and i met a couple of the ladies who do the Leeds crop which i might be going to - so nice to be able to put faces to usernames!

Off to have a stare at the junk room, then have to somehow rearrange my stash to fit in yesterday's purchases - a tough job but someone's got to do it!

Bits 'n' bobs

A fab start to the day here - woke up to find that the gales during the night have wrecked half the car port :(  There's a beam hanging down almost snapped in half and the fence panel with the gate to next door in has buckled and the gate won't open! I'm terrified the whole thing is going to come crashing down but as the winds have not really let up today, neither dh or Grandad could get out there to do anything. Ooooh, and we had snow!!! For all of two minutes :( I don't think we'll get any more as we had lots of slushy sleet this afternoon and it's very cold out there now, probably too cold for snow.

Nothing vaguely 'scrappy' achieved here today - have wasted most of my time pootling about on the web and reading my book. I think the anaemia symptoms are kicking in again as i've got that horrible tiredness and my hair is falling out again too - will try increasing my iron p*lls again and see if i can stave off another trip to the hospital.

Highlight of my day tomorrow will be heading into town to buy new bedding - i desperately need a new pillow and i want to replace some of our old duvet covers. Ho hum, i lead such an exciting life!

Giant chocolate buttons

were on the menu tonight! It was the night when everyone's musical taste left the building and watched Making Your Mind Up to choose our Eurovision song for this year! As usual there was a spectacular array of almost has-beens singing their hearts out and at the end of the night, after a monumental c**k-up by Terry Wogan announcing the wrong winner, the cheesiest act won the British vote - the important question is will they beat the 16th place last year's act secured??? We'll find out on May 12th :)

Today was a funny kind of day - dh seems to be very upbeat about the whole job thing after being so down last night, i've even managed to persuade him to come to Harrogate with me next weekend on the train as my promised lift fell through and it looked like i wasn't going to be able to go. I had a few hours to myself as well as dh and his Grandad went off into town to have the obligatory St. Patricks Day drink. I had all sorts of grand plans of getting some scrapping done and sorting out the 13 pizza boxes full of stash that are quietly gathering round my desk. What did i do instead??? I watched American Idol! I missed it last night as i was sucked into Comic Relief, mainly to see if my favourite, Tara Palmer Tompkinson, won Celebrity Fame Academy which she did!!!

I shall hopefully get something done tomorrow - i really want to have a go at the exploding pyramid project posted on A Spoonful of Sprinkles by the fabulously talented Pam but i'm not sure my "straight line with a ruler" skills are up to it! Still, i shall do my best and i need to do something "scrappy" to kickstart me again - yes, my mojo was only temporarily returned :(  I found a note from it this morning saying it had gone on holiday to the Carribbean!

Pizza boxes galore!!

Yesterday ended up being a write-off as my best friend Mr. Headache came to visit - i ended up going to bed late afternoon and not surfacing until this morning. It must have done the trick though as i just have a faint niggle left now. I think i'll make an appointment with the opticians as i'm sure my glasses aren't strong enough now and could be causing the headaches.

The day started well with the arrival of not 1, not 2 but 3 pizza boxes full of yummy goodies!! My monthly Scrapagogo kit arrived full of luscious Daisy D papers, my project kit (also from Scrapagogo) was pizza box no. 2 and in box no. 3 was my card kit club goodies. A bit sad to open that one as there was a note included saying this was the last one :( It was full of georgeous black and red  goodies, which i seem to be using a lot of just now along with cream so i shall definitely be using all of that! I'm a bit perplexed too as i'm trying to solve a Bazzill cardstock problem - in the last Scrapagogo kit there was a gorgeous piece of cream coloured c/s and i can't figure out exactly what colour it is. This is why i dearly wish there was a decent craft shop here so i could see stuff in real life and actually get more of the same.

DH didn't get the phone call he was expecting today about the job - he's so depressed about the whole job thing now, especially as they called him back for a second interview and gave him the impression the job was his :(  Oh well, back to the drawing board! He's going to spend the weekend printing off more cv's to get sent out on Monday. In the meantime i think i've managed to persuade him to get started on all the jobs that need doing round the house to keep him occupied! Watch this space :)

M.I.A.

Well, i went missing for a few days - i went off in search of my ooomph and i'm happy to report i found it!!! Not all of it but enough to get the cj entry i was working on done. I was so worried about "Quotable Quotes" but i found a fab quote and everything just fell into place :) I received the next one this morning - "Day I Was Born" and i'm looking forward to doing it, will have to wait a while though as i need a baby photo and i don't have any up here. One phone call to Mum later and a selection of photos will be on their way shortly!

DH's interview last week went really well, so well in fact that today he had a second interview. Hopefully he should find out in the next couple of days whether he's got it or not. Cat no. 2 - who was missing - finally decided to come home - he announced his prescence outside at 3am wailing loudly! I have no idea where he's been but he looks fine and doesn't appear to have been unfed.

Trying to get hold of my neighbour about going to Harrogate next week and i haven't been able to get through. It'll be just typical that now i've a got a free ticket i won't be able to go :( Oh well, it'll just mean that i'll stick to the old stash diet a bit longer. I'm also finally going to a crop!!! Woo hoo!!! I posted on UKS about finding a crop here and the lady who runs the crop in Leeds (about 26 miles away) suggested i go that one. Fingers crossed, as long as i get to the station, someone will be able to pick me up. I'm very nervous about this though as having never been to one before i'm not quite sure what to expect. I'm definitely ready though and i think it'll give me the encouragement i need to start scrapping more :)

Missing oomph

As promised, one slightly more upbeat day :) Feeling brighter - even though i have a new permanent resident known as Mr. Headache - and even felt alright doing the shopping! In other words, i managed to get round the whole supermarket without fainting - a great achievement! Had a quick look for some storage boxes that sound rather cool according to a couple of my UKS team mates who got some, but as usual our Tesco didn't have any. I did find a couple of collapsible crates that were reduced so i nabbed them, one to put my paints in and the other for misc. stuff that doesn't currently have a home.

I finished off my last couple of lists today for my book so will start putting it together tomorrow - i've decided to use the forgotten stash of 7Gypsies papers i found as they're just too nice to sit in a pizza box for much longer. Still not done my cj entry and posting day is rapidly approaching - if i could just remember the quote dh came out with the other day i'd be fine. None of the ones i picked seem quite 'right' but i expect i'll have to go with one of them. This is where i'm missing my oomph - i just need to go with something and do it! Got lots of other stuff planned out in my head too but am suffering severe 'i'll do it tomorrow'-itis :)

Still no sign of cat no. 2 - the little monster is probably living it up somewhere and not sparing a thought for any of us humans. This is now officially the longest he's ever been gone - here's hoping he just shows up on the car port roof like last time :(

Welcome to Dullsville

I know i said i'd have a more interesting day today but i'll be honest - i didn't!! Absolutely nothing is going on and it almost seems a waste to write a blog entry. The most exciting thing that happened - my stash came from Happy Scrappers! This was the stash that dh bought for me last week, and it's all absolutely lovely. Lots of 3 Bugs in a Rug papers, a load of cardstock and fabby rubons :)

I'm think i'm going to use the papers to make my 'My Life in Lists' book that Sprogpaws is currently challenging us all to do :) I may well change my mind though as i just found a pizza box full of lurvely 7Gypsies papers that i'd forgotten i'd had! I'm nearly done with my lists, just 2 more to write and then i shall make a start on the book itself.

If anyone has good thoughts to spare, please send them this way - cat no. 2 has been missing for nearly 5 days :( He's not been here or at his second home and we're all a wee bit worried. He couldn't have disappeared at a worse time - especially for Grandad - as it's the 1st anniversary of cat no. 5 passing away due to a brain tumour.

I promise tomorrow will be more upbeat :)

Sensible option

I went with the sensible option and bought stash - to be exact i treated myself to a yellow box in the Mellow Yellow Box sale over at Scrapagogo so i'm very happy now :)

It's been a typical Sunday here, very quiet and absolutely nothing done! I made dinner in the slow cooker for the first time in ages, i think everyone enjoyed it as there was nothing left afterwards! As it's been such a boring day i'm off to bed to read - dh is watching Wimbledon for the 99th time so i'm leaving him to it. I promise i'll be back with a more interesting day tomorrow :)

Sheds and moons!

It was a total eclipse of the moon tonight - i've spent most of the evening popping and out of the house taking photos! The only problem with this is that it's absolutely freezing outside, the downside of getting clear skies to actually see the eclipse in the first place. After getting on & off my perch (an old crate) and failing to take any decent pics because i was shaking so much, i sent dh out to get some photos. Boy was that a bad idea! Even though it's kind of hard to miss the moon, he did, and took a lovely shot of the garden shed! One of my team mates on UKS asked if i was going to scrap it! Of course i am :) I think i'm going to start an album specially for dh featuring odd photos and other peculiar happenings featuring him!

I sent off my inchies yesterday for the swap on UKStampers and they arrived safely at their destination this morning. If anyone wants to see all 26 of them, they're now up in the gallery over at Stamp Galaxy! After all my moaning about them though, i decided i liked doing them so have signed up for another swap. Another pal from UKS is trying to set up an art doll swap so have told her to count me in for that if/when it gets off the ground - been wanting to try one for a while so this will be a great oppurtunity.

I got a refund to my Pay*pal account yesterday from an order that i placed before Christmas - am sat here wondering whether to be good and save it or just blow it on stash?? I really want to get the other two sets of the new Basic Grey papers :)

I'll leave you with a pic of the eclipse taken on my phone, so not very clear!

Strange happenings

After last night's rather huge shock of dh buying me stash, he's done it again!! Not only offering to buy me more stash and asking if there was anything i needed, i also got to see the episodes of The Dresden Files i missed! An even bigger bonus was that there was no football on the tv :)

DH got a rather strange phone call from his ex-employers today as well. It started when he checked the bank to realise that his redundancy money hadn't gone in. Shortly after this his regional manager called and said that all the redundancies were likely to be cancelled, everyone had to be back at work next week and to treat the last couple of weeks as unpaid leave - so glad we don't have a mortgage to pay as this will leave us incredibly short for 5 weeks. I'm happy that it looks like dh can give up on the job hunting but i'm so annoyed that all this happened just as the move to Aberdeen was going ahead. Luckily dh managed to ask his boss about this and it looks like it might still go ahead but not in April :( Of course, no redundancy money means no shiny new computer so will have to hope this heap of junk keeps functioning!!!

Still going with "My Life in Lists" - have decided to write all my lists out, especially as i keep thinking of extra ones, before i put the book together so i don't run out of whatever paper i use. I'm also still doing the 52 cards challenge from Emily but got a bit sidetracked with my inchies - this weeks prompt (or was it last week? Easily confused me!) even coincided with the Lists project!

No photos likely to appear this week - having problems with the camera on my phone - but i'll get some up soon. My headache and i are off to bed now, hopefully to get a good nights sleep!