What I've been doing

 We hope to move soon although getting a rental home with three dogs, even if they are tiny, is not going to be easy.

Howeve, the decision to move has been made so I am slowly getting ready.

At the moment that just means culling the contents of this house so that it will be easier to move.

Our present house is high set so everything that leaves the house has to be taken down stairs. That does not make for any easy move.

Today I cleaned out my special kitchen cupboard. Mostly it just needed a clean with soap and water as it is right next to the stove and appears to allow a whiff of oily air in. I was happy to see that despite a couple of years of no attention my cupboards are in really good shape.

It was a pleasure handling all those vintage and collector plates.
I think I might hang some up in the new house as the really aren't that heavy and I should be able to use those horrid rental hooks without fear of them falling off. 

 

I rediscovered these 'Original Suffolk Cannisters' that I had picked up at a garage sale a while ago.

Although I do like them I'm thinking of selling them on ebay as they are too good to just leave in the cupboard unused. 

The same with the retro Royal Worcester egg cups. They are cute but really not me so it is time to let them go.

To keep in with everyone else I should be retro but the truth is I prefer vintage feminine and floral. 

Two of my large cannisters finally got the shove today. It was really hard to throw them out as originally they made a set of five in descending order but now I only have three left. I bought these nearly 30 years ago from a place called 'Earth and Fire' near Bendigo in Victoria and have carted them everywhere since.

Other than that only one saucer went out today because it's colouring really didn't go with the rest.

The $19 makeover and reveal

I so wish I had remembered to take some before photos for you but all I have is a quick shot of the original curtains. I made these for my friends spare room about three years ago. The match the bedcover really well even though they are just scraps of curtain fabric sewn together.

Anyway this was the sort of colours that were in this room before I arrived today for a quick makeover.

This incredible bunk bed was made by the grandfather for the arrival of his two grand-daughters who are to spend 6 weeks here before and during school holidays. 

The man is a wizz with any power tools and has a mind that doesn't accept defeat.

He is intending to make his resident grandson a similar contraption but with desk, etc under it.

Great ideas for tiny spaces.

So the bed was painted in light blue for grand-daughter 1 and trimmed in strong purple for grand-daughter 2.

But I came along and thought the bedding colours were all wrong.

A blue dolphin doona cover that had originally belonged to my oldest for the purple lover and that adult grey-brown colour for the pale blue lover.

The chest of drawers had slips that matched the grey-brown look to cover them.

What is a girl to do if she thinks it's not quite right but offer to do a quick makeover.

The offer was accepted so last night I madly washed the new-from-the-oppie blue vintage sheets and then proceeded to rip and sew until all the really weak areas were gone. It took two single sheets to make the top of this cover. The bottom is left overs from something that belonged to the grandma I think.

We tend to share stuff around here and I don't always remember where things came from.

Today I had to do a mad dash down to the shops for milk for breakfast so I took the opportunity to pop into the oppie to get extra props for the room.

$13 later I had 4 soft toys, enough blue fabric to work two pillow cases from and a new doona cover in lilac and pinks for the younger one.

Everything got washed and dried while I struggled with my machine to finish the blue bedding.

Then it was over to the house to set up the beds and work out what else needed doing.

After another trip to the oppie and then parting with $6 more. I had enough to complete the makeover just in time before the family came back from picking the girls up from the airport.

I added a white cane chair from my bedroom topped with a thrifted blue sheet ($1) which is there to protect the new cushions (50 cents each!).

A pretty lace runner from my house and a $4 cream doona cover thrown over the curtain rail and tied back with scraps of blue from the pillow cases.

I would have liked to cut the doona in half so that the frills were in the middle and each panel could be tied back but I know the grandma well enough to know that she would prefer to have the complete cover for another day.

She is a very grateful and resourcefully frugal woman and I know that it will not go to waste.

I am really happy about this super fast makeover and got lots of kisses which I think means everyoine else is too!

Some more from before

I really can't understand why I am constantly needing to tidy new places in my house. 

Very annoying and time consuming.

It is, however, a good excuse for not getting anything done because all available surfaces get covered in the relay of goods from one place to another.

This time it all started because my son told me he needed more drawers.

Well, with no council cleanup looming and no money to spend either I decided to use my powers of reason and come up with another way to solve the problem. Hence the mess you saw when I was looking for my creative space last week.

Which, incidently, is still hidden, only now with different piles. 

Anyway, I though I could give him the wire baskets from my wardrobe which were holding the wool and crochet. 

This meant rearranging that space which in turn led to another brilliant idea for sorting out some of the mess in there.

And so on and so on, etc...

Which led to the discovery of these old projects of mine.

You could call some of them UFOs.

I prefer to think of them as memories.

An applque and embroidery that I stated the instant I saw it in whichever mag it was but then lost half way through.

My first ever attempt at a journal cover, complete with stencilled teddy for the middle, which ended as a mini quilt.

And that tracing of the poky little puppy for the center panel of a quilt for my youngest which she didn't like then but was amazed at today.

Incidetally, if you want to give me a gate like in the first picture I would be very happy to take it.

According to my wise source the correct word for this is reconfuffling.
I must remember that!!