My how time flies. Here we are at Friday again; the end of another quiet week for me. I have been unable to shake off this virus that has plagued me for three weeks now, so I decided to take a week out from everything, and consequently I have hardly left the house, until I went out for some much needed supplies this morning. The gorgeous weather we have enjoyed for most of February and the start of March, took a downward turn this week, but to be fair, it has remained comfortably warm, and quite sunny for part of each day. The clouds were very black on Wednesday and yesterday, but the promised rain didn't come, so I was forced to get out the hose and water my dry pots.
The upside of a week at home is that some odd chores got done including fitting a new light in the hall. A good while ago I bought a fancy light bulb which has hung from the ceiling in the hall, but although it is very pretty when it is on, it looked a bit 'odd' in daylight hours, and it did not afford sufficient light at night. It was hanging from a very old fitting from a previous owner of the house, so we bought a new fitting and an open woven bamboo shade. It proved quite tricky to get it wired in but Chris managed it while I just held the ladder steady and handed the tools to him. Now we have a very brightly lit hall. I like the patterns the shade casts on the ceiling.
Unwilling to give up on my fancy bulb, I chose a small table lamp stand to put it on, and it now sits on the table in the hall, just outside the sitting room door, where it seems to give much more light, and it looks so pretty too.
My main task this week was to finish sorting out my craft room. Had I been in a better place, this would have been done in a week. As it is, I managed to do a little bit more each day, and now it is almost finished. Some people have asked to see it, but I couldn't get a picture of the whole room, so here it is in each of the four corners. First of all, my computer corner, where I can sit by an open sunny window for most of the year, though mid-summer it is too hot and I need to let down the blinds. My two stacked printers are to the left, and of course, to my right is the resident fur baby, Arwen, who happily lays there for most of the day. By my reckoning she is at least 12 now, so she deserves a bit of peace.
My office chair is on casters so I can roll between it and my work desk on the opposite side. This is now much clearer so I have some space to craft again. The big pile in the left hand corner is still to be sorted out, so there will be even more space then.
Alongside my computer and printers I have my new tower of large boxes and a double unit of mixed boxes, now in a sensible order and all clearly labelled. I have an uplighter here, and the socket for my fire in winter and fan in summer. It is still the fire right now though I haven't used it for some time. On the gap at the end there is an untidy stack of zip up folders holding all my cutting dies. These will have a new home very soon.
And then on the last side, going on from my work desk, there is the other new tower of mixed boxes, and then two stacked book shelves. Again the boxes are all labelled so I should be able to find anything when I want it now. The boxes nearest to my desk hold all the things I use most often. All the ring-binders on the lower two shelves of the bookcase, hold rubber stamps, removed from their wood blocks, and mounted on EZ-Mount foam, and stored on laminated card, mostly catalogued by company and name. As with most things, fashions in stamping have changed, and many of these stamps haven't been used for a long time, so one day they too will be sorted out, and many will be weeded out and passed on or discarded, but for now, they can stay.
It was almost impossible to take a photo of the whole room, but sitting on the surface that runs under the window, between the computer and work desks, I took this one, which clearly shows that the far end of the room is a fitted wardrobe, which does still contain many of my clothes, along with Arwen's food, a ream of oversized A3+ paper, and a drawer for my rolls of vinyl!! But it does also show that there is now a fair area of empty floor space. This is where a filing cabinet used to stand at right angles to the wall, effectively creating a very dark corner space, and making the other end very cramped. So it is all a huge improvement.
The only thing left to do now, is find a suitable time to drive over to IKEA where they sell a very tall, 12" square shelf unit, which will perfectly fit behind the door, (where there is a tatty old four box plastic unit now), which will hold those folders of cutting dies, and my stacks of A4 coloured card which are still in the garage. So now I need to make good use of it all and get crafting!
I haven't even ventured out of the house into the garden much this week, except to feed the dogs, but when I went out to do the watering, I was very pleased to see that our little mandarin tree has lots of blossom on it. It only has rather weak and spindly branches, but almost all are covered in white buds. Unfortunately this doesn't mean it will have lots of fruit on, as many will be blown away in the April/May winds, but it is now right outside the kitchen door so I will not forget to water and feed it. I'd love to see it come good as we have had it for three years now, and so far there has been no fruit from it at all.
On the other hand, our lemon tree gave us a bumper crop this year so I half expected it to rest this year, but it also has plenty of blossom on it.
Around it my lovely blue squill are again in flower. I think this is so pretty. It doesn't last for long, but it is such a beautiful deep blue. I know it is a squill but can't get any closer to deciding whether it is the Peruvian or Sicilian variety. They are also known as Scillas and are part of the Asparagus family. That which we call a rose etc... I shall just enjoy it while it lasts.
The buds on this one tend to be purple, and you don't always notice them. It is quite usual to see blossom and new fruit forming on the same branch as much more mature fruit.
Out at the front of the house I was also surprised to see a lenten lily in flower. It only seems like a few days ago that I was bemoaning to Chris that it had no buds again this year. I guess some people would say it is an Easter lily, but if it flowers at all, it flowers before Easter. It is probably a bit pot bound so I need to move it on when the flower is gone.
I had a surprise yesterday. A full five weeks since it was dispatched, my wool order turned up! It was a bit difficult as I had accepted a refund for it by then, (and spent the money on my new speaker!), but it is easier to keep it than try and send it back to UK, so I have agreed to pay for it on pension day. As it happens I had ordered a new brand of yarn, really for my current project, that had been highly recommended and came out well in a comparison review with other similar brands, but I didn't actually like it when it came. At least, I liked it, but not for that project. But I always have a few things on the go, and I am sure I will find a better use for it. In fact I have something in mind already!
I apologise for not visiting everyone last week. This virus has turned my brain to cotton wool, and I spent very little time sitting at the computer. I have done all sorts of silly things from putting milk in the teapot, to calling the dogs round for their breakfast without remembering to let them out from their sleeping area that morning. And today I got to the supermarket, a 20 minute drive down the motorway, only to find I had left my bag, purse, cards etc on the hall table! It is a good thing I can laugh at myself isn't it? But it is a long time since I missed two consecutive weeks of church, and I don't intend to miss a third this Sunday, so I have one more day to get back on track. And I will make sure I also spend time visiting each of you my blog land friends.
So now I will link up with Rocking Your World on Virginia's blog, and Annie's Friday Smiles, and go and see who else has some positives to share this week.
