My room 3

Hello, and welcome to Wednesday!

Here are the photos of my room as it is now. Now, as in last Friday. That's pretty recent.

Things I want to say about this photo:

1. My ribbon is stored behind the door. They're sticky taped to those white things you wind your thread around. Those are put onto metal rings. Those rings go onto the ribbon holder Andrew made me. Nice.

2. Storing my ribbon this way really works for me. Jars don't. You?

3. I love that cup.

4. The box holds all my little Christmas projects from previous years. Mini albums. Lists. Things I've made to display.

Things I need to say about this photo:

1. Where'd that Pooh Bear tin come from? I thought these photos were taken at the same time? Hmmm.

2. I sanded and stained that table. With my dad, I think.

3. Okay, about the sanding and staining. I'll say this once, and then get off the subject.

I told you that we are over sanding, painting and doing up furniture in general. I just walked around the house and counted 27 things we've done over the years. 13 are in this room alone. Some others have left the house, I'm sure. Other things have been made and given away.

It's been good, but people, the sanding and the painting, we're done. And the waiting! Oh, the waiting for the coats to dry in the meantime.

And then the not-waiting-long-enough-and-paying-for-it because I just wanted to finish the thing so I could use it!

That's the story of the sanding and painting. Glad to be using the furniture, but glad to never have to do another piece of furniture again.

4. There are threads in that bowl. They're from my grandma. She doesn't sew anymore. I've never really sewed. I just like having them out because they're colourful.

5. We've put two shelves in the room. Just planks of wood, with brackets from Bunnings. The brackets are good to hang things from.

6. I love idea books. They're on the table there.

Things I need to say about this photo:

1. It's a bit dark.

2. The flowers look a bit sparse. And spikey. They look fine in real life.

3. The shelf looks sparse too. It is sparse. I'm okay with it. I like it.

4. The right side of the shelf holds my button jars. This works for me. It's pretty, and they're easy to reach. I tip them onto paper, choose, funnel back in and put away.

Things I have to say about this photo:

1. I use the black lamp when choosing cardstock/patterned paper. We're discussing better lighting for the room. It needs it.

2. All the paper slots came from a hospital that was being re-furbished. Andrew and his dad kept coming home with cool stuff for me.

3. Those are my punch drawers. These drawers were purchased, brought home and immediately put to use. No other work involved. How refreshing. I'll show you these drawers again in a future post. They're so good, they deserve that.

4. All this stuff was just put here while putting the room back together. It's stayed. It'll get moved in the future if necessary, but for now, it's fine.

Things I want to say about this photo:

1. There's the newly-painted hutch! It's blue and cream! It's so great!

2. I wanted to get rid of some of the brown. Goal achieved. It lightens up the room a lot actually. Cream is up there as a favourite colour for me. Up there, I tell you.

3. I'm going to ask Andrew if he can screw the power boards to the underside of the desk to clean up the wires. Wires, be gone!

4. See the scrolly brackets? Great hanging space.

Things I need to say about this photo:

1. I love my Cuttlebug.

2. The desk is about the size of a single bed. You'll have to believe me on that because I haven't measured it, but it is, I reckon. We bought it for $89 from a second hand store, did it up and I've put it to good use ever since. Have had it for at least 11 years. It's as solid as rock and is sooo big. Great to spread out on!

3. That metal thing under the desk is a super duper punch mate by Leone Em. It's called the Eezy Punch Press. It's a great machine.

4. Great chair that too. Comfy. And as solid as the day we bought it. Had it for about 7 years. Quality pays. And we paid about $300...guessing there.

5. I made that bunting. I've made lots of bunting. It's scraps of curtain material hung over twill and sewn on with buttons. Okay, so I sew a bit. :o) Button sew, not sew sew. Made stacks of Christmas bunting in 2007. It'll be pulled out every Christmas season for years to come. Will see if I can find a photo to show you.

Things I want to say about this photo:

1. Here's the first real look at the other pigeon holes. Bought them from the Tender Centre years ago (the one near us has shut down now) and it houses lots of great stuff. Will explain that later too.

2. I've always wanted to cover, paint, do something to the filing cabinet. Ugly!

3. My brother made the scrapbook trolley for me years ago (has wheels). He hates painting as much as me, so the deal was that he'd make it, and I'd paint it. Currently it has photo albums in it, although this changes sometimes. A few months ago it held all my cardstock. It houses two big drawers full of punches too. Will show later. Gotta pace myself here!

4. My grandma's old typewriter is on top of the trolley. She's the one who gave me the threads and the kitchen dresser. Ah, the typewriter. Clickety, clack. It takes me back to Year 9 typing...frf, frf, frf. Follow the teacher, do the drills, frf, frf, frf....did you do that too? And the smell, I love the smell of the ink. Thanks, Grandma. Love you.

5. The cloth on top of the typewriter was made by my other grandmother, Gran. She did such beautiful embroidery. Such tiny little stiches and so neat. I miss her so much - it's been 18 years.

Things I have to say about this photo:

1. The set of pigeon holes under the desk came from the hospital too. They've been used in my room, Andrew's workshop and my room again. Things rotate a lot around the place.

2. That piece of cardstock under the desk against the wall isn't supposed to be there. It fell down from above. Hang on, it's gone now. I just crawled under there and got it out. :o) See what you notice in photos?

3. That chair mat is not working for me! It's ugly (almost orange). It slides around. It doesn't have side ramps. It did all this years ago, which is why I replaced it with a clear spikey one, that stayed put, and had side ramps. Ah, so much better. Unfortunately, it didn't last because of the roller chair, and recently I had to chuck it. The old orange thing had to come back into use. Rats. And it loves the roller chair!

4. Remember my paper scraps that started the whole "move 'em on out" in the beginning?

See that vertical plastic paper holder in between the punch drawers and the other pigeon holes under the table?

That's where the scraps are now. They're in there. They're on the floor!

And is this working for me right now? Yes!

Can you explain why storing something on the floor would work for you? No!

Things I need to say about this photo:

1. That Making Memories Carousel is one of the best things I've ever bought. Seriously. You can buy one at Blue Bazaar at the moment. If the link doesn't take you straight to it, it's under Storage/Tools. http://www.bluebazaar.com.au/

2. They're stamps in the pigeon holes. I don't stamp much, but I will with these. They're from Hero Arts - Raindrop background, Woodgrain, Clouds and a couple of others including the basic alphabet set I've talked about before.

3. The hutch isn't organised really.

Things I want to say about this photo:

1. So, here's the hutch from the front.

2. Andrew made it for me.

3. Remember I said that I was impatient, and couldn't wait, and I put that second coat on too soon? First coat, stain. Second coat, varnish. They didn't mix. They scrambled. It looked awful. We didn't fix it.

He wouldn't.

I was over it too.

I had it like that on my desk for at least 11 years. I got used to it and it got covered up with stuff anyway.

But, the scrambledness is now gone because it's been sanded off and painted over. Yay! Finally...

4. We (he) added the plinth at the bottom. Not sure if it's called a plinth, but it's that strip of wood along the bottom. I can now get to stuff in the bottom rows more easily. Nothing in the way on the desk anymore. So good.

5. There's not much stuff in the hutch is there? I'm going through a minimalist period at the moment.

The slots used to hold punches, but they've found different homes. They also held paper, but all that's found a different home too. Everything has. I have empty slots.

Minimalist period.

6. Yep, they're Golden Books. Did you read them as a kid too? We loved books-on-tape in my family. They were books-on-record originally. Mum tired of having to come in and turn the records over every few minutes, so she taped a bunch of them onto one tape. We played it ourselves then, and she got some peace.

7. Those two pink punches in the hutch are Fancy Squares from McGill. I got them from Blue Bazaar too. Not sure if they have any in stock at the moment. Ask though, they have great customer service and will help if they can.

8. The white border punch on the desk is a new Martha Stewart one I got from Photo Continental recently. It's called Double Scallop Edge Punch. Martha makes great punches. And they're only newly available in Australia, which is good for us. They're also at Blue Bazaar.

And that's it.

This must be the longest post in the history of this blog.

And guess what?

I'm still not done.

I've gotta show you my punch drawers!

Soon, soon.

Bye now!

:o)