Crafty

A new purchase has opened up some new craft possibilities for me. Well it will when it arrives.

As my lovely hubby is so poorly we have made loads of modifications in the house to help him get about and have more space to do it and no where is this more apparent than our bedroom. It's tiny, and without an extension, there's not a lot we can do about it. But what we can do we have done.

I moved the bed into the corner by the window. What this now means is that Steve can actually walk forwards rather than sidewards across the room (I'm aware that the word "across" is a little ambitious) which helps him considerably. We also now have a bed rail to help him get in and out. It's really good, if not a bit, erm, ugly.

From my point of view, I appear to like sleeping with the wall next to me, and the window sill is awfully useful, but I have to climb up into bed from the bottom, or over Steve and/or Labrador/Spaniel gathering. I actually can cope with that although I could really do with a step up to save my shins on the foot board.

Of course now that means the bed is partially at least enclosed on both sides, and, having rather a lot to do these days I use a simple equation to determine whether or not a job get's done. It goes like this.

I take into account the amount of effort required to complete task, over the duration of said task staying done and divide that by the life or death importance of said task = If it's a pain in the arse, I don't do it.

Making the bed is a pain int the arse in this current situation, therefore I don't do it. I don't like not doing it, but it's not worth it.

Yes, we're hoping to get a new home that Steve can get around better, no I can't guarantee how much room it's going to have, so I need to be prepared to put the bed in a similar position in the new house. I can't not make the bed for the rest of time!

So we've gone for the American approach - something I've been on about for ages. I've bought two single duvets. And I can't wait for them to arrive.

I'll be able to once again make he bed simply and efficiently, I can have a lower tog rating than Steve who likes to cook himself on gas mark 9 all night - and it opens up a whole new possibility of patchwork/vintage/shabby chic options. And Steve wants a Count Duckula duvet cover for his duvet. I'm glad I haven't got a complicated husband.

I went to pick up a couple of new mattress sheets today - specifically for easy bed making purposes and I was told that they no longer stocked that gorgeous jersey bedding - you know the stretchy ones like t-shirts? What a travesty. So I'm thinking about a patchwork duvet set, made from old t-shirts rescued from charity shops. It always galls me the amount of t-shirts we keep buying and buying, and then they end up in charity. So a well collected selection of contrasting/matching t-shirts will make me some bespoke, luxuriously soft, recycled, cheap as chips one off bedding. Do you dare me?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

"Vintage" is now code for both "anything and everything that isn't neon" and "absolute tatt". Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I've been a charity shop addict and lover of all things old and kitsch for a bloomin' long time and WELL before it got popular. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

So anyway, I've been thinking about the internet. As a concept in shopping. I bet you all have really. You're just too shy to admit it.

I've shied away a bit from internet shopping preferring to "shop locally", and don't get me wrong, you've gotta love and support a local shop. They're there when all the roads are blocked with snow, for a start, but increasingly I think people are turning to the internet to boost their company's profits, and I don't think that can be a bad thing.

Take for instance around here. There's not a lot of industry any more, Welsh valleys, decline of industry and the coal mines, yadda, yadda, yadda, but there's a thriving business here on one of our little industrial estates (that is all boarded up predominantly) that sells spares and stuff for caravans. Yes they have a shop, yes we've shopped there, (when we had our 'van) but without it's online and ebay stores - it would have closed down. There just isn't the footfall to sustain them without it. Now it doesn't employ an army, just a couple of people but isn't that better than another boarded up unit?

The internet allows people to set up and have a go at businesses to see if they are viable before they commit to paying the rent on an expensive commercial premises. Those rents are why we are having towns relegated to rows of charity shops. The internet allow's people to be competitive on a national level, which is really what business is all about, supply and demand, competition, all that. Now don't get me wrong, I don't advocate the total abandonment of the high street, far from it. I love and support my local high streets, but I also support the people providing me with services not available on my high street. And let's not forget about the jobs that all these packages whizzing about the country generates - Post Office and couriers. I personally have 13 parcels to take to my local Post Office tomorrow. That can't be a bad thing.

And think of the recycling that goes on every day on ebay! Brilliant.

I guess after all it all comes down to the same thing. Everything in moderation, support the little people as much as the big people and there's room for all.

Dresses to follow ...

Skip Diving

It's been a couple of weeks of sorting the house out hopefully before packing up to move. And I have a new obsession. My skip.

Him indoors wants me to get shot of it sooner rather than later as I'm so obsessed with it I keep waking him up looking out of the window in the middle of the night just in case someone tries to put stuff in it!

It's not without good reason, I caught a local pikey trying to deposit a fridge in it, I caught next door's landlady putting stuff in it and the new tenant this morning putting stuff in it. I'm not paying for other people's junk to be disposed of.

Last time we had a skip it was a big badger. A builder's skip. Cost about £75, two years ish ago. This time I have the smaller variety and it's cost me £120. £120!?!?!?!

So I've been dealing with the fall out from the consumerism free year, I think. Because of the extraordinary generosity of lots of my friends and family I was given a tremendous amount of "useful stuff" and I mean that seriously - It generally was all useful (excepting my Grandmother, of course, she is a bonkers, tat obsessed magpie with a penchant for picking junk up off roads), but the reality of it is that as a single individual determined to "reduce, reuse and recycle" I simply could not plough through the amount of useful stuff I was given, no matter how useful. But through sheer terror of needing something I couldn't purchase, I kept it all.

In days past, we did make full use of every single little bit of everything useful, but we also HAD an awful lot less. In actual fact each and every one of us could probably survive most of the rest of our lives with the belongings and possessions we already have as they are so well made and plentiful that we'd had enough. The fact that we don't do that means that all of us have generated a massive amount of surplus belongings, and it's just impossible to get the full amount of use out of them that they're capable of.

So, I've had a lovely bonfire, thanks to the gorgeous Rawcliffe boys, filled a skip, took 9 bags of clothes/shoes/soft furnishings to charity in Africa (I sadly did not get to take it to Africa, just Swfrydd Primary School - bit of a let down, if I'm honest), gave 4 boxes to Lou for "Glamping" (I know - I thought that was called Premier Inn too), have another 3 boxes in my car, a living room full of stuff on Ebay (gwynsmummygwynsmummy1 if you fancy a punt) and I haven't even got to the attic yet.

Seriously. Ridiculous. That is all.