Hello Friends, Happy Tuesday and Happy Burns Night!

If I was a Haggis lover I would be tucking into some Haggis, Neeps (turnip) and tatties (potatoes) tonight but instead I am eating toast since I have no time to cook anything today, but either way I would not be choosing Haggis even if I did have time to cook!  I have tried Haggis during a time I wasn’t veggie, and it’s not as bad as you might imagine, but for it to taste OK it has to have a lot of seasoning, especially black pepper.  They also make vegetarian Haggis which I have not tried as it would seem to defeat the purpose, but anyway Happy Burns Night!  I once attended a festival for the World’s Largest Haggis, I can’t find the photo right now, but I think the haggis was around 600lb lol.  I am extremely late typing up this post and since I have barely touched or seen a computer since last week, it’s amazing I can even remember what to do!  Tomorrow is Australia Day which I would normally also be celebrating and creating for but not this year.  Things have been a bit busy at home, mostly Mr G is keeping me on my toes running after him and trying to get him to take his medication.  I am hoping that things settle down soon.  If I didn’t get around to commenting on everyone’s post last week, I will catch up soon.  I shared my New Year decisions a couple of weeks back and my word/s of the year last week, and so during a quiet time with Mr G, I decided to take action on some of those words: HOME SPACE ENOUGH…

So medication makes Mr G a sleepy kitty, so I thought while he was sleeping I would make a start on the decluttering by doing something “quick” and “easy” like moving a wardrobe from one room to another.  I measured the space I wanted to put it in, I cleared the space, I cleared a path to the space, and I emptied the wardrobe.  All good so far.  Then I started to walk it across the room to the door… and that’s when I realised that it would not fit through the door – it was too tall!  No problem I thought, I’ll just tip it over onto its side to get it out the door, but that didn’t work because of the position of the landing and the banister and to cut a long, exasperating story short, it got stuck and then I BROKE THE WARDROBE.  If there had been two people doing this, one front and one back, it might have been saved, but there wasn’t and it was stuck and as I tried to move it backwards, it started to object, and then part of it came away, and that was the beginning of the end, and my £250 IKEA wardrobe that is only a few years old is no more.  It’s in pieces and the way that it came apart is not something that can be fixed.   OK don’t panic, I have a portable rail I can use, so I went out to the shed, got the rail, cleaned the spiderwebs off it and put all my hanging clothes on it “temporarily” while I started looking for replacements.  Turns out that not only has the prices increased since I bought mine, but IKEA are having stock issues and even if I did want to pay the increased price (which I don’t) the wardrobe is not available.   But that’s OK because I actually have two, so I can just empty the other one which was full of craft supplies, and use that one.  I didn’t take photos of this first wardrobe disaster but I did take a photo of the second wardrobe disaster

Yup the bottom has collapsed in this one – this is what happens when you fill it with TOO MANY CRAFT SUPPLIES – it can’t handle the weight.  So this one is toast too, and I have no wardrobes and my clothes may be permanently on the portable rail.  It’s not a big deal since I’ve had this rail for a long time and the reason I’ve kept it for so long is because it’s very sturdy and very handy.  Who needs a wardrobe with doors anyway right?

I already mentioned my word/s of the year HOME, SPACE, ENOUGH and this was why I started moving the wardrobe in the first place, to make more space, well I guess in a way I succeeded because now I have space that was taken up by two massive wardrobes that maybe I just don’t need, and maybe that means I just have to get rid of even more stuff that I had planned.  I am very disappointed that they fell apart so easily given how much they cost me, but I’m thinking they are just not designed to be moved once you build them, they are supposed to stay put and also not be filled with massive amounts of craft supplies.

So that was supposed to be the easy start to my decluttering but it didn’t quite work out as planned, but it also meant that I had to keep going because now there was all this stuff that used to live in a wardrobe (or two) but now was homeless, not to mention all of this stuff above that really needs to live somewhere else ie not in my house.  So all I have done since Friday (apart from monitoring Mr G) is move stuff and move furniture and box things up to be donated and or tossed and really just dump everything that was in the craft room and the bedroom, into the living room which is now unusable due to all the stuff.  It is beginning to look scarily like an episode of Hoarders – the craft edition!

There is a reason that the Marie Kondo method works and it’s not because it’s a good method, it’s because once you dump all your belongings in a big pile on the floor and ask yourself “does it spark joy” the answer is that a big pile of stuff is never going to spark joy in anyone, it’s more likely to make you feel ill.  Plus you have the option to keep it all but if you keep it all then YOU are going to have to put it all back, so people generally say no thanks, take it away Marie, and breathe a big, massive sigh of relief.  Right now if there was a skip (dumpster) outside my house I would be merrily throwing everything into it and not even checking what it was because I am so fed up with it all right now.  But sadly, no skip, so the living room remains unusable for now until I can get some time to deal with it all.  Above is a photo of Miss Lily wondering if this cupboard could be our new wardrobe but I’ve decided it’s going to be our new craft closet lol.  And it will be the ONLY craft closet!

today’s art . . .

…is strangely absent since I have done nothing since last week’s journal page due to Mr G and the wardrobe disaster/s I mentioned above.  It’s a bit annoying as I wanted to join in more with Erika’s theme as I love adding faces to my pages, but everything is currently packed away and I can do nothing.    Instead I will share a photo of something that arrived in the mail last Friday – a few hours before everything went pear-shaped with the wardrobes!
Just over a year ago I won a prize from the Funkie Junkie Challenge blog.  I emailed them but heard nothing, and then the pandemic hit and I forgot all about it.  When they invited me to be Guest Designer last month, I happened to mention it, and my message was passed on to the shop.  Turns out (like a lot of people now) they no longer ship to the UK but luckily Linda, the owner said she would handle it personally and make sure I got my prize and to pick something to the value of the prize amount and she would sent it.  I picked some embossing powders from Emerald Creek as they are either always out of stock here or not available here (any more) and said that any of them would be fine, and she sent them all!  That was so generous of her and I was so surprised when I opened the package on Friday. The three on the left are the Spice Market blends by Gwen Lafleur, and the two on the right, one is a very chunky white and the other is not an EP at all, it is amethyst crystals also in the GL range.  I am looking forward to using them once I can get the space back to normal again.

t stands for . . .

Given how my week has been this is what I should be drinking, although possibly a much bigger glass, but since I don’t drink, I have to get through this disaster alcohol-free – but in my mind I am this woman right now.

Let me know what you think in the comments and Happy T Day!   As always, thanks for reading!Ingredients
all the stuff in my house!

Challenges

Altered Book Lover – T Stands for – Burns Night, A SurPrize, Home And Enough Space

 

You might also like these posts . . .

 

18 Awesome Comments (btw comment moderation is on)
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Nicole/DVArtist
January 28, 2022 3:49 pm

Ohhh I am sorry that the shelf broke. It might be less expensive to just put a piece of plywood in. Everything has gone up in price. I really like your Boho pigments. That was really nice of Linda to make sure you got your prize. Yes, shipping outside of the US is not happening. You have a great day today.

Divers and Sundry
January 26, 2022 3:35 pm

Oh, nooo! We ended up with a similar situation with a couch once. If we could’ve gotten it around that corner… less than an inch is all it would’ve taken 🙁 Hallways are much too narrow 🙁

Marie Kondo’s idea of putting all the books out on the floor at once definitely made me realize how many of them had sparked joy at one time but would never be re-read.

I hope Mr G is doing well today.

Happy T Tuesday

mae
mae
January 26, 2022 12:24 pm

Finding sturdy storage is a real challenge, especially book shelves. I’m always surprised when a bookcase turns out to be too fragile to hold books on every shelf. Your wardrobes sound like a similar problem — why shouldn’t they hold craft supplies? Why shouldn’t they be movable? I’m glad American practice is to build closets!

best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com

Iris Flavia
January 26, 2022 6:53 am

Haggis, huhhhh.
Oh, Australia day, right! Totally forgot, have a happy one today! Our last time was 2019, can you believe it.WA doesn´t let anyone in, maybe a good idea, though, COVID-wise.

Oh, the door, LOL. Sorry, but this made me laugh. And sorry. My IKEA Emil (chair from 2001) gave in last week but Ingo could safe it.
By golly. I sat – and sit – on a kid´s chair since 2001. IKEA, huh.

Yes, here we put stuff we didn´t use for a certain time out front door for people to take (only good stuff).
Sadly everybody does, so I often come home with “new” things, gaaaahh.

Wow, some glass of wine that is, LOL.

Sharon Madson
Sharon Madson
January 26, 2022 2:08 am

I have to say I get overwhelmed when I try to declutter. I think I am with you, just throw it in the trash and feel so free! I have stuff piled up in the basement to take to Goodwill. But there is so much more! My husband would just throw it all out! LOL Happy T Day.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth
January 26, 2022 2:05 am

What a sad ending for two wardrobes. Makes me wonder about IKEA’s quality. There is no IKEA within a thousand miles of where I live, so I have never seen or been tempted by their products. I am also sorry about your craft supplies. I am sure you will come up with a plan once you have calmed down from this incredible disaster and have a chance to get Mr. G better or well.

I’ve read about Haggis and to me, it sounds gross. I can see you are also not one to indulge.

If I had the week you had, I’d want a big glass of non-alcoholic wine, too. Thanks for sharing your incredible week with us, Burns night, and your wine drink with us for T this Tuesday, dear Elle. I hope things get better for you soon, dear.

Erika N
January 26, 2022 1:20 am

Sorry to hear about the wardrobe. I tend to store too much on shelves and they buckle and bow. Sounds like your cleaning is coming along fantastic though. Hope Mr. G is doing better even if he is sleepy. And that would be one relaxing glass of wine. I hope you had a great T day Elle and week ahead. Hugs-Erika

Linda K
January 26, 2022 12:55 am

wow- what a week you’ve had! What a shame about your wardrobe piece but I know you’ll find a good solution, and do more purging as a result. Love your comments on Marie Condo:) Yay for you on being a guest designer- and so very nice to get those extra goodies from the company as well!! Love the photo at the end of it all:):):) Happy T day!

Kate Yetter
January 26, 2022 12:28 am

Wow, good for you. Decluttering anything is hard, especially craft supplies.
Those boho pieces look fun! Can’t wait to see what you make.
Happy Tea Day,
Kate

GDPR Cookie Notice