Spring is here…

… spring is here, life is skittles and life is beer….

Hooray! I have no plans to join Tom Lehrer in poisoning pigeons in the park, but I am quite excited about Wende’s announcement of the start of Spring Wardrobe Therapy. I am definitely going to participate fully in this one. Looking at my diary, I can see no reason why I can’t do the whole eight weeks - no holidays, no operations, no nuffing. I might even have a little bit of spare money to go shopping.

I haven’t posted an embarrassing ‘before’ picture for a while, so here’s the state of my actual wardrobe this morning (I just opened the door and took the photo):

Yup, it really is that dark and small - it’s on the landing (which still needs decorating) and used to be our boiler cupboard. Please note my early forays into carpentry in the form of the shoe shelves at the bottom - there is also a storage area for out of season clothes behind these (filled with junk, naturally) accessed by a hatch at the back. I also have a chest of drawers which is mildly more organised in the bedroom.

By the end of the eight weeks, I hope to have this organised with clothes I will actually wear throughout the summer and my winter clothes neatly stored away.

The Sound of Silence

I think it’s safe to come out now. I’ve spent the last week in hiding, busily and actively NOT PARTICIPATING in the Apartment Therapy Spring Cure. It’s been hard because part of me really wants to join in the fun, but I know what will happen. I’ll start looking at what other people are doing, I’ll look at my own home, I’ll think “Well, if I knocked that wall out, we could tunnel down and fit in a ballroom” and I’ll be knee deep in half-finished DIY projects again before you can say, “Er, I think you hung that door the wrong way up”.

I am, of course, still ankle-deep in half-finished projects, but they are getting done slowly - and I do plan to get them all completed by the autumn so I can participate in the Fall Cure. I’ve got plans to make our bedroom a healthier and happier place, which will be a major-ish job, but nothing on the scale of the kitchen. I still look around the kitchen in amazement at what I achieved there (and in irritation at all the little bits I haven’t finished).

Work has settled down now, which is a relief. All I have to do until the end of March is a steady four hours a day. That may sound easy, but motivation is proving a little hard as those four hours need to be spent writing object labels for hundreds of museum objects that a) I don’t really like, and b) are practically identical to each other. In consequence, I am working at Scout’s pace - one hour on, one hour off - in order to retain my sanity.
During my ”off” hours, I am decluttering the house. I realised that I needed some outside force to motivate me to keep up with the housekeeping and organisation, so I have signed up for monthly membership of The Clutter Diet. So far, it’s working out very well and my house has shed 65 lbs, which is pretty good going (I assume houses are allowed to lose more than 2 lbs a week and still stay healthy). I started working on my study this morning and managed to unearth one shelf. The rest of the room still looks like the aftermath of an explosion, so I think I’ll be plugging away at that for a while.

Something Blue and Something Purple

Things have quietened down on the work front now. Most importantly, I feel I have enough spare words to use a few to post some updates, so I plan to do a few quick-fire posts today on various topics.

First up is knitting. I’ve been knitting a little bit most days recently, as it’s a great way to relax after a day at the computer. I have sort-of-finished a cardigan (which still needs blocking / steaming and a button sewing on):

The pattern is Wendy Bernard’s Something Red, and I used some aubergine coloured alpaca-cashmere yarn. It’s beautifully soft, but the real test will be in the wearing. I will sew the button on today - promise! This was originally part of January’s monthly outfit, but the dress never got made…

On the needles at the moment is the Craftster circular shrug. It’s very simple - you knit a large rectangle and then sew it together and lo! you have a shrug. I’ve nearly finished it. Instead of ribbing in the body section, I have done a staggered diamond pattern. I found the yarn in Oxfam - it’s a mohair/wool/acrylic mix from the ’80s (I think) - and loved the colour so much I bought it on the spot without knowing what I was going to do with it.