Waste of Money

Yesterday...

And today...

It's just not worth spending money on beds for cats. They're as happy with a filthy box or bucket in the greenhouse.

Happy Herbert

I've been surprisingly uncommunicative during the summer holidays. You'd think with the extra time I'd be blogging all the time. I don't even have the excuse of kids!

I do however have cats. Herbie's getting on a bit so we bought him a new bed to encourage him in on these colder nights. He's a happy boy...

Small room, big job

This is my study.  Bit of a grand name for what is essentially the box room, but it's mine, and full of my stuff.  That's the problem, really.  It needs sorting out during the summer holidays, so that I've got room to work, practise and store my crochetings.

Here it is, already with one big improvement made.  The set of plastic drawers is a recent addition to house the stock for my Folksy shop, to keep it all safe and clean and tidy, instead of keeping it in bags, piled in heaps on the floor.  You may get a sense of how stuffed this room is already.

Enormous typing chair!  That's gone now, replaced by a much smaller but equally comfy chair.  The room feels twice as big already!  The massive desk is staying.  I am firm on that matter.  I used to have a huge, old-fashioned office desk when I was a teenager - one of those wooden ones with the big stacks of drawers either side of the knee-hole.  I miss it, and in the absence of something ancient and wooden, I'll make do with this modern job from Staples.

The music stand is a permanent fixture.  It doesn't take up much room, and it means I can sit on the chair and do a bit of practice.

One set of shelves, filled to overflowing.  It's going to need everything pulling out and rationalising.  I'm sure I don't need all of those things.  I don't even know what's in half the boxes!  That's a mandola on top of the stack - like a mandolin, but bigger.

Down the side of the desk, where the tower unit of the computer is intended to sit, I managed to slot the cases for my viola and violin.  It'll be a nuisance if I need to get them out regularly, but I'm not using either instrument for teaching at the moment, so it should be okay for a while.

On top of the other set of shelves, a lute and a bunch of empty files.  What can I say - I may need them...

And look what I got from one of my pupils at the end of term!  So sweet!  

Those old OU books are going to have to go away.  I did two undergraduate courses, just to get in practice, and I'm starting a Masters in January, so I'll need to create room.  I won't get rid of these books altogether, of course.  They'll go in the attic.  It takes a crowbar to separate me from my books permanently.

Yes, the rest of the shelves, and two guitars propped against the wall.  Just out of sight behind the chair is a mandolin.  Those two shelves, at the top and bottom of the picture, are jam-packed full of music books.  One can never have too many music books, no?

Another guitar, tucked into the space between the shelves and the corner.

My violin and viola, safely hung up on the walls with their bows.

The new drawers, and behind them, all the bags the crochetings used to be in.

A drawer of teddies, bunnies and danglies.

A small herd of hippoos.

Hats and bags.

And in the kneehole of the desk, the 4kg bag of stuffing that I mistakenly ordered to stuff a few bits and pieces when I started making teddies.  4kg of stuffing is actually quite big...

And on the patio, is that a nice new patterned cushion in the box for my new chair?

No, it's the obligatory cat that seems to find its way into every box that's opened in this house!  (He stayed in this box on the patio through a ferocious rainstorm.  *rolls eyes*)

I know this isn't the most interesting thing to be documenting, but it motivates me.  If I can see where I've come from with this, then I'll feel really good when the room's organised and tidy.

Now.  I'm watching Spooks.  I'd forgotten how good that was!  Definitely worth digging out the old series.

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