Coat Hangers

How on earth did I end up with over ninety coat hangers with nothing on them?!?  I have got rid of a lot of clothes but I'm sure it wasn't ninety items.  So where did this lot come from........



They must have been in our wardrobes but I don't know what was hanging on them.  What do you do with coat hangers when you no longer need them I wonder.  I looked through the list of things we are allowed to recycle but coat hangers wasn't on it.  So they'll just have to be thrown away.  The council list of what to recycle made me realise how few things are on it.  I think we have single-handedly restocked one of the local charity shops though.  A little table we donated was outside the shop today with the price of £19.99 on it, hope it sells for that price, charities like this need all the help they can get just now.

Our sitting room is nearly cleared of all the stuff from the bedroom and we still have a bit of spare storage, partly due to getting rid of stuff and having more shelves.  One thing that is going to be difficult is sorting out the photographs we've taken this last 43 years.  Plus the photographs that belonged to my MIL.  It's going to be tough deciding what to get rid of and what to keep.  But we can't keep them all.

Bedroom So Far

It took the fitter five and a half days to fit the wardrobes, it was a long week!  It's going to take just as long to put everything back, deciding what not to put back is hard too.  There has been stuff stored in there for years, so - what's the point of keeping it if it's not used, I'm sure we've all asked ourselves that over the years.

Here are a couple of before and after pictures.  The before ones show the room stripped out and ready for fitting....

Then the same view as it is now...



At the opposite end of the room..............

And now..........

Because of the way the room is now designed it feels a lot bigger.  Before it was very mismatched with odd pieces of furniture that just never looked tidy.  We've still got the decorating to do, that will probably take another week and then we'll probably have a carpet fitted, the wood floor got quite scratched and dented so a carpet will just finish the room off nicely.  By the end of March it should be completely finished.

Heart Swap

Here's what I received from Karen for the heart swap we were in at a Yahoo group....

Karen's embroidery is gorgeous, I think it is the best example of embroidery I've ever received.  All the other lovely things she sent me were the extras we include in our swaps - two cross-stitch charts, silk thread, wool thread, gorgeous lace and some Maple Candie.  What an enjoyable swap this was - thanks Karen.

Not much blogging going on here again.  My front bedroom has been stripped out in preparation for my new wardrobes to be fitted.  This means that everything that was in there is in the rest of the house, there isn't one room that is tidy.  By tomorrow we won't be able to use our bed either, so one of us will be sleeping in the little bedroom and one of us on the fold up bed that will be downstairs.  This should be for about a week and I just know it's going to drive me crazy!!!

An Old Picture

I've got a few pictures that were taken when I was little.  Here's one of my brothers and myself, probably taken in about 1949...

We don't look very cheerful do we!!!  I've always had a bit of a sulky look, it used to get on my nerves when people were always telling me to smile.  It's just the way I look.

Clutter

Before I moved to this house that we live in now we moved house on average every 3 or 4 years.  I never had a problem packing for the moves.  We've lived here for 20 years so I've not had to think about what I have stored away.  A couple of years ago we cleared the loft space because I was worried about all the junk that was stored up there.  Most of it was junk and got thrown away.  It's the same in my craft room, I've had two de-cluttering sessions lately and still need to get rid of more.

When we first moved here we built a 'temporary' fitted wardrobe in our bedroom.  Well, that 'temporary' lasted a long time!!!  Yesterday we started to clear everything out of the bedroom ready to have a professionally fitted bedroom.  It's going to look great, can't wait for it to be done.  But - I feel really depressed about the amount of junk I've kept over the years.  I sorted all the clothes out and have quite a few things to take to the charity shop, this was the easy bit.  When I look at the amount of clothes that were in there it was a tiny fraction of what filled the space.  My sitting room is absolutely full of stuff.  I can't believe how depressed I feel about it.  When did I turn into a hoarder?  Why did I turn into a hoarder?  What happened in my life to make me change so much?  I have put a lot of things to one side ready for the charity shop and there are a few things that I've thrown away.  When it comes to putting everything back into my new bedroom I intend to only put back what I know will be used/worn.  I am no longer going keep anything unless I actually use it.  This will be tough, but why will it be tough?  I hate being cluttered so what part of me won't let things go?

Phew - that really got all this off my chest (I often wonder about that expression).  I'm ready for the next session in there, still got the chests of drawers to go through!

Soup du Jour

My liquidiser broke a couple of weeks ago so it was imperative that I got another one.  I chose the Russell Hobbs one because of the glass jug.  My previous one was plastic and I think the hot soup I used it for caused the split in the collar near the blade.  Some days I plan to make soup and pre-soak any beans I might be using.  Some days I decide on the spur of the moment to make soup, that is when tins of beans come in handy.  I recently used black beans and I ended up with soup that was an interesting shade of purple!  Today I'm using borlotti beans...

This soup is very quick to make, onion; garlic, both roughly cut up; tin of beans; a squirt of tomato puree; a good glug of wine; pepper; and in this one, fish stock dissolved in about three quarters of a pint of hot water.  You can add any other veg you have on hand but for quickness these ingredients here are all you need.  Bring to the boil and simmer for about half an hour, let come off the boil then liquidise.  A very tasty, quick soup for two.  I can smell it now, ummmm, it amazes me how tasty bean soup is!

January

I don't think I've ever felt so lethargic as I've felt this January.  I think it is because of the weather being so cold and dull.  It's time I made an effort to get myself going again.  Here are a couple of things I've made recently...

A heart for a Valentine swap I'm in, this was very easy to do and turned out quite pretty.  Because I wasn't sure who I'd be swapping with and I wanted to get the hearts made in plenty of time, I also made this pot holder...

It wasn't until I took the picture that I noticed one edge isn't lined up properly, good job my swap partner wanted the fancy one!  Here's a picture of the hearts I've received in previous swaps...

I also bought a new doll, this one is very dainty compared to my Gotz one...

When I sat them together I decided that they looked just like Bridgette and Marie, two of the daughters in Medium, starring Patricia Arquette.

I sent for another book from Amazon, it's called Prairie Children and Their Quilts, but I have a horrible feeling I won't get it.  Three times the delivery date has been changed, it's now due in February, something to do with waiting for new stock to come in.  Never mind, there are plenty of other choices.

Once again, I apologise for some comments not showing up, I don't know why they keep going into the moderation page, I don't moderate comments so this is a puzzle to me.  It's not like they are going to the spam folder either.