An update from under dust & disarray........

.....midst extra bookshop duties & helping my husband with the house renovations.

I'm certainly very thankful for the extra hours in the local secondhand bookshop as these have enabled me to replace my broken Cuttlebug with a Big Shot, & to purchase a greater selection of cardstock, Spectrum Noirs & ProMarkers so that I can make a proper comparison between these alcohol markers plus Copics.

The house renovation is proving a much longer process than expected & my husband who is bearing the brunt of it badly needs more help from me - at present we are removing the 30 or so years old carpet throughout the house & de-gripper rodding plus de-tacking & thoroughly cleaning the boarding prior to having new carpets fitted.

We also need to de-clutter the attic to enable better access for wiring repairs & mice control. Our piece of woodland beyond the fenced off lawn area (see photo) means that the woodmice are sorely tempted by our warm loft insulation during the winter months & scamper over the lawn despite the best efforts of the owls & buzzards etc..... The mice do not like our sonic deterrant but in their haste to escape it they jump between the rafters dislodging insulation material & necessitating our easy access for its replacement.

I'll leave you with some photos of my rearranged craft room.........

enter through the hallway

standing in the doorway looking in

turning clockwise round the room

looking towards the door with it closed

& the final corner

Our completed fireplace - we managed to source some reclaimed bricks & a large slab of black slate which was cut to size & sealed with a special sealant after the whole was completed

All my photos are clickable for enlarging. If you wish to see what the fireplace looked like as the builders began work in August, see this post.

Tools for the Job in Hand

In December 2006 we moved into a 1970s bungalow which was badly in need of updating. We have finally arrived at the lounge & the fireplace & with the builder having a slot starting this week work has begun. It is proving quite educational & I can see parallels with crafting techniques so thought I'd share some thoughts here.

Clearing some space
Around a thousand of my husband's books are shelved either side of our fireplace. These had to be removed as well as the shelving.

I like to start off with a space roughly 3ft x 15ins on my work counter where I have a glass mat & my Sor-Pal next to one another.

The right tools for the job in hand
This is what the builders used to cut through the concrete aggregate (breeze-blocks) of our walls. It creates a noise which is incredible & creates phenomenal clouds of dust. Our workmen looked like they had had bags of flour thrown at them. An ordinary power drill is just not tough enough for the task.

Similarly I like to use Tim Holtz's scissors for cutting out rubber & plastic as ordinary scissors really struggle to cut cleanly.

The right materials with which to build/create
This is one of the lintels (reinforced concrete with steel rods down the middle) being placed across the fireplace.

I use Glossy Accents to adhere heavier embellishments with - I know they will not fall off.







Preparation/Groundwork
Two holes were made from the front, then one from either side of the chimney breast & the space between cleared for the first lintel to be inserted. This will initially take the weight of all that is above.

Similarly before I heat emboss I will wipe my cardstock with an anti-static pad to stop stray particles of embossing powder sticking & being embossed in addition to my stamped image.

Clearing Up

above was the appearance at lunch time & below after work finished for today

.........now I have to admit that I do not tidy everything away for the night when I am crafting but I am the only one who uses my space.

WOYWW 68

First of all I'm rather astonished by the WOYWW comments I am receiving about being tidy. Tuesdays & Wednesdays have tended to be my clearing up days & I've had to keep my wits about me whilst we were moving all my craft things about during the decorating so I have probably appeared to be tidier than I actually am. I have also had an uncluttering as when I first began crafting I was experimenting with many different aspects e.g. decoupage, teabag folding, iris folding etc... but I know now it is colouring & stamping that I want to develop further.

This is what it looked like last weekend when other matters had intervened & deadlines were approaching.

 

 
My curtains were fitted this morning.

So, today the debris (scraps of card/paper) from the weekend remain (in the box to the left of the computer manual) to be punched & I have to admit there is still some in that pile from last week's photo. On my glass mat is this morning's post: a computer manual; a gift of Copic Sketch from my husband ; & the Pergamano Fairies & Flower Girls stamps that I am going to use with an elderly friend who wants to know how to watercolour with her Sakura Stardust Gel Pens. Since there is no-one locally who teaches colouring I'm just going to go through some basics of how to activate the pens with water & move the colour about a stamped image. When I know more myself about shading with Copics I want to move onto watercolouring using watercolour pencils & Distress Inks etc.... & the new AquaMarkers are something I'd like to try. For the moment I am content to learn all I can about colouring with Copics through Suzanne Dean's Colour Me Creative Classes.

ETA 23/9
Apologies to my Followers for this post appearing umpteen times in your Reader - I've had no end of trouble with the formatting & have finally abandoned Explorer on the Dell & am endeavouring to get all this transferred to the Mac. However, it seems I need to consult Apple about the best browser &/or blogging provider to utilize prior to making the switch. In the meantime I am endeavouring to use Google's Blogger via Firefox on the Dell. 

WOYWW 66

My next instalment for WOYWW. Last week we found a computer work station which - as you can see - made a huge difference to the room. The flooring will be replaced & the curtains have been chosen & ordered. We still have some research to do regarding the Apple but  we learnt that the Apple Store in Cardiff provides a year's training after purchase (for a small fee) which, even though it involves a 2 hour bus journey each way, I am quietly excited about for I'd like to explore the possibilities of digi stamping. I don't think I'll ever lose my love of rubber & ink though.

As the computer work station is on castors it can easily be moved & the door can now be closed, providing Kermit isn't propping it open.

the contents of the plastic box on the left just need tidying away before I begin the next project

a view from the door showing Kermit on duty

WOYWW 65

Late last  night I finally had some workable order - lots of fine tuning still to be done, the most crucial being to find a computer workstation so that the cumbersome gate-leg table the laptop & printer are currently on can be removed & the door can actually be closed whilst using the laptop. My husband's study is right next to my room so the door has to be shut if I want to watch a tutorial or listen to music whilst crafting, particularly if he's grappling with a difficult piece of Homeric translation.

So, we are off to Cardiff today (two hours each way by bus, but the scenery is stunning) to see what we can find & to visit the Apple Store to investigate a small laptop for me. That was my husband's idea - an extra 50th birthday present - as there are serious compatibility problems between Microsoft's Vista Operating System & the various web browsers, so I often crash whilst browsing/blogging (scroll down to the photos if you wish to avoid my Microsoft v. Apple deliberations). Sadly my 18 month old "top of the range" Dell hardware will not support Windows 7 Software. I have always used Microsoft Software so it will be a bit of a steep learning curve getting used to the Apple Operating System but there seems to be no alternative to purchasing new hardware in some form if I am to be able to utilise web-based teaching/tutorials. The advantage with Apple is that  both the Operating System & hardware are made by Apple thus avoding any of the hardware/software mismatches I have experienced with Microsoft. This is my layman's understanding - I was born before the computer generation & am largely self-taught in all computer matters. 

Looking into the room from doorway (top left), inside the room looking out through the doorway (top centre), turning clockwise round the room (top right, middle left & right, bottom left) & looking out through the doorway again but this time with the laptop in operation &  the gate-leg extended (bottom right).

By the time I'd written this up it was almost 3.00 am (so the view out of the window is in pitch darkness) but the bus leaves early & I didn't want to disappoint any WOYWW visitors.

WOYWW 64

Thank you for all your kind comments on my WOYWW posting last week. I was utterly astonished by the response so, with requests for updates & photos when it is all finished, I thought I'd better join in WOYWW again this week.

Above Left  debris from my last two projects - I usually try to trim the scraps & punch out what can be punched before I start the next project but sometimes I don't manage it. The idea now is to get ahead so that when it comes to putting everything back into the room I do some sorting/decluttering as well. So, that will be some task

.

Above Right my ribbon hanger is nestling amongst some of my husband's few thousand books - wonder what Lord Esher, Tennyson & Ruskin would think? These shelves are next to where I sit so in order to reference (when he's not painting) somebody from his 34 volumes of the Dictionary of National Biography (the blue & white books just visible at the top)  he leans over my head & reaches with his long arms.                          

Below you can see how far the painting has progressed. The windows are completely finished - the masking tape just needs removing. All the walls have been painted over with white to give a neutral base for the two coats of Blossom White, one of which has been applied.

 

WOYWW - What's Outside Your Workroom Wednesday

Everything but for decorating paraphernalia.


Excepting what could be put into the cupboards/drawers everything has been moved into the lounge where I'm attempting to craft & keep losing things - the USB camera cable  had to be located before I could upload the photos.

This is my room where I normally work: the counter where laptop & printer normally sit & opposite that the shelves are usually full of cardstock, boxes of stamps & inks etc..... It's a tiny room so I had to stand in the doorway to take the centre & right photos. The left one is taken with my back pressed against the shelves you can see in the right hand photo.

  

And here in our lounge is my work table, with the surrounding kit (except telephone & its table plus books) that normally fits into the above room.

The rest is strewn about the lounge wherever I could find a space

 

The windows were stripped & sanded over the weekend & my husband managed to apply the primer & undercoat between rain showers & before the heavy rain this morning.

The above was taken  before everything had been removed from the room. 

Finally, this is what is on my table - I'm venturing into unknown territory with the Tim Holtz Distressing Tool I've just acquired.  So, it seems appropriate to link this posting to WOYWW.