Celebrating while decluttering

The Whizzme clan are celebrating big time - we bought our new house!  The relief is wonderful, but the reality of now having to sell the house we are in is very rude.  Agents talk a lot about de-cluttering for open inspections - for us they talk about moving out!  All my china displays, mementos, books and artworks are slowly being carefully packed away for storage.  Mr Whizzme can be heard quietly cursing the fact we have so many books in the house, so it is lucky he hasn't seen the piles of fabric yet.  Ms Quilt has offered to have my craft books, which I have jumped at, as it will mean I can still get to them if the need arises.  She also told me of a girl she knew who labeled her boxes of fabrics books - but we agreed this wasn't going to help in my situation. Any suggestions?  All this means that the rush is on to get our house ready in 4 weeks for sale.  Arrgh!  To keep myself motivated I look a photo's of the room that will be mine for crafting. Bliss.

That's it there on the end.

Well I never

Edited to add - BHG pattern available here

I know can you believe it? finally a crafting post.  There has been a severe lack of crafting on this little blog for quite a while now.  Not that there hasn't been any crafting going on - there has.  It is just that projects are in various stages of abandonment progress!  But finally, I have one to show you.  As you can see from the photo, the recipient of this project is very happy with the outcome! and he had no complaints about the fact that it has taken over 3 months for me to finish it.  Maybe Wally figured that with all the comments Mr Whizzme threw my way about it being "just a bloody dog bean bag" he didn't need to weigh in.  But I stand by my argument that if we have to live with it in our lounge room, it can at least be nice to look at.  This project is loosely* based on the pattern from the Better Homes and Gardens, 1 2 3 Sew book - which is where I was first inspired to have Wally lounging on something more in keeping with our home than an old blanket.  It was always a great way to use up scraps that I have been hoarding, and even the inner bag (yes the cover comes off so I can wash it - clever!!) is made from an old flannel sheet.  

I will try to share more projects as they are finished, but if you thought my posting had been rather haphazard of late, it is only going to get worse.  The Whizzme clan have decided that enough is enough and we are putting our house on the market.  The fact that we have fallen in love with another larger, more family friendly house has literally fired as up - to the point where I am thinking of stalking anyone else who may be interested!  So here we go on an emotional roller-coaster. Please excuse the haphazardness that this blog is afflicted with, but fingers crossed, I will be telling you about my new crafting room soon.

* The dog bean bag pattern in the book, is made up of a very simple patchwork pattern of large squares and triangles.  I wanted to use up bits of fabric I already had, so sewed them randomly together to form to larger pieces of fabric that I then cut the required two circles from.  The side is just one long strip of rectangle strips pieced together.  I then used a small zip on the inner bag, and a much larger one for the outer bag, so we don't have to struggle getting the cover on and off.

silence

(photo by melvelez on flickr)

That's what you get when a group of mums go away together - blissful silence.  I think it is the complete but unsaid knowledge that talking can be kept to a minimum without anyone being offended!  Two days without, "mum can I?", "mum can you?", "mum I need you", "mum where's the?" is like a week's worth of a luxury spa retreat - in fact it might be even be worth more than that.  Then there are the added extra's of being able to make breakfast for one, reading the newspaper, having a leisurely shower, doing your toe nails without having to keep everything out the way of little fingers, eating dinner - sitting down - from start to finish, going to the toilet on your own, sleeping in, reading your book until late into the night, sleeping in, not having the kids shows on, not having someone flick through all the TV channels, not even having to have the TV on!  Of course there is then the social outings that mean you can wander in the really expensive shops without having to grab things before they hit the floor, or be continually saying "don't touch that", or "just a minute", or "mummy just wants to look at this".  Browsing is such a luxury event when mums no longer have kids in tow.  And can be combined with enjoying a take away coffee without having to buy all the extra's to keep everyone else quiet so you can at least down it before it gets cold. 

Not having to share the chocolate. 

The rest of the Whizzme clan have been visiting Adelaide, and so I am quickly posting this before the silence is broken.  But don't get me wrong, as much as I have loved these last two days spending time with 'the girls', drinking wine, gossiping, watching movies, reading mags.  I cannot wait to see my family.  Even just two days absence, I have missed people telling me they "love me" and wanting hugs.  I have missed hearing their new ideas and experiences from their day.  And I missed having someone cuddle into me, knowing it is a safe place to be - with mum.  But I know that by tomorrow morning the spell will have broken and the routine will return, so, excuse me while I go and just soak in those last few moments of silence.

when you know they understand you