It's been ages....

Yes it has been a wee while since I updated my blog! I have been so busy that I have only spent about 4 sessions on the computer since the last time. And only to check a few e-mails and blogs I read, with a quick cup of tea. There has even been a 2 week school holiday in that time. I didn't go anywhere, except to see family in Napier and to my stall once a fortnight at the craft market.

I have been tidying up and re-arranging, yes I even threw stuff out and a few bags full went to thrift shops.

My darling spotted a lovely chest of drawers in the Salvation Army store. It has 9 deep drawers, with brass corners and handles. I cleaned it thoroughly and repainted all the drawer fronts in a matching white. Then re-sanded slightly, because it got too pristine. Now it doesn't look so perfect. Even though it is perfect for storing all my paints, glues, paper crafts, altered books and stacks of labelled magazine clippings for collages. It took me most of the holidays to sort through everything, which was spread in 3 different places in the house.

And now everything is totally organized in one place. I even have 1 drawer for beads. Amazingly I still have 1 drawer empty. Don't know how that happened...

Even my painting table is clear and can be used again. Such a great feeling!

Costs: nz$30 for the cupboard and $15 for the paint. Stress levels: minimal!

This is what the area looked like before.... With stacks of vintage books on the ground.

It also means that I suddenly have empty spaces in other areas of our house, which can now store other messy stacks in it, now all sorted as well.

It must be spring.. I'm sure I did something like this last year. And, this time my studio is all use-able and clean again too.
My favourite 3 trees in our garden. Silverbirches. They are about 12/13 years old. And my tree-loving bloke reckons they are about 10 to 12 metres high now. They love our good soil, and I love their white bark and the rustle they make in the breeze. Our garden isn't just on the ground but has different levels upwards.

The first flush of green!! Love love love springtime!

Unfortunately we have had many rainy weekends in which no outside work could be done, but the new daylight-saving hours are really helping, when my man comes home from work.

The sanding and painting is really coming along nicely.

As you can see, many years ago our house used to be white with blue. Even though it was the same colour as the summer sky, we are sticking to the butter-yellow with greens scheme.

It just feels friendlier somehow.