Flibbertygibbet

Progress?

Yes, this is progress, I promise!  There's nothing so satisfying as ripping down wallpaper, particularly when it falls off the walls like a starlet fainting onto the casting couch - whoosh - like this stuff did.  Nor is there anything as soul destroying as trying to remove woodchip wallpaper.  Apparently it's still all the rage in Germany (really?)

Woodchip, or Devil's Decorating, requires a lot of elbow grease, and a steamer (thank you Claire!) but it eventually comes off.  It seems that the trick is to steam the perforated paper for quite a while until it resembles the moment in the horror film when the baddie pulls of his latex mask - the gloopy glossy top part of the covering comes away like mozzarella off a pizza and then you have to resteam the gluey-paper-with-wheat-stuck-to-it for another age.

The bedroom is all done, and the hall is 95% there.  The second bedroom is just getting a facelift with new paper, I've decided (the Flib matriarch and patriarch are coming over this weekend to help) so just need to choose it.  One wall of the woodchip is gone from the sitting room, so there's quite a bit of wall to uncover in there.  The kitchen surveyor is coming tomorrow to make sure that the kitchen for which I've signed on the dotted line will in fact fit.  Hurrah!

There has been a little writing and a little crafting.  Twiggy is rekindling her modelling career:

I know, I know, I am a cruel woman.  I seem to remember Crazy Aunt Purl having a competition for knitting cat clothing - do you think it's too late to enter?  Actually, this is for a friend's baby - and will be triple washed, honest!

And so is Denise. I should have know better than to try to read her post on the clap-along blog without laughing, while at work. I was so busted...

Ticking over

Got a thousand words into the synopsis tonight which is coming along - thank you all for the good wishes!  I'm now in touch with most of the other winners and we're conferring to see who know what about what's going on.  We're all slightly in the dark but it will be fine, and it's still exciting.  A real spur to keep going.

Work is tiring.  I seem to be spending a lot of time on the net - somehow I seem to be able to get away with that though actually writing seems to be cheating somehow?

The flat is turning into the world's biggest money pit - the most hilarious quote so far is £3,000 for a new boiler.  According to one of the guys where I work, it's a bit like owning a boat:  the two best days of your life are when you buy your boat and when you sell it.  I think it's the same with a house.

On Sunday we had a little clap along - most of us were present - Abi, Caroline, Jenny, Ting, Lucy, Claire... except Helen who's away and Denise who's our international member, mwah mwah.  I still need to crack the carrot cake recipe but the macaroons were fine - love you, Nigella.  BTW, we were discussing the new Kaffe Fassett sock yarns and I said I didn't like the colours - but I think it might just have been that I saw poor photos online.  Jane Yarnstorm has some on her blog and they look great.

It's finally gotten chilly here.  Hence my new knitting project - something for me, finally.  In cashmere...

Do you remember

...I said I had a secret?  I sort of deliberated about saying anything at all because I didn't win but it's a nice incentive to keep going - or indeed, to start properly.   I'm sure you'll all give me a nudge - or a push -  when I need it...

Oh I do like to be...

beside the seaside, in a uncommonly blue-skied Whitby, for a dear friend's wedding.  An extremely stylish, personal, thoughtful day.

Her perfect pillbox hat was created especially for her by a wonderful milliner called Jessie Clifford.  The dress came from a vintage fair and she was stunned to get it for a bargain price (£40 I think) and it was fabulous - princess line ivory satin, and she was completely tickled by the pockets.  Utility designer wear. 

The reception took place in a semi-ruined castle in the middle of the moors.  I've never been so struck by colours in nature before but driving there through vast swathes of heather made me want to rush home and buy lots of Kidsilk aura in what I will now think of as Yorkshire colours.

The next day there was time to be a tourist, with a new friend I met at the bride's hen-day.  We were the two bold divorcees together and it was wonderful to have a partner in crime.  Also substantially cheaper to be able to share a room and fun to travel together.  You get a lot of knitting done on a four hour coach and train trip - more on that later.

And the trains there and back even ran on time.  Apart from perhaps this one:

There has been a little crafting...

The Clapotis in Debbie Bliss Pure Silk.  Cross one Christmas present off the list.  I've gone back to the angora one and it's coming along nicely.

Had a fit today with the kitchen fitter (I thought he was coming to the flat, he thought I was coming to the office) and I've pretty much decided to go down the Ikea route.  Helen gave me a good recommendation but I think I can't afford the designer options.  But I am feeling quite optimistic about the plans...it's off to Ikea for me on Saturday morning. Wish me luck...

 

The Bling Loo

Found it.  And it's in the sale again...

But my question is... can these pipes be moved, bent, whatever, so that the tank can sit on the wall to the right of the bowl as below, rather than directly above like in the picture here... or wait, does it just sit sideways?

You know what, I am sitting here laughing to myself - what the hell am I embarking on.  Let's hope it stays funny and hysterical doesn't become hysteria.  And thanks for all the good advice, good cheer and good wishes on the last post.  I hope to keep you all entertained with the journey to Flib's new nest...

Look what I bought...

The teensy weensy kitchen. More on that later.

The hallway - not quite the 500 sq feet I was remembering but it's fine.  What you can't quite see on the right is a humongous, enormous storage cupboard.

The sitting room - alcove for the table  on left, balcony for the cats to the right.

What will be the Bling Loo.

What will be the boudoir...

The writing room and studio.

 

 

The dirt that must go.  Anyone want to get their Marigolds on and come on down?  Taking volunteers for the cleaning, decorating, moving and catering crews.  In all seriousness, I am more than happy to do the cleaning myself - especially as it's so much easier as the place is totally empty.  But will definitely need help decorating.  The next thing to consider is how much work to do. 

The kitchen is a given.  It's rather foul and also very small so I got a kitchen designer.  I nearly swallowed my tongue when he came back with the figure of £11,100 and that was discounted from £14,000!  (For MDF, minimal appliances and sod all design expertise from what I could see - there wasn't a single useful feature in there...) So I have appointments with other firms for next week so that I can get this ordered and on the go - and I can get moved in as soon as I have something to cook on and don't have to live on pop tarts.

Going up there tonight was much more exciting and in turn, more reassuring than I expected.  It feels right and moving on is starting to feel more real.  I've decided to take the bigger room as a bedroom and the smaller one will be the craft and writing room*.  Contrary to what you're all expecting, I'm not intending to paint everything pink.   But I really do quite like this:

but wish it had arms.

This is rather cool too and is on the Ikea shopping list:

And definitely a possibility:

*More on that later...

For Emile

A little more modern than some of the other quilts I've done but I'm really pleased with it.  Lots and lots going on at Flib Towers, all pretty much good news - more on that later.  Definitely by Friday, I'm slightly sworn to secrecy on some of it....