Time for a change.

Hello there!

It's been all topsy-turvy  here for a few days as I've been swapping bedrooms around in order to make space for a table on which to use my sewing machine. This is because I haven't done anything at all to practise what I learned at a one-day machine embroidery workshop last October and I finally realised that's because I don't let myself  just play around with stuff if I have to take over the dining-table to do it and therefore have to clear it all away again every lunch and dinner time. I need somewhere I can just spread stuff around even although I'm not actually producing anything useful.

So, the plan is to move the single bed into the larger of the spare rooms so that there's room for a table as well.  This involves repainting both spare bedrooms, because the little one needed to be in a lighter colour so it wouldn't look too cramped with a double bed in it, and the big one HAS to be turquoise if I'm going to call it my workroom!

So I gave the little room an undercoat of white emulsion and then a coat of a lovely grey-blue from the Dulux Origins range, called 'Favourite China'. I wore old clothes and got covered in paint speckles (pretty much an inevitability when using a paint roller) and was pleased. However, then I thought that the woodwork looked dingy. Duh! That's totally the wrong way round, I  know - do the gloss first because 'you can clean emulsion off of gloss but not vice versa'. I can hear my Dad now, taking a sharp intake of breath at my lack of forethought and preparation. Ah well, I didn't make too bad a job of it, and anyway at least everything looks all bright and clean now. I take after my Granpop - he used to paint everything when it started to look a littly dingy - no matter what it was. Biscuit tins, chairs, laundry baskets, you name it, all got the gloss treatment. Mind you, he did serve in both World Wars so I reckon the Army attitude had taken deep root. You know the one: 'If it moves, salute it; if it doesn't move, whitewash it.' He didn't prepare anything - just out with the gloss paint and a small brush and splosh it on. Sorry, Dad.

I've done the other room now as well - I did the woodwork first this time! The walls are a lovely bright colour from Crown called Beatnik Blue. I got all the paint from Homebase and used my Nectar points to buy it - so it's all only cost me about a fiver so far! This makes it okay to spend money on a table and some new curtains. Oh, this is definitely the best kind of spring-cleaning - I do like having a whole new look to the place. The charity shops tend to benefit when you re-organise and sort through your stuff, too.