No Craftiness Whatsoever

Yes, you read that right: yesterday I did nothing crafty at all! Nothing! It felt very very strange.
My day was absolutely packed with other things - work, cleaning the house, our free stuff party, my mother-in-law visiting - and there was no time to even sit down for ten minutes and sketch some of the brooch ideas floating round my head. Rubbish!

The free stuff party went well though, and my sewing box was one of the first things to get snapped up. Lots of swapping, and no-one spilled any red wine on our carpet so all in all a good party. I was supposed to be tidying up and cleaning the house today, but instead I have been supremely lazy and sat about in my pajamas until about 3pm eating biscuits! Hah, what a high-flying go-getter I am...

News: Etsy has been treating me very kindly this past 24 hours as my Violets brooch was picked by the Storque for a "leap into Spring" feature and matching front page, and now my little plush birdies are on the front page as well! Many thanks to lovely Etsians jahnut and JJMFinance for the violets screenshot and letting me know about the birdies :)

365 / 178 - Tea Stuff, Tidying Stuff, Free Stuff

I'm in a bit of a rush today, cos we're having a "free stuff" party this evening and I've got to tidy the house and set everything up ready for our guests... A free stuff party is basically a big swap party, where everyone brings things they no longer want and leaves with exciting new things! The leftovers then get taken to our local charity shops. They're always lots of fun, and it encourages us to have a big spring clean of our junk every time we hold one - and that's got to be good, right?

So, quickly, here are my 365 pics from days 177 and 178 - finishing off all those pink badges, and making some pink and "sponge cake" ones as well:
They'll be in my shop later in the week once I've had a chance to take more photos.

I've not been up to much sewing-wise the past couple of days as I've been trying to tidy up my sewing things and also my half of the spare room which now looks like this:
Bit of a bomb site (terrible light up there, too!) but getting there... (click through to see it larger and with lots of notes if you're interested!).
Major achievements include clearing out some of my University notes:
(the pile of paper on the top is going, the rest is staying for now), deciding to get rid of this sewing box which is nice but acts as a black hole and is totally impractical:
And admitting to myself that I really have no need for nor the space to put this typewriter:
Free stuff party ahoy!

Off the wagon again, and a new project

No craftiness whatsoever yesterday. This is the reason:
I should have taken a photo of the whole room to show the devestation wreaked upon my kitchen by this work, but frankly it is a bit embarrassing and I'm slightly concerned it might give me flashbacks should I see this blog post in the future...

Due to some slightly dodgy fixes we were given the magic of heating and hot water yesterday, most miraculous. I now have a burning desire to clean the whole house from top to bottom and never let anything get dirty ever again (how long will this last, I wonder? haha). Obviously I cannot actually clean until all the work is finished (a day or two yet) so I have been satisfying my desire to clean up by tidying the spare room and having a bit of a clear-out, pushing crafting right off the schedule.

I am generally attempting to buy less stuff (Etsy things sooo do not count!) and also to rid myself of a LOT of my possessions, so I love a good clear-out. We have regular "Free Stuff parties" (friends and neighbours all have a clear-out, and everyone swaps stuff with the leftovers going to charity shops) and I have lots of things like clothes stashed under the bed to test if I ever actually wear them...

But it can be hard sometimes to clear out lots of things at once, so I have started a little project where every day leading up to Christmas (your traditional time for buying lots of things) I will find something to give away - either to a friend or to a charity shop. I started at the end of October and I have been really surprised by how easy it has been so far - finding ONE book or ONE item of clothing or ONE bit of jewellery or whatever has so far been painless, and the pile they make all together is quite marvellous. I would highly recommend it!