Room changes

It’s not that I have been slack this year, I have just been focussing my energy elsewhere. Namely my room. I have just spent the last week and a half moving out of my old bedroom which heats up like an oven in the afternoon (awful with the 30 – 40+ degree temperatures that we have had in Brisbane lately) and moving into the room that was my sewing room. The whole process is taking some time. At first, because my father who was to help has been very ill, but all these things just take time.

To begin with, on the last three days before I started work again for the year, I stripped all the furniture out of the sewing room ( it is now cluttering up the rest of the house). This means that my sewing table is out of action. I then took down all the shelves and curtain rods, and plastered up the holes. Last Monday, I sanded it all back and scrubbed down the walls and floor (tiles). Tuesday evening, I painted my first layer of cutting-in (the edges). Thursday night, I did my second coat. All this while I have been schlepping off to work each day.

I took Friday off to start the wall painting and made a trip out to fabric shops for curtaining supplies and to buy a ceiling fan. The second coat of paint went on the walls mid-morning on Friday and we spent the afternoon putting in blinds (which had to be cut down at the ends to fit, and shortened to fit the window – thanks to you-tube for the video).

Then up went the curtain rod. My bed then got drained (waterbed), moved and refilled. I spend Friday night as my last night in my old bedroom on an airbed. That is after I vacuumed up the layers of dust and pins in the carpet. The dangers of being a sewer.

After I got home from my museum trip on Saturday, I started moving furniture – chest of drawers, cupboard, DVD bookcase. I finished the day be hanging my new curtains, and loading my clothing back into my hanging cupboard.

Sunday morning saw my Dad and I off on a trip to bunnings for a few supplies – board to fix the warped bottom of my bookcase drawer, board to stuff in the recessed top so that my hatboxes can sit on top, shelf brackets and a new shelf. Then the loading process started. All the knickknacks and plushy toys appeared back onto my chest of drawers, the DVDs got loaded into their bookcase, the TV was hung on the wall, the computer set up (a new table is imminent), the hat boxes returned, and the shelves put up on the walls.

It's all complete now. New ceiling fan, new down-lights, shelves on walls, TV on wall, hooks on back of door. The only change will be when my dad makes a new desk for my computer to fit the space. (The one that I liked from Ikea is too big for the space that I have).

And then, I get to clean up my old room (again, plaster and sand shelving holes, and patch up the painting) ready to move my sewing room furniture in. It’s turning into quite a lengthy process, but it will be well worth it in the end. So far we have cleaned it out, plastered up the holes and the carpet was cleaned today.

So, at the moment all the sewing is on hold. I’ve started planning bits and pieces for the year ahead and collecting my fabrics and trims, but that’s about all I can do until my two rooms are set up. I do have a great pile of hand sewing awaiting me, so when I’m not moving furniture, I’m busily finishing off work dresses and re-enactment pieces. But the muscles are complaining from all the heavy lifting and I am covered in bruises.