Reflecting on my week #105

* This post contains items that were gifted by the London Graphic Centre

I’m not quite sure how it’s Tuesday already, but general opinion says it is. The weekend was a busy one, and the start of the week has continued. It’s quite usual for me to not know what day it is, but this week even more so. At one point towards the end of last week I thought I might be succumbing to the inevitable germs that seem to be in full flow around the office, but a concerted effort to actually eat the satsumas I’ve been carrying in and storing on my desk seems to have done the trick. So far at least, let’s hope that continues.

I had Saturday to myself - which is always nice - and even got some chores done, and completed my Christmas shopping. Unheard of for me, but also helped by the fact that my family ‘Christmas’ is actually on 30 November. I am done though. Apart from the wrapping. I’ve been so organised that I’ve even managed to buy MOH’s present to me, he’s never been so organised either.

One of the parcels I collected was from the London Graphic Centre, a favourite shop of mine in Covent Garden. It’s a shop that I used to visit as a teenager, in awe of its contents, and now not much has changed really, apart from me no longer being a teenager. When they got in touch, they’d asked what art supplies I was interested in, and so opening the package was a bit of the unknown as they’d selected items based on the crafts I’d given.

There’s plenty to keep me occupied, and what I’m most keen to test out is the dual brush pens with some modern brush-style lettering. My biggest problem, apart from getting started, is what my project should be. More thought needed, but not too much, as I’m itching to get started.

The weather changed this week too, with a distinctly more wintery feel. We had our first frost here this morning, and typically it was the day my car was at the garage for its MOT. I must have known though as I’d dropped it around to the garage last night, so at least I didn’t have to deal with a frosty car.

This weekend we will - most likely (weather dependent) be out in the gardening tackling all the leaves that have come down, and more I’m sure. There’s plenty to do out there, and it’s never as bad as you think once you actually get going.

Next door’s work is continuing, and from a peek out the window on our top floor, it seems they’ve got a bit of an unplanned pool on the flat roof. Of course, this might not be new, it could have been doing that all the time, but now it’s just more obvious. I’m sure the newest water feature will be staying…

It’s coming along though, but there is still much more for them to do. I can tell you for nothing, that I don’t miss having building work underway.

* The items in this post from London Graphic Centre were gifted for the purposes of a review, once that’s taken place I’ll be sharing more about the products and my project.

Untangling threads with history

We’ve been continuing to clear my MIL’s house, and sorting through what is no longer needed. It was the home that MOH spent his teenage years in, and holds many memories for the whole family, and it also has plenty of stuff, as family homes do. A fair amount of that has come back with us, and that includes some craft stuff which, as you can see, needs sorting.

What’s strange though is that now this untangling is soothing. Previously I’d not had the patience for it, and my dad and even MOH would help sort out tangles in wool, but over the past few years I’ve found the patience - and the satisfaction - of untangling reassuringly mindful.

A while back I bought a large bag of vintage threads, where thankfully the embroidery threads were neatly organised and wound around strips of cardboard. Remembering this I dug them out to add this jumble of threads to those.

And before long, they were unravelled and some new cardboard strips with notches cut out held the once tangled threads. Not all of the threads survived it, but a large proportion did, and they are much more usable like this.

I noticed though that the two strips of cardboard I’d added to, had much more character than my saved birthday cards. Or they do now, maybe my birthday cards will hold the same attraction in years to come, who knows.

The blues above are wound onto a card that once held ‘washing and boiling elastic’ and which ‘outlasts any garment never needs replacing’ - the mind boggles doesn’t it. The greens and yellows I added to the 'knicker elastic’ card which once held ‘the latest Improved Rubber Thread.’

Aren’t they a find? And I wonder if any of the packaging around today will seem as dated in the not too distant future!

A new, bigger rug - eventually

Just after Christmas MOH answered the door for a delivery and returned to announce he’d bought the house a present. Those words alone were enough to fill me with fear, but hoping I was wrong I braved it. My fears heightened when I saw it was a rug - MOH and I have quite different taste, and he proudly admitted that he’d copied the decor in his flat (which I liked) from one of the paint catalogues - fair dos and all that. Usually I opt for more modern styles than he does, but that’s not always the case. But seeing the package, the fear was real.

He was keen for opening it and showing me, but I’m wise to this now and instead he showed me a picture from his email confirmation. He knew from the look on my face, which clearly I didn’t hide very well, that I wasn’t keen. In fact I was so not keen that it didn’t make it out of the packaging, and spent all its time with us propped up next to the front door. He tried the ‘I don’t know how to send it back’ trick, but as he’d shared the confirmation email with me, I could help there and printed off the return label for him. He’s ever the optimist and left it to the last possible day before making arrangements for its return, and still it never made it out of the packaging, or out of our very small porch. I’m not sharing where its from, or the style/design because I’m still scarred.

NOT THIS RUG

I know his intentions were good, and his reasoning was pretty solid too - but even so, not that one, not ever.

Having broached the subject of a replacement rug in quite a unique way, we started conversations about replacing the one that was already there. It was cream-based and past its best, by a long way, I knew that and even a shampoo didn’t really help it. It was time to replace it - we were agreed - but I still really wasn’t keen on his tactics, or the actual rug. But anyway, there wasn’t going to be a new rug in the house until the offending one left, never to return.

And it went. And stayed went.

I’d been browsing websites looking at many, many rugs. He wanted a rug that didn’t show the dirt, I wanted one that wasn’t too dark and would lift the space. We looked, and became experts on the many, many rug sizes; measuring the floor to see where it might go - and finally we settled on this distressed Kamran Cayenne Red Rug from Ruggable. So while it’s lighter than MOH wanted, and the most traditional style I’ve ever chosen - the fact that it is washable is in its favour.

It’s a two part system - the top that you can see, which is light and flexible and a sturdier ‘under rug’ pad - which really acts like a large piece of velcro. There’s a knack to pairing them, and the video makes it look simple - it took me longer than I thought it would, and while I’m particularly fussy it took me a couple of attempts to get it matched with the overhang even - or at least with the pad not showing.

And before you make the same comment as MOH, yes it’s distressed and yes it’s meant to look like that. I know that I’m in for this conversation many times over with MOH, but you know it never gets old…

It’s a much bigger rug than we’ve had in this space before, and MOH is pleased he can put his feet on the rug, rather than on the wooden floor. He said walking on it feels ‘crunchy’ and that may settle down I guess. He’s already identified a potential downside of having a larger rug, and that’s it could be easier to spill things on - just as well it’s washable, hey?!

It looks pretty good, I think - and MOH agrees, which is just as well as I’m hoping we’ll get many years use out of this rug - and hopefully our next rug purchase, whenever that might be, will be less traumatic all round.