Moving house

OK, so it's not about craft or thrift but I just thought I'd share a little image with you all of the current state of affairs in the Taylor-Dyce household. I had to be out of my flat by 3pm today so all my stuff was dutifully packed up on Wednesday night and made it across to Andrew's last night. So, our first official night of living together, I feel like a pair of squatters. Imagine this pile of stuff, now times it by three and that's about the extent of the damage. It's just for a week (thank god), until 5pm next Friday when we sign the new lease and get the new keys and can officially move in. At the moment there's a channel from the door to the bed and another from the door to the computer and wardrobe, with stuff piled up on either side. There's some piled by the hedgehogs and my sad looking aloe and peppermint plants (the first injuries of house moving, my aloe lost a stem. I also smashed a plate and ripped a lamp, sad day) are parked by the door.

The good thing about moving is that plenty of old craft projects and thrifted bits have come to light, as soon as we're in the new place and settled I'll be frantically taking photos and blogging. Finally I might be up to date with my craft blog! I've got plenty of cushion covers to show you all, a crocheted blanket from years ago, a mirror from a house clearance, the pier chair I got off ebay, the 100 year old spice jars I bought in Stockholm...the list goes on.

In the meantime, the current state of affairs:

Embroidered napkins

I made these for 2 friends about 2 years ago as an engagement present but I wasn't too impressed with how they turned out. It was my first attempt at embroidery and it's much harder than it looks!

Knitted sweet things

Vicky is a bit mad on cupcakes and baking and makes *amazing* sweet things. So for christmas last year I knitted her a basket of yummy delights, and all calorie free!

More soap!

Here's some more soap, again from the wonderful Making Stuff book (see previous post for linkage). This was the first batch of soap Andrew and I ever made, I had great fun clarting on with paper and ribbon packaging it up afterwards.

Soap box...literally

So I'm back home in St Albans for the weekend and I found all these craft photos on my folks home PC. Delighted! Loads of projects I made years ago and had forgotten about, now all safely uploaded to my photobucket ready and waiting for me to write about them.

First up, the Frances Birthday Soap Box.

I bought the tin for 50p from a charity shop and filled it with shredded tissue paper to make it look like a proper box you would buy. The little fabric sachets are filled with a mixture of grated soap, herbal tea and spices such as ginger and cinnamon. The idea is you pop them in your sock drawer to make your undies smell nice!

The soap was also handmade, using the recipe from the wonderful Making Stuff: An Alternative Craft Book by Ziggy Hanaor. It was half honey and half green tea scented.

Frances was delighted with it and I almost didn't want to give it away.





The contents of the sachets:

Flats

Oh my goodness, I might be moving house in 3 weeks time!
Andrew and I went to view a flat yesterday, after having a big discussion at the weekend about how now is not a good time to move, he decided to have a look at this one anyway *rolls eyes*. Anyway, it has a real open fire in both the lounge AND the bedroom! It's HUGE as well, 2 double bedrooms, a boxroom large enough for me to make into a study, a big kitchen with pantry and a bathroom! One of the bedrooms looks out over the Meadows, which for those of you not acquainted with Edinburgh is a large grassy space just south of the city centre. You can see Arthurs Seat at the other end of the Meadows, which at the moment is covered in snow and looks really gorgeous, the flat is just perfect.
I had a long chat with my folks about it last night and they're not happy about me moving now but they're supportive of me if that's what I want to do. That's one hurdle out of the way, just got to find someone to take my room (I've already got interest!) and tell my flatmates (really not looking forward to that one).
This flat is amazing though, totally worth the short term hassle and heartache!

P.S. I'm really sorry about the lack of craft and thrift posts, uni is taking over my life at the moment. I do have a pair of knitted gloves to post though so watch this space!