My New Workspace

After going rather off-tangent with the blog posting recently, due to not having the facilities to make stuff, let’s get back to the point, shall we?

After some frustrating experiences and terrible customer service involving trying to purchase a small piece of vinyl flooring from B&Q, I finally admitted defeat. Shortly after which, the nice finance people on BBC news in the morning said that B&Q’s profits were down this year. Perhaps if they made it slightly less difficult for you to actually buy something, they might make a bit more money, no?

Anyway, I pottered off to Carpet Right in Stamford Hill instead, where they happily cut me a piece of flooring there and then and I ambled off home with it clutched under my arm.

Finally having acquired this all important bit of floor to place under my workbenches (so as not to damage the landlord’s floor, I could finally unpack all my tools, yay!

And this is my new workspace:

It’s almost like the space was made for me. The workbench, shelves of chemicals and tool cabinet fit along the wall under the mezzanine perfectly, and there is already a handy spotlight positioned above. Now that the tool cabinet no longer has to live under the jeweller’s bench, I can actually sit at the thing properly, without spending hours with my knees twisted to the side. I think my spine will be happy about this...

I also got a magnetic strip thingy from Ikea, which I have now screwed to the bench so I can stick all my pliers/tweezers/files to it, rather than them ending up all over the place. Sticking everything to it was a surprising amount of fun :)

So, now I have no more excuses, expect something shiny coming this way soon...

X

Tropical Cupcakes...

Hi again,

Still no shiny things, I’m afraid, but I thought I’d share with you some rather fun cupcakes I made for the last London Rollergirls bout. I am unleashing my frustrated creativity via the medium of cake :)

The event was called Club Tropicarnage (my favourite name for a bout so far) so I went all tropical and made some pina colada flavour cupcakes, with rum and pineapple and a coconut frosting, and some margarita flavour ones, with lime, margarita mix and tequila. Then I added frosting and decorations till they looked bonkers enough...

Here you go:

I also made some slightly more sensible victoria sponge cupcakes for a visit from the boy’s sister. They were really yummy :)

I think I would like to be one of those people whose house always contains cake when people come to visit...

...And I'm Back!

Hiya *waves* It's me again!

Yes, it's been a while. I've had no internet for a couple of weeks, so no blogging for me :(

But... guess what?

The boy and I are all moved into our new flat now, woohooooo! We discovered that between us we owned three coffee tables but only one fork. Eating salad with a spoon can be quite challenging...

The actual move itself was pretty stress-free, thanks to the muscle power and organisational skills of the boy's awesome friends and the tetris-packing skills of John the van man, who managed to fit my not insignificant amount of junk all into the van in one load.

We've just about unpacked, finally, although we need a bookcase, so some boxes will have to remain for a while till we can afford something nice.

So all in all, everything is good. I have never properly lived with a boy before, and I rather like it, although I have discovered that living with someone means I can no longer come home from work and eat cheese sandwiches for dinner though. Apparently that's not proper food or some such nonsense... Consequently, I am putting on some much-needed weight, hurrah! Derby thighs shall be mine once more :)

No shiny things yet, sadly, as I need to purchase a strip of lino to put under my workbench and cabinets to make absolutely sure I don't damage the floor that does not belong to me. It's weird, living in a house that belongs to someone else...

In the world of my old house, the bathroom did finally get finished.

Almost done here....

And tada!!! This is it pretty much finished, apart from the bright pink waterproof roller blind (thanks for the idea mum) that will cover the window and match the bath mat nicely.

And a little closeup of my nice sink, which turned out to be somewhat bigger than it looked in the picture. Turns out you're supposed to check the measurements, not just look at a picture and say "oh, that looks about right". Pah! What do they know? It looked fine in the end :)

So, onwards and upwards now. First task is to sort out workshop floor, then finish rollerskate. There will also be more new-flat related stuff I suspect. Do yell if you get bored...

Bye for now X

More Progress!

I has a floor. Squeal!!!!

Tada!

Am also adopting alarmingly cavalier attitude to packing up my entire life. Especially given how long it usually takes me to pack for a week's holiday...

I have but three packing boxes left and a lot more than three packing boxes worth of stuff to fit in them. Not entirely sure how that's going to work out...

A Work in Progress...

There is now a bath in my bathroom! Wheeeeeeeee!

And some tiles. Look!


Tis still looking far from finished, but I really love the wall tiles - so glad I chose these instead of boring old square ones.

And some floor tiles are down too!

I've always wanted a bathroom with a chequerboard floor :)

My house is still filled with devastation. And Ukrainians. But at least the end is, whilst not quite in sight, a vague shimmer on the horizon. Yay!

Bathroom Trauma

My house is currently filled with devastation and Ukrainians.

We are having the bathroom entirely stripped out and remodelled before the new tenant arrives to replace me, as I am moving out on Sunday. Yep, that's right, ON SUNDAY!!!!!

The builders arrived on Thursday and removed my entire bathroom, leaving a rather damp and horrible empty shell. New things have gradually been delivered, resulting in the living room now containing two sofas, a bath, shower screen, taps, a sink and, the piece de resistance, a toilet sitting at the end of the sofa! My workshop is filled with old stuff that used to be in the bathroom and all the corridors are piled high with toolboxes, alarming looking power tools and containers of random gloop.

Whilst I'm sure my design will look fab when it's finished, the whole thing is a bit traumatic at the moment. Boohoo.

A Belated Hello to 2010

Yes, I know it’s now January 13th, and traditionally I think one should publish a retrospective of the year past and resolutions for the year to come slightly earlier in the month, but just for a change it’s all been a bit manic.

I started this blog close to a year ago with the renovation of my room of junk into a proper workshop. It seems like forever ago now! The purpose of the blog was to write about my experiences in setting up a creative business, both good and bad, and to motivate me to continue.

Looking back on that blog post from January 2009 makes me smile. It was all full of bouncy optimism, and I had no idea what I would be able to achieve – I didn’t make a plan, or set any particular goals. I was just happy to pick up a pencil.

In the end, though, I think I achieved more than I could have imagined. The year 2009 was a year of firsts. Looking back through the blog, I’ve learned to make small hats, become obsessed with fabric, learned how to use silver clay, resculpted and repainted a mannequin head, invested my performance bonus from work in a whole load of new tools, set myself impossible deadlines (and met them), made tiny silver crash helmets and stripy socks, and designed my first ever business cards. I’ve been to Torture Garden for the first time, I’ve made my first ever thing for a complete stranger, who just happened to have come across my work on my blog. I’ve made wedding rings for friends, I’ve worked with gold and diamonds on some earrings for my mum, I’ve learned a whole lot about photography and discovered the amazingness of Lightroom as an editing program. Oh, and I also made a hell of a lot of cupcakes...

All in all, 2009 was pretty awesome :) I focused, I worked really hard, and I think I accomplished rather a lot, especially seeing as I have a full time job and all. But also, I had a lot of fun in 2009. I got to skate a few times, despite having given up being on a team, I had one of the best birthdays ever and I even had time for a holiday in the sunshine.

So, moving forward now, I guess I should make some plans, or at the very least some New Year’s resolutions...

The main thing that will be different this year, is that I am moving in with my lovely and long suffering boyfriend in exactly 10 days! This makes me very happy, as it will finally feel like we’re a proper couple, rather than both of us trying to find time in a hectic schedule for the other. Our new flat is rather splendid and has a spare room for me to turn into a workshop again. Having become so used to my own space, my first resolution will definitely have to be less of a control freak :) I must learn that everything will not be done my way, that there must be compromise. That everything doesn’t need to match perfectly and that clashing styles and ideas can work together just as well. Neither of us has really properly lived with a partner before, so we will muddle through together. And it will be ace :)

So, as with January 2009’s entry, I shall be bouncy, positive, and excited about the year to come, but will make no targets and set no specific goals for now. Well, it worked pretty well last year...