Clothing Dee-Clutter Marathon

A busy morning was spent removing all of the clothing from teen 2's bedroom and sorting them into categories: keep, charity, Freecycle, bin and sister.

Teen 2 has changed sizes over the last few years and has clothing covering about 4-5 sizes. She was in ruthless mode and wanted to pare down to just what she could wear right now.  The Keepers ended up in two washing baskets.  hhm two carefully balanced baskets at that.

No prize for guessing her favourite colour.

The free-cycle items were sorted into sizes and labelled ready to be given to other members of free-cycle. Free-cycle is a way of recycling items that may otherwise end up in land-fill. They must be items that are suitable to go to someone else and not rubbish.

Here are the TEN shopping bags of clothes promised and ready to go to new homes through Free-cycle.

Another NINE shopping bags went to charity this afternoon. This included odd sized clothing, jackets, linen, and cotton clothing only suitable for rags as the charities also turn cotton into rags if not good enough to be worn. Since teen 2 doesn't wear synthetics it is easy to pass on rags.

ONE full bag of clothes ended up in the rubbish bin as it was not suitable to either be sent to charity or passed onto someone else to wear, eg worn underwear and swimwear, holey socks.

Of course teen 3 assisted in this huge task and her reward was first pick of anything that she may like. She scored a party dress, a pair of jeans, several tops, a nightie and a sundress.

At one stage the lounge room was so full that it was barely possible to move so we tossed bags of clothing to each other as we sorted, bagged and labelled them.

Tomorrow's tasks include picking up and paying for the new bed and tall boy, photo-graphing and dismantling the old bed and taking it down stairs and under the house as well as removing the two now empty wardrobes. The room should look quite empty after that.

There is more sorting to be done and it gets harder from here as it includes a lifetime of collected bits and bobs, games, puzzles, memorabilia etc. Wish us luck ... or whatever it is we will need; I am thinking much fortitude.

Paint selecting is in process and I expect will step up in earnest this next week, as will cleaning and painting preparation.  There are still furniture items to source but since it is all purchased second hand, patience is the key factor to finding what she wants at an affordable price.

I am eagerly anticipating the look as it all comes together.  ...and naturally I will share it with you.

I Have A Project

I am on three weeks holiday. My teens have two weeks off as well over the Easter holidays so we will get to be together. I wasn't planning on taking holidays right now but I am not doing so well so I need a break. I will be resting and taking it easy. I will also be doing some things that I enjoy in order to rebuild myself.

I have found a project to inspire and energise me over this break. (I just wish I was as inspired and energised about my regular job.)

Teen 2 will be 19 in eight weeks. !!!

Her bedroom hasn't changed remarkably since she was about ten years old. She has held onto many of her childhood books, games, bears and stuff despite multiple house moves and culls. Now she feels ready to totally re-do her room. She has been debating going to a double bed since before Christmas and has now decided that she really would like to upgrade to a double bed ... and to upgrade her entire style while she is at it.  She has been wanting it for a while but has been holding off as it is such a big project. With me on holidays and not sure what to do with myself, she raised it again. She wants to do it but really wants help and guidance, especially with making it happen and all the many, many details that are likely to overwhelm her.

I am her project co-ordinator! I am excited, inspired and ready to get stuck into it with her.

In this first week while she is still finishing her TAFE work I have been hunting out the ideas based on the many discussions consultations. I am working to her brief and am loving watch her taste and style develop and unfold. Apart from she is blue mad, I had no idea what else she wanted for her room. She is moving away from the things that delighted her as a child and teen and exploring who she is as a new young adult. I am sure her progression into adult education has played a part in this.

It began with her desire for a grown up bed. That raised quite a lot of questions - the main one being how to fit it into her very cramped bedroom.

She has been ruminating on it for a while and has decided that if she really wants to grown up bed, then she needs to make space and the best way to do that is to part with many of the things of her childhood that occupy her room.

I found it interesting when she came to me and said that the majority of the things in her room haven't been touched in the year since we moved and even then it was only when she unpacked them and put them into her space. She is feeling crowded out by her stuff.  Time for teen 2 to enter the next stage of dee-cluttering; I trust she will find it as liberating as hubster has found it.

This is a major developmental turning point for her and I am soooooooo proud of her. I am delighted that she wants to do it and feel privileged that she trusts me and wants my assistance in achieving her goal to upgrade her room.

Sunday afternoon kicked off with starting on the sort and cull.

Ra chose to start with her books. one washing basket at a time she brought them out and went through them.

Right here is where I wanted to add a picture of the three piles of books she has chosen to cull.

With the books and other items it has meant a three shelf bookcase has come out of her room and there is heaps of space on her other shelf. ...None of which I am able to show you at the moment.

I have delayed posting this for the past two days as I have been trying to get the new photo program sorted out. i have installed various updates and thought it was all good... it still won't work. sigh. I am going to post this and if i can get the new programme to behave I will later add the photos. (I am trialling the 30 free version of 'Aperture'. At this rate I don't think I will bother buying it at the end of my 30 days.)

Bingle

On Saturday as hubby was driving teen2 to work a P-Plate (Probationary) driver driver came off the highway (100km/hr zone) and didn't slow enough as he came into the round-a-bout.  Hubby was going fairly slow and saw this young man going way too fast. Hubs realised the P-Plate driver wasn't going to stop. Hubby braked and swerved to the right crossing into the lane next to him. The young  P-Plate driver came flying through the roundabout and hubby doesn't know how the cars didn't collide as the other car then crossed the lanes and exited on the wrong side before taking off.

There was a couple riding a Harley Davidson motorbike in the lane next to hubby and they also saw it happen and were able to brake but still hit the drivers side of our car.

Thankfully no one was hurt. It could have been really bad. If hubby hadn't acted fast the young p plater would have hit our car at considerable speed on the passenger side where our daughter was sitting and also the passenger side engine area. Thankfully the Harley rider and his passenger were also ok. He managed to stop to and neither of them came off the bike. They were both wearing full protective gear too.

It really shook our daughter up.  She realised just how close she came to being seriously injured and how fast it can all happen. Hubby says that at the speed and angle where it would have impacted if not for his actions, it would have written off our new car and possibly teen2 too.  We are all still in a bit of shock about it all.

Another thing for which we are grateful - we have full insurance with hire car so tomorrow our car will go in to be assessed and repaired and we will have another car while this all happens. I will get to experience the insurance process from the other side.

There is remarkably little damage to our car. The bike only just connected and at slow speed as both the rider and hubby were able to come to a stop.

Yep minimal damage. The door wont open fully as it is catching on the front guard.
There is also a large scratch on the window and a scuff on the wing mirror as well as some other scuffing on the door and guard.

Oh and if you are wondering what the red reflections is... it is our mover in the back ground. We had our first fine day in about 3 weeks and the moving finally got done. the yard is still quite wet and sloshy - the ground just can't absorb any more water.

When hubby came to a stop he looked out the window and saw something like this...

 Hubs said his first thought was "Oh hell! I've hit a Hell's Angel."

I would have loved to have seen the expression on his face at that moment. Somehow he managed to have the first words out of his mouth as "Are your hurt?" instead of "Are you going to kill me?"

Turns out our Harley rider wasn't a Hells Angel (no apostrophe in Hells 'cause education is over rated when you are a serious biker-thug) but was a keen motorcyclist with a regular job.

Polish Haul

I have mentioned previously just how dangerous it is to spend time hanging out in a pharmacy waiting for a script to be filled. I have a new theory... pharmacies have a marketing plan to take at least ten minutes to dispense a simple prescription in the hope that the time may be spent roaming the store and finding something that just must go home with the customer.  And it works!

I had intended to drop my scrip off and go to the camera shop two shops up to browse. (I am dreaming of upgrading my camera.) It was a great plan right up until the point where I discovered that the camera shop had closed down and gone. So I was left to amuse myself in the pharmacy for a while. Naturally I headed to my favourite section - cosmetics. I am not into make-up as such... but I do like pretty nail polishes.

The friendly and helpful assistant came over and we chatted as we usually do. She told me that she had a mixed assortment of Orly polishes that had come in to be cleared at $4.99 each. I couldn't quite believe my ears. Orly is an expensive brand and to have them at such a price is definitely out of the usual. They are hard to get and often can only be obtained through salons.  When I remarked to my assistant friend she told me that a lady who is a nail salon artist had exclaimed that she can't buy them at that price wholesale and had bought quite a lot of them. She was planning to tell a friend or two. So far another of her friends had come in and more were expected. I browsed and was remarking at the shades. I picked out 10 colours and was waiting for my daughters to join me to help me decide which ones to cull.

My darlings both added one more colour each to what I had and didn't want to cull any. That's right 12 bottles of nail polish came home with us!!

Here they are - ooooh lovely.

 Golden Halo, Lilac Shimmer, Pawn the ring, Flirty Girl

I have been wanting to do more with french polishes and have been pinning lots of lovely french variations. I didn't actually own a natural for the french.

Orly has a range which are tints so the shading is subtle.

I selected these four with the intention of narrowing it down with my girls help. 

I am not sure that we really needed four shades, but oh well. They are all slightly different.

Strip Down, Take a Chance, Walk Down the Aisle, Orange Punch 

Not that you can tell in the pics, but each colour has a shimmer and some have a variant shade to it. 

The pink throws orange, the maroon throws green and the green is a sheer tint with shimmer too.

Ra (teen2) has been wanting more greens in our collection. and tested it out on my toes.

Em (teen 3) had to add the orange.

Firty-Four, See Yah, Aspen, Glitz

Fifty-four is a clear base with pink and orange shimmer.

See Yah is a maroon wiht a gold cast.

The blue and Gold both appear to be solids with own shimmer.

I am looking forward to trying them all out.

Daughter 1 JC visited last night and I convinced her to let me do a traditional French polish on her.

When I first asked if I could do her nails she responded with, "Sure as long as it's clear."

When did she get so boring?

Our compromise was the traditional French - this was also a first for me.

Not bad for a first attempt.

Tonight Ra has removed the red polish from my toes and tried out the green on them. After four coats it is very pale - this is definitely a tint and not a solid as we suspected. I think it will look best layered over a stronger colour.

Over the rainbow

Nails and more nails.
I have been a bit quiet on all fronts in the past little while. Nail art has however been continuing.

This is a design done by teen 2. She wanted a rainbow going across all her nails with a cloud at either end.

 Teen 2 aka Ra did her left hand and I did her right hand. 

This is the beginning of a nail art project. 

A gold base with a deep red diagonal.

I hadn't decided what I wanted to do over the top and the days got away with me. Soon the week had come and gone and it was still like this...

... with progressing tip wear which is to be expected I guess.

Then I tore the top of my thumb nail and split the layers of the nail in the process.

Thankfully it was only the tip of the nail and didn't hurt other than the initial jarring.

 I still haven't removed it as it dose look nice but I am getting used to a bit more to it and so this is a tad plain.  Now I need to decide what to do next.

Top with less bottom

I have now completed the second of my alterations to my recently purchased "bargains".
This item is a top purchased for $20, marked down from $60. At $60 I wouldn't even consider purchasing it knowing that it would need alterations.  Somehow a $20 purchase price evens up the equation and the necessity to putting in some additional work becomes acceptable and even worthwhile... Really it is probably even worth the extra time and effort at $60 but I am a bit of a scrooge.

This top is simple and the neckline detail is what attracted me to it.

Before

It is a scary look on me. 

When buying clothing I have to either purchase it to fit the bust/waist or the hip region. One may think that would be fairly simple - it isn't. 

Some years ago when the fashion was for shorter tops it was relatively simple, I just purchased to fit the bust as the shirt would end before it reached my wider hips. The current trend is for longer shirts. That just doesn't work for me and has made finding tops, shirts and blouses a nightmare (to put it mildly). I keep trying to maintain a balance between it fitting my chest / waist and fitting my hips and bum. The compromise often means that it covers me but doesn't quite flatter any part of me.  I keep trying though. If I was prepared to make all of my clothing and fiddle with the fit I am sure I could achieve a good fit most of the time. There are a few downsides to that proposition:

1. I would miss out of cute prints on the front of clothing

2. clothing is actually less expensive to buy than fabric and patterns 

3.  Sewing takes large amounts of time to fit and construct.

4. Often it is difficult / impossible to buy the same fabrics in retail as are used to construct purchased clothing - eg. ever tried searching for good quality knit fabrics?

Anyway. This was a simple fix. I just cut about 20cm off the bottom of this top and hemmed it.

 After

It's no longer a trendy length but it fits and looks good on me and I will go for that over trendy any day.

close up detail of neck line

I also really like the cap sleeves.

If only achieving a good fit was always so simple and inexpensive.

Family Get together

On the weekend my extended family got together. It was the first time in about five years that we had all been in the same place at the same time.

I had been anticipating it for several weeks. The weather didn't exactly cooperate with us and just as lunch was nearly ready down came the rain and up came the wind. A ten minute dash back to our place ensued guaranteeing somewhat soggy chips and damp humans. Laughter wasn't lacking however.  We even managed to fit us mostly around the table in my kitchen. Our table is officially a ten seater, but we crammed 16 around it, with a second row of two.

I would have like to have longer to get to chat better with each person as I am sure I have a half completed conversation with most of the folks. That is how it tends to go with these gatherings.

We all departed promising not to let five years go by before we do it again.

The night before the big all-in we had a quieter time with my parents. I hijacked got to paint my mum's nails.

pretty flowers on a pale pink background.

It was fun to work on different nails.

St Patrick's Day

Time for a bit of fun!

 How do we greet each other on St Patrick's Day? Top of the morn to you.  ??

I wanted to do a nail art to give a nod to all things Irish since today is St Paddy's.

A quick google netted me a collection of Irish symbols which I attempted to replicate on my nails in paint.   I spent a happy few hours reading up on Irish culture and history... and will resist the temptation to regale you with my expanded knowledge.

Claddaugh, pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

 These two are probably my favourites.

Left hand: clover, Triqueta (Irish knot), Leprachaun's hat

Right hand: Flag, Celtic cross, clover including the elusive four-leafed version 

I considered doing a cup of guinness and a harp but decided against it and left the last two nails just shiny green.

It got a few comments at work yesterday. There was a fundraiser raffle (I didn't win the bottle of Baileys) and a lot of green shirts.

There is just one tidbit that I must share from my research combined with my experience:

My name is Irish and as a child when I looked up the origin and meaning was very disappointed to discover it meant "sorrow". The legend of "princess Deidre of the sorrows" caught my attention partly because she was a princess and partly for the tragic tale.

This time, I was interested to see the phonetic charts for the Irish names. The pronunciation of my name has been anglicised from the original Gaelic.  The Gaelic pronunciation is Dee - ah - drah or Dee - id - Rah.

The English (british) say it Dee - arh - dree (both long ee) and the Americans Dee - dra.

I am used to Dee - dree since that is how my mother pronounced it.
Most of my life I have been called Dee and I often prefer that because it is less likely to be mangled that way.  Since working where I do now I have heard so many variations and am getting quite used to the ah sound at the end.

Shave for a Cure

Teen 2 has been fundraising for Cancer Research.  Her favourite colour is BLUE. The colour she detests is PINK.  If teen 2 reached her goal she was going to colour her hair blue with a stripe of pink. If she doubled it two stripes of pink were going in.

She had intended to fully colour her hair but the hair dresser said that since her hair is very dark it would have to be completely bleached and then coloured. She recommended the coloured spray of just a streak or two of colour.

Teen two made her goal and the colouring happened today. She still has a bit longer to collect donations. She is thinking that she may go back and get the permanent stripe especially if she can manage to double her goal.

Before

 Blue-ification commences

 add some pink!

 Man that's blue!

 done

 teen 2 with the hair dressers

 The paint is stiff and uncomfortable. Teen 2 will leave it in to were to work tomorrow and then wash it out. Her head is wrapped in an old towel tonight to attempt to save the sheets and pillow. everything that comes into contact with her turns blue, her skin is blue, her clothes and bits are flaking off onto parts of the house.  We will need to do some serious cleaning tomorrow.

Re-Model Dress into a Skirt

On Sunday afternoon hubby had an appointment at the big fruit computer store. I was with him and as we walked past a fashion for larger sizes store I saw the big signs advertising 70% off.  I stopped for a look and was happy to send hubby on.

I picked up a few bargains and managed to fill a couple of wardrobe holes. There was a catch - isn't there always?

Some work was needed on three of the four garments in order to make them useful. Now I have managed to get one of them done and in addition to showing off my before and after transformation, I will show how I did it.

Before - $90 dress marked down to $20.

The entire dress is not even a bit flattering. 

The top fabric is pretty but it has no shape, is baggy and way too big on me. The neckline is huge so if I lean over... you know.  Seriously these stores should hire me... how many big girls have a neck THAT big!? I don't know why each increase in size also increases things like the neckline. 

Anyway, the skirt part is a nice heavy knit and is pieced and shaped. I thought it had potential.

After

A new skirt for work. The photo doesn't show the detail in the skirt so you will have to take my word that it has some nice detailing and is different to anything I own. I don't usually tuck tops in but wanted to show the skirt. The waist is a bit too big but I didn't want to change the line.  The skirt sits on the top of my hips.

The simplest way to turn a dress into a skirt is to use the already attached fabric of the top and convert it into a facing.

I chose to do it this way for several reasons, that main one being use of time. It would have been quite time consuming to completely re-do the waist band and time is too precious to me to do it the long way when I was sure I could achieve just a good a result much quicker.

I would have needed to do a lot of unpicking in order to properly remove the top fabric and leave myself enough of the skirt fabric to attach a new facing for the waist band.  This way I was able to create a facing quickly and easily. 

Now for the 'how'.

I cut the top off about 3cm above the skirt. 

In the pic below you can see some of the detail in the skirt... and the threads from where it had been cut.

 Next I stabilised the soft floaty fabric. 

I had some iron-on stabiliser designed for sewing waist bands - it is about a thousand years old but the iron-on sticky stuff still worked.  I cut it up the centre 'cause I was only doing one side. I ironed it flat onto the top. In the pic below you can see that the centre front of the top is gathered onto the skirt. I needed to make that sort gathered fabric behave like a nice solid fabric.

Once stabilised, I further stabilised and heated up my rough cut edges by overlocking the raw edges. 

ta da. I have created a stable facing from a previously very unstable fabric. 

The only unpicking I had to do was the top few centimetres where the zip crossed over from the skirt to the top. You can see the threads where I sewed across the top of the freshly cut zipper so that it couldn't go past the top of the skirt.  By unpicking that little bit it also gave me some fabric to turn in so there would be no raw edges on my new facing.

I turned the facing over and carefully stitched with my sewing machine along where the top row of top-stitching is on the skirt. 

I then hand slip stitched the bottom and added a hook and eye to the top of the opening.

And the finished result.

A neat skirt with a pretty coloured facing. 

 The whole re-do took about an hour and the most time consuming part was slip stitching the facing by hand - even though no one is likely to see the waist band I didn't want stitches showing... 

Nail Fail

Friday night I came home from work and was struggling to stay awake. I was waiting for hubby to finish work and come home. At 9pm I could hardly keep my eyes open so in order to keep myself awake I started looking at manicures online. That's a sure way to stay awake. :)

I saw a cute pink mani with silver and black and decided that I had to replicate it. Somehow I had been so successful in distracting my self that I had forgotten just how tired I was.  By the time hubby came home I was right into the manicure. A nightcap later and I was past tired but I couldn't stop 'cause I wasn't done yet.

I should have stopped.

The mani may not have been done but I was.

See what I mean.

 Well this is my dominant hand which means I used my non-dominant hand.
And it was 11pm by this time.
And I am a cheap drunk (one drink had seriously impaired my abilities).
And i was trying to hurry so I could go to bed.
And it was the first time I had tried to do fine straight lines with a nail art brush that had 3cm long, fine bristles.

Done laughing?

The next morning when I saw how truly terrible it looked I removed all but three nails (two of which were on my right hand and were in fact the first and third that I did). I painted all the others pink and that is how it has stayed.

Better?

The colours in this pic are how it is meant to be. my yellow lights make for terrible night photos. (and I still can't figure out the light settings for night on my camera)

We've got the Tiara

When teen 3 (miss 16) was little all she ever wanted to be was a princess and a mummy.

At age 2 she didn't get the baby doll she wanted for her birthday and was devastated. I thought she would get over it and love the not-so-expensive baby doll that we bought instead. She didn't.
The following year we learned our lesson and got the baby doll the we didn't think was worth the full price the year before. To this day that baby doll is still precious and loved. She doesn't play with it now but it still has a significant position in her life and her room. She was still playing with it regularly at age 10, a bit less at 11 and only on occasions by 12.

The princess stage is a common theme for little girls too. For her 5th birthday we bought her a princess dress and had a princess party where all the little girls wore their princess dresses and played dress up games, had their hair and make up done and photos taken. Then they sat up at the 'big' table and had high- tea five year old style complete with fairy bread, frogs in the pond and baby chinos.

Sadly for our princess she was the fast growing kind and she out grew her 'foofy' dress all too quickly... to this day it hangs in her wardrobe taking up a significant amount of space with all it's layers of foof.

This princess is now 16 and in her final year of school.
She is still baby mad, still dreams of becoming a mother and loves to baby sit the 11 month old next door - so she knows it not all skittles and sunshine.

She is also still princess mad even though sometimes it is skulls wearing tiaras and too much make up. Our princess is in the process of choosing her formal dress for the end of year graduation and school formal.
And guess what?

She has eyes only for the princess dresses. Her criteria include: fitted, boned bodice (breathing is optional), embroidery and beading and layers upon layers of tulle with a full skirt.  She hasn't yet chosen the final style but you can see her current favs here.   Oh and by the way... I did it and finally joined Pinterest.  Feel free to follow me and make sure you let me know so I can follow your interests and pins too. I am warning though... it is addictive. Getting back to today's tale...

When looking again on Saturday, the third of such outings, she tried multiple dresses and didn't find any that really matched up to the picture in her mind. She did find a selection of Tiara's that are discontinued and therefore marked down to only $10!!!  The ones that she has been looking at are five times (or more) that price.

So now she has the tiara and just has to find the dress.

Shanks is modelling the new Tiara.

Pink Chain Ear Rings - tutorial

My intention was to spend a chunk of today "playing". I got the jobs done... insurance sorted, kids dropped off and picked up, trip to the chemist, etc I did some tidying in my craft room... not the same as playing but necessary in order to play. I had so many things I could do that I was in danger of not doing any of them.

Do you get like this?

Finally I sat down and did a bit of beading.

I wanted to make something pink as there is a serious lack of pink in my jewellery collection.

I decided to experiment with pink size 8 seed beads and jump rings to make a hanging bunch of grapes type of ear ring. It looks better than it sounds.

My inspiration was the beaded hangers that I have been making. I wanted a similar look on a smaller scale.

 Here is my ear ring laying on the wool flannel bead mat. 

You will need:

30 x size 8 Seed beads
30 x 6mm jump rings
14 x 5mm jump rings(could use all 6mm if preferred)
pair of fish hook ear wires
two pairs of pliers (I used my bent nose pliers and flat nose pliers)
  

1. Start by opening each of the 6 mm jump rings and threading one seed bead on each, then close the jump ring making sure that it is properly closed. You should have 30 of them. Divide into two even piles. 

From here on I will simply refer to these as "6mm rings" for ease. 

2. Pick up one of the 5mm jump rings, open it and put one of the 6mm rings on before closing it again.

3. Next take another 5mm ring, open it and put one 6mm ring, a 5mm ring and another 6mm ring on before closing it again.
Pick this up by the 5mm ring just added and the two 6mm rings will fall either side of the previous ring 5mm ring. This is important as it will be balanced and give an even look as you keep going.

This pic below shows how it will look at the completion of this step.

4. Repeat step 3 another 4 times.

 5. When adding the last row, put two 6mm rings on either side of the added 5mm jump ring to give a bit more fullness.

6. open the loop on the ear wire and put the last loop through it.

7. Admire you new ear ring and do it again to make a pair.

It's also a good idea to get someone else to take the photo of you wearing the ear ring so that it is properly focused... but I had to make do as there wasn't any one else near by, but you get the idea.

I am thinking I will make another version of this using bigger jump rings so the silver rings feature a bit more