Barely Organised Chaos

I have made a bit of an attempt to check that the cupboards are in order at work - everyone thinks I am the only person who knows where anything is;) Most of my week was taken up with longarm tuition. After 2 years this has really taken off so it is a pity that it will have to come to a halt, although some people seem to think that I can transfer all of the skills I have accrued in 18 years and it will just take them a couple of hours to pick up…

I am so fed up with packing and worrying about all of the stuff that I need to move. I think everything that can be pre-packed is done. My garden has been emptied of pots, the pop-up greenhouse is down, and I gave the fairy-lights rose-arch to a neighbour, so it is all a bit bare. 

I have taken down the solar lights in my front yard, dusted off the spiders and packed them amongst my shoes (hopefully not the spiders.) Honestly, some of the boxes and bags are so randomly organised. Fleeces and kitchen mixers are just one example.

I plan to take next weekend off to do some socialising but I may borrow a pressure washer and spruce up outside. I am not really sure why I am bothering - the landlady brought a couple of prospective tenants round and did not comment on all of the improvements that I had done. She has even raised the rent by £150.00 per month so it’s no wonder the nice young couple did not sign the lease.

The Teacher Glare

My “Teacher Glare” never worked on my own children but I did have to employ it at the start of my 2 day ruler class this week. I started out with quite a demanding crowd but after I went into full-on teacher mode everyone got on famously;)

As well as that, it was all Go Go Go, making sure that I have got all of my customer quilts done before I leave Quilt Direct. Therefore, I also did a binding, 2 quilts and basted a stuffed cross that will become a Church wall hanging. 

Packing to move must be one of the most BORING tasks. I vacuum packed almost all of my clothes and cleared out a cupboard which was worryingly damp. I hope my fiddle has survived its 2-year sojourn in there!

Obviously, I will be leaving the cottage in a far nicer state than when I moved in so I gave the window sill 3 coats of paint which Nessie found quite unnecessary as she could not sit there to watch out for passing cats. 

I have 2 weekends left to sort out the rest of my stuff, which I am still worried will not fit into the van. Perhaps I should have given myself more time but a deadline is good. I still need to visit Mel at the seaside, go out for lunch, pressure wash the backyard and pack up the longarm…

Slow You Down!

A very Norfolk expression is “Slow you down!”-  meaning you should rush around less and chill out more.

That has NOT been me this week…

At work I bound 2 quilts, supervised 5 DIY quilts, did some one-to-one tuition, prepared for the Quilt Direct Open Day, attended the Tavistock Goosey Quilters exhibition, sold 2 machines, and carried out all of my usual side missions.

I was too worn out to do much in the evenings apart from veg out with Nessie but my Saturday was a blur of activity. I packed the non-essential kitchen items which means I obviously own a lot of non-essential stuff. I cleaned and sold my comfy armchair for £30.00 because I am paranoid that the moving van will be too small. I suppose the worst case scenario is that I can hire a self-drive van to come back before my lease ends but then I will be annoyed that I did not keep the armchair!

I defrosted and cleaned the fridge-freezer, painted the kitchen window sill, wiped the filth off the top of the kitchen cupboards - I have no idea where that comes from because I don’t cook that much, cut the grass, emptied the runner-bean pots, washed the windows, picked tomatoes, sorted the recycling, went grocery shopping, cleared out my food stores cupboard, did the laundry which then got left out in the rain, made a complete guddle of the house then rearranged the inadequate moving boxes!

I could start on packing up my bedroom but I do still have time as I wisely started packing early. Instead, I think I will settle for a drizzly dog-walk, make my packed lunch for work then lounge around until bed time:)

Packing It All In

This was a very busy week! I had quilts to do at work and a couple of staff members were away so there were more than usual phone calls, demos, admin plus a full 2-day class with umpteen cups of tea to provide.

In addition, I did 2 evenings of overtime for the Singer Helpline. Since the weather has cooled down it appears that people are dusting off their sewing machines (or not!) and hoping that we will solve all their problems.

I had a good attempt at packing up the sewing room / spare bedroom. I am trying to vacuum pack all of the quilts, bedding and blankets that I have, probably 10 times as much as a normal person. I also have a “shed-load” of craft supplies that I can’t part with but have not used in 2 years.

A friend has started rehoming some of my outdoor pots. I am glad they are going to another garden but sad to give them up. Even though I am moving soon, I am going to replace the dead marigolds in tins with pansies. I intend to wash all of the windows because I want a new tenant to receive a clean and fresh cottage.

I drove to a farm in the middle of nowhere to buy a hand trolley from a guy on FB marketplace. The typical Cornish response to me handing over £30 in notes was that it was “Ideal!” I reckon if there are 2 heavy duty trolleys on moving day it will make it a bit easier to navigate the bumpy alley.