Shoshiplatypus

What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?

Well, wonders will never cease! You will not believe this, but Shoshi has been Tidying Up.

An amazing and exciting gift

Last week, I had the most amazing and generous offer from our own Cindy, who has also been having a clear-out. She told us about her various crafting machines and I was particularly intrigued by the TODO foiling/die cutting/embossing machine, so I looked it up on YouTube and binge-watched for a while. It sounded just the sort of thing I could use.

Some time ago I was seriously thinking of getting a Big Shot. I have a Cuttlebug which is lovely but very small. This was one of the very first things I bought when I started crafting seriously, and I have often thought it would be good to be able to use bigger dies. I was slightly put off by the enormous footprint of the Big Shot and wondered where I would put it. I am very glad I didn’t get one, because having seen the TODO, it seemed the ideal machine, because it would not only emboss and cut dies larger than the Cuttlebug, but it would also do foiling. With all that, I’d be prepared to put up with a Size Ten foot on my desk.

I have been hankering after being able to do foiling for ages. I have not got a laser printer or a laminator, and all my attempts using other methods (glues hot and cold, iron, soldering iron, you name it) resulted in a messy failure so I rather gave up on the idea. With this machine, you can foil using special hot foil stamps that look like metal dies, but do not cut. You can also use your existing metal dies and even your embossing folders for foiling, and you can even make your own hot foil stamps from stacked card die-cuts. The machine’s base plate can be heated up for this. You can also do letter-press with the same things – an effect I really like.

I thanked Cindy for making me aware of the existence of this machine and said that I was now seriously thinking of getting one. The next thing – she is giving me hers! I am absolutely thrilled – thank you Cindy! She did warn me that it was every bit as big as a Big Shot but it is worth clearing a space for it.

The name TODO. I’ve watched numerous videos. Most people pronounce it “Toddo” as in blotto. Some people say “Toe-Doe” as in the extinct bird dodo. However, on the box, I can see that under the name “TODO,” it says “The freedom to do everything.” Doesn’t this make it the “To Do” machine? Just wondering.

Tidying Up

This has finally given me the incentive to penetrate the deep jungle that my studio has become over the past few months, armed with a machete to clear the undergrowth and begin some serious deforestation. It has got so bad that my efforts are going to cause serious alarm among the climate change merchants, and as I penetrate deeper, who knows what almost extinct species of craft stash thus far unknown to modern science will come to light?

It has been driving me nuts for months. I remembered to take some “before” photos so that I could chart my progress and pat myself on the back in front of you all.

The room is divided in two, with a small section just inside the door from the landing. This used to be the dressing room for the bedroom in a previous existence before it got Shoshified. There is a sink on the left, and a table in front of the glass door that leads onto the balcony. This is supposed to be my “wet” craft area. For months this table has been so cluttered that I cannot even put my morning tea tray on there in order to wash up the tea things! Looking into the studio itself, you can already see the sort of clutter I’m having to deal with.

To the right, out of shot, the rest of the space is occupied by my office, with book shelves, filing cabinets and desk. It’s a narrow space but just room enough to swivel in my swivel chair.

Moving through the doorway into the main studio, a view of the work surface under the window.

Stuff dumped everywhere. Where the red folders are, between the cutting machine and the computer (which need to be connected to each other so have to be relatively close) is where I am intending to put the new machine.

Moving on round, my main work area, with the pull-out unit pulled out (as one does), to put pulled out things on that don’t get put away.

This surface is supposed to be my cutting area. Ha ha. You can just see the corner of my green cutting mat to the left of the red basket full of tea bags. The main desk speaks for itself. A dumping ground. It’s a bit tidier than it has been, because I had to make a couple of cards recently, and the clutter hasn’t had the chance to encroach to its former levels.

Moving on round again, that corner is supposed to be my sewing area (white thing = sewing machine), and the right-hand end of that surface is supposed to be my drawing area. Not much drawing going on there – no drawing near, even.

In front of it all is a stack of banana boxes containing my knitting/crochet yarns. Their home is officially on the top shelf to the right, out of shot, in the storage area running along the final wall of the room (backing onto the office beyond). However, these boxes have been taking up floor space for a long time while I have been working on my yarn-based projects (Kitty Throw, Purple Circles jumper, Persian Tiles throw) because manoeuvring those boxes up and down off the high shelf is a major operation that I wasn’t prepared to put up with while I needed easy access. A couple of weeks ago, I did sort those boxes and they are now labelled accordingly – 4-ply cones, 4-ply oddments, double-knitting and chunky, and mohair and miscellaneous. I need another box for the additional cones I bought recently. I have decided to rearrange things in the storage area so that these yarn boxes are more easily accessible, and the top shelf where they used to be can now be used for storing things that get little use.

Daily diary of sorting and clearing

Day 1 Saturday 12th June

Moving on to last Saturday, I made a start on the major clear out. I spent a lot of time up there until I got too tired and started to feel a bit wobbly so I gave it up for the day. I worked really hard, but it doesn’t really look as if I’ve done anything!

I suppose everybody goes through this when they do a clear out. It takes time for it to start looking better. Sometimes it has to look worse first. My hubby has supplied me with some spare cardboard boxes to sort things into. I know there is a huge amount of redundant stuff in there – for instance I have far too many small cardboard boxes saved “just in case” and a lot of materials for things I dabbled in for a while and will probably never do again.

As I sort through all this lot, and put things into boxes “to keep – find new homes,” “to chuck out,” “to recycle” and “to give away.” Once it is done, I am hoping to have a nice big collection of things I no longer use or want, like Cindy, and I shall do a post about that in due course to see if anybody would like any of it.

Jungle clearance is going to take some time, I can see that. Time to sharpen the machete again.

Day 2 Sunday 13th June

It definitely has to get worse before it gets better. A LOT worse.

Looking back towards the far side of the room again, definite progress has been made.

I managed to empty a banana box of its contents and have now put the remaining yarn cones into it.

Four of the yarn boxes are now on the black shelving in the storage area instead of being on the high shelf. (I forgot to photograph this before starting to reorganise it.) Not such an efficient use of the space but the boxes are much more accessible, and if I get rid of a lot of stuff, I shan’t need to cram everything in so much anyway.

I haven’t tackled the bottom shelf yet. Once that is done, the final yarn box will go there.

The top shelf of the storage area, far left-hand corner.

This is where the yarn boxes used to be. These large plastic storage boxes were on the black unit. They contain items I might one day get round to altering, some finished projects and fabric left over from my Tudor gown. (Funnily enough, finding that blog post again with the completed Tudor gown, I had also been tidying up! I don’t think I’ve done it since… This encourages me because I know I can get the room back to looking like that again, if not better.) The smaller boxes to the right of these large ones contain small boxes and containers, and spare light bulbs. To the right, there are some painted canvases and mounting board, and various other odds and ends – none of this is sorted yet.

That’s all I managed to do on Day 2.

Day 3 Monday 14th June

Definite progress has been made. Here is the far side of the room.

I’ve cleared all the stuff from the top shelf in the corner, some of which has been chucked, and some moved elsewhere. I am going to use this for displaying larger items. All that is there at present is my beautiful Romanian pierced pottery bowl. You can see more work surface than previously, but the main desk pull-out unit on the left is even more cluttered than before!

The other corner is now pretty much complete (apart from the jumble stacked on the floor).  The floor is definitely clearer. I’ve got rid of a lot of the old heavy books that were on the black shelf unit and just kept three large art books that won’t go on the book shelves – they are heavy enough to be used for flattening things, without the other books that were there. I still haven’t cleared the bottom shelf of the black unit. Once this is done, the final yarn box will go in there.

The end of the storage area – bookcase with storage above. All the mounting board and other large stuff is now stacked up at this end. (One day I might get a box for the mounting board as it’s a bit of a mess – all different sized pieces.) There was a huge amount of cardboard and small cardboard boxes there, and this has now all gone. I need to go through the bookcase and reorganise the stuff on there.

The other thing I did was to clear a huge number of small cardboard boxes from the corner above the main work desk on the other side of the room. I didn’t photograph this. I am a bit of a box junkie and had sooo many… The boxes my stoma bags come in are a very handy size with nice hinged lids but I really must get out of the habit of saving every single one! I disassembled them all and put them in a huge plastic sack and my hubby has taken these downstairs for recycling. That top corner is a bit of a dead zone because there are electric cables up there for lighting, video camera etc.

The work surface under the window hasn’t been touched, except to dump even more stuff on there while I’ve been sorting.

I didn’t manage to do any tidying yesterday because I had my grocery delivery to deal with, and some cooking to do.

Kitties

They’ve spent quite a bit of time out in the garden playing, now the weather has finally decided to get warm and sunny. We’ve had lunch outside under the umbrella a few times. We haven’t seen much of them while they’ve been outside.

Here is Ruby being lifted in the blanket after she’d been on my hubby’s lap and he wanted to go to bed.

Slipping down off the arm of the chair!

Both of them on the arms of the chair. Everyone loves the kitty throw! Lily in the Land of Nod as usual. That kitty sleeps for England.

Our garden

The summer bedding plants in the patio pots and troughs are beginning to flower now. It’s looking really pretty.

Frustration

If you ever think of phoning Scottish Power (the company that supplies our electricity and gas), don’t. They are an absolute pain. They’ve caused so many sparks to fly from Shoshi that I am probably generating sufficient electricity to run the house and dispense with their services altogether… They sent a letter about our solar panels agreement – I won’t go into the boring details but their heads are so far up their proverbials that they are in danger of turning themselves inside out. They said to phone, so I did, remembering how impossible it was the last time I attempted this. When I rang, two or three times I was told the number was not recognised – I redialled knowing I’d done it correctly, and eventually got through to their automated voice. This time they told me that if I left my number, they would phone me back after a specified interval, in order to avoid having to sit in a long queue. I did this, and nothing happened. I attempted it again and again, the number was “not recognised” until the third attempt, and I was told I had used all my available chances to do this, and they told me to wait in the queue which was about 45 minutes long. At the end of this period, I was told the number was engaged, and I was cut off. I tried again and this time I was allowed to leave my number and again they said they would ring me back. They did not.

I have written them such a stiff letter that I had a job folding it to get it in the envelope. I told them that despite what they said, nobody has contacted us about having our meter inspected, and we have received no payments for electricity generated by the solar panels for ages. I told them if they wanted to send someone to inspect the meter, NOT to ask me to phone them because I was not prepared to go through this performance again.

They are hopeless.

Food

Recipe of the Week

Jamie Oliver’s Scruffy Aubergine Lasagne

This week I made another favourite recipe – Jamie Oliver’s Scruffy Aubergine Lasagne. I realised that I haven’t yet done this as a recipe of the week, so here goes. It was featured on a TV series he did a while back on vegetarian cooking. I have veganised it by leaving out the cheese and it’s still absolutely delicious. I always serve my pasta dishes with a sprinkling of faux parmesan and flaked almonds, with a side salad of leafy greens with lots of interesting additions.

(You make the faux parmesan in a food processor – it’s a mixture of almonds and nutritional yeast with a little seasoning, blitzed to a parmesan-like texture. It’s very good.)

As usual, I added some extra vegetables not mentioned in the recipe – whatever I happened to have to hand. The reason this is called “scruffy” is that you break up the lasagne sheets and mix them in with everything else, rather than creating the traditional layers. This makes it super-easy to make, with no faffing about. You have to stir it quite a bit when you first put the pasta bits in or they tend to stick together. Breaking them up beforehand is quite an adventure as the bits break like pistol shots and tend to go here, there and everywhere, which brings me to…

Shoshi’s Cleavage!

(I had to put that in this blog post’s title – nothing like a bit of click-bait, is there!! I’ll probably get far more visits than usual.)

One of the bits of lasagne shot up into the air and disappeared down my cleavage! I couldn’t get it out. My hubby came in at that point and I told him and we both had a giggle. He offered to fish it out for me, but I declined his generous offer! It wasn’t digging into me or anything and I said it could wait till bed time when it would drop out of its own accord. (It did NOT go in the cooking.)

Given my current health predicament, I am just happy that I still have a cleavage for things to get stuck in.

Nothing like a bit of Gallows Tumour to get one through cancer, is there. I think I shall tell them at the hospital to give them a good laugh.

Health update

Today at 9.30 a.m. I have got my MRI scan. There won’t be anything to report for a few days, but no doubt I shall get another appointment to attend the Breast Unit pretty soon, and they will be able to tell me how radical my surgery needs to be, and also give me some idea of the date. I continue to be remarkably unworried by the whole thing, and hours go by when I don’t even think about it. God is good! Thank you everyone who has been praying for me.

I have set the Lord always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
Psalm 16:8-9

Have a good week, everybody.