Made Marian: Oozing Crafty Goodness

We are heading off to Bordeaux for our honeymoon and although the focus of the honeymoon will be on food and wine I hope to get some time to visit craft shops or at least go to see some local arts and crafts.  However I’m having some difficulty, so far I’ve manged to find this fabric shop and a few art and craft supplies shops but my french is so bad that I have no idea what the shops actually sell, I’m guessing that Papeterie Guilbaud might sell paper and that La Maison du Collectionneur must sell something collectable but what that something might be is a mystery.  The third one I found is Groupe Castet but I haven’t a notion what they might actually sell.

Has anyone been to Bordeaux?  Any suggestions where I might look?

So I did something really strange today, I deleted my facebook account.  I was inspired by Carina, and she very kindly posted a link to help do this, because it’s virtually impossible to find this option on the website.  It is easy enough to deactivate the account but not so much to permanently delete it.  If you want to be set free the link is here.

You might be wondering why?  Well, a few years ago I found myself sitting on my bum every night watching about 2 hours worth of Friends re-runs.  It dawned on me one day that this was a supreme waste of my time, so I cancelled our Chorus subscription and started blogging, reading and crafting instead.  I am much happier since that because I feel like I’m actually doing something productive with my evenings.  However lately I spotted that every time I had a spare minute I was logging into Facebook to “have a look”.  The first thing I did was delete the Facebook app from my phone and installed The Irish Times app instead, already a better use of those minutes that I spend waiting in queues etc.  But I was still using it at home so I decided to go the whole hog and delete the account.  Hopefully this will mean I will blog more!  I feel kind of liberated.

PS I had previously deleted my Twitter Account, deactivated my Linked In account and deleted my Ravelry account.  I think I may be virtually social networking free (apart from my beloved blog of course)

A craft supplies revelation that is!  I am having difficulty organising my craft supplies in a way that really works for me and works for this 600 square foot apartment.  The real problem is that I have so many interests and I have lots of paraphernalia that comes with each one, crochet, embroidery, card making and all the crafts that I have attempted to get into, sewing, knitting, jewellery making, the list goes on.  Most of this is shoved into the spare room as follows;

Drawers mostly contain card making stuff but also buttons and stuffing for soft toys etc as well as some halloween and valentines decorations. And a box on top which contains fabric scraps. AND a box on top of that which contains napkin rings for the wedding (handmade of course), that pile of crap you see to the left is wedding related so I’m consoling myself with the fact that it will be gone in a month.

Shelves hold office supplies, pens, rulers scissors stampers and inks as well as household stuff like medical receipts, user manuals and some notes from work/college courses.

It’s not too bad I suppose but ultimately I don’t craft in the spare room as there is no suitable surface so if I want to make one card, I need to bring what I need out to the kitchen where I have more room, this is not ideal as I’m up and down every five minutes to get something I’ve forgotten.  I need some method of organising these things where the most used items are all at hand in one container so that I could bring them out in one go.

I literally just finished the book this morning and this will most definitely be my least detailed review yet!

I loved the concept of Colm McCann’s book where all the charcters are entertwined around the tightrope walker and his amazing feat.  Incidentally, have you seen Man on Wire - it’s really worth watching.   My favourite characters are Claire and Gloria.  Claire’s first chapter was so fast paced you could almost feel yourself going off to war with her son. Gloria’s story was fascinating and I absolutely loved how the friendship between Claire and Gloria ended up.  My heart went out to Claire as the ladies were leaving her apartment and she desperately wanted to cling onto Gloria, so much so that she accidentally said the most offensive thing possible to the African-American lady.  As for the other characters/stories, I couldn’t really identify with the Corrigan brothers at all, the monk was just a little bit unrealistic and I just kept wishing that the older brother would do something, anything really, he just seemed so aimless. Although, I loved how the artists and the Corrigan brothers stories ultimately came together and it transpired in the last section of the book that he obviously did acquire some get-up-and-go as he seemed to be a very successful business man.

There is a great little interlude in the middle of the book which tells the tightrope walkers story, this came at the perfect time as I felt there hadn’t been enough about him in the book.  I am so tempted to watch Man on Wire again as it was a phenomenal accomplishment.

It is a really enjoyable book to read, each sentence seems crafted as opposed to merely written and the individual stories are weaved around each other and the walker in a way that really keeps you gripped.  Now, off with you to enjoy a much better review from the other members, the links are at the side.

Update:  Can anyone remind me what the next book is….I have the next two on my dresser but can’t remember which one is next?

Well it’s done.  Phew, three after-work evenings later and I can safely say that my kitchen is spotless.  I defy anyone to find something out of place or dirty.  Here are some photos.

Contents of the Pantry Press

More contents of the Pantry Press

Empty (filthy) press

Clean, re-organised press

Cleaning supplies press with small items corralled into little storage boxes from Tesco.

Small spice jars corralled into a Roses tin and all labeled so I can what’s in each one without taking them out of the tin.  I am thinking now that I need a nicer tin, they are on top of the microwave beside a vintage Mini Mars bar tin and to be honest the Roses tin looks crap beside the beautiful vintage one.

More Tesco storage baskets, this time to store loose plastic jugs and squeezy bottles.

Spices, nuts and seeds in larger jars.  These are all repurposed, I need to buy more honey to get more of those pretty kilner jars

The Tea station - Barry’s Tea in the Orla Kiely tin, decaf in the London Phone Box, Earl Grey Teabags in the blue one and Earl Grey Loose Leaf in the small chinese tin.   The tiny silver tin beside that holds vitamins that I take in the morning, this is a repurposed tin from some flavoured tea I got for Christmas.  There was no way I could look at an ugly vitamin bottle up there and if I put it out of sight I’d never remember to take them.  The teapot stand and the fruit bowl that you can just about see, are by Sinead Lough, one of my favourite artists.

Here’s a close up of the smaller tins.

Well, that’s all I have on the kitchen for now, stay tuned for a spare room update, the spare room is the hardest working room in the apartment, it multi-tasks as a guest room, craft room, storage room, home office and wedding HQ!