Cards, kitchens and chairs

I spent yesterday sorting out some cards for the appeal for Marie Curie. I was hoping to make lots of new ones, but my craft stuff is still in such a muddle I find it very frustrating - I know I have something just right, but where? So, on with the sorting!

As the deadline was today, I raided my box of cards, some of which are from the days when all I knew was peel-offs, card and paper, so seriously simple and boring ... but if I show them to non-cardmakers, they are quite impressed!! So I hope the same will be true of the Marie Curie customers. I haven't stopped to scan any piccies, as they really aren't any great shakes. There is now a little room in my card boxes for the next few makes. I wish I could get hold of some of the Marie Curie bags, then I could put some ready for next year - which is forward planning in the extreme, but as I will make way more cards than I could ever use or sell myself I'd like to have them ready for someone else to sell.

At the moment, I'm working towards using my huge stash of stuff, some of which I wouldn't choose again (top of the list: all those peel-offs!!) They do have their uses - mainly for a quick and easy card (and the local craft shop has taken some of those simple ones because my style on those is very mimimalist compared to most people making cards: it has to be as I can't ask for much for them. And it has the advantage of looking distinctive - why make what everyone else does?) I just wish they'd smarten up the fonts a bit - script is so yesterday!!

First thing this morning was my usual runaround collecting rubbish - having missed the bin men by five minutes last week, I was anxious to get it all together in time this week (and it can't be done the night before because the foxes might find it - if they do they make the most awful mess scattering the embarrassing contents of any black bags all over the place: that is a lot of hassle, bother and unpleasantness for me and the neighbours). I also had to pack up the pieces of a mug I had elbowed onto the floor. I am glad I did that - the mug was one I didn't like at all and had come into my possession I know not how (probably via my ex-flatmate) so good riddance rather than a tragedy!! I find the boxes that washing powder tablets come in are great for packing up breakages: they're about the right size for the item and some newspaper and made of really strong cardboard so the glass doesn't poke through.

Enough for now - my newly-upholstered chair is on its way here: it's now arrived, and looks very smart! The fabric is much brighter than I had thought - brick red. I like, but might not blend so well with other colours - particularly the mushroom/sludge of the carpet around here!! (I think it must have been the cheapest thing available as I know someone else who moved into a rented flat with the same carpet.) One day perhaps, I will get rid of the carpet .... I'd love to have something nicer in a leafy shade - as the sitting room opens on to the garden via the conservatory I want to start there with colours that are an extension of the garden and take that through from back to front. Something neutral but warmer and cleaner looking seems right for the study - cream or biscuit perhaps.