2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

2Scratters

Morning Peeps,
some of the visiting "stuff" from parents house is slowly making its way out of ours. Only 1 item of mine has gone - but it is gone!
Need to picture some items when the sun is shining and load up ready for when the offers are on instead of putting myself under pressure to get them loaded. 
A couple of books dropped off whilst passing a CS. 2 t shirts cut into rags for DH in the workshop/shed.
The cleaned up and "tidied up" freezer will take its place in the corner of our tiny kitchen. DH bought some new spray paint to titivate it as the top was not in a good condition £28  I advised him that needs to go back to the shop!. He already had some other spray paints to use up and I was not bothered about the colour. It has ended up with a black lid. It looks quite quirky. I will take a picture and upload later. So he has 2 empty tins of paint to declutter as one did not work as it was over 10years old . Win win. 
Got a couple of froglets here on the table with me that need sorting - 1 will get posted in the morning when I go for an early morning walk. 
Ironing has been done and put away. Need to get another load on today. I'll be decluttering myself to work for both days over the weekend. 
For those dealing with RL family problems look after yourselves too.

2 Scratters xx

~FlowerPot~

Frog trackling

I did a frog with DS1 yesterday, well started it and did as much a possible on that

ALso did a frog for DD

Today I need to tackle a ruddy great frog of a frog that I have been putting off and off!! But it needs to be done NOW!

Theres also a smaller frog in the shapes of accounts that needs sorting!!

PLus I need to clean and tidy DS2's room. We have just dropped him off at college ready to jet off to Nepal on his volunteering adventure!

have a great day

Flowers

x

Florenceem

Having a bad time with Mr F today.
Photos of diamond painting.

Brie

@Florenceem
hugs to you and Mr F.  The giraffe is very jolly though so hopefully that's helping you smile a bit.

@vulpix
Personally I liked the look of the chair in the before pic - but then I was raised to like distressed furniture what with mom being an antique dealer!!!  And it does look lovely and new in blue as does the dresser.  Lucky recipients!!  (mom=antigue dealer=me spending too many hours of my childhood sanding things)

Tackled a couple of frogs today trying to wear out my excited energy about having a new boiler tomorrow (& a very very very long hot shower.....)

Green house tidied a bit (much more to do including weeding....how does one end up with weeds growing in a green house???)
1 large trug of green house stuff binned.  Need to ask the neighbour who has a tremendous garden if he needs any pots else I'll be freegling/recycling the majority.  
Had expected the gardeners yesterday but turned out it's next week so went ahead and got rid of the 2 very large trugs of grass cuttings they left in the rain a month back.  I'd tucked them into the carport as I couldn't lift them into the bin that day - either I've gotten stronger or they've dried out a bit (more likely) but they're binned - collection is Friday so needed to be done this week really in case the gardeners create a lot more mess next week.
Because I'd expected the gardeners I'd bought some summer bulbs (Lidl) for them to plant as well as a bag of compost so those needed to be found a home in the GH as well, fortunately by that point there was room.  
Also discovered that a lot of bulbs I'd saved from a year back and meant to force before Christmas were doing their thing so I've got 4 pots now sitting on the kitchen window sill - 3 with hyacinths and 1 that's a bunch of little bulbs - possible tete a tete daffs, whatever they are they will be a nice surprise should they actually open.  There's a lot more bulbs in the GH but I'll add those to the pile for the gardeners to deal with.  

One of the clothing units bought from Ikea a year back (shocking!) has been moved from the garage to the bottom of the stairs ready to be shifted up to the back room and assembled.  This will allow me to declutter the old cheap one that collapsed sideways when I needed to move it last  week for the boiler guys to look in the eave cupboard where the boiler exhaust thingme is.  The plastic bits are shot but I'll ask a friend who does loads of DIY if he could use the metal rods as they are fairly hefty.  If not then freegle/recycle.  

Last of the euros unearthed from the back of wallets has been tucked away for the next trip.  Note to self to put something in a calendar to renew my passport at some point.  It's got less than a year left and can take ages as it's not UK.  Not sure who I'll be able to get to sign the application as the list of who is acceptable is exceedingly limited.  No one a currently work with is qualified and I can't pay a doctor or anyone to do it (illegal).  I used to work with a woman who sidelined as a judge but haven't seen her in years.  Not sure if my ex manager would still qualify....I'm sure I'll find someone in the next few months......

Keep looking at the painting I started on Monday and still think it's a tad horrifying.  I'm not good at art, and particularly not of doing people - faces in very particular.  But I'm wondering if I start again on a smaller scale and make it more impressionistic I might like the result.  Meanwhile I've decide my evenings in front of the TV can be put to good use by trying to do copies of the Beatrix Potter postcards I've got.  We have a set of 3 framed on the wall of her watercolours of various fungi - she was an expert and it's because of being rejected by scientific societies because she was a woman that she turned to writing / drawing her children's books.  

Sorry for the long ramble.....I'm putting off cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, pretending that my back is too twingey at the moment.

Soontobeoap

Went to dentist today and decluttered £600 for a crown. Ouch!!!!! 🤯

Took bag charity shop and offloaded a bag of fascinators and posh dresses. 

Onto dress agency and left a monsoon dress in the hope of making a few pounds. They didnt want the phase 8 one yet as short sleeved, so bought that home again.

Had fun yesterday deleting a load of photos off of my phone. So 4 for me today. 😊

Make that 5 as I have just deleted more photos from my phone. 

Oh no! I have just found another 1600 photos in another file! So here goes. See you all later. 

Soontobeoap

500 more pics deleted and will resume tomorrow. Its taken 2 hours because I am watching the videos of Grandkids and having a good giggle. There were so many from lockdown schooling. I used to do an hour a day with each family (2hrs in total) doing a reading challenge and hearing them read as well as an occasional maths session. We set up so many word games via whattsap and it was lovely for the cousins to work together sometimes. The 4 year old learnt to read and write early as she was sitting in on her 6 year old sisters spelling sessions doing albeit with simpler words.  The 2 year old now has an amazing work ethic as when his, then 4 and 6 year old brothers were focusing on tasks he begged for time too, so we did counting, playdough and colouring. It was very hard for their parents but I loved seeing the Grandchildren everyday whilst we were shut up indoors with one walk a day. Anyway thats abother one to add to my deckuttering total. 

pollyanna_26

Vulpix that paint job is lovely. Could I ask which blue paint you used?

 In the 80s I saved hard and ordered a lot of crafsman built pine furniture from Hamlet Pine in Yate. They were way down south and I'm in the North West but they phoned to say they would send the craftsman who would build my furniture to measure up free of charge.

When he arrived he confirmed my measuring was correct ad I made some tea and got the cake tin out. I had wanted the furniture in the white - no varnish but he'd noticed colouring books and felt tip pens and advised he could put a plastic coat over the bare wood which would protect it and could be easily removed when wanted.

Eventually I stripped it and painted the whole order with primer then flat white. I spent weeks heaving it out into the garden and must have bought every known sanding disc or pad for the sanders.

Afew decades on it's still nice and white and as there are also two ceiing height bookcases and a matching lower one, a desk/dressing table, farmhouse table and chairs the cost was worth it.

Ihave picked up various items over the years including one of those large Victorian chests of drawere with two smaller top drawers lower drawersare very deep and it's for jumpers and large items of clothing.

Eldest dd and I used to visit the old mills and other buildings converted in to sales areas and I picked up sme lovely new ornamental wall shelves  They look lovely over the festive season as I've collected tea lights and ornaments including pottery houses that can have a tealight inside so they light up.

The blue paint is intended for varous ornamental items and for other things.Living a short walk from the sea I've kept things coastal but the paint you've used is the nearest I've seen so far to what I want.

A few years ago I forgot to put the whistle on the coastal blue Le Crueset kettle my eldest dd had sent as a surprise Mothers Day present. I walked it to a kitchen full of black smoke and a kettle with a burned out bottom. It was only a few weeks old.

I couldn't find a similar colour on any of the paint cards or in a shop.

Oe day I decided to paint the kitchen walls a very pale blue. Looking on the various websites Dulux were offering 3 free paint samples and free postage.

The postman delivered them a couple of days later. I did my usual paint one end of a flat lolly ice stick wrote the paint name and held it against the wall + it was perfect then I noticed it matched the lid of the poor wrecked kettle.

Couldn't track down Heritage Blue in any of the DIY shops so went to the local trade centre knowing they would most likely be able to mix it.

Wrote Heritage Blue inside the lid and the manager confirmed he could mix it. The trades that shop there were in hysterics at this crazy woman with a kettle lid but I got all my paint. Over the years they mixed that paint as an outdoor eggshell for fences and garden furniture. I'm abo to move house so luckily all the garden furniture will go with me so just the fences to paint.

The postman delivered a second identical kettle from DD1 the following day - whenever we visited JL I would stroke those kettles while she muttered step away from the kettle mum.

That was some years ago and I forgotten to  put the whistle on since. I stil have the origial whistle and the new one and original undamaged lid plus present one.

It did introdue me to outdoor eggshell paints far better than the usual ones.

pollyannax

Living by the coast does have its drawbacks. The three storms in a row raged overhead and caused a lot of damage. Iwas glad my fences were well secured as panels flew about.

No hope of sleep youngest dd a couple of miles away and a friend were emailing back and forth in a 3 way conversation which helped us pass the night.

Local news was showing the sea wild and angry.

I bought this new build in the mid 70s.and none of the searches mentioned a flood plain. We learned about that when police and fire servive were banging on our doors one night as sea wall was breached.

I'd wondered why the thresholds front and back were so high  and that night I found out. Luckily the water just stayed below the door but others a short distance away weren't so lucky and were out of their homes for well over a year.

vulpix

Fizz, I will pm you later. 

 Florenceem, xx

 Pollyanna , the paint was b n q Frejus. I used emulsion with 3 coats of varnish. DIL chose the colour. It seems to change shade with the light. It would be perfect in costal light. Your paint renovations ring a bell. I have made a lot of money in the past renovating unloved furniture. I don’t mind painting things that are not heirlooms. The rocking chair is Ercol but someone had done an extremely bad shabby chic job on it. Someone else had tried to sand it all back but realised the original chair had a dark stain which was too deep in the wood. They gave it me. DIL would have liked it sanded back to blonde wood. The yet to be born child would be at university by the time I could have managed to sand it back to matchsticks. She is going to use a sheepskin on the seat. 

Vx 

Fayolle

@vulpix, I am in love with that rocking chair! 

@EnergyShifter, I love your Easter tree. I have dug out (let’s face it, the bag was just lying around the spare room, not much digging involved) my Easter decs that I think every year will be turned into shelf decoration. Maybe this is the year.
Hugs, @Florenceem x
Decluttering still going slowly here, not helped by DH. I turned out my stash of old gardening / decorating clothes from the bottom of the wardrobe, reduced the pile by half …only to find that he HAD snatched something out of the cs bag! I knew he had, but couldn’t find what or where it was. A plastic tablecloth, brand new, never used, is hidden in the back of wardrobe. I haven’t said anything. Yet!
Other bits decluttered: 1 hardback Encyclopaedia of Flora, 1 diet book, 1 jumper.
MMiM 9 - recipe folder number 2
MMiM 10 & 11 - a box of photos and documents that belonged to my dad. Most of the photos have been put in my photo boxes which are a project in themselves, some thrown away as I had no idea what / where / why. Ditto some of the bits of paper that he had saved. There is still more, but it gets easier each time to deal with it.
DD is home, and she is promising Extreme Decluttering and is ruthless.

Dfw38

I am going to be checking back into the tlc carriage for a while, dad died earlier today. Keep up with the wonderful crafting, creating, upcycling and decluttering and I will be back soon. 
Much love to you all. ❤