Recycling... almost as much fun as upcycling!

After spending the last 12 weeks getting my flat ready to go on the market, I finally have Mondays and Tuesdays free to work on crafty things (and my dissertation, which I'm determined to finish before I go back to work in July). We have a lovely childminder called Tina who will be looking after Amelia when I go back to work and with all the work I needed to do on the flat and our house, it made sense to start her off a couple of days a week now. Especially before that magical time (around 9 months) when separation anxiety is due to set in. Providing I'm not too tired, I also have time to work in the evenings now, so blogging should be back on track, and tweeting, too.

I'm dying to show you what I'm working on today, but the weather outside is terrible, which means the light in here is awful. I have a lot of unfinished projects that I started when I was pregnant and I'm trying to get them done in some kind of order. I also really want to finish off my zine project as I put so much work into it during 2009 and 2010, as did my interviewees, that this really is my top priority. However, I have to work on it on the computer in my craft room, where all the responses are saved and my scanner/printer is set up. It's a little bit too old to be wireless, unfortunately. And my craft room is not exactly in its most hospitable state at the moment, as you'll know from recent posts.

I'm currently of the frame of mind that Mondays will be happy crafting Mondays, and Tuesdays will be slightly more dull home admin/housework, physio and dissertation days. I will see if I manage to stick to that and don't just find myself pottering in the craft room. Our house is finally starting to come together a little bit more, especially as my husband had a week off last week and we managed a trip to IKEA and to get quite a few jobs around the house done. I'm particularly pleased with him for removing the integrated fridge from our kitchen (never worked properly since we moved in) and replacing it with a recycling centre so that a) I don't have to run out in the rain every ten minutes with a used newspaper or food packaging and b) Little Miss Inquisitive can be kept out of the composting caddy once she gets a bit more mobile! What's particularly pleasing is that now we have somewhere to keep our jute and canvas shopping bags, instead of 'wherever they land'.

New things are on their way for the shop, too, we just need a bit more of last weekend's sunshine before I can get things photographed nicely.

Before: After:

In good company...

I'm feeling really tranquil and calm this week, so it's apt that a set of my upcycled envelopes have been selected for this lovely treasury by Erinle. Click through here for a bit of a zen interlude.

Are you in Exeter or Dudley?

I'm a keen follower of the Tea Towels and Sheets project, by Edinburgh-based artist Cassandra Harrison and wish I could get along to one of the legs of her travelling exhibition, The Connecting Thread. The exhibition has just visited Newcastle, and is off to Exeter and Dudley in June, but help is required for setting up the exhibition.

If you know someone who would like to be involved, particularly an art student looking for experience of the behind-the-scenes, real-life aspects of having your own touring exhibition, please point them in the direction of this blog post, which gives full details, including dates and locations.

In the meantime, have a look at some of the beautiful work Cassandra has produced over at her blog and flickr, home of the image at the top of this post.

Handmade is best

Oh sad face.

But wait, here's Monkey.

Do you like Monkey?

My Monkey.

Monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey monkey!

Monkey monkey.

Monkey.

Yeah, definitely bedtime now.

Happy Birthday to me!

It was my birthday on Tuesday, and I got some great presents, which goes some way to making up for being the ripe old age of 34.

Here's a snapshot of a few of them, one of which was requested (the Kaffe Fassett book, for inspiration to go as offroad as possible with colour combinations!), but the rest were lovely surprises.

There's another big present in my craft room but I haven't done a photo yet because it's still depressingly untidy. I'll get there...

Something lovely in the post

I'm getting more and more keen to try and make my own recycled paper from the offcuts of paper I generate in my crafting. I try to be as practical as possible with getting the most from my supplies, but I'd love to take it one step further and be super-green about it. Especially so when I receive handmade paper items like this beautiful card from my good friend (and bridesmaid!) Jen, who's currently living and working in Nepal.

Motivational issues

It's hard to want to tidy this:

When you can have a nice cuppa and look out of the window at this:

What helps motivate you?