Hump Day Roundup

Indeed, it is that time of week again, for me to tell anyone that may be interested of my crafting endeavours of the past seven days...although for the life of me, I'm having trouble recalling the past seven days. Thursday is a blank, Friday was a write off, and Saturday, also a blank. The rest of the time, I set myself a goal: to finish my chair cover embroidery project as a matter of urgency, as Ninja has had a fine old time ripping the "naked" chair, and I was a bit sick of the trashing.
So now he has a pretty thing to rip up instead:

The pattern is of course, Sublime Stitching's designs from The Black Apple. I'm not 100% sure if this one is finished, I don't know if it needs the little banner saying "hello" or an extra bird or two. (Edited to add - when I was putting the link in, I realised I meant to add in the bunny and the teacups - to the upper left of the trees. So I'm not finished!) But I'm pleased with my row of wee housies on the back of Ikea chair. I have similar plans for the other chair (maybe using the Julie West sheet)...but right now, I can't be arsed.

Other crafty thing this week...started a little lunch time project:

Just something else for the wall.

As an aside, am I the only one who finds that the camera on the i-phone shite? Might have to ask the universe to send me a new camera soon. Apologies for the bad photos of the chair, I took them with said i-phone at 11pm last night.

Some industriousness

Most of Saturday I was cranky and irritable (damn hormones) and it was too hot to tackle the outside world anyway, so I spent the day pottering around at home. I managed to clean up the spare room, which was starting to look like a bomb site, as I'd just been stowing things in there willy-nilly to keep them out of Ninja's reach. After stowing all my knitting projects safely in the wardrobe away from little paws, I packed up the Christmas tree, and then felt an urge to delve in my box of fabric. (Only one box? No I'm not some sort of fabric-hating crafter, but atthe moment I only have one box of fabric here, as nearly everything else I own is back at the other house still.) The idea in my mind was to put the Japanese prints together to make some sort of quilt cover. But as usual I became distracted, this time by a piece of Alexander Henry's 'Buffet' print fabric. Earlier in the day I'd moved some curtains to the front window (after shutting Ninja in the bathroom so I could actually hang the damn things without a small kitten entangled) so I had curtains on the brain. Some crooked sewing later (well I had started on the bourbon), and a moment of crankiness after I realised I had to cut a new elastic for the kitchen window, I had a new "curtain" of sorts:


The other noteworthy achievement of my day? If you recall, Ikea self-assembly furniture and I do not get along. I decided that I was sick of the tin locker sitting in the spare room as a testament to my inepitude, and set to it with a screwdriver. After bending the joints, I actually levered the top off and turned it around the right way... this meant that I could finally attach the door. The hinge is still not sitting properly though, but at least it has a door now. Hurrah.

The sad part of the story is that you know I'll go back and get more Ikea furntiure. And try and assemble it myself. And fail. And get cranky. And have someone fix it for me. And go back for more furniture... and...

Ikea, I kill ya

I have a love/hate relationship with Ikea. Well maybe a like/hate, I can't say I actually LOVE anything there. But for the often lazy (yes that's me) they do make household necessities affordable and accessible.
Do you think I can assemble the furniture though?
Ahem.
I've always considered myself a reasonably intelligent, competent human being, but those instruction leaflets just do my head in.

Ikea tally to date:
success - 1 x chair, 1 x sofa
FAIL - 2 x chairs, 1 x TV locker. And a glass lampshade that cracked on me.

Oh dear. The TV locker is one of these, a single door model, and in my infinite wisdom, I put the lid on back to front, and now I can't get the damn thing off! You may think not a big problem, but to put the door on, you need a hole in each right corner for the door pins to go in. Oh noes. So here's the cabinet as it looks at the moment, waiting for someone strong and burly to put it to rights. And someone who can be bothered...both the Fella and Dad decided it looked better without a door anyway.

Now I also bought chairs called "Harry" from Ikea a few weeks back, and tried to assemble them. Oh dear. (!) I ended up ringing the Fella in despair, who told me to go and have a cuppa and leave it till he came over next. So I did. My spare room was beginning to become a testament to my Ikea failures, for it now held the locker door, one partially assembled Harry, one Harry still in it's box and a side table that I hadn't bothered with, as I'd grabbed the wrong one and didn't realise at the time. Sigh.

Last weekend, the Fella was over, and set to put my chair disaster to rights. He couldn't get it to work either, until he realised that I'd put one of the seat braces around the wrong way "Look Steph, it fits easily when you put it in the right holes." ...because my main problem with Harry chair was that I couldn't get the dowel pins to sit right in the holes. So as usual, I had everything arse about. Oh the shame! I'm an Ikea failure. The Fella looked around the room and said "Don't worry Steph, you're good at decorating, and knitting" in an attempt to console me. Sigh.

So now, you'd think I'd have learnt my lesson and should avoid Ikea. Or at least don't unpack anything that needs assembling when I'm on my own. But the thing is, I need a queen size bed, as the double I have is a bit patethic really... so I'm currently coveting this one:

[Pic source]

Of course it has a complicated headboard/shelving combination, I think I'm a bit of a masochist sometimes.

And I'm also considering one of these as a home for some rather gorgeous coffee cups that I op-shopped yesterday. (Or this one.) Me, Ikea, and glass shelving?! Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

to be continued...