Shelves – Spirit of Dee

Shelves exist now

8 November 201824 July 2019 Dee Leave a comment

Dad worked his shelving magic today, and we now have lots of shelves. Tomorrow morning I will be able to begin the magical process of putting stuff on the shelves!

In other news today: maintained at Slimming World (fine), another 4,000 words on NaNo (consistent), felt slightly better but still a bit ill (improvement), went to Pilates (necessary), ate Indian food (risky in terms of feeling ill, but it was super tasty).

OOTD 8th November 2018 — OOTD: practical to evening. Top David Emanuel (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018), leggings Primark (2018), boots Primark (2017).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Alison Moyet – All Cried Out
Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes
Duran Duran – Hungry Like The Wolf
Queen – Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy
Arcadia – Election Day
Duran Duran – The Reflex
Miley Cyrus – We Can’t Stop
Curiosity Killed The Cat – Down To Earth
Pine Ridge Boys – You Are My Sunshine
Duran Duran – Rio
The Corrs – Breathless

And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:

Shania Twain – That Don’t Impress Me Much

It’s shelving time again!

7 November 20187 November 2018 Dee Leave a comment

I get to do some home improving this week, which is very exciting!

Mum and Dad arrived today and we went to B&Q to get some shelving supplies. Over the next couple of days, we (i.e. Dad) are going to be building shelves in the study. This will mean I can finally put the following things on shelves:

Our CD collection (which may be pared down if it doesn’t fit on the particular area of shelving we’re building for it).
The rest of our books (almost all of which are my ‘stack’ from uni – Spanish, German, Gaelic, Classical Greek, linguistics, European history, and ancient history. I changed subjects a lot at uni).
The giant pile of paperwork that I need to scan and then shred, because I want to keep the info but not the physical paper. This will probably take years, and so I need some shelves for it all to sit on in the meantime.

It also means the study will be vaguely usable, which will be nice!

(I also got another 4,000 words written on my NaNo novel this morning. Keeping up that streak!)

OOTD 7th November 2018 — OOTD: comfy outfit today, as I’m still not feeling very well. Jumper Carlo Colucci (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2017), jeans Vivid (2018), boots Primark (2017).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Duran Duran – Lonely In Your Nightmare
Murray Head – One Night In Bangkok
Duran Duran – Last Chance On The Stairway
Charli XCX – Boys
T.Rex – Cosmic Dancer
Duran Duran – Like An Angel
Dusty Springfield – Piece Of My Heart
Scouting For Girls – She’s So Lovely

A place for everything

4 September 20184 September 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Success! I went to Asda again this morning and someone was actually on the Asda Money counter! It was a much nicer walk too without the rain, especially as the trees have already started changing and it’s looking very autumnal out there.

After a bit of admin, I was finally able to get on with some house stuff today:

Bookcase — Almost all of our spinoff novels and comics. Some of them have gone walkies, but will presumably turn up by the time I finish unearthing the study.

It required a lot of Tetrising from garage to landing and back, but both the TV/film spinoff novels and the comics, as well as all the bedding and towels, are now in their correct and final places. Another job done!

Still catching up with unwatched Marvel Universe films. Tonight it was Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, which was really funny and a good watch. In some ways it’s nicer to be watching them in the comfort of home, but I expect we will start going to see the films at the cinema again once we’ve caught up.

OOTD 4th September 2018 — OOTD: making the most of the natural light before it disappears. Jumper unknown brand (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2017), jeans Levi (2018), trainers Reebok (2013).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Bucks Fizz – Piece Of The Action
Spice Girls – Mama
Duran Duran – The Chauffeur
Duran Duran – A View To A Kill
Jonas Blue and JP Cooper – Perfect Strangers
Billy Ocean – Suddenly

Stuff I like about my parents’ house #4: bookshelf full of classics

29 June 201829 June 2018 Dee Leave a comment

As I’ve been in a bookshelf place this week, what with getting my own ones back up and running, I thought I’d share my favourite of Mum and Dad’s many bookshelves: the one in the dining room that used to be an escape of mine when I was a kid.

This is where Mum keeps all her old childhood books from the ’50s. I was a voracious reader when I was little, and I would scour the whole house for new books to read (there are a lot), but this was one of my favourite spots to spend a Sunday afternoon. I’d pick out something that sounded interesting, and nine times out of ten it would be a jolly-hockey-sticks romp about maverick English boarding school girls in the ’50s. It was a world that was completely far removed from my own, but I found it fascinating, and those books later inspired one of my own characters in one of my ongoing novel series. I would settle down in the chair next to the bookshelf, so that once I was done with one book, I could immediately grab another.

Other books on the shelf included the entire Little Women series (published as four books in the UK – Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men and Jo’s Boys – I must have read them twenty or thirty times), Alice In Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass, and the entire What Katy Did series. Some real classics there, and I still borrow them from time to time.

Bookshelves…part two

27 June 201827 June 2018 Dee Leave a comment

The bookshelves I put up on Monday now have books on them…

…which took a lot longer than it should have done today. I also still have a lot more books to put away elsewhere in the house once I have done enough Tetrising to get more bookshelves in place, so we’re not done by a long shot.

What it has done is given me a bit more room to get on with the study project next week. Which is not nearly as pretty as putting books on shelves, but I really do need to get on with it.

Bookshelves…part one

25 June 201825 June 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Well, I’ve been trying to get round to it for a few days, but today I finally got the bookshelves in place in the bedroom. Or the frames, at least:

Bookshelf frames — Bookshelves! They will look a lot better when they’ve got books on them.

These are Ikea Billy bookshelves that we’ve had for well over a decade – Geth adopted them from his PhD supervisor when he was living in his first flat in Edinburgh, circa 2004. As such, they’re made in a slightly different way from modern Billy bookshelves, which was fun when I was trying to remember how to put them together earlier! I’ve not put the shelves or books on yet, because I want to live with the frames for a couple of days and see if there are any issues such as always bumping into bookshelf corners etc., as it’s quite a small bedroom.

Assuming no such issues, I will get it done later this week though. It’ll be nice to have access to some of our books again.

More shelves…

11 April 201811 April 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Probably the biggest project we did over the weekend was the DVD shelves. For space reasons, we bought new materials for these rather than using our old shelves, and it took a while to find everything (we’re now familiar with every branch of B&Q in Newcastle). Once Dad had put them up, though, the finished result was well worth it:

DVD storage — All our DVDs, videos, and console games, neatly stored in a corner of the living room.

As with all of our shelving projects from this week, we’ve got room for more. It’s really good use of the space as well, and I was quite surprised by how small the collection looks on the shelves. Of course, in reality, it’s not at all small (we’ve probably got close to 1,000 DVDs), but considering that when we stored it on Billy shelves it took up half a room in our old house, it feels much more compact now.

It’s also meant we’ve reclaimed some more space in the living room from the endless mass of cardboard, which is always good!

Shoe storage!

10 April 201810 April 2018 Dee Leave a comment

One of the shelving projects that Dad and I (mostly Dad) did over the weekend was for my shoes. Even though I got rid of a lot of shoes, I still need a good amount of storage for my remaining 59 62 pairs, especially as I’ve been on a bit of a shoe binge lately (though I think I’m satiated for now). Some of my pairs are ‘legacy shoes’ (i.e. old pairs I’ll never wear again but am keeping in storage boxes or on display for sentimental reasons), and there are a couple of pairs for gardening that I’m keeping in the cupboard off the kitchen, and my dancing shoes live in my gym bag, and my running shoes tend to stay in the Skubb hanger I bought for the hallway…but that still leaves a good 48 pairs that needed a place to live in the dressing room. Which they now have:

Shoe storage — Dad built the shelves, out of our old Billy bookcases, to fit around the wardrobes, chests of drawers and mirror that I have in the dressing room.

As you can see, there’s plenty space for more, which is probably a good thing knowing me.

It’s very nice having all my shoes to hand. Of course, since I put them all up, it’s been pouring with rain and I’ve not been out (save for a very wet run this morning) so I’ve been living in my slippers indoors. It will be good to get some use out of them once the weather clears up, though!

On with the cull

19 March 201819 March 2018 Dee Leave a comment

I spent today getting on with my wardrobe cull. I got rid of a lot of dresses, underwear, scarves and hats, and a lot more shoes – I’ve now got the previous total down to 59 pairs. That’s a pretty big drop, and it means my new shoe shelves will look really neat and uncluttered.

Well, at least until I replace all the thrown-out pairs with new ones!

No, I’m kidding. Like with everything else in the house, I’ll be instituting a one-in one-out rule once my shelves are full, in order to avoid things getting back into the chaotic hoarding state that has made this house move so stressful. Neither Geth nor I have ever been in the habit of throwing things away, but that has to change from now on, for my own sanity.

I’m quite looking forward to seeing what it’s like to live without mounds of stuff everywhere!

(Justified) excessive spending

18 March 201818 March 2018 Dee Leave a comment

I spent a lot of money at Ikea and other homewares suppliers today. There should be lots and lots of shiny packages arriving this week. It’s all stuff we need for the house, though, so I don’t feel guilty about it (I know I shouldn’t ever feel guilty about spending money on stuff I want as long as I can afford it, but broke girl habits die hard!).

I bought new shelving (the Kallax units for the boardgames, plus a couple of things for upstairs), a new kitchen bin (I’m fed up of the ridiculous balancing act required by our current small one), a lamp to replace one of the ones that packed in earlier this week, a magazine rack for the downstairs toilet, hanging shoe storage for our tiny hallway, a wardrobe rail to replace a broken one in the wardrobe that came with the house, a new rug for the dressing room, a chair and mirror for my dressing table (my old director’s chair that I got for my ninth birthday has sadly seen its last days), hooks and other stuff for making jewellery storage, and approximately 1,000 pretty storage boxes for the various shelves in the house. I’m so excited about the packages. All the packages.

I’m not done with homewares buying yet, but I definitely think that’s enough for this week.