Stash and stuff

Well, it looks like Photobucket is playing silly b*ggers with me today and doesn't want to recognise me, so no photos today. And on a day when I had loads of news and photos to share . I'll have to save it all for next time.

For today, here's something that's been rettling around inside my head for the last day or two - Stash Organisation. Yesterday, I made myself a list of where things stand at present with my stash organisation and where I'd like to get to.

How my stash is (not) organised at present -

4 large plastic crates crammed on a barely accessible small, narrow cupboard in the corner of the bedroom. The crates are very roughly organised into one for charts, one for fabric, one for stuff I'm supposed to be working on or really want to start, and one for magazines and things that won't fit into any of the other crates. In order to get anything out of any of the crates, I have to practically empty the cupboard. At the moment, I don't really have the odd hour to spare for that!

Also 2 small plastic crates, one filled with fabric and the other with any old stuff that happens to be lying around. One of these crates lives on a shelf in the living room, the other on a shelf in my wardrobe.

I don't have any record of what I have in my stash and rely on my memory which fortunately is fairly good, but I know there are some duplicates in there.

Where I'd like to get to -

Accessible - I'd like to be able to get at my stash whenever I want to without having to venture into parts unknown a la Bear Grills. (I think my son wants to be Bear Grills when he grows up!) Stash fondling and perusal should be accessible at any time!

Space - space to spread things out so that I can drool over all my lovely loot (metaphorically of course)!

Filing - maybe a filing cabinet for charts?

Ideally, I'd also like to presuade myself that I don't have to hide it all from my husband!

And it would be nice to have it all recorded on a database - for virtual drooling and stash fondling, of course! I had this 'good idea' that I might be able to get this done while I'm on maternity leave, but I don't see that I can do the virtual stash organisation without tackling the physical side of things too!

Sounds like a good goal, don't you think? But whether or not I'll get there is a completely different matter.


Iona is being completely adorable these days. I've kind of lost track, but she may be settling down a bit and getting ready to sleep through the night. More importantly, if you take the time to talk to her and play with her, she rewards you with the most beautiful big smiles! She seemed almost to be born smiling, but she's now doing it deliberately!

And I got the good news this morning that I won the Chloe's giveaway at Mee Crafty! I'm dead chuffed as I rarely win anything, so thanks to Chloe!

One month already!

I can't believe it - my baby is one month old already! Where has the time gone? I feel like I lost the first 2 weeks feeling completely overwhelmed by everything and struggling to cope. I'm feeling a lot better now and can even start to enjoy spending time with Iona.


Iona keeps us busy vainly attempting to persuade her to sleep - she must be laughing at our efforts as she doesn't seem to have any intention of sleeping during the day. I struggled with that when Alexander was small too, I could never work out how to entertain a small baby who wouldn't sleep. I find it very frustrating too not having any time to myself - doing baby 24/7 is hard work! All I really want is maybe half an hour's stitching time every day or two - very therapeutic!

Anyway, not a lot else going on here and I'm reduced to one-handed blogging this morning (baby perched on the other arm), so here's a selection of photos of what we've been doing over the last week or two.

MTM part 4 finish

As it says in the title, I've now finished part 4 of Chatelaine's Medieval Town Mandala.


I was three quarters done when Iona was born and finished the fourth side on Monday. I've now made a good start to part 5 - I've been really looking forward to the turquoise silks in part 5, so I'm going to enjoy this one!

Iona is doing really well and is a wonderful wee girl. I just wish she would settle a bit easier and sleep better. Sometimes it feels like a real fight to get her to go to sleep, even though she cries and cries and you can hear in her voice just how tired she is. Some days it's a struggle to get her to sleep at all for more than 15 minutes at a time between early morning and late evening, and wants to be held and cuddled all the time, so it can be heavy going!

However, it's still early days - she'll only be 3 weeks old tomorrow! I can't believe where the time has gone already, sometimes I feel like the time is running away from me and I haven't been paying attention. I want to be able to savour every second.

Alexander, my son, is beeing really good too. I think at first after Iona and I came home, he felt rather neglected, but he can see now how much attention a baby needs but also we're trying very hard to keep to his normal routine, so he still gets time to snuggle in bed with me at the end of the day.


A big thank you to everybody who commented on my previous post and for all the good wishes. I promise to vist all your blogs and thank you all individually over the next week or two.