Floor plans...

...are my new bestest friends.

Now these aren't as amazing and all-singing-all-dancing as I would like them to be. In fact, they're not properly to scale in any way, shape, or form. But they're working, so that will do for now.

Living room before.

Living room afterwards (eventually)

(the radiator isn't new, it was just hidden behind the sofa and not heating the room at all, the sofa will now be in front of the fireplace we never use)

Now the scale is so very off because our living room is nowhere near that wide. But I sketched out its previous layout onto graph paper and gave everything approximate sizes. Then we measured the important bits.

Then I just made sure that everything that needed to be on the second plan was the same size as on the first one.

The sofa is not going to be flat against the wall, but coming out from it slightly at the right hand side, probably slightly in front of that bookcase. The left hand chair will be a lot tighter in against the bookcase there, and the right hand chair will end up somewhere near that position but it really depends on where it looks best!

My main plan isn't actually for furniture.

It's for the books. (but you guessed that)

Before, the bottom left bookcase had Pratchett on the top three shelves, then some cookery and craft books, then craft boxes. A real mix of stuff that mostly ended up there because that was the easiest one to change about.

Now I'm planning to move the Pratchett books to one of the bookcases on the right, and to fill the rest of it with the non-Discworld Pratchett (that had been on the other side of the room) and other fantasy fiction.

Instead of three different bookcases all having non-fiction on, I'm going to group it all together. Depending on where I'm most likely to sit to sew, the boxes of sewing stuff will be on the closest bookcase. The two bookcases on the top right will be filled with fiction books, and the bottom three or four shelves will all be double packed with paperbacks.

I know how I want it, kinda. But it really will take the actual moving things in for me be to be able to get it right.

I finished...

...my current cross-stitch last night. I really couldn't remember how long I'd been working on it, and I couldn't seem to find any pictures of it in progress. After a little digging about in the depths of my computer I found some work-in-progress photos too (and Flickr has helpfully dated them for me).







These were taken on the 11th of October, the 22nd of December and last night respectively.

It's really not that big a design and shouldn't have taken so long but with Anthony working nights I've been on the computer rather than stitching.

Now I just have to choose what I want to stitch next. It's either going to be the Moonlight Cats or the Morning Rooster.




I've got all the threads for the rooster and I'm fairly sure I've got all the ones for the cats, but I'm lacking fabric for both. I shall probably buy the fabric and then decide.

I have had...

...a very relaxing five days off. Well, four so far and then rest of today which will be the only one of those days sans Anthony. Which has been lovely too.

We have both had haircuts, we've driven round various areas of Wolverhampton trying to find bits that we'd like to live in, we've been to Waitrose three times and Hobbycraft once and we've got the V+ Box down to 40 hours of free space (rather than 5).

Anthony showed amazing patience when helping me choose a new pair of trainers:
K - Not those ones
A - Why not?
They've got too much white on them
What about these ones?
Too grey
How about these?!?
Yuck!
These ones? (said through gritted teeth)
Hmmm....
Eventually I decided on a pair of the Hmmm... ones (what do you mean you can't tell the difference?)

(pictures (in order) for those who did not want to link click)




They also ended up being men's ones rather than women's, partly due to the fact that all the men's ones were out for people to try while you had to ask for the women's ones (and I couldn't put the poor shop guy through it).

That's the first pair of trainers I've owned in 15 years...my last pair were for PE at school and they lasted through my gym moments at uni too. Since then I've not really worn trainers, and the pair of Anthony's that I "borrow" are a size too big and so unrunnable in. Not that I'm about to take up running. Definitely not.

On Sunday I cooked up some Veal Scaloppine. Or at least I would have done had Waitrose had any veal left. They did not, so instead we had Pork Scaloppine.


I very slightly over salted it (due to not being used to using salt when cooking but following instructions in the book to the letter) but Anthony said it was "Bloody lovely". So that was a success.

In two weeks time I have promised to cook Chicken in Garlic Sauce for Angie, Paul and Joe - eeek! Cooking for real people! People who won't be afraid to tell me if it is actually inedible (Joe), but who will also pour me more wine if it is (Angie and Paul). Angie also hit the nail on the head when she called me a 'dinner party cook'. It's true, cooking is such a big event for me at the moment. One of the reasons she therefore decided I should have a dinner party!

Back to work tomorrow...I have three days in, then one off, then four in, then NINE off! (Then my next break is June, then Monza!)

Last night...

...I found myself on the horns of a dilemma. (A beast a little like a gnu).

I'd finished reading The Canon at lunchtime and really, really enjoyed it. This meant that I needed to pick myself a book to read in the very hot bath that I planned to take.

But what to read?

I looked through all 6 bookshelves (and all the piles on the floor) and managed to whittle myself down to a shortlist of 6 titles.





All of them, bar Mr Toppit, were just the right length for me to read in the bath. So therefore Mr Toppit got put aside for being too long. (It only made the shortlist cos it's my newest proof (although quite why we had the proof arrive in store at the same time as the book I do not know)).

Being aware that I'm on holiday in a week, I put aside The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency to take with me (and all the rest of the series too).

I put Marianne aside because she'll start me on a Sheri S. Tepper kick and I'm not quite in the mood for that at the moment.

Decider got kicked to the curb because I decided I wanted some fantasy rather than people blowing up racecourses.

That left a hard choice between The Valley of Secrets and The Pinhoe Egg.

Since by this time the bath had run I took them both in there and decided to read the first chapter of each and then choose.

By the time I remembered I was going to do this...I was already halfway through The Pinhoe Egg. I shall read Valley of Secrets tonight instead.