Stash-busting & Painting

This last year have been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride. We've seen so many changes - a move from Paarl to Gauteng (culture shock of note!), new house, new social structures, etc etc. 

I've also had to come to terms with the fact that my health will never be what it once was. I was one of those people that never, ever got sick. Not a cold, not the sniffles. Nada. Zero. Zip. Since the bee-attack in 2010, I've been fighting all sorts of  bugs. Everything ranging from severe fatigue to flu. Evidently, bee-venom contains protein, thickening the blood. This in turn results in slower blood-flow to the heart, making it beat slower, hence the fatigue. Last year I had a little scare when I suddenly had a protruding lymph-node. The oncologist I was referred to removed it, and it was luckily not malignant. But, as a result of the colossal amount of bee-venom that was in my system (we stopped counting at 500 stings...) my lymphatic system has been compromised. This is causing respiratory problems, etc, etc.

Suffice to say, I have not been my usual go-getting self. I would usually climb into a new house with gusto. This time, I'm taking it way, way slower. It irritates me, but I have to listen to my body. So many things still need to be done in the house. I hate the yellow on three of the walls in the tv room. The particular beige/cream on the rest of the walls don't do it for me either. BUT, I have at least managed to paint our room, my craft room and Phoebe's bedroom. So yeah for small victories.

About two weeks ago I tackled an old dresser to use in our room. I'm particularly fond of this piece of furniture and didn't want to see it go to waste. It was one of the first pieces of furniture I bought about 20 years ago when I fell pregnant with my son. I can still remember the excitement as I carefully varnished it and filled it will all sorts of soft baby garments. Over the years it has been a kitchen cupboard, it's been in my study, in one of the girls' rooms and so on. It has sustained its fair share of knocks, bumps, bruises and scratches. Neither of the girls needed it when we moved here, and it stood in the outside flat for a while. 

When hubby bought the tv for our room and we needed a cupboard for it, we moved it in our room, but I couldn't stand the varnish and general dilapidated feel of it. Our room is all white, and I have this vision of different furnishing in different pastel colours. I already have a wardrobe in there in a sort of soft dusty pink, my table in the dressing room is a soft aqua, so this dresser basically told me to paint it blue. 

And this is how it turned out:

Yuck

It looks so sad. :(

Much, much better!

It turned out kinda cool, don't you think?

Still on the topic of our room, I've been pondering what to do about a throw. It has to be mostly white, it has to be something different. I totally don't want to do the granny square thing. Then on the weekend, when I discovered those magnificent Japanese flowers, I knew what I wanted. Luckily I still had a whole lot of white Pure Gold in DK, and some pastel colours too. I found the perfect idea for our throw/blanket thingy and I'm stash-busting too! I can't wait to see how it'll turn out!

It's beginning to take form.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this particular blue and pink

The colours I'll be using for the random coloured flowers

Happy hooking!

Bxx