When I posted, again, after my blogging break I thought I was ready to tackle my blog head on. But I realised I wasn't - not really. So, I decided to just leave it for a little while. I've been struggling with what to blog about and there are some half-formed ideas floating around my head, but those are for another time when they've developed a bit.
But there is one thing I definitely wanted to share, and it's the project I set myself for January: organising my study. Ages and ages ago, now, I posted about how I was in the process of tidying up. But with one thing and another, I never ended up going through with it. So, I set myself the goal of having my study sorted by the end of January, and I more or less achieved it. There are still some things to be done but I just wanted to be able to look at the room and not want to cry.
This was the state my study had got into after months of just dumping things in there. I don't have a lot of storage furniture and what I do have isn't appropriate for everything I need to store. But my first task was to just sort everything and see what there was to get rid of. A lot of what was in the room had already been organised into boxes by my sister and myself, so I started by going through the boxes and shifting things into piles.
And this was the progress after about a week of working at least half an hour each day. It doesn't look like much but it felt good to get here. I kind of forgot to take any more good progress shots after this, though. I stalled for a while as I got to a point where I needed a new bookshelf to really be able to organise anything so there was a week or two when I didn't do anything in there.
I had some Pinterest boards for ideas and inspiration but, in the end, I really just had to work with what I had (with the addition of the new bookshelf) and go with that. Most of my favourite ideas needed little nooks or things like that to work properly, none of which I have. But I managed to work with the space I had and make a room I'm really happy with.
Anyway, how about a photo of how it ended up? You can see more in my Flickr set - I didn't want to put too many in this post. Maybe I should make a separate post focussing just on the re-organised room? Any interest in that, or does this cover enough? Hmmm.
It's so nice to have somewhere to display my dolls. Even though vintage dolls are the bulk of my collection, not many of them are on display, yet. I'm looking for some nice outfits and stands before I display them. You can see my Limited Edition Sergeant Calhoun doll (from Wreck-It Ralph) on top of the shelf, next to my talking Vanellope (I have Toy Story toys on the other side of the shelf).
This is only one of my favourite parts, because I really struggled making room for this table. It belonged to my (paternal) grandmother, whom I never met, and it's beautiful but deceptively large. It took a long time to find a space where it would work and not obstruct anything else. I still have to find some nice boxes to display my fabric stash and maybe use a table cloth to obscure the boxes stored underneath. It's also nice to have a clear space where I can maybe do some craft things in the future.
And one last photo because I don't want this to be too photo heavy (it's already very wordy!) I love this corner. It's so busy, and not quite finished, but it makes me happy to look at.
There are still some things left to do (new curtains, the boxes I mentioned for my fabric, more stands to display my dolls, a little chest of drawers and so on) but it's come such a long way. And I'm really proud of myself for achieving this; I rarely feel proud as
I have a lot of issues with internalising my achievements. I think it's
a lot easier when there's something so very obvious to see for all the effort I put it (which is a big reason I took lots of before/progress photos). But it feels really good. Now to deal with the mess it's left the rest of the house in...
