Spring + Clean = Mess

Right now my house looks like a hoarder’s paradise.
There are piles and piles of things waiting all around for a garage sale I am having on the weekend.

They are not just limited to inside either. The car port too is full of things I want to get rid of.

All of this has been spurred on by a repurposing of rooms.
The electrician has been out to re-cable everything Internet in my house as the study is being moved out of its own room into half of the back room.

The study has been remade into a spare bedroom.

And the room I used to call my walk in wardrobe will become Rex’s room.

Honestly, I have never spent this much time cleaning my house. Ever. The deck is also getting oiled and a skip arrived this morning so that everything in the garden can be hacked back too. Plus I cleaned out the linen cupboard and plan on bleaching the entire kitchen.

Normally, and really this time is no exception, I have a lot of trouble letting things go. Especially, but not limited to, clothes.
I have had to rearrange my wardrobe in this repurposing process and it hasn’t been pretty. I’ve manages to turn five drawers and four shelves in six smaller shelves and some storage boxes. But it’s the cupboard space that has been harder to downsize. My clothes used to inhabit half the built in in the main bedroom plus another smaller built in in bedroom three. It has not been a successful transfer and I am as yet unable to find a solution.

And the answer is not getting rid of more clothes.

Coming up on my next blog: Money Making

Stop – Do Not Pass Go

I don’t know if I should be allowed to read books anymore. Mostly because when I don’t like the way things are going I want to look at the end to see what happens. And when I do, and it is inevitably the bad thing I thought was going to happen, I just kind of skim the rest to get there.

As you all know I just did this very thing with the new Pittacus Lore novel The Revenge of Seven. But some of the reason also lies in the fact that this series is getting incredibly repetitive and far fetched at the same time. I did also note that I didn’t do it for the James Phelan Last Thirteen series and I think the reason is because these novels are not nearly as long. I hate investing a lot of time in a novel only to have things turn out terribly.

Herein lies the problem with the book I am currently reading Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. I can tell where things are going. And they’re not going to a happy place. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised as it starts out saying things are terrible but so many good(ish) things happened that I just kind of forgot about that. But now I am half way through and I know things can only go downhill from here. I don’t want to look ahead because I like this book and am enjoying the way it is written, but at the same time I don’t want to have wasted my time in a story where I am going to be disappointed at the end.

I better line up something happy for my next foray into literature.

Coming up on my next blog: I’ll force myself to finish Rainbow Rowell.

Step away from the cash register

I had set this weekend aside for shopping.
And shopping was done.
A lot of it.

The weekend started at ikea, home of the smorgasbord. I think it is possibly my favourite shop of all time. There is never a visit to ikea without a purchase. It is impossible to walk out of there with nothing new in your trolley.

One of the best things about ikea is the cafeteria. Normally I would have a three dollar vegetarian or kids breakfast but yesterday I was hungry, plus I love the meatballs so it was a five dollar fifty full breakfast for me. Plus a scroll. That’s another thing you can’t go to ikea without having – a cinnamon scroll.

Luckily for my wallet I had a very specific list of things to get on my visit yesterday. A new expedit which is now called a kallax (who knows why), some picture frames (a standing order on my ikea shopping list) and so,e book ends. This didn’t stop me writing down the coordinates for a few other pieces on the market hall floor. But I was good and didn’t purchase them. Instead, my Mum and I picked up a few things for my sister’s upcoming bridal shower. In the end we had to start putting things back. Everything in ikea is just so cute.

Dinner was also smorgasbord inspired. Our favourite go to graze with a bit of Gilmore girls.

Today was a much bigger day.
Back to the city.
Again with a very specific list. Gifts for a few people, visit to the nut shop, and spend all the vouchers I have which are due to expire.
Tick, tick, half a tick. I put quite a dent in the gift cards but since David Jones no longer sell Metalicus I didn’t end up spending all that money. That didn’t stop me buying Metalicus things elsewhere though.

The best thing about the trip to the city though was an impromptu concert by Megan Washington, whom I love and for whom this blog is named. I didn’t even know she would be playing. But as I walked between David Jones and Myer I could hear her dulcet tones wafting up from pit street mall. And I knew it was fate when I found the perfect dress by Metalicus as she sang my favourite song.

Unfortunately I don’t live vicariously through my camera so there are no pictures. You’ll just have to take my word for it. Consider this my message scrawled on the concrete.

Plus I managed to read two books.

Coming up on my next blog: A huge spring clean. I’ll need the blog to help me get through the emotional minefield that is giving away some of my clothes to charity.

One of these things is exactly like the others

Today I finished the latest instalment in the Pittacus Lore series, The Revenge of Seven. And I have to be honest, I kind of skimmed the ending.
I am not sure why I keep reading these books. Yes, I guess I want to know what the fate of the world is going to be, but the mystery and intrigue and romance that hooked me into I Am Number Four has long since disappeared and it’s just one problem after another now.
Repetition in a series like this is entirely inevitable I think, action/sci if as a genre kind of lends itself to that, but I just don’t think I really care any more in the case of Lorien. Repetition is a key feature of the James Phelan dream series but at least they are shorter reads and the story within each novel is not particularly repetitive, only the formula is.
The problem with Lore is one that I have stated before. He uses different fonts for different characters as a way to distinguish between narrative voice. Problem is they all still sound the same. Two of his narrative voices are girls but he has no insight into how he female mind works at all. And sure they may be alien girls, but they are presented as pretty much kin to humans so to not get it right is worse.
This is the fifth book in the series and while we learned some new and interesting things and perhaps can see an end in sight, most of the twists came out of nowhere. I still don’t feel like I know why there has to be a battle on earth or what the point of these aliens and their legacies are.
Problem is that I care just enough to want to find out and so will probably shell out another twenty bucks when the next novel is released.
It will be reluctantly though.
And I’ll probably skim the end of that one too.

Coming up on my next blog: It’s going to be a big shopping weekend next week. Yay.