What did we do before Ikea?

There was once a time when I wouldn't go into Ikea.  We had a Victorian house with loads of original features and the modern Ikea style and cheap flat pack furniture just wasn't us.  Then we started a family and we saw that Ikea actually did furniture that wasn't all minimalist and modern clean lines and from our very first visit we were hooked.  We also, surprisingly, liked the quality.

Then we moved house to somewhere bigger and slightly more modern and by then we had 2 young children.  And they opened an Ikea store about 20 minutes from our new home.  Its probably the only shop that the children WANT to go to.  The cafe looks out over Southampton docks and so we see the huge cruise liners when they are in port.  L loves the creche but B is still too little, at least for the next few weeks.

When I started thinking about being able to have my own craft room, I knew where I would probably end up getting all the stuff from.  I have gradually been able to get the furniture that I wanted in there and also made better use of the stuff that I was using in there in the meantime.  This weekend I bought, and put together, the final pieces, including a large desk, and it really feels like it is coming together.  I've got a few bits to put on the walls as yet and I still haven't finished the pizza boxes so most of my papers are still in RUBs but I'm getting there and I am loving the way it is starting to look.  I can't wait to get back in there and really attack some projects that have been sitting in my "unfinished" basket for far too long.  I also need to prep for a retreat at the end of March.

I won't show pictures until Wednesday but I don't like having a photo-less post so I will leave you with a layout that I started in October and finally finished a couple of weeks ago!

This is one of the layouts that I started during the stash diving project in Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party class.  I got 11 layouts to the point where they had photos and the initial paper placement sorted.  They just needed titles, journalling and embellishment.

I used the camera stamp from Amy Tangerine again and finally got to use one of my buttons from an Australian pack from Hobbycraft.

Ayers Rock and The Olgas were such fantastic spiritual places and the photos don't do the area justice, especially when you consider that our standard film camera packed up a couple of days later, full of sand and condensation.  I think I still have a gazzillion photos of our Round The World Trip to scrap though!

Bye for now
xx