I know it sounds like a very odd combination but that has been my world this past week!

The renovations are barreling along, I have to remind myself it’s only been a week since this all started, some days it feels much longer than that. The new walls are all in place, the wonderful plumber and equally wonderful electrician are working their magic.  There’s an awful lot of  “stuff” going on inside the walls right now and none of it will be visible when there are walls!

It may not look like it but things are coming along well. Thanks to everyone who sent along a comment on their own renovations and words of encouragement. The consensus is it’s all worth it in the end and I am reminding myself of that on a regular basis!

I have been doing allot of running around this past week, who knew it would be so tricky to choose a bathtub, it’s not something you shop for very often. But once you decide what you want,  you have to get it home…

yup, that’s my new bathtub upside down in the back of my car. If you look carefully in the top right hand side of the image you will see the new toilet in its blue and white box sitting on the passenger seat. I did get a funny look from the car next to me at a traffic light, but really, how else do you get them home?

Thankfully except for a few days at the end of the week the weather has been glorious! it certainly makes hauling boxes, picking up lunch and taking stuff to the dump allot more pleasant. This gorgeous red leaf tree is right against the fence in my yard and all summer I have been threatening to take it out, it really hasn’t done much but be messy until the weather cooled down this week.

The red tree ( sorry, no idea what it is!) against the blue sky and the yellowing leaves of the climbing hydrangea is really striking. So for now the tree has won a reprieve, it stays.

In the midst of all of this organized chaos I have been getting a bit of stitching done. Truth be known the studio is the only dust free place right now, so that’s where I head when I need a change of air.

I have been having great fun playing with this piece of laminated paper Edwina Mackinnon and I made when I was in the UK this past August. Edwina gave me a lesson on laminating paper and this is the piece we made out in the back garden one sunny afternoon. It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do with it, but now it’s layered up and the stitching is happening.

I do love working with paper in all it’s forms so paper laminating is right up my alley. I really enjoyed the process and the results are so much fun, thanks Edwina. I must have grabbed the sports section of the newspaper when we got ready to work and have unintentionally managed to include Mark Cavendish in my piece, upraised arm and all. Just one arm I’m afraid,  I accidentally cut one off  in the design, sorry about that Mark .

Bye for now, Catherine