Hello, Woollydaze here…
As advent calendars count the passing of the days in many households around the world, December passes by. For most families this is the countdown to Christmas, the anticipation of gathering together, the food and the fun. In the Woollydaze household, it’s the tick-tock of time passing as we desperately try to finish decorating before the holiday.
This is a quieter time of year on the farm so we always seem to end up decorating, culminating in a mad panic as the end of December approaches. Three years ago it was a whole 3-bedroomed house, two years ago it was Little Woolly’s bedroom, last year we had the year off due to me being ill. As the colder weather of winter starts to bite, we have to leave windows open in order to dry out plaster. The house is covered in dust so I’ve not started the Christmas cleaning and as for decorations – ha! I wish there were another, less stressful, way but there isn’t.
The lounge has progressed:
- the walls are plastered and painted.
- we have doors
- we have skirting and the architrave has been bought
- the fireplace is finished
- the woodburning stove is being installed on Tuesday
- the carpet is being fitted on Wednesday.
It’s all very, very tight. The saviour of this particular project is that we’re paying for help. For the past few months we’ve employed somebody to work on this room (amongst other general tasks around the house and farmyard). There is a simple joy in coming home from a day at work to find that another job is done, and it wasn’t me who did it. However, we’re getting to the stage where I need to contribute, and I’m scared.
My first job was buying a carpet. I went for a recce last week and found enough potential carpets for Mr Woollydaze to be required to give an opinion. Time passed, more time passed, he couldn’t make it day after day, and eventually we concluded that it was down to me. Just for the record, carpet shopping in a lunchtime when you have to make a decision that day is very, very stressful. We need a 5m carpet (so that was half of the stock discounted) and it had to be deliverable before Christmas (another quarter of the stock gone). I was running around the shop having samples shown to me in approximately-the-right-colour until we found one I liked enough to say ‘yes’ and to hand over my credit card. Mr Woollydaze had better like it because we’re going to be looking at it for a good number of years. I won’t be there on the day that it’s fitted so he’s got a little time to ‘appreciate’ my tastes before telling me what he thinks.
My next job is to make the curtains, and cushions for the window seat. I also owe Mr Woollydaze four blinds/sets of curtains for his office, where he’s shivered through the three winters since we moved into the house. I have a sewing machine. I have made one set of curtains. Whilst 37 weeks pregnant. I can do this. But I’m scared.
Yesterday afternoon I started my holiday from work and went fabric shopping. It was an interesting experience. I bought two fabrics, lounge and office, from two different shops.
In one shop the staff were very knowledgeable and helpful. They asked me if I needed d-ring, cleats and acorns, and I said ‘yes’. I have nothing, therefore by default I need everything. I have a vague idea of how to make a roman blind but I don’t really know how the components fit together. Think of it as doing a jigsaw without knowing the final picture.
I have a behemoth of a task to complete. The only reason I’m getting on with this job now rather than putting it off again is because I have the luxury of a relatively child-free week. Little Woolly has three days at nursery when I am at home. It’s now or never.
I’m hoping that my next post will be ‘look what I’ve done’ and ‘happy holiday’ rather than a ‘I’m hand stitching hems at 2am!’. Wish me luck. Oh, and all of our planning hadn’t factored in this:
Woollydaze 