We are looking forward to sharing all the fun of Our Crafty Place with you! Yes, on Friday we DID spend 5 minutes literally lying on the floor laughing tears until our bellies hurt over THE most ridiculous thing! There is a lot of joy and happiness amongst the hard work and trepidation BUT we are finally realising our dreams and it’s not long until you can come and join in … we honestly can’t wait to open our large purple doors to you all and say HELLO!
We thought we best give you a brief “this is what we’ve been up to”
… grab a cuppa …
We got the keys to 1 Corporation Road, Ilkeston on January 3rd, that was an exciting day I can tell you! Since then it’s been non-stop planning, cleaning, getting rid of mold, decorating, finding problems such as blocked gutters and a crack in the cistern of one of the loos (luckily there are 2 so we don’t have to creep under any bushes!) and welcoming volunteers who have already BEEN AMAZING. We are very blessed to have fabulous friends and family who are coming out in force to help … and today, a lovely lady called Dee, who lives in Ilkeston came to help out – she got straight to work with the hot air gun, helping us get rid of the paint on the wood paneling. hurrah!
Talking of hurrah … our new mates, Hayden and Lisa from B&Q Trade Point came to visit this week … but we’ll keep you in suspense until another blog to tell you what they are planning with us! Happy Days!
Already we have painted and moved into our office … ok, we admit it, we ‘might’ like purple. And Kate’s Cricut machine now has pride of place on one of the cupboards that has been donated to us. We are itching to fire it up to make signs, mugs and Crafty merchandise but before we can, there is a small factor of getting this place ship-shape for you all.
Both toilets are painted … they have different themes, and names, but you’ll have to visit to find out what those are! One is for chilling out and the other will give a warmer vibe. We will be all about well-being and meeting sensory and emotional needs here, even down to going to the loo!
We have a large craft store in the only room that is on the first floor, but we shan’t show you that yet until it is sorted! To say it is a ‘tad jungle-like’ doesn’t do the chaos up there justice! It was a case of quickly getting it cleaned, stripped and painted (including removing lots of soil that had worked its way behind the wallpaper – the gutters are clear now by the way!) before our ‘move it all in’ day when LOTS of stuff was duly carried up the stairs and hidden away. Safe to say, the fridge freezer that Kate’s Mum gave us has gone in the kitchen, not up all those stairs …
We have had 2 garden pixies come and work their muddy socks off in the garden. Margaret and Dave have worked in all weathers, yep, they were even out there on those really frosty days we had in January; they are complete superstars. It was an overgrown wilderness but now looks cared for and ready for the spring. Who knew under all the tangles there were a multitude of bulbs waiting to come out, it’s going to be lovely to see the first ones come into flower. I wonder what day that will be?
We are now starting ‘THE BIG ONE’. We have given ourselves the whole of February to get the main room ready. It is huge. This building was a Wesley Chapel, which may give you an idea of the size! This room is going to be divided into 2 sections. One end we are going to make as cosy as possible, which will be the relaxation area with comfy chairs and a ‘dining’ space for lunchtime. The other end will be the official workshop area. Already the ceiling is clear of mold; the building had been empty for a year and is now is getting some much needed TLC. Next comes the task of sanding all the woodwork – we have panelling all around the bottom of the room, which we have started to completely strip back ready to paint. We are using a colour that we both think is peaceful and gorgeous, but we are keeping our colour scheme for that room under wraps for now. We have 5 big radiators to finish rubbing down and paint too … and this photo will give you an idea of just some of the wall / ceiling space we have to paint … eeks. It’s just a case of head down and getting on with it. Plenty of large mugs of coffee here we come.
So, hopefully we have given you a flavour of what we’ve been up to so far. There are more rooms to tell you about but we’ll leave it until another time …
Finally, just to say, keep an eye out on our socials for the date of our special Open Day (we are singing a trumpet fanfare but kind of guessing you can’t hear that – can you imagine it please!) We have the date in our heads but need to be totally certain we can be ready by then. We reckon we will know within the next fortnight, so will let you know asap.
Take care of yourselves
