Yesterday I finished work at midday and went on a bit of a round trip of Fife. If I’m going somewhere I always try and get a lot crammed into the trip so I get the most for my money/time. So when I spotted a folding table on Freecycle recently (in St Andrews), I thought I could go an pick that up at the same time as popping into the Town Hall so see the Scrap Exchange exhibition.
Oh and maybe I could go and visit Jill in Ceres too and pick up the rabbit doorstop I bought from her. Oh and maybe I should go round to Kirsty’s too and get the stuff that didn’t sell at the HaarShop and there you have it – a round trip of Fife.
And then another thing got added to the list. More stuff on Freecycle. I’ve been looking for PegBoard for ages – impossible to get hold of – for my studio so that I could have all my tool and bits and pieces hanging on the wall within easy reach, instead of all over the floor for me to trip over or all over my jewellery bench leaving me little room to work. So when someone in Freuchie said they had 3 large sheets for me, I couldn’t turn the offer down. So Freuchie got added to the list of destinations too.
Colin threw a spanner in the mix and asked if I could be back home for 3.30pm as he needed the car, so I was now up against the clock too! Could I plan to get this all done in a few hours in one trip??? Oh yes, with military precision – where’s my clipboard?
Here’s a map of my route.
Far better to do it all in one journey than 4 or 5 separate trips wouldn’t you say!
My first stop was Freuchie, to meet a guy called Matthew who had some PegBoard for me. The sheets were a lot bigger than I imagined, which was a great and luckily we managed to squeeze them all into the back of the car with no issues. As a special bonus I also got a box of about 40 bright orange plastic storage boxes – no idea what I’ll use them for but I know they’ll come in handy for something and if not I can always give them away.
All I need to do with the PegBoard is paint each sheet white and then create a frame for each so that they can be hung up on the wall – need to get hold of some pegs and then I can start using it. Very excited about my studio makeover and hopefully it will all get done before Christmas as I really miss having a studio!
The next stop was St Andrews to meet the very patient and lovely John – someone who’s been holding onto a folding card table for me for several weeks ever since I spotted it on Freecycle. I thought it would be perfect to use at craft fairs for an additional little space designated for wrapping and packing, but also making. I was going to pick it up before going to London, but then changed my mind.
John works in the Maths building at the University and so I headed there. I don’t normally drive into St Andrews via Cupar so I was a bit disorientated when I got there as I had ‘my route’ going round my head which didn’t correspond with the route I had taken – so much so that I didn’t realise that I’d driven past the university buildings on my way in and had to do a roundabout kind of route to get back to where I started which made me a little late. I also parked in the wrong car park which meant that John had to walk quite a distance to find me. Oh dear! He was very nice about it all though and the table he gave me is perfect.
It’s not too big, so totally portable and it folds flat in a very neat way. I love the locking mechanisms on the legs for when you unfold them that keeps them straight. It’ll come in handy in my studio too as it’s the perfect size and height to be the base for my mini photo studio tent that Colin bought me for Christmas, so instead of taking pictures of my work all over the house wherever I can find the room, I can now use this table and set it up in a corner of my studio instead. Thanks John!
Next stop the Town Hall – thankfully on the day, Jill decided to meet me in St Andrews, so I didn’t need to do a detour through Ceres and just headed straight to St Andrews, which made things alot easier. She was already waiting for me when I got there with my Rabbit doorstop in a bag – it’s so unbelievably amazing! It was lovely to meet Jill as we’ve only chatted via email. I spotted her rabbit doorstops at Kirsty’s when I dropped off some stock for her to sell at the HaarShop and wanted to buy one there and then, but wasn’t allowed. So I got in touch with Jill and she said she’d make one for me in the same style. See Jill’s work at her blog and her Folksy shop.
When I got the rabbit home we decided to name it Bernard and it’s sole purpose at the moment is to keep the door to the downstairs loo slightly ajar to stop the dog getting stuck in there – Abee goes in there and then the door closes behind her and then she gets trapped and if we’re not at home to release her, she gets quite stressed, so Bernard has a very important job to do and he’s happy sitting there on guard 24 hours a day. I’m sure in the future he’ll get promoted and have something more glamorous to do with his time.
Next I popped into the Town Hall to see the Scrap Exchange exhibition at long last. It looks great and each piece is displayed with a little note of what each artist received in their shoebox. Two glass cabinets displayed most of the work, but there were also some paintings and wall based work too.
Here are my pieces:
And this is the piece made by Susie Imber from the scrap I supplied:
This was an interesting piece by Jenny Barker who received Calico and Espresso Coffee in little containers:
I also liked Angie Turner’s piece entitled Packaged made from pieces of scrap metal that she received:
But the clock was ticking so I didn’t have time to pop into to say hi to the folk at FCA&C or to take any more piccies. Next stop was Kirsty’s to get my left over stock for the HaarShop and then head home – got stuck in traffic on the way because of a Wedding and then because of roadworks, but amazingly managed to get home for exactly 3.30pm – how I love it when a plan comes together like that.
