Happy birthday to me!

And what have I done with my day? Not a lot - yay! Day Of Rest!

I'm halfway through two weeks' annual leave. I'm spending it readin' crime novels from the library, knittin', shoppin', and strippin'.

Strippin' wallpaper.

Ugh.
This half-way-there pic shows all three phases of Ugliness - the ugly wallpaper in question (beyond the arch), the papery backing stuff left behind when the plastic w/paper coating is stripped off (above the arch and above the door on the left) and the crappy paint job that was behind the paper after finally washing and scraping the glue residue off.


What it does not show is:
a) the amazingly bad job whichever set of previous owners did in hanging the wallpaper;
b) all the cracks in the plaster that had been papered over*;
c) how hard it was to get the backing paper off - my wrist is still a little swollen from all the scraping, hence today's Day Of Rest; or
d) the large numbers of black hairs that had been papered to the wall. Ewwww.

(* When we started stripping the placky coating, we had the amazing good luck to hit the only part of the house to which the paper had not been attached by Superglue. It came off in nice sheets, just like in all the books, and so did the underpaper. Then we hit the tough glue, and the cracked plaster under it, and I had a truly scary nightmare in which we finally got the underpaper off, and the house fell down around us.)

Remember, kids, if you must wallpaper your house, choose something that's not pig-dog ugly, use a plumb line, and start from the middle of the wall and work out. Not the other way around.

On crafty related themes, I'm debating whether or not to do Southern Summer of Socks. I'm not really a Joiner of things, but meeting new peeps is always nice, and I have a tentative pattern-ette floating around in my brain for using some of this. The Knittery's merino cashmere sock blend is a lovely yarn, buttery soft and good value. It can be a little splitty though. I highly recommend it! And if it doesn't come in any colours you like (as happened to me the first time I used it), it dyes really well. Evidence to follow, when said socks are dry and on my feets.