So, you know those friends that you can really rely on? The ones that make promises and keep them? The ones you can call after midnight and they will not only forgive you but be glad you called (okay it helps if they are nocturnal too!)? The ones that only offer when they mean it, and they offer a lot? Well that is my friend Z!

She knows how much I have been struggling to turn my home back into my Home over the past year. She has been setting up her first home away from home over the past year, and we have spent many hours in IKEA, at hers and mine playing with flat pack furniture and power tools, and talking about asthetic ideals. In the same way as when once you are well into a diet, you become more critical of yourself than you were when you were heavier; having become more aware of my home and starting to clear my clutter, what remains has become harder to live with. So the other night she spent 4 hours sorting out her craft supplies and arranging them all pretty. And she offered (bless her!) to help and support me if I wanted to excavate my junk room and find the art room buried beneath it. And she meant it!

On Saturday we had brunch and changed our books at the library. When her plans for the afternoon changed, she offered to come over and make a start. We spent 8 hours on it, throwing out 1 or 2 cubic feet of stuff and recycling another cubic foot or two as well. Here are the results, although you will have to excuse the weird colours. If I will insist on taking photos after midnight, that is what I will get.