Design excercises and chocolate

Before I throw these out, I thought I'd share.
These wraps were quite useful in terms of playing with colour proportions. Just take a photo, painting or whatever and wrap threads around a card using the same proportions of the colours. It doesn't matter what the subject is very much, just something where the colours appeal.
And these might be good for some people though not for me. I knew what the effect would be before cutting out the shapes. I know other women who can visualise predictively but if you can't this is an exercise in positive/negative shapes.

And paper cutting, same thing applies.

More

I think the one on the right was torn rather than cut, less predictable but more of the same really.


And then later to reward myself for more decluttering I had a go at making chocolates. I poured some melted chocolate round these tiny cake cases. Froze them to chill them quickly, added some jersey cream with champagne and then poured more chocolate over the top to seal them. It was worth a try but the cream and chocolate was just too rich.
Anyone have any ideas as to what to do with the rest of the pound of melted chocolate?

Out of the chaos...

there shall come order. Or so it is hoped.
These are my old Ikea Billy bookcases. They have served me well for 16 years. At one time they lived in the sitting room and were mahogany coloured, they got painted and moved up to the landing until now when some of the shelves are sagging in the middle, and the quantity of books is pulling them apart from the sides. These are 90% quilt books and magazines.
And here are their lovely replacements. Also Ikea, their shelves are 5cm deeper so all the oversize books can fit inside rather than gathering dust on the top where because they are so high, they never got a glance.
I love these doors to keep everything dust free. I shall velcro some blue toile de jouy behind the glass to hide a multitude of sins.
And Ikea being the king of storage solutions, do these fold up fabric boxes which fit perfectly (I know there are gaps but these enable you to pull them out easily).


On our way home from the cottage, we popped in to the Bristol Ikea. What a different experience from their flag ship shop in Wembley. Friendly helpful staff and no queueing! I found these lovely fabrics. Too heavy for quilting but lovely for some cushions. These reds look quite 'brick' in the photos but they are a deep cherry. And the blue in the stripe fabric marries the blue toile de jouy perfectly.
We also bought two more Billy bookcases in white to go on the landing. I'm going to 'steal' the doors from the ones in DH's office (they don't close properly on his anyway as lever arch files are about 1/2" too deep)
My new mantra, 'less stuff, and what I have MUST have a place!'