Friday 8th May
It's been another week of clearing out. On Saturday we drove the motorhome to it new storage facility on a farm near Bamburgh, just off the A1. Its secure and we have access anytime and its not far from our new house. To be honest it was a massive relief. Its going to cost less than £1 a day and having it off the drive means we can have a skip.
Over the Bank Holiday weekend, with "George" out of the way and the drive much emptier, we tackled the garage! Fortunately it was a fine day with no rain so we could pile everything on the drive to sort. We managed to clear it apart from in the roof (we ran out of time) .We took piles of stuff to the tip. Put some stuff aside to sell and put a lot back having sorted through it. It is only the first cull and we will need to get rid of more stuff before we move.
Having no motorhome on site meant I had to rearrange the party shed to take a few more pictures. I've managed it whilst still giving access. I am concerned about all the Buckinghams framed pictures in there without homes to go to. I'll have to have a rethink about those. They would be very difficult and expensive to post safely due to their weight and the easily damaged frames.
I have managed to sell quite a few things on Facebook Marketplace and Ebay including the petrol strimmer, roof box, exhaust, boxing bag, 2 bags of unwanted dog food and a batik kit but have loads more on the go.
I then moved back into the studio and ignoring the devastation, I am gradually working round sorting, packing and throwing. Today (Thursday) I took 10 big bags to the tip. I am trying to be ruthless but there's still going to be a lot of stuff.
I have a mate who does kitchen fitting and Natasha had the idea of getting him to aquire kitchen units that he has removed and use them down the sides of the new studio to keep it neater. She also came up with the idea of a fold down table that folds flat to the wall that can be lowered to provide my bench for cutting mounts and framing thus saving space. Two good ideas I think.
I am throwing stuff that I can't see me actually using in the future, eg. 2 airbrushing kits, glass paints, textile pens and paint, school paint, Chinese calligraphy set and of course my collection of hundreds of Artist & Illustrator magazines which are taking up space everywhere. Again this is the first cull. There will be another one but it's difficult to judge without actually seeing the space in the new studio. Again this is a useful exercise as when I’ve got round everywhere I at least know what I've got.
Unlike someone I could mention (but won't) I don't still have my Netherthorpe School 1st X1 cricket cap but I did find 2 copies of the school "Insight" magazine (which of course I've kept)!
I'm pleased we've started doing this at this early stage as it is a daunting task. I'll just keep going until I'm satisfied I've done all I can for now.
In other news I was pleased to hear from OCG in Ambleside that after they repositioned my paintings they sold 2. Also, my Buckinghams paintings at last seem to be moving. I sold 3 more of my "Woodland" Paintings and 2 "Croft" paintings this month. Hopefully, other Galleries will follow.
This will also be my last blog using this phone. Despite my current Samsung A14 being sold to us on their camera quality I have never been too impressed with it and I am constantly running out of storage. We've finally been persuaded to get iPhones! I've bought an i phone 15 pro max, which, according to all my research has the best camera. Hopefully my blog photos and Facebook/Instagram photos will be much better as will my photos for galleries and my records. I will also have more data and storage than I will ever need. Both Tom and Dylan will be very pleased.