Nesting

Here I go on another extreme and passion! Or is it simply a matter of doing something and doing it until it is all done?

My sister was horrified when I said I was going to get my mother's bone china dinner service out the loft of my dad's place and asked if she objected if I had the china. Not that she wanted the china at all or had any plans for it, she was adamant that under no circumstances was I to start cluttering up my life with it. Well, it is a matter of perspectives. I may not have chosen this particular pattern but it is still lovely and it is fine china.

Under stealth mode, I have these last few weeks looked out second hand dressers and all sorts of arrangement including a rather lovely 1930s office bookcase with glass doors on top. Then this last weekend it all came together after the latest episode of Strictly (come Dancing) I set to with re-arranging the main room of our already over-full apartment to incorporate a Welsh Dresser. This included draining the fish tank and re-siting it. "Luckily" the fish had one by one over the years popped their clogs a while back and so I didn't have to worry about any. (New fish are on their way.)

Early Sunday morning my dad was obliging. I drove over and helped to get the china down from the loft and with his bigger vehicle picked up my chosen Welsh Dresser from the second hand shop down the road. It is a "marry-age" of a stained pine top which is extra tall and just what I imagined in respect of dimensions, with an oak sideboard with tapered front corners so there are no sharp corners for me to manoeuvre in order to get to my desk which has been moved along with all the cables tidied and ratified. Darling Mr Doris was a tad concerned as I'm unplugging wires here there and everywhere. Probably in case he was going to be called in to re-instate everything, but no, I am the mistress of the puzzle and I not only had everything back up and running, it looks so much tidier and neater.

A good clean of the dresser and screwing top to bottom, and an extra good wash of all the china (the newspaper most of it was wrapped in was 2004 so nearly 10 years in the dark) and then bit by bit placing it. Incredibly, this dresser was made for this amount of china. I am so surprised how complete and undamaged it is - just the handle of the cream jug has a problem that needs fixing and might be an issue though for the moment tiny blobs of blu-tack hold it in place. It is a complete dinner service for six people complete with serving plates and bowls and platters. There was once a cake stand but that has long since broken. There is a coffee set for six and a tea set for six.

The even more amazing thing, which I had sort of envisaged, was that the sideboard now also contains all sorts of dining stuff from around the kitchen and our bedroom. All in one accessible place and freeing up vital kitchen cupboards. In the last week or two the kitchen cupboards had been getting a zealous work out from me and now this. Yesterday morning saw other changes with the kitchen counters being cleared and re-organised/re-designed. After I take my daughter to work shortly I'll continue over to the next town and get a new table covering to match the new style, and possibly new lampshades. We have the cheapest paper shades which have served us well and can stay as lampshades are more of a considered purchase unless something fabulous and low cost stands out.

Even my son complimented me on how nice the dresser looks. And it does. It makes me smile and it looks stunning. The brown wood works perfectly with our brown dining table and chairs whilst bringing out the delicateness of the white bone china with its pink and gold decoration. My sister has yet to find out what I have been up to and to see it. That should be interesting if her views have changed.