Messy Tuesdays

The entertaining and thoughtful blogger, Felix, of Felix's blog and the Missability Radio Show has come up with the idea of posting pictures of our messes on Tuesdays - me being messy is practically a feminist act, dontchaknow, not just idleness! (you've no idea how affirming I find this - I'm 40 and have totally failed to come up with a way to be tidy. V hard for C, who is!) I shall quote Felix herself:

Tired of balancing career, housework, self-care, social life, blog-life and knitting-projects beneath a veneer of carefully groomed perfection, Messy Tuesdays are a strike in the direction of The Unideal Home Blog: a celebration of things as-they-are and an affirmative reminder to everyone out there who despairs of the state of their sink/bedroom/laundry-pile thatyou are not alone! I say to hell with perfection and the careful disguising of reality in the blog. I say to hell with isolation and the negative psychological effects of aspiring constantly towards unattainable standards of domestic perfection.

A friend of mine who has a lengthy and horrific commute daily, who rises at 5am every morning to get into work, who is home by 7pm on a good day, who sews, knits, blogs etc. on TOP of this job and commute was recently, in spite of this extreme industriousness, ashamed of her untidy home when I last saw her. I found myself exclaiming that I love her messy pots, her pan full of mould and her disarrayed knitting projects covering every surface. I love them because they signify that my friend does not come into the house after a long day of work and immediately subject herself to tiring housework. I love the mess because it is the result of my friend choosing to do stuff that is pleasurable to her, rather than feeling obliged to perform tasks that are not fun during the small amount of free time available to her. When I look at the mess I see all the other stuff my friend has been doing with her time; activities that aren't cleaning and cooking and tidying and sweeping. Because let's face it, we could spend our entire lives cleaning! And why should we?! Enough of the oppressive idea that one is less of a woman somehow if one's house is not spotless. Bring on the mess. We know it always gets tidied away (if badly and hurriedly) at some point.

So here's my side of the bed - and this is how it always is apart form brief spates of tidiness when I feel guilty or whatever. There are manky hankies next to the bed and everything.

And Clare's side. This happens naturally....

And a quickie pic of one of the many things I am doing instead of tidying. This is the cablenet sock from Knitty (have you seen the new Spring one? I love the Salto sock! And the Laminaria Shawl (makes me want to dye yarn just that green),  and the Lace Ribbon Scarf. The feature articles seem pretty good, too!) Anyway - the cablenet socks - started for Mum's birthday January 2007, finishe done in time was too short - and now I've finished that one! You see it here (with the benefit of free, added mess, lucky you!) practically nearly almost done, but it is now done indeed.

It is actually rather lovely!

The big boxes you can see in the back of this picture are full of STUFF sent from Birmingham in January, and shipped via several long rests at the shipping company and then here - landed on 12th feb, got through customs and AQIS by 7th March and arrived here on the 11th. Extraordinary.

We are both very happy to be reunited with our stashes - mine is yarn and knitting books, C's is work books and KITES (and bike tyres and spare wheels, three more water bottles etc etc). Suddenly mine feels entirely fine! Perhaps I'll reintroduce you to it over the next few weeks as I pick back up on various projects started and planned.