Swoon! It's my new shoe cabinet!

You may remember that, a month or so back, I rescued a free cabinet from outside a junk shop up my road. It was dirty (complete with spider corpses) and rain soaked. But it was FREE and exactly what I had been looking for, for ages for glamorous shoe storage purposes!

That's Mr Scribbler's bulging collection on the right.

No really.

The first thing I did was get a nice bowl of warm soapy water and a sponge and I gave the thing a darn good clean. When it was dry, I hoovered up the spider corpses. Then it was sanding time. I didn't want the dark finish - it's too oppressive. And this was when I discovered that sanding is a bitch. A massive bitch. I sanded free hand, then sanded with an electric sander. I sanded until I could sand no more and got the worst of the varnish off. Then I did what any self respecting, if slightly lazy person, would do and said 'fuck it' and started slapping on the paint! (after re-hoovering, wiping down with a damp cloth and letting it all dry again)...

Scratchy, sandy and partially painted...

Then...

Voila!

The finished piece.

Yes, that is a picture of me on the Log Flume at Alton Towers - awesome!

 I went with a nice pale greeny blue (B&Q eggshell in case you're interested) and the light, brightness of it means it feels less imposing than it might otherwise have.

And now...

More importantly...

Here it is STOCKED WITH SHOES! YAY!

For the beady eyed, yes there are plenty of shoes in there that haven't appeared in the shoe challenge yet. I've, er, invested a bit in my shoe collection lately.

It's like my dream. But in real life in my own bedroom. Gosh I'm shallow!

In less shallow news, I am typing this on Friday but have scheduled it for Sunday and, while you're reading this, I'm probably mid way through a 50ish mile sponsored bike ridge for Maggie's Cancer Centres (www.justgiving.com/LlaraGeddes if you're feeling flush!). If you're reading this later on Sunday, I bloody best be finished and well wired into a bath and bottle of rose! Please all cross your fingers that Sunday's weather forecast is wrong and that it doesn't rain heavily and blow a gale.