Hurrah, for I shall paint no more

So, I know I usually do my crochet update at the end of the month, but this month I thought I'd really rock the boat and NOT do one.  I know, hold onto your hats...
Most of my energies over the past week or so have been focused on this:

Aaaah, happy sigh - look: it's my new-look fireplace (as opposed to New Look fireplace).  Decorating this room has been a beast.  It's taken me the best part of a week and we've been living with the television on the dining room table, books all over the place (thanks to the relocation skills of baby n, who's obsessed with them) and paint spread liberally and randomly throughout the house; but.....it's do-one!  yippeeeeee.  I had a major wobble re the colour the second day of painting, but now I absolutely love it.  Deeply, deeply love it.  I know I'll find it very hard to even let the children in the door at first for fear that they might smear, scratch or otherwise sully its pristine beauty, but for a couple of days at least I can sit and feel proud of my lovely new sitting room.  But here's a teeny, tiny confession: while I'm not the most enthusiastic cleaner at the best of times, I'm certainly not a slob by any means - I'm somewhere in the middle of the spectrum with Kim and Aggie at one end and squatters at the other - but when I moved the sofas, I was somewhat startled to see a big, flashing neon sign saying 'welcome to spider-land, we hope you enjoy your visit'.
And who knew that spiders pooed so prolifically?  Ew.  Ew.  Ew

Oh goodness, if you look very closely at that picture, you can see that Dr Who seems to have magically appeared in my sitting room.  Perhaps he's heard how fabulous and spider-free it is now...

And on a completely other note, I have finally got round to thinking of my seven 'interesting' facts for the award that Fluff Pot and Dinki Dots kindly bestowed on me recently.  You ready? 
1) I've got a piece of pencil lead embedded in my finger.  I've had it since I was about seven and I still can't for the life of me think why my mum didn't dig it out with a needle in the style of a splinter-removal.  Oooh, I've just remembered that I've got a bit of glass embedded in my heel too - this is as a result of getting into the car barefoot just after Mr N had broken the windscreen by rear-ending someone when we lived in NZ.
2) I secretly long to be able to make myself invisible in the manner of a super hero.  How brilliant would that be? 
3) I am absolutely, properly terrified of drowning.  No idea why, I've never had any bad experiences in the water - but if I can't either see or touch the bottom, I have a full-on panic attack, which really isn't my usual style at all.  I had an incident in South Africa involving me in a bikini, a waterfall, a panic attack and several bystanders.  Humiliation means nothing to me when it comes to my fear of water.
4) I let people intimidate me too easily.  It drives me bananas.  I can feel myself coming over all intimidated and then I get annoyed with myself for letting them do it to me, and that just makes it worse.  Grrrrr
5) The most precious non-human things to me are my silver bracelets.  I have seven of them and I never take them off.  Each one has been given to me by one of my best people and I love them beyond all reason.
6) Certain words are guaranteed to make me smile.  Egg, for example.  Just brilliant. Other words make me squirm - like 'pamphlet'.  Wrong, wrong, wrong.
7) I have had recurring toilet-related dreams all my adult life, especially when I'm not very happy.  Sometimes I find myself sitting on the loo and realise that there are no walls and I'm in full view of the whole world with my knickers round my knees; other times I am in a huge building and just can't find a toilet; and other times there are hundreds of loos but they're all so bad that I can't bear to use them.  (I really, really hope none of you are psychologists...)
On a confessional note again: I've really been feeling like I've lost my blogging mojo lately.  I don't know why, there's no particular reason, but I just can't seem to get into the whole 'writing my usual drivel' mode at all.  I've got so much to talk about, especially on the crochet-front, but I just can't seem to get my head around actually writing about it all.  Blah. 
Having said that, something rather exciting and blog-related did happen to me today: I won a giveaway!  I know, I can hardly believe it.  Thank you so much Catherine, this couldn't have happened at a better moment, you've really put a smile on my face.  I am soooo looking forward to receiving a rather exciting parcel and I promise I will do a proper post about it when it arrives.  (Pfftt - I just typed 'abou tit' then - snort, snort).
And with that, I will love you and leave you.  Fingers crossed for the speedy return of the elusive mojo x