Busy, Busy, Busy

I really don't have time to post as often as I would like and I feel really guilty about not commenting on people's blogs every time I read them. Life is very busy on the domestic scene what with all the decorating and trying to keep the garden tamed. We have been really busy on the website too so I'm afraid blogging is taking rather a back seat. I did contemplate taking a rest for a while (from blogging!!) but have decided to try to keep going.

The decoration in one of the living rooms is still on going and I keep changing my mind about the colour scheme and 'look' that I want. I now have almost as many Farrow & Ball matchpots as Homebase and could probably have paid a decorator with what I have spent on them! I don't have an 'After' photo yet but here are the 'Before' and 'In between' images.

Yuk!

When I stripped the wallpaper off the old plaster fell off too so we had to call back the plasterer who had skimmed over the artexed ceilings to come back to do the walls. He asked me to remove any loose plaster in preparation. It turned out that most of it was so I was up to the early hours pulling off chunks of wall with my wallpaper stripper (hubby managed to be away!)

This is now as far as we have got but I hope to be posting photos of the finished room very soon though the colour palette may change several times before I do!

A friend who lives just 5 minutes away has had this fire surround in her garden ever since she moved there seven years ago. She was more than willing for us to take it away as I just love its sun bleached and shabby look. We won't be using it in this room but it will definitely be used elsewhere.

Changing the subject completely I thought I would post a photo of this little workbox I did a makeover on this week. It would look great in our bedroom but I have put it on the website instead.

Back Again

It is 4 weeks ago today that we moved house and, although trying to keep up with reading your blogs, I haven't had time to leave comments or write a new post ...till now. The move went so smoothly with no breakages (I did all the packing); the removal men worked like beavers and had to call in reinforcements as they had underestimated how much we had! Apart from the length of time it took to sell our old house there really weren't any hiccups at all (which I think may be unusual) but it did help that there were only three of us in the chain.

I absolutely LOVE it here and am so happy. Everything is perfect (apart from the fact that every room needs decorating). Our old house was relatively new but I have always preferred older houses. This was built in 1901 so I don't know if it would be classed as Victorian or Edwardian. There are still a few old features but modernisation has crept in too much and we need to put the house back to how it should be. Two days after we moved in we had someone plastering over the artexed ceilings. I have more or less finished decorating our bedroom (apart from the floor) and when I pulled up the carpet I found these tiles where the fireplace had been (I have since discovered similar ones in two other bedrooms).

I want white painted floorboards in this room so am unsure whether I actually need to strip them back to bare wood first or whether I can just paint over them (any advice would be very welcome).

I have painted the bedroom walls white and the accessories are mainly dark red. Laura Ashley sell a lovely chandelier in this colour which is £150. When I went on their website it is out of stock so I bought a can of spray paint (suede effect) and sprayed a metal chandelier I had bought on ebay for £2.20. Here it is - not bad for under a tenner and it matches the Laura Ashley rugs perfectly!

This is the view from where I am at this moment sitting in the office .

The garden is totally different from the one at our old house which was more architectual with grasses and trees rather than flowers. This garden is full of roses and very cottagey. The soil here suits these lilies and there are serveral large clumps of them which everyone admires.

Well, I hope I haven't bored you! Back to the paintbrush and I'll post some before and after photos as the rooms are completed.

Poison Ring

I had forgotten all about this ring. My father bought it for me a long time ago as he knew I liked silver. He hadn't realised that it is actually a poison ring as the side is hinged to reveal a secret place to place any poison! Just open the ring and tip it into a drink, just like you 've seen it in old films! Apparently it is Mexican. I've never come across one before or since and wonder if it was ever used!!!!!

(Short posts at the moment as I am still packing...... 4 days till removal day!

Apropos of my blogging about leaving three items I'd paid for at a car boot sale Ragged Roses tells of actually leaving her car behind after a car boot and only realising the next day! This prompted me to ask 'What is the funniest story you have about forgetting something?' I once forgot I'd left my dog tied up outside a shop till one and a half hours later the shop telephoned me to ask me to collect him. When I told this story to someone they 'black catted' me by saying they had actually left their baby in a pram outside a shop (in the days when this was quite normal practice) whilst they walked home!

How could I have forgotten little Geordie, sadly no longer with us?

We went to look at our new house again last evening and to measure spaces to decide where our furniture will go. I took this photo on the way home. I have a friend who will be living just around the corner from us and she and her husband always take a stroll down to the beach after their evening meal and before coffee. I thought that would be a nice habit to get into.

Tom dropped a bombshell on us by announcing he won't be coming to live in our new house as he now feels he wants to leave home and share a flat with two friends. I feel very sad at this, I know it's inevitable that our offspring flee the nest but I hadn't imagined he would be going just yet! How strange it will be just hubby and me again.

I think I have a lot on my mind. Has anyone else done the stupid thing I did this week. I went to a car boot I don't usually frequent quite a way from here, bought three items from a stall, asked the man to look after them then only realised I hadn't gone back for them before coming home! I will have to return next week to see if he is there again, I hope so.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. mine will be spent packing, packing, packing ........

And the good news is....

The good news is we have finally exchanged contracts and move into our new house on 21st April! Busy times ahead. I have elected to do the packing myself so collected the 15 boxes from the removal company. Well that should do one room! Think I may have to go back for more.

It's all feeling a bit scary especially as we have this house just as we want it and are now set to embark on more diy, builders, no spare cash, few spare weekends etc etc but we keep telling ourselves that we are not insane and as the new house has POTENTIAL we will eventually have that looking just as we like it too.

This is our local beach just down from our new house at Lee on the Solent. Hubby was rather cold and battling against the wind on Saturday.

This will only be our fifth house that we have owned which isn't bad going in 30 years and we also lived in two married quarters. The first house we bought was £10,150; this one is a little more!

I had a lovely surprise from http://randomjottings.typepad.com/ who kindly sent me the book Death and the Maidens about Fanny Wollstenecraft and the Shelley Circle. I had commented on her blog that I would like to read it one day and she sent it to me. Thankyou so much Elaine. This lady is amazing, not only does she read avidly she also manages to write a post every day and I thoroughly enjoy reading her reviews of books. Our reader's group is reading The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney for our next meeting. At the moment I am ploughing my way through 1000 pages of Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I also picked up Toast by Nigel Slater at a car boot this week. I've wanted to read it for a while as several friends have recommended it. I am always interested to know what other people are reading.

I went to see 'The Other Boleyn Girl' at the cinema last night. It was ok but I wouldn't recommend it. The actor who played Henry VIII was totally unconvincing. I hadn't realised they had hair straighteners in those days! When Mary Boleyn was summoned to Henry's bed chamber in between disrobing and lying on his bed she had managed to straighten her beautiful long wavy hair. So, you see GHDs are not new! Actually I used to iron my hair in the 60s. My long hair was thick and wavy and I longed to have straight thin hair so I used to lie it on the ironing board and run the iron over it! Did anyone else do this?

Isn't it wonderful to have the lighter evenings? I went for a lovely long walk yesterday, it was so sunny and warm. I passed fields of rhubarb, daffodils and polythene covered strawberry plants.

I have done another make-over on a directors chair. You will probably recognise the material as I have used it on several projects.

Barbados

I have been on holiday for just over a week and am amazed at how many posts I need to catch up on, you've all been posting like mad in my absence!

Someone once said that other people's holidays, diets and children should be avoided as topics of conversation as they are boring to other people so I will now break all the rules. We have been to Barbados and what a lovely place, I just want to go back. Here is where we stayed and I can thoroughly recommend it http://www.mangobaybarbados.com/. It was all inclusive so after buffet breakfasts, three course lunches and dinners, afternoon tea and unlimited drinks I am now back on my diet. The food was superb and I tried so many new and lovely cocktails. The weather was hot (of course) and I just can't get warm since our return.

Enough of that, here are some pics.

We took the kids with us so here they are.

Hope I haven't bored you! I will try to catch up on leaving comments but we are in the middle of packing for our house move so life is a little busy right now.

Happy Easter to everyone.