First day at playgroup

This is a rather momentous day for us as Ewan has started playgroup today - off into the big world all on his own!  

He's not the most outgoing little chap so there were a few No Nos when I said I was going home and he would be there on his own but I am sure he will have fun without me.

This is his best smile for the camera!

Now, what shall I do for the next 2 hours??  So far I have made soup and had a cup of tea but there must be better things I could be doing!

Floors, doors and daddy's little helper

Firstly, welcome to my new followers!  I hope you enjoy my blog.

Well, over the weekend we cleared out the dining room and kitchen in preparation for the long awaited flooring to arrive.  As I write, there is a man fitting plywood to the floor ahead of the new flooring being laid tomorrow.  I am beyond excited!  I have been waiting since about October to get the flooring done and finally it will feel like something is finished!

We had a bit of a revelation whilst clearing out the room - to move the table below the skylight.  You know when you think of something and just can't believe you hadn't thought of it before - well, that is exactly what I thought when hubby suggested it.  I also can't believe he thought of it before me!

So, what else did we get up to at the weekend.  Well, hubby was painting the front door and his little helper just had to take his tool box outside and sat happily drilling, hammering and sawing on the path for ages!

You'll see the new larch cladding where our ugly porch used to be.  I am not totally convinced about it yet, but it is meant to weather to a silvery grey which will hopefully be a bit less garish.  It is a vast improvement on the porch that was there and once we paint the front of the house it will all be much lovelier.



By the middle of the week I should be able to show you the new floor... till then,

Have a good week,

Michelle 

Bedroom Inspiration

Things are moving along with the house so my thoughts are turning to how I would like to decorate our new bedroom in the loft, or upstairs, as I keep telling our 2 year old to call it as it is no longer a loft but part of the house!

I seem to be in a grey phase and I love the coastal look of this room.  I think the light is perhaps a bit close to the bed though!

This is my favourite inspirational picture.  It was in Ideal Home magazine over the winter and I just love everything about it.  I love the grey tones, the piles of comfy cozy things on the bed, the vintage hooks on the wall and the luggage rack complete with old suitcase by the window.  I don't think I ever got round to telling the story of rescuing an old suitcase out of a neighbours skip did I? Well, I did exactly that and it is now in our garage waiting for a good use along with a broken table that I also fancied.  I did ask permission before taking them!

This is how our bedroom looked a few weeks ago but things are progressing so not too long till we get the paint brushes out and then get moved in to our new room. 

New kitchen revealed

So finally, here is our (almost) finished kitchen!

The colour is a Dulux Classics and is called Graceful Green.   I am really pleased with it, the photo doesn't do it justice at all.  I keep trying to take a better one but photography clearly isn't my strong point.

We have yet to get the flooring put down as we have decided to wait until the builders are finished tramping through the house.  They are currently converting our loft so it is all go again!

I am so happy with our lovely new kitchen!  Oh, just realised I have put some accessories up since this photo was taken.  I now have my pretty Emma Bridgewater Polka Dot clock up in this wall space.

I can't quite believe that this was our kitchen last year at this time...

Next project ... the loft conversion.

Pop up Shop

This is me with my Phoenix Trading card stand at Blair Castle Horse Trials in Blair Atholl last week.  I had great fun setting up my little shop for 4 days in my tent, sorry, marquee! 

The weather was a real mixture with glorious sunshine one minute then pouring rain the next so I was in my wellies for 4 days! 

I had all my usual cards and bits and bobs and I met some lovely new customers and had a lot of comments about how lovely my stall looked.  I love to make things look pretty so really enjoyed setting up my displays.

I even started selling some Christmas cards and other accessories!  Eek, it's only August!

So, this is what has been keeping me busy for the last few weeks.  Now that I am home I can get back to painting the dining room!

Michelle



New Kitchen

How we started off back in March.

It has gone from this...

 

to this...



We are nearly finished our new kitchen extension, hurrah!! The builders finished off yesterday and now it is up to us to get all the painting done.  More on that another day!

Here is a sneaky peek at the kitchen as it looked this morning.  Once it is painted and floored I will let you see it in all it's glory! 

It is so much better than I hoped it would be and has made a huge difference to the house, making it feel so so much bigger already.

We opted for Ikea units and I think they look good.  I especially like the tiles which we deliberated over for a long time but am so glad that we took the plunge and chose them.

The tiles are tumbled slate and are all different colours and look very natural.  They go a treat with the paint I have chosen too!



This is the old kitchen! It does look slightly better now than it did in this photo as it has all been replastered.  We have added a skylight to let more light in which has proved very successful.  The sun comes up this way in the morning and it will be a lovely bright breakfast room.  More to come on this room later as we got a second hand dresser this week which needs a paint makeover. 

Still a lot to do but I feel like we have made a massive amount of progress over the past couple of months.  Must go and do some painting....

A digger in my garden...

Firstly, I am very sorry for not posting for a while but I have been pre-occupied with the work going on at our house.  Anyway...

I had a lovely Mother's Day and was treated to this lovely breakfast.  I wanted to show you the lovely tea for one teapot which my little boy gave me.  (Chosen with a bit of help from Daddy!)  It is perfect as it is all my favourite colours and I just love my cups of tea.

That is Ewan sticking his little finger in my breakast!

You're probably wondering what has been going on in the house?  Well, firstly I want to say thank you for all the advice about door handles v door knobs.  We decided on handles in the end! Mostly due to the fact that there was a better choice available.

All the new doors are now installed and waiting to be varnished.  The whole look of the house is much improved and I am so glad we chose this design. 

You might also notice that the walls are all white now.  In our living room anyway!  We finally stripped off that old wallpaper and painted everything white to freshen it up before we are able to properly decorate.  It is amazing what a difference a coat of white paint can make.

A reminder of how it used to look!

We are delighted that work has finally begun on the extension.  The old sun porch has been torn down and foundations dug out and some bricks laid.  The workmen are putting timber joists in today so we are glad that the weather is still good.

Ewan has been enjoying watching the men at work and particulary liked the digger being in the back garden. 

Work is going well so I will try to get some more photos taken soon and keep you updated!

Thanks for visiting my blog and welcome to my newest followers!
Have a lovely day,
Michelle

Doors chosen but which handles?

I have wanted this door since I first saw it advertised in a magazine.  It sums up the sort of house I want to live in and maybe, just maybe, by having this front door our old house will start to feel more cottagey than dated bungalow!  We don't have the lovely oak porch but we will have some larch cladding on the walls either side of the door. 

We've chosen the Dordogne style for our interior doors.  We were debating whether to paint them or not but have decided to leave them natural oak and will just wax or oil them to try to keep the natural colour.  Since deciding on these I keep seeing them everywhere! I thought I was being so unique but obviously not!

We'll have two glass versions of this door too.  One into the new dining room which is a very dark room as light will only get in from the kitchen window at the far end of the room.  We will also have our inner porch door with glass to let in as much daylight as we can into the hallway.  I do love these doors!

The only thing we have yet to choose is the door handles.  What a dilemma!  I quite like the idea of having door knobs but I seem to be alone with that option. Chrome or brushed steel? Backplate or not? Who would have thought there were so many decisions to make.

Fun at the beach

Yesterday we took our little boy to the beach for the first time.  Well, the first time since he could walk on his own in the sand and he loved it!

We got all wrapped up in our waterproofs, hats, scarves and wellie boots ready for our adventure. 

I can't wait until the weather gets a bit better and we will be down at the beach all the time.  We are so lucky to have this so nearby.

Ewan would have stayed there all day if we let him.  He actually screamed when we had to leave!  By that time though his mittens were all covered in sand and his waterproof suit was being tested to its limits!  What fun we had though.

Learning to sew with Jo!

I have spent a lovely day with my good friends Jo and Julia, both of whom I used to work with.  Jo invited us to her house for a sewing tutorial and lunch! It was a great idea as we got to have a good old chat, lovely lunch and learn how to make this lovely pincushion.

It is a little mini topiary tree and was great fun to make even with my limited sewing skills.  Jo had to help me out with a few tricky bits! Too much talking and not enough concentrating on the sewing perhaps!

I got to choose fabrics from Jo's vast (and I mean Vast!) collection of scraps.  That in itself was a thrill and I would have been happy rummaging through the scraps all day.  I had to choose 8 segments for my tree and then sew them around paper templates.  I then went about sewing them all together to make my tree top. Next task was to make a felt pot filled with rice and stuffing (not the food type, the wadding type!).  And here it is the finished result.  The trunk is green felt covering a straw with pipe cleaners inside it to give stability to the tree.

This close up shows off my not so great sewing but I am very pleased with it for a first attempt.  The joy of creating something so pretty on a rainy Saturday afternoon really lifted my spirits.  For loads more crafting loveliness check out Jo's blog - Bearpaw.  You can also see the cute little house pincushion which Julia made and there is a full tutorial if you fancy having a go yourself.  Have a lovely weekend!

Michelle

Nearly finished

I am so excited as our new bathroom is nearly finished!  For those of you who didn't see it before we started here is a reminder.  The photo on the left is before work started and on the right is the end of Day 1.

Day 1

I was amazed at how much the plumber got done on the first day.  All the old fittings were gone, the new loo was in, the new bath and one wall tiled.  The tiles are called Etrusco and are a nice natural stone sort of shade.  We were in a real dilemma about which way to have the tiles but opted for the brick style.  I'm really glad we choose this as I think it looks good!

Day 2

On Day 2, they bricked up the old window and put up a new inner wall.  The electrician had also been along and taken out all the dodgy old light fittings.

Day 3

The tiling had all been finished by the end of Day 3 and the shower and new vanity unit and sink fitted.  We choose all the bathroom fittings from a local store and were really pleased with the price and quality.  The toilet doesn't look too space age either as so many of them seem to these days. (Oh dear, I sound old!!)

 Day 4

Oh, doesn't that look good!  The bath is slightly wider than a standard bath and it just seems so spacious, I love it!  As does our little boy.  He seems really little in the big new bath.

Day 5

Nearly finished... the plasterer has finished the ceiling and walls so the only job left to do on Monday is the electrician to fit the new spotlights.  We painted a couple of sample patches on the walls but have yet to decide on Putty or Almond. (Homebase, budget did not allow me to look at Farrow & Ball unfortunately!)  We have ordered flooring to come in next couple of weeks which will finish it off nicely. 

It really doesn't seem like the same room, its an incredible transformation and I am delighted with everything. 

Look out for the finished result coming soon...

Michelle

New bathroom countdown has begun...

Inspirational bathroom!



I have been dreaming of our new bathroom for 6 months now and I can't believe we have had to wait this long! Anyway, next Monday the plumber will be here ripping out the old bathroom.  Hurrah!

The yellow tiles, cracked sink, trickly shower, puddles of water on the floor will all be gone and I can't wait to see our shiny new white suite in place. 

I have yet to decide on the paint colour for the walls and I think I will wait until the tiles are all finished and then do some tester patches.  I have my farrow & ball paint chart at the ready!

Watch this space for the new bathroom which I hope to bring you at the end of next week.

Michelle

Time to get organised

It's that time of year when I want to get myself organised! I need a new diary and have been browsing online to find a lovely one.  I  always think I will use a diary much more than I ever do.  Last year I discovered Organised Mum who sell a whole range of stationery items to get you organised.  This year I have my eye on these goodies.

The Pocket Life Book  is essentially a diary but has a section for shopping list and meal ideas which is great.  We regularly write a shopping list and plan what to eat every day, go shopping, throw away the list and then wonder what wonderful creations we had decided to cook for the rest of the week!  This year it is even in my favourite colour combo of turquoise and pink. Fab!

This is a Budget Book in which you can keep track of monthly expenses and there is a pocket every month to keep all your receipts in.  For me, this is great news as I quite often want to keep receipts for things I have bought but never quite know where to keep them all.  Ta da, problem solved.

Finally, for my big sis, a meal planner and shopping list which you can put up on your fridge.  I bought her one of these last year as a treat and she loved it so she has asked for another one this year.  The shopping list section is split into sections such as dairy, bakery, household, drinks etc.  A great help when you are in the supermarket.

Check out their website for loads of other fab stuff.  Organised Mum

Have a nice day, I'm off to get organised!

Michelle