An English Summer holiday

I really adore wooden houses, something the Scandinavians and Americans seem to have down to a T...you rarely see them here in the UK as each region has its own style usually created from the stone local to that area. I would love to live in a clapboard house with white painted tongue and grooved walls inside and brightly coloured accessories, particulary red with various shades of blue, a bit of bunting and some vintage toys and books.To me it seems so timeless and I can never imagine becoming bored of that look.

It's way out of our budget, but I've always wanted to stay here: http://www.thedodo.co.uk/index.htm it looks so very British seaside holiday..buckets and spades and union jack paper flags at the ready..you can just feel the sand in your toes looking at this gorgeous place (even though the beach is a pebble one!).If it belonged to me, I wouldn't dare leave all those lovely furnishings for strangers to use, I would want to live here all the time, salty sea air and that lovely bright sea light streaming through your windows. oooh roll on summer...and please don't rain forever like last year!

man flu and Stanley

eugh. I have contracted the dreaded man flu, Its doing the rounds in our house.I have spent the whole day browsing the Internet,reading blogs and sneezing,trying to sniff with a totally bunged up but running nose (how does that work then??) a head that feels ten sizes too big and a husky voice that some people would pay good money to hear down the phone! I'm looking too scary to venture outside, I may scare small children and animals so I have had the day wrapped in an eiderdown with kitties around me to look at the new goodies on Cath kidstons' website and Greengates' delightful lovelies...I have a long list of wantings!


I am So gutted though..Stanley has gone from the website....boo hiss....I really wanted a Stanley on wheels, he's been on my wish list for a while..looks like a job for the weekend..a bit of mdf and a jigsaw. hmmmm we'll see. I'm just going to cry every time I read sophie honeysuckles lovely blog and see him sitting there all cosy on her mantelpiece. I also have an absolute desire to learn to crochet..in particular granny squares..everyone tells me its so easy and quick yet no-one shows you how! now that Caths' extortionately expensive afghan blankets have disappeared too, I think it will be my mission to learn this year..a sort of new years resolution! I think she needs to break it to us gently when she discontinues things..we have to have time to save up, six months isn't always enough.. right, rant over I think I'll join Basil on the sofa as he looks all warm and cute and having man flu in this house means you get no sympathy for being a big girls blouse..budge over Beenz,I promise I 'll let you share my eiderdown!

Teeny weeny English kitchens

Why oh why do most early 20th century English houses have such tiny kitchens?

I read through blogs and see some gorgeous family kitchens that I can only dream of having at the moment. For the past 8 years we have had to put up with... wait for it..a five foot by seven foot kitchen! In fact on the estate agents details it was referred to as a 'scullery' so as not to offend proper kitchens. It has a door at either end to make it even more awkward, one of which has had to be put on back to front so you can actually get in the room. Pete had to build a temporary wooden lean-to through the door at the end (the old back door) so we at least have somewhere to house the fridge!

The house hadn't been touched since it was built and had only been empty for a year or so, so everything was as it was..fascinating to think you can live like that if you have to.There were no electrical sockets just main lights and so much damp and ice it was warmer outside than in ,even the ink had run off the letters on the doormat.Sparrows had taken up residence in the roof and spiders were in abundance (eugh, shiver!). My husband nearly died when I said I'd found 'our house'. All he could see was the amount of money we needed to spend and all I could see was an old lady of a house desperately in need of a bit of TLC..well a hell of a lot of TLC! We had moved from a brand new house (which I never liked from the start, it was like living on the set of the Stepford wives) into one that was falling apart in front of us.. and boy, was it cold that first night!

We have gradually done bits and pieces to the house when were able to and now although it's small and in desperate need of extending (a failed business put hold to those plans) we still live in it and love it and more often than not moan about it. We're used to telling people when they look aghast at our tiny, temporary kitchen, "yes you can cook in it"...and in some fashionable circles you could say it's sort of 'shabby vintage chic'! (with a lot of emphasis on the shabby!)

I'd love to know if anyone else has a kitchen this tiny!

home sweet home

I've just come back from staying with my sister in Corbridge , Northumberland. I love Corbridge it's so pretty, infact I love the north as a whole.The people are so jolly and friendly there that I would move there like a shot if I had a bigger house budget! The village has fantastic shops that look like they're from a Victorian Christmas card. We visited the fabulous RE

(http://www.re-foundobjects.com/)

so that I could hanker after delightful plastic brightly coloured rugs and tin birds that will actually change my entire life for the better if I purchase one (or so I believe!) and onto Acanthus that sells Greengate and Cath Kidston amoungst other pretty things that was so busy you needed to be a size six with no shopping bags to squeeze amoungst the shelves laden with goodies.Then there were trips to Ilva and an Ikea so huge Im sure I lost a few pounds in weight walking from one end to the other! It's funny as in my family,we all have very different housey tastes but you find things in some shops that will fit within each of our houses. My sister has had a humungous kitchen extension with amazing glass folding windows on 2 sides, that my entire house would fit easily into and it's fab. One of those rooms that you could spend the whole time in,well we did really.

It was great being girlie with two of my sisters, who at the moment, both live there (Jac is moving back to Thailand soon) instead of being out numbered by the stinky boys wanting to watch Top gear going to the North pole- yet again (was it me or was Top gear on an extra amount of times over Christmas or do they have their very own channel??)

Then I came home.......

The stinky boys have had a week to themselves.The dog had come in straight from his muddy walks and lain all over the carpets, the toilet hadn't been cleaned in a week....bleugh.. and there were messages on the phone from neighbours saying my chickens had been spotted on the park..last seen heading for the swings! One also stopped a football match the other weekend by appearing on the pitch! oops! And its rained and rained and... I was lucky enough to miss the rain up there but coming back home the rivers are right up and you can actually ski across the lawn it's so muddy leaving wonderful long muddy stripes as you go ( you have to scream for the full affect whilst doing so)....ooh lovely...then no-one noticed Big Bess the buff Orpington had a big dangling egg- shaped thingy hanging from her rear, she'd pulled out all the feathers around it to show them specially and still the stinky boys didn't see it,it rather looks like she has grown something that only men should have if you know what I mean! so a trip to the vets is called for this afternoon.

Oh the delights of coming home!!

**short update on the chicken with a protrusion....its a hernia!**

(the vet said to just leave it for now)

Yes Hugh...they're out and on the park...last seen heading for the swings......