Wednesday 19 December 2012

Feeling festive twice over

Hooray! I'm actually looking forward to Christmas, now that makes a change doesn't it?
Probably because I'm actually seeing some of my spread-all-over-the-world  family this year. My not so little Canadian based brother is coming to stay, (he's nothing like me.. tall,dark and sporty as opposed to short, fat and blonde) but with the same stupid sense of  humor, we laugh soooo much when we're together
The oldies are trundling over from France and hopefully I'll even see my sister from Thailand too.Yay!
 We are having 2 Christmasses, a family one and a gifty one..mainly because pay day falls 4 days later than the big day and someone forgot to save any money up because of urgent plumbing repair jobs and a getting carried away with a certain room being decorated...er-hum.
 Oh well, it will be fun having two festive days.We'll be like the Queen and celebrate things twice.

We even have two trees this year, the big fake one we bought in the sale last year and a little frosty larch one. I found some blue baubles in the loft from about 15 years ago and decided to go a bit patriotic and a bit kitsch in the dining room....

behold the Kitschmas Twee;


you can't see the bottom as I ran out of red spotty ribbon!

I sooo love these 1950's paper balls

some decorations get sneaked on the tree every year
and are looking a bit worse for wear 'well loved' these days

you can't beat a blue flocked reindeer
meanwhile, in t'other room, grey stag head has his headlights on ready...
  and it's all a bit sensible and frosty looking (still no blinds...)
don't tell the chickens!!!

...and it was all a bit frosty looking last week here too...loverley
 

 We are training Belle to wear her jingly Christmas antlers but she spends most of the time thinking someone is behind her. When they do fall off, she tears round the house with them in her mouth making sounds more like of a herd of Santa's reindeer.
Butter wouldn't melt hey?
 Old man Red, being very nearly 14 very deaf and almost blind will sit for ages in them but really is more bothered about getting his tea on time. My first ever post was about Red in his flashing Christmas hat, must be 5 years ago now...crikey!

it wasn't me...
 He has the delightful aroma of cabbage about him lately, lets hope humans don't end up stinking of cabbage when they reach 13 and a half in dog years... maybe it'll be sprouts after next week. Just for a change.

 Hopefully I'll pop back a bit more often next year but just for now ...
Happy Christmas to you...have fun! xx

Monday 3 December 2012

49 and a half shades of grey

Before you ask....nope this isn't about THAT shade of Grey!

It's not very exciting stuff I'm afraid, what we've been up to really, something and nothing.
 I'd love to tell you we'd won the lottery and had buggered off to see the Grand Canyon in a convertible dining on nothing but sticky buns but alas, it's just been the normal boring stuff. Although, saying that....

Stinky littlest boy joined the Royal Air Force.He looks soooo grown up in his uniform, it's quite scary.


We went away 'oop North' and got to see the seaside on a stunningly beautiful but chillllllllly day where Bella unfortunately got poked in the eye with a stick (she's ok by the way) and Red got wooshed over by a big wave. We've also been doing a spot of decorating which has taken FOREVER but for no reason other than I can't be bothered with it all... oh and lack of funds to do it all in one go.Yep it's still not quite finished but I'll show you some sneaky peeks..

Cyril..who smells like old socks. Nice.
One job always ends up turning into 5 million more in this house,which I may have said already before.
The simple task of decorating the lounge, just a lick of paint so we thought but bigger cupboards had to be made either side of the fireplace and that in turn made the plaster fall off...you know how it goes in old houses..urgh.
One.  Big.  Money.  Pit.
 I must admit I ended up sneaking off and making cups of tea or getting sidetracked by a magazine instead of getting on with stuff like the hideous chore of sanding.

 I'm turning into a right lazy tart in my old age.
paint;F&B Downpipe, Pavillion gray

Our 10 year old sofa had split at the seams and was becoming more than a bit uncomfortable, It was embarrassingly bad. Unable to afford the feather filled sofa of our dreams just yet, a trip to the 'Dodgy Furniture Store' surprisingly came up trumps with a simple grey velvet number (the never ending sale price and interest free credit for 400 years not surprisingly swung it). The evil twins Olive and Flo decided to pee on the our other one too, right through all the scatter cushions, seat cushions and base, not once but twice. 
 Library sign from 3potato4, a pressie from my little brother.
  They also did it on me when I was asleep in bed.Yuk! Now that was a seriously eeeeeevil thing to do at 3am I can tell you! I believe it was my punishment for having them spayed and keeping them holed up at home with a litter tray. It made the 'requiring of a new sofa' decision much easier though.
The not-so-little kitty gits will be banished from the lounge unsupervised from now on though.Grrrr.


Anyway, I've done a complete turn around in my ideas for this room, I'm not sure whether it works or not but we'll see. After about 10 pots of  tester paint we decided to go with the warm grey walls that stinky George's room was painted with. It was just right with the grey sofa and some charcoal roman blinds which will eventually be made from some bargain £25 linen-look curtains purchased from Ikea.(the shutters I long for are also on hold due to lack of funds).
shop letter via ebay from France

For someone that suffers with bouts of depression like me, it could be a dangerous step to go grey all the way, not to worry though, there's a bit of frivolous nonsense too..like Cyril, the stuffed finch, a large French metal shop letter, a painted pigeon hole cupboard and some kitsch 60s stuff thrown in for good measure.

Cyril came from ebay, glass dome £4 (bargain!)Homesense, housedust..free

 I was amazed to read in Homes and Antiques last month about vintage taxidermy as I had purchased the exact same butterfly on the cover and 'Cyril' only days before its publication. Fancy that hey?!

We bought some picture frames too from Ikea, a whole bunch of them half price for £4 each and filled them with some lovely butterfly prints from the wonderful emporium named Rockett St.George  (one of my very favourite online haunts)
 The lacy-but-industrial-looking rusty metal lampshade came from there too. It makes a lovely pattern around the room when you use the right kind of lightbulb!
 I usually hate any sort of change, become a grumpy mare and have sleepless nights worrying if it looks right or not but this time it was nice to go for something a bit trendier or colours I like but wouldn't normally consider. Luckily at this time of year you get lots of discounts, free postage and offers to tempt you, so lots was done quite cheaply.
Wooden stag Rocket&Rye, they sent the lovely snowflakes in my parcel as a pressie!
It's all looking appropriately wintery and festive now that we've begun 'Christmassing' up the house too.
One thing I do like is that by having plainer basic stuff, we can ring the seasonal changes with cushions
( yay for CUSHIONS!!!)
Velvet cushions cox &cox, vintage barkcloth cushion, ebay.
 
And if I do find it all too depressing and grey, there's always plenty more paint in the garage...

Cheerio for now. x
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