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

My 15 minutes of fame..

Whilst I'm hunting around high and low for a hospital letter with an appointment date and time on (Bella has eaten it I'm sure) I thought you might like a peek at this interview I did for US eBay's online magazine 'The inside source' back in October, which was published this month.

My original vintage Pex chicken sign from the USA

http://vintageindie.typepad.com/vintage_indie/2009/01/although-our-kitchen-is-absolutely--tiny-and-really-only-temporary-its-one-of-my-favourite-roomsit-is--split-into-tw.html

I know the photos are a little old now, been and seen sort of thing, but I was quite chuffed That Marni used the whole interview, just adapting my English waffle for US readers.
My wish list on eBay gets longer and longer, I'm sure my house would be cleaner if eBay, blogging and Flikr didn't exist!

What's on your wish list?..eBay or otherwise.

Ooh and I've done this thing with comments so you and I can reply to each other on the actual post..much better!
cheerio for now x

hit the decks

weh-hey the sun came out... it's time to hit the decks!
These are two of my four revamped deckchairs,the 'newer-old ones'..a housewarming present from Pete's mother 19 years ago. I remember she couldn't get over the fact we wanted old fashioned wooden deckchairs instead of a metal padded garden recliner!
Handily the deckchairs doubled up as our first chairs for the lounge too..ahh those were the days.


They are a bit 'Cath' so if your not a fan look away now ..


Ta-da!
The boys managed to get the original red and white stripey fabric covered in oil (they were probably used as a convenient hand towel whilst repairing bikes in the garage..which is just the sort of thing teenage boys do) So it was time for a change.
A staple-gun, spare paint, one and a half metres of cheap, heavy duty, spotty fabric (no, not Ms.Kidston's) and a few minutes sewing in a straight line..the best kind of sewing!


I did however, like the impatient numpty that I am, manage to staple the fabric on the blue one to the wrong side of the bottom bar, so guess what I'll be doing in five minutes time...

See the big new cushion? well being a bit behind the times here in middle England, we had a new store open called Homesense which I no doubt guess you all shop in already and I'm just the dimwit who had never heard of them.
Amongst the trinkets and lamps and lovely things,they had a proper Jan Constantine cushion in there for £35 instead of £73.
A big union jack blue one.A rather lovely big union jack blue one.
Just the one left.I nearly peed my pants.

Domestic bartering ensued.
Pete gets a bit more tattoo than I hoped he would and I got a proper JC cushion.
Oh well it's his arm after all.And yes it is lovely and soft and hand embroidered!

I'll show you the other two deckchairs another time, they have the original scruffy 1950's paint which I love.
Cheerio for now x

Life begins..

..as they say, when you hit 40. Yep, I've hit forty today.. FORTY..ooh scary! But if life begins, then that's all right with me and I'm quite looking forward to it..although the 'middle age spread' can hold off for a bit longer and I'm not quite ready for the 'Tena ladies'..just yet.
The filled wooden flower box in the photo above was a birthday gift from my lovely boss at the shop...how gorgeous are they? I just adore them. And I've had a lovely suprise from my sisters and brother..but more about that another time, I think this post should really be a grovelling apology to all those people who sent me messages! I've been madly busy, had a computer virus that had something to do with emails and still seems to crash or play up each time a new email arrives (grrrr) and we've been decorating That room again. Lack of time is a horrid thing, I have ten million jobs to do, the gardening to do and finish decorating something I now wish I hadn't started! Even Easter came and went in the blink of an eye.
I've also had some sad news that knocked the wind out of me a bit when a friend who I had only seen a few days previously, died unexpectedly.I shall miss him and it hasn't really sunk in yet.
I've also missed blogging.I really must find more time from somewhere or other to catch up, either that or employ a chef and cleaner as well as a general gardener,and decorator. So I'm very sorry if I didnt get back to your messages, I felt terribly guilty when I couldn't because of the virus frustrating me to the point of the computer being launched out the window or just not having the time.Just how do you full-time workers find time to blog? Hopefully I'm going to be more organised, pull my finger out and get back to normality soon-ish.I did manage to paint the hen house last weekend..much to the annoyance of the ladies, who made so much noise the footballers playing on the park peeped over the front hedge to see what was going on.(I think Betty must have wanted blue instead of green as she seemed to be making the most noise)
That room (the dining room) is still in chaos, but this time I think I might just like it when it's finished as we have a different table and swapped about the furniture. I'll do a grand unveiling later where you can tell me you prefered it before!
We had to pick up the new old table from Bath and on the way back we called in at Cafe no.9, owned by the lovely Anna at All things lovely. I must admit I was really nervous saying hello..but her cake is to die for ( just dont smile after you've eaten the poppy seed as you get poppy-seed-polka-dotted teeth) the cafe is lovely like Anna and you must check it out if your passing that way.
So that's it for a bit..nothing exciting to report really, George is much, much better..and I'm still plodding on.
Enjoy your week and please forgive me if I fall silent for a while! xx

silver linings

I've been being a misery guts lately and didn't want to bore you with all my moaning, so sorry I haven't been around much.
If I told you I've been having endless blood tests and have got 3 days at the hospital this week before an operation on Monday to find out why my wayward womb is behaving so badly and a court case on Wednesday for the fighty, naughty 16 year old stinky boy who also got an £80 fine for being drunk and disorderly last week,(I'll be a bad mummy on Jeremy Kyle at this rate,hmmm, I better leave my dark roots a bit longer so I look the part) the dog's been having seizures, my one ear is making odd whooshing noises so loud,that I think everyone else can hear them,I've been looking after a neighbours very weak and poorly chicken and my house now smells of eggs..everywhere.. as it got out of it's little rest home in the laundry room, I won't even go into the new green gate saga(but its up and it opens)my mower broke down and cost a fortune to be fixed and it's now pouring with rain which means no work until the chest infection that has suddenly appeared has gone,great... I hope you'll understand why my blood pressure is sky high and I've been a grumpy old moo!!..aaahhh ..and breeeeeath.
Well the house isn't quite completely white..yet..but I have still been painting many things,including that bargain standard lamp I bought ages ago,(do you think I should do the lampshade spotty too??) ...making some more lampshades and pillowcases with some favourite Cath Kidston fabric for a bit of a change in the old boudoir and this little one for the laundry room and generally faffing about re-arranging the house,which is far too messy to show and tell at the mo!I've gone into nesting mode early.I have so ,so many things to do, to make, to clean ..but like a teen-age boy,I seem to be festering about in my pyjamas till lunchtime worrying about everything and seemingly doing nothing.

Well all this months' woe does have a good ending..every cloud has a silver lining as they say..

I've been given this lovely award by gorgeous Claire at serendipity loves New York..thankyou Claire!
I've also been asked to do a tag by the lovely and talented Viv at Hens teeth but I'm going to do it differently this time ..you can ask the questions (That slightly mad and highly amusing lady called Emma at jellybellyjellybrain did this and it seemed to work really well!)
I'll know if I'm a real saddo if nobody asks anything now won't I!
Oh and I'll send a wee little something out to my favourite question...ooh prizes!
So if there is anything you want to know about little old me and my odd quirks,home, creatures or family..ask away and ask anything..but don't ask for my bank details as you'll be seriously disappointed,believe me.

And lastly,the shiniest, most silver of silver linings on this very wet and rainy, grey day... we may not have got our new mortgage,but the taxman who taketh, sometimes,just sometimes has to giveth a bit back..yay!
bugger it ..I'm off to do some online retail therapy!

Gardening with the ladies...

I have been seriously neglecting my front garden.. the grass has got to above ankle height the shrubs out of hand and there is more gravel in the flowerbeds than on the path. It doesn't help that whatever is wrong with me is making me feel exhausted and I hate that, everything seems to be taking twice a long.

It's no good,it has to be done..The sun was shining today and the ladies were restless,so the feathered army were allowed out early to help with some gardening....hmmm..I use the word 'help' loosely.
They followed in a troupe behind me,up and down as I mowed,scratched about and did some pruning for me..
I personally thought the bergenia looked better before...thanks girls..a little too harsh with the old snips there.

This is..or rather was..a really lovely large patch of alchillea terracotta.

and this batch of five frothy heuchera has practically disappeared along with the lovely dark leaved sedums next to it! I know the season is nearly over,but I've had so few flowers this year in the front..what a boring looking garden..it is meant to have great swathes of dusky autumnal colours round about now..and all I have is leafy shrubs from hen-height up.
Edward..(who Harry has been calling 'Nathan' for some strange reason lately..don't ask, he's odd, it must be something in the water) Anyway, Eddie/Nathan the incredibly naughty bunny,had us up with torches when he escaped the other night..thinking it was all a game tearing round the garden for 4 hours in the dark, eating things he shouldn't ,stamping his feet in defiance and making us all really cross, so I wont blame the ladies completely, I know hes a bit partial to these plants too.

a quick break for some preening and a little nap in the long-awaited sunshineyou just can't get the staff these days..

and then it's back to work......bug,slug and worm hunting...and some more pruning.
The conkers are all ripened and ready to burst from their spiky jackets.Descending on us like hailstones of the richest mahogany.There certainly isn't as many on the tree as last year, we collected 10 bin liners full then !

No longer do I leave a big bucket full of conkers by the gate and no longer do the passing school children come and collect them up shouting out when they find a huge one ..some of the schools round here banned conker fights for health and safety reasons....and the two little boys who collected them up with absolute glee to share amongst their friends a few years ago are now big 6 foot stinky boys with girlies, rugby and bikes on their minds instead.
My mother in law swears that leaving conkers in a dish in the corner of the room deters the spiders..we have teased her about these strange old wives tales she comes out with and I've got to say I've never heard that one before.. but as I'm not a great fan of those eight -legged fellows, I'll give it a try..she certainly never seems to have any in her house!

Cath, Kate, rooms and reprieves...

I've been rubbish at blogging lately...so much for "vintage,pretty or shabby" on a Monday and general waffle on a Friday night!
Pah!!
and I wont even go into how rubbish I am at replies..especially since I've only just realised that 'no reply' at blogger means just that,but only after I've been replying ..doh! So I'm doing a bit of occasional lurking, forgive me .

Ok this is a bit of thinking out loud so indulge me!..I've had really itchy feet lately about the house, because we are not moving now, I want to have a revamp and do things to my rooms. Some of them have been the same for years, especially the lounge..even being swapped over with the dining room, its still basically the same..the little teeny lounge with the massive windows..

I'm very torn between the kitschness of Cath Kidston and the beauty of Kate Forman..I love both equally but they are really very different styles..and prices (scary prices)Ages ago my sister happened upon a huge batch of Kate Forman fabric for a ridiculously cheap price and now I have it in my head that I want to remake my curtains in the lounge in this very expensive fabric which I need to find for a tenth of the price like she did! hmmm..wish me luck

It needs some red....you know,some oomph! There's a bit of red in every room except the lounge. I wrote in a previous post how it was all very beige, ok..but beige..a sea of blandness with the odd bit of pale green.It's now making me obsessed to the point of obsessive compulsive behaviour...it all suddenly makes sense, it's like the clouds have cleared and I understand what was missing..RED! ( that's the colour not the dog..it does get mighty confusing having a black dog called 'Red' sometimes)
I can perfectly visualise the rose curtains,a loose cover for the bland weetabix-coloured footstool in a faded red ticking and a whole heap of mix and match cushions..I have some of those around anyway..no painting, just 'froufing'.I could even dig out some of my pretty floral pictures hidden away...oooh girlie stuff!
My Grannie always had a summer and winter theme in her lounge, my mum too, she was forever running up a new pair of curtains or cushions whilst we were at school,so I guess its a hereditary thing (that's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking with it!)
As much as I love Cath,you need a certain look to your furniture and hard as I try,it just doesn't seem to work with most of mine,I dont know,maybe I'm just too fussy!

So I'm saving Cath for my kitchen and bathroom,she looks happiest in there. I would need to change too many things if she went in the lounge..it's a bit too, well 'formal' for want of a better word and Cath's a fun loving gal.I sound a bit deranged don't I?..I'm sure there are far more important things happening in the world outside my 4 walls..it's a house thing that I have,an obsession.I've loved houses since I was little, spending ages cycling around the lanes at the age of eight picking my favourite from the village I lived in, gazing longingly over the hedges wondering what they were like inside and I was always doodling houses at primary school to the point of getting a real telling off for using up far too much paper..they always had leaded windows and gingham curtains in my drawings for some reason..funny that, says she, looking out of her leaded windows with red gingham curtains! So I'm just thinking out loud at the moment ,toying with a few ideas that no doubt will be totally different next month.Maybe its because the boys are back at school, work is dire because of the weather we've had (ever tried mowing a wet sponge?) and I've got too much time to spend reading books and magazines when I should be doing other stuff. Especially this magazine..my all time favourite that teases me by only coming out every other month!I've gone off Country Living lately..gosh that seems awful.. I never thought I would say that but I really have and I don't know why. Then there's this little lot to tempt me away from my chores....only a portion! How can I resist the lure of the 'housey book' ?

We are in the process of re-mortgaging at the mo (crikey that's a long drawn out expensive process!) so it would leave me a little bit of money to do a few of these 'froufing' jobs, if and only if , I can do them on a budget.I need to sell a few bits on eBay,some furniture,some rugs, the biggest vintage mirror ever, that I love but it's just way too big for this weeny house.. and pull my finger out and finish some sewing projects..I am the most disorganised person ever. I need an empty brain to do anything and it's currently filled up with a whole heap of junk!

Anyway, Stinky H didn't have his operation last week....The surgeon fainted.... Yes, really. It sounds almost too ludicrous to be true, but things like this happen in our lives and we just accept it and move on to the next odd situation.I swear, if a red polka-dot talking pig flew into our garden it would seem quite normal...Poor surgeon, I do hope he is OK..and poor Harry..all prepped up for theatre and full of nerves and he gets a reprieve at the very last moment...well for a few more weeks anyway!' ...get riding that bike matey as you won't be soon!!!

Faffing about with rooms (again)...and a tag

I've been tagged by Emma at sew recycled to show you the view from my kitchen window...

this is the view from my back kitchen bit window (from the room with no name but it houses the fridge and dresser..)

a little more exciting than this..... the view from my actual kitchen window! although if this was smellyblogging,you would have the lovely scent of my neighbours jasmine wafting through the window.

This is from the dining room window..which will eventually be french doors from the kitchen..our house is built back to front so in theory this should be the front garden..but it isnt!

Unfortunately July is the worst month in my garden..having seen this photo I had a big cut-back and clean-up....by the way,if anyone wants to join in with this tag, please feel free to..!

We've had quite an eventful week with one thing or another..firstly the stinky boy and I had to go to the cottage hospital to see a surgeon.It's a lovely Victorian building on the most beautiful crescent with a green in the middle..so,so pretty.
Unfortunately the surgeon had had a sense of humour bypass and stinky and I had the giggles..especially when drawings of appendages were produced. oh dear.. it made it worse when the Dr. kept asking what the matter was (how embarrassing!)I dont think I'll ever grow up at this rate!
I also had to have my little black hen put to sleep she was a very poorly girlie..then we decided to take the house off the market..we had so many people looking round but no interest at all,people want a house that they can do up from scratch or that's finished and this is neither.It's definately the wrong time to be selling at the mo, so that's it for now..to celebtrate we ripped up the carpet ready to sand the floorboards down and painted the dining room for the 478th time.You know,like you do......it's now ivory instead of blue! And yep, you've guessed it,I still dont like it!! I really think its those blessed wonky Cath kidston curtains that I still havent hemmed! Maybe I should make some roman blinds from vintage Linen but with a red stripe, like in the other stinky boys room..I quite like those.. We've actually now decided to knock through at some point to the teeny kitchen so we have a nice big kitchen to eat in..but I have no idea when the tree at the bottom of the garden that grows money is going to produce..so it may be sometime yet!

The relief of having no-one poking around your house is wonderful..now it can get messy and it doesn't matter..yay!! I hate change and I hate selling houses..so I'm pleased really.

Knowing we are now going to remain poor and overdrawn for the next 22 years,we went off and made a few unessessary purchases from the strange junk shop down the road. You can only get in if you are a size 8 and have a trained monkey on a lead to rootle through the piles and piles of tat.. did find some pretty 1930s china though, scattered around all over the place..there's probably more in there somewhere!the whole lot for £3..

a wooden standard lamp that will be painted cream and a £4 chair for my desk..it was FILTHY and after a thorough clean I realised it was actually red and not brown..even better!

I like the curved shape of the arms, I think I might cover this in a red and white polka-dot oilcloth I have,but I'm a bit undecided still..I find it so hard to keep to one look, I like so many! It all has that funny charity-junk-shop-smell to it..know the one I mean?

Just what is that smell?!!

It's our 11th wedding anniversary tomorrow, (and my mum & dads 5oth) so hopefully I'll be off to somewhere nice to show you on Monday..but don't hold your breath..Pete is about as romantic as a flea..so it may be sanding floorboards instead!

Have a great weekend.. oh and happy 4th July to all our American bloggers! x