Inspiration

Photo courtesy of Apres Systems


This is the inspiration for the pouffe I will (eventually) be making. Please bear in mind that I will not be using leather and it won't be on the same scale as this one, so my pouffe will pale in comparison. Nevertheless, I will be making a pouffe and it may or may not be appearing in the finished lounge. It may be appearing in the bin...

Blank canvas

The contents of our lounge now clogging up our garage.

Look at that wallpaper! And the fireplace - why are the hearth tiles so big and chunky? They look like patio slabs.

Almost empty - it was a beautiful day on Sunday and we were stuck inside moving furniture around.

This is the view towards the dining end of our lounge/diner. You can just see our front door through the very dated wrought iron/window.

And this is how it looked yesterday lunchtime. It is now boarded up, awaiting the folding doors, which will hopefully be fitted in the next few days. The plasterer is coming to skim the ceiling next. I am now off to buy some sugar soap to get rid of the remainder of the wallpaper, and also some tester pots.

Packing material

Ok, so the packing up of the lounge has started and it is so depressing packing boxes that I only unpacked 9 months ago. Ho hum, it has to be done so that we can get the lounge looking just how we want it. So above is a photo of the fabrics I have been squirrelling away for a while. The brown/cream geometric fabric (which as you can see is reversible) was bought from a charity shop about a year ago. I honestly didn't know what I would use this for but now it will definitely be cushions - the big question is - cream on brown or brown on cream? Can't decide. The top left fabric is very textured and is a gorgeous champagne silver colour. It is a very thick sturdy fabric so I think this will be used for floor cushions. The middle two fabrics were bought from Ikea last week. These will be used to make tablecloths and hopefully some napkins if I have enough fabric left over. The two fabrics on the right were from the fabric offcuts section in John Lewis. These will be ideal for making plain cushions to go behind patterned ones on the sofas. I also need some of this fabric to make the cushion cover for the crocheted cushion I have been making - I know, still not finished that project yet.

I am feeling like I need to add a splash of colour as everything is looking very muted. I was thinking a nice green/mustard colour. Still looking for something perfect (ebay has some good stuff at the mo but the budget is miniscule as I know how much all the paint is going to cost).

In an ideal world, I would love to have a couple of lobster pot stools as additional seating but these are becoming very expensive. I have decided I will have a go at making a pouffe. I have found a tutorial online and I have a couple of old duvets which could be used

Look who I found sleeping in the last suitcase to be packed with books (we ran out of boxes and the suitcases were still out from our holiday - needs must). Jack has been to the V E T this morning for a blood pressure check and blood tests. I think he was glad to be home and decided to have a nap in what he now believes is his new and very special bed. The receptionist at the vets has grown to love Jack as he has been having quite a few visits over the past few months. I heard her talking to him when I went to collect him (so sweet) and she told me how much he enjoyed a cuddle with her earlier. Obviously it has been a quiet day at the vets! Anyway, he is happy, I am not so happy after paying the three figure bill but at least he is looking well. Anyway, off to do more packing.

Relaxing in the garden

Well, not exactly relaxing, but we did carry out some much needed jobs in the garden this weekend. Firstly, my lovely husband dug up the remains of the shrubs where our decking is going. I started on the pruning (my all time favourite gardening job - I love a bit of destruction!) and this is the pile that appeared within the space of half an hour...

The shrubs are no more - there was no point trying to save them in the end as they were so woody and old.

All the conifers that I started pruning were hacked down with the help of a saw and axe. There's now just a bit of superficial weeding to do and the site will be cleared and ready for the builders, who are coming on Monday to make a start.

Look at this little fellow. We found him along with his Mum and brother/sister underneath one of the conifers. Don't worry, they have set up camp further along the fence.

This is a shot of our gigantic hedge in our front garden. Just think how big the pile will be when we dig all of those up. I think we will be doing it in stages and we are very lucky that some relatives with a digger and trailer have offered to help. Just as well.

I have already made a start on plans for decorating the lounge. Will let you know soon.

La Belle France

Yes, we are back from a beautiful holiday in France and we are feeling so much more relaxed, even though we didn't have the most peaceful of holidays (the campsite was very noisy at night time, but on the whole it was a lovely place to stay). We went to the beach which was gorgeous and so clean. My youngest did some fishing with her little net and we generally just sat enjoying the view and trying not to get burnt.

Of course I had to do some crochet whilst we were away (with a bottle of beer on the go obviously!) and I am halfway through my Attic 24 granny stripe blanket, which is for my youngest daughter's bed. I am so pleased with how it is coming along - very quick and easy to do, although I haven't touched it since we got back so must do a few rows tonight in front of the tv.

Notice the bag in the photo - I had to make a bag to take it on holiday with as I didn't have a bad big enough to carry 16 100g balls of wool. I took a pattern off a Tesco Cath Kidston tote bag and just made it a few inches taller. Job done.

On our only rainy day on holiday, we decided to go to the town of Saintes which has a Roman amphitheatre. We were very impressed with what we saw as we only expected to find a grass mound. It was very cheap to get in too. Our eldest was very interested in it as she has been studying Romans at school, but our youngest only took an interest in the lizards that now live there.

All in all, we had a fantastic holiday with so many delicious meals. I ate seafood virtually every night, which suited me perfectly. We are home bodies though so we were so pleased to get back and sleep in our own comfortable bed. The girls are back at school and settling in well with their new classes. I have done all the washing and ironing and now I am on a big packing mission - I need to completely clear the lounge/diner as the builders are coming on Monday to start work. I am really hoping we get a indian summer so we can appreciate the new folding doors/decking before it gets too cold. Will post again soon with updates of the garden.

Slow progress

Well, my decking should be down and the folding doors in by now, but unfortunately nothing has happened. We have spoken to the builder and it is looking like early September - at least the kids will be back at school and we will be feeling refreshed after our holiday. In the meantime, I have hacked down the bushes - will need to dig out the roots when we get back.







Here is a photo of the decking tiles - we have decided to tile all the way down the path to the back garden so when they arrived, we couldn't resist laying just a few, which took all of 30 seconds to do. I am very pleased with them. It won't be long before this side of the house is looking neat and tidy.

Unfortunately, this is one half of the back garden (the veg patch) below. Some of the weeds are taller than me and I'm 5'9". Still haven't got round to clearing this but it seems to be dying down as the summer draws to a close.

I thought I would show you a couple of recent charity shop finds - both from the charity shop which is a minute's walk from our house. I was meaning to buy an origami style lampshade for my daughter's bedroom - I love the Habitat ones but they were slightly out of my price range. Imagine my surprise when I found one for the teeny tiny price of £1.50. I snapped it up and it was hung the same day - my daughter was really pleased with it. I won't show you a photo of the rest of her bedroom as it is a mess!

I also got this sun hat on another trip to the same shop. I am hoping I will need this when we get to France - not long to go now as we leave on Saturday for 11 days of relaxing. I am sure I will have plenty of photos to post on here when we get back. xx

All at once

This is a photo of our side garden. Our bungalow sits in the middle of the plot and our garden wraps all the way around it - the kids love it as there are loads of places to hide and they can just run round and around the house. So this part of the garden is just outside our lounge and that window is soon to be knocked out and replaced by some super duper bi-folding patio doors, meaning we will finally have access to our garden, other than through the front door. When we first viewed the house, we walked through the door and it instantly felt like home - I have never had that feeling before, but the major sticking point was the lack of access to the garden, which is ok if you are retired, not so ok with two young children who are in and out every five minutes.



I haven't quite worked out these photo's - if you have a laptop, twist it round now! Whilst the builders are in fitting the new doors, we have asked them to lay a concrete base for our new patio - we have ordered some decking tiles which click together like a big jigsaw. We have bought a few extra to cover the ugly concrete path which runs alongside the house all the way to the back garden (which I will not be showing any photos of yet as it is not a pretty sight). Gardening is not a strong point and we have let the large vegetable plot grow wild. I will hack down the weeds some time next week and hopefully the majority of it will be turfed over by next spring. The builders will also be skimming the lounge ceiling as there are quite a few cracks. This means we need to move all our furniture from the lounge/diner into the bedroom and garage before work can commence. I am not looking forward to all of this. We will most likely end up sleeping on the floor for a week and there will be dust everywhere, before we frantically move all the furniture back in, just in time to go on holiday. My Mum is coming to housesit so we can't leave it looking like a building site. I get the feeling the next couple of weeks are going to be very interesting.. And it all had to happen whilst the kids are on their school holidays. Typical.



Anyway, this is the view from the window this afternoon, in the middle of a thunderstorm.

The view from our front door:

I hope the weather is better where you are! Wish me luck for the next 3 weeks, I'm going to need it.