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.

Work In Progress

Well, our trip to the wool shop was very enjoyable. We had a mooch around a few interiors/gift shops first and then went on to the main attraction. There were so many different types of wool to choose from (mostly way out of my price range unfortunately) but I managed to narrow the search down to some gorgeously soft and chunky aran wool (100% merino - so so soft). I restricted myself to two balls and decided I would make a cushion cover. I have chosen these colours as, when we eventually get round to decorating our lounge, we are going for a pale grey and smoky teal green colour scheme.




Of course, as soon as I got home I made a start and this is how far I have got - it is very quick to work as I have been using a 5mm crochet hook. It really is wonderful yarn to work with. I could be tempted to buy some more...

Please ignore the nasty 1980s work surface. Another job that needs doing - I am looking forward to the kitchen being ripped out!

After their busy week at the holiday club, my two girls are absolutely pooped. We have a day of lolloping on the sofa planned for tomorrow and then hopefully we will venture out on Sunday for a day trip, depending on the weather. Hope you all have wonderful weekends.

A week full of sewing

As my two girls are enjoying a week at a local summer holiday club, I decided to finish a few projects that have been sitting around for a while. I made this skirt a few months ago, using some upholstery linen from John Lewis. I know, I know, I will walk into someone's lounge one day and match the curtains/cushions! As the pattern was quick and easy to make, and fitted so well, I decided to make another one.



My Mum very kindly let me have a rummage through her collection of fabrics which she has accumulated over the years and I found a nice heavy weight cotton, which was perfect for an a-line skirt. I have called this my 70p skirt because the fabric was all free -I gave my Mum some dress material from my fabric stash in return and the lining fabric is actually an old bed sheet! I spent 50p on a zip in a charity shop which seems to specialise in all things sewing/craft related. I also spent 20p on the ribbon which is vintage (probably 1950s or 1960s) and I already had the button.

There's that cute button - I was wondering when he was going to make an appearance, although I thought he might have ended up on something for the kids, not something of mine.

Once I had finished the skirt, I decided to start on a summer dress for F. She seems to be outgrowing everything at the moment so I wanted to make sure she had at least one dress for our summer holiday in August. Mum had given me a couple of charity shop items of clothing that she had bought specifically for the fabric. The dress below was made from a 1980s style Laura Ashley skirt. There was plenty of fabric left over and I even snipped out a lovely red zip and the ribbons to hang the skirt up with - I am sure I will be using those on a future project.

The dress was quite quick and easy to make, especially as I laid the pattern pieces carefully on the skirt so that I incorporated the back seam and the hem - saved a little bit of time anyway. I already had the ric rac and the buttons so this little dress was completely free. F seems pleased with it - I'm just wondering whether to make a matching headscarf with the left over fabric.

I am hoping to be crocheting again very soon. I have completely run out of wool (shock horror) and have some on order which is needed to finish off my first ever granny square blanket. Whilst I am waiting for that to arrive, I have decided to take a trip to another local wool shop with my good friend Alison (from Gingercatcrafts). I wonder how much money we will spend....

To all those who are (not) reading this, I have been thinking of starting a blog for a long time. My husband has told me to start one, as have friends, but it was only when my eldest daughter told me to (and helped me think of a name) that I decided to take the plunge. We have recently moved into a bungalow in need of a great deal of TLC. We have lots planned to bring it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. Some decoration has already taken place but we are still living with the 1980s kitchen and original 1960s turquoise bathroom. I am hoping to keep you updated on the upcoming progress and will also be blogging about things I have made along the way. Please be gentle with me though - all this blogging technology is a bit beyond my capabilities at the mo, so there will be a lot of trial and error whilst I get into the swing of things! Wish me luck.