A work in progress
The new house is really beginning to take shape now. The office is half decorated – to be completed this week. Carpets and wooden flooring are chosen, the new fireplace is arriving in two weeks, toilets are fixed, the hot water tank is fixed, the garden no longer looks so much like a jungle and the lingering smell of curry spices is gone.
We now affectionately refer to the house as ‘the money pit’ as predictably we’re hopeless at just improving things gradually and in the next three weeks will be decorating the entire downstairs living space. Why work at a normal pace when you can manically attack every room in the house? We may be mad, but our deadline for having completed most of the renovations was moved forward by several months, and a nursery is now high up on the list of rooms to be decorated…
Christmas in April
339 long days after we first sold our house, after the disappointment of losing the first house we waited for, we have finally moved into our new house. Eleven months is a long time to be in limbo and the moment on Friday morning when the removal truck arrived holding all our furniture and posessions from storage was so exciting.
The new house was absolutely filthy and smelt, but we honestly didn’t care – after a few days of bleaching every surface, cleaning the carpets, windows and floors, and a LOT of unpacking and flatpacking boxes we are in. It’s like a huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders, and despite the amount of work that needs doing to the house and the garden, we’re just happy and relaxed for the first time in almost a year.
Now I can *finally* start decorating!
Image of the day
In other news, we are still living in the temporary flat of mould and doom. Excitingly the oven door fell off last week while I was making red velvet cupcakes. The gloom of the flat is lifting however as spring is finally here and I have my fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed that we will exchange contracts on our lovely new home next week.
Source: Pottery Barn
Cake, cake, cake
We had a lovely trip to Hummingbird Bakery last weekend which reminded me that my cupcakes from their recipe book are never quite the same as the ones in-store. There have been birthdays in the office (complete with cakes) and a custom cupcake order booked as a gift. The icing on my cupcakey week is the recent opening of a cupcake and sweet store just around the corner from the office. I’ve resisted so far…
Cake slippers from Ruby and Ed
Inspiration
Well, the Ideal Home Show was utterly uninspiring. I’m glad the tickets were free!The only stall I was particularly interested in was one selling handmade wooden shutters. However the salesperson didn’t know how to open the shutters, or how many colours they came in, or anything else about the product! I’ve worked at a lot of large events and shows at Earls Court and Olympia and this was by far the most disappointing.
We had a quick wander round then promptly left for a much more inspiring stroll along Kings Road and lots of window shopping in Heals, Habitat, Zara Home and Anthropologie.
It was the first time I’d had the chance to explore the store and it’s just as gorgeous as I’d expected. I wanted to move in, or at the very least buy some lovely china and glassware…
Today’s playlist
Today it is lovely and sunny.
We’ve had an offer accepted on a house and we’re hoping to move in next month.
I am off to the Ideal Home Show in London tomorrow to look at pretty things for the new house.
Proud Mary – Cast of Glee
Imagine – Cast of Glee
Lean on me – Cast of Glee
Don’t rain on my parade – Cast of Glee
Don’t stop believin’ – Cast of Glee
Gold Digger – Cast of Glee
Defying gravity – Cast of Glee
Somebody to love – Cast of Glee
Take a bow – Cast of Glee
(did I mention that i love Glee?)
Back to the start
We were due to finally exchange contracts on our new home today, unfortunately things came crashing down on Friday evening when we discovered (via text message) that 263 days after accepting our offer on the house the sellers had withdrawn the house from the market.
It was difficult news to process and I’m only just coming to terms with it and realising that we’ll be staying in our temporary accomodation for several more months. Focusing on the positive it means that we’re on the hunt for the perfect house once more …
Country Kitchen
The space in our new kitchen means an exciting new range cooker. After disappointment that the lovely aquamarine range wouldn’t fit in the gap, I think it probably does make more sense to get the vanilla range to fit with our modern country kitchen (inspired by the above image from Ideal Home) and guarantees that the church pew I’ve got my eye on in a reclamation yard will fit in nicely…
Given my propensity for burning myself/falling over/spilling things and the depth of the range doors, new extended aga oven gloves were an essential. There was only a teeny bit of squealing when I realised I could buy lovely Joules aga textiles which will match my extensive wardrobe of Joules jumpers, hoodies and wellies…
My love affair with print and type posters is still going strong and with the house move getting closer I’m almost ready to make some final decisions on which gorgeous prints will be appearing on the freshly painted walls.
This is currently a favourite to feature in the new kitchen, and I have dozens more prints bookmarked on Etsy, NotontheHighStreet and KeepCalmGallery…
related posts:
Make do and mend
The Return
It’s been quite a while since my last post. We’re still not in the house which has been the biggest factor keeping me from updating. We’ve had some moments of false hope that the move will happen soon and I’ve immersed myself once more in paint samples, fabric and window shopping for furniture but unfortunately things are still up in the air. It now looks like a February move date. 233 days and counting since we had the offer accepted…
Back to happy, positive thoughts about how lovely it will be once we move in. We’ve now started buying small items for the house; some gorgeous Kilner jars to store all sorts of kitchen bits in, we’ve been round the dreaded home appliance warehouse and ch0sen the washing machine, range cooker and fridge freezer, and next week we’re off to Bath to look at furniture and more supplies for organising the kitchen.
Christmas was lovely – manic, noisy, lots of food and too much time on the motorway – but lovely. Since then we’ve been enveloped in unusually heavy snowfall which looks beautiful but has caused chaos as we’re so unprepared for snowfall in the UK. The snow is all melting today so I can look forward to spring in our new home.
Introducing
Roly Poly
aka: Poly, Fatcat, Troll-poldy-roll
age: 15
Likes: food, attention, sleeping
Dislikes: humans who sleep, eat or read instead of adoring him, leaving the house, the airing cupboard door being closed.
Scared of: absolutely everything except food and cuddles
One night at a time
As a child ‘One Night at a Time’ by Susan Hill, illustrated by Vanessa Julian-Ottie was one of my two favourite books. My Mum would read it to me and shoo bad dreams out of the window. Even now my original copy of this book lives by my bed. I love the story, and I adore the illustrations. I love Tom’s little suitcase, I love the way the household items he sees as monsters are scary yet not too scary. I can trace my love of red things back to this book as I dreamed of having a toadstool light just like Tom’s, and I can’t play MarioKart unless I’m Toad! It’s not a shock that one of my first applique designs was a classic toadstool.
Colour Colour Colour
I honestly can’t decide which of these mug sets I love more. The Pantone set have a lovely geeky quality, but the Crayola set have that hint of childish fun. Both would definitely brighten up a kitchen.
Today’s playlist
I had grand plans for a new playlist today, but I’ll be honest that with a pile of work to get through on a cold grey, rainy day my playlist today is simply a compilation of all Carrie Underwood’s albums. Love the new album and am bobbing around embarassingly in my office chair to ‘Songs like this’.
(Those little Starbucks tree decorations are now sitting happily in my bag after an early morning stop on the way to work but I’ve resisted the Christmas playlist, so far…)
Image of the day
I had a messy morning. One of those days when the train was late, there was drizzly rain, there was a hole in my coat pocket and I had to rescue my glove from the lining of the coat… I stopped on the way to work for a Starbucks.
I can’t resist the red Christmas cups and hot chocolate at home doesn’t taste right unless it’s in my ceramic red cup. I was most excited this morning to see teeny ceramic red cup tree decorations on sale. I’m off Christmas shopping tonight and some of those little cuties will be coming home with me. Until then, here’s another christmas tree trend that I’m loving this year – wooden and metal birds. They’d definitely fit with my country/gingham/gingerbread tree style.
Image of the day
This gorgeous little guy is from prettyrandomobjects on etsy and will be going on my Christmas wish list. Seriously cute.
Image of the day
My new little niece Gwen Ruth was born on Sunday, weighing 7lbs 12oz. She’s adorable and has proved herself to be an angelic new baby. This lovely print by Freya Art came to mind this morning as I was thinking of my sister and her newly expanded family.
