Collections

I have just been over to Pretty Vintage's blog.  She was asking the question..........can you ever have too many collections?  I don't think so - what about you?

My Gentle Giant collects keyrings and my Missy Moo collects flowered headbands!

I have started collecting mirrors in my living room, pretty cups in my kitchen/dining room and want to collect hearts to hang on one wall in my bedroom.

What do you collect? I'm intrigued!

Its Monday again

Hi
Doom and gloom today?  Mine hasn't been too bad actually!  I have been out and about shopping and got some bargain curtains in the Laura Ashley sale.  They are for my kitchen - will show you pictures another day.

But for now, I need some help! I often see you all raving about Etsy, but I have tried to go on the site and everything I look at seems to be in dollars.............what am I doing wrong? Please enlighten me.
Thanks!

More purchases!

Went to Chatham Dockside Outlet and then onto Bluewater today.  Just felt the need to get out and do something, and what better than a bit of retail therapy!

I was hoping that the shops wouldn't still be filled with just the leftover old tat.............and I wasn't disappointed. 

First of all I wanted a new purse and bag. I didn't manage to find the right bag, but this is the purse that I got:

At one of my most favourite shops....The Range...I got some tea-towels.  They, as always, had lots of lovely bits but I had to restrain myself.

I couldn't resist these at £2.99 for 3, and they were something I actually needed.

The next thing I was so excited about, I nearly bought more than one!  I didn't even spot it in the Next outlet shop but luckily I have trained my Missy Moo (daughter) very well and she knows a pretty when she sees one!!

It is a little bird house and is even prettier in real life!  It even says "Home Tweet Home" above the door.  While we were queueing up to pay the £5!! for it, I said to my daughter that I wanted to keep it in the house so I could keep looking at it.  Her reply was - that she would like to live in it herself!


This has cheered me up from the January blues and really made my day - how easily I am pleased!

Where has the week gone.........

Dont know where the week has gone! and what a miserable one it has been! (weather wise)

One good thing is that my kitchen got finished yesterday. The fitter came back and put the plinths and side panels back on and it is looking "finished" now............if you know what I mean.

I have now booked in a carpenter to come and build us an understairs cupboard.  We currently just have a tiny one, that you can't fit anything in. The only thing I dont like about our house is the lack of storage for things like ironing board, hoover and even our coats.  We have a porch but it is too cold to leave our coats there in the winter, so they get dumped on the bottom of the bannister. So this should solve those problems.


I am trying to decide which room to show you next. I didnt take many "before" pictures of the other rooms so will have to describe them more than show you!


Have a good weekend everyone!
-x-

Family/Chill out room - after pictures!

So, yesterday I told you the tale of the building of our family room and showed you the before pictures.

As I said, we only did a cheap makeover on it and decided on a seaside theme. We painted the wallpaper white and brightened up the woodwork. Changed the hairy floortiles to a whitewash wood effect vinyl. Covered the built in storage seats with blue duvet covers and the same wood effect sticky back plastic on the bar with fabric. Made some bunting and put up other seaside bits and pieces. Bought a Laura Ashley daybed and made some red,white and blue cushions. Then finally filled it with toys, game consoles, dvd's etc!

So here are the piccies I've been building you up for.....

We have since added a table tennis table, mini fridge, disco ball and karaoke machine!!
It is a well used room by the children and their friends, as well as when we have friends round! 

Here are just a few of the seaside bits too

Hope you agree that just a cheap makeover made quite a difference!!

Our family/Chill out room

This is a 30ft room that was already built above the garage.  It took the previous owner (a builder) 10 years to build it! It started off as a play room and ended up as a family room, as the children had grown up by the time he had finished.

When we moved in we thought that we were going to divide it into two rooms, so the children had large bedrooms.  But they are determined that we should not do this, even though the Gentle Giant (our Son) has a really small bedroom - which he loves!!

This is how it looked previously.........

Very terracotta and yellow, with textured wallpaper and polystyrene ceiling tiles

Built in storage seats covered with horrible, pretend wood, sticky back plastic and those lovely hairy greeny/yellow and brown chequered carpet tiles

A 1970's bar again covered in sticky back plastic- which the children begged us to keep!


We want this room to be the last one we decorate properly in a few years time and at that point we will give them one last chance to change the use of it, if they want to.  So in the meantime we did a kind of cheap makeover on it.............To be shown tomorrow!

Next.............

The picture below should have been in with my kitchen ones but at the time I couldn't find the "before" picture I had taken!

This was a dresser that I had bought off of ebay for £40

Then I painted it...........but just need to get round to doing the final coats on the door!!

Since taking the above picture, I have also added a beige spotty oilcloth to line the drawers and shelves.