Putting pretty back

Hillbilly Bella

Living with a grey sitting room is like living in a thunder storm. Well that's what I've decided anyway. hmmmm...bald bloke is not pleased with me. Fussy mare that I am.
It looked lovely when the sun shone (and when the brightness of all that snow shone through the windows) but who am I kidding? I live in England for goodness sake, by a big hill that makes its own micro climate that consists mainly of rain. We get a lot of  rain here.
So commences the process of putting just a little bit of pretty back.

 It has to be Celadon green. I LOVE Celadon green and it goes nicely with calamine pink and grey and funnily enough that olivey-yellow colour. Plans are being made.....
In the meantime, now that the stinky boys have both gone, along with the gadgets and remote control cars, pairs of crutches (found under the bed) and the general stinky stuff older boys seem to hoard, I once again have an empty house. Just me and the furry ones.
It's quite strange to start with I think I had 'empty nest syndrome' and although it was a relief to be shouty, stinky and untidy boy-free, I had that strange feeling wash over me that all of a sudden I was all alone.
It was the exact same feeling you get a few days after you give birth..but for the opposite reason. Funny that.

Inbetween a nasty chest infection and hacking cough that has lasted at least a month and looks like its got no intention of leaving just yet..oh and another dog bite (the perils of working outside in damp,sub-zero temperatures...and walking other people's dogs) I have been sanding and painting and planning and buying stuff I shouldn't on ebay..oops.

 

This was stinky Georges room.I couldnt believe the state it was in when he moved all his junk out, walls had to be re-plastered and the carpet cleaned 5 times! They're an 'orrible lot these boy creatures.Festering in their lair infront of the x-box.
It's going to be the guest bedroom, so all those visitors we couldn't have to stay before, can.
 Calm pale duck-egg walls and a pretty wardrobe filled with pretty pastel coloured 1950s hangers...both eBay bargains.

 
Our lovely old, but rather knackered looking, black metal bed has gone back in here and they'll be some other old bits and bobs added too.

 Bald bloke sprayed the fireplace with barbeque paint and it came out a treat. Looks like new.

 I remounted this beautiful iridescent vintage butterfly and added a little label.

 I need to track down The Laundry lady to purchase some of her gorgeous 40's style bedlinen, I've been hankering after some for a very long time.

 I still plan to sort out the loft and put some stuff in my shop or on ebay but the whole house seems to be in some kind of 'state' at the moment, once its sorted out a bit more I'll have some space in my brain free for the next mission.I find it quite therapeutic de-cluttering and simplifying our lives. All the curtains are being replaced with simple linen roman blinds.All the walls are being painted in calm ethereal colours and my hoards of 'stuff' are being relocated. Even the peace lily in the lounge is finally flowering after years of just leaves.

As part of the simplifying process,my Beastie truck got sold. I had been worrying myself silly about the MOT in July as it needed a heap of work doing and an even bigger heap of money to pay for it.A mountain of money almost. Scary. A young man came up to me in a car park on Valentines day ( ooh I thought my luck was in !!!) when I was walking the dogs, asking if I wanted to sell it. I was quite attached to my old truck and my heart was saying nooooo and my head screamed a sensible yes, a deal was done a few days later and he bought it for great price, in good knowledge of all the work it needed.
I'm now the owner of a boring old Ford estate, very economical, comfy and with a working radio. woo. (the enthusiasm is overwhelming there dont you think?) It's not going to seduce me with it's fancy gadgets and shiny finery I'm afraid, but it'll do for the mo.
Unfortunately the bloke who sold it wasn't as honest as me and the second day of ownership the blinking thing wouldn't start. Aaarrgh!

This was the snowy sunrise view of the hills out of the window the other morning. They were far more pink than they look in this rather bad photo and the moon looked like a glowing silver orb.
It was silent but for the birds chirping away. So pretty.    Roll on Spring....

Cheerio for now x

Grey January...

Our lovely 17 year old 'Desmond '

I'm slightly shell shocked by last month. (oooooh nooo doom and gloom!! ..surely not again I here you groan) Sadly, we lost another of our Kitties, lovely miss Daisy, also known as the cat with the most made up names: Dee-dee, Desi-arnez, Debbie McGee(lol), Maggie or Desmond,  but mostly Desmond thanks to Pete for some strange reason. She was the replacement kitty to cheer up a pining Basil after his sister Betty was run over many, many years ago.
 Our lovely, fluffy, friendly girl who had the loudest purr in the world and who wagged her giant bottlebrush tail like a dog, finally had to make that last visit to the vets with me. Very sad.
Poor old Desmond.
I do so miss her and her two lovely daughters Maud and Ethel. I get quite worried that Mr. B who is 18 this year and my lovely old black Labrador Red, who is 14, aren't going to live forever like they promised me they would. Basil wanders from room to room making the most dreadful sad howl. Poor old chap doesn't quite understand where his furry soulmate has gone.

sad Basil

I also lost an Uncle too. It was strange seeing my cousins again who are in their 40s who I hadn't seen since our early teens.We remembered times from our childhood and their Cocker Spaniel dog.
In our family you always seem to be remembered by your dog.
My second cousin Richard gave an amusing sermon involving urine, well the word 'urology getting muddled up with eulogy' (toilet humour must run in the family). It was much needed on what was a freeeeezing snowy day sat in a freeeeeezing Norman church.

When I was a teenager in the 1980s, that cousin called Richard was in a pop band. He happened to be the very talented pianist in The Communards (and Bronski Beat).. anyone remember them? Jimmy Sommerville and his very high voice might ring a bell.
 Now and again he pops up on TV and even hosted 'Have I got news for You' not long back. Fancy that!

The oldies came over from abroad and it turns out my poor old dad is really quite poorly. Losing his only brother has probably not helped matters much either.
France seems a million miles away when you don't possess a passport, your mum doesn't drive, you refuse to drive longer than an hour and a half and they live in a part of France that is in the middle of no-where. Hmmm.
He's having a scan tomorrow to see what is really up with those lungs of his. Fingers and toes are crossed.

In between the dips and gloomy bits there has been some good stuff, like my 'little' brother coming to stay. How I adore my little bro. We laughed sooo much and stayed up ridiculously late eating strange cheeses. he also made me try this posh salami and I likened it to eating someone else's scabs.(I haven't by the way..eaten someone else's scabs) much to his amusement and my utter disgust and horror, watching random old movies like 'The Fly' and drinking proper BRITISH tea.
The stinky boys idolise him and bombard him with questions about fancy cars and the latest gadgets and about once being the British Tae-kwon-do champion.
He's far more cosmopolitan than his 'hillbilly' knackered-pick-up-driving sis.
 I think we've talked on the phone more this year already than in the past 10 years he's lived in Canada. He's having a totally pants time at the moment, going through a horrid divorce, so laughter is what is needed... and Cake and BRITISH chocolate... so I'm told.

big Strudders little Strudders

 As you can see he's not so little, 6'3 in fact. Now we know who stole the tallness genes from his 4 older 5 foot nothing sisters.(I just grew outwards instead of upwards!)

Meanwhile, back at Shabby Towers, and inbetween an epic hair colouring disaster (I'm currently sporting muddy, dark, dishwater coloured hair..urgh) Bella nibbled the teeniest bit of wallpaper off from half way up the stairs, this in turn led to a chain reaction that ended up with my hall walls having to have the plaster chipped off back to the brickwork.
Cheers brown hound.
I know the hall needed decorating but we weren't quite prepared for it to that extent! Revamp time me thinks
 
.This is my mood board so far...

 

You might notice I'm moving away from the 'flowery stuff' and have gone a bit grey.Well, we've always loved the salvage/industrial look, old signs and letters off pubs, so we are going for a mash-up of old and new. I also have a colourful old fairground sign to put up somewhere. Pete is insisting that he wants the stairs to be dark grey. I'll need a little more convincing before he wields that paintbrush. A whole lot of simplifying life and home is going on at the mo,well, that's the theory
As it happens the last of the stinky boys is moving out later this month into his first home so before we decorate his room again and make it into a spare room and whilst it's void of boy-stuff we are going to completely empty the loft and garage (an epic chore) and then I will eventually be listing many bits of 'stuff' in my Blogshop.
 It's going to take a while, so be warned, I might be absent from here for a quite sometime.. but I've got pictures, mirrors, old chapel chairs,eiderdowns, vintage blankets, quilts, a pair of  rare Edwardian light bowls (from the hall) a Laura Ashley olive velvet Osbourne chair and kitchenalia galore to add at some point.
Ahhh clear out time!....so if you are interested, keep an eye on my side bar on this blog.


cheerio for now x

Feeling festive twice over

Hooray! I'm actually looking forward to Christmas, now that makes a change doesn't it?
Probably because I'm actually seeing some of my spread-all-over-the-world  family this year. My not so little Canadian based brother is coming to stay, (he's nothing like me.. tall,dark and sporty as opposed to short, fat and blonde) but with the same stupid sense of  humor, we laugh soooo much when we're together
The oldies are trundling over from France and hopefully I'll even see my sister from Thailand too.Yay!
 We are having 2 Christmasses, a family one and a gifty one..mainly because pay day falls 4 days later than the big day and someone forgot to save any money up because of urgent plumbing repair jobs and a getting carried away with a certain room being decorated...er-hum.
 Oh well, it will be fun having two festive days.We'll be like the Queen and celebrate things twice.

We even have two trees this year, the big fake one we bought in the sale last year and a little frosty larch one. I found some blue baubles in the loft from about 15 years ago and decided to go a bit patriotic and a bit kitsch in the dining room....

behold the Kitschmas Twee;

you can't see the bottom as I ran out of red spotty ribbon!

I sooo love these 1950's paper balls

some decorations get sneaked on the tree every year

and are looking a bit worse for wear 'well loved' these days

you can't beat a blue flocked reindeer

meanwhile, in t'other room, grey stag head has his headlights on ready...

  and it's all a bit sensible and frosty looking (still no blinds...)

don't tell the chickens!!!

...and it was all a bit frosty looking last week here too...loverley
 

 We are training Belle to wear her jingly Christmas antlers but she spends most of the time thinking someone is behind her. When they do fall off, she tears round the house with them in her mouth making sounds more like of a herd of Santa's reindeer.

Butter wouldn't melt hey?

 Old man Red, being very nearly 14 very deaf and almost blind will sit for ages in them but really is more bothered about getting his tea on time. My first ever post was about Red in his flashing Christmas hat, must be 5 years ago now...crikey!

it wasn't me...

 He has the delightful aroma of cabbage about him lately, lets hope humans don't end up stinking of cabbage when they reach 13 and a half in dog years... maybe it'll be sprouts after next week. Just for a change.

 Hopefully I'll pop back a bit more often next year but just for now ...
Happy Christmas to you...have fun! xx

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

Pensioner's day out

  Now and again Bald bloke and I, like to go out on little trips which we refer to as our 'Pensioner days out'.

 

We like to live the high life, going out for tea and cake don't you know...

 Well, after lots of debating on our half an hours drive limit (gawd forbid I get a blinking headache if we dare to venture further) we decided on Burford House Garden Store.  

The interiors shop

 It's not far from Ludlow, in Tenbury Wells (there's also a Burford near Oxford) and it was far more than just a 'garden store', much to our delight.
I could have spent a small fortune there, quite easily.

the reclamation yard

We were traveling behind a horrendous thunder storm and when we arrived it looked like they had had the worst of it already. There was a lot of mopping and sweeping water out of the shop and cafe going on.
 The garden centre was lovely and quite reasonable,there were lots of plants that I had been looking for locally and everything had been reduced but what we didn't expect was finding a fabulous Georgian house that was an interiors outlet store, selling wonderful Newgate clocks, mirrors, candles and vintage-looking homewear, A children's wear shop with the most gorgeous clothes and toys I've ever seen, a wonderful reclamation yard (we both LOVE having a mooch in those) and a pretty riverside garden to stroll around attached to the house.

  There's no charge to enter the gardens and they were shabby but lovely.

 Old English country house style which is just what I love. I used to maintain a garden like this and they are super-high maintenance, by the time you'd taken a month to get round the whole thing, the weeds in the first part you did were two foot high and it was time to do it all again.

  If I hadn't of got my most un-sensible flip-flops on (considering the thundery weather!) I'd have got stuck in with the weeding. I love a challenge like that.

 Pete spotted this great hand painted vintage tin sign attached to a door in the reclamation part. It's about 30" high. Knowing how much I love old graphics and tatty stuff he made the lethal mistake of pointing it out to me...

 A little bit of cheeky bartering later and it came home with us for probably a quarter of the price you'd have got it on eBay for.

It was a bit bent,covered in grease and filthy but very 'us'.He spent the afternoon gently cleaning it up with petrol of all things. An insanely cheap Victorian terracotta flower pot came too.

In the main house, I also spotted a mirror that I'd been hunting for. I have the little version but really wanted the big wall version for the bathroom. (You'll have to imagine the big one as it's still all wrapped up safely)

the little version

Ages and ages and ages that's been on my wishlist, so when we found it there for half price it was too good an opportunity to miss. Bald bloke just gives me that knowing look when I start whining on about 'wish lists' and the like. I promised to live off beans on toast for a week and it came home with us aswell.

The cafe was quite nice too..the cup of tea was pants but the cake was lovely!
(In my best Homer Simpson voice Mmmm Caaaaaake!)

The cafe with it's lovely Lloyd loom chairs

   I'd thoroughly recommend having a mooch if you're over that way anytime!