Posy

Holiday with the Tanes ~ Day 2

Experiencing the local Sainsburys

 

Boys at work (cat grooming and cooking if you can't actually read my ridiculously small captions! Bernard is a chef..woo hoo bring it on!!)

Boys at play...

..and then a spot of TV watching with a fluffy cat on your knee..

What a holiday we're having..

Holiday with the Tanes ~ Day 1

Our oldest friends are in town - all the way from Australia. Anth met Bernard when he was 5 ..mmm that was 42 years ago...42 years ago!! That is a huuge number. Oh goodness we are getting old. Anyway, as a couple we have been friends with Bernard and Jeanette since before Anth and I were married. In fact it was them who had to lend Anthony the £30 for my engagement ring and were there when we bought it. They are New Zealanders who now live with their 3 beautiful daughters in Australia.
It's been 7 years since we have last seen them and you probably heard the shrieks of delight when I threw my arms around them late yesterday afternoon. And this afternoon?...Well we went to Totnes and I managed to take a sneaky picture as both boys stood outside the girlie mecca of Gazebo trying to look as macho as possible..

...ahhh..love 'em....

Today

Today this arrived..

..the CK autumn catalogue, much to my glee.

Today Anth decided to check the bank balance..

..just as I was devouring said catalogue and making a wish list. Mmm not good timing!

Today I finished painting all the floors in the house..

even the re-touching where every other member of the family at sometime had managed to walk over the wet paint.

Today, I spent sometime in the garden..

..and treated myself to one of my all time favourite plants a verbena bonariensis and a chocolate cosmos.

 

 And finally today I started making a few notes so I would be able to share the pattern of my latest crochet blanket with you. There is no written pattern as far as I know, and I have just tried to copy Yvonne's photo. So watch this space

:::::: Some answers to your bathroom questions ::::::::

Our shower rail was bought online. It is a P shaped rail which we are absolutely thrilled with because it gives us more room whilst showering. The P shape stops the shower curtain from clinging to you and gives you more elbow room. It cost more than the standard rails but we definately think it is worth it.

Our floor tiles are called Waxman Honeycomb gloss white mosaic tiles and cost approx £30 per sq metre and we only needed 2 sq metres.

Thank you!

Oh my, I'm so touched by your kind words about our bathroom. Thank you all who left such encouraging comments - we all enjoyed reading them over the last day or 2. I am intending to post a bit later on today but wanted to pop in and say thank you before I finish (Yay!) painting the floors. Oh my poor knees and grazed toes...!

See you later

xxxxxx

The long awaited bathroom ta-da!

Fancy a look? The light isn't brilliant but I could wait no longer..

Before..

After..

Before..

After..

Turning around you then see this..

I'm not sure you can really see the brackets of the shelves. They are twirly, metal ones and were a wonderful find at B & Q (a DIY store) costing only £2.45 each. They did have other sizes available. We thought for a very long time as to whether we should paint the shelves (and brackets) but decided to stick with white.

I made the light pull from a broken necklace I found at Totnes market and a crystal. The other one (for our extractor fan) has pale blue velvet ribbon and 3 small crystals.

Before..

After..

Before..

After..

The floor had us flummoxed for a bit but then we found these mosaic tiles and because the bathroom is only 2 square metres it didn't cost a fortune to have tiles.

We had the bath panel made in tongue and groove to match the rest of the house.

Phew...
What a difference 6 weeks or so makes!

 Now for all the details:
Wallpaper :: Cath Kidston Rose Bouquet (in blue)
Shower Curtain :: Marks & Spencer for £5
Bath Mat :: a hand towel from Cath K and I sewed some pink lace on the ends. I've also got a plain cerise one from M & S, same colour as the spots in the shower curtain.
Towels :: Cath Kidston
Wall tiles :: from Trago Mills £13 a sq m.
Taps :: Grohe Eurosmart (found a very good deal on-line)
Basin and lavatory :: had to be small (short projection) to fit in our bathroom. Found on-line.
Bath :: cheapest steel bath we could find from a local merchant.
Mirror :: our old thrifted one painted with Dulux mix your own shade (Moroccan Velvet 4)

And was all this worth it? Umm...
yes it was....!

This post is dedicated to the loveliest aunt anyone could wish to have...Madelyn..thank you a million times over xxxxxxxxxxx 

Reasons to be cheerful

Thank you so much for your kind response about the bedroom wallpaper. Things are still rather hectic here in our big spruce up before our friends come to stay in 10 days. But life is good and here are just a few things that are making me smile this dreary Monday.

:: My latest crochet blanket::

I'm really enjoying making this and even though I'm just copying it from Yvonne's photograph I think I have worked out the pattern correctly. Though my bag of yarn is taking over our sitting room!

:: Organising the garden ::

We have worked really hard over the last few weeks changing things in the house and garden. Some are only small things but still give a lot of satisfaction when after a long day you can stand back and admire your hard work. Bath panel will be fitted on Wednesday morning at 9am so it wont be long now for the bathroom ta-da. (I think it must hold the record for the longest 'unfinished' bathroom story!)

:: Painting the floor ..again..during a school holiday ::

Mmm..not so sure I'm feeling too cheerful about this as most people actually go on away or relax during their holidays, but my goodness it looks so white and clean when you've done. It has to the most trickiest thing to paint (90%) of the whole house's floors. My heart is constantly in mouth as the children all insist on wandering around shouting " Mum, can I stand on this part?!" whilst standing on it, or letting the cats out of the room. Oh happy days. But if anyone is thinking of painting their floors, do it! It looks wonderful and we don't regret it at all.

:: Discovering a new oil ::

One of my daily pleasures is burning scented oils in my metal light bulb rings and for a long time my favourite has been The Body Shop's Green Tea oil. But good old M & S has a new one, Nectarine and Orange which is lovely and it's cheaper too! 

:: The unexpected delivery this morning of September's Country Living ::

:: And finally....::

Because I have painted the kitchen floor, we have to eat out tonight. Woo hoo! Think I might paint the kitchen floor more often....

Our bedroom - ta da!!

Ok folks, the curtains took longer than expected - mainly because Anth insisted on wanting them lined. The whole lining issue made me slightly miffed because the curtains (which were vintage sheets) only cost me £1 but the blooming lining cost £23! Anyway, I think Anth was right to want lining as it gives them a more finished look, rather than just hanging a pair of old sheets up at the window which is what I was going to do!

But enough of lining,

why
 don't
  you
   come
    on
     in....

It's a bit flowery isn't it?

 

I have had great pleasure in trying out all my quilts and blankets to see what looks best.  Oh and here are the curtains, made from 2 pink candy stripe sheets complete with pesky lining.

Well, what do you think?? It has been hard to capture on photographs the proper shade of the paper. I still can't quite believe I am staring at it in our bedroom as there is a story behind this wallpaper. I saw it in 2007 on the beautiful blog of Sophie Honeysuckle's English Decor. She has it in her bedroom and I just fell in love with it. I feel it just epitomizes the shabby chic/old-fashioned English drawing room/slightly eclectic look I am striving for. When doing Lucy and Alice's room a little while later I mentioned to them how one wall of this wallpaper would look really great but alas, they didn't want it, so I loved it from afar catching it very occasionally in magazines. But last week I suddenly remembered the beautiful yellow wallpaper and was struck with the overwhelming and I mean o v e r w h e l m i n g desire to have some in our rather dull bedroom. Not having any idea what it was called, I spent much too long trying to search google for flowery yellow wallpaper and thought I would never be successful when sweet, sweet Sophie answered my email. Hallelujah!! She very generously not only told me the name and product number but forwarded 2 links where I was able to order some. I felt greatly touched by her kindness and again had confirmation that you can't get a kinder, more generous community, than the blogging community. Ooh, I love everyone of my Blog Ladies I really do. But I digress. I then had what I thought would be a huuge job of persuading Anthony that more money; more upheaval; and this time much larger flowers covering our wall, would be a good thing. And guess what..he said OK! I do seem to remember in my pleading that I mentioned that this would be my birthday and Christmas present for this year...mmm..hope he forgets that bit.
So on Tuesday night I sat up in bed gazing at it - not quite believing that in the space of a week or so I actually have it up. It is a little different than I thought it was as I thought it was going to be more pinker and the flowers not quite as big as they are - but what surprises me most is that everyone who has seen it really likes it. Lucy and Alice now say that they can't remember me suggesting it for their room and yes..they would love some...even their friends like it (though I really think they are just being polite) and my sweet Anty thinks it makes the room less dull and more of a feature. John who put it up and regularly shakes his head at my endeavors actually found himself admiring it.  And Tom? Yes, even he thinks it's OK.

And the rest of the room has been painted white, which looks so much better.

Now it just leaves the floor to be painted throughout the house before our friends come over in 2 weeks time from Australia. But there will be a break from painting today, seeing that I am alone here this afternoon, I'm going to make a cup of tea and settle down with my crochet while I still can.

P.S The wallpaper is by Sanderson and is called Pemberley number WR8246/3

Bedroom makeover

 

It certainly wasn't planned, a bedroom makeover, but that is what I've been up to these last few days...that is when I wasn't at school helping at lovely Lisa's Art Club. But Art Club has finished and the summer holidays now can begin. Well, I say 'summer' - we have had the most torrential rain over the last couple of days. My garden is looking very weedy and drippy.

But back to the bedroom. Last week I had an idea. As the bathroom wallpaper looks so good and creates such an impact (bath panel should be put on this week, shelves were put up yesterday so we're almost ready for the big reveal!) I wanted to use more wallpaper in the house but as most walls have tongue and groove cladding on them I decided to wallpaper our large sliding (and falling apart!) wardrobe doors. I knew exactly what wallpaper I wanted. Exactly. But didn't know what it was called or who made it.

Ah.

But help was at hand by a wonderful lady who'se blog is a favourite of mine (she will be revealed later as I don't want you to see the wallpaper yet. Oh the suspense!) The wallpaper was ordered just in the nick of time as I found out it is being discontinued, and yesterday John put it up.

 

Then one of the doors fell off. Does this photo remind of another? John seems to spend his time in our house carrying large things around! The doors were home made by the people who lived here before us and are only thin hardboard. Very thin hardboard. But all has ended well. I've painted the walls white and today I'm making the curtains. Oh I'm so excited, a day at my machine. Yippee! So, I must stop chatting with you, as lovely as it is, and get on. Enjoy your day.

My Holiday To Spain- Part 2

  So it was Monday night, lying in my new bed in the 2nd villa, wondering what the week would be like for me! I was praying the heat wouldn't be too much and that i would have a lovely time. I just had to wait and see.

Tuesday 21st July- 12:30pm

So it was off to the beach in Cannos De Mecca.

 

Holding a bucket and spade, an umbrella and lots of towels i realised how many strange looks i was getting for my hair colour and my interesting choose of items to hold. i was the blondest person in Cannos, and the palest, as i was lying on my towel under the umbrella watching everyone walk past me with very brown bodies, i realised! 

The beach was lovely though. Much nicer than the beaches down in Devon, i must say!

 

Wednesday 22nd July

Wednesday was the best day of the trip for me! It wasn't for a particular reason. I just really felt the excitement and happiness of my holiday (:

 

The bars and restaurants were lovely, the markets were amazing,the presents i got for my family were lovely, the heat was just right, the pool and the beach were beautiful and i was with my best friend :) We had a nice big space by our villa room. It was the roof of some other villas but it was amazing for Holly and i to take some pictures and chat!

 

 

Saturday 25th July- 8:00pm

 

My henna tattoo :) in case you don't know what that is, its a temporary tattoo! It was supposed to last 10 days at least....it lasted 3! A waste of 10 euros. But at least i can cross of my summer to do list 'To get my first henna tattoo.'

 Mum wasn't best pleased when i texted her the news that i got one! But does that really suprise me? ;)

Monday 27th July

So our bags were packed and we were off to Seville for the day before the plane journey home.

 

Seville

What a beautiful place it is :) But the heat was insane... 45oC It came too!  Helen, Holly and i decided to go on a horse and carriage around Seville to look at the beautiful sites and buildings.

 

 

I didn't want to get the camera or the man into the picture but i obviously couldn't ask them to move! I was hoping to get on tv but the camera never faced our direction. Though, with these beautiful buildings and fountain to film, i'm very sure they wont want to film us instead!

 

The horse and carriage was fun! But getting out of the shade and into the heat was a challenge.

 

6:00pm

I had finished my Eclipse book, and i was doodling in my notebook as i sat by the window on the plane. I had survived 2 weeks in Spain! I didn't think i could cope with the heat, plane journeys or homesickness...but i did :) It was an amazing holiday!

'I'm So Happy'  i said to myself as i looked out the plane window and saw this...

 

And as i walked down the stairs, off the plane, feeling the sting of English weather on my arms and legs, I felt safe, happy and calm knowing i was in England, the country i have lived in all my life!

I may only be 14 and not know alot about this world and my future, there are still many things i am trying to figure out on my own, but i do know one thing, one thing i'll know even when i'm old and wise...

'There's no place like home!'