Easter Weekend

Morning all, I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend with family and friends, ate lots of chocolate and hopefully none were too affected by storm Katie! We had gales and torrential rain all of Saturday daytime and night time and woke up to find the two new fence panels we'd bought had been thrown half way around the garden (they've not been fitted yet and were leaning against the conservatory) Thankfully they are still in one piece and my plants had managed to avoid being squashed.

I did Roast leg of English Lamb on Friday, cooked with rosemary and garlic and some white wine too. It made the tastiest gravy!

Friday however was a beautiful day and we spent most of it outdoors with Jack's parents who had arrived on Thursday evening. Sarah did some gardening for me while I was cooking us a tasty roast Lamb dinner. Jack and Richard managed to lay electrics to the shed and we now have plug sockets and a working light in there which is great. I've also now got a plug socket in the conservatory so we've moved the tortoise's table into there as they will soon be spending the daytime outside and just coming in to sleep at night for the warmer months of the year (before hibernating in the winter). We now have a big space in the dining area of our living/dining room so our small dining table now looks tiny. I hope to get a bigger dining table soon, but it all costs money and we can't do it all at once. We keep an eye out in the local community project centre where you can take old furniture as we've picked up a few bargains from there in the past.

The Torts enjoyed their first proper day outside of this year in their run, lovely sunshine!

Jack's parents headed home on Saturday morning, so Jack and I braved a trip to Wickes in the pouring rain to get a few bits we needed while there was 15% off. They had 15% on top of the deals they already had in place so we then came home and ordered tiles that we'd seen in store that we liked. We've got some big square 'taupe' ceramic floor tiles to do the conservatory floor and we have finally chosen the tiles we want for the splash-back area of the kitchen and have gone with some lovely subway tiles in 'pistachio green'.

Jack had to work on Sunday and Monday so I was on my own and wanted to make the most of the time off of work to get back into the swing of decorating as there's still so much to do in the house. As we now have the kitchen tiles arriving this week and my Dad coming to do the tiling in a few weeks' time, I was conscious that I needed to get on with painting the kitchen in anticipation of the tiling. The kitchen was probably the grubbiest room when we first moved in and the walls were full of huge holes where things had been moved around over the years. We were very lucky that the kitchen was nice and modern though so it's saved us a lot of money in terms of needing to replace it and all the kitchen needed was a thorough clean and spruce up. I spent the last two days scrubbing, filling holes, sanding and then painting! I had to shut Barry in his crate while doing the decorating because he loves his Mummy so much that he wouldn't leave me alone and kept coming into the kitchen to have a scratch and send his hairs flying into the wet paint!! He loves his crate though and by shutting him in he realises he can see me but that he can finally have a snooze.

Clearing, Moving, Cleaning, Filling, Sanding, Painting, Glossing and putting back together again! This is the start...

... And the finished look. We went with 'soft stone' on the walls and then we're being bold and going with a 'pistachio green' tiled splash-back area. I can't wait to get a new oven too - this one is over 12 years old and on its last legs (no working grill, oven can be hit and miss too!), but it's served us well since moving in.

It's back to normal today; a quiet-ish day at work before the next month end arrives and outside of work I've got more decorating jobs to do; I want to make a start on freshening up the two hall cupboards. One sits next to the kitchen and we think we might turn this into a pantry (I do have a lot of kitchen appliances and cookware after all), so it just needs some holes and blemishes filling and sanding, a lick of paint and then shelving putting up. We also then have a much larger cupboard which we hope to turn into a downstairs toilet. We're just waiting to save up a few more pennies before we get builders and plumbers out to work out the feasibility of it all. It could mean digging up floors and a lot of mess so we will see. That cupboard I intend to paint for the meantime so it's tidy. At the moment we just use it to store our bikes, shoes and coats so it really is a very big cupboard and would be perfect to be a WC/Cloakroom.

A quiet week is planned here and then Jack goes on his annual rugby tour with his rugby team. They're off to Edinburgh this year; lots of beer and not as much rugby is involved I think! My brother's girlfriend Jenna is coming to stay for a girly weekend, so that will be nice.

Hope you all have a lovely week!

Em x

Looking Forward To Easter & Poorly Pup Update

I hope everyone had a nice weekend, the final one before Easter weekend which I’m sure most are looking forward to. Do you all have nice plans for Easter? Jack’s parents are coming to stay with us from Thursday evening until Saturday so I’m sure we will plan a nice day out on Friday. I’m going to have a go at cooking some sickly sweet, rich, overindulgent chocolate Easter cake, but I’ll buy hot cross buns to save me some time! I love Spring Lamb too so I’m sure there’ll be a leg of lamb on the cards for the coming weekend too (have I mentioned I love food??). We might try and go to Thame Country Fair on Sunday; it’s not too far from us and looks like it has lots going on. A couple of my friends from Cambridgeshire are also taking part in the Horseboarding Championships and I’d love to see them in action.

 

Barry went from bad to worse last week so we had no choice but to take him back to the Vets on Thursday as he was very dehydrated from the constant vomiting. He was still bright in himself though quiet, but we couldn’t ignore it as the sickness had been going on for over a week and he was beginning to look a bit tucked up. The Vets decided to keep him in overnight to get him on some fluids and do some investigative tests the next morning; they did an x-ray, ultrasound, took biopsies and he had an endoscopy so the full works! Luckily no obstructions were found or anything untoward so it still remains a mystery. They kept him in for a second night to continue with the fluids, some antibiotics and some anti-sickness medicine to ensure he managed to get some food successfully through his system. I went and saw him on Friday as I couldn’t go a whole day without seeing him but he was still very groggy from the general anaesthetic, although they let me take him outside for a tiny walk (the staff at Donnington Grove Vets are all so wonderful and friendly). We were then allowed to pick him up on Saturday afternoon after a successful first day and night of no sickness. He’s very happy to be back home with us and we are too as we felt lost without him. He’s got a shaved tummy and various other shaved patches so he looks quite funny, but for the first time in a week he picked up his toy last night to play which we were so relieved about – he usually doesn’t leave us alone and is ALWAYS playing with his toys. It’s hard to know what caused the illness; severe gastroenteritis, a virus, or a food intolerance are all possibilities, but we’ll just have to keep an eye on him. He’s still on boiled chicken and pasta for a few more days along with some probiotics that the Vets gave us to help perk him back up again. I’ll be glad to have our boy back to normal J And thank god for pet insurance too!! We’ve certainly proved why you need insurance for the past year with Barry (see broken leg blog posts)!

 

 

In other news, after my rather moany last blog post, I can report I’m much happier having completed a month end at my new job so I’m sorry for being negative in my last post. I’m not sure if I previously mentioned but I took quite a step up when starting here and I’m now in a management accountant role so it’s taken some adjusting to the accounts assistant roles I’ve done over the last 6 years, even if it was a slight drop in hours to give me more time to relax and continue my studies. I’m really enjoying using my brain a bit more, even if I only have a little brain! I think it’s just going to take a lot of adjusting and this role requires a lot of knowledge about what’s going on in the various company departments, which will only come gradually over time. I was certainly feeling much more positive at the end of last week and I think that’s made me feel more relaxed at home. Perhaps soon I can start enjoying the small drop in my working hours and make the most of my free time! I haven’t even picked up a crochet hook and yarn for weeks other than when I made my Mum a mother’s day present, so I’m hoping to get back into crochet again soon.

 

On Saturday I went to try on my bridesmaid dress with the other two bridesmaids and the bride, my best friend Jess. Our bridesmaid dresses are beautiful, the colour is a gorgeous dusty pink and they’re just so pretty! We all need some alterations, mainly as they’re far too long, but I’m glad mine fitted. It feels slightly tight across my ribs but the bridal shop assistant assures me this is just the boning detail in the dress and that you’re just not used to the feeling of the fitting… let’s hope so because I don’t know how to lose weight around my ribs! 10 weeks to go until the wedding though, so it gives me a good excuse to get back into doing my daily abs challenge to tone up. Jack has also signed up for an 88 mile bike ride at the beginning of June so he’s also just about to start a 10 week training programme he’s designed, so it’s nice to have an excuse to exercise and eat healthy together.

 

I had a busy day yesterday getting lots more seeds planted; I potted on my mangetout and peas, but I’m keeping them indoors until the risk of frost has passed. I also potted on my cherry tomato seedlings, Gaillardia and cayenne peppers. I then planted some runner beans, pak choi, mixed lettuce leaves and small sweet Frigaletto peppers. I’ll have to fight the tortoises for the pak choi as they go mad for it, along with fresh young salad leaves. I also planted quite a few flower seeds; a few sunflowers, lots of sweet pea and antirrhinum (does anyone else call them ‘bunny rabbit flowers’ like me? That’s what my Nan used to call them). I’ve also planted Borage, Cornflower and Lavatera, all of which are for my wildflower bed at the bottom of the garden. I’m very conscious about the fact we had to cut down the Buddleia in the back garden last year – it was over 10 feet tall and resting on the conservatory so we had no choice but to cut it down. We cut it back to about 4 foot tall and it’s full of shoots and leaves, so I’m hoping it will flower again this year after the harsh hair cut as the butterflies and bees were frequent visitors to our garden last year almost solely due to the Buddleia. That’s why I’m ensuring they’ve got lots of other flowers to visit in the garden. We do still have a huge Buddleia in our front garden too which the wildlife also loves. Cornflower blue is one of my favourite colours anyway and I have lots of lavender in the garden as I love the scent, so hopefully I’ve not put the wildlife off. The little Wren who frequents our garden is certainly enjoying hopping amongst the grape hyacinths which have come up in droves in our back garden and front garden. We have a big noisy family of sparrows who love singing away in our privet hedge too and they love the fat balls I leave them.

 

 

Finally, I have my conservatory back! Hurrah! I can also show you photos of Jack’ finished shed and I’m very proud of him as it looks great. I’ve got one final bit to paint (yes I’m the paint slave), but it’s lovely to get all of the tools, lawn mower, gardening bits and bobs out of the conservatory and into the shed where they belong. I now have more planting space, the torts will be moving in there shortly before they move to live in their outside run and then I would like to get a rattan seat or two so I can enjoy sitting in the nice warm conservatory with a book while admiring my garden.

 

Have a lovely week everyone and an early Happy Easter (just in case I don't get around to another blog post for a little while)!

 

Em x

Weekend; So Many Jobs, So Little Time...

I love weekends when we don't have any 'going out and about' plans, so that we can make the most of time at home. We usually look forward to that as it means a bit of relaxing after we've both had long weeks at work, but the jobs at home seem to be mounting up so it feels like we didn't actually sit down all weekend!

I was glad the weather was dry at the weekend and the sun did pop out and say hello a couple of times over the last two days too. We drove Barry to the next village and up to a big car park where the Ridgeway is (it's about a twenty minute walk to the Ridgeway from our house and we were keen to explore another part of it), he wasn't best pleased on the short ten minute car journey but seemed to think it wasn't so bad when rewarded with a nice long walk, muddy puddles and meeting lots of new dogs. It was windy up on the Ridgeway but lovely to see so many people walking, cycling and even in pony traps! We met a lovely couple walking their two Irish Wolfhounds, they really are gorgeous dogs. Having just met a couple of ponies Barry wasn't sure if these Wolfhounds were too equine-related and he hung back while one came and leaned his head against my chest (they're so tall!). We continued through an underpass (under the A34) where lovely paintings and rhymes about The Ridgeway can be found on the walls.

We met a few cyclists and a bouncy Beagle puppy and his owner too and then Barry found the muddiest puddles possible to run and splash through.

Part Jack Russell, part Gazelle? Barry bounds everywhere! Proven in slo-mo!

 

Eventually we headed back to the car after a good few miles walk with a happy puppy in tow. Barry was much happier on the short car journey home and realises the car isn't so bad when he gets an exciting walk at the other end. As soon as we were home I decided to give Barry a bath. The 'Bath' word is worse than the 'Walk' word in our house, Barry goes mental at the mention of a bath, not running the other way but in excitement! He must be one of very few dogs that cries in excitement for a bath or shower. A short while later we had one clean dog and one soaking wet owner (he's a wriggler when I'm trying to dry him).

 

Barry excited for a bath!

 

I spent the rest of Saturday helping Jack with the shed building. This is the first weekend in a while that Jack hasn't been working and I think he's pleased with what he's managed to achieve with the shed. I was on painting duty and also did some gardening once I was done. By the end of the day we were flagging from all the fresh air and hard work so rewarded ourselves with dinner out at Nandos - I had a free whole chicken that we shared with some sides courtesy of my loyalty card after nearly a year of saving the rewards up so it was a very cheap and satisfying meal out.

 

Painting the sides before they were fixed together

 

Yesterday I just seemed to have a million things to do and not enough time. I planned to get started with doing my pickled onions for this year (got a 4kg sack of pickling onions from the farm shop for £6, pretty good value and cheaper than on our local market), also have some apples to cook up and make into crumbles, I wanted to make a nice pasta sauce for Jack's lunch at work this week and I also wanted to make myself another soup for the week. In the end I only managed to do the pasta sauce and make a soup as I got side-tracked tidying the kitchen cupboards and cooking a joint of pork and a whole chicken that were in the freezer and needed using up. That's our dinners sorted all of this week; tonight we're having one of my favourite 'sloppy' dinners: sliced pork warmed up in my homemade pork and apple gravy with mash and lots of veg (I'm veg obsessed, I'd eat a plate of veg with gravy any day!). The crackling on the pork was really good (I'd get the sack if it wasn't!) and we devoured that yesterday with some lovely veg and little Yorkshire puds, but in my haste at doing so many things at once I forgot to cook potatoes (silly woman).

 

Next task is to get pickling...!

 

I made a nice vegetable soup; pretty much made the recipe up though I did take some inspiration from my new soup book but had to work with the veg I had:

2 carrots

2 parsnips

1/4 portion of a large swede

1 white onion

1 leek

White wine vinegar

Seasoning

A few small fresh snips of rosemary

1 1/2 pints vegetable stock

 

I fried the diced onion and leek in a dash of white wine vinegar first to soften them and then added the rest of the ingredients (all chopped up) along with stock and left to bubble away. I fished out the rosemary stalks, seasoned and then blended the soup. It's really tasty, I think it's the parsnip that I can taste the most and it's a lovely yellowy orange colour. I bought a cheap pumpkin at the weekend too so I can try and make a pumpkin soup next. For the last few years I've always cooked a sausage, sage and pumpkin casserole at Halloween and it's delicious, the recipe is here if anyone is interested.

 

I had planned on doing some Christmas card making again this weekend but ran out of time. I did manage to make a start on decorating an old notice board; it's going to be hung in the spare room where I've got a bit of a sewing/knitting theme going on anyway so decided to decorate the edge of the notice boards with two old tape measures. They might actually come in handy for measuring things. I'm in the process of making some little heart shaped pin cushions to hang on the board too, made with some vintage-inspired and sewing-themed fabric. Hopefully I'll have a finished photo to show you soon.

 

 

 

Guest Bedroom Redecoration

I thought I'd share with you a few photos of our guest bedroom that we've finally finished redecorating. I've not shared them with anyone else and it seems a shame to take before and after photos just for my own reference, though it may not be of much interest to others either! :-)

We're lucky that both bedrooms in our mid-terrace are a very decent size. Both bedrooms were in need of some TLC (I'm a dab-hand at poly-filling holes and cracks now) and some updating. We decided to decorate the second bedroom first seeing as we'd been inundated with family and friends wanting to come and visit.

How the guest bedroom started; at this stage we had taken up the laminate flooring, ripped off the polystyrene coving and removed the old skirting board.

We changed the faces on the plug sockets and light switches - cost a few £s from Screwfix to do so but made the room look so much cleaner by doing such a simple thing. Jack's Dad also fitted new light pendants too. The windows at the back of our house (upstairs and downstairs) were original wood-framed, single-glazed windows and it was extremely chilly when we moved in. I didn't mind the chill but it was more the wind whistling through at night that kept me awake. The front had been double-glazed at some point (though they're looking quite old now too), but the back had been neglected (not that I'm blaming previous occupants, new windows are not cheap!). We knew that fitting new windows was a priority and thankfully the deposit we got back on our rented flat covered almost all 3 back windows (both bedroom windows upstairs and the living room window downstairs). The back windows are abnormally large (therefore costly), but I love that as it means we get to make the most of the view over the countryside.

New double-glazed windows fitted

 

Next job was painting the walls now that I'd finished filling the holes/dents/cracks and sanded them. Jack is more than happy for me to choose colours etc. but I always ask for his opinion (he's grateful that I'm not a pink-fanatic). We decided to go with 'Taupe' in the guest bedroom, a nice warm neutral colour, my thinking being that I could accessorise in the room for a fairly low cost and it would fit in with our old bedroom furniture that would be staying in this room.

 

Walls painted with Dulux matt in 'Taupe', new skirting board fitted by Jack (caulked and glossed by me), windowsill sanded back and then glossed, finally the radiator is no longer a horrible greyish colour and I painted it white once more with Ronseal radiator paint.

 

I think the skirting board looks lovely and the main reason for us replacing it was that the rest of the house already has this skirting, but for some reason the two bedrooms had been left. Coving wasn't as easy job (it's so fiddly and more arm-aching above your head), but Jack and I remained on speaking terms despite how annoying it was at times to get someone to hold the coving while the other sands a smidgen more in order to get the corners flush. We're now experts and I'm hoping the master bedroom will be quicker to do coving-wise, though there are a lot more corners in there...

We had decided we wanted carpet upstairs (I like the feel of carpet between my toes in the morning when getting out of bed) and after getting many quotes done we went with Luke Johnson Flooring, based in Newbury. They were fantastic and we're really pleased with the carpets. We had the second bedroom and landing carpet done at the same time in the same colour, this is a Cormar Saxony carpet called 'Primo Delight' in the shade 'Almond', it has a nice deep pile and a slight fleck in the carpet so helps not to show up grubby marks too quickly. We're undecided whether to have the same colour fitted in the master bedroom (I'll update on that soon when we reach that stage).

 

Coving fitted, door and door frame glossed (we are yet to replace the door handles - every room in the house has a different one!), finally the carpet has been fitted.

 

We decided that for the meantime we would move into the guest bedroom now that it was finished, in order to help empty up the master bedroom so we could get started on the decorating in there. We moved the furniture into the guest bedroom (this furniture is staying permanently in there) and here's a photo of the finished room - only thing missing is some wall art which I just haven't got around to yet.

 

 

Glass bottle table lamps - Ikea

Beside tables & chest of drawers (not in photo) - Malm, Ikea

Duvet cover - Dunelm

Curtains - Dunelm

Ceiling Lampshade (larger version of table lampshades) - Ikea

 

Thanks to our old furniture, we managed to save a lot of money on this room. We intend on buying new furniture for our room but I think our family and friends will be more than happy with our old furniture in here. I'm pleased with how the room looks, pretty plain but that's what I wanted. I hope to get one of my nice landscape photos I took in nearby Micheldever Woods (Hampshire) blown up and framed for the wall above the bed. We've also installed a small desk (not in the photo) in here for me to do my sewing and crafting. The sewing machine now has its own permanent home! I managed to find some vintage wooden reels of thread in a local antique shop that I plan on displaying in a large mason jar/glass bottle on the chest of drawers to give the room a bit more décor, along with another nice box filled with some of my knitting wool and needles. In total, all décor, paint, DIY materials came to just under £350, well under the £500 decorating budget we set for this room. This doesn't include the cost of the new window or carpet which came to £950 (ouch!). It gives us a bit more spending money for the master bedroom which is good as we need all new bedroom furniture for that room which won't be cheap.

 

So this is the guest bedroom just about fully complete. We always give up the room when we have visitors (Jack and I are more than happy on the air bed for a night in the "building room" aka our master bedroom) and they all compliment the room so that's nice. For our very first house and our very first go at some things like fitting skirting board, sanding doors and windowsills I'm quite pleased with how well we've done. It's all a learning experience after all and I've discovered I have an extra talent for painting and glossing (Jack's least favourite jobs). We wanted a bit of a project house and this house has just the right amount, allowing us to put our own stamp on it while hopefully adding a little bit of value to the property. Here's to more exciting decorating projects! :-)