More Gardening

We spent Saturday morning working on the back garden which had been somewhat neglected while we'd been busy transforming the front garden. Everything had got a little unruly thanks to the regular supply of rain and sunshine.

The bees are loving all the different Lavenders in my garden

Jack has fitted guttering onto his shed so I now have a water butt slowly filling with rain water.

I weeded all of the flower beds, gave the herbs a bit of a tidy and admired 'Grandad's Rhubarb' which is growing really well since we planted it late last year.

Jack mowed the lawn, I edged it, Barry christened it (you know what I mean..)

I gave the Tortoise's run a tidy up; Squirt and Lola love the little cave I created for them with some slate and bricks. The Fuchsia in their run is full of flower buds too.

I weeded the whole patio - back breaking but looks so much better again

We packed up all the gardening tools just as the sky got incredibly dark and a big thunderstorm arrived, hence the 'moody' looking photos below!

Have a good week everyone!

Em x

Front Garden Transformation

We've been living in our house for almost 18 months now and I can't believe how quickly that time has flown. I feel like we've achieved quite a lot in terms of decorating and putting our own stamp on the place but one job we've been meaning to do for a while is neaten the front garden area. It only consists of a small garden sat next to the driveway but it was very overgrown and mostly full of weeds (which the tortoises really enjoyed!).

So I just thought I'd share a few photos to show the transformation; we weeded the bed, some of the wildflowers I've dug up and re-planted in my wildflower bed in our back garden. Once the bed was weeded I created a flower bed under the Buddelia and we levelled out the remainder of the ground and prepped it for turf.


After a trip to the garden centre to purchase turf and some plants for the newly created flower bed we went home, laid the turf, planted the new flower bed up and laid slabs for the wheelie bins to sit on. Ugly though they are we don't have anywhere to hide them away, but at least they're now sat on slabs so they're easy to move. There was a flower bed in front of the kitchen window too. It was full of a type of Valerian (I think that's what it is...?) and although it is pretty it was very invasive and growing through the gravel, not to mention soaking us each morning when we had to brush past it to get to the car. Therefore I pulled it all up and again have replanted a smaller amount in the back garden where I can better manage it. This newly emptied bed under the kitchen window was then planted with Osteospermum I bought from the garden centre and with Gaillardia that I have grown from seed. I love Gaillardia and they're great for spreading across a bed and are covered in bright orange and yellow flowers each year.


We both worked very hard anyway and we're really pleased with the finished look; a pretty front garden that's nice and easy to maintain (because all the hard work is in the back garden!). Just a small lawn to mow, Privet to trim and a few flower beds to keep happy. The only jobs we have left out the front to do is pull the remainder of the dead ivy off of the house and re-paint the brickwork. We also desperately need a new front door before the next winter approaches (this one sticks terribly in the cold weather). We'll get there eventually :-)


Before...

After...

And because of the pesky cats I've had to protect my new flower beds

The downside of all this gardening? My hay fever is extremely bad at the moment, but I'm determined not to let it get the better of me!


Em x

Hen Do Spa Weekend, Bit Of Gardening And SNOW?!

I had a lovely weekend on my wonderful best friend's Hen Do; we went to Whittlebury Hall in Northamptonshire (near Silverstone). As Jess had been here before and said it was lovely it was decided a while back that we'd go here and she was right. It's a lovely hotel and spa and I enjoyed the relaxation and giggles with my bestie. The food was wonderful too - a bonus because I adore food (just in case you didn't already know!). I hope Jess had a good time anyway; only 5 weeks until the wedding now!

I had a dessert for once! I had paid for it after all and it was delicious!

I said goodbye to Jess and the other girls on Sunday morning after we had checked out and made the short journey home. A very excitable Barry was waiting for me, crying like mad when he saw me. He enjoyed his boys weekend with Jack but was pleased his Mummy had returned. I took him for a nice walk around Sunday lunchtime and then spent the afternoon in the garden with the dog and the tortoises.

I had a good tidy in the garden; edged the lawn where it is overgrowing into the borders and path, looks much tidier now. I gave my herbs a spruce up and planted a new Mint; I went with a Moroccan mint as it smells lovely, but I did almost come away with a Strawberry Mint - amazing smell! The Montana Clematis is covered in flower buds so will look beautiful in another couple of week's time I should think. I'm also pleased to see everything has already grown somewhat in my wildflower/Alpine bed. It's already serving its purpose of attracting the bees and I saw a butterfly yesterday too. Just a few more plants to go in and it will hopefully be a nice busy and colourful flower bed. I think the bulbs that have come up are Alliums but I can't honestly remember what I planted last year!

Finally, it's Tuesday afternoon as I write this post and we've had snow showers on and off all afternoon. What's happening with the weather?! Does it not know it's May next week and we're meant to be having a garden party at my parents with family and friends this Sunday. I hope it warms up a little anyway, I've got so many plants waiting to go outside that I almost did put outside on Sunday only to have a harsh frost last night. I had to scrape the car this morning before work! I know I've moaned already about hay fever but I would rather the temperatures were in double figures!


I'm very excited for our dinner tonight; I put a beef brisket joint into the slow cooker this morning before work. I made a spice mixture of cayenne pepper, black peppercorns, mustard seeds, cumin and paprika, all grinded down in my pestle and mortar. This was then mixed with brown sugar and rubbed all over the meat before I added it to the slow cooker with some beef stock. When I got home from work a short while ago the house smelled delicious and sweetly spicy. I'm going to have a go at making a homemade barbecue sauce and then I'll mix this with the beef once I've shredded it. We're then having it in tortilla wraps with salad and coleslaw, yum! I'll let you know how it goes anyway and try and take some photos if I haven't already devoured it all.


Have a good week everyone!


Em x

Enjoying The Sunshine

It was glorious weather yesterday; I was so pleased to finish work and then spent all afternoon in the garden with Barry and the tortoises. Barry had a vets appointment (you gasp but for once he's absolutely fine!), just for his annual jabs now that he's all better. The vet said that Barry looks the picture of health, very fit and muscly with all the walking and activities we do.


I spent the afternoon pottering around the garden; the tortoises were sunbathing in their run and chomping on dandelions, there was a big bumblebee busy at work around my lavender plants in the garden and Barry was hunting spiders. I busied myself with planting a few more plants in the wildflower bed, admired the little blackcurrants appearing on my blackcurrant plant and I also re-potted some seedlings.

Squirt & Lola enjoying the April sunshine

I also bought two bargain bunches of Irises in Tesco for £1 each. They're some of my favourite flowers and being purple I suppose it's quite easy to guess that (I do love purple). They're opening quickly anyway and providing nice colour on the dining table.

One thing I have really noticed since the weekend is the return of hay fever :-( My eyes have been very itchy, I've been sneezing nonstop too. I'm just about managing to keep it under control with tissues, nasal spray, eye drops and tablets - I just need a gas mask and I'm complete! I really hope it isn't as bad as last year, it really got me down last year because it was the worst it had ever been and I've suffered for over 20 years. When will I outgrow it?!?! I'm back at the doctors next week anyway to see what other treatments I can try.

Regardless of hay fever, I try not to let it stop me getting outdoors (after all it does has something to do trying to build up an immunity) and gardening is one of my forms of relaxing so it's important I continue when I can. I love seeing colour appear in the garden regardless of hayfever and I've got a lot of seeds on the go.

My favourite plants/flowers;

Gerbera - such happy giant daisy faces

Iris

Mesembryanthemum - hope I got that right!

Dogwood - I love the red stems and contrasting green leaves

Lavender - for the bees

Buddleia - for the butterflies

Saxifrage - A new addition to my garden this year and I love the little flowers

Sage - my favourite herb

What are your favourite plants/flowers?

Em x



Weekend; Dog Show & Huge Roast Dinner!

Hi all, hope you're all well!


I'm a little late in writing a weekend blog post but better late than never! Did you all have a nice weekend? We had glorious sunshine on Saturday morning, though it was chilly, followed by rain and then more sunshine on Sunday so we can't really complain. I'm very glad that we made the most of the sunshine on Saturday morning as the heavens really did open that afternoon.

We enjoyed a trip out Saturday morning to the All About Dogs Show at Newbury showground. We attended last year and found it good fun and it was nice to see lots of people there again this year. There's a flower and garden show on at the same time which you get free entry into when attending the dog show and so it was nice to buy some bargain plants too. Barry enjoyed meeting lots of dogs of all shapes and sizes; he was quite nervous, as always, around other dogs but that's exactly why we go to these types of events where he'll hopefully meet lots of friendly dogs. He was amazed at watching the K9 Aqua event where the dogs launch themselves into the water after a tennis ball. I think he'd have been good at this as he loves tennis balls and loves water but he wasn't going to let me out of his sight and there's no way I was going for a swim! We did however take part in the hurdles which Barry really enjoyed. I waited at the other end and he flew over the straw bales to get back to his mummy as quickly as possible! He went so quick he almost somersaulted over the last! He was so tired by the time we got home that he almost seemed glad when we told him we were popping out without him!

Happy worn out dog

Jack and I popped into Newbury on Saturday afternoon; we bought some dinner from the butchers and bought me my very first pair of walking boots! I live in my wellies at home when out walking and they're so comfy and versatile that I don't feel like I need better walking shoes, however we're off to Wales this weekend and I feel like walking boots will be a good purchase as I'll live in them from now on! I tried on numerous pairs, some felt so heavy on my size 4 feet! I eventually found a pair I really liked; they're very comfy and quite lightweight and I've worn them on a few dog walks now and they're great for supporting my weak ankles (how do you build muscle up on your ankles?!). I'm sure I'll rack up plenty of miles in them anyway; my Fitbit informed me this morning that since last Autumn when Jack bought my Fitbit for me as a Birthday present, I've walked the length of Italy - 736 miles to be precise! Although that obviously includes miles you do around the house when doing housework and we all know just how much ground you cover darting from kitchen, to living room etc.

My first pair of walking boots!

We had a nice quiet Saturday evening finally catching up on the Night Manager (BBC 1 TV drama series). It was very good, Tom Hiddleston is a great actor and I can see why they've now put him in the running as a potential 007 of the future, though I still wish Daniel Craig would continue as he's a great Bond. We had an indoor barbeque on Saturday for dinner; we bought marinated ribs and chicken wings from the butchers, all reduced as they don't open Sunday and wanted rid of them. Very tasty and I can't wait for outdoor barbeques.

I also spent Saturday evening baking a fruit loaf for my Nan and Step Grandad as we were visiting them on Sunday for a roast dinner and catch up. Syd has a sweet tooth so I knew he'd be over the moon if I turned up with a cake for him. I also bought Nan a beautiful bunch of flowers.

Fruit Loaf for Syd

And Flowers for Nan

We had a lovely roast dinner at Nan's on Sunday; she did far too much food as per usual but Nan is famous for that! My brother and his girlfriend joined us too which made Nan's day, she loves to see her grandchildren and it was lovely to catch up. Both Nan and Syd were also very pleased to have Barry there too for lots of cuddles, sadly they had their Boxer, Daisy, put to sleep a few weeks ago, so they feel very lost having had dogs in the house continually for over two decades. Daisy lived to a very good age for a Boxer though and was totally spoilt, so I keep reminding Nan that she lived the most wonderful pampered life with them. Barry was a very good boy anyway and did stay still briefly to be cuddled to death by both Nan and Syd (they treat him as if he is a great grandchild!).

My Nan was fascinated by my brother's selfie stick - I always laugh when I see people with them but it was the best way to get us all in this photo.

Nan cooked roast beef and pork chops, "because you can't have just one meat", along with a field's worth of broccoli, cabbage, parsnips, carrots, brussel sprouts, roast potatoes AND new potatoes! Nan also did one of her famous Yorkshire puddings, which we all passed around as if it were a hat and tore off a piece (it's tradition in our family!). This huge dinner was then followed up with strawberries and ice cream. It was lovely chatting away with Nan and Syd anyway and I felt guilty when we had to head home again, but it's a two hour journey each way to Bedfordshire so we wanted to be able to get home and make lunches etc. for work on Monday. Nan as usual sent me home with half the contents of her freezer; a whole chicken, a gigantic gammon joint, steak for Jack and bacon. She tried to send me home with a 4kg pork joint too but there was no way that beast would fit in my freezer sadly! So instead she replaced said pork joint with a dozen fresh eggs from their hens and some chews for Barry.

Beautiful fresh eggs from Nan's hens, laid that day

So it was a lovely weekend of dog shows, a little bit of gardening and family time. Lovely! I'm counting down to the end of the month when my parents return from their latest trip out to France, I've really missed them this time and it's feeling like a really long time so I'm really looking forward to seeing them at the end of this month. I said 'really' a lot!

I'm also very excited for our trip to Wales this weekend! I surprised Jack for Valentines by booking us in at a lovely B&B Pub that's pet friendly too so we're going for a mini holiday. It's my first time to Wales too which is exciting as the scenery looks stunning. We're off to the Wye Valley; it's less than 2 hours' drive from home and looks like there are plenty of walks to explore, which Barry will love. We're staying in Penallt, not far from Monmouth and I've already planned our walks while we're there (just staying Saturday night but heading there early Saturday morning to get two full days there). I've planned for us to head towards Abergavenny on Sunday and we're going to do a walk on Blorenge mountain, so that's exciting. If anyone has been to the Wye Valley and can recommend walks, places to visit etc. then please do let me know. As I say, it's a totally new area to us so I'm only planning walks based on my internet research. I hope the weather is nice, regardless we will still have fun!

Have a good week all!

Em x



Latest Project: Making a Terrarium

I've taken up yet another hobby (before completing outstanding projects... story of my life!) and I had such good fun with this one. I'm an avid Pinterest user and kept stumbling across Terrariums and became quite fascinated by them, so decided to give it a go myself.

I went to Homesense on Saturday while Jenna was here and it's a great shop. Lots of beautiful things at very good prices; they're in partnership with TK Maxx I believe. One of the items I found was a beautiful glass terrarium in the shape of a lightbulb. It has a nice flat bottom so can be sat on the side somewhere or it can also be hung.

Once Jenna had gone home yesterday (after a lovely girly weekend together), I popped to the Garden Centre to buy supplies for my terrarium. They have cute miniature succulents there, I bought some small grit/stones to help retain moisture and a small bag of compost specifically for cacti and succulents (they're sometimes called Air plants too, or is that an American term?).


Once home I set about following some instructions I found on the internet to build my terrarium and I'm pleased to say it was fairly easy, though a tad fiddly and I'm really pleased with the finished result. They'd definitely make wonderful gifts for people and I'm already considering making one for a couple of friends who've said they like them.

It is currently sitting on the dresser until I decide where to put it but ideally I'd like to hang it in the conservatory (where Jack won't bump his head on it!), but I currently have a hanging basket I've planted growing in there - I always keep them indoors for as long as possible to let the plants establish in the nice warm room before hanging it outside our front door.




I definitely have the terrarium bug now and want to have a go at a few more; I love the moss-filled ones that people create and turn into miniature fairy gardens and other scenes. I've got a teeny tiny horse figurine somewhere that would look perfect on a little moss hill! Jack is a typical bloke and when I chatted to him about it on the phone last night he feigned interest when really he's thinking I've lost the plot! Perhaps I have, but it was very therapeutic.




Have a good week everyone! I'm off to read your blogs and see your latest projects!


Em x

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

Hello March!

I can't believe it's the 1st of March already, how quickly the past two months have gone despite an extra day in February. I am however excited at the prospect of Spring being just around the corner. There's signs of its arrival already despite the drop in temperature recently; buds on the trees, blossom appearing, daffodils blooming and birds returning. I for one am ready for Springtime!

We had a lovely time on Saturday at Twickenham watching England beat Ireland in the Six Nations rugby game. I was very privileged that Jack took me to watch it, usually I'm last on the ticket list haha! It was a great game anyway and we needed those tries as an excuse to jump up and down to warm up! We then spent all of Sunday in the garden having a good tidy up. We had a big pile of old wood on the patio that we've finally managed to clear ready to replace two broken fence panels between us and our next door neighbours. I've planted some primroses in the patio pots for a bit of colour in the garden. My plants are all looking healthy in the garden though; the Hydrangea is covered in buds and the Rhododendron has really grown since I planted it last year. Jack's Mum gave me a Buddleia that I need to get into the garden and I also bought a Hibiscus reduced to £5 at the garden centre so need to find a place for that to go too where it will get lots of sunshine - difficult in our garden as it sadly doesn't get a lot of sunshine except for in the height of summer when the sun is high in the sky.

I'm in love with these 'raspberry ripple' primroses!

 

And I've also been trying to fit in some crochet in between learning lots in my new job - my brain has been pretty fried by the time I've got home each day but getting home early three days a week is so lovely. I've managed to make two coasters, my first coasters, and I'm pretty pleased with them.

 

 

Anyway, that's just a little blog post update for today; as I say my brain is a little weary so I can't think what else to write at the moment! I'll be back soon though!

Em x

Valentines Weekend & Crochet

Hi All, hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a belated Happy Valentines to you all! I know lots of people differ with their views on Valentines Day; we met up with our friends at the local garden centre café for a catch up and they're completely against it, whereas Jack and I have always celebrated it, mainly because I'm a hopeless romantic! Always have been and always will be - love a happy ending, love a chick flick, love a good Jane Austen book, I just love LOVE!

Jack and I went to Bristol for a trip out on Saturday; it was our first visit here and we had a wander around but mainly kept near the shops as the weather was abysmal. We had a nice lunch out though at Brasserie Blanc before heading home again. It was a nice day anyway and nice to spend time together and the first weekend Jack's not had to work in a long long time. I surprised Jack with a weekend away that I've booked in a lovely B&B pub in the Wye Valley. We go in April, take Barry with us and can't wait to explore somewhere new! I'll tell you more about it nearer to the time.

I did manage to make some time for some crochet this weekend and had fun having a go at some crochet flowers. I successfully managed to make a daffodil and a rose, photos of the daffodil below. I also made a cute 3D red heart following Just Pootling's instructions, which can be found on her lovely blog here. I'm quite impressed at my first attempt, there were no tears or tantrums and other than the fact one side of the heart looks bigger than the other it's turned out quite well for a first attempt!

 

I'm now going to try and make a whole series of daffodils in different yellow/white shades if I can, watch this space!

 

I also bought some lovely coloured threads from eBay a while ago as I wanted to have a go at thread crochet; I made a few initial attempts and did huff and tut a lot because it's mighty fiddly! Oh well, practice makes perfect yes? I hope to have some photos to show you soon...

 

 

I was a busy girl yesterday giving the house a tidy and spruce up. I made Jack a tasty lunch for work this week; Italian style beef meatballs in a red pepper and Bolognese sauce, with fusilli pasta, which should keep him going on these long days he's working at the moment. I made some soft white bread rolls; the dough of which went crazy in our warm kitchen while I was cooking our roast dinner. I dusted them with semolina before they went into the oven; I like the slight crunch it gives the bread.

The weather was beautiful here yesterday so we went for a lovely Valentines walk up the gallops and onto The Ridgeway. It was so nice walking along in the sunshine and Barry enjoyed chasing crows and running along at 100 mph!

 

A short while after returning from our walk a delivery driver knocked on our door with a beautiful bunch of red roses for me and Jack stood behind me with a proud grin on his face for managing to surprise me. They're beautiful and came with a lovely jug too and are now sitting on the living room windowsill next to my Gerbera which is beginning to flower again. I'm a lucky girl :-)

 

 

 

We also managed to collect my glazed pottery first thing on Sunday morning and I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out. It looks slightly like a child has painted it and proved to me that I must take more care next time but I'm happy nonetheless and Barry loves his new water bowl... not that he's told me that, I'm just assuming he does!

 

Excuse my spotty socks in the photo! Barry's Water Bowl

 

Pencil Pot for my craft room

 

Flower Pot

 

 

Lastly, while waiting for above mentioned bread to rise and while catching up on some paperwork I came across a bag of plant labels, so I decided to decorate a few in anticipation of getting started on some seed planting in the coming weeks. I'm determined to be organised this year and see how successful we can be at growing some of our dinners. The flowers I grew last year were mostly successful too so I hope the ones I plan on planting this year will be. I love Gaillardia and they come up every year full of beautiful orange/red/yellow flowers. I plan to put them in the front border below our kitchen window to add some contrast to the cream colour of our house walls.

 



 

It's my last week at work this week, it's certainly come around fast. Lots to try and get done before I leave, but we've planned a nice lunch out on my final day with my work colleagues so I'm looking forward to that. Then I've got a long weekend before starting my new job. I'm excited about getting started at my new job but I'm also super nervous about it :( I hope it goes ok...

Have a lovely week everyone, wrap up warm!

Em x

Hello February; Bargains, Cooking and Lots Going On!

 

Morning All, did you all have a nice weekend? Where did it go?? Weather wasn't too bad for us here in West Berkshire; sunshine prevailed on Saturday which meant Jack could get on with shed jobs while I got on with indoor jobs with all windows flung open to give the house a good dose of fresh air.

 

We bagged ourselves a bargain on Saturday and I have to tell you about it. There are perks to living in a tiny village and when I spotted on the village Facebook group that someone was getting rid of a dresser I jumped at it. We've been after a dresser for some time and having seen that prices start at about £700 for the ones we liked in Oak Furniture Land we decided a pre-loved dresser would do perfectly for us (even if just for the interim until we'd saved some money). Sadly someone beat me to it on the post and so I didn't think we'd be successful until the dresser owner messaged me late on Friday night to say the other interested party didn't want it as it was too big, result for us! We arranged to pop round to their house on Saturday morning to have a look and it was so funny to be greeted by a lovely gentleman we've already met a number of times up at the field with his lovely yellow Labs who Barry loves to play with. He recognised us too as "Barry's owners" and we had a good chat before having a look at the dresser which is beautiful! He and his wife had it bespoke made and it's a stunning solid oak dresser. They have however changed their mind about it and no longer want it, it's not very old either and looks brand new. He refused to take any money for it despite the fact it must have cost them well over £1000 to have it made and he was ever so helpful in helping us move it to our house. Jack borrowed the work van which was a huge help as the dresser is extremely heavy but it looks amazing in the dining area of our living/dining room and I'm in love! I was so grateful for Chris helping us move it and still refusing any payment, so I ran round later that day with a bottle of wine for him and his wife by way of at least saying some extra thanks, to which he was very grateful. I can't wait to start arranging some things in the dresser; as yet we've just stored all the drinks and wine glasses in it, but I can finally get my ornaments out of the loft and put them on it. I've got a beautiful little Murano glass horse that Jack bought me in Venice; we even watched it being made on Murano Island, so it's a very special ornament to me. I love a bargain/freebie!

 

The beautiful solid oak dresser in its new home! Excuse the plug socket beside it, Jack pointed out to me that I'm yet to fill and sand this - cheeky little...!!

 

So as you can tell, I'm very pleased with how lucky we are to have this lovely piece of furniture in our house and I can't wait to get decorating the living/dining room so it really sits proud. It was definitely the highlight of my weekend. We didn't do too much else this weekend; Jack had to work on Sunday so I got on with planning our meals for this week and had a good cook-up. We had a whole chicken to use which I cooked for our lunches and dinner this week; I roasted some lovely vegetables too so we've got chicken and roasted veg couscous for lunch at work this week, nice and healthy :) I cooked a pork joint too and as always the crackling is my favourite bit! We've got pork stir fry for dinner tonight with the leftovers and I think it'll easily stretch to do some sliced pork warmed up in my homemade gravy with mash - one of my favourite dinners! I also made Jack a healthy granola. I made it just the same as the recipe on my recipe page here, only it's a healthier version made with coconut oil instead of butter and no sugar, just a splash of maple syrup. I didn't chop the nuts up this time either, decided to leave them whole (mostly because I was being lazy!) and Jack enjoyed it for breakfast this morning with fat free yoghurt, he's on a health kick and being a good boy.

 

Lovely colours of the vegetables for roasting

We've got lots planned this month and seem to have something on every weekend which is a bit unheard of for us; we much prefer the quieter life at home. I'm looking forward to this weekend as I'm going to a pottery painting studio local to us with a couple of my friends. I can't decide what to paint and will probably end up doing more than one piece! I'd love to do a personalised food bowl for Barry and perhaps a small vase too... watch this space, I'm sure I'll blog about it early next week. We're also off to the Harry Potter Studios later this month which I'm very excited about, I'm a big Harry Potter fan and I loved the books and films. I've also been busy scribbling notes in an empty notebook I found of what I want to achieve in the garden this year; I'm going to put another spreadsheet together (another one you say!) so I can keep note of when I planted seeds, where I intend to put them etc. and at least then I can hopefully look back on the success rate next year. That's the intention anyway! I also only have 3 weeks left at my current job before I start my new job, which is very exciting (and also very daunting too!!). We're also having a day out in Bristol for Valentines, I'm itching to go to Bath too but I'm not sure we'll have time in just one day. So lots going on this month and lots of being positive and happy :-) What plans do you have for this month? Are you making the most of the extra day we get this month? Don't forget pancake day, Jack's favourite day of the year!

Have a good week everyone

Em x

One Year Anniversary In Our Own Home

I can't quite believe that a year has passed since Jack and I got the keys to our very first home. It was a very exciting day, especially after the stress of the weeks leading up to it when there seems to be endless paperwork, keeping fingers crossed that the mortgage is accepted etc. but we did it! Here we are a year down the line and loving having our very own place. We'd rented a flat in Newbury before that and though our little flat was homely and nice we were both super keen to get a place of our own to decorate and also so that our money felt like it was going somewhere - even if our first annual mortgage statement that we received last week was rather depressing!

The view from our bedroom window - at our first viewing

 

The house was rather dirty when we moved in and so I spent the two weeks I'd booked off work cleaning like mad. The previous owner smoked in the living room and so my first mission was so get rid of the musty smell. Sugar soap became my new best friend and the filthiest rooms we painted in magnolia to freshen it up in the interim until we got around to decorating properly. Affording a deposit on a house is NOT easy! Both Jack and I worked extremely hard to save for our deposit and we were very lucky that our parents lent us some money too. What that meant though is that every penny we did save up went straight on the deposit and fees leaving us not a lot of savings when we moved in. That means that we've had to decorate a room at a time as we've managed to save the money up. We don't really mind this though because we've gradually seen the house transform from a neglected and out-dated two bed terraced home to a much-loved, brighter home. However, my tip for anyone who's buying for the first time (we've been trying to give some of our friends advice too) is that whatever you think you need... you need more! I'd like to have been in a position where we had a bit of savings set aside for decorating, tool buying and furnishing but then I suppose if you were buying a new build you wouldn't have the decorating costs quite so much.

 

I loved the bathroom tiles when we moved in but absolutely hated the wall colour...

 

Jazzed it up to a 'periwinkle' blue! The bathroom now has a beach theme

 

I like to be thrifty when possible and so we visited the local community project shop regularly to see what pieces of furniture had arrived. We came home with some lovely dining chairs which now sit downstairs and in the spare room. I also got a bargain old book case which I've already filled on the landing - I now need to source another antique book case because I won't diminish my quantity of books!

 

Lovely dining chairs - they only had 3 but they cost us a total of £15 and just need a little TLC.

 

The garden was probably what I was most excited about when we moved in; I've always loved gardening from a young age when I used to help my mum in the greenhouse at home. To have a garden of my own means so much and I love escaping outside to potter around the plants or just to admire the countryside views over our back fence. The garden was quite the jungle when we moved in so our first job when Spring arrived was to get the choking plants under control and I planted lots of new plants too. All look pretty healthy still, only a few casualties along the way which is par for the course and a learning curve for me.

 

The clematis had completely engulfed the oil tank and the oil company refused to deliver more until they could actually get to it so our first job was to give the clematis a hair cut. The small shed you can just about make out as also gone; it was totally rotten inside and this is where Jack has now built his shed

 

Jack and Dad putting up new fence panels ready for the imminent arrival of a little puppy... You can also see the very harsh hair cut I gave the clematis (near the trellis). It bounced right back last year and was covered in flowers, I look forward to it being in full bloom again this year.

 

When I started to put plants in...

 

 So we are very happy with our home and it's definitely lovely having your own place to do what you want and make changes that you want (as opposed to renting). We've still got lots to do, garden wise; Jack's almost there with the shed, I need to finish building the raised vegetable bed and finish the tortoise's outdoor run, then inside we have the hallway, kitchen, living/dining and conservatory still to decorate. All good fun and all in good time...

 

Em x