Back Home

I love holidays. July, the midway point of the year and all the end of term madness leaves me strung out and desperate for a break, a rest for a while. But coming home is great. I love a little wander around the house, saying hello to all our things, enjoying the prints, paintings and pottery I've collected and the patterns and colour are always such a surprise after the plain walls of a holiday apartment. 

Before the bags are unpacked I'm out in the garden, dead heading and picking a posy for the house to welcome us home. Just one honeysuckle bloom in this little jug has filled the whole sitting room with the scent of summer.

I needed to do a food shop dash to stock us up with essentials after my first day back in the office and couldn't resist these rusty gladioli for less than £2. I haven't seen this shade before and I'm really enjoying the statuesque glamour they bring to the mantle piece. Like most homes our mantle piece is a place to display some special treasures. There's a photo of Woody and me at my sister's royal wedding street party a couple of years ago and a tiny, knitted cottage brooch I love too much to wear. I adore it but have forgotten where I ordered it from so if anyone recognises it please let me know!

The clock is nothing special and replaced a lovely old 1930s dark wooden one that I need to get repaired because it loses time so much. It perches on colourful copies of Tom Brown's School Days and The New Weekend Book I bought in a charity shop for their fantastic covers. The green candlesticks are Royal Doulton, picked up for pennies from the Collector's Market and always have red candles in at Christmas.

Woody is a fan of agate and we have polished stones in different shapes and colours, even some bookends and I really like this smooth, marbled ball. The jug on the right is Polish pottery and was a birthday present from my lovely sister and is one of my very favourite things. 

I grew up with a shelf of Observer books and loved to unwrap them and see their hidden colourful covers. My few of my favourites sit on the shelf here and remind me of my mum and dad and everything they've taught me about wildlife, the sea and the countryside. And there are always cards too, special ones I can't bear to take down that slowly rotate through the year.

And you can't quite see it behind the jug but there's a nursery portrait of our boys when they were tiny wearing fair isle tank tops they'll hate me for one day but their mummy will always love. xx

At Home

It's been lovely just to potter around at home this weekend and tick off a few things on our very long to do list. 

New sofas and a carpet are on the way at long, long last. After eight years we're finally in a place where we can start to make an impression on this little house of ours. 

Later we managed to stock up in town at the butcher and the green grocer and call in for coffee at our favourite cafe while the rain hammered down.

Sunday so far has been beautiful. Woody ran a half marathon this morning and then we walked across the fields to the new/old village pub for a rather hearty lunch in the sunshine. Just my sort of day.

Thanks so much to everyone for your lovely comments recently, especially on my new look blog and all the local bloggers in this neck of the woods. So lovely to hear from you all, thanks. Hope you're having a smashing weekend too xxx

At last!

Finally, after 12 long years I've actually got a kitchen to call my own. I've lost count of the times I've painted over tiles, cupboards, floors even to try and improve some hideous set of units in the houses we've lived in to try and make a space feel more like home.

Woody was reluctant it has to be said. He'd have put up with our old, sad, rotten, leaking, broken kitchen forever but I'd reached my limit. I last did it up a couple of years ago but it really was beyond repair. So I went to Ikea and bought a bargain new kitchen that we can just afford and a couple of weeks back it was fitted.

All I wanted was something that when I cleaned it, it actually looked clean! There are no fancy, cheffy touches, just nice simple cupboards, with lovely deep pan drawers and proper lighting so I can actually see what I'm doing.

The Ikea fitters were superb and we didn't have to call or organise anything apart from buying our tiles and new flooring. We arranged for them to fit those too as well as a brilliant little plinth heater that warms up our galley kitchen really quickly and meant we could get rid of an awkward radiator. This meant we also got to have a fridge freezer in this end of the room rather than in the dining end which was always a hassle.

I love the tiles. They're the same as we had fitted in the bathroom last year but in here we chose a light grey grout because I didn't want to get fixated on it discolouring. It looks great!

I can't tell you how happy I feel to have a proper kitchen with appliances that work (and don't smoke or smell!) where we can gather as a family and enjoy where we are. Tomorrow all the family are coming over for a big Sunday lunch and I can't wait to cook for them and feel a tiny bit proud.xxx

Kitchen Supper

The clocks have fallen back and it was our first teatime in the dark this evening. For once it was just Woody and I at the table in the lamplight so we ate a spicy casserole while the boys had fun at their friend's.

 

It's all changed in our kitchen, not had chance to take pictures of our lovely new units and tiles yet but I'll get around to it soon. One of the best things is that we've been able to move things around a bit and everything feels a much more spacious.

Sorry about the poor quality pictures but it looked very cosy and despite the light levels I couldn't resist. The dresser looks properly at home now and the china cabinet is now full of all our photo albums and cookbooks.

 

I love reorganising things. It's taken me ages to have the time to do it but I've got rid of tons of things that we've gathered over the last few years and it feels good to have a clear out. Autumn makes me want to do much more than the Spring. Must be that urge to hibernate I guess? 

There's a new lamp on the dresser and a beautiful painting (I need to frame!) on the shelf.

The school map should make it onto the wall one day I'm hoping too.

We sat listening to the radio together (the local football club have banned Woody's newspaper and there was a ding dong of a debate with his editor on the local station) and then we set the world to rights together. A cosy kitchen supper is a lovely thing x



Trying not to mind...

That this summer is panning out rather like the last and that my pictures are just the same. Lots to enjoy though while the rain pours down and the wind blows. I feel a film and an afternoon read coming on. Stay dry xxx

Scenes from a Snowbound Home

Over the past few months we've become very well practised in snowy Saturdays here at No. 25.

Firstly there is usually a slow start, especially when the horizontal blizzard is still giving everything it's got outside.

 

Books, colouring, hot toast, long baths and the inevitable computer games fill most of the morning.

And then when the wind drops a little its a mad rush to pull on waterproofs and get out into it.

Time then to cosy in again, fill the radiators with wet socks and snuggle up with hot chocolate.

The kitchen table is working overtime at the moment. Half office/half craft table.

I'm not sure this winter is ever going to end. Perma-winter; stuck forever in the land of the Snow Queen. In the village up the hill from us the snow drifts are seven foot deep!

 

Looking forward to a long, snug afternoon of gardening books to lift my soul. Stay cosy!



An Executive Decision

As much as I love interiors, faffing about with paint charts, re-arranging furniture and bits and pieces, I am an absolutely, humongous procrastinator when it comes to making actual decorating decisions.

Ideas on colour, pattern and form consume me for ages. Like months - years even.

We've lived in this house for five years and 90% of our walls are the same colour they were when we moved in, perhaps re-coated, but essentially the same.

The practical side of decorating is down to me in this house - unless the boys bedrooms are the project of the moment, then Woody swings into action and progress is remarkably rapid. When it comes to communal areas of our home however, I must do it myself and it has always been thus.

In our dozen years together I have repainted 3 sets of kitchen units and tiles (some twice), 3 bathrooms (+ tiles again) and redecorated at least 8 bedrooms. I finally put my foot down a few months ago and insisted on a brand new, not make-do-and mend, bathroom project. I say project, we just had a new suite fitted for £500 and spent £300 on our first ever set of new tiles.

I was enormously impressed.Woody is still reeling - he thinks everything decor-wise costs less than £100.

Now I'm working full time though and we're back on a more even financial keel (for the time being), the possibility to tackle some decorating is back on the agenda. The awful, awful kitchen I make do with is on the horizon for a bargain Ikea refit later in the year, thank heavens.

 

In the meantime I want to spruce up the sitting room and a feature wall (the chimney breast) has been on my mind. It struck me as relatively thrifty to focus on a single wall and I can use up our stock of play safe, neutral paint for the others.

 (A flea market painting to add to my little collection of watercolours and it might hang on the chimney breast)

But what paper to choose?

Most "feature" wallpapers make my teeth ache if I'm honest. Screamingly loud florals, Gothic prints or graphic designs that I know will not let my eyes relax in the evening.

And then at my hairdresser's last month I noticed the salon door covered in "the paper". Following a little investigation I learnt it was a William Morris design - Marigold in Artichoke. I am saved.

This sample has been tacked to the wall for a few nights and is perfect. I think its just beautiful and is just the right balance of texture, colour and print for this room.

Thanks to the rather lovely Avenue Interiors in town, two pricey but pretty rolls are on their way to bring a focus to our front room. I even think our existing curtains can probably stay too, so all in all quite a find.

I'm *almost* looking forward to the decorating bit now!

Frosty Sunday

Do you think these could be snow clouds? All this promising that the Met Office is doing is getting my hopes up rather too high. I've got a suspicion we'll end up in the middle; missing it all.

 

Across the valley this morning it looks very frosty, bright now but very cold. A day for cosying in I think. My sister and her tiny ones are due over later so we're planning an afternoon of playtime and hot chocolates all round.

Even this pair are staying close to the fire, despite the garden hedge being full of tiny birds they love to chase and I'm glad for that. They're not the brightest felines and the birds have their tactics completely sussed.

 

I always put the feeders high up in the trees and this morning we've had a dozen long tailed tits, gold finches, blue tits, great tits, reed buntings and the robin all paying visits. The jay that comes for peanuts scares the living daylights out of my felines and the hens do a good job of keeping the furries away from the birds.

I made it out yesterday though on my new bike and surprised myself a bit (thanks for all the lovely, lovely comments on my last post btw!) The towpath was very muddy and it was hard going but I kept at it and headed down the valley for a few miles before turning for home. I thought maybe I'd chalked off about 6 miles but a friend showed me an app that maps your route and turns out it was just short of ten!

 

I can't quite believe it. Had to take some painkillers during the night because my poor old legs were really protesting, but today I feel great. Just need to pluck up some courage to get up a hill soon.

So I'm feeling pretty cheery and the first daffs of the year are making me smile too. And look what arrived from the greengrocer on Friday night...sunshine in a box! These clementines are delicious and aren't going to last us long.

So, a wintry weekend we have at last. I don't like it when we miss out seasons and as we never got our summer, I'd be disappointed if we don't get a winter either. Contrast is what its all about for me, not some samey, bleurrgh of never ending mildness and damp. So bring on the snow I say and the sunshine in June.

Happy Sunday everyone.xxx

 

Local Heroes

We're feeling as proud as punch in the Moorlands at the moment. Yesterday our golden Olympic hero Anna Watkins came home for her special parade after winning gold in the women's double sculls with Katherine Grainger at the Games.

 

It was a fantastic event. It felt like the whole district was there to pat her on the back and let her know how much she's inspired us and how chuffed for her we are.

 

There were banners, people hanging out of windows, flags, lots of cheering and the bunting was out again in force around the town.The sun shone all day and her golden post box was dazzling.

 

Anna is truly a local girl; swimming lessons at the leisure centre, athletics at the running track, brownies in the town etc. She grew up in the next village to ours and went to B's school and it was amazing for them to see her and her magnificent medal, right back here where it all began.Who knows which child from Leek might be the next gold medallist?

But we're doubly proud around these parts because Lee Pearson, perhaps one of our most famous Paralympians has now got his own golden post box too, (thanks to a team medal gold in the dressage), in the village where I grew up. He lived around the corner from us until recently but now lives in my mum and dad's village.

Lee's bringing back three medals from London, one of each and incredibly he's not quite had the Games he was hoping for. There can't be many places to boast gold medal heroes from both London Games in this fantastic summer of sport.

Really makes you proud to be a Brit. The Times summed it up brilliantly yesterday - a summer so many thought would never emerge but, exactly because of the British attitude to all things, we have been amazed by how taken with the whole wonderful spirit of summer 2012 we have been and, despite all the weather, its become one we truly will treasure and never forget.

Well done Anna and Lee. Inspiriational doesn't come close. You're champions and we love you!