Poorly Peepers, Crochet and Faffing with China

My eye has finally healed and I'm back to normal.  I have my life back! 

It has been a busy weekend.  I've been making up for lost time dashing here, there and everywhere.  Meeting up with family, shopping, eating out and generally having fun.  I feel free!  

I'd started to feel a bit low - not quite myself.  Usually I'm quite chatty and cheerful but I lost interest in everything and just wanted to sleep.  Not anymore!  

I am pleased to report that I am once again belting out songs from my favourite musicals (Julie Andrews style, of course), faffing around with china and chattering with anyone who will listen.  On Friday I was only working from home but, for the first time this year, I put on a full face of make-up, blow-dryed my hair properly and wore a nice little tunic dress with tights.  I even wore a stack of gorgeous bangles and bracelets (which really irritate me when I'm working because they bash on my laptop but, hey, I was BACK!). 

I've had a sudden surge of motivation to finish the blanket I started on holiday last year.  It's just a giant granny square and although I'm in my fifth month of working on it, it hasn't actually taken me that long.  It has been languishing in my crochet bag and I'd just do  a few stitches here and there when I felt like it. I got a bit too caught up in Christmas and redecorating the dining room towards the back end of last year.  

I'm just doing the edging now... 

Can you see, there's a row of not-very-impressive-but-extremely-complicated flat-X-stitch in red.  It is preceded by a couple of rows of double crochet.  (Mental note to self to use a larger hook for a double-crocheted edging in future - because the stitch is a little tighter than the trebles the blanket doesn't quite lie flat when outstretched.  The red edging is also frilling a little (too many stitches/too large stitches?  who knows) - it's completely accidental but I rather like it.)  I'll do a proper 'reveal' (!) when it's all done but I am so pleased with the colours - I think they all work really well together. 

♥♥♥

We went to my MIL's for lunch today.  She is a keen gardener (her gardens are beautiful) and we got talking about my plans for our little garden this year.  I want to have a go at growing my own flowers, specifically because I'd like to be able to cut flowers for the house.   Andrew gave me this lovely trio of books for Christmas:  

The Ten Minute Gardener collection.  There's one for flowers, one for fruit and one for vegetables (I don't think there are more but I could be wrong).  They are such good books for an absolute novice like me, advising what I should be doing each month in really straight-forward language.  We have the tiniest patch of grass but I'm going to reduce it further and chop another border into it, specifically for my cut flower patch.  It will be a tiny space but one that I can experiment with.  I'm so excited to get started.

I've been fiddling about with little bits and bobs in the house today.

The utility china on the dresser in the dining room had been bothering me for a while.  I still absolutely love it but the dresser just looked messy to me, and not in a good way.  The china didn't seem to fit with the room.

So I've had a move around.  My utility china collection is now stacked tidily (and prettily) in the sideboards and a few favourite jugs are displayed neatly in the living room:

I've moved my chunky neutral 'every day' china onto the dresser and I'm pleased with the overall effect.

Creams and earthy tones with the odd piece of glassware feel calming and restful.

Nothing fights for your attention in the room any more, it all just blends together harmoniously.  I'm glad I did it and had a lovely time fiddling about.

This is the quiet before the storm.  It's my niece's birthday party next weekend and the cake making begins this week.  Andrew has already joked that he won't expect any sleep on Friday evening (as I've said before, it's usual for me to stay up until the early hours at the last minute making final tweaks!).  I'm making a jungle-themed two-tiered cake with 20 matching cupcakes.  My niece is only three but her party is set to be the social event of the century! I can't believe the parties that children have these days - I used to be happy with a few friends to tea and a game of musical bumps!  I think there is a bit of pressure on my sister for Izzie's party to match up to everyone else's.  (Also, she loves planning parties so she is in her element!)

I've decided to make a simple cake for my Grandma's birthday at the end of the month and have some gorgeous cake bunting that I bought from Sew Sweet Violet last year.  It will be perfect atop a simple frosted cake with a few sugar roses.

Have a happy week, everyone, and thank you for continuing to pop by this little web space of mine.

Speak soon!

Nicki 

x

Worshipping my yarn stash

We are finally straight at home.  Hurrah!  After three months without a dining table, a month without even a dining room floor and an enforced week away from home due to damp-proof work we now have a fully functional dining room.  Want a little peek?

Thank you, Shabby Chic Sarah, for your advice on spraying the mirror, it was black before!...  And thank you, Cuckoo, for the egg basket/fairy lights idea...  Love pinching ideas from my bloddies! 

We have still got curtains and window-seat cushions to sort but I am thrilled with the result so far.  Positively skippy.  

The floor is a huge improvement and having a thick base layer of concrete has really warmed the room up.  We had a wood burner installed in there earlier in the year so, with a fire going and the fairy lights twinkling, the room can actually be described as cosy!  Sooo happy.  I have spent loads of time in there already -  I feel the cold really easily so I plonk myself in the chair closest to the fire and sit reading, crocheting and sewing.  I've even watched a bit of TV in there on my laptop.  (One of my favourite things to do is watch TV on my laptop.  We have three proper-sized tellies in the house but I just adore sticking my big headphones on and watching one of 'my' programmes on the laptop.  I usually snuggle up in bed to watch it but I've also taken it into the bathroom occasionally and watched from the bath.  Bliss, I tell you!)  I've got loads to do at work this week and I can't wait to spread out my papers on the dining room table, light a fire and tackle my spreadsheets.  Sad, I know.

Unpacking my china and organising the dresser and sideboards was a particular highlight:  

I have a sorted my china by colour.  It took ages but, oh!, how I loved unwrapping each and every piece.  I have a cupboard full of pink china and another completely filled with cake stands.  Simple pleasures...

I think that living in disarray for such a long time brought about a slight meltdown and I have been on a mission to regain order.  I decided to create a 'crafty corner' in the spare room so that I can faff around with fabric and yarn to my heart's content without messing up the whole house.   I bought, on impulse, a vintage teacher's desk on ebay, a pretty green chair and an oak bookcase.  The husband was coaxed into helping me move furniture around the room and a new place of worship, for me, was born.

Seriously, I keep just popping into the spare room to admire my yarn stash:

....sigh happily over my labelling system....

... and open my desk drawer to run my fingers over the spools of ribbon and washi tape:

I need to get a life, I know.  

Nicki 

x

PS Hello to my new followers!  Thanks for stopping by.  I'm always thrilled to find new blogs so I'll pop over as soon as I can.  Getting close to 100 followers now and I'm planning a giveaway when I reach the magic number!

Have a great week! 

Home!

The saga of the dining room has almost reached its conclusion.  The relief!  

We did, indeed, go to stay at my MIL's for a week.  Such a good decision to scram from the crime scene.  The dust in the dining room and kitchen has been horrendous and it was such a smelly job too.  Now, the concrete has hardened nicely and the workmen are returning on Saturday to do the rest of the work.  It is anticipated that by Tuesday it will all be done and I can put the dresser back in there.  Yipee!!!!  Currently, my china is bubble-wrapped and kept in plastic storage boxes in the bathroom.  My kitchen paraphernalia is in the top room of the house, just laid out on the floor.  The furniture from the dining room is squashed into our, already very small, living room.  

But things are on the up!  

Just so pleased to be home and cosying up.  Everything is slowly but surely going back where it belongs.  We're expecting delivery of the remaining dining room furniture in a couple of weeks and I really can't wait.  

The weather has turned chilly here and I am so looking forward to lighting the fires and spending my evenings on guilt-free crochet, reading and Downton-Abbey-watching.  The little barn in our garden is all stocked up and we are ready to hibernate:

I'm also looking forward to cooking some proper old-fashioned, hearty meals.  I saw this book in a local (amazing) kitchen shop at the weekend and I can't get it out of my head:

The photo is taken from Amazon and, as you can see, it gives you a preview of the book if you fancy having look.  It is such a lovely read, loads of fab-looking recipes but it has that 'oooh' factor that makes you want to sit down with a cup of tea and devour it from cover to cover.  It has gone straight on my wish list.  As soon as I can fit back in my leather leggings (unexpected sojourn to MILs and a week of delicious homecooking has done wonders for morale but nothing for the waistline) I will be buying myself an enamel pie dish and cooking up a storm.

Hope that everyone is having a good week so far - have been checking in with a few blogs here and there but I'm looking forward to a proper catch up now.

Nicki 

x

Living in a wonky cottage

I think I have mentioned before that we live in a crumbly old cottage:

 (I can't dwell on this photo because the gaps between some of the stones freak me out, like the Big Bad Wolf could huff and puff and blow my house down.  Gulp.)

I love this little house.  I may have said before but it's actually a pair of very small cottages which were knocked through to make one house about 25 years ago.  One of the cottages that makes up our house is Grade II Listed, the other is not. The house, as a whole, is on a slope so although we have just two bedrooms we kind of have five floors/levels sometimes with just one room on a floor.

The house has bags of character; exposed stone walls in places, wooden beams everywhere, an inglenook fireplace and a vaulted ceiling. We bought this house because we love these quirky features.  I also love the sense of history here.  The deeds and other papers for the house were sent to us in a huge box and it was fascinating to read through some of them - we learned that the house, many years ago, was sold by auction at the local pub.  That amuses me.  I like to imagine a pickled old man, possibly a farm-hand, who staggered slowly home after what was meant to be a quiet drink in the pub before his tea.  He gets to the front door, cap in hand, scratching his head and greeting his wife... "you bought what??" she yells... Ha!

So old places are generally, to me, great.  Very occasionally they are not so great.  The walls in our house are mostly covered with artex which I'm not all that keen on but can't face the huge expense and disruption to have it removed.  Now that summer appears to be on its way out, and the temperature has dropped, the house is freezing.  I put the heating on for a short burst the other day (I know!) and we now have to light a fire if we spend any time at all in the living room.  We have to work really hard to keep mice at bay, especially at this time of year, and the conservatory roof has developed a leak.

The thing that I'm struggling with at the moment, though, is the wonkiness of the place.  (Is wonkiness even a word?)   The walls are uneven.  The floors are not level.  The ceilings aren't level either.  Nothing in this house looks straight.  Mostly I live with, and love, this fact but it has has been further highlighted today by the delivery of a lovely new dresser for the dining room (yep, the revamp has only just begun and the first piece of furniture has been delivered, slightly earlier than anticipated!).  We've popped it in the corner, where it will live post-revamp, and it fits perfectly (hurray!) but it looks so wonky:

See!  The floor slopes horribly.  I suspect the ceiling isn't ever so level either.   I just don't quite know how to straighten it up properly.  If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear from you - perhaps you have a similar issue at your own place?

I'm sorry for the slightly too 'real' rough and ready photo of the dresser and messy dining room.  We're selling all of our existing dark wood furniture on eBay so the room looks like a store room right now.

I know we all like to dream and swoon over other people's photos on our blogs and I can promise some prettier photos later in the week, if you'll bear with me.  My utility china collection is building nicely and I made a few fab purchases at local charity and antique shops over the weekend so I'll leave you with a taster of what's to come:

The husband couldn't understand why we need an old jam spoon, pickle fork and bread fork:  men really are from Mars.  ;-)

Nicki 

x