Quartz Kitchen Worktops for your Wonderful Kitchen

a third party contribution

A house shows what you are and what your choices are. A well designed house will make it attractive to your near and dear ones. Moreover, it will be an object of envy for your neighbours. However, one should remember that while designing a home or decorating it, spending money is not solely important. Rather, the most important thing will be your sense of taste. Moreover, different rooms in your house should be designed in different pattern. After all, you cannot design your bedroom in the same way you design your dining space! While designing the different parts of the house, do not forget about the most important part of your house – the kitchen. It is an important part of the house where you will spend quite some time irrespective of the fact how busy you are.

Picture taken from Caesarstone UK official site

While designing your kitchen, the most important thing that you need to take into consideration is your worktop or countertop. Unless you have the right kind of worktop installed in your kitchen, you will never be able to manage your kitchen and the associated work in the right manner. Of late, the quartz worktops have gained immense popularity in the market. In the recent times, the market is full of Caesarstone quartz worktops which have been especially designed for the kitchen. However, bathroom worktops are also available with them. 

Picture taken from Caesarstone UK official site

Caesarstone quartz kitchen worktops can add a glam factor to your kitchen. Its mere presence will help you give a completely stylish look to your kitchen. Caesarstone quartz kitchen worktops are well known for their looks. Apart from this, they are also available in various colours which will give you the opportunity to match them with the overall colour combination of your house. Moreover, whether you have a small kitchen or a huge one, you will be able to fit the Caesarstone quartz worktops in any space. If required, you can even get them customized from their store! This is one of the biggest advantages of installing them in your kitchen.

Picture taken from Caesarstone UK official site

You must be wondering why one should go for Caesarstone quartz kitchen worktops when the option of granite worktops are available in the market. Well, there are various reasons why you should choose the option of quartz worktops. One of the major reasons will be the weight of the worktops. You will be glad to note that quartz worktops are quite light in weight compared to the granite worktops. Apart from this, granite worktops are more prone to getting destroyed within a few years time. This is not the case with the worktops made of composite quartz. Caesarstone quartz worktops are scratch proof as well as heat resistant. Moreover, unlike granite worktops, they are non-porous. Thus, mould and dew will not develop on them. Thus, you can forget about fungal developments on the worktop. Also, it will give your kitchen a hygienic and clean feel. So, once you are done with your family gathering, you will not have to waste much time. Thus, cleaning becomes quite easy.

Picture taken from Caesarstone UK official site

Caesarstone quartz kitchen worktops at time have multiple counters where you will be able to place all your kitchen utilities and access them when time comes. Thus, you have separate counters for used utensils, cutting vegetables and fruits, keeping appliances, etc. You will also get a wash basin attached to the worktops, if required. However, it will be solely your discretion as to which option you will choose – a simple countertop or a multi-tier one. Depending upon your needs, you can go for anyone. Not only this, you should also remember that these worktops can be installed in any part of the house depending upon how you wish to design your house.

The Caesarstone quartz kitchen worktops are so designed that you will be able to use them as a bar counter or a place to display food when you arrange for a party. It will all depend upon your sense of taste in the field of interior designing. You can do the interiors on your own or you can take help of an interior designer who will work for you and give a completely new look to your home.

Picture taken from Caesarstone UK official site

Ventilation of your kitchen is very important if you wish to keep it germ-free. So, make sure that your kitchen is well-ventilated. It should definitely have a window.  Apart from this, add some greenery to your kitchen in order to make sure that you have fresh air in your kitchen. So, you can choose some kind of flowering plant for the same. Not only will the air smell fresh, but there will be a sweet smell in your kitchen. Thus, there would be no place for bad odour in your kitchen.

Hurry up! Get in touch with any kitchen appliance store and install Caesarstone quartz kitchen worktops in order to add that glam factor to your house!

The North Wind and the Sun

At the risk of being a blogging cliche and an English cliche, I am going to talk about the weather.  Well, what else do you start a chat with, particularly after being AWOL for 8 months?! 

Summer is almost upon us and we have finally had our taste of the warmer days to come.  Tarpaulin has been removed from our outdoor furniture and the flannel bed linen has been relegated to the airing cupboard in the bathroom, hopefully not to be shaken out until at least October.

This evening as we were walking the dog through the village I noticed how warm the sun still was when the wind died down.  The wind, however, was especially chilly and made the evening feel cold.  

Whenever we have very warm sun and cold wind I am always reminded of my lovely old headmaster at junior school and the stories that he would sometimes read in assembly for a special treat.  One of my favourites was an Aesop's fable, "The North Wind and the Sun".  

You will have heard the story, basically with the moral that force is less effective than gentler methods of persuasion.  I always think of the sun and the wind arguing, and the traveller whose coat they were trying to remove.  Of course, the sun has a smiling, serene, face and the wind has puffed out cheeks and angry eyebrows.  Then my mind wanders to Mr McNulty at the front of the school hall and the yellow papers containing the collection of short stories that he would unfold at the end of an assembly.  I never tired of hearing those stories.  I don't think any of us did.  We children would cheer when he brought out those yellow papers.  I daydream about sitting cross-legged on the highly polished parquet flooring in the main hall and the dust motes that could be seen as the sun streamed in through the tall, narrow, windows.  I would pick at the scabs on my knees, prod the bruises on my legs, smooth my cotton skirt and fiddle with the lace trimming my ankle socks.  All whilst blissfully listening to my beloved headteacher read from those exciting yellow papers.

I am a sentimental girl, it's true, but summer evenings make me especially nostalgic about my childhood and those gorgeously long summer days.  

I love living in the countryside at this time of year - baby birds, cow parsley and early morning farm traffic all make me feel so joyful and peaceful.  And that's all I really need at the moment; joy and peace.

Thanks for popping by.  Have a lovely week.

Nicki 

x

PS I am sorry for the lack of photos.  I have put off blogging for the last few months due to lack of suitable photographs.  I don't carry a camera around with me and I'm often too caught up in what I'm doing to actually take a photo of it anyway, especially one good enough for a page on the actual world wide web. So I just decided to go for it and waffle a bit.  Sans photos.  Figured you'll forgive me, because you're a nice bunch.  I do, after all, blog mostly for myself and I can cope with mental imagery when I read back through my posts.  I have made a little pact with myself, though, to make my  DSLR more accessible and I will pop it in my bag more often to capture some of the lovely moments I am blessed with in my life.  

Wish I'd had my camera when Drew accidentally skidded across the caravan's wet verandah in the rain last week.  Nearly wee'd myself laughing.   

The exciting and the downright mundane: an update

Hi!  I went MIA for a while there, right?  I've been SO busy.  Last time I blogged it was warm and sunny.  It's now cold and grey, and we've put the clocks back!  Sheesh.  I so hope I still have some blog friends who might read my ramblings.  I've been popping by reading everyone else's but just never have the time to comment (or, let's be honest, the inclination to… It's always a right faff commenting via blogger on my iPad).

So much has happened and I promise to blog more regularly again so that I can keep my posts relatively short.  This, however, will be epic.

Brace yourself.

Cosy kitchen.  Still working up the strength to chop up the world's largest butternut squash. 

Ellie, my new little niece, continues to be a delight and I am pleased to report that her Auntie Nicki was the first to make her properly giggle.  Seems she likes the cha cha.  Her mum, sister and grandmother have all tried their hardest to get a similar explosion of giggles from her but have failed miserably.  This makes me feel very smug.  Particularly as I have always been terrified around babies.  Izzie (my eldest niece) was not a cuddly baby and this did not help my phobia.  Ellie makes me almost broody.  She is a smiling, quiet and content little baby and she likes nothing more than a cuddle.  She also likes my singing (I know!), which makes me love her even more.  (I am currently singing, on repeat, 'Cauliflowers fluffy and cabbages green'… thanks to niece's harvest festival.  Too cool, I know.)

I had the day off work on Friday to take Izzie swimming.  There's a fun children's pool at my local Virgin Active and I knew she'd like it there.   We only spent an hour in the pool and I felt like I'd been through the wringer.  She was constantly splashing me, chasing me, racing me and once even (accidentally, I hope) gave me a sharp knee in the jawbone as she over-exuberantly practiced her backstroke legs.  By the time my sister left at 4pm I was exhausted.  How do parents do it, each and every day? It baffles me.  Big respect.  That said, days spent with Izzie are amongst my favourite.  She's funny, loving and so very bright.  I had to stop myself sniggering when she told me at the pool that it was 'a thrill, Auntie Nicki'.

Scissor fob pattern from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

I've been crafting my little fingers off with every spare moment and have made myself a lush little selection of spooky sewing notions.  Stitching witches, monsters and pumpkin faces on these long dark evenings has given me much joy!  I have also been working on a few bags and home accessories for a new venture with my lovely friend Claire.  We hope to launch the shop at homebird and belle later in November, just in time to sell a few Christmas decorations.  We will also sell a few bits and bobs that fellow crafters might like.  We are starting very small as we both have full-time jobs but it's a way to justify our fabric purchases and share our favourite things so we're happy right now.  We're blogging fairly regularly too and have already uploaded the first of some delicious recipes so please do stop by!

Speaking of full-time jobs, I start a new one at the beginning of December.  Still with the same organisation but I'll be working in a different department.  It's a step up for me and I expect it to be challenging and verrrrry busy!  I'm looking forward to a change.  Thankfully, I will still be in contact with my current line manager.  He has been my favourite boss of all (albeit the most demanding and challenging; he has such high standards!).  And I'm not just saying that because he might stumble across my blog!  I've worked for him for six years and learnt such a lot, I feel well prepared to move into another role.  Exciting times.

In other [less exciting but no less important] news, I have had my ear syringed, blitzed my bathroom cupboards (unearthing 4 brand news pots of my fave L'Occitane body cream - yay!) and developed an unhealthy obsession with hazelnut lattes.  I have also bought four new winter dresses, fallen in love with my mother-in-law's new Westie pup and sliced my thumb open on a plastic tub of fresh pasta sauce (serve me right for taking the lazy option).

You're all up to date!  ;)

I'll be back soon - thanks for reading.  Have a super lovely week.

Love

Nicki

x

Bath, bed and stories all round

I did the bath, bed and story routine with Izzie this evening.  Whenever I get the chance I like to finish work at 5pm on the dot and get straight across to my sister's in time for stories.  I was there in good time this evening, plus bedtime is a little later due to the school holidays, so Izzie and I also managed a quick game of Bus Stop whilst watching Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy.  For the last couple of years I have always been sure to visit Izzie with a bag or basket full of fun stuff.  Usually I take stickers, colouring books and craft kits but just lately I've popped an Orchard Toys board game in my bag and Izzie loves them.  They are simple enough for her to learn but challenging enough to hold her attention.  Izzie beats me every single time and I swear it's not because I let her!  We like Shopping List and Pop to the Shops best.  Funny that the shopping ones would appeal to me most… Ha. 

After her bath, from which I got soaked from head to toe messing about with plastic colanders, Izzie picked out a book for us to read.  She chose, I'm sure, the thickest book in her collection.  We read a page each and it took us nearly half an hour.  It is fair to say that I am not a fan of the Buffin Street Gang.

Baby Ellie has spent all of my visits fast asleep so far and tonight was no exception.  We did get a good long snuggle together after her feed and Ellie snuffled into my shoulder, hiccuping softly (after the loudest, rudest, burp you ever heard).  She is almost enough to make me broody, that girl.  Everyone adores her.  It is a joy to see my sister so relaxed and happy with her second baby.  

I've been home for an hour, scoffed a posh fish finger sandwich and I think I'm off to bed now.  I am reading The Diary of a Provincial Lady and loving it.  It makes me laugh out loud; the unspoken competition she has with Lady B about 'the bulbs' has tickled me a lot.  Like an old-fashioned, married, Bridget Jones - I can definitely recommend it.

SO nearly the weekend.  Bring it on! 

Nicki 

x

A new baby in the family

Sewing [kitchen] trolley from Ikea.

Some pre-cut fabrics and FQ bundles in my sewing trolley :)

Fabric basket.  Lined with stiff interfacing to maintain shape.

My favourite quilting thread:  YLI.  Very strong, good colour selection and on pretty wooden spools.

I went to see my baby niece as soon as was feasibly possible: late afternoon last Monday.  She was 44 hours old as I held her in my arms.  She slept the entire time and I couldn't stop staring at her, she's perfect.

Izzie is 5 and totally enchanted by her little sister.  When I arrived at their house, she came running out of the front door to greet me, a giant smile stretching across her face.  She said breathlessly, "Auntie Nicki, the baby has popped out of mummy's tummy and I've got a sister - come and see!"  Ha! They'd just got back from the doctor's for Ellie's 48 hour check-up and Ellie was still in her car seat.  She is so small!  Izzie cannot leave her alone.  She plants big, wet kisses all over Ellie's face and - "look at her tiny little fingers and nails, Auntie Nicki" - pulls the sleep suit roughly up over Ellie's hands to marvel at the perfection of her baby sister.

My sister, though obviously still uncomfortable and sore, is blissful.  She and Ellie bonded immediately and Sarah seems content, relaxed and unbelievably happy.  She has always wanted children - lots of them preferably - and her doctor warned her it would be difficult to conceive due to her PCOS.  Her husband is looking after her well and they are the loveliest family.  I'm so happy for them.

The joy a baby brings to a family, right?!  Mum, Sarah and I group-message daily on Viber and it so nice to receive regular snaps of Izzie and Ellie; hear their news.

The sun continues to shine but it is definitely a little cooler, which is so welcome and makes me look forward to Autumn (I know, too soon).  The heat was starting to make me ratty.  I was fed up of feeling sweaty and unable to sleep at night-time.  I also have really bad hay fever this year - what's all that about?  I didn't get a whiff of hay fever until about four years ago and it seems to get worse each year.  Bizarre.  It's clearly a slippery slope to old age.  Ha.

I'm on a mission at the moment to organise and prettify my workroom.  I bought the [kitchen] trolley from Ikea a couple of weeks ago and it needed to be separated into compartments to help me properly sort my sewing bits.  I wasn't happy with the baskets available in Ikea and decided to make some fabric buckets on my return home.  I'm really pleased with the ones I made.  They were made purely by trial and error (they started off as just the one, quite shallow basket which didn't stand stiffly enough or fit into the trays) and I'm delighted with them now.  I used a Tilda charm pack and lined with pale pink tiny polka dot fabric (also by Tilda).  I am a huge Tilda fan.  I am planning a couple of Tilda quilts for myself, together with mother/baby hares and a mouse with a crown on.  The make-up bags, beach mat and sewing accessories are also on my 'to do' list.

Have a lovely week, friends.

Nicki 

x

Slow summer days

Rustic heart on our front door

Our back yard; the pots are starting to look really pretty.

Current WIP.  These are hexies that I printed ever so slightly too small, by accident.  Not sure what they will become.

Pretty Tilda fabric.

Lizzie photobombing.  Again.

I am having a quiet summer and loving it.  The days are long and hot.  I am working, sewing, watching a little TV, reading and swimming.

Man, I *love* going off for a swim when it's hot outside.  I have started to meet an old friend at the pool on a Friday evening and I'm really enjoying our dates.  We meet straight after work and swim half a mile alongside each other then have a good gossip in the spa before we each head home.  K is getting married in September and it is so nice to hear her wedding news.  I didn't enjoy planning my wedding at all and wish, now, that we'd gone for a smaller affair.  Don't get me wrong, my wedding day was the happiest day of my life, but I did not enjoy being the centre of attention.  I've changed since we got married.  I care less about what I ought to do and more about what I want to do.  I think if we got married again I'd hold a bunch of wildflowers in the local church with just my close family and friends.  I'd wear a pale pink dress and we'd all spend the rest of the day squashed into in the garden at home with lots of fairy lights and amazing food.  Anyhoo.

I am keeping a low profile socially.  I'm lucky to have a lot of really lovely friends but I went through a phase of over-booking my social diary then cancelling and letting people down, which would ultimately make them (and me) feel bad.  So I've scrubbed the diary clear and I'm letting things happen spontaneously where possible, which makes me feel much more calm and, oddly, in control.

My book stash is severely depleted; I am tearing through it.  Really enjoyed Tracey Chevalier 'The Last Runaway' and followed it up with 'Falling Angels' which I also liked.  I've then read the latest Peter James' 'Want You Dead' (another excellent read) and have this afternoon finished Mo Hayder's 'Wolf' (which is a decent read but a bit slow and not as scary as I'd hoped).

J has been with us this weekend.  I fetched him on Friday afternoon and we spent a lovely hour or so on the swing seat in the shade, catching up.  His school prom was a couple of weeks ago and he showed me the photos of him and his friends.  He seems to have a really cool group of friends; fun and cheeky but with enough nouse to work hard at school and get good grades.

We went into London last night to have dinner and see Derren Brown live.  It was stifling in the theatre but it was such a good show.  Made a change to do something different and it was really nice wandering through the busy streets of London on a hot summer night, sipping cold drinks and discussing the show.

But I've kept my best news 'til last.  My sister gave birth to a gorgeous baby girl last night.  She went into hospital at 6:30pm and the baby had been born by 9:30pm.  She did it all with just gas and air, lost a lot of blood and I understand it was *quite* painful, but they came home this afternoon and all is well.  I am going to see them after work tomorrow.  I cannot wait.  I adore my niece and to be given another… well, I couldn't have had better news this weekend.  Happy days!

Have a good week, lovely people.

Nicki

x

Let's finish with a little grumble, since I'm constantly hot and therefore a little bit ratty:

• My make-up is flatly refusing to stay put in this weather.  My eyebrows melt off my face within an hour and hayfever gives me leaky eyes, ruining my eyeliner.  I look, frankly, rank.

• Every day is a bad hair day.  My locks are well overdue a cut and colour so I am spending the summer resembling an aging rock star with long, greasy, dark roots and dry ends. 

• I am still smarting from my doctor telling me that he will no longer prescribe the contraceptive pill for me after Christmas.  Feels like it is only a matter of time before he suggests a hip replacement and heart pills.  I am NOT old dammit!