tadaa.....!
With a final flourish The Big Paint Job was completed just before Easter. And I think it worked.....when your heart desires a cupboard like this but it's way out of your pocket, well you have to compromise a bit :)
Painted with one coat of undercoat and two coats of Farrow & Ball oil-based eggshell in Dimity, rubbed down slightly on the edges to "shabby" it up. 
I retrieved my china collection from various cupboards around the house and it looks so much better displayed in one place. 

Best of all I've gained a store cupboard, now I can take advantage of those BOGOF bargains!
DH even suggested we look out for another dresser or cupboard, to paint and give us more storage....I think I've converted him, yay!
I managed to get to a boot sale on Monday despite the dodgy weather, and had a good long browse around. My bedside reading pile is growing. All for under 50p. Roll on next weekend.
My collection of paperbacks is growing too. Since reading Kim's post about Virago books, I look out for them at boot sales...the distinctive apple on more recent publications is easly spotted, but haven't found many of the older ones yet...I will do I'm sure. Most things usually turn up at boot sales.
Lousy picture, so I hope you can see my new mirror. £10 which is more than I usually spend on one item. This is my next project, a coat of cream paint should transform it. I'm thinking it might go on my bathroom wall.
Have a good week y'all.








Undercoated......took ages.....
In amongst the chaos the girl, still in dressing gown, playing the piano beautifully..she's a natural, paino lessons might be on the cards.
I've even used my £10 car boot sale breadmaker a few times. Using up leftovers, buying only the basics and not wasting money on food that doesn't get eaten. Pop over and have a browse, be warned it's addictive.
(see it there, in the background of this gorgeous room? Loving the mirror too) but as it's gonna be waaay beyond my pocket I've been looking for a similar cupboard on the cheap. Or free. Lightbulb moment.....clever DH pointed out that this cupboard in my bedroom,
stood on top of this one in my living room,
painted with
It was about to be put on Freecycle by a friend of a friend, I heard of it first and was very pleased to give it a good home. It takes pride of place in my kitchen/diner and we're playing tunes very badly. Hmmm think I need to get a smaller dining table ...
.....although it's growing on me, having a table in the middle of the kitchen, but you do have to shuffle around a bit and we have to Give Way to each other when more than one person is in the kitchen so not very practical. I think this one is destined for Ebay. 
...right up our street was what I thought, with mis-matched vintage china galore.
For the whole day I kept thinking to myself that my blog ladies would just adore this.
16 year old daughter has already decided this is want she wants for her wedding someday so I know what I'll be looking out for at the boot sales! It'll take a long time to collect 100 place settings (she informs me she's planning a large wedding).
at one of the last bootsales I went to last year. The plan was to put it in the kitchen, handy hooks to hang keys on, useful whiteboard for shopping lists, pinboard for important notes and reminders. A coat of F&B paint, vintage fabric to cover the corkboard, it looks fab now...so fab it's taken up residence in daughter's bedroom. We decided it should have push pins with bling, but couldn't buy what we wanted anywhere...until I spotted these stick on trims
in Hobbycraft, perfect! Just stick them onto standard drawing pins and tada! Sparkly pretty pins.
There are some delicious recipes, we tried a couple of her cocktails, the favourite being Yule Mule. My Mum and I got into a cosy little habit of making up a jug of it each day.....The Home cured pork is just wonderful as is the Apple & onion gravy to accompany it....it went down a treat with family who came down for Sunday lunch. Her chilli jam is simple to make and we were having it with everything for a while. Definitely a favourite cookbook for me.
You know how you begin a project and wish you'd picked a different colour?
I'll grow to love my blanket especially snuggled beneath it on the sofa come the chilly evenings.
Looks much better in white so thanks for your comments when I asked :)
Filling space on the landing...mirror £2 from a boot sale, lamp £1, cupboard free from a friend (it was destined for the dump). Ignore the horrible artex on the wall, my newly qualified plasterer son owes me a new wall someday.....
...beautifully covered in wood effect sticky backed plastic.We painstakingly picked it off making our fingers bleed in the process, cleaned it up, and I think we'll leave it as it is, shabby and chippy.
We like it but I can see why some people might wonder why we've forgotten to put away the tatty old decorating stool. We've sort of got used to it now so the red paint stays.
She celebrated her 16th Birthday this week, gosh where do the years go?
16 is such an exciting age, lots of changes on the horizon. Lucy's starting college in September, a photography course, she's so looking forward to college life. Son Jack has been accepted on the 3rd year of his plastering course thank goodness, places are limited so we've had a nail-biting wait for confirmation. He really wanted to get this third year under his belt, it'll open more doors for him in the future. Now we can sit back and relax for a week or two then back to the grind for all of us.
we had chicken love going on, big time.
Hubby arriving home with 3 fresh eggs every day, I really miss them now their Dad is back from his hols.
We'll chicken-sit any day.
......I've cooked and baked and spent time on the PC and given the kitchen a blooming good clean but other than that we're pottering. I love pottering. Hope you all manage to do some pottering before summer's out.




I see from browsing on Ebay that Herbert Terry lamps are THE sought after ones, I doubt that I'll be lucky enough to stumble across one of those at the boot sale....
...but this'll do for me. Not bad for £2 do you think?
It beckoned me from across the aisle, it was one of those moments when I nonchalantly strolled across hoping the bloke already at the stall wasn't going to reach out and pick it up just as I got there...success..."how much for the lamp?"..."oh give us a couple of quid love". One happy bunny I am. It's an original 
I regret not seeing the movie at the cinema when it first came out as it must be amazing to watch on the big screen...it just didn't grab me, not my type of film at all I thought. Then I picked up a video at the boot sale and was hooked. It's a fantasy film, fantastic scenes, wonderful songs. I discovered Ewan McGregor in this film, hadn't really taken much notice of him before then. I watched the film over and over again when I first got it, and must be due another showing any time soon....
Alan Rickman ( Colonel Branden) is so dashing, imagine having a suitor like him yearning for you( I am a bit soppy sometimes) It's a heartbreaking yet uplifting movie.

An unexpected wander around Oxford...DH bought an old car on Ebay for a run-around to and from work, and as we had to collect it from just outside of Oxford we took the opportunity to explore for a while...what an interesting city and somewhere we want to return to sometime. 
Porth beach. 

.and glass jars
...cheap as chips but look fab all over the house storing dishwasher tablets, paracetamols, loose change, whatever takes your fancy. And do you like my Phrenology head? Isn't he fab...£2, hidden in a box at the boot sale.
And I knew I'd find one eventually, a new food processer, still boxed, £3.
...but how about this gorgeous girl?
I've been looking for a frame, for my
or even black...what do you think?

I had a little session last week using my new 






Perfect for storing my card collection.


I gave those stands a miss and we moved onto the Scrapbooking workshop which we'd booked. 
We really enjoyed it, for the price of £6 we received a goodie bag and were shown how to create a scrapbook page. Again, not my thing (and not my colours...) but I learnt some techniques that I can use in card-making and best of all we came away feeling very inspired.
Scrapbooking is a fast growing hobby in the UK and the range of supplies is incredible. The trouble with me is when I want to try a new craft, I want. Everything. Now. I gave myself a stern talking to, I just don't have time to get into a whole new hobby so refrained from buying scrapbook album/pages/fancy-papers/embellishments etc etc etc. I'm also keen to use re-cycled/vintage materials, rather than buy new, maybe start an 
An 
We had a lovely day. I'd told daughter it wasn't a shopping trip, but how could we resist when we came across Cath's little empire?! I just had to treat daughter to a CK bag, she was one happy bunny this Easter I can tell you. 
We did a little more shopping, wandering through the Lanes,
people watching, dodging the rain, before a stroll along the seafront and pier.
Stopping for some photo opportunities of course.




