sometimes.....................

Sometimes are styles are similar, sometimes they are different.
Sometimes things happen in our lives that seem different, sometimes they seem the same.
Sometimes I just want to say 'here is that thing I was talking about, that thing I mentioned to you in passing'.

Here are some of those things........

Donna recently posted about buying some brass candlesticks, and creating a beautiful vignette with blue and white pieces.

I went straight to my bedroom and took this photo of my old Laura Ashley candlestick and some blue and white.

because great minds think alike !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kirby has a beautiful powder room with a sink on top of an old cabinet and she considers it really small, but you wouldn't even have to sit on the loo to get this shot.

I, on the other hand, have this view when I sit on my loo, because it literally is a loo in a cupboard, a water closet in every sense,

and I promised Kirby a picture.

My not-so-pretty WC

Maureen lives with her beloved 'barbarians', furry creatures who love to demolish everything and anything. They also love to watch tv,

This is Clara Jane

just like my dog. He'd touch the screen if he could, and when creatures run off the screen, he tries to look for them round the room !

Cheryl (who doesn't have a blog - yet) has been posting over at Danni's place while Danni has been doing some major diy to her new house. One of the posts was all about her collection of heads.

It made me go and rescue a small ceramic head from my shed, that had been broken. 
It'll be fixed and hung indoors because, thanks to Cheryl, I remembered how much I love it.

Finally I was talking to CJ recently. She only lives about an hour away from me, so I may get to meet her someday. She is a stockist for Miss Mustard Seed milk paint and soon I'll post about my efforts with the milk paint samples she sent me.

We spoke about getting around to doing things. We all procrastinate and put off the less interesting tasks. We all have huge lists of things we want to create, someday or other.
We'll do this stuff when we get around to it.

I'm very lucky as I have a 'round tuit' of my very own (that my father gave me in the 1970's).

Don't you all wish you had a round tuit of your very own !

Can I just also say that you're truly honoured, seeing a picture of my loo with the horrible blue carpet - sorry folks. I would have waited till I'd repainted the toilet to match my newly madeover bathroom, but I wanted to do this post.
I also normally avoid showing the corner of my living room with all the horrible boxes and cables that my tenants left, and Rufie's little collection of toys. I have plans, big plans,
when I get a round to it of course !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

budget bathroom makeover

If you haven't been here before, I've been working on my bathroom since last October, which you can read about here, here, here, and here. With a limited budget, there was no chance of changing the yellow bath or the shower but I knew I could make it look a lot better, and I must say I'm really pleased with the result.

I've put tongue and groove all the way round the room, painted the walls, changed the window treatment, made over the chair and a cabinet, moved the shelves and added a couple of new things.

As I mentioned in the last post, there is now a colour above the new white tongue and groove panelling, albeit a very pale colour. I love Farrow and Ball's Lamp Room Grey, but wanted a lighter version. I had a match pot of it and mixed the grey shade I wanted, then copied it with 5 ltrs of cheap white emulsion and some colourises. It turned out really well, it sometimes looks washed out and almost white but mostly it's a soft pale grey which sets off the whites and driftwood really well.

I put another bit of driftwood under the mirror which balances out the stencilled piece on the other wall.

The tongue and groove wraps round the whole room, but the trickiest bit was sorting out the area around the shower door. There were tiles stuck to the front of the shower tray and up the right hand side.

I took the tiles off and put some skirting along the front, then tongue and groove and then a quarter round to neaten up the edges around the shower doors aluminium frame.

 

I even did a bit of 'plastering' up the right hand side of the shower.

 

 

I love the room from every angle.

I love the look of the old shabby door with the crystal handle, the smart white woodwork and the grey walls.

 

 



I love the way the t and g wraps around the built in shower.



I love the newly displayed shelves that look way better than before.

 

I love the view I see in the morning, as I come along the landing from my bedroom.

 

 

I love it because it looks so much better than before.

 

Before and after.

 

The mini makeover cost me about £120 , which was mainly the t & g, the wood trim, primer and topcoat and lots of filler. The mirror and the mesh, baskets and fabric for the cabinet cost less than £25 so the total cost over the 6 months I've been doing this has been less than £150.

 

Ironically the shower broke in December so we haven't been able to use it, but I'm saving all my tips from work to replace it, and I think I'm about half way there.

Did I mention that I love it !

It's all thanks to you really. You keep being creative and it inspires me. You never stop doing stuff and that makes me want to do stuff. You think outside the box in which I dwell and that makes me want to push myself, so thank you, all of you.

linking up with

 Amaze me Monday @ Dwellings - The Heart of Your Home
Project Inspire(d) @ An Extraordinary Day
Mod Mix Monday @ Mod Vintage Life

Make it pretty Monday @ The Dedicated House

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays @ Coastal Charm

Knick of Time Tuesdays @ Knick of Time

Inspire Me Tuesday @ A Stroll Thru Life

Wow Us Wednesdays @ Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants

Blissful Whites Wednesday @ Timewashed

Home and Garden Thursday @ A Delightsome Life

Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home

Fridays Unfolded @ Nancherrow

What have you done every Friday @ Redoux

Shabbilicious Friday link party @ Shabby Art Boutique

Party Junk @ Funky Junk Interiors

Silver Pennies Sundays Link Party @ Silver Pennies

 

 

 



giving my chair a little bit of storage

I bought these two chairs a couple of years ago from a charity shop. I really liked the one with the barley twist legs and thought I'd leave the other one. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my bff was with me and you know how bff's love to spend your money for you, so I came home with both.

I painted them both in AS Old White and then realised that I actually preferred the one with the wavy back and detailed front legs, so I did it up for my guest room.

 

The other one sat sad and dejected, unwaxed and unloved for ages, until I moved back here and decided it belonged in my bathroom.

 

Now that I'm giving my bathroom a mini makeover, my chair needed finishing, but I also need a place to store toilet rolls so I came up with a little solution.

 

Here is the chair, pre-finishing with a white basket balancing underneath, but on the right because there is only one crossbar.

 

 

Solution, add a couple more crossbars.

 

 

I got my brother to cut one and then I did the other one and thank goodness for filler because neither of us got our measurements right !

 

And now I have a chair with storage, and it's the perfect size for 8 toilet rolls, because there's no room for them in the cabinet I made over.

 

I took off the faux brown leather, and stencilled a bit of fabric with some numbers and re-covered it. I stole this idea from somewhere but can't remember where I saw it, sorry. I also scrounged the fabric from my artist friend David and the basket came from Ikea ages ago, so I haven't spent any money on this at all.

 

I'm glad I didn't distress the new tongue and groove, because the chair would be lost if I did, and I like the different textures together. I've also convinced myself that the bath isn't acidic yellow, it's white.........................it looks white to you too, doesn't it !!

 

 

 

 linking up with

Make it pretty Monday @ The Dedicated House

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays @ Coastal Charm

Knick of Time Tuesdays @ Knick of Time

Party Junk @ Funky Junk Interiors

Silver Pennies Sundays Link Party @ Silver Pennies

 

 

 

 

bathroom update

I can't quite believe that I originally wrote about the start of my bathroom makeover last October, I thought it was much more recent. Well, it is nearly done, but not quite, so here is a bit of my progress.

I planned to put tongue and groove round the whole room and contemplated framing the tiles with the wood. In the end I just took them all off, which was very quick and good fun, and like all good bloggers, I've hoarded them to use for something else.................someday.

 

I found some really cheap tongue and groove ready cut in the perfect length, which meant I would only have to do cuts round the bath, sink and radiator.

 

 

I originally chose the tile colours to detract ones eye from the very acidic yellow bath, but I'm actually really glad they've gone now.

 

I neglected to take any 'during' photos, because you know how it is when you get stuck into something. I didn't baton the wall, I just stuck the boards to the wall with gripfill, and then used tiny panel pins to fix them, the same as I did here. 

 

I put a trim round the top and used a white primer that should impede the knots, and three coats of a water based eggshell finish.

 

I've been meaning to stencil this piece of driftwood for about two years, but finally got round to it recently after buying some stencils from Amazon. The Latin quote means 'it is sweet to relax at the proper time', which is the perfect quote for lying in the bath.

 

I'm loving the look of the driftwood with all the whites.

 

I switched the wooden blind for a small tablecloth that belonged to my Grandmother. I had thought of painting the blind  but it was my brother who suggested taking it down all together and now I love the new window treatment, and the extra light it brings to the room.

 

 

 

So I think that's enough for now, I'll show you the updated chair next time and you might be surprised to know that I've actually painted the walls in a colour - albeit a very pale colour !

 

 

five days a week I masquerade as a chef !

We occasionally open for evening meals in the café where I work. Normally we open from 9 to 5 (with longer hours in the summer), but we do small parties and the odd special event. The second chef (Ferri) is Iranian so we did a Persian night last October. We can only seat 24, but it's all a bit frantic providing starters, mains and desserts in our tiny kitchen.
The Persian evening was great fun and the customers loved the food. Ferri brought in a samovar and beautiful cups for tea and sweet treats to serve after the meal.

I did a tapas night in December, on the week of my big birthday. It was once again rather frantic because there were up to seven dishes each and then two desserts, so I didn't take any pictures. Thankfully I had Ferri to help, I couldn't have done it without her (we also always have another lady, Sally, who does the drinks, serving and washing up !).

A couple of weeks ago some regulars asked if we were doing something for Valentines, but we hadn't planned anything. Then another couple asked, so we thought we'd better !

I put on three starters, two main dishes plus a couple of mains from the usual menu and three desserts. I didn't want to make up loads of things that we wouldn't be able to sell after, and also there isn't much room in our fridges for extra stuff.

 

This was my favourite starter, a stack of mozzarella, tomato and basil, in a heart shape with a drizzle of olive oil, some black pepper and a balsamic glaze. The whole menu is on the café's facebook if you wish to see it. We did all sorts of things with hearts - manchego cheese crisps for the vegetarian puy lentil dish,

 

heart shaped beef patties for Ferri's Persian starter and more fresh manchego cheese hearts that we served with serrano ham. Then there were lots of hearts in the desserts.

 

I made my favourite baked cheesecake, a recipe that I haven't made for about 10 years and which I originally found about 30 years ago. It's a wonderful American recipe with cups for measurements that I changed into our more usual ounces.

 

 

I didn't quite put enough melted butter into the biscuit base, but it was ok when served, especially with the heart strawberries (an idea I stole from Danielle at Silver Pennies).

 

Another favourite dessert I made was Lemon Posset, Raspberry Coulis and Brandy Snaps but maybe I shall do a post on this because I forgot to take a picture of the finished result and it really is scrumptious.

 

The best bit and my favourite bit had nothing to do with the cooking, I much prefer decorating the café !!!

I painted some lining paper with a match pot of black paint, made a template and drew round it to make heart shaped tablemats for everyone who had booked Valentines night.

 

 

They worked well with the red paper we always use on the tables. We had red candles, flowers and chocolate hearts and it all looked really pretty (in our own shabby, beachy, coastal way !!).

We only had 7 couples booked in, so that there was a more romantic feel to the evening with everyone having their own table.

The artist (David) I spoke about here, has recently stencilled our logo onto the floor, and the boss has given us the go ahead to paint the chairs and re-cover the seats. I say 'us' but I mean 'me' because David wants to help painting the fabric, but not the chairs, so it might take some time. At work I'm always cooking and on days off I'd rather be doing my own house.

You can't really tell from my dreadful photos, but it really did look lovely and it's thanks to a great couple Graeme and Sophie who love to sit in the old cinema seats, that the night actually went ahead !

Why am I masquerading ? Because I'm not a professional chef, and I would much rather be painting blackboard hearts and making heart daisy chains than thinking up menus, but unfortunately I have to pay the bills !!!

e-mail hackers !!

Sorry everyone, you may have got some weird e-mails from me trying to sell you stuff.
I can't believe this has happened to me a second time, so I'll change my password and hope that that will rectify it.
Sorry !!!

Btw, my bff, who knows me really well, bought some 'skin' pills because of a link she thought I had sent her - DOH !

decorating with nature's cast-offs !

On the 25th and 26th of last month (I hope you like my subtle reference) we walked my dog on a very wet and extremely windy beach.
I went with my ex and his daughter, but she turned back as soon as the rain started !

I love it, even in bad weather, but the rain did actually stop and the sun came out.

The storms have been very severe on the West and South coast of the UK, causing really bad flooding, fatally large waves and numerous power cuts.

On our stretch of the beach, the ferocious sea destroyed the lives of hundreds and hundreds of wee beasties.

When I saw the first two, I was thinking about running down to the now receding shoreline and trying to revive them , but then looking along the beach, we saw hundreds and hundreds.

 

I've never even seen one on the beach before, so it was all very unusual. It was even reported in the local newspaper.

 

I carefully collected three small ones in a doggy bag and took them home. I'm rather squeamish and they seemed so alive. So much so, that we put them in a bucket of salty water, just in case, but to no avail. The poor wee beasts had lost their fight with nature.

 

Now, they adorn my buffet, because nature is indeed beautiful.

 

 

The storms also left a lot of branches in my garden from my neighbours dead Robinia tree and I'd had them in the kitchen over the holiday season with decorations on.

 

On the shelf is a 'thing' I found on the road side, a metal plate from a small sign. It's not one of nature's castoffs, but nature has given it a wonderful patina.

 

 

 

This morning, on a different stretch of beach, I found this great lump of wood (well, two bits nailed together actually) and decided there needed to be a little change around.

 

 

  So my mini cloche got a new throne.

 

 

And another lump of driftwood got to be on show.

 

 

(I know there are crystals in the bird bath, that's another post for another day)

 

I left the reindeer, because reindeers are like puppies, they're not just for Christmas. And contrary to what it looks like in the photos, there's no danger of anyone poking their eye out as they walk through the door !