Time out for now…

Hello everyone!  Yay, I’m still here!  But intensely busy as I am about to hand in the final draft of my thesis.  I promise I will write more once things are at a slower pace around here, and you can always get a snapshot of what I’ve been up to by having a nosey on my Flickr

In the meantime, I just want to share on of my favourite adverts du jour with you. Enjoy!

And an earlier version

The finished article

Yesterday was a good day and we finally got the kitchen finished! I actually thought we had it in the bag last weekend, but the electrician came in the week and put a load of holes in the ceiling. Whilst he did fill them in, neatness was not his forte (to say the least). So I had the pleasant task of sanding them back and refilling them. Sanding’s a doddle to me – I stripped and sanded all the doors, some floors and the bannister in our last house. But sanding on the ceiling (isn’t that a Lionel Ritchie record?) is a completely different thing. The dust comes straight down but you need to look up to see what you are doing, so it ends up in your eyes, your nose and your throat. I thought I was going to have an asthma attack!

The dust settled on my hair and John said it made the peroxide uber-blonde, a bit like Debbie Harry. This pleased me greatly

Anyway, here it is! My lovely, shiny, new and fabulous kitchen! It’s been a month of hard graft, but it’s definietly been worth it:

And, that well-known essential item of kitchen furniture – the sideboard. On top of the sideboard is John’s vintage Bang and Olufsen Beomaster 900. It’s the first radio he ever bought around 5 years ago and has been obsessed with B&O ever since. He now has six radios, two steroes, one TV, various merchandise and another radio on the way! Lucky me. But as my mum said, he could spend it all on alcohol and womanising so I should think myself lucky.

Because we did the work ourselves, we saved enough money for these. I <3 <3 <3 the Smeggy so much! The canvas is a vintage advertising poster from my hometown that I had put onto a canvas. I love the way it makes it look like a desirable place for a family holiday, when the truth is soooo different.

We also had time for a bit of light retail therapy yesterday. I love charity shops so much, as you can’t go with a predefined list and end up with the most random and unexpected things. Yesterday we found this haul of vintage bottles from a tenner! The little brown ones are Bovril jars, so these will live in the kitchen. The rest are a mixture of local beers, minerals, poisons (!) and medicines (including magnesia and lung tonic!). They’re going to be spread across my landing, main bathroom and en-suite bathroom (two bogs – yes I’m posh).

Going to spend the afternoon in the park and enjoy a day of taking it easy. The bathrooms are being fitted all next week, so I’ll be back on the DIY merry-go-round in the blink of an eye.

Out of order…

…normal service will resume as soon as possible.

That’s me, not the blog itself of course. Illness has reared its ugly head and it’s zapping all my energy to keep on top of my work at the moment, let alone this blog. And I soooo wanted to show you my finished kitchen too

Please keep popping by as I do hope to be back to normal very shortly xxx

PS – full credit to http://www.flickr.com/photos/grantshellen/210747530/ for the photo, which I blatantly lifted. Haven’t even the energy to click the shutter button

Bank holiday washout!

Gosh a lot has happened since my last post! I went to Plymouth last Wednesday for my conference (and book launch!), which was great. Realising how rotten a five hour train journey in prole class (sorry, standard class) would make me feel, I had the foresight to book a first class upgrade – only £20 difference (on a standard fare of £180 – ouch). However, I didn’t have the foresight to fully prepare for the ten hour round trip, and the yarn stash was fully depleted one hour into the return leg!

Anyway, the two balls of Debbie Bliss’s finest have been put to good use as a bag for my mum (photos to follow soon), although it’s looking that nice that I may actually keep it (my mum doesn’t read this blog, so thats alright yeah?)! Crochet traumas aside, the conference was a great experience. The book launch was ace and I was very excited (or should that be excitable?) about seeing my name in print. And the free wine! Oh, the free wine!!! Mental note – must not gratutitously swig free bottles of wine when presentation is scheduled for 9 a.m. the follwing day (although B&B fry-ups certainly helped to redress the balance).

This weekend was a bit of a washout – wasn’t it for everyone? We spent most of the weekend in the car, scoping out areas that we’d like to move to. The three hours a day getting to and from work have finally pushed Johnny to breaking point, so it’s all change. Unfortunatley, we ruled out a move to York, as pretty as it is, as the commute would still be untenable. We also ruled out Headingley in Leeds as the houses were so ridiculously priced (it’s Leeds, not London!), although my heart did go out to all the washed-out cricket fans that we saw (soggy grass skirts and boxers do not a good look make). So we’re back to the drawing board… Will keep you all posted, as there’s still some irons in my fire (ahem). Life is just a heady mix of papers to write, job apps to fill in, bags to crochet and houses to view!