A Happy New Year

I breathed a long, protracted sigh on Tuesday morning (after taking the children back to school for the first time this year) full to the brim with mixed emotions.  We could happily have filled another week together but another week of ignoring the chaos on the home front would not have been so good!!

The new year brings with it new opportunity, fresh thoughts of de-cluttering and home loving which I always relish.  The new year seems to energise my body and mind with a need to create and decorate. After the Christmas decorations came down those empty spaces and marked walls literally seemed to scream please 'pretty me'.

I've never been one for new year resolutions but I do fully embrace the renewal of potential within the weeks ahead.  I'm a real planner and have already written a monthly evening meal plan and a budgeting plan for January.  I've also written lists and am developing plans for the home front.  I am a list maker and love to indulge in ticking off those items - it gives me a sense of achievement and real pleasure.

S i m p l e   T h i n g s   

I've decided that I will share some of those plans here.  It will help me stay committed to my plans and perhaps provide a thread to connect otherwise random posts throughout the year.

My aim is at the beginning of each month to post a commitment, with the aim of achieving those objectives.  I've decided that one of these projects each month will be a home 'Pretty Me' - decor / home loving type of project.  Plus a minimum of one other creative project - a 'Make Me' commitment.  I won't be overly ambitious - as I want to achieve my objectives whilst pacing myself and my health.  But for the remainder of 2015, I will share progress (and hopefully big ticks) on the tasks I've committed to at the beginning of each month.

JANUARY 2015

Pretty Me
Priority #1 - definitely my stairs and landing - a need for paint, new blind and complete 'spruce' is required.  It will be budget constrained as most of my future projects but I'll do my best with minimal financial input.  I'll share a before (which is quite shameful) and after here and it will be my decorating project for January.

Make Me
Priority #1 - to complete the Painted Roses Blanket which I started during December.  I confess I failed to complete it before Christmas but my Mother comes to visit on 23rd January so I have now vowed to finish it for then.  I have all the squares made but I need to join and edge them.  It is looking pretty gorgeous I have to say and I can't wait to show you the finished item.  It has been a real joy to make and if it hadn't been for my rheumatic hands I would not have put it down.  The Ta Dah will come by the end of this month!!

So you saw it here and I must therefore make it happen!!  I hope you will follow along with my little Pretty Me ~ Make Me ventures.  I do so love to see what you lovely people get up to and hope that you will enjoy me sharing my newly non procrastinating self!!

Thank you all for reading and commenting over the past year.  It has been a great year for developing blogging friendships and I know 2015 won't disappoint either if you lovely lot share along with me. And welcome to new readers - it would be lovely if you would share in these ventures too!!

Exciting News - Developments on the Home Front

It's no secret on this blog that I had an accident over 5 years ago which severely impacted my mobility and left me with long term disability, acute and chronic pain and early onset rheumatoid arthritus due to the trauma.  Since that time and during my associated recovery, we've sought to create a downstairs toilet for practical reasons - something which we currently lack.

After a year or so it we accepted that my condition wasn't going to drastically improve and we went through the appropriate channels to apply for development grants from the local Council.  In turn, we were assessed by the NHS Occupational Health department and whilst we were found to fit the criteria and be in need, as my husband was working we didn't qualify for any help.  It was hard to hear that if he gave up his job, the council would pay for all the building work necessary.  This wasn't an option for us anyway so things came to a standstill.  We've struggled along through potty training two children, my varying degrees of mobility, commodes in the converted garage.... you get the idea.

I'm proud to say that after recovering from the initial set back in our grant application we carried on trying to look to the future in a positive way.  I adjusted the way I live to - sometimes this meant that I often lived the majority of the day upstairs - just so I could avoid the stairs.

Anyhow, against that background you can imagine my absolute delight to finally be pursuing building work to enable a downstairs cloakroom to be created!!  We are so happy (and a bit scared) to be doing this.  We've had to remortgage to fund the work but we are finally moving forward - we have been given planning permission for an extension!! 

This will enable us to have a shower and toilet downstairs and give us a slightly bigger kitchen which should be able to fit a small table in.  Our dining table is currently in the lounge so this will save my legs in carrying food, dishes etc extra distances which will make a big difference to my pain levels in itself.  We have to do the work on a really tight budget but have been researching kitchens and showers etc over the past few months, which has given me a great excuse to peruse lots of magazines and decor books for ideas! 




My dream other than to have a toilet downstairs (simple but oh so vital) is to have a dresser in my kitchen for my china.  I've been on the look out for one for a while - of course it will be second hand, and wooden but other than that I had no particular style in mind.  I've seen a few in the charity shop over the past few weeks but when I saw this specific item my heart skipped a bit - it was definately the 'One'.



Bonus was it was £45 and has some deep scratches so I won't feel bad about painting the wood (oak I think!).  I'll share the update once it's done (it's on a very long list of my Pretty Filter project!)

So it will stay in my conservatory for a bit.  It will be painted and will be made MiNE.  Oh yes.  This is a very exciting and promising time.  It will undoubtably be stressful and messy but my home is a big passion for me and I cannot wait to see it transform into a more practical and useable space for us in the future.

Thank you for reading,
J9 x

Today I'm sharing in these fab parties!

Share your Cup Thursday

Show and Tell Friday

Simple & Sweet Friday

Pretty Filter: Little Lady's Bedroom Ta Dah!

As promised, I'm back to share the completed redecoration of my little lady's room - a little later than I'd hoped due to my laptop power pack giving me rather a nasty electric shock before falling apart!!  If you remember I blogged about it way back in March.  It has been mainly finished for a couple of weeks but just needed the odd bit (hate those niggly bits) to be completed.  So here it is:

R's Bedroom Ta Dah!

The room really has had a complete clear out.  It's been re-painted and the pale pinkiness removed!  The furniture has been repositioned (and some excess pieces removed) and I'm really pleased with the end result.  R is completely delighted - which is the best reward ever.

I picked up this mirror last month at the charity shop for £6 - I think that was a bargain. 

I'm honestly not loving the colour of it so may well change that at some point but it is pretty and adds a more grown up element to her room.

The canopy is a basic IKEA number which I've prettified - the original bunting clashed with the bedroom colours so I replaced them with material from my stash and added a teal felt cut out border to the top edge to hide my workings and help it stand out a bit more. 

R loves this and plays with her cuddlies in the canopy on her bed which is just lovely.

One of my favourite parts is the owl tree stickers that we got for her wall from here.  We really love it and it really adds something to the feel of the room.  This is the wall opposite her bed so she lays in bed and 'looks at her owls'.

I also recovered the top of her desk with an owl oilcloth from Dunelm (the desk was mine as a child and has a gorgeous natural oak top). 

The oilcloth adds a bit of protection for the wood and also funks it up a bit as otherwise it would seem too traditional amongst her other furniture which is mainly functional (and cheaper) IKEA stuff!

It's nearly there and I'm really pleased with the result.  I think the decor works well for the in between young, girly age and teenage years.  I do still need to complete her new blackout blind as it is currently pale pink.  I have bought the fabric for this though so plan to do it later this week and I need to get a new duvet cover for her.  As the bed has moved to the middle of the room she's struggled to keep her duvet on during the night.  So to mitigate this she's swapped to having a double duvet and the weight of it hanging over the bed resolves that issue.  Once that's done the room will be completely finished. 

Little man has already been asking when his room will be decorated.  His had a major update early last year when his room was repainted and he moved into a cabin bed.  However, it was a quick job so I've vowed to go back and prettify it (in a boy way of course!) so watch this space.  The pretty filter is definately making me look at each room in turn with a more critical eye and I'm really enjoying the progress I'm making - even if it is slower than I would like!!

Next time I plan to share some crochet goodiness so please do pop back when you have a mo!
Thanks for reading,
J9 x

Today I'm joining in with these fab parties:

Share your Cup Thursday

Show and Tell Friday

Simple & Sweet Friday

Tasty Tuesday

Goodness.  It's been too long.  I'm still adjusting to being home alone and the pain from my disability has left me avoiding communication with the world!  I'm currently trialling different pills for pain relief and it always has a bit of a knock on on the things that I can get up to - hopefully it'll be worth it in the long run. 

Having said that though, I have been busy on the 'Pretty Filter' front.  I will endeavour to show you my crochet ta dah's and updates on my 'Pretty Filter' during May.  Promise.

Today, I wanted to share with you an idea that's been brewing for a while.  As a stay at home mum, one of the regular parts of my daily routine is cooking the evening meal.  I've become bored with the routine meals I've been cooking.  R has quite a sensitive palette and likes more traditional plainer food, which does restrict us a little.  I cook from scratch most nights but the regular favourites (spaghetti bolognese, risotto, jacket potatoes, roast chicken, fish pie etc) have become both boring to eat AND boring to cook!

I'd began to dread cooking.  And that's just not me.  I LoVE to cook -I like to bake even more. I  love the fact I can put healthy, nutritious meals together for our family to eat - and all on a tight budget.  But that feeling has been getting jaded.  Tired even.

So, I've set myself a challenge.  On Tuesdays each week I will commit to cook a 'new' meal and bring it to our family tea time.  This will include a main and a pudding (oooh naughty) and hopefully over time I shall increase the range of things R will eat and the range of meals I can add to our rotating repertoire!

So I've decided to launch this idea with Cornish Pasties (as a Cornish girl, I'm sure I can call them Cornish pasties even though I've made them in Somerset!!). 

I made a cheese, potato and onion one for R and the traditional pork, potato, swede (which Cornish people call turnips - yet the rest of the country calls each vegetable the opposite) onion, a small knob of butter to help make nice juicy gravy and a few twists of ground pepper.

 

Once you've added the ingredients you crimp the edges together.  This originated in Cornwall down the mines and was a regular part of the miners' meals.  Often stewed apple would fill up the bottom half of the pasty and the miner would throw away the generous pastry crimpings as they often had dirty or arsenic laden residue on their hands. 

 

 

You do have to add some fork holes for the steam to escape and then they don't usually laugh (split open) although you can use egg wash if needed to patch holes or bind the pastry edges together.

 

 

I haven't made pasties in a good few years so I was very pleased with how these turned out.  It was definately a positive start to adding homemade variety to our mealtime. 

 

For afters I've made a pineapple upside down cake.  I didn't look at a recipe - just made up a basic sponge mixture and put cut up fresh pineapple in the bottom of a pyrex dish.

Once I'd added a decent layer of the fresh pineapple I poured over the sponge mixture and baked.  We had it with custard and was lovely while warm.  I can tell you it definately tasted better than it looked!!

Tea time is a really lovely time in our family and I hope to add a bit more excitement to our Tuesday nights!  We've discussed it as a family and we're all 'on board' with the plan.  Hopefully Tasty Tuesdays will bring a bit of variety to our tea time and at the very least will get me reading through some recipe books that sit forever on the shelves in our kitchen.

Here's to planning our new meal for next week's Tasty Tuesday!!

Pop back later this week and I'll share little lady's bedroom Ta Dah!  Thanks for reading,
J9 x

Today I'm partying with these fabulous blogs:

Inspire Me Tuesday

Coastal Charm

Pretty Pastels

Just a quick post to share some pretty things I've been arranging around the home for Easter...

The children decorated twigs with Easter decorations... lots of the homemade variety.

 

And some Sunday baking... R weighed all the ingredients and mixed the cake batter herself, before decorating when cooked.  It was a nice, quick chocolate sponge with nutella creamy filling covered in sprinkles, some edible flowers and lots of yummy milk chocolate.  She got to do it all herself whilst little B was at a friend's party.  She was so proud to present it as pudding at tea time.

Naughty, but oh so nice!

 

In order to work off those extra calories I've been decluttering sporadically with a ruthless approach throughout the house - I laughed when I photographed it - I sent the picture to the hubby and said 'This is the 3rd pile like this to be going to the Charity Shop! - You'd be proud of me!'

 

 

It's Easter holidays here and five different birthdays over the next two weeks so I doubt I'll be getting much time to post on my little bit of cyber space.  I'll try to pop back but I'll definately be posting the Bedroom Ta Dah and our holiday fun when the hols are over.

Happy Easter to you all.  I hope you have a relaxing and peaceful time this holiday period.

J9 x

Today I'm joining in with these parties:

A Return to Loveliness

What's It Wednesdays

Sunny Simple Sundays

GFC Blog Hop

Homemaking Link Up
All things Spring

My Pretty Filter - Bedroom Update

I've been gradually doing bits and pieces to R's room now since the beginning of February.  Due to my physical limitations it's taken longer than I'd anticipated and to be honest I've found it quite frustrating at times... my personality is such that I just want to crack on and get it done!

 Anyhow, the walls and ceiling have now been painted.  Furniture has been relocated.  The end is in sight!  The majority of things left to do are the things I most enjoy - the 'making it really pretty and individual'.

The room has shifted from a pale pink paradise to a more funky emphasis.  It was last painted around 3 years ago and was a pastel pink (but rather cluttered) haven:

R chose the new colours herself - inspired by her dressing gown,

....and the colours from B & Q were shockingly bright when I was painting the walls! 

However, the colours have grown on me and although they're not my choice, I think it really suits her personality.  When I went in to school recently to look through her literacy work, it was interesting to see she'd written a piece on her room - writing that she 'felt safe' and 'it was comfy'.

Hope you've enjoyed a quick glimpse.  I aim to be back on Thursday next week with my 'Pretty Filter' ta-dah for R's room!  Lots of work going on behind the scenes - flags being sewn to a new canopy, wall stickers to go up and woodwork still to paint!

I'll leave you with some cakes we made together this weekend.

Thanks for reading - and WELCOME to my slowly growing band of followers!!!  Your time and comments are soooo appreciated.

J9x

Today I'm joining in with these parties:

Share your Cup Thursday

A Return to Loveliness

A 'Pretty' Filter

I've decided that during 2013 I will go through each of the rooms in our home and take a look at as many items in them as possible - and if they're not pretty or useful - to donate, bin or sell them!

I prioritised our lounge / dining room as after the Christmas decorations were taken down and bits of furniture moved to give it a good clean, it was evident that it needed a 'freshen up'.  Well, if I'm honest... the skirting boards were marked and dog-eared, marks remained where pictures had once hung on the wall and clutter was encroaching on every surface!

My dining chairs had been on my 'To Do' list for over a year and I'd kept putting them on a new list every time I started something else.  So, 2013 is the year for me.  I will be doing this on a frugal basis - there is no budget for wall to wall wardrobes to house our clutter - even if I did want them!!  Paint will be my old friend and much loved items will be re-found and placed with purpose around our home.  I will endeavour to cut out lots of clutter.  I'm not particularly good at this - I'll never be minimalist but even I feel like a change needs to happen.  If it's not pretty or practical - or I can't make it pretty - it will go!  Hopefully I won't feel overwhelmed and give up - but I've blogged about it so I can share my progress and to help ensure I stay motivated!!

To start, we repainted the non-papered walls with the same Dulux Morning Light from the Light and Space Range and the skirting boards were re-done in white rather than cream (because I had that in the shed and which actually made a good change).  I'd love to replace the wall paper but it's in good condition so a general tidy up was all that is needed at this stage.

My main projects in this room other than decorating have been my dining table and chairs and my display shelving unit - which often turn into a nightmare dumping ground - cringe - I'll show you a small portion before:

 



 Here are my newly rationalised shelves...

There will always be kiddie stuff in the lounge.  I don't mind that - it just needs to be more organised or put away more effectively!

The chairs and dining table in the lounge were bought from my Mum's neighbour and I think are Ercol 1940's items.  I'm not a fan of dark wood but love the painted look of furniture so the chairs have been painted a couple of times already.  They were in desperate need but they are tricky to paint so I've procrastinated.  Until now:

So here is the shabby (and so NOT chic) look before:

 

During the makeover.... left one has been painted!

To After....  All lined up in a row!

I painted them with two coats of Eggshell in Duck Egg 99 by Fired Earth, gave them a bit of a rub down in places and finished off with a layer of Wax to seal them.  The seat pads were from Dunelm Mill and they were in the sale - an added bonus as they were only £4 each for quirky seat pads.

A new oilcloth for the table finished off the look!

So over the past three weeks I have cleared it all out, deep cleaned and from Wednesday have been doing the fun bit - putting together my mantel,

...rearranging family photos

 

 

and just enjoying the room in it's 'new' state.

Apologies for the quality of the photos - the dark days here don't make for good lighting conditions!    I also repainted the unit the TV sits on and waxed it.  It was painted in Dulux Jasmine White and then I dry brushed the carved elements to bring them out a bit.  I'll try and remember to take a picture another time.  I recovered the footstool in the summer before I was blogging properly so will look for those photo's too.

The next project to tackle is 'R's room.  It needs a re-paint and repositioning of furniture and a general clear out so next week and February will be the time for that project!

Thanks for all your wonderful comments on my last blog post.  It's so wonderful that so many in blogland are so generous with your time to leave me a comment!  My heart skippy skips to read them - so thank you all and have a good weekend!

J9 x

Today I'm joining the party with:

A Favourite Thing
Home Sweet Home
Show & Tell Friday
Weekend Whatever
Simple & Sweet Fridays
Sunny Simple Sunday

 

 

 

Forgive me... For I Have -

Been a very naughty girl at the charity shop ;0)

With seratonin levels at a low due to the hideous lack of sunshine in these parts, I was completely forced to seek a boost somewhere else...  It's not too hard to pick an activity that works for me; endorphins through exercise aren't an option due to my disability, soaking up the sun is just not possible due to the aforementioned lack of it - so retail therapy it was (although of a fairly frugal nature in the charity shop).  Personally, I find it's all the more satisfying as you never know what treasures you may find!

So today I'm going to double my retail pleasure by sharing my purchases with you! 

I adore these simple but pretty vintage candle stick holders.  They are perfect for the spring mantel I have in my mind's eye and were a bargain at £2:

Next were these floral 'door pusher thingy's' and a lovely rose bud coffee pot.  Sorry - not a very technical term but I don't know the proper name for the door things.  They're porcelain and were only £1 each.  I LoVE them but I know that my husband will not.  I may just have to put them in my craft room and stroke them occasionally ;0)

This beautiful glass vase?  Not sure of it's purpose but it is the most gorgeous opaque, pastel blue colour. 

The colours shift down the stem and base.  This one was a more costly purchase at a cool £10.  I have to say I did linger, look, pause, move on, only to return to it in the knowledge that it had to be mine.

I also got this rather lovely blue tit...

Plus two beautiful brooches and a rainbow necklace:

I especially love the green one - it's only about 1.5cm in diameter - so cute and so pretty!

So there we have it.  Enough to make my heart skippy skip skip in a truly ridiculous fashion.  It's quite funny how we're drawn to certain things isn't it?  The blues, greens and florals are emerging as my Kryptonite.

I hope you are managing to get a boost during these grey January days!
Thanks for reading,

J9 x

Masterpiece Monday

Knick of Time Tuesday

Elizabeth & Co.

Be Inspired Friday

Wow Us Wednesdays

Treasure Hunt Thursday

 

My Festive Mantel.... and Sofa!

The autumnal colours have been removed from my mantelpiece and a thoroughly festive theme now takes centre stage.  Apologies for the poor light in this photo - the grey skies in Somerset at the moment make indoors so gloomy - but you get the idea!  My favourite bit is the pompom garland (which I actually bought for a trim for a furniture makeover I've got planned!!)

 

I've enjoyed starting to play with some elements in our lounge before all the decorations go up this weekend.  I'm having a leisurely few days ahead of the school holidays slowly getting our home organised and Christmassy!  It's had a thorough dusting and some clutter has been removed...  I've washed and re-hung the curtains and cleared the decks before all the decs come out!

So my mantle is looking festive and I decided to 'Christmas up' my sofa - I do love a few comfy cushions on my couch!!  I was going to sew some cushion covers with some red fleece but when I went to purchase the pads the cost of 2 pads was the same as 2 pre-made red cushions with pads - so I opted for the pre-made red versions to save me some time!

Although not as soft and textural as fleece, I don't really mind as my plan was to always embellish them. I've raided my button stash for cute, shiny, mother of pearl buttons - goodness it's crazy how much joy I get from rooting through my stash of buttons.

After an evening of sewing, we now have a heart and a star (which is somewhat crooked but hey)...

They feel festive without being crazy!!

My sofa normally looks like this - I'm not a fan of the chocolate leather but it was my husband's choice and is very practical. However, I always cover it for extra comfort and warmth!!

After my tweaking today, it has been made all festive! I got the cream throw from the charity shop and the fleece blanket was from Dunelm (where I also got the cushions!).

The cushions were a simple make but giving lots of pleasure. Ideal for snuggling and watching Christmas films this weekend once we've put up the tree!!  I hope you are enjoying setting the scene in your home.

J9 x

Today I'm linking up with these fabulous parties!

 

A Return to Loveliness

Share your Cup Thursday
WOW us Wednesday!