Woo hoo

I can hardly believe it, guess who won her first giveaway.

The little bird is beautiful and very good quality.  It now has pride of place in my kitchen.


Thank you Lakota and thank you plum and ivory.

progress so far

In my last post but one, I promised to share some pictures of the progress we had made decorating our kitchen - well as someone once said, better late than never.
I should add that I am aware, that the pictures below aren't actually of a kitchen, but that's because we removed the dividing wall between the kitchen and sitting room to make one open plan space, and at the minute I haven't taken any pictures of the kitchen end.
Also apologies for the rubbish pictures, they really were not meant to be published, but if I wait until I have staged, perfectly lit pictures.... well it won't be any time soon. :)

































 This is the sitting room when we moved in - it felt very dark and I particularly didn't like the fireplace.

And this is the space now.The paint is Dix Blue by Farrow and Ball and the paper is Summer Palace from Laura Ashley























I had intended on sanding the surround but in the end just painted it in a white satinwood and spray painted the brass trim, with of all things, barbecue paint.  The blue chair you can just about see on the left was originally pine, I painted it with Annie Sloan's chalk paint in Duck Egg Blue.  I specifically used this paint as you don't have to sand or prime the furniture before hand and it seems to be holding up pretty well.

I have to include a picture of the curtains, they are handmade by yours truly and I am so proud of them as I am so not a seamstress.  I went to a little sewing class and they were my third project - the first and second being a cushion cover and a bag.  I am not only delighted they turned out so well but also quite astonished.


Pics of the kitchen end of the room to follow soon. xx

My first magpie monday

I had a bit of unexpected free time to-day and had a little wander around a couple of charity shops - heres what I came home with.



A little wooden lighthouse - 50p. I thought it would look cute in my son's bedroom




A hook - 50p. I think i'll use this somewhere in the kitchen.




A wooden tissue box cover - £1. This will be painted to match one of the rooms.




Christmas serving dish - £1.50. I know its only June but I love dishes and I love christmas so this had to come home with me.




And my big splurge £3. for this little covered dish. I'm thinking about trying to turn this into a cake stand.
I did get another couple of things - but they will have to wait as they are for my swap partner. I hope she likes them. xx


linking to magpie monday

I know, I know, I am a very bad blogger. I have got my excuses ready though :)
We are currently in the process of decorating our new kitchen which was very recently fitted - and while I'm delighted its happening I can't wait for it to be done.


This is how our kitchen and sitting room looked when we moved in






It (the kitchen) wasn't bad, but it felt really dark and small. We didn't really use the sitting room so we knocked through and this is how it looked when the kitchen fitters left.







Much lighter and brighter.

Shamefully it stayed like this for a more than a few weeks while Mr B and I argued over discussed colour schemes - but finally we have started decorating.
We are still a long way from done but at least we've started. I'll try to get some pics uploaded tomorrow showing our progress so far, and while I'm at it share a few "before" pictures of some of my thrifty finds.