Some decorating :)

Not the type of decorating that is actually needed around here but some fun decorating that *needed* doing in breaks between tidying today :)

Our bedroom light switch

Anyas bedroom light switch

Taras bedroom light switch

As of 7.39pm on Monday 12th May no-one has noticed, but I'm sure it won't take long :)

Snapshots as I'm tidying :)

In progress shots........

Do note that I haven't taken any photographs of the floor or general rubbish that was in the doorway as that has still yet to be sorted but any progress is good right??

Erm, yeah.....

.....so I'm going to be tidying the craft room for a few days I think :)

This is the doorway - piled full of random stuff that needs to be put away. The red thing is a lid for a box that is there to stop the dog getting in to eat threads off the floor which he enjoys doing!

The view from the doorway - the black bags are fabric that needs to go to the fabric boxes in the recycling centre but they just haven't made it yet.

And this is why no ironing gets done in my house! It has been cleared now but only for fabric ironing :)

Anyone else having a new year sort out?

And so it starts....

One box done, 20 million to go. It's a start at least :)

Busy blah blah, excuses blah blah :)

Busy due to school holidays, frantic thinking about the new house, frantic thinking about how we managed to get this much stuff into this house and how it's all going to fit into the rooms we have ready in the new house, Country Living fair prep frantic thinking (not long to go to get lots of stock made!) oh and did I mention that it is school holiday so I have two extra helpers??

And breathe!! Things always work out in the end don't they? And to keep you happy here are some pictures of the lovely Ben Wishaw (he was Q in Skyfall) Well you can't have a picture less post now can you ;)

Tidying

Our lobby is being used an awful lot more at the moment due to Harry Dog, the fact that all of my veggies are out in the front garden and that it's been playing out weather. Which usually leads to this.

Shoes everywhere, scooters that can't fit where they are meant to because shoes are in the way and more shoes. The big long cushion thing is from Taz the campervan before he was renovated.  Very useful for stopping bottoms getting cold when sitting on the doorstep! It, along with the canes, has been moved back to where it belongs!

Solution? Buy a cheap shoe rack from Argos, fill it with shoes, put the hats away on the hat rack (I know!) and move the shoes that shouldn't really be there to the back door where there is a much bigger shoe rack!

And after only taking 25 mins (10 of that was getting the packaging off the shoe rack!) I now have a lobby I can walk through. I wonder if the rest of the house can be sorted in 25 minute chunks!

Procrastination

But prettifying at the same time so it's not all bad :)

I don't know about other bloggers/readers with school aged children but at this time of year we get inundated with Christmas cards and those Christmas cards tend to be tiny (what is it with children wanting to give out tiny cards?) So much so that they tend to get lost! Not this year though :)

Ta da! Who says a bit of garden string and some wooden pegs can't be fabulous? :D

Bad picture but you get the idea and yes, my hall is that dark even with the lights on!

Is that a Dot Cotton Christmas card you spy? Why yes it is! A lovely lady called Laura makes them and you really should pop over to her shop and buy some. She has a Pat card, a Frank card and an Ethel card too :)

Next year I'm planning on making a proper garland (possibly one with pom poms on) instead of the garden string and prettifying some wooden pegs with a Christmas theme but, as you know me well, you will probably see the garden string and bare pegs for a good few years yet!

Thrifty finds

Yesterday I had to pop to Lidl and did you know that right next to the Lidl in Burnley is the fabulous Emmaus charity shop? Well it would have been rude not to pop in wouldn't it? :)

All of this was mine for a bargainous £2 :) The picture has been framed badly and the needlework has been backed onto something really heavy meaning that it is falling out of it's frame due to the weight. I'm sure I can fix it though.

See pretty :) I may just turn it into a cushion though - we'll see how long it sits in the hallway waiting to go up!

There are two of these pretty pillowcases and they are destined for the girls beds once they have been washed. I love mismatched bedlinen :)

And I couldn't leave these glorious decorations behind! The pink one on the right has it's silver bit missing but the others are in really good condition. The original Boots sticker says that they were 33p!

Have you got any good bargains recently? Do you have a favourite charity shop?

The kind of blog post where brain vomit comes out :)

Brain vomit 1 - So today we went to look at a new house. We aren't looking to move but I'm one of those people who is always wondering if the grass is greener on the other side so when I saw that this house was up for sale and only needed some modernisation and it was within budget and had a great garden etc etc. Well when the agent said *some* modernisation she actually meant new roof as this one pours water in, new floorboards as the old ones have been ripped up by thieves looking for copper pipes which they found, dry rot, wet rot, completely new plumbing and wiring system needed, walls knocking down, 100's of skips to get rid of the vast amount of crap in the house, new plaster as this lot is damp - you get the picture but hey, it had double glazing and a lift (was a care home!) Anyway, if we had the money I would have taken it on like a shot but it would need about £100,000 spending on it to get it done and we can't afford it!

So I came home from there and spent the next hour looking online at other houses in our area that are for sale and getting depressed as we couldn't afford the ones I liked and then I thought 'WTF are you doing Lynsey' You live in a very nice, big, Victorian house which backs onto a park, where the girls have a room each and you have a studio and Matt has a study. Why are you looking for something else?? So I kind of had a kick up the arse moment then to appreciate what I've got!

My garden - the green railings in the back is where the park starts.

Brain vomit 2 - I'm thinking that this looking for other houses/locations to live etc is just apart of this feeling of restlessness I have been having recently. Not sure why and it's a feeling that has been steadily growing but I have no idea what to do about it other than stop looking at houses online! I have suffered with depression in the past (post-natal with both girls and then a bit afterwards too) and I don't want to get into that mindset again. Not sure (and I really don't think it is) if the restless feeling is gearing up to depression again but I don't really want to take the chance.

Brain vomit 3 - I need to spend less time on the internet and yes I do realise the irony of saying that while writing a blog post but...... While I was on the computer earlier (looking at houses) the girls were playing outside and asked if I would come and see their shop. A whole hour passed before I actually went out and then I came back in as I wanted to look at the last 25 pages of houses. That needs to stop happening quite as much. Tricky when you run two businesses that rely on the internet but I'm sure I can figure something out.

Brain vomit 4 - I need to say yes much more especially to the girls. At the moment I am always finding excuse for why they can't do this and can't do that so I am going to say yes more.

Brain vomit 5 - Is anyone else annoyed at the 'perfect' bloggers - the ones who have children dressed in handmade clothes being fed granola that was cooked in the oven that morning with things harvested from the garden which grows in front of their perfect home. And what is more annoying when they say 'oh I'm not perfect' and show you a room that is clean and tidy but has one shoe out of place and that is their messy. Maybe I should stop reading them but I can't - they are like bloggy heroin! Messy is the pile of wet bedding at the top of the stairs because your youngest wet the bed, the piles of clothes on the bedroom floor, the plates left in the front room from last night and the recycling piled into the corner because you can't be bothered to open the door to the cellar and put it in the boxes (don't judge me!)

Brain vomit 6 - whoa - just read this back and it's all a bit woe is me isn't it? It's not meant to be but I'm trying (badly) to articulate what is swooshing around in my brain at the moment.

Brain vomit 7 - I think my new motto may be 'Fuck It'

:D

P.S. I have decided to have the summer off from blogging so I will see you again in September and yes, I know I said that a few months ago and promptly wrote a few more posts but I mean it this time :) Maybe my brain vomit will have straightened itself out by then and become proper thoughts and ideas!

Narnia has nothing on me!

If you follow me on Twitter you will have seen me bleating about finding a fab new wardrobe* at the auction. So now you get to see pretty pictures of it. Exciting huh? :)

Nothing too fancy so far....

Getting better with pretty details.....

Oh but what is this - shelves and drawers?

WITH LABELS!!!!! Sorry, got all excited there!! I don't have many collars but I'm sure I will think of something to put in there :)

And it was mine for the princely sum of £12 + commission. Not bad eh?

*my old wardrobe is one of those canvas ones and it is so old that it is starting to lean over! A replacement was needed pronto!

More pictures!

We have lots of walls in this house and I'm always drawn to pictures in magazines and on blogs where the walls are filled with pictures. There are lots of walls left to go but we are getting there! We are fairly eclectic with our (mainly my) tastes. We get the pictures from jumble sales, charity shops, auctions and craft fairs.

Matt saw this next picture in a job lot at auction and knew straight away that I would bid for it.

He was right! I love he way the embroiderer has used negative space.

Who couldn't love this (slightly blurry) face? I'm allergic to cats so can't have any real ones (boo!) Do you think it's possible to become a cat lady without having actual cats? :)

More picture posts here.

I like beards :)

And I *heart* men with beards :)

Good job really!

New things in my hallway

As well as putting up new shelves in Anyas room at the weekend we hung some pictures in the hallway. One we have had for over a year but the rest came from the big jumble sale in February so again having them up just a mere month after we bought them is good!

I also tidied up the book area which is just underneath these pictures - it looks better now and works which is always good!

The two pink roofed houses next to the big bookcase are perfect for smaller books :) I'd been looking for a house shaped bookcase for a while and knew that these ones would have to come home with me when I spotted them for £2 in a charity shop :)

The book corner! The pink chair used to be mine when I was a little girl and the large cushions are there temporarily until we find a decent rug for that space.

Although we will have to add a lot more pictures soon as we bought a boxful at the auction yesterday!

Busy weekend

We had such a busy and productive weekend and the Spring weather is on the way so we spent an awful lot of time outside too which was nice. The girls are getting much more confident on their scooters so we are hoping this summer to tackle bikes without stabilisers! One of the jobs we did tackle was more storage for Anyas ever increasing book collection, and we actually started and finished a job in one day which is not like us at all!!

Ta Da! Anya has a high bed and this space here just had pictures hanging which can easily go somewhere else - and book shelves are always useful in this house :)

And here is her bed complete with cushion from Auntie Sarah, her reading light, her white book box which was crammed full of books and was threatening to fall off and of course, Bozo Bear!

She had great fun arranging all of her books into order.

And although she has plenty of proper bookmarks, like me she ends up using whatever is to hand.

Lolly sticks, random bits off a cereal packet and some of my crafting materials! I'm surprised there isn't a tissue in there too :)