Sunday, 31 May 2009

Blog Award


Blog Award

Thank you to Ruth of Flutter-by Bears for passing this makes my heart smile award to me, it is very kind. I will make time this week to pass it on to 10 more people who's blogs make my heart smile.

Thank you again Ruth

Pauline

Wednesday, 27 May 2009

Kitchen Progress







Kitchen Progress

Well we have progresses slightly with the kitchen, units are all in, worktops on, new oven and hob in and working, ceiling just needs one more coat of paint (I have promised Alan I will live with the ceiling for a little while and I'm trying not to look at it too much, need some new inset lights in there yet as the ones we have are white and they need to be silver)

We need to tile on the walls yet so it looks a bit bland and dirty, we have no flooring yet, this will be coming in a few weeks. Then the fun part for me will be making curtains/blinds, getting accessories and putting finishing touches on. I did expect to be finished by May but still have another month or so work. The new cooker I think looks nice but the performance is not as good as my last one. It's not as hot and takes forever to cook meat, my muffins are heavy, my Yorkshire puddings look done and rise well but are not done in the middle, either I just have to get used to it yet or there is something wrong like maybe too much heat coming out of the seal (just guessing here) or controls faulty.

Well, back to work, I have a fair at the weekend and have to get a few bears finished yet.

Pauline

Monday, 11 May 2009

A Kitchen Bargain



A Kitchen Bargain

I can't believe we are still on with our kitchen. I really thought it would be completed by now but although the kitchen is all in we still have no floor (just floorboards and a bit of carpet at the other side, no tiling or decorating. The wooden ceiling is still in the process of being painted, will take pictures of where we are now later but I had to show off this bargain table I just bought. We did already have a table which was a huge oval pine one that seated about 8 or more but as we had an island built in the new kitchen, there was no room for it to come back in so I had to look for another. I wanted something similar but smaller and searched high and low to no avail for a month or more, went everywhere except one shop that I knew would be too expensive for us and avoided it.
After a month of searching I finally thought as I was passing the expensive shop and there was a 20% off sale for that day, I might as well have a look and torture myself. There are 3 floors of the most beautiful wooden furniture (all colours) so very well made but price tags way over what I was able to afford. THEN..... on the second floor there was a sign that said "end of line and seconds section upstairs". Up I scrambled and then.... my heart skipped a beat, there was an oval table, 4 seater that extended to 6 (no chairs) just as beautifully and solidly made as the ones downstairs, exactly what I was looking for. Hubby said "oh it definitely is the wrong colour, it's no good". I said "it won't be when you have finished with it dear". I looked at the price tag and it was half price (because the salesman said of a tiny scratch and also the colour was the deepest mahogany, almost black and dated... did I care!) and a further 30% off that day!! I didn't listen to hubby's whining voice, I just said "I will take it". I can see it in my minds eye painted white, just like all the shabby chic painted white furniture that is in the shops now and so up-to-date. It is after all hubbys fault for painting the wooden ceiling boards white to save the mess and cost of having it re-done or skimmed, as I mentioned before I had no intention of having a shabby chic style kitchen before he did this and all my plans changed, it might be a while before I get this table done as things are going slower than I'd like and I am using the table with a cover on at the moment, will post pictures of the finished table hopefully soon. Now I am looking for new chairs for it and hoping for a similar bargain.

Have a nice week
Pauline