Wedding hell.

I am getting married.
*** now most girls would sqeal and do some super-stupid hand clappy jumping crap***
Not me.

I am not one of those girls who has always dreamed of being married, in fact, the thought of marriage terrifies me. I hate the stupid white dresses with tacky stones on them, I hate the stupid 'best man' I hate the stag night, I hate the first dance, I hate the 'funny' speeches..I hate the stupid dated cream car with stupid cream leather seats, I hate the food, I hate wedding cake...I hate weddings.

I have never been to a wedding I liked and now mine is only one year away I am feeling more than tetchy.

Everyone is throwing in their two penneth and I don't wanna hear it. I know that sounds mean but it makes me more and more nervous and more and more confused.

I hate wedding dresses and can't find a single thing I like, the closest I have found is this...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260773863562&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
which to be fair, IS a beautiful dress, but I am a big-chested woman and this is not for the bustier woman :(

Here are some other dresses I love and yet you have to be pretty much flat-chested to wear

Jenny Packham - I love you so much but WHY so small? Can't girls with boobs have pretty dresses too?

Temperley - OH so beautiful...so so so beautiful...but where for my boobs?

I lost the link to this pic (sorry whoever owns it - I would credit you) but isn't this a gorgeous and simple look. why so small though?

Jenny Packham again - again with the flat chest :(

How to marry a millionaire - that film has about six million gorgeous dresses in it..this one is my favourite. My ankle is fatter than Laren Bacall's waist.

Keira Knightley wears the BEST dress in the world..I am green with envy. I am also not six foot and two inches thin, nor famous enough to warrant a nice dress like this.

Two more Packham's..so beautiful but SO small and SO expensive.

Beautiful Drew. Perfect Drew..I need her chest/figure size.

So what to do? I don't like fuss, I don't like churches, religion, tradition, it would seem I only like massively pricey dresses made for skinny rake ladies with shitloads of cash....arrgrh!!!

urrgh.....URRRGH, the search goes on.

Crap.

Slack

Having been here for 9 weeks now!!! I am totally owning up to being SLACK! I have not written anything, I have not taken many photos of progress and I have been through this house and garden like a bull in a china shop.

When we moved in, it hit me hard how much work we had to do to get the house on track..it is/was wrecked. The garden was EVEN worse, if you can imagine wild jungle/barren wasteland that has been left to turn into some kind of weird jungle that has odd metal poles and tons and tons of brambles, rocks, cement, glass, bomb shelters, three metal crates the size of a skip and bugs everywhere...then times it by a squillion and imagine a shedload of cuts, bruises and stings...well that is what we have had to deal with. The pictures I am about to post were taken after two weeks of solid work..four trips to the dump and all the junk in each picture is what we uncovered in just one part of the garden!

I must confess that I have not put nearly as much energy into the house (my main passion to begin with) and I have totally ignored my knitting and crochet..nope, the garden has me hooked. We are going to ruin the shit out of the bad times and make it all new and amazing. I have tons of pictures of progress but none of the start so I will have to use them as reference points in the future...but for now, I mission on. I will come back and say hi soon and try and update about the house too...not very good at blogging about it like I said, oh well.

The back door area..when we moved in the drain was SO blocked with fat from cooking that the back wall of the house and the surrounding area STANK and flooded constantly - the estate agents like to keep lovely features like that a secret, just in case you can't help but buy the house for the sheer appeal of the drain stench..urrgh. Note the weird metal shelf screwed into the wall...why? We found the belfast sink in a 'plant bed- aka shithole' in the middle part of the garden, it weighed the same amount at six elephants and had a HUGE spider and a slow worm living behind it. Cool. All the green you see here we planted in the first week..there was nothing here before, it was truly miserable.

Opposite the back door there was what I thought was a flower bed, I was right, it did use to be a flower bed..The rose bush was so big and hanging so low that it could've killed a man in a slight gust, so I chopped it back and made it a bit more of a reasonable shape. Hung a bunch of hippy stuff off it to give it a bit more of a homey feel..then added a bunch of little bits and bobs underneath and begged my bay tree in a pot to hang out with the baddies and play nice. I love the birdcage, it's now the spiders new favourite home and therefore, I must move it away soon. See the very sexy drain poles in the picture, Our new neighbour told us (about one hundred times) that the old owners used to tip their fat down the drain ''for about fifty years'' Excellent. So that is how long I will be stabbing the fatty lardycakes down the drain then..great.

On the first sunny day after we moved in, we decided to destory a godawful 'rockery' that was against that brick wall, It was about five foot high and full of brambles, a belfast sink (the one by the back door)  and sixty tons of buried GIANT boulders..urrgh. Oh, and six fur trees, a metal post that was buried four and a half feet down in the middle of the bed and some giant root balls dumped into the mix. YES. So, we destroyed everything that was in that area, pulled out all the boulders and weeds and saved what could be saved, then, after almost passing out from exhaustion, we made the bed that can be seen above. It isn't the best flower bed I have ever seen, but it is the best make-do and mend flower bed made from entirely rubbish bits of crap found in the jungle that was the 'rockery' Note: the GORGOEUS and totally pointless double height fence and wire roll, the falling apart brick wall for soldiers to hide behind before they launch their attack?!?!?! what are these things for? who knows? The weird spidery shape wooden fence towards the back of the picture, well that was completely obscured by brambles that had been growing for about fifty years, I found sleeping beauty behind there, the dragon had died of boredom waiting for someone to get past the bramble hell so we used him as a planting feature..anyway, after 3 hard days, I found this fence. I hate it but my entire family seem to think it is nice..hrm.

Behind these dear sweet apple trees, you can see the hell that is the weeds that was the 'lawn' 150 foot of 'lawn' we managed to strim a space to plant apple trees. They are there to encourage bees and to fend off the misery that strimming the rest will cause me. Look at the beautiful upright fence, not rotten at all. Look at the old bomb shelter trying desperately not to drown in the weeds...heeellllp mmmmeeee!

Evidence of bramble wall of doom, look, I killed it dead...yeh! Also see nice six foot high mesh wall..for what reason are you there mesh wall? You know not? Me either!

Beautiful skeleton of greenhouse, included is live wire running to non-existing light fitting and potting table made of woodworm and mould and exhausted bubble wrap...too tired to bear the hell of the garden it fell down and gave up. 

There are no words. I have an old pub table I spray painted pink..I hate the colour, but I love it more than the hell hole it sits in..what IS the point of the fence..? It has since been killed. Phew.

Random metal poles..these were hidden by a world of ....BRAMBLES..yes, because you can't have enough spiky bastards in your garden if you live here...we spent 3 days ripping them all out.  I genuinely had no idea there was a bed this big here, I thought it was much smaller. We found two french door glass panes..there are no french doors here?! We turned the soil over, we hurt ourselves..we nearly gave up. It is now our veggie patch..HA! beat that brambles.

Attractive concrete hell..we have named this 'no mans land' Look at that metal sheet..isn't it the perfect feature for your garden. bleurgh

*Cry*

*sob*

*shudder*

Don't even get me started on the front garden.

I guess I had better go and get on with some more...speak soon.x

5 ,4, 3, 2, 1...

With less than 5 days to go I am starting to panic.

Everything is in a mess and I can't walk a yard without tripping over this or stubbing a toe on that. Most annoying.

Lately I have picked up some lovely little bits that I am reluctantly having to pack away today, and here are some granny squares I have been working on. Since I took this picture the squares are now rapidlly turning into a blanket for my (bigger) little boy's room. I am feeling very guilty to be moving him to a new place, new school and worst of all, a new room with no carpet or radiator - he is shocked!! The plaster is 90 years old and I don't think even one floor board is nailed down properly, we will have to work hard in there to make it nice..so, I have decided to make loads of nice little homely things for him, help him to feel more at home. Not sure what to do about the plaster though..that might have to wait..sorry little O.

It's all very exciting and the sadness from the other day is slowly passing. I am now looking forward to our little (big) move and making a new home. I also have to focus on business once I am there so hopefully lots of colourful updates on the horizon. Mostly crochet-based (it is my new passion)

Anyhowww..with a list for each day as long as a supermodel's leg, I really ought to get on. I will leave you with a lovely picture of a charming swan I happened to meet the other day..bye for now.x

Goodbye 96

I just sent my little boy off for his last ever day at his school. we are moving.

Contracts are signed, deals are done, solicitors paid and we are off..I feel a touch sad, there is a lump in my throat and my heart is heavy.

Although it is exciting to move to a new home, and believe me, I have such excitement about it, I do love this house, so much.
It's truly the first ever house I have felt is MY home. I have been here four years and in that time my son has come to the end of his treatment for childhood cancer and (so far) stayed strong (let's all keep our fingers crossed that it's always that way)
I had to start my life as a single mum here and battled through having no money, no one to keep me company, being totally alone in a big old three storey house with weird noises and doors that didn't lock.. at times I was terribly sad about being alone and how my life might always be that way...but throughout that time I found myself, I found friends to hang out with and a lovely home to throw myself in to. People would come and stay, they all felt at home here and it soon became known at Hotel 96! 

.....And then,when i was content with life and really wasn't thinking about things getting any better, I stupidly locked myself out of the house, and by doing so I ended up finding the man who evenetually asked me to be his wife, now we have a child, he has become a father figure to my other child, they are the best of friends and together we have bought a house and we begin a new path together, all of us as a little family. It's such an exciting time but part of me and my heart will definitely remain here at 96.

And so, next Saturday, at the crack of dawn, probably with a heavy heart, I will pack up my entire life made here and move it to 'Hotel 38'

A new start, a new house, a new life, a new canvas to paint..

I want to write more but I don't really feel like today is the day.



Goodbye 96. x

Hey-cro whaddya know!

Welll welllll welllllllllll-lah!

I spent most of yesterday trying and failing SO badly to make a lovely little crochet granny square. I have been determined all my life to be like my mum and be able to just produce awesome knitwear/crochet at the drop of a hat, my mum has got the woollen skills! I sadly do not and knitting is about as exciting as I get (I love it but I WANT to crochet so hard)
So after an entire day of stabbing my fingers, squinting like an old lady over a big ol' steering wheel and cursing a lot...at about four pm I finally decided that I was always going to be a total loser and ought to be struck off as an official 'woman'
That I may as well give up and go back to dreaming about crochet and making cute little blankies..sure, I can knit but this crochet malarkey is like winning the lottery for me, I know it is out there, or at least, it is for other people, but for me it is juuust out of reach..so as the evening drew closer and I really WAS going to give up and make some dinner for my poor hungry family, honest..then I suddenly got it! Dinner was going to have to wait suckers!

SHIZENYESS!

I got it!!! soon after that four oddly shaped squares sat in front of me in a drudgy shade of green, red, yellow? etc,  and I knew, I totally knew that it was love. I looked down at the pathetic little squares all wonky and proud and I went straight to Ebay and sweetly asked (made) 'him' buy me 800g of scrappy DK wool to make into horribly wonky brother and sister squares for my proud little mutant squares, and in turn, my first blanket :)

So this morning (because by now you may have noticed I can't stop with the klepto-like behaviour) I went to the local (I can't ever remember the name of the bloody place..hang on..) not green grocer, no..wait! I went to the local hardware store and there, on the 'shelf' was a fairly crap but colourful collection of wool. Now the man who was in there was new and possibly a weirdo murdery type?? - he had the look y'know slightly serial killery specs, shifty eyes and an enthusiastic comb over

But he was about my age-ish, hrm, I was sure he shaved some hair off to make his comb over..what an odd set-up, why choose to look like this?? I toyed with running away as he went to prop open the door (also known as lock the door and kill me - but he didnt) then he smiled at me in a slightly pitying way as I enquired about his lacklustre wool and told me, very kindly, that I could have 8 balls at 1.85 each, then he said actually some of them are a bit, y'know (? I do?) ..so how about today they are..hmmm 1.50?(said quizzically as if I knew the answer to 1.50?)....Well I wasn't going to argue, I only had about £7 ish quid and so I picked up 6 as I couldn't decide between them and he said, ok how about you tell me how many are there, so I said 6 but I can't afford them all, just choosing the colours. Then he said, ok well what have you got in your hand so I checked my change, told him about £7 ish and he said 'fine'

Sweet!
 
So I scrabbled around and pulled out the £7ish, thrust it at him whilst making a clear run for the very welcoming exit and yelled 'THANKS'... and  legged it home with my cheap, weird and slightly odd collection of wool. Apart from being scared shatihless in the shop that whole trip was worth it, what a kind and mostly terrifying man, and besides, I could not wait.. it was definitely probably worth it maybe.

Now bearing in mind I am moving to a new (falling down) house in two weeks and it has no storage and I don't know where anything is going to go etc, I am guessing that now is a pretty stupid time to decide to fall in love with crochet and stock up on tons of wool. Bearing in mind I have a knitting shop and a whole room full to the brim with chunky wool and last winter's scarves that are still unsold..possibly not the best timing, but PAH, whatever..I am in love and anyone who stands in the way of me and my weird little squares better watchout!

On another note I was also very pleased because the day before I rescued a (possibly very ugly) 70s raffia grass and leather (what a combo) bag from the charity shop, It was buried under some rather drab old suitcases and a crappy briefcase, bleurgh, who the hell do they think they are! pfft.
Now I knew it was cool in a kind of 70s mum kind of a way but I wasn't sure of what it was going to be for..I contemplated using it as a buggy bag for nappies and the likes but let's be honest, they go UNDER the buggy and usually the buggy bag is for the awesome bits and bobs I find out and about..so no,not for that.. then of course the wonky squares happened in all their glory and so my crochet bag was born..mmm crochet bag, you're so ugly but so cooool!

So yeh, tonight I am up to ten little rainbow squares, they are all the same (ish) shape and I feel proud like a puffy pigeon..so folks, for the first time in my stubborn, giveupperish little life, after 31.5 years and  many a tantrum, I have finally made a crochet square...I am one happy girl :) woo!x

Baby it's COLLLLLLD outsiiiiiide

Gosh, it's blooooody freezing today. After a week or so of lovely, lovely sunny spring weather we are now back to grim grey skies and chunky knitwear (I like that part) and guess what? I've got the stupid, stupid sniffles. Have been sneezing and sniffing and now I definitely have a runny nose...humph.

Today, seeing as it is rubbish and cold, I am going to learn to crochet. Have found a bunch of cool tutorials on YouTube and am GOING to do it. I went out this morning and bought a cute little crochet hook and I obviously have tons and tons of wool (not packed that just yet -can't bear to!) and I intend to learn how to make squares, then make square after square on my cold and boring nights at home (I am imagining there wont be many of those as I am moving to a house with a boiler and lots of lovely fun people and things) when I have not much else to do...ha, yeh.

Look at this beauty from Moxy Crochet

http://www.moxycrochet.co.za/index.html

...so so gorgeous..jealous/inspiration!

Right, so I am going to go and find my slippers and make some tea and then get on to making wonderful blankets using only a little metal stick and some sheepies! yehh. bye.x

Oh hello

It's been a while hasn't it.
I've been REALLY busy, squirrellllling away all my things into boxes, ready to move to the new house! It's been a chore and I'm not even half way there..sigh..this is mostly because I have spent most of my spare time walking for miles about the countryside with the dog or buying lovely old studio pottery and the likes from local charity shops (shh! don't tell him)

Work has finally slowed to a standstill, I don't think people want knitwear when the weather is this nice (stupid, stupid... ok, fair enough) I am planning to shut shop for a few months until I am settled in the new place and then I will re-open with new ideas, products and lovely things in time for summer and the festivals. It's a bit dis-heartening that I'm not doing much work-wise but I am taking it as kismet, I am meant to be working on other things and so I must knuckle down..probably.

..and so I must also be more versatile and make lovely new things..I just need to figure out what they are? Knitted tea cosies? Woollen lampshades? Woollen pillows, Garden cushions, Giant cats made of human hair? no?..urgh..I don't know. Feel so despondant.

Score of the day yesterday was this super-cool fabric for framing and putting in my new office (the understairs cupboard, I am JUST like Harry Potter)

I love the whole primary colour, naiveness of it. Do you remember the kids TV show Pigeon Street?

It reminds me of that, clearly Pigeon Street and Long distance Clara had a lasting effect on me, so now my office is going to be rocking some 70s/80s joy..LOVE. See the woman in the long blue dress and grey cardi - I AM her. She is me..wtf?! I had never noticed until now..disturbing.

Recently, me and him have be out and about jaunting, it must be the weather, I love to jaunt about the place with a pocket full of coins and a hopeful feeling in my tummy that * maybe & perhaps* exciting treasures will be just around the next corner - most of the time they are not..but out on a jaunt last Saturday, me and him were looking about one of our local thrifty places (top secret location of cheapy goodness) when we happened uponst some WICKED 70s G-Plan chairs (like these) but battered and in need of some serious love and touching.

I love them, small and kitch and perfect for the new kitchen..score! Just as I was turning around to pay for the rad chairs I saw a 1940s kitchen clock, a Jessie Tait plate and ANOTHER two awesome (Nathan) chairs. Like a ten-armed kleptomaniac I swooped down upon everything in site and scooped it all up in my cubbly little arms...mmmmmm Score, muahahhahahahahha! So we left the secret place of goodies, got in the car and it wouldn't start (shizenmuff - him in instant mood) Thankfully I just so happened to have watched MacGuyver that morning and remembered some handy tips, and quickly fashioned a new car out of elastic bands, broken teak tables and some slightly gritty lumps of blue tac (not really) but I did fix it. Winner, and on our merry way we went!

Anyway, once we got home I decided I really ought to get on with my last broken chair project of doom. Make some room for some more chairs of doom. One of my (not so secret) loves is re-covering old chairs (see below - cat not for sale, chair now finished and for sale on evilbay)

 The chair pictured with my little cat Sage, is an original 1920s Atcraft chair recovered in 50s fothergay fabric, I don't care how many people think it is an ugly fabric, I think it is a thing of beauty and it is currently for sale right now on Ebay - go  take a peek! I must've hit my stupid sausagey fingers about twenty thousand times to get this old boy back to looking pretty and nice. The fabric is taught, the chair is re-upholstered, the frame sanded and waxed..it looks like a sexy gentleman chair and whomever is tempted by is deco curves will be in love forever, I am sad to see it go, but I have more chairs and that means less room, farewell old boy.

Anyway, as I was saying, before sidetracking like a pro -  Like a phoenix from the ashes these awesome old G-Plan chairs will rise and be loved once again - I swear it! I want to do something like this (see Ercol chairs right here)

What do you think? Something bright and happy like this, whoever made these chairs look like this - you are a genius, sorry for not linking you or crediting you but I collected this pic ages ago and lost the linky info. Needless to say, you are an actual genius! So yes, like these lovely colourful beauties but with awesome/hideous fabric seats. hrm, will photograph and show you once they are done, they are on the HUGEmongous list of things I have to make/fix/build as soon as I move house.

Anyway, enough waffling about chairs.. This week (that's the last twelve hours so far - six of which I was asleep!) I have been working on a felted bead curtain for my new kitchen, I am making tons of little balls and will be threading them onto fishing wire with shells and glass and other cool bits and then hanging them in my new minging kitchen window which actually has to become prettier otherwise I may be forced to cry..have a little sneaky peaky at my felting goods whilst you're here

Bloody chip in my favourite cup, ach, anyway, those colours are awesome and will be much more awesome once they are hanging in my (soon to be) fabulous new kitchen window.

Right! I really ought to get on with my day..can anyone teach me to crochet? I realllly want to learn how to be as good as this http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/ Oh Lucy, I read your blog and am SO jealous of your lovely crochet world..sigh. such wonderous colours and shapes..one day!

All the pictures I have featured (apart from the wool balls and the cat on a chair) are not mine, I have lost the links to them but I just wanted to make damn sure that the people who did take them know I am not claiming them as mine and am super-thankful for their beauty perking up my stupid blog. So thank you and if you really aren't happy, please msg me and I will take them down. taaa.xxx

On the theme of..

..Old man paintings, I bought one as a gift today.

This blog should've been entitled 'Kindness'

This past weekend and today, I have been shown such kind ness and generosity..it is amazing how lovely people can be.
Last week a nice lady we shall refer to as C, donated her kitchen to me on well known British website, Freecycle. I actually emailed her about something else she was giving away but she read that I needed a kitchen for the new  (falling apart) house and she kindly told me that her kitchen was being removed, so would I like it? She sent photos and then informed me that the lovely, lovely kitchen fitters (who were putting in her new kitchen at the time) would lend us their van so we could transport it all..for free. So to C, thank you SO much. So much kindness and generosity.
To the fitters, also thank you for being trusting and kind.
Then, on to today..my insane art collection is going a bit overboard at the moment, and I was looking for a gift, I stumbled across a lovely painting for my fella

and emailed the (awesome) seller with an offer..it was every last penny i had and REALLY more than I should be spending with solicitors and bills and babies etc..but he kindly accepted and was so sweet to talk to. He didn't have to say yes, but he did..so to him, we shall call him K, thank you also. You are amazingly kind.

Not wanting to sound too much like a hippy, but if you can, in your life, make someone else a tiny gesture like those that were made for me, I can honestly tell you, you will make someone so happy. Please do it, I hope it will make you feel happy too.x

Shugga-duggga dooo, OOOH, Daddy.

Today I am MAD about the old man paintings you see laying about in charity shops and going for nothing on Ebay/Etsy and so on.

I am bidding on a right old pair of geezers online at the moment, I have such a  warm swollen feeling of love for them in the pit of my stomach, I can just picture (no pun intended) their awesome old man faces above the sofa in my new house. Their beautiful wise old cracked faces, concealed behind their beautiful wise old cracked varnish..mmmm, I love them. I hope they smell old, like the same way old books do (I collect them too)
Anyway, I guess this has to be a very brief post as Shutter Island is on the TV and I quite fancy scaring the shizz out of myself and hiding behind a cushion and the likes. Hopefully a more interesting post tomorrow or sometime soon..maybex

I love your funnnnyyy faccce

MMMM baaacon. Lickedy lick.

Rowan, you rock.

Shouldn't buuuut... WOULD!

Everyone has them, right?

I spent aaages last night baking a nice (if you like that sort of thing) coffee and walnut cake for my fella. Personally I think coffee is rank and walnuts are lovely but FAR too fatty, am fat enough already after 2 kids and 74 chocolate bars a week :P

Whilst baking said cake my dog, Rowan and I, listened to music and pondered over our shouldn't but woulds..who are yours?

Mine were:

Dustin Hoffman (coo coo kachoo, mrs robinson - you know what I mean!)

Liam Neeson

Griff Rhys Jones (gah..yum!)

AND

Dexter Fletcher (pictured, whom I have loved since The Press Gang in 1989 - when I was 9/10. Look at Dexter..what a silvery beauty he is)

Rowan's were:

Lassie

Odie

AND

sage, our stupid cat...he is a very confused doggie.

STILL no news about when the survery for our house will be..I have a little egg of nervousness in my tummy. BWAAAKKK..that was my best chicken noise.

MASSIVE hair.

What I wouldn't give for

1. lovely straight normal hair that does as it is bloody well bloody told bloody bloody.

2. a nice small chest to fit inside 'normal' girlie clothes instead of a matronly chest, it's not even jayne mansfield large, just hattie jaques...although not as lovely as she was fabulous.

3. a little bag full of a million pound coins to fall out of the sky into my handbag (please)

4. the money to purchase a g plan room divider to put in the house i just paid a shitwedge of money to survey before (hopefully) buying!!

5. patience to find out if the house we are (hopefully) buying, is ours.

6. a studio to do all of my knitting in, a nice one with awesome things in it.

7. a spare £140 to buy the 2 parker knoll chairs I need to match the one I already have..then another 1 to magically turn up so i have a set for my new lounge..where are you?!?!

There are other things but I am late for school and this is bad as I am the mum...I am meant to be on time, it is him that is meant to be late.

My store is dead at the moment..how on earth do you get people to visit your etsy store to buy lovely woollen products when it is sunny outside and wool is probs the last thing they need?

hrm..this reminds me, the dog needs a haircut.

love.xx

Romancing the home

Yeah! We made an offer on the tumble down house, and after 3 days of faffing about trying to scrape extra money out of thin air, we managed to stretch ourselves to an offer the owners deemed reasonable. So, the next day we (our family) and our extended family, all jumped in our cars and went to the house to look around (the poor estate agent!) We all got rather excited and the neighbouring house's curtains twitched so frequently I wondered if they were in fact trying to communicate by semaphore?

The house was just like I remembered, Tall, narrow, pale and full of potential but falling apart of the seams everso slightly...think like a vintage dress that has been loved but is just starting to look tatty enough to bin..like that. I love it. The garden is glorious and overgrown and the house is a time warp, slightly innocent looking but there is a proudness hidden under the tired old wallpaper and paint.

Upstairs there are 3 good sized bedrooms, two at the back with no carpet and radiators, plaster so cracked it could be a secret map of the london underground and some gorgeous old 1920s floral nets which will be taken down and dyed minty green and put up in my kitchen as curtains/door panels. The kitchen is a place that time forgot, the floor is sunken and the walls all over theplace with badly boxed in pipes and layer upon layer of floral wallpaper peeling back like the pages of an old, wet Laura Ashley catalogue.The poor excuse for a bathroom standls lonely just outside the kitchen walls, with only a narrow hallway to connect it, within the narrow hallway are old school hooks for coats and a gorgeous old bakelite light switch..I will be keeping that. The size of the bathroom..ok, wet room (there is no bath) isn't great but it will do for now, do for drying clothes when no one is bathing..no, showering and for washing the dog in - grubby little boy., but it will do and I have grand grand plans for it one day!

Today I have had some luck, a lovely lady was Freecycling a kitchen dresser, so of course I emailed her right away and it turns out she is also getting her kitchen removed today, she offered it to me and I have snapped it up. Not bad for one afternoon of Freecycle trawling. I hope to find a lovely colour paint, paint the units (if they aren't up to scratch - which they might be) and then go on the hunt for a nice work top for cheap or free! I like the idea of covering the one that is already in there with copper sheeting, it is such a cool look.

I also now have to think about my littlest son's new bedroom..so I had a quick search online and ended up finding this rug! (see above) Now what could be cuter than that! Then I thought about what I could do in there and my mind is going wild with ideas..I just can't wait. I know I could be jumping the gun a bit as there are stumbling blocks with regards to the sale, like the survey (it has to value the house at what we will be paying) and the mortgage company definitely saying yes...but these aren't things I am going to worry about ..I will go mad

So to combat madness I am now going out to look for some cute fabric to make hoop wall art for a room, whichever room suits the fabric I find..Will update with more news as soon as I know!

Woo-hoo, keep your fingers crossed and wish us luck!

Updates

So, as promised, we (our little family) expanded by one. Little fyfe is here and growing bigger by the day, this pleases me as he is such a bonny, happy boy. Full of smiles and love for all. Big brown eyes and pale, milky skin..he looks fragile.

He has taken really rather well to sitting with me in the lounge and hearing the clickedy clack of the knitting needles and the dulcet tones of Kate Walsh and her lovely album 'Peppermint Radio' Listen to it on Spotify! It is full of beautiful covers of old songs that have her magical, fraglie touches..I love her voice and the simplicity of her music. It is just perfect.

Anyway, my young man, he has a smile for everyone and loves a cuddle, what more could you want from such a handsome boy. The rest of our little clan is happy and keeping well, which pleases me as good health is something you really ought not ever take for granted.

This week an exciting new prospect poured over the horizon like sunshine coming up over a gloomy old hillside..

Now we are expanding as a little family, He, my lovely man..(soon so be husband, how weird is that!) told me that we really ought to get on and get this house we are living in, cleaned up and sold. So, me being me (impatient and always on the hunt for a bargain) had a little look for a house and found myself a little house that needed a lot of work but just so happened to be in our price range..so we book to see it and then decide we really aren't in the right place to look at it so we decide to cancel and go looking later on in the year.

So, some time ticks on and a nice chat with my dad results in us looking again..and guess what, the house is still on the market. So last weekend we went to look at it. It's falling apart really, no kitchen to speak of, it still has the original 1920s coal-fulled range cooker, it has no kitchen floor, a bathroom the size of a postage stamp and it hasnt been decorated in 50 years..but it has a charm.

Now, it may be true that I am a bit of a snob, but I am not too big for my boots and not too proud to build a life from scratch..afterall, you can't depend on the kindness of your parents your entire life.

So I looked into this house..it is an ex-council house built in 1926, it was built under the 'Homes for Heroes' scheme, which was a scheme made by local councils to provide affordable housing for the wives and children whose husbands has been sent off to the first world war and either been killed or wounded so badly that they couldn't afford to work. These families were left with nothing and the end result was the government building houses for these families to rent. Now fast forward some 90-ish years and here I am, a woman looking to house my family..we may not be war heroes but I am in love with the idea that lost in time somewhere is this beautiful idea and this wonderful tumbledown house could just be right.

Perhaps living on an ex-council estate in a tumbledown house is brave or stupid, but I have decided to keep a diary of it, the sourcing of free or cheap items, the renewing of such an old building..the garden..it will be cool to keep not only my work updated here but also my family and home updated too and perhaps one day it will be useful or interesting to someone else in the same position? - who knows.

What I do know is I am nervously awaiting the estate agent to call me back with the news of my offer, will it have been accepted or declined, the first was declined yesterday...not a great feeling but it could be worse..so we have gone in, all guns blazing with a new shiny offer and now we just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope they say yes..then it is all go, a life of sourcing new kitchens and bathrooms and garden items from Freecycle, Ebay, car boots, jumble sales and the tip! This house will strip us of every penny, so what fun to see how we can make it better for cheap or even free..keep your fingers crossed!

winter blues

this week has been bad.

with only 13 days to go until our new baby is here, we have all been struck down with the winter vomiting virus..and it is hell.

norovirus, go look it up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norovirus wouldn't wish it on anyone. and although i got over mine (as in stopped being sick) on tuesday, it is now friday and i still feel like hell and both my boys have it too. so far tonight they have both been throwing up for five hours straight and neither want me to leave them - which is sweet, but, i am VERY pregnant and don't know how much longer i can stay awake, plus the scrubbing of sick out of clothes and carpets is a touch tiring now..but i don't want to sound mean. i love my boys and will stay awake with them until they are both shiny and new.

in a brief advertising type-moment. trugs have saved the day/week/year . if you don't know what a trug is then go and find out right now..there are about a squillion uses for a trug and in this house we couldn't cope without them. they are laundry baskets, plant watering devices, sick buckets, car washing buckets, planters for vegtables in the summer, toy storage...and many many more. tonight our lounge is full of sicky trugs, but they are still awesome in all their colourful glory! thank you trug! http://containerama.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=23



it does make you think about how lucky we are to have such simple things as clean water and flushing toilets. without clean running water to rehydrate you, norovirus would be a killer. so i have spared a thought and will do something this winter to support a country or town that doesn't have such a luxury..

in other news i donated a bunch of my knitwear to a 'help the heroes' auction which happened yesterday. it was a pretty impressive sale and they raised over £5000 (not all from knitwear) so they must be amazingly proud of themselves.

i finally finish work on monday for maternity leave..i shall miss it you know. a friend text me today with a possible exciting job next year. i shall say no more but i REALLY hope it will happen as it would be such a laugh and everything i could want. funny where some balls of wool and knitting needles can take you.

anyway, it is late and i have a big human man-boy and a very poorly little human boy-boy to take care of, so goodnight, keep safe and enjoy your christmas if i don't make it back to say it again by then!

love and stuff.x

Oh! it's been a while

Sorry about that... Life threw me a curveball this year, my strange higgledypiggeldy family is expanding by one at Christmas, December 23rd to be precise..a smaller and slighty more quiet version of me and he! How exciting.



So, since we last spoke..well, I had to give knitting a long break as the past seven months I have been busy inspecting the inside of my toilet bowl more often that I would've liked. In fact, I got so used to hanging upside down inside the toilet bowl I did begin to wonder if I was part-bat? Wilf got loads better, his jaw fixed and he now looks very much like a slightly fatter, smilier, slightly fluffier version of a smudgy cloud. Bean grew a whole year older and is now 9! Woah!

And to work, well I decided it was about time. 'He' (very kindly) bought me a little website to tinker with for my birthday (which isn't until the end of this month) So I can have my very own little space to list my curiosities and cumbersome knits :)

I will be updating my new site www.nooandnelly.com with new items as often as a spherical pregnant person can be doing on a daily basis... just to warn you, my head is all over the place so if it takes a little time or i accidentally knit a cat into your wintery scarf, then i am awfully sorry but you can be sure the cat will have the most perfect manners and the very softest of yarn

Until next time my woolly friends..xx

christmas is looming over us like a big shimmery snow cloud full of wonderful prezzies, ready to burst at any moment!!

the salt dough is out, shaped and painted..

the lights are up and the tree needles are wildly scattered all over the carpet like hidden stealthy soldiers bayonets, ready to stab you in your unsuspecting christmas socks at any given moment. this savage act is to remind you that they've fallen off the tree just in time to make some cunning space for those last few christmas presents you'd forgotten to wrap and place there carefully in preparation for the big day.

the bank account is looking empty enough to make you do a little tummy flip and hope that the bill people are in a kind mood this month! after all..we're all forking out this month...13 days and counting..and breathe..spend, spend, spend!!

oh my GODD, i've just remembered i am allowed to watch scrooge now, it's december! i am SO going to put that on to work to in a bit..this afternoon i am going to try and teach myself how to crochet and i am going to knit my little boy a scarf as he has been asking me for months and i am always so busy i never get time..poor old boy.

i think i will make him a wintery blanket too (if and when i get the time..i love him. i may also knit him some kind of amazing cat...yey! handmade presents are the best..is this too long to have in brackets?) and some other things like decorations for the tree.

i've just finished a big plate of steaming bubble and squeak made from the left-overs of our roast dinner t'other night..it was splendid - i must say :)

this morning we (he, i and our friends aubrey) awoke early and drove (in good time) to get to our local market/jumble sale...we fought fiercely through the determined grannies and bossy old men to get to this market/jumble sale, that is (to be very polite) held only just at the seams ..it's MANIC! it would seam that every third saturday of each month absolute lunatics gather together and race about and fight and push, and jab each other just to grab the nearest bargain..??

when we arrived (on time - about four hours too late it would seem) we reached the car park spot and a kind (obviously deranged) man in a tangerine security coat advised us to drive at great speed, without stopping so as to not get stuck in the mud (quagmire) before arming ourselves with knee and elbow pads, long swords, crossbows and cycle helmets and to get on into the kerfuffle of fighting to get a looksie at the goods.

it was like a bare knuckle fight to just get in..at one point an old man (possibly a walking christmas pudding in a wax jacket and hunting cap) used his, what can only be described as 'circumference' to wade on in and bound me out of his way like a giant waxy tweed buoy bobbing about in the sea bashing away a poor unsuspecting dinghy or a little wave that might just be quietly swooshing along BASH, CRUSH, BOOOF! good god!!..i was bashed this way and that, and at one point a small french child tried to actually climb into my womb (i am almost certain)

she appeared from between my legs as if i were the virgin mary and she was the baby jesus trying to climb back in as he had possibly changed his mind and this madness was all just a bit much.

...non, zees iz not ze way l'ittle one! get out!

i swiftly gave birth to her again and removed her from the stable and pointed her towards the woman in the blue cloak stood outside next to the little donkey - vamoosh frenchie i gots a fight to be getting on with!

a short while later i emerged from this oap boxing ring armed with a bloody nose, a broken leg, missing teeth and a GORGEOUS patchwork quilt.. hand-stitched with stunning old floral fabrics and silks, four velvet and tapestry cushions, two cute (stamped and signed) brass deer for the christmas mantle, knitting needles, crochet hooks, a west german signed planter and a wonderful gift for an old friend of mine..this must remain secret as she may read this and that just wouldn't do! 'he' managed to find a brown tank top, three nice old jumpers and a (hilarious) prezzie for his bro, before giving up and waiting at the hot meat stand..he did well, i could see him losing the will to live after about the first hour of fighting to walk around.

anyway, so i am pleased with the little swag bag of goodies we bought and in a short while i am going to dress the house in our new finds and knit the afternoon away..and possibly have another black tea and maybe put the heating on - shhh!

happy (nearly) christmas y'all..hope you have a wonderful time and gifts..

xx