my reading corner.

One of my favourite spots in the house so far is one that happened quite accidentally - the best bits often do don't they - and that's my reading pile. The book pile started forming after a particularly good Christmas, and then the lamp just appeared on top of it. Eventually I have plans for a different reading corner, in a different bit of the house, so all this will change but hopefully there'll still be a pile of books waiting to be read.

This is one of the things I want to work through this year, I'm awful for buying books, or asking for books as presents, and they seem to be coming in at such a volume that I don't get through them, especially now I'm in Blook club too. Its not a big challenge, but one that will give me satisfaction to be able to tick of my mental list.

A lot of the books in the pile are reference - gardening, sewing, cooking - but I don't want to put them on the shelves without at least learning whats in them should I need to find the information on how best to prune a raspberry/cook shin of beef/sew a zip. so although I love this corner, I'm hoping that by the end of the year some different books might be in this pile! (yes, there is a book on composting in there, I'm not the proud owner of a compost heap - James found me that book for christmas - who says romance is dead?)

Our House

So here it is.

Our House, in the middle of our street.

 

I'm not mad keen on either photo, but the front garden isn't very big, so I don't have much space, and the trees, oh the trees! there are so many.  you can see what a difference a few months and some leaves on the trees make. But thats another story for another time.

a room with a view.

 

The garden is really coming into bloom now, so I thought I'd share one of my favourite views from the house with you. The ancient apple tree, shading debris from the shed saga (more on that to come, oh the joys), the chestnut we hung my wedding dress from to photograph it, and a lovely lilac. There's several of those around the garden, which I love. The lovely sunshine is making it harder to see here, but if I waited I'd never get round to posting. I'm too impatient.

Just a little sneak peek of whats to come once I finish the last of my wedding posts.

home sweet future home / my own personal big and scary post.

I'm a little scared of writing this post, so please, you've been so lovely for the last year, can you be nice again just for this one?


The reason why you might have seen that I've been moving boxes today on twitter, is because well, we are moving.


The reason why I said I can do it slowly, is because we're moving to James parents house.


They aren't going to be in there still, before you ask! They are moving next door, into a building they have been converting, and we are moving into the home James spent the majority of his life in, to make it our own. Its been in the works for a long long time, but the timing has meant that this has become a wonderful accidental wedding present.


I'm not going to tell you about the monetary side of things, that's quite frankly noneofyourbeeswax, but don't go labouring under the illusion that we are spoilt little rich kids turfing our parents out of home for our own gain. We both work hard to earn our pennies, James particularly so, having spent the last 18 months working every weekend to help convert said new home next door, when he works a full week in between. And most importantly, this was their choice, their offer.


You might say that I didn't need to tell you this, that I could just have said that we bought this place, but
a - that's a lie,
b - we will know the house very well from day one, and that would show in my posts.

yes, I will post about it, that's why I'm introducing it now, because we move in a month, and it probably going to be one of the topics on the blog after my wedding. I love interiors, and decorating, I love this house, and I'd like to share some of it with you.

*runs away quickly after hitting publish*

serendipitous shopping.

The magic combination of finding anenomes at a florists while also having money - tick

Finding probable perfect bridesmaids/bridal shoes in unexpected places - tick.

Having both lunch, and dinner out with friends - tick

Rug that I couldn't find anywhere on display in metro centre M&S - tick.

Letting me buy it for £50 instead of £150 - super tick.

I love it when a plan comes together.

my workspace (less of a wonder)

For those of you who have been asking to see my loom.


Small but perfectly formed, it can weave up to 9m long, and 80cm wide.

I've had a bit of a purge in the room, it had become worse than a dumping ground, and more of a non-negotiable tip, which provided me with an excuse not to be working. Its taken me about 4 hours, but now I have a weaving table which only houses weaving equipment, and a sewing table that houses my machine. I've got rid of about 6 things from the room to freecycle, and organised all the boxes of rubbish still sitting unsorted since it moved from my parents. I'm still storing a lot of stuff, we've been hoarding things for our next house for about a year now, the wedding is starting to take up space (5 boxes as of today) and I have boxes of treasures that I can't bear to part with from my childhood, but they are better hidden in the room now, theres so much floorspace I barely know what to do with it all!

pots and pans.

I thought I'd just show you what I found at the mill on the edge of town yesterday. I don't go there often, I really should though. They print fabrics by companies like Romo, Jane Churchill, John Lewis, loads of lovelies. Sometimes they're seconds, sometimes not, but its a great place to get cheaper but still great quality fabrics. They had a jane churchill fabric there that I've been dreaming of for months. I'd been to an interiors shop for a swatch of it, and she'd told me the release of it was being delayed (which isn't a problem since I don't live in the house I want to put it in yet!) but they had it there! One of the leaves was slightly the wrong colour, a sort of limey green instead of yellow, but it was great to see it in real life. And I still love it!

Anyway, while I was there I found this:

isn't it cute? It was the colander on there that did it for me...

I bought a metre for £7.50, and its a generous metre at that. Our kitchen has two walls in that deep red, and I have a canvas which has a different fabric over it at the moment which I'm going to recover with this one instead, and put it up in the kitchen. I'll show you the finished things when its up, I love it!

changes

Some of you might remember me posting this a while ago, about my parents selling their house, the only home I've ever known, to move up to Hexham, about 40 minutes away from me. Well, they moved yesterday, and today spend their first night in their new home, with many many boxes, and a rather confused cat. Tomorrow we are getting up early to go and spend the day with them, unpack boxes, and let my dad act like a hyperactive 15 year old (he's 66 for the record). It will be rather a novelty only having to travel for 40 minutes to see them, the journey having taken 5 hours every time until now, and Mum and I are looking forward to the idea that we can pop over and see each other FOR THE DAY if we want to. Go shopping, 0ut for lunch, or just spend time together, but go home to our own beds in the evening. It will be lovely. so heres to new beginnings. cheers. Have a lovely sunday, all you lovely people. xx

Forgotten treasures and goodbyes.

(update - sorry if you got this in your reader 4 times, I've no idea how they work, but I have serious problems working with images in blogger if anyone has any tips please let me know)

... also known mostly as junk I think. As I said before I spent the weekend clearing out my room at my parents so that they don't have to move my stuff with them (subject to contracts, they got the house by the way). I was fairly ruthless, keeping all my art projects right back to gcse level was neither practical nor useful after all, so most of them went, but I still came back with a good amount of stuff in my car. I think Dad gave me a lot of it though, like 4 deckchairs for me to replace the slings on, a piece of blue marble that used to be part of our fireplace when I was little and we might make into a table or something, a cold box full of frozen fruit that we're babysitting for mum, 2 bags of apples from the garden, and a plant. So really only about 2 boxes were mine. It was an interesting couple of days. I didn't actually get upset looking through my stuff, it was seeing the village for the last time, and the people there who have known me since before I was born (mum went to church with her suitcase packed, so that's kind of true). Anyway, Mum refused to get rid of some of my toys and games from my early childhood, so they've started a 'grandchildren collection' to keep at theirs, consisting of these:

board games/toy cars and care bears/puppy and kitty in my pocket

I had a scary amount of puppy in my pocket, a shoebox full of them to be exact. I also brought back this little suitcase, it was my mums when she was at school, that's her timetable inside the lid. Its currently holding some old wooden bowls that we bought a couple of weeks ago at an antiques fair.

This is what I had to say goodbye to:

I know I'm silly, I know its only a place I haven't actually lived in for 7 years, but I'm very sentimental about it. I was born there, christened there, I was in my dads choir there, I went to school there, brownies/guides/rangers there, worked there, and thought I'd marry there. But I'm really looking forward to being able to see my parents for lunch, not having to take time off work and visit for a week, I'm glad they've made this decision themselves to move closer, that it wasn't forced on them by age and distance, and now I've said goodbye I feel better. Also, when I came across the top of the pennines on the A66, saw the sign for Cumbria, and the lake district spread out on the horizon, I actually felt like I was home. One of my friends told me a few weeks ago that home isn't bricks and mortar, its where James and the cats and my parents are, and coming home on Saturday, I started to believe it.

the doctor evil chair.

You guys, I'm super excited because this morning, a chair arrived. This chair is parker-knoll, it WAS black leather, a sort of wingback egg chair (I'm not good with the proper names). It had been sitting in the in-laws garage for many years, literally gathering a lot of dust, and generally not doing much. I begged, not much, since they were going to get rid of it anyway, and we got it. We've just had it recovered in a chenille that looks like needle cord in a champagne colour, and it returned this morning at a time too early to mention. I loves it! :) James reckons this chair is going to be his, but I have other ideas. I, after all, wanted it, petitioned the pa-in-law, chose the fabric, and found the upholsterer. No, it will be mine. So now, following the sorting of the spare room yesterday which ended up being a complete re-arrangement of the room, involving the help of ma-in-law, a not-to-scale plan of the room with all the furniture, and a tape measure, we get to do the same in the living room to fit the new chair in! Is it sad that I enjoy this? I love re-arranging rooms, and I can't wait to move so I can start again! Anyway, I'll finish this post with a photo of the chair, which is known around our house as the doctor evil chair.
Please excuse the mess, and the godawful carpet, its in the spare room at the moment until the old armchairs leave tonight (again via freecycle-if you want stuff, or want to get rid of pretty much anything, you really should join your local group)