Not such a relaxing weekend!

Well it's been a long weekend here in the UK and today is the last day, but I've had more time off that most, but I haven't been relaxing, far from it!!!!

I had transformed the tip and junk room that was my dining room into exactly what I want a beautiful, fully useful dining room and even though I swore and injured myself, and ached like hell, I wallpapered for the first time, hated every minute of that, I sawed and mitred corners for the edge of the floor, I painted, and did I mention I ached?

Here's the big reveal, just like on all those DIY shows....

See a previous post for what this room looked like before it's quite a transformation!

As you can see it's red and grey to fit in with my dinette set, but I was so nervous about the grey, which actually I picked up from the curtains cos the curtains matched the dinette and it's hard to take a dinette into the DIY shop to colour match ;o) However I'm really really happy with the grey I think it really works but I was aware it could have gone horribly wrong, it's a funny old colour grey....

Here are some of the close up details, below is my sideboard, with some of my favourite bits on, a coffee set which we were given for our wedding (20 years ago this year eeek!), a painting by my lovely husband, and a lamp given to us by friends in San Diego.

I had been looking for curtains to go in this room for ages, something that matched the colours and design of our dinette and I was super lucky some months ago when I found these, I think they match pretty much perfectly!

The only thing which isn't done yet is the light fitting, see below, given to us by some lovely friends, sadly it needs rewiring so that will have to wait for another day, but it's going to look amazing once that is up and it's all finished!

As if that's not enough I had another super lucky find this week! I have been looking for a cabinet to put my record player on and stereo in FOREVER, well ok maybe a year or so, I just couldn't find something that would fit in with our other stuff but be just right for what I need and be small enough to fit in the corner, but big enough to do the job, you can see why it's been a problem, oh and affordable too!!!!

Well I went out to lunch on Tuesday, and spotted a second hand furniture store down a side street not far from my work which I have never seen before but apparently has been there for about 5 months. I thought oh well I'll have a look, and there it was the ideal bit of furniture, it's not terribly exciting as a piece of furniture but I can't tell you how excited I was! So last night, I set it all up and after all the work I've done, I got drunk and danced around the living room for most of the evening!!

The first picture is of it is next to my record cabinet, fab eh?

And there she is, I need to tidy the cables, but I was slightly intoxicated when I set it all up and though it best to do that when sober ha ha!

I could now do with a loooooong weekend to recover, instead today I will rest, relax, sleep, eat, not get dressed and generally recover, who needs a gym, just decorate!!!

Hope you like it and hope you all has a fabulous break over Easter

I love shoes!

If you've been reading this blog for a while, then you know that I love shoes! I would say what girls doesn't but I'm sure there are some who don't. I however am addicted to shoes, my budget means I can't buy like I used to but I still look a lot. I am lucky to have small feet so have always been able to buy vintage shoes pretty easily, however I know many of you struggle to find vintage shoes, but don't fear there are some amazing repro brands out there, one of them is Miss L Fire. I LOVE Miss L Fire.

They have just launched there Spring/Summer 13 collection and oh my there are some fabulous shoes in there, I think I need to do some big time saving!! You can find Miss L Fire's online store here in the meantime here are some of my personal favourites.

I think if I get anything from this collection this may be the pair for me, just stunning!

Tijuana in Red - £114.99

Now these are stunning!! Now only are they an amazing design but the very talented Miss L Fire has incorporated a vintage technology that you never seem to see any more in mule shoes, despite it being the cleverest piece of shoe design, the springolator!!! Yay well done Miss L Fire, so nice to see someone finally re-using this marvellous bit of shoe technology

Lola in Brown - £99.99

 I LOVE turquoise, I love a raffia style wedge and I love a tropical flower, there really isn't anything to not love about these, ok maybe I NEED these too ha ha!

Aloha in Turquoise - £89.99

I'm not normally a fan of polka dots but only because they seem to have been hijacked by current trend for 'vintage' without knowing what vintage is *climbing off my soapbox* but I do love these, they are fabulous, happy, cheerful and summery!

Casablanca in Red - £104.99

Despite loving wedges and heels, in reality what I wear most are flats, I have flat feet and heels hurt me for any length of time, plus I have a disabled husband who I need to be steady on my feet for in case he needs help with walking, sooooo I love and wear flats a lot. These are just fabulous and probably are the most likely pair I will buy even though I want most of the range. These are not only stylish and pretty but fabulously flat and practical, my favourite combination, flat is certainly not ugly!

Mexicali - £56.99

 All pretty shoes eh? And they have so many more to drool over, now I need to start counting my pennies!!

Sneaking back in.....

Hello all, I'm sneaking back in, I want to start blogging again but it has been sooooo long I'm slightly ashamed to be sneaking in like this!

I'm off to read all your blogs soon too, though clearly can't catch up, it's been months and months but I have been thinking of you all and missing you all.

So what have I been up to, well lots of interesting and lots of not very interesting.

Recently I went to the Rockin Race Jamboree in Spain, it was an absolute ball and so fantastic to catch some winter sun, as you can see from the picture above, my husband caught it a lot than day and damn him, if he didn't wake up the next morning with a fabulous tan!

I had fun with friends, met some news ones, soaked up the sun, wore lovely clothes - all of which I had to take in (yes the weight loss battle continues to be won!) and generally had a lovely restful and partying time.

Yes this is early February in Southern Spain, sooo lovely and warm! However when we arrived back at Gatwick it was a horrible shock to arrive to temperatures of -1 and snow eeek!

Ok I'm going to leave my sneaking back in at that and hope to see you all much more in the next couple of weeks. Of to catch up on your news xx

I'm back!

Hello, I'm back and I've missed being here so much!

I would like to say I've been to exotic destinations and so busy I haven't been able to post but in reality I've been watching the Olympics and Paralympics. I love it and it's so blumming inspirational but I'm glad today is the last day as I want to get my life back!

How are you all? What have you been up to?

I've been up to some other things but not much. We haven't had a lot of summer in the UK this year, in fact it's been pretty dire but a few weeks ago just before I went back to work after my knee op was a beautiful day and off we went to a local antique centre for a browse and a coffee out in the sunshine. Nice but even nicer I got to wear a blouse I've never worn and LOVE! When I made it originally I messed up and made it too big, then I gained a bunch of weight and haven't been able to wear it, now it fits beautifully - well actually now since that photo it's a little loose but hey that's all good!

I know it looks like a car park but it's not, it's very beautiful, the building the antique centre is in a 17th Century Mill Building, so it's an amazing setting!

During the summer I also scored this fantastic coffee table.

I've been after another 50s coffee table for a long time, we used to have a gorgeous one but it sadly met a sticky end. This one is ideal though, it matches our living room curtains beautifully, it's always worth waiting for that piece you're looking for, I also got it very cheap too at £15!!

Well I think that's enough for now, I'm back and hopefully posting much more again and reading and commenting on your blogs again.

I have my sewing mojo back so more on that and I have lots of decorating to do too!

oh and sadly I'm having to get password put back on my comments, apologies but I've had sooooo much spam comments lately :o(

It's the little things in life....

Well this week has gone so fast already I have no idea where my blogging routine went, totally out of the window clearly!

So to my blog title, what do I mean? Well Spring seems to have well and truly sprung here in the UK,  although to be fair one can never be sure there may be snow next week! However although with some changes I'm making in life and some changes that have happened anyway, I've been taking a little step back and trying to appreciate the little things in life.

I am not a gardener, never had been, but I like plants and flowers, there is one particular tree/bush I see every spring and I think, I'd quite like one of them, only this week did I find out it's a Magnolia! Oh please let it be a Magnolia and I'm not showing my gardening ignorance ha ha

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How beautiful? There is nothing that quite shouts Spring to me like this, I think I'm going to get me one, although I imagine by the time I do, blossom season will be gone!

I also went for a long walk yesterday in  the sunshine, listening to the birds singing and the sun on my face. It was truly blissful. As someone who is self employed you so often get into the habit of thinking that you must work every hour of every day and every evening and weekend too. This is not good for the soul! I recently lost a contract which was quite a number of hours, so I am left a little adrift, not quite knowing what to do and not quite earning enough but trying to make a decision where to go next. I've realised decisions will only be arrived at by stepping away from working all the hours, getting some fresh air and making some changes! So that's where I am....

I'm back at the gym & swimming despite my ongoing knee problems, saw the consultant on Monday it will be 4-5 months until I have an operation and I'm not waiting that long to exercise again. I've only been back to it a couple of days and apart from an aching knee, I feel good!

I just took 10 minutes out to have a Café Cubano made by myself of course, the only way to drink espresso coffee!

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So do you ever step back and take it all it and try to appreciate the little things in life? Does it help you to come to a decision? Or is it just something you do regularly anyway?