Sunday 24 February 2019

Just painting


Last week at work was hectic with extra after school training and a Parents Evening plus our usual gym nights, so I was glad when the weekend arrived.  Although all I've done all weekend is just painting.  But finally the yellow is all gone!  It took 3 flipping coats of white to cover it.

I've just got the skirting boards and door frames left to paint with Satinwood and OH will replace all the white sockets and switches with brushed chrome ones.  Both should be done next weekend and then I'll think about ordering a new carpet (I get paid this week!!)


In order to save money I was going to paint the floorboards on the half landing to match the stairs but I didn't like the test patch I did.  The gap between them was too wide.  OH suggested I stain them with same dye I've used on the window sills throughout the house.


I think that will work better and as I've already got the dye it's free!!  There will be a rug covering most of them anyway.


The 3rd Simone dress I ordered from Fatface arrived.  It has tiny embroidered tulips all over.  I love it!!


In other news, the new chickens have settled in well!  MarmaLady tries to come into the house every morning when I let Emma out and when I get home from work too! Lol!!

The coming week is another busy one at work *sighs* so I'd better get on with organising myself.  Have a good week everyone!

Saturday 16 February 2019

A spendy day


As you know I rarely go clothes shopping but yesterday I was in town for a haircut and then had an appointment with eldest DS at the Council on Disability to sort out his benefits (still no money from 3rd September!!) I had a few hours to kill between appointments so went shopping for some work clothes.

I picked up 2 Fatface tunics (they look better on me than on the hangers!!), black jeggings and a pair of skinny jeans from M&S and 2 pairs of gym leggings in TK Maxx.  I don't need any more clothes for a while now.

Edited to add:  The tunics are actually the Simone dress and come in loads of different colours.  It's a really flattering shape.  They're on the website www.fatface.com I got a 15% off code for myself and any friends cos I've just ordered another one!  It's in the comments. 


I got about 4 inches chopped off the length and generally tidied up.  I've also decided to go back to being blonde and made a further appointment to get my colour sorted out in a few weeks.  I'm not ready yet to embrace my grey mainly because I've still got very dark hair underneath and it just looks drab.


I had a voucher for M&S so picked this fancy rice mix (thanks for the suggestion Joy!) and a few other bits n bobs.


I was actually looking for Caramel Snack a Jacks and found these in Tesco.  At £1 they're 60p cheaper AND guaranteed GF.  Same 41 calories per cake and taste the same.



I also found these own brand G&Ts.  They work out at £1 each which is 75p cheaper than the Gordons brand.  And they're just as nice!  I like to keep some in the fridge for a low calorie treat at the weekend.


The dining room/hall is making slow but steady progress.  I'm encouraged by the changes already. Dark wood really is a bugger to cover!!  I was back at B&Q to get all my light switches and sockets and spent another £100. Gulp!

Luckily I have a clear budget for my clothes and a 'sort of' budget for the dining room.  But it did turn out to be a spendy day in the end.

Thursday 14 February 2019

Goodbye yellow walls


The yellow walls are slowly disappearing! 🙌


The actual dining room area is covered in heavily embossed wallpaper (on 3 walls) so I tested it to see how easily it would cover.  Not bad actually but will need 2 coats at least.  Emma's a bit fed up with it all so she's going to stay with my son for a couple of days so I don't get dog hairs on the painted bits and she doesn't have white stripes!

Wednesday 13 February 2019

It's a start!


I've made a start on the bottom stairs and banisters.  It's really hard to get a decent photo as the light isn't great especially as there's only 1 light fitting at the moment.  I'm doing alternate stairs so I can still go upstairs!  But it's good to see the before and after stages.


But I can tell already just with the undercoat, painting everything white is going to lighten the whole area.  It's going to be a long process but as long as I do a wee bit at a time it's manageable.

I'd planned to do more tonight but I had a lengthy dental appointment this afternoon to finally replace the temporary filling on my root canal treated tooth.  My face is rather painful so I'm just knitting and watching tv instead.  Me time 📺

Tuesday 12 February 2019

Emma came to school!!


Most Staff Development days are a bit dull and usually could be done in an hour or an email!! So we didn't have high hopes of our planned morning with our cluster schools on ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and Resilience.  But I had a lovely catch up with my old colleagues and met some of the support staff I haven't seen for 3 years.  They said they still missed me! 😊


Our afternoon activity was a learning walk around the local area to explore possible outdoor learning opportunities.  Over lunch our headteacher said if anyone was able to bring their dog on the walk that would be ok.  As I live a 5 min drive from the school I nipped home to get Emma!

So a Labrador, a Spaniel and a Beagle all came to school and behaved beautifully.  There was coffee and cake in the library afterwards and all 3 dogs just laid down and slept!!


Here is Emma now!! 😂

Everyone loved having the dogs in school and we're talking seriously about how we could use dogs as therapy to help some kids.  So it was a rare useful and enjoyable Staff Development Day for a change!

And now I'm officially on holiday!

Sunday 10 February 2019

Half term already!!



It's half term already!  And that means a new DIY project.  I have 2 Staff Development days tomorrow and Tuesday then 3 days actual holiday. OH and I have been prepping the dining room, hall and stairs for the last few weeks.  Today I moved the dining chairs out and took a good hard look at the space.  I realised that the table is just too big so have decided to sell/give it away.


It's 220cm by 110cm and easily seats 10 people.  I listed it on Marketplace this afternoon and have had 2 inquiries already! I'll buy a smaller table (second hand of course!) which will make the space look bigger and less cluttered. 


OH removed the back light fitting.  I'll keep it for a future upcycled chandelier type project.  I'm thinking a change of colour and definitely adding sparkly dangly bits 😉 I've already bought 2 new brushed chrome light fittings and orange light shades as replacements on Ebay.


I took a trip to B&Q and spent a whopping £117 on paint (emulsion, undercoat and satinwood), filler and brushes!! 😮 I also bought a few plants as well.  The Peace Lily is for my bedroom, the succulent and vriesea are for the living room.  I'd like more plants dotted around my house 🌵🌷

I've overdone it a bit today, moving furniture and lifting carpet by myself so won't do any more until Wednesday.  Then it's full steam ahead!

Saturday 2 February 2019

Snow, elderberries and a wedding invite


It's been a very quick week again.  Snow and ice have hit us but we're well prepared for it in Scotland. The chickens have been enjoying their morning porridge! I did laugh when one of my FB friends down south posted pictures of their snow 'chaos' and someone commented that it was equivalent to a hard frost here!! 😂  I guess if you're not used to harsh weather it can seem dramatic.  I love when the Canadians post their snow pictures!!  They really know how to handle snow!


Once again I've picked up a nasty cold virus *sighs*  It's a running joke at work that I have a permanent cold.  I work really hard at staying healthy so should probably get myself a checkup at the doctor.  If I phone soon I might get an appointment by Easter!!! (seriously, it's impossible to get a GP appointment at my surgery when you're actually ill)  I bought some dried elderberries and will try to drink some elderberry tea every day.  I'm also going to make some elderberry syrup to keep handy too.  Hopefully their immune boosting properties will work on my recurring colds!

I did need some medical attention this week at the Minor Injuries unit this week with a scratch on my eye.  And yep, it's as painful as it sounds.  No idea how I did it other than there must have been something in my eye and I kept rubbing it.  I went there at 9am and was seen by 9.20.  It took a lot of red and then orange dye to find the scratch.  They were very thorough.  Antibiotic drops were prescribed and I was back at work by 10am.  Parts of the NHS do work well.  My eye has slowly improved and today is the last day of using the drops.



And then I got some lovely news.  We received a wedding invitation from old friends that I haven't seen for ages.  I knew them both before they were a couple.  They've been together for 10 years (engaged for 8!) and are finally getting married in June.  My ex husband will be there along with lots of folk I haven't seen for 9 years. Could be interesting!! 😉