The Welsh dresser

 

Thanks for all the comments on my Welsh dresser/sideboard.  Don't worry I am NOT painting it, I just said I had thought about it in the past.  It's currently 'staged' with a plant and my Odin and Frigga statues.  

I don't know if it's Welsh (as in made in Wales) it's just always been called that in the family.  But it came from my maternal grandpa's side of the family where there are Welsh relatives.  He was from Rochdale in Lancashire and never really lost his accent despite living in Scotland most of his adult life.  According to my mum it was originally my great gran's dresser which was then passed down to my great aunt who lived in Wales.  It's not what you'd typically think a 'Welsh dresser' looks like especially as it had a huge mirror and spindles in the middle section.  The wee bit I have with the oval mirror would have sat on top of that section.  I suspect it was a parlour dresser and not a kitchen one.

The top two drawers have these part flower carvings.  These drawer fronts are solid wood whereas the lower four have veneer fronts which have a few bubbles.  They're a different colour which is why I'd considered painting them in the past.

The top piece is also solid wood and has leafy carvings.

You can see how bashed about it is close up.  It came to me like this.

Although I suspect this bit was scraped in the move!

The handles are rather pretty too!

I kinda like it exactly as it is scraped and bashed up a bit.  It can hold a lot of stuff!  The bottom two drawers are currently full of yarn and knitting stuff!

Long time readers may remember this photo from lockdown.  I saw it in my memory app this morning and thought I might try putting my rainbow of gin bottles on the sideboard.  Then I also saw in this photo one of the lamps and my Frigga statue!!  Lol! 😊

More playing around with colours!

 

I finally cleared and tidied my sideboard.  It's been a dumping area for 'stuff' since I moved in. It's old and been in the family (my Welsh side) for many years but isn't valuable at all.  In my old house I didn't have the top bit on it.  There was actually a middle piece too with shelves and a mirror but it was really badly damaged.  I didn't know if it would fit in my wee living room but brought it with me just in case.  I've toyed with painting it many times as it's very battered and scratched.  But now I love it just as it is and it holds it's own amongst all the colour!  However, it was proving difficult to find artwork to go above it.

After many different combinations of pictures, mirrors and lamps ( I kept sending photos to my DIL for her input!) I finally settled on the above.  I moved the painting from above the radiator (got a different plan for that wall now although the radiator will still be colourful!) and it all fell into place.  The lamps had different shades so I changed them to 2 orange ones (more stuff I brought with me 'just in case')  All 3 prints are by the same artist Gerry Baptist.  I just love his use of bright bold colours.  They came with the showhouse we (ex husband and I) bought in 2003 so they've moved with me in 3 house moves now.  The one on the left is called Olive Grove Orange and the middle one is called Le Chateau.  I haven't tracked down the one on the right yet. It has a beautiful blue and pink sky which matches my pink sofa and ties all the colours in the room together!

I unpacked the box that contained my rainbow of gin bottles.  They're all empty except for the orange one.  They're sitting on top of the yellow corner unit I bought on impulse during lockdown at hugely discounted price.  The brown wall will be painted Natural Calico next week so the colours will pop a bit more (I hope!)

Thanks for all the suggestions on what to put on my Harry Potter shelf.  At some point I'll indulge in something a bit unique.  For now I've put a special bottle of gin up there as I thought the shape was perfect and it has a wax seal.  It's a limited edition 2021 Stirling gin called OlypmiGIN, info HERE.  It has gold flakes in it.  My youngest son gifted me it when he moved out.  It's still unopened.  Not sure if I'll ever open it now.  The Niffler looks like he's trying to get the gold which if you know about Nifflers is very appropriate!!! 😂

It's starting to look colourful!

 

While Luna was at daycare today, I finished painting the first wall and some of the woodwork.  I haven't painted the door yet as I was undecided on the colour and it needs a new handle.  You can see how dingy and grubby it is compared to the white surrounding woodwork!  I had a thought about painting the door the same Natural Calico colour as the walls.  I did a quick research and was delighted to discover that paint colour actually comes in Satinwood!  Hooray!!  So I did a wee click and collect order from B&Q on the way to collect Luna.  I'll paint the door next time.

My books are back in the bookcase, the orange is peeking through nicely. This chair will be reupholstered when I've saved up.  I'm thinking green velvet or similar.

My Harry Potter items are back on top but feels like something is missing.  It needs something else on the left hand side to balance the height of the books.  I'll have a think about that.

I'm planning on painting the radiator red to pick up the red roofs in the painting above.  I had ordered some samples of radiator paint from B&Q and they came today.

They come in sets of 6 in the same colour family.  This is the red set.  Costs £5 and was free postage.  I'll test them in situ before deciding which one although I'm leaning towards bottom right one.

This wee stool was painted in Annie Sloan's Emperor's Silk a few weeks ago and waxed.  I gathered up Luna's toys into a basket to keep them tidy but she keeps emptying it! 😂

I took the chance to give everything a deep clean and hoover while I had uninterrupted peace (Luna barks at the hoover!!)  It felt good to get that done.  My living room is starting to come to life with colour! 💖🧡💛💚💙💜

Making (slow) progress

 

Yesterday was Luna's first gotcha day!  It's hard to believe that it was a year ago this wee lunatic came into my life and turned it upside down!!

Exactly a year later barking at birds outside on the road at 8am on a Sunday morning!!

Today she went back to day care for the first time in 3 months!!  It was fab for me and I know she had a ball.  I was able to paint the wall behind where the blue and orange bookcase will stand.  It's now had 3 coats of Natural Calico (free from my Lovely Mum as she bought too much!)  Bits of it still look like it needs another coat.  That mocha colour is proving hard to cover!

I started the other side of the door into the kitchen and it's had 2 coats now.  It definitely needs another coat. 

It's taking shape slowly.  I've booked Luna in again for Thursday so will hopefully get the woodwork done too on that wall then the bookcase can be moved back and the books will go back in.  I've accepted I can only do a wee bit at a time so I'm not setting myself a deadline on getting the whole room finished.

I had hoped to do a wee bit of gardening today as well but it's rained heavily.  Yesterday my neighbour kindly came into my back garden and fixed some wobbly planks in the fence.  He had removed an overgrown vine from his side that was damaging my side and is adding more planks to his side.  So my fence will be nice and secure thanks to him and his son 😊

Tomorrow I finally get rid of the prepayment meters for my gas and electricity.  Hooray!!  I've already paid 2 months worth of direct debits so I'm building up some credit for the Winter already.  I'll have a Smart meter so will hopefully be able to monitor my energy usage more closely.

Rhubarb and custard

 

I had some rhubarb in the freezer from the allotment.  I had picked some on one of the few visits I made this year.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to make jam or chutney so chucked it in the freezer.  Today I thought some stewed rhubarb and custard would be nice.

I knew I had an unopened tin of Birds custard powder lurking in the storecupboard but didn't realise it was a little out of date!!  No worries, I'll be using it any way.  So I made some custard and it's currently cooling.  I'll make a sort of rhubarb/custard fool dessert 😋 Just out of interest I googled 'uses for custard powder' and found these ideas HERE.  I'm definitely going to try the biscuits/cookies!

As I'm a bit limited in what I can safely do with Luna around, I decided to move my bedroom furniture around to create more space.  I moved my bed to the wall that backs on to the semi next door.  

As I was lying in bed the falling off wallpaper was really annoying me.  So I started pulling it off.  It came off in strips and I had stripped the room in 5 minutes!!

I had my bed against this wall facing the window from day 1 but it made the room feel smaller.

The walls under the blue wallpaper had previously been painted cream.  I remembered that I had 3 rolls of Laura Ashley wallpaper with a pink and cream design.  I've had it at least 14 years!!!  I'm going to use it behind the bed as the feature wall and paint the rest cream.  Zero cost as I already have a ton of magnolia paint leftover from decorating the flat.  I'll swap the purple headboard for the leather one I had in my previous bedroom and use the matching chests of drawers.  The cream chests of drawers will get donated and I'll have more space to move around the room!

Orange and blue

 

Here are the almost finished bookends.  I think they need another coat of wax.  The Harry Potter figures are temporarily fixed to the holes but you get the effect.  Pre painted cast iron bed thingies HERE.  The bookends are to hold my HP books which will sit on top of the blue and orange bookcase beside a painting of a niffler.  In case you didn't know, I'm a huge Harry Potter fan!!! 🪄

The bookcase is painted and varnished.  I had the bright idea 😱 to paint the wall behind it before I moved it back into place and put all the books back.  Yeah, that's a much bigger job than I thought!!  It's going to take several coats of paint to get rid of that brown/mocha/coffee colour!  You can see the painting where I got the orange and blue inspiration.

I'm trying to do some 'nice' crafty things in between the hard graft bits so I don't get too scunnered by doing it all on my own.  

Final push!

 

I finally got the craft room finished today.  Mainly by putting all my crafting materials into 3 large packing boxes and dumping them in the garage!!

Before and after reminder!

It's looking very tidy and a bit sparse!  I put away all my colourful boxes and kept out the black and grey ones to match the fridge freezer.  I did buy a white roller blind to put at this window but I've decided to not put it up.  I'll be able to use in either my next house or my son's flat.

I kept the colourful floor rug for a wee splash of colour.  But it all looks lovely.  Shame I'll never get to actually craft in there.

I also split my peace lily (retirement gift from school) and re potted it.  I got 3 free plants to put around the house.

I'm trying to do the final push this week as I want to get the house on the market ASAP!  A 2 bedroom bungalow went on the market today in exactly the area I want.  It's under budget and needs a bit of modernising but not too much.  So I'm asking everyone to send me positive vibes to get this house sold quickly and let me buy this bungalow! 🤞

A new way of living

 

Here are some before and after pics of the bedroom.  That yucky mustard was finally covered with white and the carpet is down.  And I finally built the day bed I've had since March!

The lemon coloured end is looking good too!  I'm waiting for the electrician to confirm a date to replace the white sockets with some lovely brushed chrome ones.  The wee green chair is a child sized Lloyd Loom that's been in our family for years.  I'm planning on painting it white.  More on Lloyd Loom HERE

The bathroom window scrubbed up nicely with the new handle striker plates and the wood work was re stained.  We might add a grey or pink blind at some point.

And finally, the wallpaper is up!! This was the first (half) wall.  The whole bathroom took me a full day as there were lots of fiddly bits on the other side as it's a sloping eave.

I was rather chuffed with my cutting skills around the shaver socket! 😊

I still need to lay the floor tiles and put the new door handle on.  I ran out of time as my youngest son had a plumbing emergency that needed my help.  My eldest and his wife moved in this morning so I didn't get a chance to do a final photo of it all finished.  But you get the idea.

The whole house is in chaos but our target is to have it all de cluttered by the end of November.  Totally doable if we're ruthless and I follow my own de cluttering advice from Wednesday!!!

We're determined to make multi generational living a success!

On the mend!

I'm definitely on the mend at last!!  After 4 days in bed I managed to stay up all day yesterday 🙌  Still got a bit of a cough and my ears are whooshing 🙄  Thank goodness the school October break has begun!

I still don't have an appetite but knew I had to eat something.  So on Saturday night I defrosted some mashed potatoes (the Cara ones from the plot) and made a beany volcano!  I used to make this for my youngest son when he was a wee boy!  He likes the potatoes to have cheese in them too 😋

Yesterday I made a caramel sauce to have with some bananas since bananas are healthy! 😉 No recipe, just chucked some brown sugar in a pan with a large knob of goat's butter.  Melted it a bit and added some Alpro cream when it was bubbling.  Took 5 mins.  It was absolutely delicious!! I'll be making that again 😋😋😋

Since I was feeling much better I got started on the Big Declutter.  I've filled a few black bags with un-recyclable stuff and several bags for life with 'stuff' for the reuse hub.  I'm getting carpets fitted on the 19th and my son and his wife move in on 21st.  I've also arranged to have some of the bigger pieces of furniture removed on the same day.  I've got 2 rooms and a hall landing to paint before then.  Just my usual silk white emulsion and satinwood.  Totally doable, right?? 😱

Of Kings and Queens

 

I'm absolutely not a royalist but I've found the last few days interesting and actually quite moving.  From a historical viewpoint the accession and proclamations have been fascinating.  Thanks to modern technology we have been able to see the whole process that has taken place behind closed doors for centuries.  There seems to be universal praise for the Queen and a growing respect for our new King who I hope will modernise and slim down the monarchy.  I'm rather enjoying watching the ceremonies and traditions across the 4 nations of the UK and I'm glad that the transition is seamless.

Over the weekend my lovely mum finished stripping off the wallpaper in my back bedroom which used to be my youngest son's room.  I've emptied the cupboards of "stuff" (which I have to say was only about 50% mine!!) so it's all ready to paint now.  It's a north facing room so painting it my usual (cheap) brilliant white will brighten it up.

Now I just need to decide whether to get a skip for all the "stuff" or do multiple runs in the car to the recycling centre!!

Living room tetris

 

I decided to remove my TV for good (I never watch it!) so took the chance to move the furniture around.  My lovely mum wanted the old Singer sewing machine so that freed up a bit more space.

The armchair on the left has survived a few house moves and Emma used to sleep on it when she was younger.  It's wrecked but really comfy.  I've thrown a blanket over it for now but my plan is to get it reupholstered.  Won't be cheap but still not as expensive as a new armchair!

I've moved Stanley (my ram painting) from the bookcase to where the TV was and I'm loving him there! 🐏

I've not put the rugs back down yet, might just leave them off.  But so far, it's a frugal decorating project.  It's cost me nothing except for wrecking my poor back!!

Day 11 - Words and pictures

 

I've been working on my art wall.  Panorama photo courtesy of my phone! It's a mixture of photos, pictures, cards etc that mean something to me.  Most of these were already lurking somewhere in the house, I've just collected them into one place.  I'm especially loving the flower watercolour painting.  It came from my uncle's house and was hanging in what was my Gran's bedroom.  I originally thought I would just reuse the frame but there was a wee gallery label on the back.

In the top right corner written in pencil is the price paid that says £3 and 14 shillings, making it pre decimal times!  I looked up the cost for 1960s (might even be before that). £3 and 14 shillings was the equivalent of 2 days wages for a skilled tradesman. I just couldn't upcycle it knowing that so gave it a good clean and hung it up.

It's actually quite pretty and it's a wee family 'heirloom' now!

Edited to add:  I googled the artist and found some info on the painting, scroll to the bottom and read the product details CLICK HERE

In the end I made 2 pictures with Scrabble tiles and boards.  They were fun to do but very fiddly and faffy!!  And took aaaages between all the drying stages!

But I quite like them also knowing they came from my Uncle's house.

I've also been knitting away at my sock, working on the heel flap now.  The colour is a much more vivid turquoise than the pic suggests.  Still keeping my hands too busy to stuff my face!!