Holiday Plans

I'm on holiday! Woohoo!!  It's lovely to know I don't need to get up tomorrow morning and go to work.  But I'm not lounging around.  Oh no, I'll be getting rid of this 'lovely' 1980s peach colour in my bedroom.

You can see that the eaves in my room are curved which makes it hard to wallpaper (although the previous owners have had a good go in my son's old room!!) It's also curved at the ceiling.  So painting is the easiest option.  Probably white.  I'll see what it looks like with the first coat.  My drawers are cream so maybe white might not look right.  I won't know until I do it.

Inside my wardrobe also needs painting as I had some damp treated.  This was before I got the woodburner installed and rain was getting in the chimney.  There are a couple of holes in the ceiling and walls where the pipes and wires that came to the old water tank must have come through the wardrobe.

You can see the capped pipes and a huge hole that's just been covered with a piece of plywood.  I might wallpaper the inside if I can get a cheap funky roll at B&Q.  Watch this space!😉

I was taking out some of the shoes from my wardrobe and put them in the hall.  They're rather colourful, aren't they? 😁

So, busy week ahead!  I'm hoping to have it all done by the time I go back to school next Monday!  Best get cracking then!

Day 11: Cook, Clean, Clear and Create

Tonight's cook was a home made healthy pizza. I'd been looking forward to it all day.  It really was delicious!

My create project was to finish a purple square I started last night.  That makes 6 in total.  I really enjoy making these! I'll do 3 more and then get started on the quilting bit.

My clean and clear for today was to clear out a bit of the garage so I could put my road bike and turbo trainer back in there.  I ended up doing more than I thought but my garage is tidy again and I can access my bikes.  I took a full car load of 'stuff' to the recycling centre.  I always feel good when I do that!

I added the finishing touches to my family room/den.  I bought a plain red lampshade (£12 in B&Q) for the floor lamp and paid a whopping £3.50 for red curtains on Ebay 😂  I've also ordered a rug to disguise the horrible carpet until I can afford a new carpet.

I crawled into the eave space where I've got loads of things stored and looked through the assorted pictures from my old house. I forgot there were so many!!  I found a couple that I thought would look good.

Sadly there's not much I can do about the hideous fireplace!!

The TV isn't connected to an aerial but I can watch DVDs on it.  The cupboard contains my school stuff.  My new rule is if I can't store it in the cupboard it's not staying here.

I have several more boxes ready to take to school so my study is a little messy until that happens.  And as for my dining room again...

*sighs*

All white

I've finally started painting my utility room.  It is the worst room in the house and I knew it would be a big job.  OH and I spent last week filling and sanding all the botched DIY stuff from the previous owner.  All the sockets had been plastered in!  Instead of loosening or removing them they'd plastered right up to the edges.  If I'd been keeping them it wouldn't have been a problem but I'm replacing them with the same black/brushed chrome ones  I have in my kitchen.

The walls, ceiling and door to the downstairs toilet/wetroom are yellow and the woodwork is varnished pine.  The glass door is actually my side entrance and the main door everyone uses to come in.  So really the utility room is my entrance hall.  I'd like it to look welcoming but it needs to be practical as well.

That big white stripe down the wall was from a partition.  Remember this?  Although it's taken me nearly 3 years to get round to decorating the whole room! Again the wall had been plastered up to the partition!! So it's taken a bit of work to get it all smooth.  Plastering isn't one of our skills but with a bit of patience it's turned out ok.

Before (this wall has a large coat rack)

 After the first coat 

Doesn't look too bad so far! In this photo you can see the dreadful state of my back door.  I'm replacing it and the side glass door with simple white ones.

I'm painting all the walls and woodwork in white.  The whole house will be white with splashes of colour here and there.  This is not my forever house so I want it to look clean and neutral for when the time comes.  I don't want to be in the position of trying to decorate just to sell. Been there, done that!

I've upcycled this wee hook rack that I use to hang the dog leads.  It had 4 brass hooks, 2 broken off and 1 bent.  I bought 4 aluminium hooks at 99p each and painted the wooden back purple to match the kitchen door.  Looks much better and has a practical use.

I've still 2 coats of white to do on the walls and then I'll start the woodwork. That should keep me busy for the rest of the week!

Inspiration

I had to go to Glasgow today.  I rarely go there and definitely not by choice.  But I had to renew my passport in person as I discovered that it was out of date and I need it to go to Ireland next week! I had time to kill while waiting so spent some time in John Lewis (a couple of hours actually!!)  I like looking at all their latest design ideas in home furnishings.  They have a fab selection of home decor fabrics, curtains, cushions, furniture, lamps, bedding etc etc.  Some of it is very expensive but I like looking for ideas and inspiration.  I spotted these cushions.

They're hand stitched (probably in a far off country for a pittance) using just French knots.  Very tactile and very effective.  Sheep one here (it's half price) and seagull one here

Then I spotted this lovely mini trees one in all shades of green.  I immediately thought it would look lovely in different shades of purple for my bedroom.

And then I spotted one up high on a shelf in purples :-) The one on the left is all blues.  Love this design and will definitely be trying out something similar on a cushion for my bed.

I went to the haberdashery section to try to find purple embroidery thread to match my new headboard (I had a fabric sample with me) but had no luck.  However after much searching I did find some knitting yarn in the exact shade!  No idea what I'm going to do yet but I'm inspired to make something unique (and cheap!!) to go in my revamped bedroom :-)

Back to work

So now it's back to work and back to our normal routines (although The Teenager still has another week before returning to school!!)  The dogs seemed to like having us around but tonight when I got home from work they were very happy and content after a long walk and swim in the loch with my dog walker.

During the holidays I was in the mood for a good clear out of clutter.  I then moved some furniture around between a couple of rooms, acquired an old office desk from OH's office, rescued an old world map from school that was being dumped and created a rather decent study for myself.  No cost at all!  I've still got to sort the books on my 3 bookcases and move a wee chest freezer then I'll do a reveal.  My kitchen is nearly done so will reveal that too!!

 

The Teenager and my mum helped me get started on curtains with the fabric I got on eBay.  The roll was heavier than I thought so the extra pairs of hands were needed!

On the food front I discovered a recipe on Pinterest for a non dairy 'white' sauce.  It's based on cauliflower.  Didn't look too promising in the pan!

 

I tested it with some spag bol sauce I had in the freezer and some veggie  rice.  Huge success!!! I'm planning to use this sauce in so many ways starting with a lasagne (using GF lasagne sheets!)

'White' sauce  (based on this recipe )

500g frozen cauliflower
25g goats butter
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 litre boiling water
3 tsp Marigold stock powder
125mls Alpro soya cream

Melt butter in pan and gently fry garlic until it smells yummy!
Add cauliflower, water and stock powder.
Bring to the boil and simmer until cauliflower is soft (about 8 mins)
Blitz with a stick blender and add cream.

Voila! White sauce :-)

Apparently it freezes well so this is going to be a very useful sauce. 

I hadn't tried goats butter before.  My lovely mum saw it in her supermarket and got some for me to try.  It's really rather nice, very similar taste to Lurpak style butter.  I do like my Pure spread but I'm already dreaming about this butter on my GF bread :-)

And back to normal blogging

Okay, just one last holiday pic!  Indoor sky diving!! Totally amazing experience.  I don't do heights and would be too terrified to jump out of an aeroplane at 12,000 feet to sky dive so this was a unique opportunity to experience sky diving without the dangerous bit.  I loved it!!

 

And now back to normal blogging!  I got 3 x 500g packs of Scottish beef mince for £10.  So I browned them along with 3 large diced onions and 3 grated carrots (to bulk it out a bit), a goodly shake of mixed herbs and a tablespoon of stock powder, then it simmered for about half an hour.  It's currently waiting to be portioned up into bags for cottage pie, bolognaise and tacos with the appropriate seasonings and extra veggies. 

 

 

I also got a couple of bags of British frozen chicken mini fillets (2 x 1kg for £6).  These will be drizzled with honey and Tamari and simply baked for about 20 mins.  I use these chopped up for my lunch with some veggies or in a stir fry for my evening meal.  That's a few meals for this week sorted out and some for the freezer.

 

Finally a very simple makeover.  This has been annoying me ever since I moved in.  My dining table is too big (it seats 10) but I didn't want to get rid of it and buy a new one.  When we moved in it was positioned horizontally in the alcove.  It fitted, just!!  But you couldn't walk round it and anyone sitting at the back had to climb over seats.  So I had the idea of turning it round.  It's basically a large piece of glass (very heavy!!) that sits on 2 solid pillars.  Last night we had enough people to manoeuvre it into its new position.  Huge improvement!! And I was able to bring my Rennie Mackintosh style table out of the garage too.

 

No cost makeover, the best kind!

How I spent my holiday

I can't believe how quickly this week has flown by.  I've achieved some things but not as much as I wanted.  Plum and apple chutney is lovely.  Once I find my labels I'll put them away.

 

A before shot of the ceiling.  So far it's taken 4 coats of white paint to cover the pine

 

And a ready to paint newly plastered wall.

 

Unfortunately I've managed to put my back out this morning so no finished shots yet.  But I'm nearly done! Seems DIY has the same effect on me as housework

 

I had a big delivery from Approved Foods yesterday.  Best deal was definitely the case of 16 cartons of chopped tomatoes for 49p.  I got lots of pasta (for the Teenager), GF sauces, mixed herbs, dried fruits, onion bhaji mix, rice crackers and 4.5kg of porridge oats.  All ok for me on my GF and dairy free regime.

 

I also got lots of drinks for the Teenager.  This is his 'drinks fridge' (it's the fridge part of my black fridge freezer!) He likes a variety of stuff so this lot should keep him going for ages.  If he drinks it all within a week then he can just drink water for the rest of the month!!

I do love Approved Food.  This lot cost me £45, full prices would have added up to £104.  I just need to get my big store cupboard reorganised now.

Peas, potatoes and paint

My blue raised beds are producing edible stuff :-)  We've been having a really hot spell so everything is growing well as long as I remember to water it all.  As a kid I loved picking fresh pea pods from my parents' garden and my dad never minded that none of them made it to the table.  He reckoned that as long as we ate them he didn't care where or when.  I'm afraid not many of these made it to my table!!

These potatoes are the Charlotte variety. Tasty cooked and eaten hot and tasty cold in salads or fried with eggs for brunch.  We emptied the potato bags and got a decent crop of them despite the shaws being broken down for  the last week or two.  I boiled up a big pot for a family BBQ at the weekend and have been using up the leftovers since then.

Leftover piece of steak chopped up and stir fried with some leftover sweetcorn and a handful of frozen stir fry veggies.  (Rice from the bargain sack!!)

Eggs, fried potatoes and beans for brunch.

Rest of leftover steak stir fried with peas, leftover rice and the last egg in the fridge!

 

3 easy tasty meals using up leftovers (some deliberate and some unplanned) but more importantly they were super quick to make.

 

As the weather has been kind for outdoor painting I managed to finish the exterior painting.  I'm really pleased how it's turned out.  It just looks fresher and less 'granny brown' :-)  I used about half a tin of paint which works out at £15.  That's my kind of makeover!

Phew!!!

Phew!!! Thank goodness that's all over.  Having an HMI inspection (OFSTED if you're south of the border) is a horrible horrible experience.  I was ok but I can't say too much as it's all confidential until it's published in a few weeks. However, let's just say returning to work tomorrow is not going to be pleasant.  Hey ho, as my gran always said 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.'

 

 

 

In between the flood of paperwork loads of house stuff was also achieved.  I painted my raised beds at the front of the house a lovely shade of blue and collected my blue pots together.   A few more things are flowering since this pic was taken so it actually looks lovely.

 

I bought an electric fire.  Cost me £155, hugely cheaper that the nearly £3000 quote for the other one to be fitted!!! We inserted one chimney balloon (£25.95) to cut down on the draft and OH bought me a cover to put on the chimney pot.  Better than flowers or chocolates any day!!  My magazine rack covers the wire nicely.  And my baby turned 16, hence the cards. 

I was going to throw out this wee greenhouse as the cover was in shreds.  Then I spotted that you can buy replacement covers.  £14.95 later and it's back in action.

Wee bit long but fits perfectly elsewhere

 

 

The biggest job of all was finally emptying the family room.  This is  the one room that the removal men threw all my stuff into as they were running out of time on moving day.  It's been like this for 7 months!!  Totally unusable.

It took me, my mum and The Teenager a couple of hours to get it looking like this........

 

Bottom right hand corner is his computer desk, opposite corner is playstation etc all hidden away in an old cupboard. Chairs from my old house.  The tartan curtains were rescued from a big old house that was being renovated.  Totally free!! Very heavy, fully lined, wee bit faded ( I kinda like that) but good quality designer (if a bit dated now) ones.  They've still be hemmed properly as we just chopped off a few feet of fabric so we could put them up. Eventually this will be my dining room when I relocate my kitchen to the room next door, but for now it's a family room/teen den.

 

This was the left over stuff to be recycled, donated, sold etc.  Thank goodness we managed to do this on a dry day!!

 

 

Now that the main threat of frost is over I can get my plants sorted out.

 

I found these bean planters in the garage with my potato sacks, never used.  Think my mum gave them as I don't recall buying them.  Runner beans already planted and waiting to be transplanted.

And potatoes were planted.  These will (hopefully) produce lots of lovely Charlotte spuds, good for boiling and salads.  OH has planted good old Maris Pipers for mash so between us we've got it sorted.

Today is a Bank Holiday and so far it seems to be dry.  A day of planting and sowing in my wee garden is all that's on the cards.  I haven't bought any seeds this year so am risking planting last year's leftovers.  I took in some really old seeds to school for my kids to look at under magnifying glasses as this term's topic is Growing.  They planted some beans and sunflower seeds and thankfully they seem to be growing.  Getting the next generation into growing food is a great pleasure for me.  They are so excited to watch their wee beans growing :-)